From Joseph Lai and Tomas Tang comes a real movie? Yep, no insertions of bad gwailo actors or ninjas (that they did much later with The Magnificent), this is way early where the duo stood together and produced movies in the old school vein instead. The Magnificent is aided by a wise combo to have its serious plot basically be the framework for a pretty constant assault of kung-fu. No extensive talking or filmmaking thinking it's better than it is, because of it director Chan Siu-Pang comes off as an actual genre filmmaker. Especially so when the basic but intriguing ideas of a Ching Dynasty princess (the kickass Doris Lung) siding with Carter Wong's Yao's are brought forth without feeling the need to put the narrative drive in a tub of glue. Betrayal, power struggles and training scenes featuring vital pressure point-mastering, you all know where that is heading... fast. Casanova Wong lights up the screen with kicking every single time he's called into action and while uneven, the rest of the choreography done by leads such as Carter Wong and Chen Sing excites to a decent degree. Well-rounded isn't a very common verdict to slap on an independent martial arts movie but The Magnificent deserves that and a pat on the back.