“Zu Warriors”

By Jae-Ha Kim
Amazon.com
March 7, 2006

A remake of the 1983 film of the same name, Zu Warriors is a martial arts drama set in a fantasy world where stoic warriors battle a powerful demon. With each kill, the horrific beast consumes their souls, making himself stronger and more difficult to slay.

Hark Tsui directed this film, which stars a slew of actors (Ziyi Zhang, Sammo Hung, Cecelia Cheung) that are familiar to fans of Chinese action films. After Zu Warriors was released in 2001 to great success in China, Miramax snapped up the U.S. theatrical distribution rights for the film in the hopes that it would match the success of its earlier purchase Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But after sitting in Miramax’s coffers for several years, Zu Warriors never made it into U.S. theaters and instead went straight to DVD in 2006.

Fans of the martial arts genre will see some awesome action sequences. The actors move with grace and skill, and they overcome the cheesy digital effects, which already look dated. But the melodramatic pauses and all too frequent far-away glances are out of place and distracting–even in this fantasy.

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