Customer Reviews

Dragon Chronicles - The Maidens of Heavenly Mountains

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

 

 

Visually appealing but lacks meaningful and moving content. The story is hard to follow and confusing mostly because of the poor english subtitle translation and partly because there is no involving plot at all. There is no central character to focus on. You dont get to know the characters enough so you dont care what happens to them. The title attracted me to this movie. I was expecting a visually exciting fantasy film. Disappointed. Although the special effects are wonderful, it is not stunning, imaginative nor creative. Projection of energy bolts,teleportion, flight --- I've seen them before so give me alternative creative expressions of these powers. I didn't get that in this film. Even the sound effects and music seemed lacking --- failing to stimulate any energy or emotion. For a more stimulating story try " The Bride with White Hair" and "Moon Warriors". For visually exciting energetic action and special effects try "Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain", "Duel to the Death" and "Dragon Inn".

This typical HK movie is not the best Wing Keung Chien did. The story by itself is very simple (like many HK movies) but characters are well portrayed. The bad point is that visual FX are below the average and the DVD transcription is really poor (maybe it's my DVD Player and/or my TV ;-). Sound quality is not incredible, just ok but I think it's because the movie is a bit old (1994). Anyway, if you're a HK MadMan, buy it else rent it first...Ooops, about bonus materials : nothing...

When I first watched this movie I was amazed. Wonderful story and So truely amazing actresses. I loved this movie and If you enjoy Old school kung-fu movies then you will love this one as well. It was like Star Wars on wicked crazy kung-fu crack!! I loved it

I have read the Chinese Novel that this film was loosely based on. That is why I bought the DVD. It was a waste of time and money.
There are a lot of fighting scenes but their quality look like that of a B-grade video or kids' movies . Besides most of the times, the characters fought with "Palms" or magic powers not with swords. As for the script, I can not uderstand what is going on at all. The story is like a bunch of spaghetti mixed up together.
If you like Chinese style sword-fighting movies, check out "Iron Monkey", "Butterfly and sword", "Moon Warriors". If they are not available from Amazon, they will be found in any China town.

If you like Wuxia films and are alright with viewing a subtitled film (and do not care if the story is so complex you will need multiple viewings to fully grasp it), this is for you.
Brigitt Lin stars in the role of evil/good twin sisters and is convincing as ever, Gong Li [usually not an actress to be found in Wuxia] plays an excellent love-struck villain.

The subtitles are sometimes slightly wrong (both grammar, vocabulary and register), but are much better than, say, the ones from Beijing Opera Blues.

The martial arts scenes are well-choreographed and well-executed.

The story (in a nutshell):
Gong Li and the twins played by Brigitte Lin are members of a Wuxia sect whose leader has been poisoned by a rival. Instead of trying to avenge their teacher, the three women fall out with each other because the twins are both in love with their teacher (who only loves one of them) and Gong Li, in turn, is in love with the twin who is favoured by their leader. [I did say it was complicated].
The rival who poisoned their master is bent on destroying all other Wuxia sects and gaining the power of the women's sect leader. However, an innocent monk happens to be given the leader's power instead. He manages to unite the women against their master's killer and they overcome him in the end.
As most Wuxia films, this film also has no happy ending. Love remains unconsummated.
All villains also have a humane streak in them that makes the viewer pity their lot.

4 stars mainly because of the excellent cast.
Story and film: 3 stars.

The "Special Defects" are hilarious! The captions (in English) alone will keep you in stiches. Those translations that did make sense were comical and many translations made no sense at all. Gong Li is my favorite actress in any language. Goes to show that not even the world's best actor can save a really bad movie.