Member robbie Posted March 19, 2014 Member Share Posted March 19, 2014 i have orderd this hopefully it is like ong bak the beginning like people say as action was good in that film. If it is half as good as tyg2 i will be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlbertV Posted March 26, 2014 Member Share Posted March 26, 2014 I got this last night and began to watch it...once I finish it, which will most likely be tonight, I will have a review posted on the main site...saw the first half hour....yes ridiculous story saved by some solid performances by Xing Yu/Shi Yanneng and Steve Yoo so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Gwai LO Posted March 26, 2014 Member Share Posted March 26, 2014 The first half hour is the worst part of the movie. If you haven't reached the giant fight yet.. Then the action has yet to even start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted March 30, 2014 Member Share Posted March 30, 2014 Wanted to read the review posted on here, but I gave up in the middle of the story. Boy, what a MESS (sorry Albert). I hoped it was clearer and easier to follow on screen, but seeing what people say, I guess not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Lionclaw Posted March 30, 2014 Member Share Posted March 30, 2014 This movie is really not bad at all. The action is spread out well enough but the highlights are the three challenge matches. I agree with Alberts review because the main downside for me is how underused his skills was. His flashy acrobatic style should have flowed well the "chinese style" but they kept him grounded for some odd reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member robbie Posted March 31, 2014 Member Share Posted March 31, 2014 while not as good as tyg2 or special id or ninja shadow of tear . It is still a good martial arts movie with solid action. expected a little bit more as was told 1000 times better then tyg2 and a bit like ong bak beginning. I still think you have to lower your expectation a little but still enjoyed.Story was a bit weak as in tyg2 also, but i felt tyg2 was better for mindless action . I do not feel the star is in same class as Donnie yen or tony jaa but still did pretty good job and ther is some good action scenes mainly against the monkey kung fu guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Gwai LO Posted April 1, 2014 Member Share Posted April 1, 2014 I thought in every way possible this was a million times better than tyg2 an special Id Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member The Dragon Posted April 7, 2014 Member Share Posted April 7, 2014 I watched this last night. Don't understand the bad rap it's getting. Clearly better than some of the crap flooding the market lately. When you have talent, choreography, some charisma a a smidget of direction, this is the end result. 7/10 for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TheGrimReaper Posted April 7, 2014 Member Share Posted April 7, 2014 I watched it some time ago - it was pretty decent in termas of martial arts scenes and the presence of Xin Yu, he is not an A-list star, but he has potential to grow and develop furhter. This movie showed that he is right for this role - the fights were interesting enough, the second one being the highlight IMO - the combination between parkour and actual fighting was done fresh and with attention to details. The story is being retold many times before, but here it played on the battle side of it - our guy going through many opponents in order to kill the final boss and reclaim his own personality and life. I would give it a 7.5/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted April 20, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted April 20, 2014 It took forever, but this movie is finally getting a HK DVD release on April 29th - http://www.yesasia.com/global/the-wrath-of-vajra-2013-dvd-hong-kong-version/1035523580-0-0-0-en/info.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted June 16, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted June 16, 2014 I got through watching this one last night, and have to say for me it fell pretty flat. As I mentioned way back in post #10, I was concerned Xing Yu wouldn't be up to the task of carrying a movie by himself, and those fears turned out to be well founded. As a supporting player he's great, both his performances going against the likes of Wu Jing in 'Fatal Contact', and being Donnie Yen's punching bag in 'Flash Point', are exciting and effective. However burdened with the task of carrying a movie by himself, he doesn't fare so well. Armed with two expressions - angry and stone faced - there isn't a trace of charisma or screen presence to be found, and the movie suffers heavily for it. Thankfully some entertainment can be found, even if it is of the so bad it's good varierty. The female journalist is particularly hilarious, in part due to her direction whenever a fight is taking place seems to simply be "take photos", as she aimlessly wanders around in the background clicking away on her camera, or lingers on the side of the screen, pointlessly taking shot after shot of nothing in particular. Similarly the sudden unexplained cutaways to the hunchback mortician weeping to himself, and randomly popping his head out of water, were enough to draw a few laughs. As if the visuals aren't enough, we also get treated to such pearls of wisdom as "only love can conquer death", and "the most deadly sword of all is in your mind". It's pulpy stuff, and there's nothing wrong with that, but if you're going to go with a high level of pulp, you need a high level of action to balance it out. For me the action in the movie was only average, Xing Yu was fast and fluid in the likes of 'Fatal Contact', but here his blows seem to lack power, and the choreography just doesn't seem to flow particularly well. The giant fight and the monkey fight are both mildly entertaining in their novelty value, but the only real one-on-one in the movie is the finale, which is very clunky and riddled with slow motion. In fact the only action scene which displays any kind of immediacy and excitement is the break out by the captured prisoners as they try to resuce the kids, which overlaps with the one-on-one finale, only adding to its detriment. I would say it's a safe bet that this will be Xing Yu's first and last starring role, and based on his performance in 'The Wrath of Vajra', that's not such a big loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShaOW!linDude Posted July 20, 2014 Member Share Posted July 20, 2014 I watched this on Netflix last week. Have to say I completely agree with everything OAB posted. Of the 3 major fights, I actually liked the one against the giant the best. Some good combos there. While the wire-work wasn't abysmally overused, I found it completely unnecessary. Matt Mullins could've done with a decent fight or two. Any dramatic dialogue or moments of plot advancement were like reading a technical manual for me. Sleepy time. Don't think I'll bother scoring the dvd or granting this a mini-review. I saw it. Meh. Next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted July 20, 2014 Member Share Posted July 20, 2014 Ouch, sounds like a bad one. But AlbertV already posted a review on the main site and you could see it had a VERY confusing plot - I found the description in Albert's review very confusing, not sure how it's done in the film though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted July 20, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted July 20, 2014 But AlbertV already posted a review on the main site and you could see it had a VERY confusing plot - I found the description in Albert's review very confusing, not sure how it's done in the film though. Hey GHW, the plot for this one is simple, not sure how it managed to take up a third of Albert's review. Basically there used to be a Japanese cult in China that abducted children to turn them into killers. Somewhere along the way the cult was disbanded, but when the Japanese government calls for it to regroup, former member Xing Yu who has since been leading a peaceful life in Shaolin Temple, rises to the challenge of putting an end to them once and for all. Oh, and there's a special move called the Wrath of Vajra, which involves combining some nonsense concerning the 17 seconds of death with total compassion, the end. That's it in 3 lines, there's not much else to explain. Either way a few forum members on here really enjoyed it, so it's definitely a matter of taste. I found it to be a pretty torturous affair to get through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShaOW!linDude Posted July 20, 2014 Member Share Posted July 20, 2014 OAB summed up the plot nicely. It's not really all that confusing. It's just BOOOOOOORING. And the 17 seconds thing was a complete waste. You would think anything that involved a death cult, especially a Japanese martial arts death cult, would manage to captivate your interest for an hour and half...NOT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Neil Koch Posted July 21, 2014 Member Share Posted July 21, 2014 Watched this the other night on Netflix and I'm in the "boring" camp. The fights were ok, but not nearly enough of them. Way too much exposition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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