With this, The Snyder Cut of JUSTICE LEAGUE and SUPERMAN RETURNS under my belt, January seems to be the month of me revisited rather divisive adaptations of comic books, I suppose it’s fitting to end with one of my favorite first watches of last year. 

I’ve never read the manhua on which this film was based on (Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword by Ma Wing-shing) but I imagine based on some of the reactions and how some plot points here unfold that a lot was either changed or cut out to fit this movie’s runtime and to set up for a possible sequel (like, SPOILER ALERT maybe, I’m just gonna take a shot in the dark and guess that girl at the end would’ve end up being his long lost daughter, someone who’s ready the manhua please let me know if I’m dead wrong). Sadly this didn’t make the same money as Andrew Lau’s last comic book martial arts extravaganza THE STORMRIDERS (also by Ma Wing-shing) so the sequel to A MAN CALLED HERO never came to be, which is a shame since I genuinely really dig this one.

I absolutely adore the locations and set design here, it really brings this feel of a genre bending experience. It’s a period film that mostly takes place in early 1900s New York with martial artists that have access to sorcery. You have an all star cast of actors lead by the feathery haired go to leading man of 90s Manhua films Ekin Cheng, who might hold a record for the actor in this most comic book adaptations and/or different characters portrayed. You also have the likes of Anthony Wong, a very young Nicholas Tse, Shu Qi, Dion Lam, Ken Lo, Kristy Yang, Jerry Lamb, and the GOAT himself Yuen Biao as The Boss of China House. 

There isn’t as much action here as you’d think but what we have here is really fun. It’s not the clean Wuxia style you’d see in something like CROUCHING TIGER or HERO , but it’s a cool mix of martial arts and magic that really feels unique. And yes while the cgi doesn’t hold up the best it’s something they can kind of be hand waved a bit since a lot of it is used to convey sorcery or magic attacks. The finale on the Statue of Liberty is simply iconic, if not at least a little bit making you wish it was longer.

This is absolutely one of those one where I go against the grind when it comes to the consensus I’ve seen with most martial arts film communities. I’ll it it runs a bit long in places and makes you wish it had more action, but this is such a fun movie my complains are mostly washed away by those great moments and set pieces filled to the brim with this magmatic aura only Ekin Cheng could bring. Andrew Lau doesn’t seem to get as much love as many of his contemporaries do in the west, but count me as one of his biggest fans. Going back his filmography is definetly not what I expected going from one of the directors of INFERNAL AFFAIRS, but I’ve honestly enjoyed all of what I’ve seen by him. He honestly kinda reminds me of Zack Snyder in a way, a divisive Director with a pretty distinct eye for visuals and shots, and one who has done a lot of comic book movies. Even with the dated cgi, those effects have an aura that makes up for their shortcomings. 

Kudos to Vinegar Syndrome for doing justice to this in their latest Blu Ray.