In this movie, the female lead is called Marina Pinares, and she's first introducted as a cold, elegant blonde with perfectly upswept hair, at the height of her power, but also dying from an initially unspecified ailment.

The film goes from there in a series of flashbacks between past and present, and can be a bit difficult to follow, but the actress who plays Marina does a very effective job. She deftly portrays both a miniskirt-wearing party girl seeking to sleep her way to the top and out of a dreary existence; and a ruthless, determined First Lady, clad in glamorous furs, seeking to cement her immortality as "Little Mother," the icon of her country.

As First Lady, Marina smoothly manipulates the media and mass crowds, has her posters plastered everywhere, and lets the public openly witness little acts of charity, and it's clear she actually runs the country and the President, a colonel she opportunistically married, is but a figurehead. However, while her husband is about to run for re-election, she creates tension in the military hierarchy backing the Pinares regime with her ambition to formally run as Vice-President, as the conservative junta does not approve of this. Moreover, men from her past threaten the saintly image she has carefully crafted.

The film was shot in Croatia in the early 1970s, then part of Yugoslavia, and the actual backgrounds lend perfectly to the atmosphere. We see an elegant European style capital with grand boulevards and ancient buildings, as well as dreary modernistic apartments and squalid slums.

As for sex, there is a very interesting scene where Marina is showering and her lover approaches the glass door of the shower stall. She presses herself against the glass and he makes love to the outline of her naked body. Watch it more than once, it's far more erotic than a lot of "love" scenes in other movies.

Overall, it's quite a fascinating political drama inspired by a controversial historical figure.

It's a very straightforward tale of good versus evil, even to the point of the bad guys wearing all black (well, with the exception that the officers and better warriors among the Japanese pirates wear red), and the good guys wearing white.

Wang Yu's character is a swordsman who arrives in a small town on his way to Hangchow to help his uncle (a garrison commander) battle the latest pirate incursion. He's too late to help his uncle, as Hangchow has already fallen, but after killing and driving out an advance party of pirates in the town, he feels honor and duty-bound to protect the little town from an inevitable future reprisal.

Therefore, he recruits some martial arts masters, and conveniently two of them head formerly rival schools with a large numbers of disciples, offering an instant large army.

The real heart of the movie boils down to one of the longest, most intense, and intricately battle sequences put on a martial arts film as the full weight of the pirate force attacks the town. It's probably half an hour long of non-stop combat, street to street and house to house fighting. The body count piles up until the faces withdraw for a breather, and the hero must face the evil pirate warlord in a final one on one duel at night.

Also, this is one of the few films that's practically all male in its cast. There is not only no leading lady, one can hardly even spot a single female among the few crowd shots of civilians. If you just want to see a no-nonsense, action-packed, stick 'em with knives, stick 'me with spears (and even stick 'em with chopsticks) type of flick, this is the movie for you.

Anyway, the story centers on an unassuming warrior played by Andy Lau. A city in the path of an army seeking to invade another kingdom is fearful of being swallowed up in the process, as the Zhao forces need to protect their rear and maintain a secure supply line. Therefore, the city seeks aid from the Mozi clan, famed for their defensive expertise.

It later turns out the lone hero who comes to their aid did so on his own conscience, as the Mozi clan actually did not want to get involved.

None the less, although he is not a veteran general who had never protected a city before, he convinces the local king to trust him as their only hope, and he is granted command of the garrison. Naturally, his skillful tactics and leadership stymie the enemy and force them to withdraw. It indeed becomes a "battle of wits" as the opposing general becomes obsessed with defeating this Mozi military genius, to the point of abandoning his original invasion of the other kingdom.

However, there's more to the plot than that. The success of the Mozi warrior breeds jealousy and resentment among the city's elite, and his popularity among the people and his preaching of "universal love" threatens the king's autocratic rule. Therefore, he is ultimately betrayed and arrested by the very people he risked his life to defend, only to escape with a little help.

In the meantime, the Zhaos prepare one last sneak attack, and it really amounts to a test by their general to see if this brilliant warrior is really so pure that he would return to again save the city that had forsaken him.

Although the story is inspired by the Era of Warring States prior to China's unification, the movie's creators do take some strange liberties. For example, Andy Lau's character rescues a Mandarin speaking black guy (how did an "African" fellow end up in 4th century BC China?), and there is a battle sequence where the Zhaos attack with from the sky via hot-air balloons, which looks rather corny to me.

None the less, aside from these fanciful elements, it's a fairly well told story of sacrifice, loyalty, honor, and the quest for peace in a troubled world.

While "Fearless" was marketed as Jet Li's "last" period martial arts epic, he's back in costume here as plucky Qing General Pang. He does have several fight scenes, but unlike past movies where his performances showcased his highly acrobatic skills, this role instead requires more dramatic effort from him. So there are many close-ups of his now middle aged face, lined and weary, and they very effectively convey the image of a warrior who has seen too much of the world's horrors.

Nonetheless, despite the many setbacks he faces, General Pang is a survivor and an opportunist, and he hasn't given up hope that his fortunes will change for the better. For example, in the opening of the movie we see a Qing Army annihilated by Taiping rebels, and Pang is the only survivor. We later learn that another commander deliberately shirked from assisting him and left his army to its fate.

Pang ultimately encounters a rag-tag bandit gang who rob to survive, led by Er-hu (Andy Lau), and Jiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). However, after the gang is divested of their food by the same Qing troops who deserted Pang and his men, Pang convinces Er-hu and Jiang to join the Imperial Army, for they will not lack for food or loot, nor be bullied by other soldiers.

Thus, the trio swear an oath to become blood brothers, and ultimate leadership would go to Pang, who enjoys success after success. Of course, as in the Shaw Brothers version, there is a woman who will come between the two lead men.

However, in "The Warlords," Pang is a much different character than General Ma (played by Ti Lung) in the earlier "Blood Brothers," for Ma is unabashedly ambitious and unfliching in killing anyone who stands in his way.

On the other hand, when Pang does away with his enemies and rivals, he feels the weight of guilt on his conscience, and at least he tries to rationalize his actions as being for the greater good, and perhaps he really did mean well.

After all, Pang does not openly punish Er-hu when the latter challenges his authority at times, and he even weeps when he orders a massacre of Taiping prisoners, for his own army is hungry and desperately short on food. Moreover, even as a collision course is set up between Pang and his two brothers, corrupt Qing officials jealous of Pang's success are plotting to kill him anyway. This latter angle wasn't present in "The Blood Brothers."

The tragic ending is rather predictable, regardless whether you've seen "The Blood Brothers" or not, and yet this verson is worth watching for the credible performances, the high production vales, and in particular the realistic, extremely detailed battle scenes. In one of the early battles, Pang uses an interesting tactic of sending a forlorn hope of swordsmen to charge Taiping musketeers, a moving shield for the following archers who fire in support, therefore allowing the rest of army to close to sword fighting range. It's quite impressive to watch, and it's also cool to see the Taiping rebels fire muskets successively in ranks like well-drilled European professionals.

Michael Hui starred and directed in this romantic comedy where he's a hapless musician who just happened to witness a gang killing, and in order to save his skin, disguises himself as a woman named Dong Dong in an all-girl band. He thus meets and becomes smitten with the lead singer Ding Ding (played by Cherie Cheung), and the film plays out as a series of gags and deft escapes as he tries to woo Ding Ding, avoid the attentions of a suitor who lusts after Dong Dong, as well as evade the gangsters who are out to get him.

Alas, upon first viewing, the gags really hit home. Upon a second viewing they just didn't seem all that hilarious. I suppose when I was a kid the absurdity of a guy pretending to be a girl seemed a funny gimmick, but it sort of falls flat now that I'm older. Nonetheless, back in the mid 1980s, Cherie Cheung was very pretty and cute, and especially sultry when she appears in a low cut white dress with one strap falling off her right shoulder.

It's still a charming little flick, and might be worth your dollars if you don't mind a slightly silly type of romantic comedy.

Anyway, I love Sonny Chiba's films and decided to suspend disbelief and check out the film. As it turns out, I'm not disappointed. At its most basic, the plot invovles a detachment of Japanese Self-Defense Forces soldiers who somehow get trapped in a strange phenomenon that sends them back to the Age of Warring States, along with their weapons and equipment, namely a tank, a helicopter, and a patrol boat.

They are soon discovered by Kagetora (aka Uesugi Kenshin, historically a famous warlord) who eagerly embraces them as allies. The SDF soldiers, led by Lt. Iba (Sonny Chiba), later do join forces to fight with Kagetora, as Lt. Iba rationalizes that by "changing" history perhaps they might cause another distortion in the universe to force a higher power to return them to their own time.

Nonetheless, the film is less about science fiction, and more about how people might change if thrust into extraordinary circumstances. A few such as Cpl Yano decide to take advantage of superior firepower to loot, rape, and kill, forcing Iba hunt him and other renegades down.

Meanwhile various spies track Iba, his men, and their exotic hardware. As Iba develops a strong friendship with Kagetora, learning the old ways of horse archery, kenjutsu, and yari spear combat, it becomes apparent that he loves his new surroundings. In modern Japan, he is but a junior officer in peaceful times, but in the 16th century, he can become virtually a king, and he might not want to go back even if given the chance.

The highlight of the movies is definitely for me the re-interpreted battle of Kawanakajima. Historically, Kagetora faced off against another great general, Takeda Shingen in one of the most spectacular battles in feudal Japan. In the movie, it's Iba and his tiny squad against Shingen's thousands of samurai.

What's truly fascinating is how the Takeda army tries to adopt innovative tactics, weapons, battlefield intelligence, and advanced planning in an attempt to overcome Iba's technology.

It's a breathtaking battle worthy of any samurai epic. Flags flutter in the air, the various divisions are in full armor and colorful uniforms, masses of cavalry and ninja go in action, and there are ambushes galore. Ultimately, Iba barely manages to triumph against seemingly overwhelming odds, but not without losing his war machines, and even the most powerful tank must eventually run out of fuel and ammunition.

What follows is rather anti-climactic and sad, even if somewhat predictable, for in a ruthless winner-takes-all era, how long can Kagetora and Iba stay allies?

Not here, though. Tony Jaa does not simply "kick butt," his character relentlessly but efficiently breaks arms, wrists, legs, and necks in some of the most intense action sequences ever put onto film.

In a follow-up to the hit "Ong-Bak", he plays a young man named Cam who is descended from a long line of warriors dedicated to guarding the King's elephants in battle.

One day during a festival where his father goes to present their treasured elephant as a gift to the King, gangsters suddenly steal it as well as the cute baby elephant. These gangsters are tied to an organized crime family headed by Madam Rose in Sydney, Australia, and they have truly nefarious motives for trafficking in rare and endangered animals.

This sets in motion Cam's journey to Australia, where despite not able being to speak a word of English, he conveniently runs into and is befriended by some expatriate Thais, including Police Sgt. Mark, a buffoonish character played by the same guy who acted the "Hum Lae" role in "Ong-Bak".

As later explained in the film, there is a special bond between Thais and their elephants--the noble animals are especially like family to those descended from elephant warrior guardians--so whoever dares to harm or endanger elephants better be prepared to face some "ass whoopin'".

Thus Cam takes down all sorts of fighters, including three beefy wrestlers and Madam Rose and her deadly whip. The DVD sleeve proudly proclaims no wires or CGI were involved, so the various stunts are truly impressive.

Watch Cam intimidate a lowly thug by running up a light pole and kicking out the street lamp. Re-wind it a few times just to stare at Tony Jaa's incredible athleticism. There are various moments of humor, too, mainly from Sgt. Mark. Look also for the cameo of Jackie Chan.

Overall, this is highly recommended if you like no-frills, almost non-stop action.

Gao, however, is aghast at Ying's tyrannical ways and resists cooperation. The king's daughter, Yueyang, takes a fancy to Gao and seduces him. The two become genuine lovers, even though the princess has been pledged to marry the son of the king's top general, and the king has to defuse the scandal from undermining his court.

All this unfolds in scene after scene of palace intrigue, and lots of lots of emoting that gets wearying after awhile. We see the king alternate between being angry and sentimental. He wants Gao's loyalty and musical skills to serve his grand purpose, and Gao grudingly gives in enough to save his head, but is never completely won over, and so the two are constantly bickering at each other.

In the end, Gao apparently composes the anthem but commits suicide after attacking Ying during the latter's ceremony, proclaiming himself Emperor.

So what to make of the movie?

The sets and costumes are not as lavish as other films to come more recently from China, but scenes of thousands of soldiers cheering their overlord, with fluttering banners and massive drums, does make for good spectacle. The story can be interpreted as one man's struggle to maintain his freedom of conscience, but it sounds more interesting to read in a novel, than to see it acted out as two guys going back and forth whining about each other's ways.

"Yamato's" story opens in the present day, where a young Japanese woman exhibits a great interest in the fate of the Battleship Yamato and her crew in the final days of World War 2. The audience later learns her foster father, Petty Officer Uchida, served on the ship, and she wants to know more about him and his ship-mates. She ultimately befriends an elderly fisherman named Kamio, who was one of Uchida's friends and served on that same ship as a cadet, and he agrees her to take her on his boat to the exact spot where the warship sunk in battle.

The movie then turns into a series of flashbacks, but similar to "Saving Private Ryan," there are many scenes that Kumio's character obviously did not witness or partake in, but they do serve to flesh out the personalities of the other key people.

Memories of the war are painful for Kamio, and until he met Uchida's adopted daughter and learned Uchida in fact was rescued, he never knew any of his close comrades survived and he spent 60 years of his life living with a degree of guilt.

However, by the end of the movie, he understands that having survived, to live life well and to the fullest, to cherish all its precious moments, means that those who died--those who were willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice--did not do so in vain, for through him and those of the next generation, the dreams and hopes of the departed also live on.

While it's a Chilean film, the plot and the circumstances could be anywhere in the contemporary world. Basically, two strangers meet at a party, hook up for a one-night stand, eventually get around to post-sex chit chat, and end up revealing more of themselves than they had ever anticipated.

It can be intepreted as a study of how people can crave casual physical intimacy, achieve it, and yet yearn for a much more profound connection. As the director says in the interview, it is easy for one to shed his or her clothes, than to actually bare one's soul.

As you watch Bruno and Daniela interact, you get the sense that despite each of their past relationships with other people, they have never really tried getting to know their previous partners as much as they are learning about each other.

My main critique is the sometimes jerky wandering of the camera. As full nudity and explicit close-ups are already well displayed here and there, I don't see the necessity of panning back and forth from the "action."

Anyway, if you like stuff such as "Full Body Massage" or "The Night and the Moment," you'll probably enjoy "En La Cama" as well.

Alas, this is one of the worst movies I've ever endured watching, and the acting wasn't helped by atrociously poor dubbing.

The fight sequences were frequently slapstick in nature, and yet often failed to induce me to laugh, mainly because the gags weren't particularly original and would work better in a pure cartoon.

The premise of the thin plot is that a gang of Amazon warriors terrorizes a peaceful valley, coming into conflict with a masked warrior named Darma. Centuries ago, someone discovered a nearby cave's natural oil deposits, and exploiting the effects of fire from the burning fuel, passed himself off as an immortal overlord on the local villages, receiving "taxes" in return for his protection. Generation after generation of disciples were selected and trained to keep up the con game and thus Darma's "immortality," until the ambitious Amazons, greedy to learn the truth of the "secret flame," kill the latest Darma and force his young protege to seek help from 2 allies. They are Moog, a huge black guy, and Chang (played by Shaw Brother's Yue Hwa), who also want to learn the secret of immortality, albeit in a more honorable fashion.

This movie was supposed to showcase an early collaboration between Western and Eastern film studios in the aftermath of Bruce Lee's popularity, but Yue has little chance to show off the Chinese style swordplay in his best Shaw Brothers movies, and the overall budget of the film could not have been very high. Plenty of "fighting" involves Moog shoving people down with brute strength, or the new Darma ridiculously bouncing up and down (presumably using an off-camera trampoline) off walls and cliffs to evade the evil Amazons.

The Amazons themselves are mostly blonde and scantily clad women with a totally cheesy battle cry that was one of the few things that made me laugh. Alas, for the most part they are poor shots with bows and not very effective fighters. The climactic showdown takes place mostly in the dark, and with lame firebomb effects and wooden "flame-tanks" that unfortunately fail to impress me, because I've seen so much better elsewhere already.

I'm not sure what would have improved the movie...perhaps better choreographed fight scenes, or perhaps a lot more skin revealed amongst the nubile Amazons. If you like to collect vintage trash and amuse your friends on how ridiculous and dumb a flick can be, this might be for you, otherwise avoid like the plague.

Stephen Chow, well known for low-brow slapstick cinema, is the lead character Wei Shu bo, a con man who finds himself caught in the middle of vast conspiracies and ultimately both a pro-Ming rebel and a high-ranking Ching royal official through a series of highly improbable circumstances.

The films play loose with history, but the setting is inspired on the early years of the real-life Emperor Kang Hsi, a long reigning monarch who was one of China's great rulers. Before he stabilized the Empire, he had faced and overcome a number of dangerous threats from within and without. Thus, these momentous events serve as the backdrop of Wei's escapades.

He not only becomes the Emperor's loyal officer, but also retains the complete confidence of the rebel leader Chan Kan Nam, so it's highly entertaining to watch Wei utilize every bit of his smooth talking wit to stay one step ahead of an increasing array of enemies, as well as seduce one beautiful woman after another!

Nonetheless, despite his opportunism, greed, and lust, Wei remains a likeable character, as he genuinely cares for those close to him and somehow never betrays either of his two masters.

Another thing to keep in mind is that notwithstanding the subtitles and the physical gags, some knowledge of Chinese history and the Cantonese language can be very helpful to better understand the more subtle humor and wit sprinkled throughout both movies.

Lastly, those expecting classic martial arts action should be forewarned that the fights are more "wife fu" than "kung fu," but the choreography is still quite clever, expecially the use of acupuncture by the villain in the 2nd movie to control 6 mean-looking lama monks.

All in all, it's rollicking good fun.

Anyway, this film centers on Cecilia, played by the stunning red-head Muriel Montosset. After a whirlwind romance that led to her marriage to the aristocratic Andre, she feels that she's lost the passionate spark that made her fall in love with him. So she provokes her servants with strip-teases and wandering about in the nude, until one day they decide to ravish her.

She cries out in shock at first, but it turns out she's not entirely an unwilling victim. The carnal excitement from the experience seems to have re-awakened her passionate nature, and she convinces her husband that perhaps genuine love can be sustained alonside sexual adventuring, and taking lovers on the side could strengthen their own bond.

It sounds too good to be true, and Andre relents. What follows are a series of affairs and sexual escapades, but Cecilia remains frustrated and unhappy.

There is also a bizarre orgy in the middle of the movie, which in the interview included on the disk the director explains was a parody of the "LSD scene." He mentioned that drug parties were all the rage back in the 1970s, but he felt bored by them and horrified how hard drugs ruined people, and that psychedelic drugs seemed to him a cop-out to true imagination.

In sum, all these attempts to indulge the senses do not satisfy the emptiness within one's mind.

Cecilia apparently realizes this futility after the one lover she feels close to vows to leave her forever to end his torment, and her increasingly provocative behavior leads to a truly violent rape such that her husband temporarily leaves her in disgust.

Threatened to lose it all, by the end of the movie she runs back into the arms of her forgiving husband, presumably for good.

Overall the movie has some genuinely erotic moments, but feels very long that it drags in various places, especially the orgy scene. The director also mentioned it was shot on the former estate of Captain Cook outside of Sintra, Portugal a gift to him by that country's royal family in honor of his discoveries. He turned it into a botantical garden filled by exotic overseas plants, and Franco makes effective use of his sceneary. The scenery is indeed stunning, and this lush foliage suggests a state of primal savagery, of nature unbound, so it emphasizes Cecilia's sexual desire quite well.

If you are not offended by a somewhat artsy, soft-core flick of the likes that aren't going to be made by mainstream Hollywood any time soon, this may be worth getting for you. For me, it was not bad, but I would have been content to have found it for rental somewhere and watched it once, rather than committing to purchase it unseen.

The "King of Fists" is Master Chuang, a retired martial artist who now makes a living as an herbalist. The "King of Dollars" is the ruthless Master Chien, a crime boss who rules the local county through bribery and force. Whatever he cannot buy, he relies on hired thugs to enforce his will.

Therefore, there's inevitably going to be a confrontation when Master Chuang aids the local townspeople who beg for someone to stand up to Chien's ruthless refusal to provide medical care to his severely injured mine workers.

Once he fights with Chien's henchmen to secure just compensation, Chuang finds himself unable to escape Chien's wrath. One of Chuang's students gets framed for rape, and sadly, it seems hardly a surprise that those very same townspeople show their ingratitude by hounding Chuang to hand over his disciple with hardly any effort to seek out the facts.

This student is shamed into committing suicide, and other men try to further thin out Chuang's loyal support by ambushing his student "Omelette" (played by veteran Shaw Brothers actor David Chiang) and Chuang's daughter, though the latter two fight off their attackers.

The upshot of this devious plot finds Master Chuang wounded and forced to hide out with his surviving disciples and daughter, and there he tries to refine an "ultimate" fist technique that requires a man and woman to join together in clsoe combat.

There's naturally a big showdown where the villains are ultimately defeated, so in terms of storyline, this movie doesn't significantly stand out among hundreds of other martial arts flicks. None the less, it's got pretty good fight scenes and training sequences. While there are some fast cuts and wirework, they're kept to a minimum and you can see the fight choreography quite clearly.

Moreover, there is a touching dramatic scene where Master Chuang reveals to the girl that he's not her biological father, but he raised her per the will of her mother.

They don't make "old school" martial arts pieces like this anymore, so if you have a few bucks to spare, add this to your kung-fu collection. It's a satisfying, above-average "good triumphs over evil" story.

Finally, when Maetel Legend became available on sale on this site, I thought...well, why not start here? I recalled from Galaxy Express that Maetel was a tall, elegant figure, but not much else about her character, and learning about her background would be interesting as well.

The movie starts off with a narration about how her homeworld La Metalle became a dying planet. Somehow it got knocked off its normal orbit and drifted into space. An artificial sun was needed to continue giving warmth and light to La Metalle, but as its power faded, the planet's climate became colder and "mechanization" of human bodies became the apparent only option to survival (other than total abandonment the planet itself by the whole populace).

An evil scientist named Lord Headgear is the mastermind of the mechanization process. His ultimate, secret aim is to control the planet by having all the inhabitants transformed into his obedient mechanical servants, and then to conquer all other biological life forms in the galaxy.

As I haven't read any of the manga behind the movies, I don't know if Headgear deliberately caused the planet's astronomical mishap in the first place in order to fabricate a crisis, and thus a demand for his machine process, but having watched this film alone, I infer that to be the case.

Anyway, the story unfolds that the two royal princesses Maetel and Emeralda refuse to submit to mechanization, preferring to believe in the sanctity and beauty of natural, human life, and thus defy Headgear and his henchmen.

There are plentiful action scenes, although sometimes I wonder why is it that the robot troopers are so terrible in their aim (I guess there's no other explanation than typical bad guy ineptitude).

Also, it is sometimes wearisome to go through yet another mawkish scene where Maetel laments the choice between fighting or running, or laments that she cannot save her mother, etc. etc.

None the less, I suppose that's one way to stretch out the story to a feature length film. After all, if Maetel were as "let's cut the crap and start kicking butt" as her sister, the movie probably would be a whole lot shorter and we'd also lose the opportunity to compare and contrast the two personalities.

In the end, the story is both sad and yet uplifting with a message of hope, and so I found it quite enjoyable despite a few of my issues with the movie cliches.

If you care about matters of plot, it's worthwhile to watch each film twice as some things may be unclear after the first viewing, as double-crosses and plot twists come one after another, particularly in "The Dream Sword."

If you care mainly about the action and don't worry too much who's doing what or why, then at least the many sword fights at are generally quite good. However in both films there are times when various combat sequences were poorly edited and spliced together, leading to choppy transition in some of the action scenes. Fortunately, these do not detract too much from the overall experience.

For me, "old school" martial arts movies involving genuinely skilled practitioners are treasures from the past, as it's so common for wirework, CGI, and other technological tricks to substitute for advanced combat ability.

So I was quite pleased seeing the whole thing and watching each of the creative and well choreographed fights. There's also a simple and effective story as well.

The lead character played by Meng Yuan Man is a kung fu enthusiast who is forbidden by his grandfather to study the martial arts further after his elder brother gets killed in a duel. The grandfather prefers that the young man puusue only academic scholarship, but Meng rebels by running away, hoping to find masters to continue training him.

None the less he does not seek to avenge his elder brother, but rather to further his art as well as to find his own path in life, and sincerely believes learning martial arts can be for righteous or base purposes depending on the individual.

Thus, in a series of adventures he meets and befriends three different people who each impart their unique skills to him. The core of the plot however, is that each of these instructors gets ruthlessly eliminated one after another by a mysterious assassin who is an expert with daggers.

By the time the third teacher, a young woman played by Lily Li (veteran of many Shaw Brothers movies), gets murdered, I had a hunch who was behind the killings and I was right. This revelation was still very upsetting, as it was a tragic waste for each of the three teachers to die for training the youth to be a better man.

Ultimately, after this plot twist is revealed the young man tracks down and kills the assassin in a thrilling showdown, incorporating all elements of the skills he had learned.

To begin with, I defintely liked the story with the various plot intricacies, even if the animation seemed a little dated.

I instantly liked the title character, Prince Arslan of Pars, a young teenager who is in complete contrast to his ruthless father King Andragoras. Arslan is very idealistic and wise beyond his years, such that those commanded to obey and protect him ultimately continue to do so not simply because of feudal or tribal allegiance, but because they grow to genuinely admire his character. To put it simply, despite his youthful naivete, he earns their true loyalty with courage and rightoues deeds, growing into a fine leader. Arslan even wins the respect of some of his enemies, at least those willing to see reason.

As the story begins, Arslan's father is defeated in battle by treachery and sorcery, and the brutal, religiously fanatic Lusitanians conquer his kingdom. Arslan becomes a refugee, but in a series of adventures, gathers a handful of friends who later grow into the tens of thousands of devoted followers.

Nonetheless, despite the many qualities of this story that make for a sweeping epic tale...the huge battles, gorgeous details in architecture and costumes, complex political intrigue, and interesting villains, watching it leaves one seriously wanting.

Although it's advertised as the complete series, after seeing episodes 1-4 and the Age of Heroes, it became blatantly obvious that the creators never finished their grand story. Even with the Age of Heroes sequel, we only saw the beginnings of the story arc, how Arslan reacted to the fall of his kingdom, how he gathered his allies, how he won his first battles, and his fate after his father made a miraculous escape from prison to reclaim leadership of the resistance. The story ends with Arlsan effectively being sent into exile by his father, although his most trusted comrades defy the king and join him on the dusty road.

The original series is, as of this review, some 15 years old, and unless the creators or whoever owns the current license suddenly decide to re-visit it, we'll never know exactly how the story turns.

Even if I can imagine some sort of happy ending for Arslan, it's just so disappointing to see a good story just stop abruptly, leaving so many unanswered questions. For example...

Will Arslan ever lose one of his trusted 5 companions to death? What will become of his nemsis Silvermask? Etc. Etc. Etc.

I'd still recommend this series IF it's on sale, as it's a great series to watch, but just be forewarned that you're not going to get with this set the proper middle and ending to complement a promising beginning.

As it turns out, she's indeed topless or fully nude in a number of scenes, but they're usually brief and the sex often can hardly be called erotic, and that's due to the nature of the character "Anita" she plays.

Anita is a troubled teenage girl who frequently seeks promiscuous sex because she feels unloved and unwanted by her parents, and until she meets her true love and fully trusts him, her sex acts are methodical and devoid of feeling rather than passionate and torrid.

None the less, even if the story's premise does not seem entirely convincing to me, it is interestingly told in a series of flashbacks and her relationship with Erik, the young university student who becoems her guardian, takes appropriate time to develop, such that toward the end of the movie the viewer does eagerly want to know when are they finally going to hop in bed and "do it."

Well, at least I finally found the Shadow Warriors uncut on disc, and notwithstanding the price for all 27 episodes, it's a worthy investment.

The series follows the adventurs of the 3rd generation ninja master Hattori Hanzo (played by the great Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba). Hanzo's clan has fallen into hard times, and he has become the owner of an Edo (Tokyo) bathhouse, but he comes out of the shadows now and then to battle corruption and injustice, or whenever an innocent is in dire need of help.

Those familiar with samurai movies or the kung-fu genre in general, will find many of the basic plot ideas used before, but none the less, just about every episode is well-written and acted. Some stand out particularly in their poignancy, such as Episode # 18, where a warrior suddenly realizes to his horror that he has kidnapped his own daughter, whom he has not seen for several years. That and his nagging conscience finally drives him to abandon an evil cause, and he sacrifices his life to try to make things right.

The themes of love, honor, betrayal, redemption, justice, freedom, loyalty, and courage are all touched upon, and it's very intriguing to watch various characters grow as they deal with various trials and tribulations. Even if the characters were not to show much development, the series would be fun to watch anyway to see how ordinary, humble looking folk, living at the bottom, or near the bottom of Tokugawa Japan's feudal society, transform into formidable warriors whenever they heed their master's call. There are even bits of comedy, mainly in the form of the buffoonish hairdresser Orin, a middle-aged woman who's madly in love with Hanzo, or rather "Han-san," as she is not privy to his true identity.

The production values in terms of costume and sets are also pretty good. Moreover, for a mainstream TV show (albeit a very late night one when originally aired in Japan), there are frequent displays of bare female breasts, some of them casually in scenes of women bathing in Hanzo's bathhouse, and some of them in rather torrid love scenes.

Anyway, aside from the eye candy, every week features a different master villain that Hanzo must defeat. The battle sequences usually are well done, although there are fights that take place at night, or involve rapid editing cuts, so it's difficult sometimes to see what's going on. Interestingly, black exclusively seems to be the color of Hanzo's Iga ninja, and ALL other ninja factions only wear gray, brown or shades of tan. That does help to identify who's battling whom, although it's odd in a way that the bad guys can’t wear black.

Overall, given the quality of the stories, performances, and the action, plus Chiba's presence and gravitas as Hattori Hanzo in the days of his acting prime, I believe this is a classic worth acquiring and keeping. I've never seen any of the Shadow Warrior sequels, as the booklet mentions that there were several of them up until 1985, but I hope they are released soon and measure up well to the original 1980 series.