Movies
Holy Flame of the Martial World
Pleasantly daft martial arts cinema. It's one of the late Shaw Bros films that is almost a parody of their earlier work. The basics are still there, but instead of going for a more serious revenge story, these films are all about mad stunts and cheesy special effects. The execution might be pretty crummy, but the pacing and energy levels more than make up for that. A brother and sister are separated when their parents die. They are placed under different martial arts masters and are both trained separately. Their masters are looking for the Holy Flame, a legendary martial arts weapon that was stashed away in a perilous cave years ago. Getting the weapon back is their main priority. The plot is pretty messy, the special effects mostly functional and some of the props looked insanely cheap (the titular sword for one). But I love that "the sky is the limit" type of filmmaking that keeps pushing films like these into the increasingly crazier territory. It may not be all-time classic material, but it didn't bore me for a single second. Well recommended for fans of martial arts cinema.Read all