KFCC Wuxia movie review listing page 1

(131 min)

2006 - Drama, Wuxia - China

907 AD, China. The Tang Dynasty has crumbled, it is a time of treachery, power struggles, insugency and rebellion, a period known as 'the five dynasties and the ten kingdoms'. In what remains of the imperial family, Prince Wu Luan (Daniel Wu) has fallen in love with the maiden Little Wan (Zhang Ziyi), but the Emperor chooses to take Little Wan as his wife. Heart-broken, the young prince flees to the southern provinces, seeking refuge in the study of acting, music and dance. Our story begins three years later. The Emperor's brother Li (Ge You) has poisoned the Emperor, seizing the throne and, the now, Empress Wan. Empress Wan sends a messenger to Wu Luan, informing him of his father's murder and urging his return, unaware that the new Emperor Li has also dispatched assassins to snuff out the threat posed by the Prince's return. Evading this threat, the Prince returns to the imperial palace, his heart set on avenging his father...

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Director : Feng Xiaogang

Cast : Zhang Ziyi, Ge You, Daniel Wu, Zhou Xun

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Curse of the Golden Flower, The

(113 min)

2006 - Wuxia, Drama, Action - China

There is something foul in the royal house of the Tang dynasty. The Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat), whilst wanting to present the image of a family united, has recently begun poisoning his wife, the Empress (Gong Li). The Empress has long since lost any love that she had for the Emperor and has been having an intimate affair with her step-son, the Crown Prince Wan (Lau Yip), for over three years. Wan has been having an affair with the daughter of the Imperial Doctor, Chan (Li Man), and has no aspiration to rise to the throne, instead he dreams of leaving the royal palace and living a less regimented life. The eldest of the Empress's two sons, Prince Jai (Jay Chou), has just returned to the palace, after three years service with the army, to find a family divided and his loyalties tested. The youngest prince, Yu (Qin Jun-Jie), has been growing up and, regardless of the lack of interest the Emperor and Empress show him, quietly observing a family that is rotting from its very core.

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Director : Ching Siu-Tung

Cast : Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Lau Yip, Jay Chou, Qin Jun-Jie, Ni Dahong

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HERO

(96 min)

2002 - Wuxia - China

Nameless (Jet Li) is called to the Kingdom of Qin to tell his story on how he was able to defeat three of the most infamous assassins from the Zhao Empire: Broken Sword (Tony Leung), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), and Sky (Donnie Yen). What becomes of this session with the Emperor will not only change Nameless, but the fate of a nation.

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Director : Zhang Yimou

Cast : Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen, Daoming Chen, Zhang Ziyi

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Holy Flame of the Martial World

(83 min)

1983 - Wuxia, Action - Hong Kong

Martial artists from many clans wish to locate the legendary weapon known as the ‘Holy Flame’. A young couple, who have two babies, are killed trying to protect secret scrolls which reveal where the Holy Flame is hidden. A martial arts master known as Yama Elder takes one of the babies, and raises him as his student, and vows that in 18 years time, the child shall take revenge for being orphaned. 18 years later, and Yama Elder tells Wan Tien Sau that he must avenge his parent’s death by fetching the Holy Flame, and mastering its secrets. Things are complicated by the revelation that there is another Holy Flame, and the entire martial world wants to get their hands on both powerful weapons. Also, weren’t there TWO orphaned babies?

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Director : Tony Lie Jun Guk

Cast : Max Mok, Leanne Lau, Phillip Kwok, Yung Jing Jing, Elvis Tsui

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House Of The Flying Daggers

(119 min)

2004 - Wuxia, Drama, Romance - China

During the last years of the Tang Dynasty, a secret faction emerged to fight the corruption that plagued their government. Having killed its leader, police deputies Jin and Leo seek out to wipe out every last member of the House of Flying Daggers clan. Their only lead is a blind girl that works at the local brothel. From there, the movie weaves itself into a story of love, devotion, and betrayal.

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Director : Yimou Zhang

Cast : Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Dandan Song

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Jade Warrior

(101 min)

2006 - Wuxia, Drama - Finland, China

Kai (Tommi Eronen) is a smith, living in the countryside outside Helsinki, he has just split up with his girlfriend Ronja (Krist Kosonem) and is heart-broken. Ronja is moving on and moving away from Helsinki. Before she leaves, she takes some of Kai's belongings to a run-down antique shop named 'Sang Fu', unaware that it is home to two Kalevala researchers; Berg (Markku Peltola) and Weckstrom (Elle Kull). The Kalevala is Finland's epic poem, once part of the tradition of folk poems, it tells of the creation of the world and struggles between good and evil. One of its main characters is a heroic smith named Seppo, creator of a machine named the Sampo, a machine with the power to be the source of happiness. In Chinese mythology (according to 'JADE WARRIOR'), Nocktress had nine sons; the ninth, nameless, son is said to have stolen a machine called Sampo, a machine that could bring hell to earth. Berg and Weckstrom believe they a significant discovery, related to the Sampo, deep in

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Director : Yu Yan Kai

Cast : Tommi Eronen, Markku Peltola, Zhang Jing-Chu, Krista Kosonem, Dang Hao, Elle Kull

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Promise, The

(120 min)

2005 - Wuxia - China

A young peasant girl, desperate for food, makes a promise with a mysterious woman. The woman promises the small girl all the riches she desires, but in return, she will never be with the man she loves. Many years pass, and the woman is rescued by a slave in Warlord's armour, after plunging from atop her palace. She falls for the mysterious man, but a case of mistaken identity, and her obligation to the promise she made many years before, leads herself and her heroes into trouble.

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Director : Chen Kaige

Cast : Jang Dong-gun, Hiroyuki Sanada, Cecilia Cheung, Nicholas Tse

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Seven Swords

(150 min)

2005 - Wuxia, Action - Hong Kong

In the early 1600’s, the Ching Dynasty was established. With the transfer of power came a ban of martial arts, to hunt down all the potential rebels that lurk amongst the common people. When one village is informed that they are the next target in General Fire-Wind’s campaign of massacres, the seven swordsmen rise to the occasion to defend a village two of them call home.

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Director : Tsui Hark

Cast : Leon Lai, Donnie Yen, Charlie Yeung, So-yuon Kim, Liwu Dai, Honglei Sun

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Warriors of Heaven and Earth

(120 min)

2003 - Wuxia, Drama - China

After years under the service of the Chinese Emperor, Lai Xi, a Japanese emissary, wishes to return to Japan, but is instead sent to the west to capture wanted criminals. The only way for him to go back to Japan is to capture and execute Lt. Li, an ex-soldier, who is wanted by the emperor for his mutiny against the emperor army. Li and Lai Xi will finally meet, but agree to delay their final fight until Li finish his agreement to bring back to safety a caravan carrying a Buddhist monk. However to Li’s ignorance, the monk is secretly carrying a sacred and powerful pagoda that attracts the attention of a region’s ruthless overlord. Followed by his former friends soldiers, Li will face the cruelty of the desert, the region’s barbaric bandits and the brutality of the overlord’s men before he can finally face his ultimate fight with Lai Xi.

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Director : He Ping

Cast : Jiang Wen, Nakai Kiichi, Vickie Zhao, Wang Xueqi

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