Magnificent Warriors (1987)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Kan-Cheung Tsang
Directed by David Chung
Starring Michelle Yeoh, Richard Ng, Tung-Shing "Derek" Yee, Lowell Lo, and Matsui Tetsuya

Features:

• Interviews with cast and crew
  
• Michelle Yeoh photos and biography
  
• Still gallery
  
• New and original trailer
  
• Original promotional material
  

Released by: Fox
Region: 1
Rating: R
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: At the least, rent it.

Ming (Yeoh) is a very forward-thinking woman to be living in China in the late 1930s. She flies an airplane, carries a whip, aids and abets gunrunners, and generally opposes the Japanese that are slowly appearing in more and more places in her country. Her piloting skills and general fearlessness make her perfect for a little job the Chinese government needs undertaken. One of their top agents (Yee) has been sent in to retrieve an informant, Lord Youda (Lo), from a northern city where the Japanese army is making alliances in hopes of building a poison gas factory. The agent and the informant will need extraction, and Ming's barnstorming talents fit the bill perfectly. After a cursory briefing, she sets out to make contact with the agent.

Matters are a bit complicated by the fact that the agent's identifying wristwatch has been stolen by a gambling swindler (Ng), who uses this little case of mistaken identity to extricate himself from a dangerous situation involving people to whom he owes money. The confusion doesn't last long, however, as Agent 001 has to come to their rescue before the Japanese military gets involved. On the run from the authorities, the three have to reach Lord Youda and get him out before the full might of the Japanese army reaches the city. Despite their combined talents and resources, the extraction falls flat, leaving the unlikely trio of heroes to stand off against the army with the help of Lord Youda and his faithful servants and villagers. The battle escalates quickly, and it's up to these three to save the day.

Magnificent Warriors can rightly be called a Hong Kong reimagining of Indiana Jones. Sure, you get a barnstorming female pilot instead of an archaeologist and evil Japanese imperialists instead of Nazis, but the overall feel of the movie is the same pulpy goodness that the Jones adventures always delivered. This comparison is encouraged in an early sequence featuring a leather jacket-clad Yeoh lashing a whip at a horde of enemies, setting the tone early on for such parallels to be drawn. There are, of course, significant differences, but most of them are as much attributable to the cultural differences in the origins of the films as anything else. The humor here tends more towards slapstick than its Western counterpart, which is one of the movie's weakest points, but the tradeoff is a much greater number of insane action sequences with the lovely Yeoh kicking much ass. The story advantage lies with Jones, but the action advantage belongs squarely with Yeoh.

Aside from the action, most of the film is shot in fairly unremarkable fashion. The scenery is nice enough, to be sure, but a little more inventiveness in cinematography or direction could have elevated this from "solid HK pulp action" to "legendary" in short order. The acting is good, with Yeoh as the stand-out. Richard Ng's swindler is great comic relief as the lovable rogue until the goofy slapstick and visual gags get dragged in to exaggerate the script's more subtle moments of humor.

Yeoh's dance background adds an elegance to the flying feet and fists that is something to behold. She's also pretty handy with a lanyard or a whip, and seems to be having immense fun on the few occasions that they put her behind the trigger of a machine gun. The movie's final set piece is amazing, with hordes of Japanese soldiers storming Lord Youda's fortified castle amid explosions, machine gun fire, archers, and finally spears. The fighing is well-choreographed, and manages to portray a few one-on-one battles without making them seem out of place amidst the chaos of the larger conflict raging around them.

The fact that the story might seem somewhat familiar to Western audiences makes this a great action flick to introduce new fans to the world of Hong Kong action movies. Since it deals more with the tropes established by its American counterpart than it does with the storied traditions and themes of Hong Kong action, it requires little or no knowledge of the genre for newcomers to understand what's going on. Pick it up for a nice evening of non-demanding pulp action goodness, and if the slapstick doesn't put you too much off your game, add it to the shelf permanently.