Customer Reviews

Black Panther Warriors

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Alan Tang plays Black Panther, a mercenary who gets hired by Melvin Wong to retrieve evidence from the police station. He brings all of his mercenary friends along on the mission and this is a very strange bunch. One guy always has to have a passifier in his mouth or he acts like a baby. Tony Leung Ka Fai's character goes insane whenever a woman speaks Mandarin. This movie is so childish that it becomes hard to watch at times. The comedy is unbearable. There are a couple of plot twists at the end, but they are not done very well. Most of the movie is just mindless talking and bad jokes.

I am a huge Brigitte Lin fan and I thought she was kind of wasted. She plays her role well but doesn't get any good dramatic scenes which is her specialty. But don't worry, this movie is still worth watching and I will explain why.

There is plenty of action and it is very inventive. If you like a lot of flash, then you are really going to like this. Everybody can fly around and most have special powers. Simon Yam's weapon is a deck of playing cards that he can shoot, and the cards can also spin around him and block sword attacks. The highlight is a short fight between Alan Tang and Yuen Wah who wields a flaming sword. They fly around over water extremely fast with things exploding all around them. The wirework is very good, even though you can see the wires a few times. And there is no doubt that there were injuries during filming. In one scene Alan Tang jumps out of an exploding building and the stuntman is completely surrounded by flames. I don't know what these people were smoking but the action is definitely one of a kind. It's a shame the rest of the movie is so hard to watch.

2.5/5

Picture quality on the Tai Seng DVD is a bit above average. Sound is good. Subtitles are well written, but there is a major problem where the subtitles show up two or three seconds after the person has spoken. It wasn't a big deal for me, but this will drive most people crazy because there is so much dialogue. The subtitles start out fine but as the movie goes on it becomes more and more off. By the end the subtitles come about 5 seconds after someone speaks. If it becomes too much of a frustration for you to follow the story, then don't worry about it, this movie is only worth watching for the action.

I've been on a Brigitte Lin movie streak lately, and I'd never seen this one before, so I watched it...and then watched it again...oh my god. Completely surreal. It's like some kind of live action video game (you know, those levels where you have waves and waves of enemy minions flying in to attack you and you do some cool move and stuff goes all explodey!) mixed with idiotic low comedy in between the fights. Most of it is utterly stupid (and the computer geek, played by Dicky Cheung, is the most irritating character ever) but I admit to laughing at times. And the women change their costumes for every scene. Brigitte's outfits must be seen to be believed! Those hats! Ha ha ha ha ha! The whole thing is weirdly compelling. Even the music is hypnotic.

The plot, such as it is: Black Panther (Alan Tang) is hired by a cop (who's actually working for the villain Blood Wolf) to steal something from the police evidence vaults. Black Panther rounds up his gang of specialist assassins (Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Simon Yam, Carrie Ng, Jennifer/Ming-Chen Chen) for the job. Black Panther, Blood Wolf, and Brigitte's character were all once students of the same master, but had a falling out (love triangle, obsession over some magical panther-head saber, 'Master liked you better', yadda yadda yadda). Wacky antics ensue. (I was especially amused by the three women attempting to use the "beauty/feminine wiles strategem" on the fat cop. Brigitte kicks ass, of course, and the others are like "how come you always win!?". She looks so smug!)

It's all completely silly and over the top (but didn't you always wonder what flying swordsmen types would look like in a modern setting?), but fun to watch. The action scenes are amazing. Just fast forward over the most annoying "comedy" bits. I'm giving it a bonus star for its pure insanity.