Little Dragon Maiden

good movie

Like many films based on the Big 4, this didn't feel like a self-contained story and it also expected you to know the source material. The story is a little too goofy for my taste and it took too long to get going. The fights were good and entertaining when they happened. It's always nice to see Leslie Cheung in a film and seeing him in an early role was a bonus but the role didn't really suit him.

Apparently this is part of a film series which would explain why I was confused by so much shit going on, but even ignoring that, this movie doesn't exactly leave much of an impression. The plot is a gigantic clusterfuck and the action scenes are full of annoying quick cut garbage bolstered by bland Hong Kong style choreography. If this is what the rest of the series has to offer, consider me uninterested.

I'm seriously considering reading (or at least trying to) Legends of Condor Heroes as it is being published in English for the first time. Like with most Shaw Brothers wuxia films it is nearly impossible to understand the plot without already being familiar with source material. So much is crammed into plot, it's just too frantic. At the core is a forbidden love story between Leslie Cheung and Mary Jean Reimer, but I will remember the film for that tubby bird costume.

I see that I'm joining a film series at the end of its run, so I have no clue what went on in its predecessors, neither do I know what was up in the source novels, so when the last 20 minutes go gung-ho whackadoo with a guy in a giant bird suit and we're riding the cheap bird into battle and man...I mean, man....that leaves me recommending it to anyone who'll listen.