Needless to say that of course I opted to sit down and watch the 2022 Hong Kong martial arts movie "Yi Tin To Lung Gei" (aka "New Kung Fu Cult Master") when I had the opportunity. And given my fascination and love for the Hong Kong cinema, then this movie was definitely something I had looked forward to watching.

The storyline, as written by Jing Wong, was entertaining. It was a story that had a lot of different elements to it, so it is something that will have an appeal with a large audience, I think. But this was definitely something for the fans of the wire-fu genre, you know the 'Wuxia' martial arts genre of movies.

Something that really impressed me about "Yi Tin To Lung Gei" was the cast ensemble. They had some nice talented actresses and actors on the cast list, with the likes of Donnie Yen, Louis Koo, Xing Yu, Jade Leung, Tze-Chung Lam, Raymond Lam, Alex Fong and others. So if you are a fan of the Hong Kong cinema, then you are definitely in for a treat here.

There is a good amount of action and martial arts in the movie. I really enjoyed the martial arts scenes, despite it being that over-the-top Wuxia style of fighting, you know with the crazy leaping, semi-flying and what not. It looks good, and that is what matters, because realism is not a factor here.

The character gallery was somewhat working against the overall enjoyment of the movie, as there simply was too many characters to keep track of. I have to admit that once the movie ended, I could only put a name on a single of all the characters. Faces, yes, but names, just on one.

"Yi Tin To Lung Gei" is the type of martial arts movie where you just lean back, munch on a snack and enjoy the fighting and the leaping around. And it makes for a good old fashioned action martial arts movie.

My rating of "Yi Tin To Lung Gei" from director Jing Wong lands on a six out of ten stars.

The story is very popular among chinese audience and 1993 version is a tough record to break.

Thankfully, top cast like Janice Man and Donnie Yen gave an A class performance to tbe movie despite the dreadful dialogues.

Main hero played by Raymond Lam was considerably barely okay... as he lacks the the A Class performamce compared to Jet Li... who mamaged to deliver a more charismatic and illustrious character, and not to mention... real kungfu.

CASTING of Sabrina. Qiu and. Rebecca Zhu was the biggest mistake to this production... watching both of them in the film was an excruciating experience... there is no other way to say this... They SUCK!

The storyline was draggy at certain point considering the Director planned for 2 part to this story... which kind of bore me halfway through the film...

I doubt i would want to drag myself to watch Part 2.

It's definitely a big challenge to squeeze such a long story into one movie, as a result it's made into Part 1 & 2. This movie (Part 1) focuses mainly on introducing the characters and the different sects (e.g. Shaolin, Wu Dang, ErMei...), as well as the complicated conflicts among them; while Part 2... NOT sure yet, as it's NOT yet released (hee...).

The pace is good and it flows well from the beginning to the end! It kept me going on and I could hardly feel bored!

The role selection is a bit off! E.g. Getting 42-year-old Raymond Lam to play the role of an early 20's Zhang WuJi is NOT convincing at times. Besides, Donnie Yen is NOT old or 'there' enough to play the role of Zhang SanFeng. Instead, they shall consider Sammo Hung.

Basically, it's a very RUSHING movie, with the first 30 minutes introducing Zhang Wuji's background info (including his parents, grand-father, step-grand-father...); then it goes straight to the fight among the various sects. Due to time constraint, there is NO CHANCE for character development within each sect. Therefore, having known the storyline of this Jin Yong's novel in advanced is definitely an advantage.

The actions are ok - typical HK + China style - where they fly here and there while fighting, NO more NO less, at acceptable level.

Overall, it's an ok movie. I enjoyed watching it, and it's pretty entertaining! Despite the role selection issue + rushing pace, I am good with it! And I look forward to watching the Part 2 in the coming weeks.