Legendary Amazons (2011)

Just perfect...

Absolutely Fantastic

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Excellent movie with awesome action, extraordinary pictures and contain unforgettable specials effects. Cheng Pei-Pei is as talented as always and Cecilia Cheung is still talented and beautiful .Thank you to the great Frankie Chan for this beautiful movie and thank you for all the movies you have done and played in the past with all these grand Chinese stars movies like Chen Kuan Tai, Ti Lung, David Chan,Derek Yee and many others stars.From a fan who love you and who love the great movies in which all of you had shined in the past.

With all the talent and the script that thing film acquired was destined to be great. But no. It was terrible. I don't dare explain why it went so wrong. Apparently the director hasn't even made a good film in over 2 decades, so why would they choose him to make a big budget film?The biggest problem in this film were the 'mothers' and 'grandmothers'. Seriously they all look the same age, they are all young and most likely late 20s to early 30s but no, this film makes them out to seem a generation apart. Just no. In all my viewings of Asian films, this one takes the joke out of that. Continuity seems to be a major problem in this film, one second the lady warriors are taking off 2 chain mail suits and suddenly 10 seconds later they got two thick chain mail rope of about 50 metres, how is that possible? The one thing i hate about Asian films is the over dramatic fight scenes where the fighters seem to fly 10 metres because screw logic and the physics law, there is no reason that it should be added.I'm not sure if the actors reputation went in decline after but if it didn't then thats good, they put a real performance but the director - terrible. Just quit. Seriously I don't know how i managed to go through that film especially after trying to make myself quit.Warn you, don't watch it especially if you have OCD.

Let's get this out of the way first of all: LEGENDARY AMAZONS has nothing to do with Amazons at all; instead, it's a fairly straightforward and normal-for-the-genre Chinese historical war film about a legendary band of warrior women who are forced into going to war to battle an invading army. It's colourful stuff for sure, packed with unrealistic but cool-looking costumes and plentiful action; indeed, at least 70% of the film seems to be made up of one fight scene after the next, all aided with wirework and CGI effects that keep characters and weapons flying all over the place.Here's the unusual bit: LEGENDARY AMAZONS also happens to be one of the cheesiest films I've seen in a while. Chinese historicals are usually po-faced and deadly serious, like with THREE KINGDOMS or BATTLE OF WITS. Not so this film: the script is leaden and the performances so awful and self-conscious that they veer on self-parody. The worst offender is the absolutely diabolical Cecilia Cheung, who takes woodenness to new levels; apparently she's a big actress over in the East, but you wouldn't know it from her scene-chewing here.Still, despite (or maybe because of) all the unintentional humour, LEGENDARY AMAZONS turns out to be a whole lot of fun. The virtually non-stop action helps, of course, but as a whole the film has a light and vibrant feel that keeps it sweeping merrily along. It's certainly not a classic, and by genre standards it's pretty poor, but is it entertaining? The answer is a resounding 'yes'! It's a riot, and one I look forward to seeing again in the future.

Finally! After the glut of big-budget historical war epics that have seen tears and bloodshed, at last we get one that injects some levity into the heavy-handed genre. Yes, there is humour aplenty in director Frankie Chan's latest take on the classic 'Lady Warriors of the Yang Family', apparently titled 'Legendary Amazons' as a nod to the Shaw Brothers 1972 movie 'The 14 Amazons'- and if you're thinking how such a story would lend itself to comedy, wait till you've seen this adaptation. A prologue establishes the war between the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia Dynasty, the former led by General Yang Zongbao (Ritchie Jen) outnumbered against the latter's troops launching a fiercely fought border incursion. Facing imminent death, General Yang ties a bundle of hair to a pigeon and sends it off to his wife Mu Guiying (Cecilia Cheung). How ingeniously amusing! What are the odds that a bundle of Mu's hair carried on the pigeon would be a message of defeat? And what are the odds that the Xia enemies would have on hand a pair of eagles that is, we may add, too quickly shot down as soon as they are released to catch the said pigeon? It gets even better- as news of Zongbao's apparent death spreads around the Yang family clan, with nary a man except for Zongbao and Guiying's son Yang Wenguang (Xiao Mingyu), the whole gathering of women gathered for his 18th birthday celebration start weeping uncontrollably as if on cue. Then, just as quickly, it is decided that the wilful Wenguang- whose earlier childish act of blowing up a wall in the house compound just to get out- will be appointed to lead the Yangs, and with that, fireworks start exploding into the night sky. What a brilliant show of over-the-top humour! But nothing can quite prepare you for the hilarity as the Yang clan set off to war in obedience of the imperial edict. The first confrontation finds the Yangs outnumbered against their enemies, splitting into five separate divisions to divide up their enemy and hopefully defeat them guerrilla-style. Their tactic is ultimately undone when the reckless Wenguang gets duped by the Xia's into saving his father- but even before you chuckle at his foolishness, you'll find yourself tickled silly as his mother Muiying challenges him right on the sideline and usurps his status as marshal. Somehow, we never recalled the family fighting amongst themselves as a centrepiece of their heroism, but hey it makes for good amusement. Just as comical is the Yang women's defiance of gravity, leaping into the air and performing some quite marvellous stunts that they can very well parlay into lucrative public entertainment after the war. We have Frankie and old-school villain actor Fung Hak-On to thank for that, with some generous help no doubt from Jet Li's master Wu Bin credited as 'kungfu consultant'. No kidding! We were however unable to identify who was responsible for the numerous heroic deaths we witnessed throughout the film, because we'd like to thank that person for the hilariously fake blood spurting out and the exaggerated dying. Inspired too is the casting of the film. Lead actress Cecilia Cheung, who was reportedly paid a cool NTD$30 million to star, has a heretofore unknown gift of acting shocked that will make you burst out laughing. You have to also hand it to the filmmakers for assembling such a professional cast of actors- including veterans Ritchie, Ge Chunyan, Yukari Oshima and Kathy Chow- who are able to keep such straight serious faces in spite of the hilarious mayhem unfolding before them. When you're having so much fun, you probably won't be bothered by the messy and quite incoherent script (written by Frankie, Liu Heng and Ma Honglu) that can't quite make up its mind if certain characters- wounded or killed- should stay that way. And here we would like to ask for your pardon for our insolence thus far- it's probably clear to you that we were being sarcastic all the way, but we thought comedy must have been the sole intention of the filmmakers going by how atrocious the film really is. If you have to know, it's histrionic, over-the-top and melodramatic every step of the way. The acting is equally ridiculous, with Cecilia taking the cake for being quite possibly in line for the worst actress of the year. And what of the plentiful action scenes? They are, like the script, chaotic and illogical- worse still when you can so evidently tell the green screen behind which their landscapes were filled in. We'll leave you with quite possibly one of the most ridiculous scenes we've seen this year- a makeshift bridge assembled with two chains of metal shot from one end of a cliff to another with human steps made up of soldiers on their backs clinging onto both chains, all for the sake of their Empress Dowager-like commander Taijun (Cheng Peipei) to get across. Need a good laugh? Then we'd recommend 'Legendary Amazons', one of the most unintentionally laugh-out-loud movies you'll find this year. At least it makes a genre breakthrough by showing how you can do comedy in the midst of a big-budget historical war epic.