Journey of the Doomed (1985)
Journey of the Doomed stars Tung Wei as a knight that finds himself protecting the life of a beautiful young lady being stalked by a bunch of assassins headed by kung-fu actress extraordinaire Hui Ying-hung. Tung Wei was the kid that Bruce Lee slaps on the head at the beginning of Enter The Dragon. He went on to kung-fu stardom before becoming a highly successful fight director for Jet Li and Jackie Chan.
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Reviews
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
"Journey Of The Doomed" tells the story of a young girl who has lived all her life in a brothel (without "working" in it); her mother is dead, her father is unknown to all except the owner of the brothel. One day the girl runs away when she witnesses the mistreatment of another girl in the hands of a customer. When the two potential future emperors learn the secret identity of her father, they react in different ways: one of them sends a team of one man and two women to kill her, while the other sends a team of two men and one woman to protect her. But it's one guy who lives by a river that saves her life; after that she keeps following him around, and gradually they warm up to each other. The main problem with "Journey Of The Doomed" is that it tries to be a lot of different things at once (action movie, exploitation, fantasy, romance, conspiracy thriller) and does not fully satisfy at any of them. The biggest name involved, Kara Hui, plays one of the two female killers and, frankly, she is outshone by her partner who likes to arm-wrestle at her free time! (both are eliminated after the first half hour). The film has moments of sadistic and gratuitous violence, but also quite a few strange ideas (including a contemporary rock score at times), and a striking final image. (**)