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Hollywood Messing Up Another Hong Kong Movie

posted 21 years ago by BigPerm1974
7 replies | jump to latest

Why Does Dimension ruin these movies. They buy the rights of a film from China And dumb it down so much its hard to watch. And why release Swordsman II but not Swordsman I. True Jet Li is not in Swordsman I. But If you watch the Dimension version "The Legend Of the Swordsman" the Brigitte Lin character Asia the Invincible makes no sense at all. I had to research the story on the net to figure out what the heck was going on. So beware this is only for die hard fans of Kung fu movies. The action if you don't mine wire work is pretty good. And the ladies in this film are outstanding. Michelle Reis Brigitte Lin Rosamund Kwan and Fennie Yuen are just plan fine in this movie.

[–] zonker-1 20 years ago

the subtitling on the laserdisk is much better -- i don't know who they had do the subtitling for the dvd, but it's totally incomprehensible.

[–] Blinking_Fish 19 years ago

Unfortunately a lot of American distributors will re edit and butcher foreign movies all to hell. What's worse is a lot of times it’s so unnecessary. I don't want some Idiot screwing around with my foreign movies. I want to see them the way they were originally released. I don't need needless scene shuffling or unnecessary cuts. Miramax is Notorious for doing this.

If at all possible try to find Region free DVDs or have a region free DVD Player. Then you can get the Asian versions of the films and most of them do have English subtitles.

[–] danktrees1212 19 years ago

this movie is wicked. it discusses many moral issues within the movie and changes our perception of the definition of evil. asia the invincible is supposed to be evil, yet she only wants to bring glory to her clan. master wu is supposed to be the good guy locked up in jail but when he is released, he's a lot worse than asia himself. it also makes u rethink the characteristics of a hero. jet li is supposed to be the hero but then again he's adopted the attitude of "don't let any of this violence bother me anymore" yet as a hero he should be striving to save the innocent and destroy evil which he clearly does not. and as the film suggests, there will always be conflict where there are people. sexuality is questioned as the typical bad guy and best fighter in a movie is usually given to males. but in this case, asia is far stronger than anyone. even jet li didnt come close to handling her even with the enormous amount of help he received from wu and everyone else. morality is also at stake:

*************SPOILER ALERT***************

if asia is supposed to be evil, can jet li fall in love with her even tho he is supposed to be the hero. furthermore, can he still be in love with her even AFTER he finds out who she really is. notice that as she was falling off the cliff, jet was concerned about her deeply.

i guess if u watch this movie for fighting, u'd be disappointed even tho there is some good fighting. but this movie is a classic as it is supposed to make u think. and it's not that hard to find these things either since some of the characters come out and say it to bring it to your attention. i.e. wu said something like "there's always conflict where there's people".

[–] MrSparklepantz 19 years ago

Well, one thing this movie shows is how people can get so greedy at times, even if they don't look like the type to do so (Like Master Wu).

Quote: "if asia is supposed to be evil, can jet li fall in love with her even tho he is supposed to be the hero."

He is the hero, however, he had no idea Asia the Invincible was a woman. He was oblivious to the fact that the sacred scroll required you to castrade yourself and loose your manhood.

Quote: "furthermore, can he still be in love with her even AFTER he finds out who she really is. notice that as she was falling off the cliff, jet was concerned about her deeply."

A possibilty. It could be true, or it may not be true. He wanted revenge for his brothers, and swore he'd killed Asia the Invincible. However, when he found out who Asia the Invincible really was, he still felt angry. His concern at the last scene b/w the two of them was to know whether if ATI's name was Cici (which eveidently wasn't). However, he did show affection towards her...

[–] miss-suanie 17 years ago

maybe you all should watch Swordsman 1 (if you haven't already). No Jet Li, no Lin Ching Hsia, but it tells the tale of why Ling Wu-Chung feel so closely with his brothers, and how the Sacred Scroll already brought so much destruction before.

We watched Swordsman 1, 2, 3 over the weekend for maybe the 50th time, they are still awesome :)

[–] holyabdul 16 years ago

For those who don't know, the movie is a (horrible, IMO) adaptation of a famous novel by Jin Yong called "Xiao Ao Jiang Hu."

This movie butchers so many things from the original novel that it's terrible.

Even judging the movie on its own, IMO it still sucks. I rented it for the action sequences, and it stinks in this movie. Why waste Jet Li in this movie? Any actor with some athleticism would have done fine.

There are much much better Jet Li films out there. A bitter disappointment.

[–] Fattycakes 13 years ago

"if asia is supposed to be evil, can jet li fall in love with her even tho he is supposed to be the hero. furthermore, can he still be in love with her even AFTER he finds out who she really is. notice that as she was falling off the cliff, jet was concerned about her deeply."

Asia was not evil, just ruthless. All founding emperors are.

It is very seldom that a man will still love a transgendered person after finding out the truth - watch countless Jerry Springer shows! While not impossible, the Linghu Chong in this movie had 2 other romantic interests so i'm not sure he really loved Asia without know what he really was. Asia herself seems to know this which is why he asks Cici to be his substitute. However, i think Asia will always have a place in his heart.

Presumably Asia loved Cici at one point, entrusting the Sacred Volume to her and yet she had feelings for Linghu Chong.

Quite complicated really to figure out who really loves who!