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Here's a wuxia film with completely insane violent-without-being-gory fighting scenes and the most ludicriously fast-paced editing I can remember seeing in a long time. Like, you see a hand then someone's back then a foot goes by then a closeup on someone's eye then the camera's 20 yards away and everyone's dead. It's a bit much, but it's pretty entertaining. There's full-body explosions, beheadings, a face-removal, and for some reason I never quite got, a soccer ball. Then of course there's the lovely looking "Human Arrow" trick, where Tony Leung passes his entire body through his enemy's chest. A simple bit of editing - and it looks damned good, even if you watch it in slow-mo. Dudes fly around with spinning helicopter sword blades and the freaky Eunuch guy has a big Freddie Kreuger-esque blade hand. I could try and explain the plot but I don't think I will. Let's just say there were a few love triangles, a faked death, a fake eunuch, and good guys that were so ruthless and violent they really didn't seem to be much better than the bad guys.

The beginning "scene-setting" voiceover wasn't translated on my dub, and the end of the movie is a very abrupt cut. There's apparently an uncut version, and I'd love to know what it is, though I suspect Michelle Yeoh jumps off of a cliff in slow motion and Donnie Yen jumps after her and they twirl around in slow motion looking at each other for awhile while the theme music returns yet again and various strips of clothing majestically blow around. Um, I mean, that's just a guess.

. - Tom, Jan 6 03

NO-SHADOW KICK?   essentially, yes, but it was called the "Lightning Kick"..

MONKS? Eunuchs.

CHUBBY LITTLE BOY NAMED "FATTY"? Yes. Beware of the "Gang of Fatty".

BEST TRANSLATION: "You're too bad to peep me bathing."

BEST LINE: "What's the smell? Did you fart?"

SUBTITLES: poor on my VHS dub. Sentences run off both sides of the screen

WORTH OWNING? It depends how nice a DVD you can find.

SEE ALSO: SWORDSMAN, DEADFUL MELODY

My copy seems to be called Comet Butterfly Sword or some such nonsense. It's got a flying house and Michele Yeoh under a different name but other than that and the "human arrow" trick you mentiond in the review I don't remember too much about it. I'll have to pull it out, dust it off and check it out to see if I have a better cut than the one you saw.

- Keter Tzadik, Jan 10 03