Siu hap Choh Lau Heung

1993... All I can think is what was Wong Jing smoking that year? Liquid Swords and The Evil Cult were both the work of Wong Jing in 1993 and both bear some of the same irritating similarities.

I tend to enjoy martial arts fantasy movies, however when I am required to keep track of a cast of Shakespearean "julius Caesar" proportions I tend to lose interest quickly. Much like The Evil Cult this movie has so many characters, so many warring on-again-off-again factions and blood ties it makes your head spin trying to keep up with it all. I'll end my comparison of similarities between this film and The Evil Cult by saying Wong Jing must have had a fetish for human-bat-vampire creatures in 1993 as both lay predominant roles in both films.

I had less of an attention span and tolerance for Liquid Swords than I did for The Evil Cult for 2 reasons. #1 ... Liquid Swords just seemed to go on and on and on and on. The movie seemed very long to me, even at 1 hour and 20 minutes on the copy I have it seemed to go for 3 hours, 3 days, even 3 years. The second aspect that detracted value from this film was the use of fast motion. If you're going to have spectacular wire-fu fight scenes the breathtaking aspect of those fight scenes are completely lost when you speed up the film to intentionally, or unintentionally make the action look silly. I'm not sure which was the case here. Part of me says Wong Jing was trying to be funny by speeding up some for the fight scenes, but the cynic in me says if there fight scenes had been done at regular speed the movie would have seemed to have dragged on for what seems like 4 hours instead of only seeming like 3.

The fight scenes that re at normal speed are just standard wire fu fare, nothing really special here. Avoid this movie unless you're a die hard fan of Wong Jing and looking to see every movie he ever had a hand in.

This is a fantasy action movie set in ancient China, where a swordsman named Fragrant Chu (Aaron Kwok) seeks the legendary liquid sword to battle an evil warlock dubbed Batman (Ji-Wai Lau).

Filled with colorful costumes and luscious landscapes, this is a pretty adventurous film from start to finish, boasting some sophisticated martial arts and sword-wielding action. Kwok played an OK lead in the movie, being wooden at times in his performance. However, the story is supported by a large cast of characters, most notably Chingmy Yau who plays Flowerless opposite Kwok. The pair had some touching chemistry and romantic moments together that gave the film a dramatic touch.

Other actresses include Gloria Yip, Anita Yuen and Winnie Lau, who played the ditsy handmaidens Red, Sweetie and Ron, Loletta Lee as Batman's lover; Fennie Yuen as the swords-woman Chung Yuan; Sharla Cheung as the Jellyfish, keeper of the liquid sword; and Wong Wan-Si as Sea Weed, who provided most of the comic relief in the movie.

You feel you are along for the ride in this adventurous film; however, I thought the plot was rushed, leaving few room for character development, plot twists and suspense. Overall though, it's still not a bad adventure/fantasy/comedic film - a good mixture of the three.

Grade B-

Wires and flying and swastika-wielding Shaolin monks and crude humor and bad subtitling and really really good kung fu and amateur acupuncture and more flying and water worshippers and some more of those in-jokes that "none of me and my friends got" and Batman and Jesus and one of the craziest movies, kung fu or otherwise, ever made. WOW WOW WOW!!! You must see this movie!!!

Hello,

Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious, but where does Gordon Liu fit into this film? He's featured on the cover, and his name is prominently listed on the top of the cover (you can even see this on the image here on this website). The DVD I have credits him as playing Flowerless, but I agree with the IMDb credit which lists Chingmy Yau... Flowerless is a woman! Hmmmm. Please straighten this for me if possible, somebody!

This is a fantastic film, regardless. It fuses entertainment with excellent choreography, rapid and innovative before-CGI special effects, and some cool music. The love theme really gets me. Sure, the plot gets wobbly, and there's some rather low humor in parts (reminding me of Kung Fu Hustle), but overall, you have to give this film credit as a wild original. I just wonder where Gordon Liu fits in. Hmmmm. Thanks, D,

Beware that if you are buying this because you think that Gordon Liu is the star, he only makes a cameo apperance for about a minute.

The subtitles on the region one dvd are of poor quality which only adds to the confusion of the movie itself. Despite these minor flaws, this movie has some great sword fights that are cut together as better than most of these movies. The action is great and it's well worth watching. This is a classic action packed movie with a touch of comedy.