Customer Reviews

Blade of Fury

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You will not be disappointed. At one hour and forty one minutes, there must be sixty minutes of incredible fight scenes packed onto this DVD.

Villans who ride real dromedary CAMELS into battle; incredible sword fighting; excellent hand techniques; two Sifus dueling on top of umbrellas; a fighting Empress Dowager; topped off with Shaw Brothers movie veteran, Ti Lung. What else do you need.

Watch for the scene where the decapitated head is still smoking the cigarette!

And the cameo appearence of Sammo Hung [who directed the film].

Incredible! This will be some of the best DVD dollars you have spent.

I've watched this one 3 times in as many weeks. I own more than 150 movies, and I've watched most of them only once. This one actually has a plot. it also has great cinematography, great sets, great flow, and some absolutely amazing fight scenes. the execution scene is very moving.

Some reviews consider the greatness of this movie as the movements of two or more opposing (conflicting) martial arts bodies without "ideology". I disagree with this. I think the greatness of this movie is that consistently, from beginning to end, it shows the unity of spirit to save the seemingly dying China, to save the unsalvageable. This is illustrated, inter alia, by the choice of demise of the young master so that his blood can empower other patriots. The campaigns of the historically future emperor, Yuan Shi Kai are also manificent and point to this direction. But, all these are not to say that the martial sequences are not fantastic. The martial arts sequences are also fantastic: excellent hand to hand combat, conflicts of various weapons, etc. The use of unusually large swords are particularly unique and magnificent. Lastly, fans of Cynthia Khan of which I am one will find her charming. When she opens her big mouth, we all laugh with her. When she crys before the young master, we are saddenned with her. I am happy to give this movie 6 star.

I am a huge fan of martial arts movies and I have a large collection of dvd's dedicated to the genre so I consider myself some what of an expert on the subject. I have been watching kung fu movies for over 20 years and believe me when I say that I have yet to see a martial-arts movie match Blade Of Fury let alone surpass it.

This is Sammo Hung's masterpiece without a dout and the film's excellence is only matched by the absurdity of its obscurity despite its greatness, which I find baffling.

It is a very dark and violent movie about a passionately patriotic kung-fu master Wang Wu, who loses hope over the political state of China and unsuccessfully tries to commit suicide. He then retreats to a humble life working as a sword-smith when he meets a famous kung-fu master (Ti Lung), who re-ignites his desire to change China for the better. As the story goes, they become fast friends with the same political ideology and try their best to convey their revolutionary ideas to all who will listen, by writing a manuscript. This puts both men in direct confrontation with Yuan Shih-kai, a general who is very powerful in martial arts and a conservative in Chinese polotics. This starts a chain of events that leads Wang Wu on a deadly path where he will have to fight not only for his ideals but his very life.

This movie has without a doubt one of the most engaging, complex plots I have ever seen in a kung fu movie. What makes this movie unique is that there isn't a stereotypical "bad guy". Nobody is evil in this movie, its just two "good guys" who believe in opposing ideals. One seeks change for the good of the country while the other seeks stability for the sake of human lives.

The acting is also top notch all around, highlighted by Ti-Lung's exceptional portrayal of a compassionate revolutionary and Rosamund Kwan's mesmerizing performance, befitting of an empress. Even Sammo Hung's cameo as a master swordsman guarding a prisoner is right on the money.

Believe it or not, as superb as the plot and acting are, the fight scenes are even more so. Sammo Hung's choreography alone is worth the price of admission and is on the same level as Yuen Woo-ping and Ching-Siu Tung. What seperates this movie's fight scenes from others are not just the variety of fighting styles but the variety of weapons as well. All forms of weapons like darts, bow and arrows, guns, short swords, long swords, samurai swords, spears and even rope used as a yo-yo-ing projectile are on display. The variety in fighting styles are also impressive, for example there is an amazing hand to hand combat scene that takes place on parasols, fantastic swordplay in a water-torture prison, the "villain" Yuan Shih-kai taking out 20+ rebels(I lost count) using only his cape, Wang Wu using his short-sword against Ngo Pai's wonder hand, the list goes on and on. The great thing about the fights are that they occur for a good reason and serve to drive the story forward. The final showdown between Wang Wu's short sword and Yuan Shih-kai's long sword is a bloodbath for the ages.

Never before has a martial arts movie been proficient in all areas- story, plot, character development, acting and fight choreography are all exemplary and a testament that these things can be done in an action movie, and the reason why Blade of Fury has no equal.

After reading some reviews I was curious enough to buy it. I'm glad I did! Sure the story isn't the best nor the easiest to follow but I'm all about the fighting scenes and boy there is plenty in this movie! The action is right up there with Iron Monkey, Fists of Legend, Twin Warriors (aka The Tai Chi Master) The fight scenes have good speed and I laughed when the voice of the Japanese woman (At the kung-fu tournament) is actually a mans voice in the movie. Ha! Too funny! Other than that it is a very dark movie but I like that when it comes to fighting/martial arts movies. Not too much of that cheesy haha humor in this flick. I highly recommend this film if you like good swordplay action!

Man, I honestly thought this is the greatest movie I've ever seen. Some may disagree, those who do, you guys can just shut your mouth! Cause this is my favortie movie in the whole wide world. I loved all the fights scenes, the martial arts is awesome. And of course, for the ladies, there is always a love story intertwined in the plot. I could lie and say that everybody would love this movie, kids and adults, people of all ages, but i'm not goin' to. I love this movie cause I'm a huge martial arts fan, and you have to be too, to be able to appreciate this film. Well, I hope you get this movie and enjoy it as much as I did, do, and will.

I'm not the biggest fan of Sammo Hung. I felt that his love of inserting humor in the middle of a developing story is unneccesary and distracting at times.

But I will say that this probably the best Sammo film out there. While Yuen Woo Ping may be the best at choreographing a fight sequence, Sammo is the best at filming one. While some fights in the movie may seem almost too spectacular, there is still enough to capture your attention. And there are some "deathblows" that are really creative.

As far as the story, it's very reminiscent of the OUATIC series. Basically, it focuses on the efforts of certain individuals and their quest to maintain the Chinese heritage. While the plot seems confusing at times, it moves at a pace that allows the viewer to catch up.

DVD-wise, the film does have Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks in Cantonese and Mandarin. The subtitles are burned in, falling victim to the infamous white-background-difficulty. The video is taken off of a descent print. The colors seem to be bright and dull at certain times, but not enough to take away from the film.

I'm glad that I picked this one up. Out of "Fire Dragon" and this (that I purchased at the same time), I was surprised that this one turned out to be the better movie.

while some of the fight scenes were totally right on, some were so poorly faked...well, overall its worth the watch despite this. i bought it

A great movie whose original version was superb.
One of the all-time great kung fu movies.
This DVD has very poor sound, and poor video quality.
Quite a disappointment, but was the only one available
at that time.

Sold by: cdigitalv

Does anyone know where the original may be available.

A masterpeice from Sammo Hung. Awesome fight scenes! Martial Arts master(who is that guy?) comes out of hiding to team up with Ti Lung and fight against corruption within the Chinese government. Both are betrayed and Ti Lung is captured. What follows is truely edge of your seat action that only Yuen Wu Ping, Jackie Chan, John Woo or Tsui Hark can match.