Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Jakoba 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.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

callanvass Is it just me? Or does Jet Li do WAY too many of these time period films. I love Jet Li, and many of his movies, but I do notice he chooses to do time period films a lot. I didn't particularly care for this martial arts epic. It's never boring, and it does have some decent action scenes, but it's quite stupid at times. It has some atrocious dubbing, to the point where it annoyed me beyond belief. It takes away some of the enjoyment from the film. It alternates from being deadly serious to comedic at times. It felt very uneven and jumbled. It's like it was trying to have the cake and eat it too. You can't have both, and the attempt failed in my opinion. The thing that keeps this movie watchable is the relationship between Jet & his son. The kid has some ridiculously good abilities and had great screen presence for his age. They had a tangible chemistry with each other that felt real. I also enjoyed the comedic bits with Deannie Yip & Chigmay Yau as the Mother & Daughter. It felt out of place at times, but they were amusing as thieves. It has an OTT villain with burn scars all over his face. His "invincible" act got rather grating to my nerves, and I had trouble buying into him as a threat. The finale is disappointingly routine, but it does have a cool moment where Jet dives through a clock to save his son. I didn't care for this movie, but it does have its moments. I just think Jet is capable of much better than this stuff. 5.2/10

david-sarkies Well this movie is another Hong Kong action movie staring the kungfu legend Jet Li. There is nothing deep about this movie, all it is is an action packed romp with strange enemies, unreal fighting maneuvers, and a dash of the Hong Kong spice that make these movies more exciting than those one sees in America.The New Shoalin is about Hung and his son. He is betrayed by a brother Shoalin who kills his family and then tries to kill him. Hung defeats him and then wonders the land to deal with the new oppressive regime. Seven years on, Hung is still following is quest and his son has become a very competent martial artists. In a city he is betrayed again, but as he has no money, he is forced to bodyguard an unscrupulous rich man. At the same time, two thieves, the notorious mother and notorious daughter, have latched onto him. Hung knows these thieves' intention, but he cannot convince his master of it.When the Shoalin Temple is destroyed they believe that he is be dead so his brother attempts to find the location of a large treasure horde, the map of which is tattooed on the back of five children. These children wind up in the same place as Hung, and when his nemesis, now known as the poison man, appears, he must protect the kids and the two thieves, the younger of which has fallen for him.As I previously said, there is not much depth in this movie, but one watches it for the action. Things are quite predictable, but the stunts, or rather the moves, are quite extraordinary, especially since they are performed quite unrealistically. This does not matter because Hong Kong cinema generally does not want to be purely correct. They appreciate a bit of fantasy in their movies.

view_and_review Man. I've seen too many kung fu movies because they are all blending together in my head. As I'm watching this one the opening scene was identical to an 80's samurai movie. Then as the movie progressed I realized that everything was looking very familiar... I had seen this movie under another title: "Legend of the Red Dragon" except a bit choppier.The movie was OK. I like Jet Li, but I especially like the boy playing his son. I found it hard to believe that the movie was from 1994 when it looked like it was from 1984. The story was very rough, broken, and amateur, the fights were nothing special either. The boy saved the movie from being unwatchable.

jaf43 A very cute martial arts movie that displays a lot about contemporary Chinese perceptions of family. Some beautiful imagery, taken from folklore and traditional Chinese figure painting. Of course it is violent, as one would expect from the genre, but it would be among the first I would let kids see because of the familial and comedic aspects of the film (it is not unmitigated violence).