The Lost Bladesman

Donnie Yen stars as Chinese Han dynasty hero Guan Yu, escorting his sister in law through enemy territory during a civil war and doing his best to minimize the impact of the fighting on the general population. There's a bunch of fairly boring politicizing/moralizing at the start before Donnie breaks out the giant guandao glaive and starts wrecking everyone's shit. The romantic subplot is unnecessary and unconvincing but a small price to pay for witnessing Yen's incredible martial skills.

the action is good and so is the acting. wen jiang is especially good as cao cao. the story is ok, but each scene seemed vaguely disconnected to the previous scene which threw me off the whole film.

The shooting and camera work overall was stunning. The fighting scenes were mostly brilliantly done. But why the story have to be so good for nothing? There was a lot Western storytelling, only instead of firing hand guns they've got arrows and swords and martial arts. The hero supposed not to fool around with girls. Not to fell in love with at least.

I realized I'm just a fan of these historical drama/action, live-action Dynasty Warriors films. If they get the basics right, I tend to enjoy them quite a bit. I like seeing crazy, inventive martial arts action, nice visuals and really, the story comes after all that. Luckily, this movie went even farther beyond just getting it right to being truly awesome, with some really inspired action scenes. A lot of fun, and interesting even when the fighting isn't going on.

Donnie Yen plays the invincible warrior, but the story is full of cockamamie plot hiccups. I liked most of the fighting and political posturing, but there were several attempts to inject a selfless death that simply didn't fit. The writers got their heads stuck up their posteriors a few times. The love story and fighting behind closed doors were unsatisfying. Cheap ending. Overall this was an epic story that plays well for any martial arts movie fan. Most of it was worthwhile and fun to watch..

The movie is visually stunning and the story is a complex one. Wen Jiang did well with his role even though I felt that he was under utilized. Donnie Yen did pretty good with the more dramatic role but I felt he was a bit out of his depth. No one else in the movie really left an impression and that's actually part of the problem here. The direction for the movie was lacking, most scene don't flow well together and it feels very episodic. The actors were able to convey any real emotion because... [Full review]

58.000

I could've watched Donnie puke blood all day.