I don’t know how valuable this review will be for people not named Rob Larsen, but I loved this movie. It’s not the equal of the true classics that Lau Kar Leung and his adopted brother Lau Kar Fai put together under the Shaw Brothers umbrella in the 70s and 80s, but it’s still a fun refresh of the old school, tried and true martial arts movie formula. I was nearly giddy during the fun-as-all-get-out training sequence towards the end of the film and the classic finale (both in structure and execution) had me beaming. I would love to see a series of new films done in this style, just to keep the traditional martial arts movie feel alive. I love the modern style as much as anyone, but there’s still something to be said for the joy of watching a film with such a simple setup (a simple tale of revenge mixed with the standard desire to learn a specific martial arts style) executed with such directness. That Lau, maybe the best director the genre has ever seen, was at the helm certainly helped matters in this specific case, but I’d love to see other people take a shot at this sort of retro style.
I can dream right?
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