General Tao award ribbon
Moon Warriors
86
6
Story
10
Cast
10
Fun
8
Subs
9
Overall
JoE Shieh
October 12, 2003
Movie poster for Moon Warriors - Review | KFCC
Country Hong Kong
Genre Swordplay
Year 1993
Running Time 87
Distributor Tai Seng Video Marketing Inc.
Director Sammo Hung
Scene from the movie Moon Warriors - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Moon Warriors - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Moon Warriors - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Moon Warriors - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Moon Warriors - Review | KFCC
Synopsis

A fisherman is laying in the sun, playing his instrument in a moment of serenity. A group of swordsman protecting the king are frantically fighting off the enemy. When these two events cross paths, a big brawl ensues. So then the King-on-the-run and his band of warriors makes friends with the fisherman. Low and behold, the fisherman's simple fishing village is actually where one of the greatest Emperor's is buried, but kept in secret so no one would rob his grave.

Plans are revealed that the king's brother is hellbent on his demise as well as his whole crew. The Emperor's daughter is in danger so the fisherman goes out to rescue her and bring her back to the village. Through the next hour or so, we are treated to one of the most spectacular kung-fu films ever made.

Scene from the movie Moon Warriors - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Moon Warriors - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Moon Warriors - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Moon Warriors - Review | KFCC
Review

To me, the late 80's through the early 90's of Hong Kong cinema was it's 2nd Golden Age (the first being in the 70's). Actors like Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Chow-Yun Fat, and Anita Mui were picking up serious momentum in the acting world. Each and every one of them eventually broke into the international film scene. But before all the world-wide glory, they had their Hong Kong films. It's not news if I said that a majority of the Hong Kong films are crap. For every good film, five awful movies were made. Luckily, "Moon Warriors" is not one of these awful films.

Legendary kung-fu-man and buddy-of-Jackie-Chan once again steps behind the camera to direct a swordsplay/martial arts film. Gathering a very impressive cast, simple plot, stunning action scenes, and beautiful scenery, Sammo is pretty insured of a great film.

The plot is fairly formulaic: King on run, meets poor but humble man, becomes friends, humble man sent out to retrieve King's love, humble man falls in love with king's love, returns back to king with the lover, forbidden love between humble man and lover, the big bad guy comes and fights everyone. We've seen this plot many times before, but Sammo and the cast has managed to put enough panache and excitement into it to make it seem fresh and fun. Especially Sammo. His director's eye is poetically beautiful. My favorite shot of all time (yes, ALL time) is of the evil brother standing in front of a full moon, doing a flip, and shooting off an arrow. Not even Robert Frost could write a 20-lined poem and make it more poetic-like.

Fast and furious action is nothing new to the martial art films. There's one thing Sammo does that makes the fast and furious action scenes all the more better. In a huge orgy fight sequence in a field, Sammo doesn't edit it so it cuts from close-ups of a fist and then to close-ups of a kick and then to random people jumping (which ultimately undermines a fight sequence (refer to the end fight scene of "Versus")). In this fight in the field, we are treated to minimal cuts, thus, making the actions scenes breathtaking. Everyone is beating the nuts out of each other as the camera slowly pans to the left. No one is put in the spotlight, because everyone is kicking equal amounts of ass. The fights themselves are so intricately choreographed and wickedly awesome that you can't help but say to yourself, "Damn this is so awesome." The nature of the fight scenes take a sharp detour in the final moments of the film, making a more violent and darker toned theme prevalent over the media-served-parents-approved tone of the earlier scenes. Regardless, the action of the film is A+ material.

"Moon Warriors" is an epic in it's own right. Although the film doesn't stack up to films like "Dragon Inn" production-wise, it's so rich in content and emotion that it deserves to be in the same league. As is the case with many of the films of Hong Kong in the early 90's, a fair budget was taken advantage of and crafted into awe-inspiring and stupendous pieces of cinema, "Moon Warriors" comes highly recommended.

Scene from the movie Moon Warriors - Review | KFCC
86
Story
Cast
Entertainment
Subtitles
Overall
JoE Shieh October 12, 2003
Media Review
Media Review by
JoE Shieh
Distributor
Tai Seng Video Marketing Inc.
Media Format
DVD
Region
Region 1
Encoding
NTSC

Ahhh, the print isn't too bad. It still retains that old Hong Kong movie-feel, but a little more cleaned up. Very nostalgic if you ask me. Video gets a B+! As for the 5.1 stereo-sound that's boasted on the DVD case....it's a sham! Dialogue is only through the center speaker, while the other 4 are just playing sword-clinging or wind blowing. Chances are you're going to stick with the 2 channel one. A B- for audio. The extras have some trailers and a commentary. Pretty typical of a Hong Kong DVD release. But with the small shortcomings of the technical side, the film is pretty worthy of an instant buy.