Chin-Bo & Junbao are expelled when Chin-Bo snaps on his opponent for cheating. Despite trying to explain, they get thrown out anyway. Junbao begins to get worried about Chin-Bo's incessant need for power. When Chin-Bo joins the rebellion, Junbao's fears come to life when Chin-Bo betrays Junbao. Ah, wires. I really don't like it when they use them in action movies. I think they look silly and highly unbelievable. I am a firm believer in hand to hand combat. All wires do is increase the spectacle, but I believe that it hinders it, in lieu of augmenting it. This movie is a good story about abusing power and letting greed consume you; however. If you're here to watch a Jet Li film with mind blowing action, you've come to the right place. Despite the usage of wires, some of the fight scenes are truly spectacular. There is some fantastic Tai- Chi in this movie, with Jet Li at his best. For the examples of the fights, check out the fight involving a big stack of logs. Michelle Yeoh kicking some ass, while walking on stilts is pretty bad-ass as well. I have to give credit to some of the rigorous training scenes. A couple of them were really creative. The only other carp about this movie, is that the friendship between Junbao & Chin Bo isn't intense enough. They were friends for 20 years, but I felt they could have been far more intense with it. Junbao (Jet Li) goes through a lengthy shock period, but most of it is done for comedic effect and slapstick. The slapstick is amusing, but it wasn't the proper time for it. The showdown at the end between Junabo & Chin Bo is extremely exciting, but typically one-sided for the most part. Li is solid as usual, delivering in the fight scenes like not many people can. Yeoh is solid as well. This is a pretty entertaining movie, filled with terrific fight scenes. It's so entertaining, that I'm more than willing to give some of the flaws a Mulligan. 7.5/10

Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh are both very accomplished Martial Artists. Their talents are on display in this wire-guided action movie. It is important to note that this is a wire-guided movie, because that may not be to all tastes. Chinese Martial Arts movies fall into 3 categories; no wires at all (Bruce Lee movies), partial wires to make the hits seem stronger (many Jackie Chan movies), and full blown wire-guided extravaganzas (Crouching Tiger, House of Flying Daggers, and this movie). Some people find it slightly ridiculous that the fighters are running up trees, making impossible moves, and dealing out punishment which often sends the opponent slithering half a KM away. This movie is full of that, so be warned. Nonetheless, the fight scenes are sometimes incredible, and at other times somewhat ridiculous.Jet Li takes on an entire army in this movie, armed only with a length of bamboo. Naturally, he does incredibly well. Yet as enjoyable as the action scenes are, they are tied together by the most moronic filler scenes ever conceived. At one point, Jet Li thinks he is a duck and spends the next 20 minutes prancing around impersonating the animal. The "comedic" moments would have been better placed in an Ernest movie, they are that ridiculous. Also, many many people are killed in this movie, yet that doesn't stem the flow of Ernest moments. It would have been much better to take a more serious tone, something along the lines of House of Flying Daggers or Crouching Tiger. The filler is so frustratingly bad, the dialog is so stupid, and the acting so poor, that I could not give this movie a higher rating than a 5 despite the impressive fight sequences.R.

I got this movie for 5.99 at a video rental sale and probably would've never seen it otherwise. I watched it last night, expecting to turn it off in the middle and go to bed. To my surprise, there was no time in the movie that I felt I COULD turn it off. It was simply a fantastic martial arts movie...Think along the lines of a mixture of Gordon Liu's Master Killer, Michelle Yeoh's Wing Chun and The Iron Monkey. There were several SPECTACULAR fight scenes. But, they didn't put the bank roll all on those: Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh made the movie enjoyable between the elaborate melees.I give this movie an eight out of ten for a regular movie and a TEN for a martial arts movie. If I were Joe Bob, I'd say, "Check 'em out"...

It's not Drunken Master, (not the Legend of Drunken Master, the original, noodge), but what is? It is a well made tale of an ousted Shaolin monk who through hardship and madness, learns the ultimately taoist T'ai Chi Chuan.The thing I love about this film, (and you'd have to be a geek to go with this} but I love the fact that he learns T'ai Chi through his own hardships, not from a sifu (teacher), and the typical sifu or friend who dies is his friend, who, instead of dying, turns evil with power.The entire movie is a great representation of Taosism (yin, yang, good and evil}. I don't agree that Michelle Yeoh (or Michelle Kahn at she time in the film) was not well used. She provided the idea of the easy path, drinking in this case, that is so lacking in gong fu movies. She and he both redeem themselves against the head bad guy (His character name escapes me at the time}, but there is no love interest between themselves. She's tough and troubled, he's tough and troubled and they actually help each other (read: she stops drinking to save him, he learns from her care and she helps cure his madness).By the way, the head bad guy, (again, sorry about the name} was still played brilliantly even in dubbing. My friends and I still say "Hmmmmm" in his fey evil voice when thinking bad thoughts. It can be said it's typical Hong Kong fare... Good guy gets defeated, learns a new style of Gong Fu and defeats the bad guy, but then again, isn't that what Star Wars took 3 films to accomplish?Anyway, my opinion of this film is tainted by the fact that I'm a taoist, but the action is top notch, nobody flies for no reason, all the characters (even the comic relief) are fleshed out. great film. not the greatest, but, it's a hell of a lot better than "Shaolin Drunken Monk" (aka, Plan 9 from the Shaolin Temple) lol.