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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Legendary Kung-Fu classic meets Shakespearean epic, December 22, 2001
It's true, it doesn't have quite the action and hand-to-hand of 'other classics' like, i.e., The Kid with The Golden Arm, but you have to own this title anyways, or you're just posing.
The movie is different from those 'other classics' in that it's hero is more of a 'real' person than the hero in those 'other classics'. He can't kick your head off, and he can't whip his ponytail through your torso (which _is_ a weak point of this movie, I'll grant you), but he loves his wife and son, he's a good, moral man who is deeply disturbed by the situation in which he finds himself.
This movie has extremely rapid plot development, and the viewer can feel how the young protagonist is swept up by the pace of developments - fueled by the impatience of the godlike Emperor. The Emperor summons you to his palace. Of course you go, dropping everything instantly, because this man can have your whole city burned if he had a bad bowel movement that morning.
Your new life is to live at the palace and study to master a new weapon. Should you manage to complete the ultra-demanding training, you will be the Emperor's Special Ops forces, used to kill traitors. It's a huge honor, involves major prestige to your whole family, and mondo cash.
During the blur of the intense training, you are awakened after even less sleep than usual, with a veritable parade of courtiers who convey the will of the Emperor: it's time to put that training to the test.
You hustle off in the middle of the night, and one of you kills the appointed target.
Later, at an interlude in the training, it becomes clear that the victim was a 'good guy'. It must have been a mistake, right? No way the Emperor could be wrong, right? It becomes clear that even such discussion amongst the troops reaches the ear of the Emperor, and paranoia mounts. Disobedience is instant death, the walls have ears, and there are jealousies and tensions as strong undercurrents threatening to destabilize an already tenuous position stressed by a power-mad Emperor.
Another mid-night mission, and the target is another 'good guy'. The fine, upstanding men recruited are morally at odds with the will of the Emperor, and cracks appear in their committment. The troops are divided along moral lines.
Now, one of the evil troopers receives a clandestine mission, and his target is one of the more vocal troops in opposition to the murder.
The pressure is intolerable, the situation explodes, and the hero breaks loose from the now hopelessly corrupt group.
He is hunted, but survives each encounter because he was the best of the group, and because he is helped by a woman who falls in love with him.
They mangage to avoid capture, but eventually are found, and the climactic battle ensues.I loved this movie, although the score occasionally makes you long for deafness.
Watch it for the history behind the sequel (which is not really a sequel): The Master of the Flying Guillotine, which has none of the plot development, intrigue, or drama, but has the lethal ponytails and blitzkreig action. Two pillars of the art.
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DVD ~ Chen Kuan-Tai
DVD ~ Tak Chi Chen
DVD ~ Jimmy Wang Yu
DVD ~ Carter Wong
DVD ~ Sun Chien
