Plot summary
In the 1930s , a Japanese cult called The Temple of Hades was ordered to cooperate with the Japanese military to destroy China. They buy so many young children from poor family , who will be trained as a lethal killing machine and serve the Empire of Japan. One of them is Vajra , who was forced by his captors to fight for the food , and accidentally causing the death of his brother. Several years later , Vajra grown up and become one of the biggest killer in the Hades sect. Vajra escapes to China and joins Shaolin , where he receives spiritual enlightenment and determined to support China against Japan.
Director
Top cast
Movie Reviews
Decent action movie. With a few notes.
B Movie With Decent Fighting
Light on story, boring dialog, but that's okay because this is an action film. Acting is cringingly bad, even for an action film.
This is basically a martial arts film made with a bunch of stunt men doing acting duty. The ones that do look the part/have decent acting, unfortunately can't fight. When the scene is stunt man vs stunt man, the fighting looks good, even when it's just an unimportant background fight. When the scene calls for stunt man vs non stunt man... the fight is boring even when it's the "featured" fight.
Spoilers coming, although really there's not much to spoil. The hero has to fight three "bosses".
The first boss fight is against a guy suffering from gigantism, like Andre the Giant, except without the athleticism. The guy basically poses in an uncoordinated way while the hero beats on him. This is a "look" actor, for his imposing size, no acting skills, no stunt work skills, boring fight.
The second boss fight "Crazy Monkey" is actually crazy good. After you've managed to survive his acting, you will be rewarded with a very well choreographed and creative fight. This is a "stunt" actor, just like the hero. No looks, no acting skills, but excellent stunt work.
The third and final fight is against the boss a.k.a. steroid boy. I had high hopes for steroid boy. He managed to pull off a menacing and driven persona, and looks quite impressively intimidating. Unfortunately this guy is no stunt man. He's slow, and not used to martial arts movements. Studio magic was used to fix this such as speeding up the frames, to varying amounts of success. But overall the fight ended up being pretty boring.
This film gets a 6 from the strength of the Crazy Monkey fight alone, it is very well done. I would say fast forward and just watch the Crazy Monkey fight.