Genre: History

It has numerous nods to the Shaw Brothers classics and harks back to those swordplay flicks of yesteryear, making you smile, cry, jump for joy and shout like a banshee, like any good martial arts film should.

One of the better mainland films of recent years and probably the best of the ones that focus on the revolution.

Yet another good looking Chinese epic that tries to cram way too much historical happenings into a somewhat brief running time but is still an okay stab by Chan to tackle “serious” filmmaking once again.

While Derek Chiu’s latest film is an acceptable blockbuster, the wit and style of the director’s earlier works is sadly fading away from him.

Somewhat frustrating due to its fractured narrative, yet compelling within its aesthetic and themes, Eddie Fong’s directorial debut remains a unique experiment of its era.

‘An Empress And The Warriors’ is enticing enough to divert the attention, but without anything substantial within the duration it is quickly forgotten.

A personal story told on a grand scale ‘Assembly’ is as good as war flicks get, finding a near perfect balance between a personal journey and large scale combat.

‘Beach of the War Gods’ is a fantastic vehicle for its star and his supporting cast to showcase heaps of wickedly staged old-school fight action.

A classy affair all round, ‘Blades of Blood’ is an invigorating and hugely enjoyable slice of chanbara styled storytelling from Korea.

Overall it’s a wonderful film, a blockbuster people call it, and maybe it is, but really for us Asian movie fans this is what it’s all about – a hard hitting, hard punching film with a heart of gold and a fist of iron.

What starts off as quite interesting and engaging becomes progressively more disjointed meaning drama and characters suffer.

‘Dragon Blade’, for the most part is an entertaining ride but sways inconsistently between hard hitting period action and cheesy dramatics.