An oft trod tale of gallantry and heroism - this time given an Oriental scenario as "Dong YiLong" (Henry Lau) and his gang of compatriots compete against nine other warriors in the ultimate, deadly, contest of skill and strategy organised by a neighbouring warlord with an agenda of his own. Actually, as fantasy adventure films go, it is pretty complete: handsome hero, mythical beasties; sword fights; martial arts before a predictable ending. Don't expect anything at all sophisticated here: the effects are straight out of a video game and the dialogue is minimalist but the action scenes redeem it somewhat, and for 2 hours of mindless fun you could do a heck of a lot worse.

Plot: A southern king is attacked by rivals from the north. He authorizes a competition organized by the Grand Tutor where members of each clan sends 3 representatives to fight to become the Grand Marshal, the head of the army.

Review (spoilers below): Women in this film serve as no more than plot devices for the men, each one dies only to further the plot of the men around her. Their deaths lack any sort of agency.

After Don Yilong figures out that he is a northern prince, the story disregards that important piece and it isn't used at all in the final showdown. He doesn't reveal himself to the northern troops to stop the slaughter nor does he attempt to negotiate with the southern king. After he fights and saves the king it's like his friendship with Chu Hun means nothing as they mention they will be on opposing sides from now on. That's a waste of the camaraderie they developed throughout the movie.

This movie genuinely started out really well. It had all the makings of a really good coming of age/underdog/zero to hero potential. The movie starts out with the backdrop of political tension and the desire for power, and one country's decision to prepare against its neighbor's impending invasion. Really cool!

The film is wonderfully cast, and there isn't ever any moment where you think, "someone else should have played XYZ". The actors were superb in mastering their roles and bringing their characters to life. Also, cinematographers did phenomenal.

My complaints come in where I left off at the beginning. There was a lot of potential and not enough commitment. This film was jumbled with what seemed to be too many elements for what it was actually able to show and progress well.

For example, we are roughly introduced to a lady in a blue cloak twice in the first 30 minutes of the movie. She is ominous and is clearly supposed to pique our interest. However, she does not make her big reveal until the last 30 minutes where she unloads what would have been the most important information of the movie that Yilong is a prince of Northern Yan. This itself would have needed an entire movie to flesh out, and the "reveal" and lack of follow up shows either a hope for a sequel or poor story telling.

Only one of several instances, this film does not commit fully to a lot of them elements it introduces. Like, if the Grand Tutor really was a spy/assassin, what exactly would he need to even have the tournament? It is explained that he did this to ruin the morale of the clans, however, it just seems like too much just to kill the king. Especially since he is often with the king.

Oh. And all the women of substance get killed off right when you think they were about to show their importance to the plot.