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Legendary Weapons of China

Legendary Weapons of China

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: (...) i was so dissapointed
Review: (...) The very reason i had purchased this movie was because many people gave it good reviews i thought this was a Gordon Liu movie it wasnt but he was in it. Big deal! that didnt help because this movie was weak no matter what.Im thinking this movie would be more serious but there were a lot of goofy characters and they kept talking about pugilism whatever that is i dont know if its magic or what.Because this movie is dubbed that makes it seem to have nothing to do with what it is about.And what it is about (...) I do not know cause it is silly and makes no sense to me. (...)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Lousy DVD Best Buy Yet of Classic Movie
Review: .... buy, buy, buy. Because this is one you should have seen if you're into kung-fu movies, and before the DVD era it wasn't readily available. As always with these classics the hype can be dangerous (you start to expect superhuman feats and whatnot) but keep a realistic mind and this film shouldn't disappoint. It is a Shaw Brothers film; so expect a Shaw Brothers film. A very good one, with very solid performance by Lau Kar-Leung (Liu Chialiang).

The print is dark. The image is brutally cropped at the sides and the audio is dubbed (funny dub, with Kar-Leung speaking a weird accent), but there simply is no widescreen, subtitled print to be seen. One may well come out one day but until then, this disc is as good as it gets. I would take one star off for the ratio/dub but I'll make an exception as this is 18 LEGENDARY WEAPONS.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A cult with skills of magic looking for a defector.......
Review: First, let me clear something up... This isn't a Gordon Liu movie as the cover would suggest. This is obviously a marketing ploy to sell more (it worked with me). He is in the film, but it is really only a very small role with virtually no fighting. After getting over the fact that I had just bought a DVD with the idea that I would be watching "the Master Killer" as the star I watched with a new curiosity. This is a fantasy film and it should be taken as that. So if you are looking for an "on-the-ground-fighting" realistic kung fu movie then maybe this isn't for you. Now I'm not saying the actors and actresses aren't very skilled; they are without a doubt (the opening credits display their martial arts skills in a long, very diverse way). Realistic martial arts fans will enjoy this long opening because it is almost the only part where this type of fighting is displayed without some type of magic or supernatural skill. The general plot runs as this... A government official is traveling around visiting different branches of a "pugilist" magic sect and having assassins from each sent to find and kill an ex-branch leader who defected and disappeared. There are two main assasin characters, a male and a female. Gordon Liu happens to play the female's uncle in the film..also looking to kill the defector. Lui comes and goes in the film like the wind. These assassins converge on the assigned town and begin their search. Everyone is a suspect at first. Eventually the male and female stars team up and search together. When they find the defector what happens... Do they kill him? Is there a change of heart? Watch and find out!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A cult with skills of magic looking for a defector.......
Review: First, let me clear something up... This isn't a Gordon Liu movie as the cover would suggest. This is obviously a marketing ploy to sell more (it worked with me). He is in the film, but it is really only a very small role with virtually no fighting. After getting over the fact that I had just bought a DVD with the idea that I would be watching "the Master Killer" as the star I watched with a new curiosity. This is a fantasy film and it should be taken as that. So if you are looking for an "on-the-ground-fighting" realistic kung fu movie then maybe this isn't for you. Now I'm not saying the actors and actresses aren't very skilled; they are without a doubt (the opening credits display their martial arts skills in a long, very diverse way). Realistic martial arts fans will enjoy this long opening because it is almost the only part where this type of fighting is displayed without some type of magic or supernatural skill. The general plot runs as this... A government official is traveling around visiting different branches of a "pugilist" magic sect and having assassins from each sent to find and kill an ex-branch leader who defected and disappeared. There are two main assasin characters, a male and a female. Gordon Liu happens to play the female's uncle in the film..also looking to kill the defector. Lui comes and goes in the film like the wind. These assassins converge on the assigned town and begin their search. Everyone is a suspect at first. Eventually the male and female stars team up and search together. When they find the defector what happens... Do they kill him? Is there a change of heart? Watch and find out!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic
Review: I admit, I loved this film since I first saw it in the very early 1980's. ..., excellent fights are what martial arts films are about and this film has some fine ones. The movie depicts how martial artists during the Boxer Rebellion at the turn of the 20th Century resorted to incorporating magic, superstition, and plain trickery to make them appear invincible to boost morale .... But there are a lot of real martial arts in this as well. Not all the 18 weapons were used, but this in addition to Shaolin Challenges Ninja will you probably get to see it all and more. Best fight: Director Liu Chia Liang vs. his real-life brother, Liu Chia Yung, in the climactic duel. Most shocking moment: Gordon Liu as a bad Shaolin monk?

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Stunningly weak "classic" movie
Review: I first read about this film in the book _Sex and Zen & A Bullet
In The Head_, which was one of the first books to take a serious
look at the Hong Kong film industry. This is not a great or even
a good film, despite the glowing reviews both the previously
mentioned book and some film fans give it. The plot line is
surprising thin, even for a Hong Kong film.... The whole purprose
of the film seems to be to construct a flimsy story to show off
the "18 Legendary Weapons of China" that the film keeps talking
about. The great Gordon Liu makes a glorified cameo appearance
in a vain attempt to save this film. Despite top billing, he's
only onscreen for about 5 minutes, although he does have one
fight scene. Maybe it's just me, but I found it very difficult
to keep up with some of the characters and I often confused the
kung fu master every one is trying to kill with his brother.
Did all 18 Legendary Weapons get used? I have no idea, but I
suppose so. The ending could not possibly be more abrupt than
it was and the dubbing is fairly poor. I give it 2 stars instead
of 1 only because of some decent fight scenes. _Shaolin Master
Killer_ is a much, much better movie and Gordon Liu really is
the star of it, unlike this one. ...I don't recommend it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Stunningly weak "classic" movie
Review: I first read about this film in the book _Sex and Zen & A Bullet
In The Head_, which was one of the first books to take a serious
look at the Hong Kong film industry. This is not a great or even
a good film, despite the glowing reviews both the previously
mentioned book and some film fans give it. The plot line is
surprising thin, even for a Hong Kong film.... The whole purprose
of the film seems to be to construct a flimsy story to show off
the "18 Legendary Weapons of China" that the film keeps talking
about. The great Gordon Liu makes a glorified cameo appearance
in a vain attempt to save this film. Despite top billing, he's
only onscreen for about 5 minutes, although he does have one
fight scene. Maybe it's just me, but I found it very difficult
to keep up with some of the characters and I often confused the
kung fu master every one is trying to kill with his brother.
Did all 18 Legendary Weapons get used? I have no idea, but I
suppose so. The ending could not possibly be more abrupt than
it was and the dubbing is fairly poor. I give it 2 stars instead
of 1 only because of some decent fight scenes. _Shaolin Master
Killer_ is a much, much better movie and Gordon Liu really is
the star of it, unlike this one. ...I don't recommend it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Clever fights and a 6-member cast of kung fu greats
Review: LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF CHINA (1982, aka LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF KUNG FU, the actual onscreen title) is another kung fu masterwork from director Liu Chia Liang (aka Lau Kar Leung), best known for MASTER KILLER, DIRTY HO, and DRUNKEN MASTER II. This is an unusual variation on the genre in that it features several fights involving people in hiding and in close quarters, including a bout between two people in a crawlspace above an inn where they have been separately spying on a third.

The plot involves a search by four competing members of a secret martial arts society to locate and assassinate Lei Kung, a kung fu master who had abandoned their sect and gone into hiding. Converging on the town where the master is residing, they expect to draw him out by provoking him to show off his kung fu, but he is too clever for them. It takes a while, but two of the four become allies of Lei Kung, who eventually comes out of hiding and fights the other two, including a final battle with the sect's current head, Master Ti, involving the 18 weapons of the title. All the fights are imaginatively staged, most notably one in which Master Ti uses his hypnotic powers and a voodoo-type doll to manipulate an impersonator of Lei Kung (played by the great Alexander Fu Sheng) to fight off a bunch of attackers.

The standout cast is headed by director Liang himself, in the role of Lei Kung, while his own brother, Liu Chia Yung (aka Lau Kar Wing), plays Master Ti. The two fight each other in the final contest of legendary weapons. One of the four sect members is played by Kara Hui Ying Hung, a beautiful fighting femme employed frequently by director Liang. Gordon Liu (MASTER KILLER) plays a Shaolin monk seeking out Lei Kung and has one of the final battles with him. The cast is rounded out by Liang regular Hsiao Hou as another sect assassin who becomes an ally and a funny performance by Fu Sheng in a smaller part.

Director Liang frequently sought to infuse his films with authentic styles of kung fu; he was particularly enamored of stick and pole fighting and features some elaborate weapons in the final battle, including a three-section staff. While the available DVD of this title is not the highest quality--for one thing, it's not letter-boxed--it remains the best current way to see this expert kung fu film.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Very overrated
Review: Not a bad film, with the closing fight being very good. But this is NOT the greatest kung fu film of all time, not by a mile.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Umm, What?
Review: The fights in this movie were pretty decent, and there were a lot of them. I understand what the plot is about (various factions trying to eliminate a former kung fu school leader), but the translation to the screen is confusing to say the least! I was only barely able to follow this movie. There are too many characters and their motives/alliances are unlear. Oh, I suppose it is all in there, but I am not sure this is a movie of the caliber of Swordsman II where it is worth it to make sense of things.

The video quality is pretty poor, and the dubbing is about average (for a kung fu movie anyway).


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