yeah right. Sammo Hung already acted in the main role in 1983's "Zu Warrios from the Magic Mountain". Now, 2001, he does it again with "Zu Warriors". But this time, he finally does it right. You seldom see him in wuxia, more often in classic eastern or crime slapstick. But this role simply does fit him! The ancient Chinese legend about zu mountain is not often represented in movies (as far as I know about movies translated for the west). Although, the legend contains a vast of interesting stories and possibilities. Straight said: you haven't seen a story alike yet in a modern movie! And that makes it so great! And wow: all the colors plus the enormously deep, right-into-the-heart going story makes you fall for this movie in an instant. The first time I watched it, I had to watch it again instantly, and I did. OK true, I didn't understand all of it the first time. But that makes it only better! You know, you didn't understand all of it, because there is so much spice in it! Therefor it is a pleasure for one self to watch it over and over again. And yeah, it grows deeper in your heart, the more often you watch it.Summary: A story to love, characters you cry with, and truly: a movie you never forget! -- Editors note: well, I think I must watch it right now again :D

Tsui Hark's visual artistry is at its peek in this movie. Unfortunately the terrible acting by Ekin Cheng and especially Cecilia Cheung (I felt the urge to strangle her while watching this, it's that bad :) made it difficult to watch at times.This movie is a real breakthrough in the visual department. When I first saw this, my jaw dropped repeatedly and I thought to myself that I've never seen anything remotely like it but this is how it should be done in order to do full justice to the mythical world of Chinese historical kung-fu novels! Without a doubt this is one of the best-looking Chinese historical kung-fu epic ever made.But alas, Tsui Hark hasn't improved much in the writing department, and the story and dialog are rather juvenile (his apparent obsession with the silly and overly-long depiction of the evil guys didn't help either). To make it worse, this movie is very badly cast. They decided to use the "hot" popular Hong Kong idols as lead characters, but unfortunately both Ekin Cheng and especially Cecilia Cheung are totally unsuited for historical kung-fu dramas because they lack the nobility and mystique that such characters are supposed to embody. Adam Cheng Siu-Chow and Brigitte Lin in the 1983 version are infinitely better.I wish that someday Zhang Yi-Mou and Tsui Hark can join forces and produce a movie that has the visual artistry of Tsui but with the maturity and story-telling poetry of Zhang...

Well, what can I say... This movie is awful.As people have commented the special effects are not the best, but still pretty good. I can agree with them here. Although they still bothered me.The plot of the movie/character development was absolutely horrible. At the end of the movie, you realize there was no plot at all, and the only reason anyone who was sane would watch the movie is for the mediocre special effects.I was also expecting something with a bit of humor mixed in such as in Hark's Chinese Ghost Story, but again, there was no time after you put in all of the garbage this movie was collected from.To sum up, it wasn't a complete waste of time if you have nothing other to do than sit around anyway, but in my opinion stay away...

This film looks fantastic. Its one of the most spectacular films I've ever seen. It seems as though Tsui Hark and crew suddenly were given away to truly unleash their imaginations for the first time with computer graphics and the went for it. This film is simply wonderful to look at.The problem is that the film feels like its starting in the middle and assumes you'll pick it up as you go along. Thats fine but its at least 25 minutes before we start to get anything like character development and by that time I was hopeless unconnected to anything except the visuals.The plot has something to do with the battle of good and evil in the sacred mountains of Zu in China. The story starts hundreds of years ago and then jumps forward once then twice in what becomes a story of lovers reunited over time while battling a great evil called, I kid you not, Insomnia. This is a remake/sequel/rethinking of the earlier Hong Kong film Zu Warriors of the Magic Mountain also by Tsui Hark. The earlier film looks less impressive compared to this one but it pushed the limits of what you could do with martial arts films and fantasy and set the stage for many classics that followed. The "original" film has a slightly tighter narrative thread, that film at least had a place to step on before things got jumbled.This is a great film to look at and I'm certain that should it ever get a US release this will play better on the big screen than it does on TV, simply because you'll get a sense of scale to the spectacle.Visuals are ten out of ten. The story telling is a two. Split the difference five out of ten over all.