Legend of Wisely
1/10/01
Review
Format: VCD
Stars: Sam Hui, Ti Lung, Joey Wang

After monks had been using a magical black perl, an Egyptian man wants it back and Sam Hui is bent on keeping it for the monks.

A very entertaining film a lot like the Indiana Jones series, though a little bit on the sci-fi side. After seeing that Sam Hui was in this, I knew that the fighting wouldn't be very good though, which is too bad, but the guy is likable. The little annoying man from Twin Dragons is in this and is still annoying. Ti Lung gets a few moments though, so I'll just go into detail now.

Hui starts things off with some men in costumes attacking him in an apartment. He's not impressive, though the others do some good falls and the camera is spot on the entire time, getting everything it can. It's short and Hui doesn't really do anything except kick 3 guys and dodge an axe.



Hui goes to the monks' place of worship and they unleash on him. Another excellently well filmed scene. You can tell they had a high budget for this film. But again Hui disappointed me a little here and is doubled for some acrobatics. He's slow too, and just avoids the weapons that the monks use against him. Could have been good but he obviously isn't an action hero. Afterwords he makes a getaway with his airplane and fights a monk on the top, who has a spear. Again unimpressive.



Out of no where, Joey Wang's double (definitely) takes on some sparring partners who have staffs, and she has nothing. This is the first great action scene in the movie, where the person doing the action does a good kick, an airtrack to splits, some tumbling, windmills, and a backflip all in about 15 seconds, all of it very well filmed too. After that she fights Hui and things slow down to a drag. Sad.



Hui makes a getaway with Wang and the annoying guy in a car which has some good stuntwork by people following them, like one guy riding a motorcycle and hitting the side of the car, flying over, and another one going through a shallow pond and falling in front of his own bike and moving just in time. Even though it's a tad dark, everything is still visible. They have a brief encounter with a semi too.



Ti Lung comes after Hui in the desert and does a bit of stuntwork himself by jumping from a moving jeep onto Hui's. They then have an exchange on the sand and they do some throws, Ti does a few good kicks, and they do some hand work but Hui is again very slow.



Ti Lung has his own scene next against some monks and is fast. The monks just attack him for a little while and he defends himself with more good kicks, some throws, and wing chun hand movements. Short again, but filmed really well. He takes 2 at a time for a second too. But look at how I'm writing this. I'm not talking about long fights here, but really short encounters that don't really top my list. I thought there was more than this.



The last scene is interesting but not intense. The Egyptian guy wants his ball, which is actually rightfully his, and Hui kicks some icecles at him which he smashes, and since he's made of fire, when Ti Lung sweeps him his leg catches on fire. No martial arts of any kind, no fighting, no stuntwork besides one backfall, but it's a VERY interesting plot twist, I'll give it that. You'd have to see it to know what I mean.



So, no memorable action content outside of Ti Lung really, but the story is interesting and unique. It's not just another magical bad vs. good thing, but something that's new. If you like Indiana Jones and can live without good special effects, though the ones in this aren't bad, then you might want to check this out. If you want martial arts, don't bother. But I have to say it's an entertaining movie nonetheless. The whole family would enjoy it I'm sure.

2/5 on the basis that I wanted good fights, car chases, stunts, etc., but 4/5 for the Indiana Jones type.

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