Lady Bloodfight (2016) User Reviews

Lady Bloodfight is well worth-watching, and we look forward to seeing what Amy Johnston does in the future.

[tarbosh22000 · 7/10 · 4 September 2018]

Jane Jones (Johnston) is a humble waitress in Pittsburgh. Thanks to her father, she also has formidable fighting skills. She travels to Hong Kong to find out what happened to her beloved dad - all she knows is that he disappeared after becoming involved in the mysterious Kumite. Meanwhile, female fighters from all over the world are specially selected to fight to the death in said Kumite. Trainers and rivals Shu (Hoffmann) and Wai (Kathy Wu) each take on a student to represent them in the tournament because when they last fought each other, they refused to split the prize winnings. We're not entirely sure how that works either, but Wai trains a street tough named Ling (Jenny Wu), while Shu does the same for Jane Jones. Will a blonde American woman come out victorious in the Kumite?

We're definitely happy that an all-female Bloodsport (1988) or Kickboxer exists (1989), especially in this day and age. Just when you thought the Punchfighting genre had run out of gas, along comes Lady Bloodfight - where women now have to endure grueling training regimens so they can punch each other into oblivion.







There's a lot to like about the movie - the cast is engaging, it's well-shot and looks good overall, it's entertaining, and the concept of all-female underground Punchfighting is a solid one. The fact that it was co-written and co-produced by Bey Logan of Dragon Dynasty fame, and directed by Nahon of Kiss of the Dragon (2001) fame just enhances its bona fides. There's even a mention of Dim Mak, as there also is in Kiss of the Dragon. Nahon must love the death touch. On the downside, the movie is too long at 100 minutes. The thin plot doesn't really justify this length - that and the constant tournament fighting scenes will remind you of The Quest (1996). But one thing you have to say is that it doesn't skimp on the action. There's a fight scene seemingly every few minutes, and most of the fights are well done.



Interestingly, nothing is said about this being an all-female Kumite. It just is. Other movies would make a big deal about it. Here it's not even worth a single mention. Another thing worth noting is that Jane Jones is far from an invincible, flawless heroine - she gets beat up a lot, so much so it's amazing she can stand up, much less fight, but there just may be a reason why that is...



Action fans will feel comfortable with the dubbing style and training montages, not to mention the near-constant fighting. Of course, the Kumite matches primarily take place in an abandoned warehouse. Jones even has to face off against a fearsome villainess, or "Tong Poette", as we called her.

All in all, Lady Bloodfight is well worth-watching, and we look forward to seeing what Amy Johnston does in the future.

Bad writing. Good fighting.

[tneal185-644-344414 · 5/10 · 10 August 2017]

Fair acting considering a clumsy and predictable script. The fight choreography is this film's saving grace. A very predictable script that seems to follow "Blood Sport" a little too close. Cheesy ending. But worth a rainy afternoon watch just for the martial arts and the beautiful women performing aerobatic stunts.

Average choreography

[automorphism · 5/10 · 5 November 2020]

I tend to like these types of movies, and I'm a fan of the original Bloodsport. That being said, I primarily go into these movies to see martial arts. I was a little disappointed here because the choreography was average only. There are many quick cuts, and most of the fights were unconvincing. While the original Bloodsport is certainly not up to modern standards of movies like Scott Adkin's Ninja 2 or Ip Man, the fights in this movie were definitely worse.

Slightly too Stereotypical

[tabuno · 7/10 · 10 January 2019]

8 August 2017. Directed and written by males, this female version of the typical martial arts movie has some nice scenes, but remains a bit too black and white, typical for many male derived movies. The good guys (females) and bad guys (males) are depicted in their literally white and black clothing and along with their white and black persona. Yet by the end of the movie, the explanation of the emotional dichotomy employed along with it being the twist in the movie while helping to support the black and white depiction, comes too late to help soften the "typical" feeling of the movie.

Much of the martial arts action is quite fascinating, especially with its diversity. It's odd though how the level of lethality of the means used in subsequent rounds isn't consistently more intense. Some of the action scenes are given too short of movie time, others are truly captivating. More time could have been given to some of the other martial art contestants, mainly because of how a number of the opening scene sequences revealed suggested such characters would play a little greater role later in the movie then that did.

Some nice touches come from eventually the more layered character depiction of the black antagonistic contestant as well as more of the Karate Kid (1984) playfulness as well as its use of some of that movie's themes but in a more mature and coming of age, grown up fashion. If the movie had been directed and written by females, the movie might have been much, much better, but the males who did undertake this project did a decent job of it.

So much potential, so little achievement

[paradux · 7/10 · 4 April 2017]

1. The idea of redoing Bloodsport with enough estrogen to fill a swimming pool is not as goofy as it sounds. There are entire chunks of this movie where you think, hey, this is not a bad idea. And then unfortunately there are also chunks where you are thinking, OMG what were they thinking?

2. Then there is the issue of picking a star. Like everything else in life, it is not so much WHAT you know but WHO you know. Clearly the people behind the drop-dead-gorgeous Johnston packaged this project to showcase their property. Problem is, if you see the film to the bitter end, you will find that you have identified at least six other beautiful and powerful women in the film (including the two gurus) who could have done a MUCH better job as the star.

3. And the script. Like everything else in the film, there are times it seems OK, and other times you hear yourself mumbling that your 9 year old nephew could have done a better job .

4. Finally, because there is enough blame to go around, the direction. Especially the lack of direction, in the fight scenes. Honestly cannot tell if this is just a director who does not know what he is doing OR -- an even scarier thought -- a director who knew he had to "work around" the limited skills of Johnston.

Nice throwback to the 1980ies martial arts movie, but too goofy to take it really serious

[mucahid_aniki · 4/10 · 18 March 2017]

Lady Bloodfight is a movie with a heart on its right place. But it is too hard to take it seriously in this day and age. Let me tell you why.

First of all, I had no problem with the story. I liked the training sequences. I liked to actresses playing in it, and this all taking place in Hong Kong, was nice to see. There were some references to movies such as Bloodsport and Kickboxer, and it brought me back to the times in which martial arts movies just needed to be bloody and people kicking each others asses. Later in the movie there are some (unnecessary) plot twists, but you can predict from the start where everything is heading to. I was surprised to see that in the end of the movie, they didn't show a scene of "everybody is kung fu fighting" in it, yes the movie is that predictable. Often goofy. There were many times I was laughing my ass of during scenes which were meant to be " touching" ?

But here (the movie being predictable) also lies a major problem: all the fight scenes in the movie, were merely ranging from "meh" to utterly bad. With movies such as the Raid and Undisputed series, it is nearly impossible to come up with standard fare anymore (especially if you realize that the movie was produced by Hong Kong movie legend Bey Logan and Kiss of the Dragon Director Chris Nahon). While a Hong Kong veteran stunt team was in charge of the fight choreography, the fighting was for most part fairly bland. Which is really a pity, as I see that many actresses in this movie do have the moves and talents. I really wonder why it didn't work out like this. Also, the uninspiring locations in the movie were a huge turn-off. Come freaking on, you are in Hong Kong but you let most of the movie take place in a container dock? This was really a missed opportunity. However, outside of the Kumite-sequences, there was some fairly nice cinematography – especially rural Hong Kong scenes.

We, Kickboxer and Bloodsport fans, don't have high standards. So you really need to mess up, if you want to make use unimpressed. While I did enjoy watching the movie to a lesser degree, the level of action, the sometimes goofy storyline, and uninspired cinematography left me yearning for watching a re-run of the JCVD classics.

Nice try though.

This is the feminist movie to troll feminists.

[ianwilmoth-14058 · 6/10 · 8 August 2017]

Sorry feminists but here ya go. This has an all female leading cast and attractive girls beating each other up the lead is now a successful stunt woman fun to watch while wasted. There are many conversations between two or even 6 women that have nothing to do with a man, and then they kungfu fight each other. It's certainly not an A list Hollywood production but if you like seeing lots of cute girls beat each other up in a non anime/fantasy scenario give it a watch.

Women's Fight Club

[dcarsonhagy · 3/10 · 11 May 2017]

"Lady Bloodfight" is a throw-back to Jean Claude-Van Damme's "Bloodsport," where he played a former world Kumite champion. Although that particular movie was as trite and predictable as they come, this one was not all that special, either.

The plot is something like this: a woman wanting to find her father, who supposedly was to fight in the championship of the Kumite, goes to Hong Kong, is immediately jumped and stomped by some thugs (although she seemed to handle herself against the five American bullies before), is then saved by a "good" girl, who wants her to train to represent her in the upcoming Kumite. Lord, I'm tired already. What then takes place is some real bad martial arts skills.

The movie contains violence and a little language. It is not the worst movie I've seen, but I could not recommend it, either. Toss up.

Thoroughly entertaining

[spIMBD2 · 7/10 · 9 April 2020]

An on-the-nose punching fest with some excellent stunting.

Poor fighting angles

[roxbox · 4/10 · 10 January 2021]

Besides the unbelievable bad acting the fights are poorly choreographed. The camera position is too close you won't recognize the moves. The cuts are always too fast and the camera angle change ist terrible. Yes, you have some sexy moments but that's all.

All you need to know is the title

[fahrmeier · 8/10 · 27 August 2017]

If you are complaining about the acting, story or writing of a movie called Lady Blood fight you should not be watching a movie called LADY BLOOD FIGHT. This is not Amistad and doesn't claim to be. It's Lady Blood Fight and it delivers what it advertises: Ladies, Blood, and Fighting and it does it well.

Break or be Broken

[nogodnomasters · 7/10 · 5 July 2017]

The film opens with two women fighting in the Kumite (Ku-ma-ta) in Hong Kong to a draw. One is in black and the other in white showing off some simple Yin-Yang. The woman in black refuses to split the prize so the two fighters are to train someone for the 435th event five years later. We see various street tough girls around the world get invitations and then we see Jane (Amy Johnston) a PBR drinking waitress harassed by rude customers. Who else in the world is tougher? She leaves her waitress job and takes her skills to Hong Kong to compete. Okay, she has some formal training and an ulterior motive which we discover later as an attempt to create a plot outside of women beating each other up. After all, who wants to just watch cat fights? In Hong Kong we see the woman in black train the Hong Kong version of Harley Quinn (Muriel Hofmann). Jane, our Barbie doll, trains with the woman in white, who she once refers to as Mrs. Miyagi. Yes there are gross similarities to "The Karate Kid." The training period which makes up so many fight films showing unorthodox training techniques that figure in later on, was relatively brief .

The film has some ties to real life. In the film Jane was trained by her father, Amy was trained by her father David Johnston. Amy was also a stunt double in "Suicide Squad" and is Scarlett Johansson's stunt double.

Mayling Ng, martial arts fighter and bikini contestant is also in the film. There are a lot of hard bodies in locker room scenes in various stages of dress. Blood and killing.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Action is all you get.

[Otuoacheampong97 · 5/10 · 31 July 2017]

Nothing about this movie was great.It is not full with end to end excitement.Poor video editing punches in fist fight was not extra ord. Weak screenplay also sum up the movie.But to be honest,I was happy to watch an arcade fight full of girls.Also credit to the directing especially the off action scenes.

Entertaining

[grantss · 6/10 · 11 July 2022]

Entertaining, in a mindless sort of way. The plot is basic, unoriginal and predictable and the performances are so-so but the action scenes are great. They certainly more than make up for the lack of anything else.

There are ladies, blood, and fighting, so I guess the title doesn't lie

[nightwishouge · 6/10 · 18 August 2022]

Scattered thoughts about Lady Bloodfight:

1. I watched it because I wanted to see attractive women in action scenes. I got that.

2. The performers are clearly hired for their physical skills rather than their acting chops. The acting is fine--not spectacular, but good enough. Unfortunately, the director chose to present the fight scenes with choppy editing and that overdone Zack Snyder speed-ramping that should have died out quicker than brostep, so you get the feeling you're never really seeing the full extent of what these women can do.

3. The tone is wildly inconsistent. One minute a contestant is getting her throat slit in the ring, the next a woman in the locker room is undulating out of her clothes like a stripper. You know, like how women undress when they're in a locker room full of other women. Why is she shaking her butt like that? Well, I mean, clearly it's for the audience, but do you want me to take this movie seriously or not? If you don't, you probably shouldn't spend so much time on low-rent Karate Kid philosophical ramblings. (Also, magic is apparently real in this universe?)

4. The script is muddled. I guess it's admirable that the writers try to give so many characters distinct arcs, or at least some dimension, but it's really just the idea of depth rather than actual depth. Again, I know people will counter this criticism with, "What do you expect? It ain't meant to be Shakespeare!" But Terminator 2 isn't meant to be Shakespeare, either, and it still has well-delineated, easily understandable characters. Heck, even Mortal Kombat (1995) does a better, clearer job at getting you to understand who everybody is and what they want. In a way it's like the script is more ambitious than the actual story can support, which leads to a pretty unsatisfying conclusion.

But: I wasn't bored while watching it. So thumbs up.

Delivers exactly what it promises

[bendashwood · 6/10 · 7 November 2021]

Nothing more, nothing less. If you liked movies like "Bloodsport" back in the 80s, expect a somewhat modernized, female reimagination. Story is bland, decent choreography and lots of blood. Entertaining enough, but don't expect to be blown away.

The quality of the fights just about makes this watchable

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 2 November 2018]

LADY BLOODFIGHT is an independent Hong Kong martial arts movie, starring nobody you ever heard of and borrowing the plot from the old Van Damme flick BLOODSPORT, giving it a gender twist in the process. This time around, a blonde Westerner (played by stuntwoman Amy Johnston, who previously appeared in RAZE) is kidnapped by thugs and forced to fight other women in the Kumite, a mythical fighting tournament in which opponents battle to the death. What follows is entirely ordinary, playing out on a low budget just as you'd expect. The acting rathers from wooden to cheesy and there's a notable emphasis on titillation, with all of the combatants forced to strip down before they fight. Films like this live or die based on their action chorography, and the fights are quite watchable here, slick and fast-paced. Not, perhaps, top-tier, though, which leaves LADY BLOODFIGHT an average film overall.

Rough, uneven, yet still fun and entertaining

[I_Ailurophile · 7/10 · 6 July 2021]

One word, "Kumite," is all it takes to impart that this is not just inspired by 'Bloodsport,' but wants to offer its own take on the ideas put forth in the Van Damme classic. It's all but impossible not to draw comparisons to other martial arts films, especially as some scenes clearly and deliberately intone predecessors. Yet while 'Lady Bloodfight' is unquestionably stressed and weakened by its flaws, it's still manages to stand on its own reasonably well.

Let's get the difficulties out of the way first, because they are noteworthy, if not altogether glaring. The writing is astoundingly direct, forthright, unsubtle, and even ham-fisted or hackneyed in its dialogue, characterizations, and course of events generally. There are some notable if not regrettable tropes at play, and the narrative flow seems pointedly rushed. The cast seems capable, but between the pace and broad demands of the film, they're just not given much to work with.

'Bloodsport' is the obvious point of comparison in the concept and in some story beats, but some training scenes are definitely gleaned from 'Kill Bill Vol. 2,' too. For all the varied disciplines supposedly on display for the tournament, we don't get to see them in action. In particular, capoeira is nominatively represented by one of the fighters, but we don't see her moves. This echoes how the Kumite, supposedly an ancient, honored, and distinguished tradition, seems distinctly downsized: Where 'Bloodsport' took place in a grand arena, surrounded with spectators, 'Lady Bloodfight' utilizes what appears to be a pop-up platform, in a shipping yard, with a few dozen bettors on hand at most.

And I'm still not done with my criticism, as there's an unseemly measure of hocus pocus in the screenplay that borders on deus ex machina. Just as tawdry is the sentimentality on hand that rather serves as the backbone of the plot. I certainly claim no expertise, but I've seen enough martial arts films to know these aren't characteristic of the genre. Maybe it's unfair, but I have a hard time believing these particular extraneous faults aren't a result of three men writing and directing a film that centers women; how else to explain the superfluous insertion of aspects that reek of stereotype and ill-informed pandering?

That's the bad news. There's a lot of it, to be sure. Yet despite all this, against all odds, 'Lady Bloodfight' still manages to be pretty entertaining. And it pulls this off because even with unnecessary supplementary facets detracting from the time and focus it would otherwise have, the film is, above all, about fighting. And the fight scenes are super fun.

I don't for one moment suppose any greater accuracy or realism in the choreography in 'Lady Bloodfight' than in any other movie, but if these qualities were essential to every martial arts picture, the genre may well not exist. As it is, the action sequences look great - painful, exhausting, invigorating, and believable. The stunt work here is excellent, as are the props, to say nothing of the makeup and blood effects employed to visualize injuries. While there's a dubious air of male gaze about the feature in the writing and direction by men, the costume design of Miggy Cheng is still quite eye-catching. Comparisons aside, I do like the set decoration and overall production design. The movie would have inherently benefited had it devoted more attention to the martial arts generally and the tournament specifically.

Let's not mince words: At the end of the day anyone that comes across 'Lady Bloodfight' probably knows exactly what to expect, and viewers who sit for it are eager not just for the fighting, but for a fighting movie that elevates women instead of men. This is what we anticipate, this is what we get, and to that end, it's quite good.

It's just unfortunate that there are some readily apparent blemishes in the feature otherwise that one can't just look away from.

Still, the film knows it's at best a second-tier martial arts flick, and it's very content to excel at this level. There's something admirable about that. It's fun, entertaining, and suitably exciting, even if far from perfect: 'Lady Bloodfight' is no barnburner, but it's an enjoyable action romp if you come across it.

Feh!

[jack-simon-982-164360 · 3/10 · 21 May 2017]

With Elisha Cuthbert looks, mediocre acting abilities and fair martial arts skills Amy Johnston does the best with what little was handed to her. The plot was a terrible rehash. The characters' motivations were laughable. The fight scenes were good to tragic. When a fighter is taught to always'finish' the attack why do they stand there like big time wrestlers. Why must the heroine always have to make a miraculous comeback after terrific beatings? When told "I killed your father" the reaction is, "Now I can avenge my father by winning the Kumite"... Seriously? Better editing of the fight scenes was needed, a writer was needed, a decent story line was needed... but they had a discount on blood capsules. It had potential but Amy, they let you down.

Brutal Tournament movie with hot ladies who can kick ass !

[destroyerwod · 8/10 · 11 September 2018]

I wanted to see this movie because i really enjoyed the lead acress, Amy Johnston, in the movie Accident Man and became a fan of her work, watching her youtube channel and such.

It wasn't an easy task to finally get my hands on the movie as a Canadian. Every streaming services refused to take my money, litteraly, because i own a canadian credit card. Eventually i imported the DVD from amazon or ebay, can't remember wich.

So after a bit of a wait finally i was able to see it and i was not disapointed. I love tournament movies and i love revenge movies, and this movie is both of it. The fights are pretty brutal with a lot of blood and the choreographies are very well done. Every actresses and stuntwoman who work on it did a great job for the action.

The story is simple but effective. You really get behind Jane and its nice to see her character evolve in the movie. Its nothing ground breaking of extremely original but its more than fine for a martial movie fan.

8 out of 10 may seem high for some peoples, but i always judge a movie on the fun i had watching it, and i definately had tons of fun watching this one.

Of course its an indy flick with not a huge budget, but considering what they had, they did a fantastic job. I definately recommand.

They weren't sure what they were going for.

[Elewis1195 · 4/10 · 9 May 2018]

Sometimes more is less. - oh, and spoilers.

This movie borrows from a number of movies before it. Bloodsport - the Kumate is the most obvious one, but the training sequences are reminiscent of kickboxer. In the end, the movie doesn't make much sense.

Two women fight a match all day long (not very likely) and it ends in a tie. Because one of them refuses to share the prize money, they have to find students and train them and the student who wins will determine which lady wins - are you still following me? Yeah, it's already thin.

One lady is set up as the "good" martial artist. She talks to spirits and she believes that a woman will show up, sweep her garden and be her champion, but it seems she gets impatient, so she gets someone to send people up to her place to sweep.

The other lady, the "bad" martial artist has people training in a dojo trying to find her champion and she finds one in a thief who defeats the best lady in her dojo. She then trains the thief, telling her pearls of wisdom like "no mercy".

Meanwhile, the blond lady in the picture and star of the show comes to Hong Kong to fight in the tournament - where her father fought and disapeard many hears ago. Her purse gets stolen and the fights, but loses to 4 street thugs. The good martial artist comes to her rescue, takes her in and is surprised to see that she's the one who sweeps her garden to return the favor of the martial artists kindness.

Some disagreements ensue and some very well choreographed training, including a tai-chi like dance in the shallow water. Parts of this movie are very nice. I liked the training sequences with the good martial artist and the lead of the movie, and some of the fight sequences were quite good. The first fight in the kumate was the best It thought with the tai-kwon-do fighter.

Bits of the fight scenes were unnecessary, like the fights with weapons and making the black boxer look overmatched seemed particularly unnecessary. There were also two villians - the lady who was trained by the "bad" martial artist and a Russian lady who took pleasure in breaking her opponants in the ring, killing at least one of them, badly injuring another. It was necessary to have two villians because that way, one was defeated and the other was turned back to good - like star wars. Got all that?

Oh, and her dead father shows up as a ghost and the movie was all tied together with million dollar bets and the bad guy confessing that he killed the leads father and the good martial artist's husband, who was the bad martial artists brother?

Got all that? Yes, the ending of this movie was a hot mess of how many plots can we borrow and put into one film, but despite all that, the beginning of the film felt like a throwback to 80s martial arts films and it was pleasantly watchable and some of the fight choreography was really quite good. Not a complete waste of time and enjoyable enough in places, but try to ignore the plot as it only makes the movie worse.

If you rent it just to see lady's fighting, it's worth a look. Not the best, but not bad.

Bland. 'Undefeatable' in it's utter mediocrity.

[daniel-mannouch · 3/10 · 15 August 2019]

Lady Bloodfight is about an American woman who goes to Hong Kong for personal reasons and gets being beaten up and mugged by thugs not soon after arriving. She then is taken in by a martial arts master who trains her to take her place in a formidable fight competition known as the Kumite.

Lady Bloodfight is several random fight scenes wrapped up in a narrative of a tournament. So far, so direct to video actionsploitation. What makes Lady Bloodfight stand out from the rest is... well nothing. Maybe there is a little more character development here than is usual for these tournament films, and it's set in Hong Kong, but apart from that, the story is just a combination of American and Asian action movie cliches.

The acting ranges from mediocre to scenery chewing and the screenplay makes no effort to sell the Kumite fight competition or even the sub-culture surrounding it as either evocative, flamboyant or realistic. The main focus is the cliched story of protagonist Jane (Doe) traveling to a far off country to investigate the death of a loved one. An unwise decision as action films have always favoured better with audiences when they are concept heavy in narrative. And if you're trying to be that one in one hundred that puts character over plot and make it work, then at least find a lead actress than can pull it off as Amy Johnston had already proved with Female Fight Club that she can't do that.

However, not all the blame should be put on Johnston's shoulders. The drama is flat and directionless and the fight scenes, whilst feeling brutal thanks mostly to some decent foley, feature vanilla choreography, lack emotion and do not move the story at all nearly far enough to justify their longevity.

All that Lady Bloodfight had going for it was a decent cinematographer and a slightly higher above average budget that allowed for some impressive production value. But apart from that, it's totally uninspired.

Bloodsport with women.

[mlbsa · 5/10 · 17 August 2021]

Probably the worst martial artist in this movie was Amy Johnston (the main character) so of course she wins the tournament. A typical fight scene- an exchange of blows, Amy's character gets knocked senseless but of course rallies to win. Myling Ng plays a Cyborg like character and is very menacing, she's (in real life) the best martial artist in the cast it's too bad she wasn't the main character.

A ripoff of Van Dam's Blood Sport.

[stevehorvath59-515-490534 · 5/10 · 12 January 2024]

This chick flick is the first Martial Art film I ever saw that featured an all female cast of fighters. The story is the old revenge plot for the death of a father for which the daughter seeks revenge in the Kumite, a Martial Artist fight to the death competition held annually in the far East. Unlike in the Van Dam version, in this film all the fighters are women who compete against each other. As in the first Blood Sport film, there are good guys and there are bad guys, except in this movie there are good women and there are bad women who compete with each other. There are rich men watching these competitions and bet on the calculated outcome. Our shero rises to the top and finds out how and why her father lost his life, thus completing the goal of her journey to Hong Kong. There are lot of action scenes and some are indeed brutal, which I think was not necessary. Enjoy the show. Steve.

An Excellent & Empowering Film

[qqknowlton-85783 · 8/10 · 26 July 2017]

I wasn't planning on writing anything about this great film, but my eye caught the highest ranked review that is surprisingly negative and unhelpful.

I honestly feel that Lady Bloodfight is one of the best martial arts movies that I have seen in many years, but for different reasons.

I lived in Asia for seven years working, traveling and studying. I feel that the director did a good job at highlighting the beauty of Hong Kong.

I spent years learning various kung fu forms and weapons in subfreezing weather in Northern China near Siberia and North Korea.

I studied with Shaolin monks and spent a lot of time learning Chinese philosophy and Buddhism.

There is nothing like learning how to use a Shaolin rope dart in -20 degree weather at 6 am surrounded by strangers exercising in a giant park.

My training was quite casual compared to the realistic and painful training depicted in the film.

This film does an excellent job at illustrating the genuine focus of martial arts as self-control, inner stability and personal development.

The fight sequences are raw, well-choreographed and absolutely amazing. I even learned a few new moves for my weapons training.

The actresses are tough, beautiful and independent, which will be offensive to critical and narrow-minded people.

This is the first well-made martial arts film that I have seen that truly demonstrates female strength and empowerment.

There are a few confusing plot twists, but I agree with the LA Times that movie goers should simply skip the plot and focus on the exciting action.