Review of Burning Paradise

AKA BURNING PARADISE ~ This movie is absolute bonkers, seek it out and relish in its awesome martial arts wackiness. It's kind of like if William Lustig directed a martial arts remake of Temple of Doom with Mario Bava on set design. Within the first five minutes a man is sliced in half leaving his lower half geysering blood while still riding a horse and then a horse is accidentally decapitated by a flying guillotine-esque weapon, now that's how you start a movie! From then on its a wild ride into hell, with the valiant Fong Sai-Yuk leading you through the darkness. The temple is creepy as hell, making you feel at times like you are watching a horror film. The fight scenes are excellent, very creative use of weapons and sets. The drawbacks are mainly the poor dubbing job, the English dub sounds like it was recorded on an old beat up tape recorder and worst of all it's not complete. Some misplaced attempts at silly humor also put a damper on things. But it's a great concept and a nice change of pace from your typical martial arts outing. Definitely for fans who like their Wu Xia served up grim and bloody. Ringo Lam went balls to the wall on this one, and for that I think it's worth recommending.