ebiros2 Beautiful scenery, and good story sums up this gem of a martial arts film.Three individuals, Lord Conquerer (Sonny Chiba), Wind (Ekin Cheng), Cloud (Aaron Kwok) gets entangled in an ambitious conquest scheme of Lord Conquerer. Later they part ways, and battle each other.High quality is evident throughout this martial art film, and even after 10 years since it was made, it's still one of the best movie of this type. Made on high budget for Hong Kong movie, production is lavish, and scenes are breathtaking. This may be the precursor to other successful high budget movie such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". You can see very young Qi Sue in the supporting role, as she's poised to be one of the A list actor of Hong Kong cinema for the next 10 years.If you haven't seen this yet, you owe it to yourself to see it. It's a beautiful movie.

Dariunas This was one of those films I knew nothing about when I got it. I liked the look of it, and bought it. The dubbed version isn't too bad as a film, but certainly has been severely cut as I found out when I bought the DVD version.One criticism I have is that even the original Cantonese language is dubbed rather weakly. The special effects deserve a special mention as they are the best CGI to come out of a Hong Kong production, and only The Avenging Fist and perhaps a few others come close. The way FX are used in fight scenes can be spectacular at times, especially when Cloud and Wind use their powers. However, there is little in the way of tight pacey choreography like most successful Hong Kong martial art films.Ekin Cheng is consistently good, and Aaron Kwok is excellent as the brooding Cloud. The characters come across brilliantly with a real focus that's pretty rare these days where most films try to create a complicated character and fail. This film takes it's characters and pushes all the way through.The music deserves a special mention too. More electronic and driving with the distinct eastern feel, it reminds me of high budget computer game music. If anyone has played a Final Fantasy, or Squaresoft game, you'll know where I'm coming from! The story works well, however, to me, the film has a rather unfinished feel to it. They have tried to fit years of Comic book story into the film and haven't quite succeeded. It's a great effort, but VERY ambitious. If you don't know the comic books, this was adapted from, it's even better.In all honesty, there is no film I have ever seen quite like Stormriders, although on the surface, you may think, crouching tiger/Hero' type film, but it has a TOTALLY different feel.This is a film that deserves to be seen on the merit of being more than the sum of it's parts and that you probably won't ever see anything else like it.

me43 In it's original form the Stormriders (Feng yun xiong ba tian xia) is a visual treat for fight lovers, and is touchingly romantic ta'boot. While the martial arts are not of the calibre of your average Jackie Chan flick, the special effects are generally well done, with only a few lapses exposing the computer generated scenery. You might want to keep your finger on the pause button to read some of the subtitles as they generally go by fast. (An error has the English subtitles marked as "Chn" but it is the second one on the menu.) The dubbed international version is unintentionally funny at times, as it changes some of the meanings.Based on a "graphic novel" the story line has been changed a bit, so judge it on it's own merits. Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng are easy on the eye as is the romantic lead, Kristy Yeung. Shu Qi is there for comic relief as she seems to be in most of her films.Give the full screen 90 minute "international version" a wide berth as it cuts the heart and soul from the film in a brutal and baffling manner, and was wholly un-necessary as the running time in the HK version is only 128 minutes.It can be difficult to find the original letter-box version as the market has been flooded with poorly reproduced ripped copies, but legitimate copies can be found with reputable dealers.The lavish Hong Kong DVD version has an un-narrated show about the special effects, and a making of special which isn't too difficult to understand (given that it has no subtitles.) Notes on the Characters, a Poster Gallery, trailers and Actors bios (in English) are a real treat. (The making of special on the international version is not the same one on the Hong Kong version.)Try to find the Hong Kong version and resist the temptation to view the mangled international version on cable, and you won't be sorry!

gimmeabreak This movie has to be in every action and/or martial arts movie lover's Hall of Fame. It is the essence of fast paced action, outstanding special effects, and imaginative, superhero influenced ninja martial arts. If you don't like any of those things go rent a weepy romance movie instead. This is an action movie more than anything else. The fight scenes are as inventive as they are beautiful. Yeah, yeah Crouching Tiger was the bomb, but Storm Riders definitely must be given the inspirational credit for it.