Stormriders

Chinese fantasy / kungfu

Pinnacle Films

R4 DVD

First, a warning. This film is supposedly a prequel to the popular Storm Warriors film of 1998. It duplicates much of the earlier film and is probably better describes as a remake. That’s a remake of an earlier film based on an animated series based on a comic book series. With a pedigree like that, what could go wrong?

The film covers a long time span so you must watch closely to follow the plot. Briefly, Lord Conquer is a martial arts teacher with a maniacal laugh who wants to be top in the martial arts world. He steals two boys with special powers as trainees, Whispering Wind and Striding Cloud, and starts training them. Their strength increases and so does Conquers clan. The two boys have forgotten their parents and think of Conquer as the man who raised them. They live as brothers.

A prophet known as Mud Buddha tells Conquer that he will have ten good years when he will be invincible, then will find out his ultimate destiny. After the ten years are up, he finds the second half of the prophecy is that Wind and Cloud have the power to make or break him, but only their combined powers can beat him. He promises his daughter Charity to Wind in marriage, but Cloud also loves her and the two part company. They only reunite after Conquer accidentally kills Charity and they take their revenge on him.

The film keeps the comic-book look very well. There is lots of improbable posturing and posing with weapons, leaping through the air, silly hats, mystical creatures and so on. This is where it becomes easy to lose the plot as new characters are introduced and old ones reappear.

If the plot is confused, the translation and subtitles are ludicrous – “to be so clam in the face of danger….”. The typing leaves a lot to be desired, with the typist leaving a space after every “Y” and having no upper case at all. It does at least inject some moments of humour into the film. The CGI is amazing and the fight scenes are spectacular, as you would expect.

I haven’t seen the earlier film but the new version stands well on its own. Even with its occasional weaknesses and dodgy subtitles it is well worth watching if you are a martial arts or Chinese fantasy fan.

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