Dao (1995)

Dao: Directed by Hark Tsui. With Wenzhuo Zhao, Xin Xin Xiong, Sonny Su, Valerie Chow. After the master of the Sharp Manufacturer saber factory abdicates and appoints On, his least popular worker, as his successor, On, unwilling to lead his surly colleagues, embarks on a quest of revenge to kill the evil, flying, tattooed kung fu master who killed his father.

“Apparently, this is quite difficult to see in theatres. I managed to, but it is on video. I imagine that on video, the subtitles are as difficult to read as the ones in u0026quot;A Chinese Ghost Storyu0026quot; (Another Hark title). Many of the fight scenes are, like the other title, shot on a set in near total darkness with some artificial light as u0026quot;moonlightu0026quot;. Again, on a screen, beautiful, but on video, a bit hard to see. There is A LOT of fighting, chopped arms legs and heads. (What do you expect, with the action centered around a knife/sword factory?) Itu0026#39;s so violent that after a while I found myself laughing to relieve the tension. And the spewing blood can be comical. Like many of these movies, even the u0026quot;goodu0026quot; guys have questionable motives. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI was interested in this because Iu0026#39;d read that Hark stopped production in the middle because of one of the actressu0026#39;s complaints and rewrote it from a womanu0026#39;s perspective. Still, the main female character is whiny, silly and sheltered, little more than a typical HK plot device to get fights going. I found her character very annoying.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePlot: 4 of 10, fight scenes 8 of 10 IF you can see them on a large screen. Subtitles are lousy, but not really necessary.”