The Storm Riders [Blu-ray]

The wuxia/super martial arts subgenre of HK films is pretty well established. However, the Storm Riders goes somewhat beyond the usual and adds in a set of actors who were clearly chosen not just for their ability to carry off martial arts on screen, but for their prettyboy looks -- a characteristic of a great deal of the "god-warrior" anime subgenre. The result is like a cross between Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Saint Seiya, and it works surprisingly well.Storm Riders has the usual angst-tragedy overtones of wuxia films like CTHD or The Bride With White Hair; the Bad Guy, Lord Conquer, is (as usual) Trying To Take Over the World, and is given a prophecy that his success and failure hinge on two people, "Wind" and "Cloud", who are mere children at that point. In the great tradition of classics the world round, like Pharoah and Moses in the Old Testament, Conquer's actions subsequent to the prophecy are, of course, going to make it come true. (Just once, I'd like to see a show in which the prophet makes this prophecy and the Evil Dude shortcircuits it by shooting the prophet and ignoring the prediction. Maybe I'll do that for my next book.) Conquer finds all boys who might fit the description and raises them as his own (having, naturally, whacked their parents). Things go along swimmingly for Conquer for a while, but naturally this is all going to come apart once the boys become young men. BOTH sides -- Conquer's AND Our Heroes' -- are rather screwed by the Prophecy, which leads, of course, to the final, inevitable showdown.Martial arts in this world are REALLY not something to laugh at. Those who master certain techniques (Frost Fist, etc) end up able to take on dozens or hundreds of lesser foes, freezing them solid, electrocuting them, burning, etc. They have power attacks that hit at range and can do damn impressive amounts of damage. Okay, we're not talking Dragonball Z here, but it's up there with Saint Seiya.Saint Seiya keeps coming to mind when watching, too; personalities and even appearances of certain characters remind Seiya fans almost irresistably of some of the Saint Seiya characters -- there's a Shun equivalent, an Ikki equivalent, and a Shiryu equivalent. The grand finale battle, featuring Conquer (who has, naturally, not QUITE taught all his tricks to his students, and is therefore FAR more powerful than any one of them) taking on Cloud and Wind together, is one of the most impressive I've seen, especially considering this was done on a budget about 1/10 of that which Hollywood would have required to do the same thing.This one's a keeper.

I have to start with some information and answers to questions first here.This IS the film about wind, cloud, storm, and frost who control an elemental force each with cloud having the water manipulation power, frost having ice powers and storm having a few powers. also in this film is the graveyard of magical swords everyone is always asking about same with the above water fighting. the special effects are truly excellent sadly this is a chinese version (region 0 aka free) and seemed to work fine on all players including the newer model sony ps2's so this is the wind and cloud disc everyone is looking for.Review: This is a story of a japanese warlord seeking to become the supreme ruler of the entire province. however there is a legend of 2 boys that will be born with legendary power and if he finds them they will unite his power throughout the land for the next 10 years.. however this is only the first part of the legend the 2nd part is stuck in an enchanted puzzle box that takes 10 years to solve. when solved it reveals that when wind and cloud join forces they will become a storm to end lord conquerer.thus the battle begins with again I say superb special effects and a asian style sword and the sorcerer type of film and some of the magical sword effects are truly amazing especally since things like this I have only ever seen done in videogames NOT Movies. it's a masterpiece and while there is an english dubbed version out there I prefer the true format it started out as without any edits and this IS IT!!!5 star special effects5 star sound and presentationthe kung fu theater acting you expect 4 starsoverall: a must own title with some blood and gore and a few godlike scenes of violence that may mar this film for a few fans of the film (like me) will be thrilled to get this full unedited version of this rare gem.buy it here!The Storm Riders

Every once in a while, a film comes out of Hong Kong that reminds me of why I like Asian cinema. Storm Riders is such a movie.While less frenetically paced than many of my earlier favorites ("Swordsman II", "Fong Sai Yuk", etc.), it nonetheless has outstanding action scenes and a creative visual style. The imagery has the mythic quality that I liked in films such as "Bride with White Hair" and "Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain", but it has a much more solid plot, more complex characterizations, and far better special effects than those films.I was also impressed with the special features on this DVD, which were far superior to the usual Tai Seng release, though not as good as many modern American-made DVDs. Even though I only watched a couple of them, it's refreshing to see that they made the effort to include a good variety of features.If "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" is the only Chinese martial fantasy film you've seen, this film may not be what you're hoping for. This is not a deep character drama, though the central love triangle is well played, and the characters do have more depth to them than in most action films. Still, though, you'll enjoy the movie best if you expect a deeper-than-normal action film rather than a more-action-packed-than-normal character piece.

I had this dvd a very long time ago and then under poor circumstances it was gone for good. I have very good memories attached to this film and although I could have wished that this was a perfected version of the film whereby even the on screen writing (Chinese characters) were translated as well, I am only glad that I got what I had before and at a reasonable price too. Very pleased

my brother wanted this movie, and it made his day when i was able to get it for him, plus it is really good. i don't want to spoil the story but you have to watch it!

a+++++++++++goodseller

Tjoa ich hab den Film auf Tele5 g'sehn (zwar net ganz, da ich erst in der Mitte reing'schaltet hab ~.~ aba egal xD) und was ich da so an Effekten so g'sehn hab, hat mich wahnsinng faziniert *_* vorallem so gegen Ende, als Wind und Wolke es tatsächlich g'schafft habn einen RIESEN Wirbelsturm zu erzeugen und somit ihren (bösen)Meister zu besiegen °__° *staun*Aba nja ich will net ZU VIEL erzähln sonst verrat ich noch alles XDDAchja, was mir noch aufg'falln is: bei den End-Credits (sagt ma des so im Film?? *kp hab* O.o) war ein Soundtrack zu hörn, den ich ausm Vampires Dawn RPG PC Game kenn und da würd's mich mal interessiern, wer jetz von wem diesn Track g'mopst hat XDDNja mehr kann ich net dazu sagen ^^ am besten ihr schaut ihn euch selbst mal an ^.~

Along with the directors cut you get two movies for the price of one. I remember this movie being a lot more awesome back in 1998 but it's the one movie that sprung all of the other wire fu flicks to come after. Great purchase.