Customer Reviews

Swordsman III - The East is Red

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

 

 

East is Red is Part III in the "Swordsman" series starring Jet Li as a young swordsman who gets caught up in a fight over a scroll that contains the "secret of ultimate power". He battles against "Invincible Asia" a man who castrates himself to fight as good at kung fu as a woman (which happens to be that secret as revealed at the end of Part I). Brigitte Lin (Bride With White Hair) is a real-life woman playing "Invincible Asia" a castrated man with ambition to rule the world in this awesome historical tale of politics in 1500s when Portuguese first explored coast of China. I love this film and recommend the whole "Swordsman" series.

THE EAST IS RED (1993), a sequel to SWORDSMAN II (1992), is the crowning achievement in the long career of Taiwan-born Hong Kong cinema diva Brigitte Lin (who retired a year later). She is at her highest-flying, gravity-defying best here as Asia the Invincible, a kung fu master who'd obtained the powers of the Sacred Scroll and changed from a man into a woman as a result. Here, four months after her "death" in Part II, she comes back on the scene with the help of a Chinese court officer monitoring transgressions by Spanish and Japanese warships, and seeks to root out the cults that have sprouted in her name and destroy the fake Asia the Invincibles who have emerged to run these cults. One of the fakes is Snow (Joey Wang), who'd been Asia's lover when she'd been a man and who, we find, still loves the transformed Asia. Officer Koo (Yu Rongguang), watching these two beautiful women from the sidelines, gets mighty frustrated.

The film is shot through with the kind of grace and beauty that we only got in Hong Kong costume adventures. Every shot is gorgeous, every cut is perfect, every effect is breathtaking. The more fantastic the action, the more we suspend our disbelief, thanks to the ingenious staging and precision cutting. Characters never walk or take a boat when they can fly or run at high speed along the surface of the water. Characters rip the sails off ships and use them to fly through the air. Cannons are lifted as if they were rifles and ships are pushed back and forth by hand. Underneath it all is a deeply bitter romantic undercurrent. Never have I seen love, despair and rage so intertwined. Raw emotions propel the action and give a dreamy, delirious quality to the proceedings. Never has there been a Hong Kong film quite like this one and never will there be another one.

It wouldn't hurt to see SWORDSMAN II first, although it's not absolutely necessary. (SWORDSMAN I, from 1990, has very little, if any, connection, to the two sequels.) This upgraded DVD release offers 16:9 anamorphic enhancement and is far superior in quality to the earlier edition.

This film is great simply for the fact that is alomst centers completely on Brigitte Lin's character. She lights up the screen as Asia, the Invincible. This film is interesting because there is no clear good guy/bad guy. The three main characters are really neither good or bad. Like so many people in real life. The plot starts out wonderfully with Asia in hiding, then setting out to rid the world of her imposters, then about three quarters into the movie the storyline heads downhill. The ending is a disapointing way to end a great trilogy. There are two elements that subtract from the overall movie. One element is the terrible subtitles. The other element is the weak ending which I mentioned earlier. This film is a must have for any Brigitte Lin fans (and everyone should be). The cinematography is excelent, some of the scenes in this movie will be embeded in my mind forever. In regards to the Swordsman trilogy, I liked the first the least simply because of the lack of star power. Jet Li an Brigitte Lin led Swordsman 2. The East is Red is led by Brigitte Lin and there is no question whose movie it is.

Dragon Inn is soaked with political subtext, but manages to wind up a fantastic Kung-Fu epic... The East Is Red is much the same thing with regard to the politics, but the movie suffers for it. Unless you really want to watch a bad kung-fu epic that serves as a metaphor for the handover of China, then I'd suggest staying away from this pitiful film. Swordsman 1 and 2 are far superior and this film is barely a sequel. Just pretend that only 2 Swordsman films were made and that this one was just a bad dream.

Kung fu master Ku misguidedly leads Spanish soldiers to the grave of Asia the Invincible (brilliantly overplayed by Brigitte Lin) to seize some Secret Scrolls -- a source of untold power. Well, apparently she's alive, and easily dispatches both the Spanish and a small army of ninjas (whose galleon converts into a submarine), before escaping on the back of a marlin. She now embarks upon a mission to destroy the numerous false pretenders to her title, ripping hearts and bodies asunder with her flying kung fu needles! With insane action sequences and hopelessly botched subtitles, it's hard to tell whether this was intended as a camp masterpiece, a genre parody, or what. - SP

In this movie, Yu Rong Gang takes over for Jet Li, and a trained monkey seems to have taken control of script writing. (Or perhaps it was just a wild monkey; the writing is really that bad.)

What plot there is centers on how Invincible Asia/East Shall Not Fail is trying to return to power, which is quite a trick given the ending of Swordsman 2. Not having read Jin Yong's work, I can't be certain, but I believe that Swordsman 2 completed the plot of the original novel the series is based on, and that this movie is simply an ill-conceived attempt to milk a successful franchise.

Swordsman 2 had a slightly weak plot with amazing visuals. This film probably had a script, but saying it had a plot might be a bit too charitable. The visuals are very derivative, and certainly not enough to hold anyone's interest by themselves.

I give it two stars because it might be worth cutting some scenes out to make a night club music video, and I admire Brigitte Lin's ability to play her part with a straight face. Well, to be honest, I just admire Brigitte Lin in general, and have trouble rating anything she starred in less than 2 stars.

After Asia the Invinvcible's death at the end of Swordsman II, fake Asia the Incinvibles started popping up. Asia's plan was to become the Emperor and take over the world. She became a man and gained super kung fu abilities from a sacred scroll. In this sequel the fake Asias are a big part of the story. There is also a ninja clan, a Spanish army, and they all fights on warships. Rongguang Yu is hired to investigate Asia's death and he finds out that she/he is still alive. When he tells Asia about the fakes, Asia wants to kill them all.

Brigitte Lin was amazing in part 2 of the series, but she is somehow even better in part 3. Nobody could pull this role off like Brigitte Lin. Joey Wong is back as Asia's love interest, and her character ruined the story for me. Rongguang Yu's dream had always been to see Asia the Invincible, but he soon forgets about her when he sees Joey Wong. But Joey Wong's character has no interest in anybody but Asia the Invincible. Rongguang Yu finds this out too late. The movie ends with a huge warship battle and for me it was a very disappointing ending. I don't know if they were planning on a part 4, but they finish this movie horribly.

There is no real fighting, it is all special effects and flying around. Ching Siu Tung is the master at this kind of action and it is beautiful to watch. I do wish they would have had at least one fight where people trade blows.

There is never a dull moment in the movie, but by the end it feels completely meaningless.

3/5

Picture and sound quality on the Mei Eh DVd is very good. Subtitles have a lot of errors but are easy to read.

Every time I watch a "sequel" to a movie, the first thing I think about is: "If this movie weren't part of a series, would it still be considered good?"

For this movie, the answer is "Yes". The movie does a good job of producing a good storyline that still maintains some connection to it's previous parts, while not requiring the viewer to have seen them. There is enough development and action to give the viewer a sense of character familiarity. For viewers who are used to "Once upon a time in China" or even "The Killer" or "Hard Boiled", this movie is classified more as fantasy. While this may tune some people out, I feel that there is enough here for a open-minded watcher to enjoy a different kind of film.

This show is produced due to the highly successful of swordman II. However, it has a lousy plot. It continued from the 2nd episode saying Brigitte Lin is not dead and his (her?) concubine come and find him (her?). Any way, it really has no story plot at all. Just some nice fighting moves and trying to pass off as a movie. Skip this. Worst of the trilogy.

The movie gets 6 stars for directing, great storyline, fantastic cinematography, martial arts direction and special effects.

The story basically traces the fight for power during the pre-dynasty period where a cunning warrior (played by Lin Chin Sia) collaborated with the foreign country to overthrow the Chinese goverment so as to take revenge for her people. While eliminating all in his way by mastering the formidable skill called "Lotus Sacred Skill"

Unfortunately, learning the skill would require some drastic measures taken on oneself... slowly he falls for swordsman (played by Jet Li) because of a change in his sexual preference which proved to be his downfall.

The final confontation is the best! The special effects can match those done by Hollywood. Watch the way she fight her enemies (the good guys) alone will surely wish you had her skills.

BUY IT NOW!!! You won't regret it as this is one of those movies that are worth keeping in a sea of sub-standard sword fighting movies created by Hong Kong over the years.