Gau yat san diu haap lui

I enjoy Hong Kong cinema quite a bit and i had pretty high hopes for this movie when i got i on DVD. Especially for the manga-like action-sequences which were rumored to be something very special. But unfortunately my hopes were all crushed within 45 minutes of the movie.

There are several problems with this movie. The first problem is unfortunately very common in Hong Kong cinema and that is bad acting. The actors are just horrible and can´t seem to say a single line in a credible way (which is strange since for example Andy Lau has since made good performances). The second problem is the misplaced comedy scenes. Several times the movie shifts from a very serious and emotional scene to slapstick comedy in the blink of an eye. This ruins both the comedy (which is very cheap) and the emotional scenes since you can never take anything about the movie seriously. The third and last major problem is the sub-standard action sequences. The action is both quite poorly choreographed and the effects look very cheap (people being cut to pieces by swords are VERY obviously dolls etc.). The action scenes are also too short and too far between. This creates a problem with the pace in the movie which is much too slow. And the story is much too thin and unbelievable to support the film. What might have saved this movie would have been a steady fast pace, but unfortunately it slows down and becomes very boring at times.

If you enjoy this kind of manga-style action-films there are a lot of better alternatives in the genre. This poor attempt is simply not worth the effort. I rate it 3/10.