Memorable, crazy movie

An Exercise In Nonsense

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Right where do I start with this one?Watched thus on Netflix and I thought great thus is going to be an excellent film, WRONG. the tiresome story- how many times has this been done, the okay fight scenes - watch Ip Man, a brilliant film displaying awesome acting and the fight scenes are one of the best ever seen on screen. the STUPID Bruce Lee noises in the final fight - come on Donnie your much better than this., Jet Li done this character in Fist Of Legend and did a much better job.Do yourself a favour and don't watch this, you will be disappointed, go and watch Ip Man.

Although the narrative gets convoluted at times, the historical setting of the Chinese labor corps sent to aid the allied war effort during world war 1 is historically factual ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Labour_Corps ), though it has been largely forgotten.the Chinese intelligentsia also successfully mounted pressure to cause Japan to delay full scale aggression until the 30s ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-One_Demands )this movie is essentially a big budget hong kong action movie produced as a homage to Bruce Lee. At times it strives to be too many homages at once with Donnie Yen resurrecting both Kato AND Chen Zhen ( Fist of Fury).It shouldn't be conceived as Chinese propaganda (anymore than any of the Bruce Lee movies were) or anti-Japanese, as long as you understand that the Chinese truly were the underdogs back then.in fact, the young Japanese actor playing the colonel totally stole the show.

It was a roundabout way of being interested in this movie, essentially I had just seen "The Green Hornet" and while reading the trivia somehow got routed to the "Masked Warrior" as referenced in this movie. It's a movie that can't really find it's own identity - like the main character Chen Zhen, who maintains at least three different identities, the movie is trying to be too many things at once. It is trying to be a "Masked Superhero" movie (and somewhat marketed as such), a period martial arts movie, and a remake of a franchise. The last bit is sort of interesting, since I had no idea that there was a whole mythology behind it. Or even that this "sequel" is actually a continuation of a TV series that Donnie Yen did in the eighties, which in itself is a pretty interesting tidbit. I revisited the Bruce Lee version and the series finale, and to my surprise, they are very similar in certain key moments, which is a bit of a creative choice. The introduction is spectacular, being Donnie do what he does best, fight with a lighting fast ferocity that really bears no rival. From there the story holds up relatively well, though I really think there was no need to introduce a "superhero" element into the story since there was no real need to conceal his identity. All and all, a violent treat that ends a little predictably, especially if you're a fan of the series.

There is only one reason to see this movie and that is Donnie Yen. It is just an amazing sight to see this master of martial arts in action. Andrew Lau however must be ashamed for trying to be so political and patriotic. Nothing wrong with nationalistic movies once in a while. But lately it has been overkill. And he is clearly over his head here since he barely makes sense of what actually is happening on the screen. Worse you won't even care apart from the obvious cruelties displayed in movies like this. It is such a shame that the focus seems to be on the plot that is hardly interesting. Luckily for Andrew Lau Donnie manages to save it all by himself but you can't but wonder what the movie would have been like if the plot was kept simple.