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Released by: 88 Films
Released on: February 21st, 2023.
Director: David Chung
Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Richard Ng, Tung-Shing Yee, Lowell Lo, Chindy Lau
Year: 1987
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Magnificent Warriors – Movie Review:
From director David Chung, the same man who gave us I Love Maria, comes 1987’s Magnificent Warriors, a period film set in 1938 against a rather tempestuous time in China’s history, an era in which they were on very shaky ground in their typically tense relations with Japan.
Yeoh plays Fok Ming-ming, the daughter of a famous adventurer and a bit of a thrill-seeker herself. She’s hired to fly her yellow bi-plane to retrieve a Chinese spy named Youda (Lowell Lo), who just so happens to be the lord of the city. The problem is, the city, which is in the middle of nowhere, is occupied by Japanese forces under the control of General Toga (Tetsuya Matsui). Should he find out that Youda isn’t loyal to the Japanese occupiers as he claims to be, it would mean certain death for him and likely for his sister, Chin-chin (Chindy Lau), as well.
Before Ming-ming can rush in and save the day, she’s to meet with Secret Agent #1, Wong (Tung-Shing Yee). And she does just that, but not before being fooled into believing a trickster named Paulina Wong (Richard Ng) is actually Secret Agent #1. See, Paulina, who is a man with a woman’s name, winds up with Wong’s watch when he finds it strapped to a carrier pigeon. At any rate, Ming-ming, Wong and Paulina all, through a calamity of errors, wind up working together to try and save Youda who is, in turn, trying to keep things copasetic with the Japanese, who intend to use the walled city as a factory to build their new poison gas facility.
It doesn’t prove to be an especially easy mission, but Ming-ming and her trusty whip, along with her newfound compatriots, are more than up for the challenge.
Magnificent Warriors is a very well-stage action movie, saving the biggest and best of its set pieces for the final reel and really delivering the goods as it moves towards the finish line. The film’s main flaw, however, is that you never really believe any of the ‘good guy’ characters are in any actual danger because of the lighter, comedic tone that permeates much of the movie’s running time. While that’s clearly what David Chung and company were going for, it does hurt the film a bit in that scenes that should be suspenseful and that are admittedly expertly choreographed and genuinely exciting to watch don’t quite have the impact that they would have had if this were made with a more serious tone.
That said, a strong cast and those aforementioned action set pieces make this a plenty entertaining film regardless. Yeoh is great in the lead, she moves like a cat, very nimble and fast and just really fun to watch. She handles the more dramatic elements just as well as she does the action and the comedy and she’s the perfect choice to carry the movie. Richard Ng, instantly recognizable from his work as one of the Lucky Stars alongside Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, is genuinely funny in his role, while Lowell Lo, Chindy Lau and Tung-Shing Yee are all pretty decent in their parts as well. Tetsuya Matsui is also pretty effective as the heavy in the film.
Magnificent Warriors – Blu-ray Review:
88 Films brings Magnificent Warriors to Blu-ray framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and in AVC encoded 1080p high definition with the feature using up 29.1GBs of space on the 50GB disc. Transfer quality is pretty solid. Some scenes look a bit soft, but it’s quite likely that this is due to the original cinematography. There’s very little noticeable print damage here aside from the odd scratch or two, while color reproduction looks really strong. Skin tones appear lifelike and natural throughout and the transfer benefits from strong black levels. There might be some light DNR here, as things look just a tad smooth and a little waxy. Compression is pretty solid and all in all, the picture quality here provides a pretty nice upgrade over the previous DVD edition.
Audio options are provided in the original Cantonese and in dubbed English in LPCM 2.0 Mono with optional English subtitles. Both tracks are clean, clear and properly balanced. There might be a bit of distortion here and there but it’s mild and infrequent. The score sounds good, gun shots and other sound effects pack a decent punch and the levels are fine. Subtitles are easy to read and free of any noticeable typos.
Extras start off with an audio commentary with Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng. He goes over the film's alternate titles, it's budget and production history, how Johnnie To worked as the second unit director on the movie, how D&B Films came to make the movie, how the film posits Yeoh's character as a swashbuckling hero, who did the dubbing on the film, little tricks like the use of baby powder to enhance the hits in the fight scenes, the skillful editing on display in the movie, details on the different cast and crew movies with a lot of information about Yeoh's life and times, details on some of the actual historical events that inspired the movie particularly as they pertain to the depiction of the Japanese forces in the story, the sets and costumes featured in the movie and the quality of the art direction, the scale of the final fight sequences and plenty of other details relating to the film and its history.
A seven minute archival interview with Michelle Yeoh sees the actress discussing how it was the toughest film she ever made and almost made her swear off making action movies all together, how it was a very hard shoot and how the whole things was shot on location, how the shoot went much longer than it was supposed to, specific challenges that arose on set, getting to use a whip in the movie and how that was very difficult, the use of wire work in the film and the differences between working on a Hong Kong production and a Hollywood production.
The disc also includes an archival interview with action director Tung Wai that runs thirteen minutes. He speaks about shooting in Hong Kong and Taiwan, what Yeoh was like to work with and how she got injured on the third day of shooting, how Yeoh had to overcome a lot of difficulties during the making of the movie, keeping the action on the lighter side until the big finale and other work he's done in the Hong Kong film industry including projects with Jackie Chan.
Finishing up the extras on the disc are two original Hong Kong trailers, an English language trailer, alternate English language opening credits, a still gallery, menus and chapter selection options.
It’s also worth pointing out what a nice job 88 Films has done with the packaging on this limited edition release. The Blu-ray case features a reversible cover sleeve, and this fits inside a slipcase featuring that newly created art on the exterior. Also tucked away inside the slipcase is a double-sided foldout poster featuring the new artwork and the original poster art as well as a full color book that includes an essay on the film by Matthew Edwards titled ‘Indiana Yeoh And The Second Sino-Japanese War’ that offers some valuable context for the film. The book is nicely illustrated with a lot of great full-color archival photographs.
Magnificent Warriors - The Final Word:
Magnificent Warriors is a solid mix of martial arts action, goofy humor and high adventure, made all the better by Yeoh’s very welcome presence. The Blu-ray edition from 88 Films presents the movie in a nice transfer, with strong audio and with some pretty solid extra features as well. Recommended.
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Magnificent Warriors Blu-ray screen caps!
