User reviews

The Legend of Zu has been a favorite of mine for a long time. Mind you this was based on the two times I have watched it. Read what I originally wrote about it: Zu Warriors of the Magic Mountain was and is an impressive classic! You never would have guessed it was made in 1983. Tsui Hark's use of special effects was very creative and inventive. (He continued doing in most of his later productions.) Even now it can measure up to other movies in this genre. "Legend of Zu" is connected to "Zu"warriors from magic mountain"! It is not necessary to have seen this movie to understand the plot of this one. The plot is a bit hard to follow. But to be honest it doesn't matter. It is all about the action and adventure! I always was wondering what Tsui Hark would do if he got his hands on CGI. Now we know, he made this movie. Maybe it sometimes is too much but the overall result is so beautiful that I am not going to be critical about that. There is so much happening on the screen, you simply won't believe. I think it is a big shame that this movie wasn't shown in theaters here in Holland. Because this movie is screaming for screen time in cinemas. This movie easily can beat big budget Hollywood productions like Superman Returns or X- Men 3 (putain merde, never ever watch this atrocious film. It's a downright insult to film fans and comic book lovers). The only thing I do have to mention is the lack of humour. In most of Tsui Harks's movies he combines drama, fantasy, martial arts and humour. Somehow it is missing in this movie. Again I am not going to be picky about these small matters. "Legend of Zu" delivers on the action front with the most beautiful special effects you will see. A true classic! When I got the chance to buy the Blu Ray DVD I did not hesitate a second and purchased it from www.dddhouse.com. This was based on sentiments alone. Now after having watched it I am almost completely shocked how badly it has aged. The once so impressive spectacle isn't that impressive anymore. Because of that I was able to focus on other elements a whole lot more and I have to admit that The Legend of Zu is not the classic I thought it was. However that does not mean it's a total fail. There are still some elements in the film that are incredibly creative and inventive visually. But the once gorgeous eye candy definitely has lost it's shine considerably. Could you fault a director for using a technology that is ever advancing? Well, judging from the few scenes I watched on Youtube I can already tell the original, Zu Warriors of the Magic Mountain, holds up better than Tsui Hark's second film in the franchise. (But I will get back to this once I have looked at the original more critically.) If I have to guess it's because practical effects look better than CGI effects. That and that other elements in the original are stronger. It's like Tsui Hark got completely caught up into the application of special effects and spectacle too much and very hastily designed the story and characterization around it as an after thought. Naturally this should have been reversed. But this could imply that at least the action is memorable. Which brings me to my main gripe with The Legend of Zu. There are only a few fight scenes that offer the action goodness I crave in these kinds of films. If you remove all the razzle and dazzle there is very little left to enjoy. The saving grace easily is the cast since they all do their best to take the confusing mess seriously.

So is this still worth watching? If you haven't before and love Wuxia and Hong Kong films then definitely. But if you are not a big fan then I can't recommend it since it's not an easy film to get into.

For more honest reviews check: www.chrichtonsworld.com

This film looks fantastic. Its one of the most spectacular films I've ever seen. It seems as though Tsui Hark and crew suddenly were given away to truly unleash their imaginations for the first time with computer graphics and the went for it. This film is simply wonderful to look at.

The problem is that the film feels like its starting in the middle and assumes you'll pick it up as you go along. Thats fine but its at least 25 minutes before we start to get anything like character development and by that time I was hopeless unconnected to anything except the visuals.

The plot has something to do with the battle of good and evil in the sacred mountains of Zu in China. The story starts hundreds of years ago and then jumps forward once then twice in what becomes a story of lovers reunited over time while battling a great evil called, I kid you not, Insomnia.

This is a remake/sequel/rethinking of the earlier Hong Kong film Zu Warriors of the Magic Mountain also by Tsui Hark. The earlier film looks less impressive compared to this one but it pushed the limits of what you could do with martial arts films and fantasy and set the stage for many classics that followed. The "original" film has a slightly tighter narrative thread, that film at least had a place to step on before things got jumbled.

This is a great film to look at and I'm certain that should it ever get a US release this will play better on the big screen than it does on TV, simply because you'll get a sense of scale to the spectacle.

Visuals are ten out of ten. The story telling is a two. Split the difference five out of ten over all.

LEGEND OF ZU is essentially a Chinese comic book, with a lot of CGI, special effects, and nonsensical storytelling. To give credit where credit is due, director Tsui Hark blends the CGI flawlessly with the live-action scenes. The movie moves well, and there are enough colors and exciting action to keep anyone from being completely bored.

As a story, LEGEND OF ZU is devoid of one. The premise is basic and really nonsensical. An evil entity seeks to destroy the Chinese Gods for the simple reason that he's evil and that's what evil guys do. Okay, got it.

Not exactly the deepest movie. In fact, it's not deep at all. But for visual treats, it's pretty good.

5 out of 10

(go to www.nixflix.com for a more detailed review of this movie or full-length reviews of other foreign films)

The Greatest "Flying Kung Fu" Movie of all time! And to be quite honest with you, I have no earthly idea what the HELL this movie is about... But it IS very entertaining. Almost every scene is crammed full of computer enhanced visuals and special effects. This is Tsui Hark's "10-Year In The Making" sequel to WARRIORS OF THE ZU MOUNTAINS. And it kicks ass! There's a whole handfull of wires in this one, but you never really get the chance to see them because of all the incredable action scenes that fill this "watching a comic book on the screeen" fiasco of gravity defiance. Since it's obviously based on some Chinese mythology or legend, which I failed to really comprehend, let me just describe it in terms that we can all understand... It's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON meets THE MATRIX!

Zu Warriors most definitely should've been an animated series because as a movie it's like watching an old anime on acid.The movie just starts out of nowhere and people just fly around fighting with metal wings and other stupid weapons until this princess sacrifices herself for her lover on a cloud or something.Whether this princess is a god or an angel is beyond me but soon enough this flying wind bad guy comes in and kills her while the guy with the razor wings fights some other mystical God /Demon/Wizard thing.The plot line is either not there or extremely hard to follow you need to be insanely intelligent to get this movie.The plot soon follows this Chinese mortal who is called upon by this god to fight the evil flying,princess killing bad guy and soon we have a very badly choreographed Uwe Boll like fight scene complete with terrible martial arts on a mountain or something.Even the visuals are weird some might say they are stunning and colorful but i'm going to say they are blurry and acid trip like (yes that's a word!).I watched it both dubbed and with subtitles and both were equally bad and hard to understand....who am i kidding i didn't understand it at all.It felt like i was watching episode 30 of some 1980's anime and completely missed how the story began or like i started reading a comic series of 5 at number 4 because i had no clue how this thing started where it was going or how it would end i was lost the entire time.I can honestly say this was one of the worst film experiences ever it was like watching Inu-Yasha at episode 134 drunk...yeah that's right you don't know what the hell is going on.Don't waste your brain trying to figure this out.

This is not so much film as big budget children's television. As far as I can tell, the villain is a giant swarm of chocolate covered espresso beans. This theory seems to be verified by the fact that the subtitles refer to it as 'Insomnia'. When it's first mentioned that a civilization had been wiped out by insomnia, I thought "Wow! A nihilistic martial arts film!" but no such luck. Although you have to consider it experimental cinema when the villain is strangled by an old man's long, white eyebrows. Zu Warriors makes exactly the same amount of sense whether the subtitles are on or off. That's not a good sign. I found the special effects to be somewhere between Ray Harryhausen and Xena: Warrior Princess. Primitive.

Watched this on DVD in original language with English subs. Either the subtitling was very poor or the actual dialog doesn't make much of story and give any character development. There are quite a few HK stars in this but the movie doesn't need their presence to make it better or worse. It's just bad. The bright and colorful scenes done in CG are attractive for the sheer colors and brilliance but it can get overwhelming before long. If anything this makes me think of a child's movie with its nonstop barrage of cg, fight scenes, and crap plot. I'm certain I grasped what took place in the film but the whole delivery of the story was rather lousy.

Tsui Hark's visual artistry is at its peek in this movie. Unfortunately the terrible acting by Ekin Cheng and especially Cecilia Cheung (I felt the urge to strangle her while watching this, it's that bad :) made it difficult to watch at times.

This movie is a real breakthrough in the visual department. When I first saw this, my jaw dropped repeatedly and I thought to myself that I've never seen anything remotely like it but this is how it should be done in order to do full justice to the mythical world of Chinese historical kung-fu novels! Without a doubt this is one of the best-looking Chinese historical kung-fu epic ever made.

But alas, Tsui Hark hasn't improved much in the writing department, and the story and dialog are rather juvenile (his apparent obsession with the silly and overly-long depiction of the evil guys didn't help either). To make it worse, this movie is very badly cast. They decided to use the "hot" popular Hong Kong idols as lead characters, but unfortunately both Ekin Cheng and especially Cecilia Cheung are totally unsuited for historical kung-fu dramas because they lack the nobility and mystique that such characters are supposed to embody. Adam Cheng Siu-Chow and Brigitte Lin in the 1983 version are infinitely better.

I wish that someday Zhang Yi-Mou and Tsui Hark can join forces and produce a movie that has the visual artistry of Tsui but with the maturity and story-telling poetry of Zhang...

OK first of all the video looks like it was filmed in the 80s I was shocked to find out it was released in 2001. Secondly the plot was all over the place, right off the bat the story is confusing. Had there been some brief prologue or introduction the story would've been better. Also I appreciate fantasy but this film was too much. It was bizarre and badly filmed. The scenes did not flow smoothly and the characters were odd. It was hard to follow and maybe it was the translation but it was even hard to understand. I love Chinese epic films but if you're looking for a Chinese epic fantasy film i would recommend the Promise (visually stunning, the plot is interesting and good character development) not this film. Beware you will be disappointed.

I rented this film in DVD form without knowing anything at all about it, part of a winter marathon of watching a film every night. After several awful American action adventure films (Ballistic, Daredevil, Cradle of Life) Zhu Warriors struck me as brilliantly original filmmaking. The story is complete nonsense, but I found the film's sincerity, good- heartedness and complete lack of irony refreshing, and the film looks spectacular. Sure, the special effects are not technically as flawless as those produced by Hollywood, but the filmmakers wisely are more interested in color, composition and movement than realism and so many of the shots are breathtaking. In one shot, two of the superhuman characters stand on craggy spires of rock, a huge moon rising before them, the image perfectly balanced by the three elements. In another, a princess-warrior spires through the heavens behind her glowing sword like a heat-seeking missile. And the colors explode from shot to shot, used to express emotion rather than to represent reality.

The characters have the same simplicity and directness of comic book characters, offering no great depth in themselves but referring to archtypes that resonate more deeply. Physically, several of the actors are astonishingly beautiful. They play their roles straight up, without irony or guile, and so are believable.

Most strange of all, despite the clumsiness of plot and thin characterizations, I found myself very near tears at the end, moved by the beautiful simplicity of the actors and the wildly original, good-hearted vision of the director.

This movie is really bad, trust me and don't waste your time or money on this, it not good even to just pass time because it takes a large amount of brain cells to remember all the ridicules plot.

I very like the far-east cinema, i like Ang Lee, Takashi Miike, Takashi Kitano, Wong Kar-Wai, Kim Ki-Duk, etc., but this movie was just plain bad.

Bad acting, ridicules plot, and a substantial amount of cheap effects.

The plot of the movie is taking place in a fiction place called Zu mountain, which is like the Olympus but its for Japanese gods, one of the gods live on this mountain wants to kill all the others and take control over the world (aint it sound like power rangers or something like that), few of the gods resist and fighting him, and that is about what you can say about the plot all the rest is just cheap philosophy which doesn't make sense.

The people who beat me to reviewing this movie here mostly seem to have forgotten the original film, "Zu, Warriors of Mystic Mountain." Anybody who has seen that film knows how confusing it was, yet a few viewings later you can figure it all out. This movie is the sequel to that film and it's a sprawling multi-character film with too much plot to easily decypher, but pay attention and you'll get it.

The film is beautifully shot, with wild special effects that make you wonder why US films can't do super-hero movies. While short on real kung fu, the action sequences are fantastic, fun, and constantly confounding your expectations. Aside from generally knowing that Good will overcome Evil, the movie is impossible to predict.

The movie is available on DVD now, so pick it up. It's much better than "Stormriders" or "A Man Called Hero" and ten times more fun as well.

This movie gets filed in the 'silly movie' category.

Honestly? What was this... Flying ninjas with super powers? I don't care if you call them immortals but really... enough is enough... there is NO story to follow or if you cant follow it pretend you are watching mortal kombat it is the same basic recycled garbage that we have seen 1000 times in just about 1 out of every 10 movies out there.

Cons: Flying ninjas LOL Too many explosions <--HAHAHA YES EXPLOSIONS!!! BOOM! Cheesy special effects! Go watch the original godzilla Please!

You would like it if you are a huge DragonBallZ fan... and thats about it!

It was crap, not because of plot holes; in fact the plot was, good.... not bad (For those comic enthusiasts who watched X3, I think you can appreciate that "Good" is a relative term).

It did not suck because it lacked character development (though in retrospect they probably could have done more with the Red character, and I didn't fully understand the role of the narrator/mortal woman)….. You know what, scrap that. The character development was a shy away from shameful. But it still isn't at fault.

Even the corny catch phrases and overused clichés were kept at a minimum (I think, after all, the film was originally Japanese).

No, the fundamental problem with this film was that it was presented in entirely the wrong medium. Everything about this movie screams animation, or even CGI; the plot, the styles of plot development, least of all character design. Everything, that is, but the director. Ah well, shame.

Over all, I think I would give it a 4.5/10. But I earnestly believe it would easily gain an additional 2 1/2 stars as an animation (Come to think of it so would Resident Evil). I seriously mean it though, if you watched this movie with your eyes shut, it wouldn't be half bad. Trust me, I know.

This is hands-down the worst movie I've ever seen. And I've seen both the Ator movies. It has no plot. It seems to have been made just to prove that the Chinese/Hong Kong film industry can compete with the Western world's computerized special effects. The fact that 71 people gave this movie a 10 and only 7 people gave 1's makes me wonder how many oatmeal brains there are in the world.

Mythology is really interesting, and this movie could have used its mythological basis for a rich, interesting story. But instead, not 10 seconds goes by without eye candy. And, yes, I counted.

This movie was rated among the worse movie of Tsui Hark's and a box office failure in Asia but I don't understand why so many voters' comments here gave it a full 10 votes here. This is simply the worst movie of such genre and I don't understand why the director could do a remake of his own without being sure of improvement. Obviously this film was made for commercial reasons. During the 2 years before this film was made, everyone Chinese movie fan is talking about the epic and commercial success of Feng yun xiong ba tian xia(Storm Riders(1998/98) and Tsui Hark changed his personal style and copied that movie's style, effects and ideas. Another victim among those who copied other's success. Stick to his 80's version acted by Brigitte Lin which is so much better and the effects are much more realistic. There is no sense of direction and the story was simply boring you will feel like walking off after 15 minutes. The action scenes and plots are mindless. If anyone can enjoy such movie, I recommend Storm Riders, a very similar style movie but the story and action is more interesting and logical. The only thing a bit watchable is some of the characters and weapons creation but we are not watching a picture book. This is a movie. Don't be fooled by the name "Ziyi Zhang"(Memoirs of a Geisha) as she appeared only for a very short scene and can hardly be recognized.

Legend of Zu is possibly the most exciting movie ive seen in recent years. It transcends all expectations and is truly a work of art. With unmatched visual sceneries and story of divine proportions, Legend of Zu proceeds to blow over its viewers with its majesty. This movie is wonderously crafted through the use of high tech cgi which allows fans of the fantasy genre to see their visions come to life. The acting is perfect for this type of movie; if you were an immortal with supernatural powers I would think you'd keep more to yourself.

Unlike the comments of many, the plot is actually quite EASY to follow while maintaining a quick pace that adds a sense of urgency. Anyone that cannot keep track of the different characters simply must not be paying attention since or are used to such levels of sophistication as the titanic. The plot is engaging and layered with themes so epic that they will leave you gasping for air. Legend of Zu is on a level of greatness so high that perhaps many people are put off by its grandeur. Allow yourself to be completely engulfed within its fantastical vision and you will grow to love this movie.

I am not disappointed by the many special effects in this movie. In fact, this probably has the most/best special effects for a Chinese swords-fight fantasy movie that I have ever seen. It's much better than "A Man Called Hero" or "Storm Rider". You will not be disappointed by the special effects - this I guarantee.

However, the plot of the movie is rather weak... It is as if the plot is merely there trying to hold the special effects scenes together. Even the original "Legend of Zu Warriors" (circa 1980) had a better plot than this new one, which really is very sad because the plot of the original was not that good either.

But I watched this movie for the special effects mostly, so, I am not that disappointed.

This film, an adaptation of Tsui Hark's 1983 classic of Hong Kong cinema by none other than the original director is a visual feast of comic book style special effects and a superhuman battle between good and evil. This is an imaginative film, full of wonder and magic on an epic scale. Legends of Hong Kong cinema unite and come to life in this magical story of supernatural beings and the deeds they do.

The biggest problem with Zu Warriors is its inability to tell a coherent story and to keep its audience captivated. The actual setting and story are both interesting enough, if you're into the fantasy martial arts genre. It has relatively few original ideas, but the basic setting of supernatural mountain clans defending their realms against an evil entity has its merits and could make for some awesome visuals and fight scenes.

The problem is, half of the time I had no idea what was happening on the screen. Either this movie pulls heavily from Oriental mythology and I would have to know a lot more about the myths and legends to get the plot, or alternatively it just makes stuff up and even Asian viewers are confused. Some scenes lean more towards the former, some towards the latter. The basic problem remains that it's very confusing movie to watch. This leads the viewer to not care what's happening or to whom its happening.

The special effects are also awful. And there are a lot of them. I have read that they were fairly good for their time, but they have not aged well at all.

Zu Warriors has its upsides. The fight scenes, while nothing groundbreaking, are fun to follow and some of the visuals are genuinely nice. If only the plot had been a bit more coherent, or the characters more interesting, this could have been a lot better.

I saw this movie in China on my holiday, and it was one of the crappiest movies i have ever seen. The American distributor said They,ve found a new "crouching tiger", which is just so lame. The performances are terrible especially from the two leads, cheung and Cheng who are renowned for their "woodenness" and are only in show biz because of thier looks. There was no plot and the whole movie was a bunch of ugly computer generated graphics glued together. What the hell did yuen wo-ping do in this movie? Legend of zu is a reputation breker. The film is also guilty of putting in big name stars to get more bums on seats, Zhang ziyi gets 10 minutes in the film and is totally irrelevant. Western viewers wanting more zhang mania will be disappointed. Chinese viewers will be extremely pleased (She is NOT popular in China.)

It's hard to describe how disappointed I felt coming out of this film. With so much hype regarding the cast, director and special effects before it's release, this film was a monumental let-down. Let's start with the basic points. First of all, there was no plot or storyline, whatsoever. From the start, it seemed director Tsui Hark had no interest in establishing his characters or setting up the plot. We are given a weak narration in the beginning about the myth of Zu, and then the pointless special effects begin. They don't let up for a full half-hour, before a weak story of the impending monster, Insomnia, and his evil plot to destroy the Zu Mountain clan is introduced. There isn't a second in the film where there are no special effects, which wouldn't be such a bad thing if the effects weren't so amateurishly done. A friend commented that it was like watching two hours of actors in front of bluescreen, and he's not far off the mark. A sub-plot involving Zhang Zhi-yi is never developed, which makes you wonder if her involvement in the film was a last-minute ploy to put more bums in the cinema seats. Even the lone "real" fighting scene in the movie without weapons or S/FX (a la Crouching Tiger) featuring Zhang's character is so obviously done with a male stunt double that I just could not help but to feel totally ripped off. It wasn't even until the film was over before I figured out which character Sammo Hung played 'cause his face was completely covered as Insomnia, and he did no martial arts whatsoever. His involvement in the film could be accurately summed up as being in a ridiculous costume, standing in front of bluescreen, and acting as if he was floating in the clouds. Truly any novice actor off the street could have pulled this off; don't know why they needed a martial arts legend like Sammo in the film, other than as a nod to his role in the original "Zu Warriors". Even Charleston Heston's cameo in the recent remake of "Planet of the Apes" was more inspiring.

Overall, this film is a remarkable failure. I didn't like Stormriders too much either, but at least that film had a plot, and a genuine attempt to portray the motivations of its characters. This film had none of that, and some of the parts were so horrendously miscast, such as the ever grinning Golden Sword guy, whose annoyance level approached that of Jar Jar Binks in the "Phantom Menace". The normally wonderful Cecilia Cheung is given nothing to work with, and Ekin Cheng delivers the same stale, stoic performance he did in "Stormriders" and "A Man Called Hero".

With so much at stake after the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", I'm hoping that local filmmakers aren't mistaking bigger budgets for special effects as a suitable replacement for true cinematic artistry and captivating performances. Let's just hope that Zhang Yimou's upcoming Chinese mystic martial arts piece crouches more like "Tiger" than implodes like "Legend".

This one sentence will be used to give credit to the amazing special effects. Everything else is crap. Several people have compared this movie to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; this is like comparing Casablanca to The Three Stooges because they are both in black and white. This movie has no story, makes no effort to introduce or explain who characters are, and in general contains fewer words than the average Dr. Seuss book (and certainly no words more complex than those found in Dr. Seuss books).

For people who still laugh at Americas Funniest Home Movies and those who watch wrestling on a regular basis, this movie will be cause for celebration. To everyone with enough intellegence to wipe there own rear, this movie will be cause for weeping (or possibly vomiting).