Friday, May 18, 2012

Ten Tigers of Kwangtung (1979)

I want to like this movie more than I do.  great cast, lots of great fighting and some cool music.  but the movie's narrative is a mess, and it's confusing as it's told in three different flashbacks leading up to the final battle.  it's taken me two viewings to figure out exactly what was going on the whole time.

add to that that several of the heroes are NOT very likable at all, and it's hard for me to care about them, whether they get killed or not, since it's a revenge story of sorts, and also Ching vs Ming as well.

so I wish someone had written a better screenplay, since the concept is great.  Fu Sheng plays such a hot tempered jerk here that I wanted him to be severely humiliated, but it never happened.  that's the problem with such a large cast, and a rather short running time. 

the fights are really great though, well worth watching.  the villains never had a chance, anyone could see what was going to happen to them.  if they weren't such jerks as well I'd have felt sorry for them.

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