calvinnme Set during a feudal period with many warring clans, Yuen Biao stars as a young warrior who deserts his army and , after falling off of a cliff, finds himself in a magical land in the middle of its own war. The forces of Good, lead by the ancient sorcerer White Brows (Sammo Hung), are at odds with the forces of Evil, lead by the Blood Demon (Corey Yuen). Biao teams up with a group of heroic warriors, including Adam Cheng and Brigitte Lin, to help defeat the evil menace.Filled with bizarre characters (White Brows fights with his extendable eyebrows!) and dazzling, if primitive, special effects, this film is a non-stop feast for the eyes. It maintains a light tone for the most part, and the choreography, which utilizes a lot of "wire-fu", is spectacular. It has a low budget (for American audiences, anyway) can-do feel, and a lot of the effects are done with in-camera trickery that is quite clever. The script is convoluted, the way a lot of kung-fu epics are, and there are times when you aren't quite sure who is who and what is what. Some of this I blame on the DVD I watched, a poor quality edition from a Chinese distributor, with a shoddy English-dubbed audio track. If someone were to put this out on a re-mastered Blu Ray, I would buy it in a second. Highly recommended for martial arts fans, and fans of weird world cinema.

Jannis Petersen Well, I must say, I first watched "Zu Warriors" from 2001 over and over again (about 12 times) with my brother, and we both totally love it. After that movie i got interested in the Chinese legend about zu mountain. Therefore I rented this movie, also because it is recommended in many a review. First to say, the story has many details about the Zu legend, which are important. But only that doesn't make it a good movie. I'm afraid, if I hadn't watched "Zu Warriors" first, I wouldn't have understood one inch of this movie and would be totally confused and bored after 3 minutes. Many a scene in this movie simply is so boring and unimportant, it could have been cut out or replaced (also to say, the never "Zu Warriors" from 2001 nearly tells the same story only backwards compared to this). The so-called special-effects in this high-budget Honk-Kong wuxia are honestly said the worst I've seen for a long time in a high-rated a-movie. Also It's still the early '80s, they could have done a lot better with the given budget.Summary: Only if you are hardcore wuxia fan AND are interested in the legend about ancient china zu mountains!

Guardia Fantastic and eccentric film concerning the plight of three young students battling evil to save the world. Of course, it doesn't begin as this, (and, depending on which print you have, it may vary greatly!). This is a special effects film, and the sheer amount of effort that was put into the action sequences is astounding - (although modern audiences may find difficulty in watching some of the aged techniques).The setting is what makes this film so unique - Imperial China. It is represented as being on the brink of annihilation, (from a general lack of goodness in the land, as well as continuous warring from the various regions). But, it is not the Ming Dynasty as you've seen in countless other films; this is a realm where demons, ghosts, priests, and warriors are commonplace.Yuen Biao's character is somewhat naive, but with wholesome intentions and moderate ability. He is our main character, and we see this world through his eyes mainly, (and he is equally surprised by what we see). I feel he was a little under-used in this film, and his novice status played out for much too long. His dramatic performance however, is brilliant as usual. Sammo's two small roles are refreshing and comical - his appearance really does add weight to this film.The idea of the young changing the world here is a novel and pleasant theme that I appreciate about this film. Through various dialogue and action sequences, we see that the future really does rest on the shoulders of the younger generation, and Yuen Biao's character's role symbolises this notion nicely.

pksky1 Despite the bad cinematography, bad dubbing -- dubbed in a non-English language -- and subtitles that seem to take up one third the screen, this movie has a lot of character that would make it worthwhile for the curious movie goer. There are endless, endless special effects, all of them incredible even if they are not the best quality. I saw it on VHS, it may work better on DVD. It was made in '83 so I don't think it was made to go directly into DVD. I suspect the restricted view from the subtitles suggests a wide screen, maybe not.There is another Shu Shan (Zu Warrior) made in 2001, do not confuse the two.