The Legend of The Flying Swordsman

Based on a novel by Gu Long, the movie tells of Lee Chun-Foon. However, the story is completely different from the novel and other previous adaptations.

Cast
Dave Wang as Lee Chun-Foon
Sonny Chiba as Chun-Foon's father
Gigi Lai as Snow

Lee Chun-Foon [Dave Wang] is a drunken swordsman who always goes to a club to drink with his buddies. There, he meets a beautiful woman named Snow [Gigi Lai] and makes her pregnant. The two later get married. On his wedding day, Chun-Foon gets drunk and this upsets his parents. After the wedding, Chun-Foon keeps on going to the club to drink more wine. Curious, his father asks Snow how the two met each other. She says nothing and he discovers that Chun-Foon met her in a club called Dragon Town Inn.

He goes there and and finds his son. He tries to talk to Chun-Foon by tapping him from behind and gets a slap from his own son. Furious and mad, he hits Chun-Foon on the chest and blood comes out from Chun-Foon's mouth. Then, he takes his son out. Outside, Chun-Foon tells his father that he can't survive without any wine because of all the things his father did to him. His father responds by saying that he wants his son to become a successful man and leaves off.

Chun-Foon returns home and tells his father that he will become more successful than him. His father is proud and sends him off to deliver something. Chun-Foon gets attacked and loses his memory. He is then rescued by a woman named Fa Siu-Siu...

Fight Scenes
There is only one fight scene in this movie! The entire movie is mostly dialogue and none of the scenes even impressed me at all. Many Ku Lung readers will disappointed at the lack of action. The one fight scene had CGI effects and was okay, but I couldn't stand the fact that it was the only scene with action in it! The category says martial arts but it's really drama that's confusing.

Acting
Trust me, the acting is terrible. None of the actors were satisfactory.

1) Dave Wang as Lee Chun-Foon: He is so expressionless when it comes to dramatic scenes. When he gets amnesia, he looks as if everything has started over again. His hair is so funny that I was thinking about Moe from The Three Stooges because the top of his hair looked like a mushroom cut. Anyway, I couldn't stand seeing this actor portray a great novel character and doing a bad job.

2) Gigi Lai as Snow: Gigi's acting is still not that great. She did a great job in TVB's "The Heaven Sword & The Dragon Sabre 2000" but here, her acting is the worst out of all the cast. She was pretty but a pretty face can't stop you from noticing bad acting. I hope she stars in a movie that really suits her.

3) Sonny Chiba as Chun Foon's father: I can't believe this great actor starred in this terrible movie after his success in "The Storm Riders". His acting surpassed all of the actors in this movie but was given a role that I believe he should not have had.

Favorite Scene: None
Best actor: Sonny Chiba
Worst actor: All of them
Best Actress: None
Worst Actress: All of them

Differences between this and the original novel
1) In the novel, Lee is depressed because he had to give his love away to his sworn brother. In this movie, Lee is depressed because of his relationship with his father. The reason for Lee's depression in this movie is so lame that a little girl could've come up with a better love story that won't bore you as much as this!

2) Lee has a brother but in this movie, he has no siblings.

3) Lee befriends a man named Ah Fei but in the movie, he has no real friends!

Thoughts:
I was really confused by this movie because of all the flashbacks it has. I hated this movie so much because of the flashbacks. Plus, the actors did a terrible job except for Sonny Chiba. The plot is boring and very lame compared to the original novel. I thought that this movie was going to be great because of the cover on the DVD but I was wrong! I despised everything about this movie and nothing about it made me happy.

Conclusion:
This is the WORST swordplay/martial arts film I have ever seen. Everything in this movie will make you regret that you ever bought this lame film. I couldn't believe what I was watching when I popped the DVD into my player. I regret wasting so much money on a film that wasn't worth watching! I recommend that you watch "The Duel" or "Swordsman 2" if you want to watch an adaptation of a novel. I warn you not to get this film no matter what!