Moon Warriors (1992)

One of my all time favorites.

A Masterpiece!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Years before the likes of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON breathed new popularity into Chinese cinema, films such as MOON WARRIORS were championed in the east and pretty much missed in the west. It's a shame, because MOON WARRIORS pretty much whups the backside of Ang Lee's movie in every respect; it's a pacier film, better shot and more interesting, with brighter performances and typically wonderful direction from Sammo Hung. While the plot is familiar stuff – some nonsense about an exiled king and his evil brother – this film's strength lies in the execution, which is second to none.Brightly coloured and vibrant throughout, MOON WARRIORS is a gorgeous film to watch and it helps that the cast members all give very good turns. I was particularly pleased to see the underrated Andy Lau in the film (the most interesting actor in HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS), as he's cast as the heroic lead here and he gives a very good turn. In fact, almost all the actors are good, especially Anita Mui as the love interest. The exception is Maggie Cheung, whom I just find to be irritating no matter what film she appears in.In terms of action, this is a decent film with many satisfying set-pieces. The opening ninja attack in the bamboo forest is classic stuff, and it's followed up by some engaging combat that makes full use of wire work for effect without looking stupid. Sammo knows his stuff and, combined with the input of Corey Yuen, this is a film in which the action always satisfies. There's also a few choice special effects, including the amusing bit where a severed head is shot by a burning arrow and some other gory instances. Andy Lau provides some comedy as the simpleton villager turned king's saviour, and I even enjoyed his FREE WILLY-style interludes with a peaceful whale that he has adopted as a pet (although the whale's intervention at the climax is a very predictable one). All said and done, MOON WARRIORS is a fun film that's difficult to dislike and, despite a few slow spots in the second half, I had a ball with it.

"The Moon Warriors" (aka "Zhan shen chuan shuo") has every ingredient to be a masterful epic Wuxia movie. It has an impressive cast list, a well-established director, beautiful scenery, good props and costumes, lots of action and good choreography......but it ultimately failed to be more than a mediocre movie given the fact that the entire movie seemed nothing more than a scramble of bits and pieces of different story lines put together in a fairly incoherent assembly in order to make a movie. There was no overly coherent red line throughout the course of the movie, and it was a chaotic mess as the story jumped all over the place.I watched "The Moon Warriors" for the first time around the mid- to late 1990's. I wasn't overly impressed back then, but had purchased it solely because of Maggie Cheung starred in it. And now returning to the movie about 20 years later, I am sad to say that the movie still isn't all that impressive for me.What is impressive, though, is the cast list for "The Moon Warrior". They had managed to acquire some really big talents for this movie, which includes Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung and Anita Mui. And that is one of the main reasons for watching this movie; the cast ensemble.The martial arts and fighting sequences were also quite good and well-choreographed. And this is essential to this particular genre of movies.I do also enjoy the details in movies, such as seen in the props, sets, landscape, etc. And there was a lot of nice touches to this movie, both in costume and sets.But the storyline was just killed off by a way too scrambled and confusing directorial attempt at making something epic. And it was a shame, because "The Moon Warriors" really had all the right things served on a silver platter in order to be a very outstanding movie.I am going to have to settle on a mediocre five out of ten stars for this 1992 Hong Kong movie, although it pains me somewhat, as I am a big fan of both Maggie Cheung and Andy Lau.

I really enjoyed this movie. For me it's an HK sword-and-sorcery classic. Kelvin Wong as the 14th Prince is a "Baddie" extraordinaire and features in some brilliant, utterly over the top action scenes that had me in stitches. Maggie Cheung is also good and adds lots of good moves to the action and character to the plot. The movie is well-paced, good to look at, well-directed and has some original touches that have been emulated and extended as the genre has become more popular and more lavish. I didn't like the English dubbing - it murders the dialogue, and prefer the original soundtrack with English sub-titles. Simplistic storyline (What d'you expect - it's Chinese Sword and Sorcery) and occasionally sentimental, nevertheless, if you like the genre, well worth seeing.

Moon Warriors is pretty alright if you're into the wuxia pian genre. It's much better than most HK action movies from the mid 1990s like the Dragon Chronicles, the Sword Stained with Royal Blood, etc etc... yet it can't compete with films such as Dragon Gate Inn, Ashes of Time (both starring maggie cheung, who also appears as "merlin" (what a weird name) in some versions of Moon Warriors), or the eyecandy swordsman 2. Anyway, I was wondering if any of you guys have noticed the weird subtitles on some copies of the DVD. For some reason I don't understand, Andy's character is called "Philip", and his loyal killerwhale buddy's called "Sea-Wayne" (which ended up being the biggest inside joke among my group of friends). Anita Mui appears as "Moonie". Why is it that some of the characters have such ridiculous names? I mean, it's not very consistent since the rest of the cast got chinese names. Anyway, it's a pretty entertaining action flick, give it a try if you want to have a laugh or if you're a fan of Andy, Maggie and Anita.7/10