San suk san geen hap (1983)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Hark Tsui

Writers:

Shui Chung Yuet (writer)
Jerrold Mundis (writer)

Release Date:

5 February 1983 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Horror | Adventure | Action | Fantasy

Plot:

Chinese soldiers in an ancient civil war get caught up in a fantastical quest to save the universe.

Plot Keywords:

Mountain | Magic | Ghost | Ancient China | Soldier

Awards:

5 nominations

Cast

Biao Yuen	...	Ti Ming Chi
Hoi Mang	...	Yi Chen (as Hoi Man)
Adam Cheng	...	Ting Yin
Moon Lee	...	Mu Sang, Countess's Guard
Brigitte Lin	...	Countess
Damian Lau	...	Abbott Hsiao Yu
Sammo Hung Kam-Bo	...	Fat Man / Chang Mei
Judy Ongg	...	Li I chi
Norman Chu	...	Heaven's Blade
Hark Tsui	...	Guy fighting Fat Man
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hark-On Fung	...	Evil Disciple
Kwan-Li Shen	...	Chi Wu-Shuang

Also Known As:

Warriors from the Magic Mountain
Xin shu shan jian xia (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
Zu Mountain: New Legend of the Zu Mountain Swordsmen (Hong Kong: English title) (literal title)
Zu Time Warrior (International: English title) (dubbed version)
Zu Warriors
Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (Hong Kong: English title)

Runtime:

USA:95 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:PG | South Korea:15 (2006) | USA:Unrated

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Best of the Martial Arts Films (1990)

Certainly one of the most entertaining martial arts pictures.

"Zu Warriors" certainly pushed wuxia to its limits; it has such a relentless air of enthusiasm, especially given its limited budget, that its incredibly easy to dismiss any faults it does have just because of its overwhelmingly extravagant nature. Its glorious, vivid production design and intentionally camp attitude makes it very difficult not to be totally drawn into its colourful images while completely forgetting the film has a plot.

Tsui Hark has included just about everything in this one. The special effects may not be up to much but that is a sideline; the wonderful swordplay starts almost immediately and the films rarely lets up as it jumps from one operatic martial art display to another, helped by an impeccable cast featuring iconic stars such as Sammo Hung and Brigitte Lin.

Unfortuantly it still took some work before films of this sort were appreciated in the west. Despite the efforts of John Carpenter, it still took over a decade and Crouching Tiger to truly bring this wonderful form of entertainment to the masses. There's only so much praise you can give a film before saying it has to be seen to be appreciated fully. This is certainly a landmark in wuxia and an essential showpiece of Hong Kong action at its finest. (A testament to this is the fact the DVD has a Bey Logan commentary.)