Wonderful Movie

Waste of time

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Excellent martial arts/fantasy film, with crazy action, lots of likable characters, endearing humor, and a complicated but involving plot. Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Man Cheung, Chingmy Yau and Richard Ng head an all-star cast.I suppose that the anger expressed by some reviewers is understandable, if one's main interest in watching these films is actual martial arts technique -- without the aid of wires. But my love of these films is based on their fantasy elements. I also enjoy the sense of camaraderie, where kung-fu masters will risk their lives, for virtual strangers. Add in many bizarre characters, unexplained mystical powers, and gorgeous women -- and you have a very entertaining film. And Sammo is always tremendous fun.As mentioned by several reviewers, this film was planned as the first of a two-film series. And it is true that due to a disappointing box-office performance, part two was never filmed. But does this mean that you cannot see how it all ends? Not necessarily! Kung Fu Cult Master was a pretty faithful remake of the 1978 Shaw Brothers classic, Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre – which was also broken down into a two-part series. (Actually, there was also a part three, but it is only loosely related to the first two films.) If you want to learn what happens to the characters in Kung Fu Cult Master – and there are some real twists and surprises -- just locate a copy of Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre 2 (also, 1978).

I love this movie so much. It's my absolute favorite Martial Arts movie and I'll tell you why! The Story and the characters are so much fun! The Directing is brilliant. The Women can fight and are gorgeous! Jet Li and Sammo Hung are the best aren't they? This movie I heard was not very popular in China, however, every American whose seen it loves it passionately. I think this movie works better for Westerners than Easterners. This is unfortunate because the movie was supposed to have a sequel, but because it wasn't popular in China we didn't get one! If you enjoy great fantasy with great fun and extremely entertaining characters then watch this movie. It's fast-paced and mesmerizing. Its one of those movies I can watch over and over! I totally want a sequel! If anyone knows a movie comparable to this then let me know, because I love it!

Some of the comments I see disgust me. If you think this movie is horrible, you need to actually see some really bad movies before you waste everyone's time writing crap. If you see this, get the "Kung Fu Cult/Colt Master" version, not the "Lord of the Wu Tang" version. This is a pretty light-hearted movie. Good action, lots of wire work, and some funny characters and subtitles. It has a lot of characters, so it's tough to keep straight who is who. But the movie's good enough to watch at least a few times, so it gets better with each viewing. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes the newer style martial arts movies and has an imagination.

The plot of the movie is based on a popular Kongfu novel by Jin Yong, THE most famous Chinese writer of the last fifty years. This novel is one of my favorite of all his works, but in order to cram the story into movie-length, much has been changed and cut. And changed and cut in the typical style of Hong Kong kongfu TV soap operas.Hong Kong kongfu TV soaps are altogether bad. First, Cantonese is spoken and thus reduced the historical feel of the scenes - there's a reason why Ang Lee asked all the actors in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to speak Mandarin, even if they could speak fluent Cantonese. All characters from this movie are from Northern China, and Cantonese, a rather modern dialect, just don't fit here.Second, typical to kongfu soaps, there's a lot of overacting in this movie. It seems that Hong Kong TV series directors and actors think overacting is how ancient Chinese behaved or they believe without overacting the audience will not feel the history or something. Anyway, the acting is worse than most B movies of the 70's and 80's, and that says a lot.Third, too much makeup. And this is also typical of Hongkong kongfu soaps, big hairs, big eyebrows and eye shadows, wierd hairdoes and costumes. As if the makeup artists think without the hair and clothing, the audience cannot distinguish between the characters. The story happens during a time of extreme close-mindedness in Chinese history, wierd clothing and hairdoes were not tolerated at all. All that makeup is used just to please the lowest denominator of the audience which is rather a small portion.Last, typical to Hongkong kongfu soaps, the action scenes, THE MOST IMPORTANT PART FOR MANY, is of very low quality. Due to the fact not that many actual martial artist or Chinese opera performers (like Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, etc.) will work for television, action scenes in kongfu soaps often over-use wires and explosives. When a person jumps 10 feet in the air and 20 feet across, when a master's "chi" causes an explosion 20 feet away, when you can see the "chi" as lightning coming out of someone's hands, the believability of the action is down to nill. And like typical kongfu soaps, this film uses camera closeups to mask the real fighting, you are only allowed to see hands, arms, legs and feet in most shots, not the entire body movements of the actors/stunt doubles.The production value of this very B movie is zero, acting is zero (Jet Li maybe a martial art superstar, but he can't handle a romantic lead role). This film is so bad, it isn't funny any more; it is so bad, it isn't even good, just worse. Avoid this thing at all time.