Daigoro
03-20-2008, 04:05 AM
Spoiler Alert
comments on Usurpers of Emperor's Power
This movie is amongst the worst shaw brothers productions i have ever seen. The bad guy wins in the end , the hero
(Anthony Lau) overestimates his own fighting ability and dies within less than a minute.. his woman dies, even the one
who has betrayed them all gets that old so special finishing touch in the end (stabbed to death by at least 20 men with
spears 40 times). There would not have been much wrong with that as far as film production goes, of course it's not that
often that the bad guy gets away with everything. It wasnt that so much that made me feel like writing, i can assuredly
tell you that it was not because of what this film had to offer. In truth the Bad guy getting away with everything did not
make me stop to a HALT so much as the thought that the script writer got away with even more than your typical bad guy.
The script was a vertibable minefield of ignorance. Let's face it im not reviewing some francis ford copolla classic, (in fact
im not reviewing anything much at all it seems) but i still believe that just about any story can be compelling if it's told by
certain talents. Those people with the brains (gifted individuals) must have stolen "all the good ideas" and made other
films in Hong Kong or spent them out on the town because any wavering, flickering of a hope for something substantial
in this one seemed fluffy, airy, spindly, in other words.. non-existent.
The colorless outline of the hero, let's face it when we first see them we dont know them besides what they try and show
you but you at least expect them to become defined i mean eventually right? Oh, I guess things must have been going so
good they got bad. Usually people relax and all those things that compose an individual (such as consideration and under
-standing) "seem" to recede. Well if this is true whoever wrote this must have been on some vacation.
The fight scenes (what very little of them that were) had even less choreography in them to be noticed than than a dance
at the prom. It really makes you wonder for a moment (forecedly so) if anything really happened at all or was it just some
random scribbling by some unasuming dream dry idiot. Surely this man (on vacation) could have never guessed that 30
yrs later that the film that he wrote would fall under the hammer of my as well as the crude analysis of others so
i will cut him some slack. Onto the choreographers. To top it all of with rotton cherries the fight scenes (again what very
little of them that there were) were all sped up 3 x the amount of normal human speed.
Has anyone ever been a fan of that technique ever. Probably not one man besides the one who started it and the care-
free individuals who followed. I dont often roll my eyes when they roll credits but i did with this one.
In the end i have to tell you this movie was not a total let down but only because there was never anything to set myself up
to believe in it from the beggining. This makes me wonder about the 200 or so + other films celestial rather have passed
to us on VCD or decided not to pass to us at all. Surely there are films within that vault even today that are more deserving
to be released than this. Usually i watch a movie like this to take out my ninja fantasies on and not to imagine in my spare
time some fantasy that i am going to dress up as a Ninja myself & break into the celestial vault to free the rest of the films.
It must have been Passover in Hong Kong when they finally held that last meeting of what films to release, if this is true
this must be a re-visititation, because i seem akin to passing on ideas myself, at least on the idea of ''Usurpers of
Emperors Power"..
http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/imagehosting/96847e1dafe91e78.jpg
http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/imagehosting/96847e1dafebaaad.jpg
comments on Usurpers of Emperor's Power
This movie is amongst the worst shaw brothers productions i have ever seen. The bad guy wins in the end , the hero
(Anthony Lau) overestimates his own fighting ability and dies within less than a minute.. his woman dies, even the one
who has betrayed them all gets that old so special finishing touch in the end (stabbed to death by at least 20 men with
spears 40 times). There would not have been much wrong with that as far as film production goes, of course it's not that
often that the bad guy gets away with everything. It wasnt that so much that made me feel like writing, i can assuredly
tell you that it was not because of what this film had to offer. In truth the Bad guy getting away with everything did not
make me stop to a HALT so much as the thought that the script writer got away with even more than your typical bad guy.
The script was a vertibable minefield of ignorance. Let's face it im not reviewing some francis ford copolla classic, (in fact
im not reviewing anything much at all it seems) but i still believe that just about any story can be compelling if it's told by
certain talents. Those people with the brains (gifted individuals) must have stolen "all the good ideas" and made other
films in Hong Kong or spent them out on the town because any wavering, flickering of a hope for something substantial
in this one seemed fluffy, airy, spindly, in other words.. non-existent.
The colorless outline of the hero, let's face it when we first see them we dont know them besides what they try and show
you but you at least expect them to become defined i mean eventually right? Oh, I guess things must have been going so
good they got bad. Usually people relax and all those things that compose an individual (such as consideration and under
-standing) "seem" to recede. Well if this is true whoever wrote this must have been on some vacation.
The fight scenes (what very little of them that were) had even less choreography in them to be noticed than than a dance
at the prom. It really makes you wonder for a moment (forecedly so) if anything really happened at all or was it just some
random scribbling by some unasuming dream dry idiot. Surely this man (on vacation) could have never guessed that 30
yrs later that the film that he wrote would fall under the hammer of my as well as the crude analysis of others so
i will cut him some slack. Onto the choreographers. To top it all of with rotton cherries the fight scenes (again what very
little of them that there were) were all sped up 3 x the amount of normal human speed.
Has anyone ever been a fan of that technique ever. Probably not one man besides the one who started it and the care-
free individuals who followed. I dont often roll my eyes when they roll credits but i did with this one.
In the end i have to tell you this movie was not a total let down but only because there was never anything to set myself up
to believe in it from the beggining. This makes me wonder about the 200 or so + other films celestial rather have passed
to us on VCD or decided not to pass to us at all. Surely there are films within that vault even today that are more deserving
to be released than this. Usually i watch a movie like this to take out my ninja fantasies on and not to imagine in my spare
time some fantasy that i am going to dress up as a Ninja myself & break into the celestial vault to free the rest of the films.
It must have been Passover in Hong Kong when they finally held that last meeting of what films to release, if this is true
this must be a re-visititation, because i seem akin to passing on ideas myself, at least on the idea of ''Usurpers of
Emperors Power"..
http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/imagehosting/96847e1dafe91e78.jpg
http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/imagehosting/96847e1dafebaaad.jpg