Saviour of the Soul (1991)

Load of rubbish!!

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is an action sci-fi adventure from Hong Kong, starring Aarok Kwok as the graying black-clad swordsman Silver Fox, out to wreck havoc on mercenaries Ching (Andy Lau), Kwan (Anita Mui) and Chuen (Kenny Bee). He kills Chuen (Kenny Bee), but is wounded by Kwan (Anita Mui). Kwan is later poisoned by a spell, which only the powerful Madam Pet (Carina Lau) has the antidote. While Ching hopes to obtain the antidote from her, Silver Fox is out to defeat them all.Filled with wild, sword-wielding action, sci-fi elements, drama and some wacky comic relief, this film is definitely a medieval fantasy with reality-suspended moments. Aaron Kwok plays quite the formidable villain, somebody you would love to hate. Andy Lau was OK as the protagonist, but Anita Mui is the main highlight of the film. Quite the fast-paced movie, but there's a little too much genre elements all slapped into one story.Grade B-

Parading as an action flick, this is in fact a mixed-genre outing with a heavy emphasis on romance over the thing most Hong Kong fans will be looking for: the martial arts. Despite being bookended by some fantastic fight scenes, the middle section of this movie is a long, uninteresting romance between two lovers who may be doomed, and the situations they encounter. Throw in some bull about evil angels and you have an extremely slow-paced film with a bare minimum of special effects and too much emphasis on specific comedy which doesn't translate well to the West. Consternation arises at the subtitles, which appear to have been written by a person non-fluent in English and thus don't make a whole lot of sense.Not that the film is worthless, just don't bother with the middle. My recommendation is to fast forward. The opening of the film bodes well, with a mysterious black-clad swordsman entering a futuristic jail and slaughtering dozens of prison guards in the process. Bodies are stabbed, dismembered, and a guy is memorably chopped in half vertically, stolen for BLADE II. Moments later we have yet another battle, this time in a public toilet, which mixes gore, action, and outlandish sequences of impalement and fighting skills to good effect. The next great fight is right at the end of the movie, which includes a scene where a bad guy is trapped inside a mirror and still keeps attacking our hero - just as incredible and crazy as it sounds, and pretty unique with it.The fight sequences are hard-hitting and elaborate, unsurprisingly enhanced by plenty of wire work and various special effects. The last fight sequence involves some muddled scenes of people jumping in and out of each other for no reason and taking drugs to increase their strength like in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER. The fighting is solid and usually impressive. The acting is not so good, with Andy Lau failing to capture the audience's attention as the nondescript hero and Anita Mui falling at the wayside in her attempts at a sympathetic heroine - bring back Joey Wong. Blame can be laid on the script and the direction, which is more interested in technicality and looking flashy than getting performances across. Despite flaws this is good at times but sadly the boredom outweighs the excitement so I am unable to recommend it. Perhaps something has been lost in the translation.

Saviour of the Soul (1991)This movie is so campy! It's like a 1960's Batman TV-episode plus melodrama and minus the plot. Both have villains using magenta-colored gas while fighting.I almost wish it was just a straight comedy because Andy Lau and Anita Mui were better in their comedic roles than they were playing serious characters. The plot was too ridiculous. The one character that I really liked was the younger sister. She was built up and then forgotten.3/10

The first time I saw this film I was totally stunned. The pace never slows down for one second. Action sequences of never before seen standard comes one after another. It is truly fantasy. I think this is necessary if you are going to make a "manga in motion" picture, which is exactly what this film is. The directors have created an post-holocaust-like kind of world and the characters fit in like the hand in the glove. If you like Hong Kong movies because of the rapid pace, incredible fight scenes, and, the often included, comic dialogue; you will love this one. Saviour of the soul contains all of these, and a lot of it. This film is a classic in its genre.