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Last Hurrah for Chivalry

Last Hurrah for Chivalry

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic!
Review: John Woo has a unique style, which you can check in this 1979 film, long time before Face/Off or MI2. The film has an excellent plot, with classical honor conflicts and friendship, and lots of action, with scenes that make Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon look older...
The DVD edition has good picture quality and the sound is excellent, with Dolby Digital (rare for a 20 years old film!).
If you like HK cinema, this is a must for your collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hurrah for John Woo!
Review: Last Hurrah for Chivalry is one of the best martial arts movie I've ever seen. We can see John Woo' style in many of the scenes (slow motion action scenes) and themes (friendship and adversity). Once again, Wei Pai (the snake in 5 Deadly Venoms) shows his great skills in martial arts, as well as Liu Sung Yen (Green Suit). The story itself is classic but above average. The action sequences are many and quite amazing.

The quality of the DVD is rather surprising for a 1979 Hong-Kong movie. The sound is OK, but what really shines is the picture. While not perfect (some scratches appear from time to time), it's still clear and sharp.

Overall, this movie is definitely a must-see.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic, must-own.
Review: Last Hurrah for Chivalry, despite its cheesy English title, is important for two things: One, it broke new ground in period martial-arts films by its use of contemporary language and attitudes; two, it introduces many quintessential John Woo stylistic conceits, thematic elements, and cinematic devices.

The anachronistic speech patterns and occasionally bad humour are not to everybody's taste. However, what it does achieve for the film is a sense of intimacy for the characters missing from Woo's previous films, such as Hand of Death. The use of the Cantonese language brings Last Hurrah for Chivalry down to an earthy level, allowing the actors to loosen up. In the case of Wei Pai and Liu Sung Yen, this is really a good thing, freeing them up to express their characters better.

Woo's signatures begin to emerge very clearly in this film. The characters of Cheung the Third and Green Robe are really precursors to character pairings in later Woo films such as Jeff and Eagle Lee (The Killer), Potcake and Jim (Once a Thief), and most important, Ho and Mark/Ken from the A Better Tomorrow series. Just the interplay between Wei and Liu along is worth the whole film, Wei's earnest naivete and Liu's engrossing mix of drunken clowning and deadly silence making for some of the best character interactions in the Woo oeuvre, rivalling that of Chow Yun-fat and Ti Lung in A Better Tomorrow. The over-the-top sound design and hair-raising fight choreography give the fight sequences a real sense of danger, while the themes of honour, betrayal, despair and fate are lifted intact and incorporated into the Killer, right down the the ending.

In fact, the only fault of this film is its moments of crude humour, usually thanks to bad bit players (eg. the henchmen of the villain Bai Zhong Tang). Still, Last Hurrah for Chivalry is one of Woo's best early films.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: John Woo's most important pre-1986 film.
Review: Last Hurrah for Chivalry, despite its cheesy English title, is important for two things: One, it broke new ground in period martial-arts films by its use of contemporary language and attitudes; two, it introduces many quintessential John Woo stylistic conceits, thematic elements, and cinematic devices.

The anachronistic speech patterns and occasionally bad humour are not to everybody's taste. However, what it does achieve for the film is a sense of intimacy for the characters missing from Woo's previous films, such as Hand of Death. The use of the Cantonese language brings Last Hurrah for Chivalry down to an earthy level, allowing the actors to loosen up. In the case of Wei Pai and Liu Sung Yen, this is really a good thing, freeing them up to express their characters better.

Woo's signatures begin to emerge very clearly in this film. The characters of Cheung the Third and Green Robe are really precursors to character pairings in later Woo films such as Jeff and Eagle Lee (The Killer), Potcake and Jim (Once a Thief), and most important, Ho and Mark/Ken from the A Better Tomorrow series. Just the interplay between Wei and Liu along is worth the whole film, Wei's earnest naivete and Liu's engrossing mix of drunken clowning and deadly silence making for some of the best character interactions in the Woo oeuvre, rivalling that of Chow Yun-fat and Ti Lung in A Better Tomorrow. The over-the-top sound design and hair-raising fight choreography give the fight sequences a real sense of danger, while the themes of honour, betrayal, despair and fate are lifted intact and incorporated into the Killer, right down the the ending.

In fact, the only fault of this film is its moments of crude humour, usually thanks to bad bit players (eg. the henchmen of the villain Bai Zhong Tang). Still, Last Hurrah for Chivalry is one of Woo's best early films.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Maimm Adventure...Get the DVD
Review: Martial arts mayhem, with a touch of humor in the tradition of the Shaw Brothers productions, but produced by Golden Harvest studios. Themes include honor, loyalty, betrayal and subterfuge. Much better production than the Jackie Chan films from the same time period.

Last Hurrah for Chivalry is even better in DVD. This widesrceen production is a "10" in terms of picture quality! The Mandarin dubbed version of the movie is especially good. Excellent color and focus are good adjectives to describe the video portion. I believe the video has been reworked, because for a film that was originally released in 1979 the video still seems fresh.

The audio quality is equal to the task. The producers have spared no expense and have transfer the original soundtrack recording to Dolby Digital 5.1. I assume it was remastered to make the conversion, because it doesn't say so on the box. Not many studios now adays will go to such expense to update a movie over 20 years old.

By the way this DVD has the original Cantonese version with English subtitles, or you can watch the film dubbed in English or Mandarin, with a choice of English, simplified or traditional Chinese subtitles.

I have the original video of the film as well and noticed the English translation is some instances is different than the DVD, but the video quality on the DVD just blows the video away. If you have a DVD player...get the DVD... You won't be disappointed.

This is my favorite John Woo film. It's better than the latest films he has produced here for the US market, including Broken Arrow etc..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Foreign Film Ever!!!!!!!!
Review: Okay: John Woo, Noo big stars, ... dubs. Sound bad? WRONG! With some of the best fight scenes of all time (sleeping sword, the opening battle, and the wax room come to mind), and a surprisingly comedic and deep plot. Packing in some of my favorite things (drinking, fighting, ninjas, drinking, and deception. Oh yeah, drinking), and masterfully directed. I'm no John Woo fan, but this film was amazing. Also, the portrayal of a drunk mercenary couldn't be better. BUY THIS MOVIE!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: There are probably 10 minutes in the film with no action...one of the best kung-fu films I've seen, with an excellent plot and full of action. This is what makes these kind of film so interesting, a honor and friedship problem, resolved via kung-fu. Any way, the film is very different from modern John Woo's filmography, so don't expect a Hard Target or Face/Off kind of film. This film is quite more deep and not filled with hi-tech fx, but when you think it was filmed in 1978, the fx are surprising...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant Swordplay featuring the "Snake" of the Venoms.
Review: This is one of the best kung fu movies featuring swordplay I have ever seen. It stars Wei Pai, the snake of the 5 Deadly Venoms. It has a great storyline, action, comedy, and it doesn't have a boring part in any part of the movie. Every fight scene is carefully choreographed and filmed thanks to John Woo, one of my best action directors. This is one of the best Golden Harvest productions since the time of Bruce Lee.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic, must-own.
Review: This movie has plot twists you don't normally find in a martial arts movie. Two mens' paths cross and they are hurled toward a destiny neither could have foreseen. I guess you could call it a martial arts triangle of sorts (like a love triangle, but martial arts). An assassin who drinks to forget his bad deeds. A prostitute who loves him. A martial arts expert struggling with his own fears. This is a keeper. Great martial arts action and a unique story. Definitely one for the martial arts collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BEST MARTIAL ARTS MOVIE EVER, MAN
Review: two words - green suit. this movie was really awesome. i saw it on cable but i am planning on getting the tape soon. it has an interesting plot and unbelievable characters (green suit is by far the best, second would have to be sleeping sword). the battle scenes are very well done and at no time did i ever feel bored with the film.


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