YUEH FEI THE GENERAL
In commanding his troops he was considered to be tough and fair. To say that Yueh Fei kept his soldiers well trained and highly conditioned would be a gross understatement. Rare is the soldier who did more than was what was ordered of him. Occasionally, there were exceptions (i.e. Kwan Kung), but for the most part, the lifestyle of a martial artist was left for a Shao-Lin monk. But he was no ordinary man. When his group was not defending its borders, Yueh Fei would travel back home with his men to Honan Province. On these trips, he would lead the group on horseback in a series of intense, strengthening exercises which was later absorbed into the Shao-Lin temple curriculum. He would have his men run sprints and run with heavy packs on their backs. So it was true that long vacation time was much more strenuous and painful than combat! It was no wonder that Yueh Fei's army longed for battle, where they could easily defeat the enemy and have the rest of the week off!

At age 30, Yueh Fei was the leader of a seemingly invincible army. He made it his mission to eradicate the Song Dynasty of the Jin invaders - and he had amazing success, which had never been achieved before.

Yueh Fei was so skilled in military strategy, tacticts, and martial arts and his men so superior in their conditioning and skill that he once defeated an army of 500,000 with only 800 of his soldiers! So legend says the the Jin Commander sighed, " it is easier to fight Mount Tai than Yueh Fei's army."

YUEH FEI'S FINAL BATTLE
There is much speculations as to the events that led to Yueh Fei’s final battle. What we do know is that the Jin army kidnapped the two Emperors and imposed conditions on the government which would have been unacceptable to all patriots. Unfortunately, the Song Dynasty was prepared to surrender Song territory. General Yueh Fei was successfully driving the Jin State out and would have succeeded had he not been sent a summons from the Emperor. There are different reasons that this could have occurred:

POSSIBILITY #1: It was said that Yueh Fei was near freeing the two emperors, but that that the current Emperor did not want his brother, the former Emperor freed by a successful military campaign.

POSSIBILITY #2: It was said that because of jealousy, Minister Qin Hui, convinced the Emperor that Yueh Fei could not be trusted.

POSSIBILITY #3: Qin Hui, because he was bribed by the Jin State, convinced the Emperor that Yueh Fei could not be trusted.

Regardless, Yueh Fei was summoned not once, but 12 times in one day to return to the capital and disengage the enemy! Yueh Fei was so bound by honor and duty, that had any of those 12 summons reached him, he would have relinquished command without question and have returned to the capital knowing full well that he would be put to death on trumped up charges by the Emperor or the evil Qin Hui.

The Twelve Gold Medalions is based on this historical Imperial Summons! The movie delves into the martial underworld that tried to protect the great general's honor and life by laying down their lives in the hopes that the 12 Gold Medallions would not be delived.

This is a solid movie from the old vault and contains decent fight scenes and stands on its historically exciting storyline!

The stunt-work is fairly bad in my opinion, with these poor Thai guys just bashing their bodies against floors, counters, and off roofs. These guys are literally hurting themselves for their measly pay, no question about the pain, as they flop around for the camera. I saw no skill in what they were doing as it was just taking the damage for a sad paycheck. Someone forgot to tell them that a real stuntman makes it just LOOK like they're getting hurt. And it was confirmed in the out-takes as they even show all of these guys getting banged up and some poor dude even ends up in the hospital practically in a body cast as the crew and actors laugh and applaud as if there's a reason to celebrate ("Hey, you're not dead! Only paralyzed!").

I was thoroughly disappointed and couldn't believe I sat through the entire, pathetic movie. I usually think that HKFlix is right on in their ratings, but this is one where I say, "You stole 92 minutes of my life!"