Takes itself way too seriously

A Masterpiece!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I watched this film under the title THE DRAGON, THE YOUNG MASTER, although it appears to be better known in America as THE DEADLY SILVER NINJA. That title refers to star Dragon Lee's predilection for donning a white balaclava and silver suit and beating up stock bad guys in the wood in various interludes interspersed into the rest of the film.The director is credited as Godfrey Ho, so you wonder if perhaps this was another South Korea production re-jigged with extra scenes by the Hong Kong film personality. Whichever way you look at it, it's a particularly nondescript entry in an over-filled genre, featuring a regularly-plotted narrative and unremarkable fight scenes. Lee gives a solid, physical performance, but nobody else makes much of an impact, and the plot has been done to death.

I got this flick on a double-bill along with, "Chinese Kung Fu Against Godfather;" both movies are on the same disk (one movie on each side), and both movies have the same problem; every so often, and without warning, the disk will just skip ahead to another scene, forcing me to rewined back to see what i missed. This made watching the movie, a rather frustrating ordeal. As for the movie itself: It's not bad, it basically consists of Dragon Lee, and Pheniox Kim Kung Fuing as many people as possible until the end of the movie's duration. It has everything you would expect from a stereotypical Kung Fu flick; bad dubbing, great fights, lame plot, hilarious sound effects, and a generous dose of campy humor. I can't think of much more to say so i'll just end the review here.

This movie really doesn't have much going for it. First of all, the kung fu in it is pretty bad all the way through. Second, the story literally doesn't get going until halfway into the movie. Third, the bad guys are some of the dullest I've ever seen. Fourth, a couple of the comic relief elements are too ridiculous even for a movie like this (esp. the guy with the Scottish accent who puts on a set of bull horns). Fifth, some scenes are so unintentionally bad that one has to laugh at them for being so embarrassing.On the other hand, the movie doesn't have anything in it that is *really* terrible, either - at least not if you know what kind of movie you're dealing with. The story, while quite bad, is straight-forward. Dragon Lee himself is not too bad as a Bruce Lee clone (he looks a lot more like Jason Scott Lee, though). He's got the Bruce Lee facial mimicry down to a tee, but sometimes he overdoes it, making really weird little sounds.Overall, this is a "4" out of 10 kind of movie, and not something you should waste your time on, unless it's for comical purposes (or if you're doing a treatise on Bruce Lee imitators...).

I had the advantage of seeing this at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin (a great movie house that serves food and booze to you as you watch the movie), in "Foleyvision." The soundtrack is off completely, and a local comedian and three other sound/voice guys do all the voices, sound effects and music.The chief bad guy was given a broad Scots accent and his brother an accent that sounded a bit like the Knight Who Says Ni in the Python movie. They dub in actual dialogue to keep a coherent story, but embellish ("Ah Ha! Now I understand, Pai Liu was his father (although I am not sure how I know that) . . .") During the fight scenes the actors say things like "Now I will defeat him with my no hands technique . . . (gets hit) . . . hmmm, maybe the one hand technique . . ." and "bet you can't do a cartwheel . . . oh, I stand corrected."Great fun.