The Maidens of Heavenly Mountains (1994) User Reviews

When in doubt, vamp

[squelcho · 7/10 · 9 October 2005]

I haven't cackled so heartily at a fantasy fun fu movie in months. Rocks explode at every blow, bolts of multicoloured energy whizz around in ever more interesting geometric forms, heroines and heroes age and revivify at an astonishing rate, and there's at least two of Brigitte Lin involved, so the subtle Sapphic mood is definitely in the house. The lyre that figures so highly in the synopsis is a brief adjunct over the titles at the start and the end, which is a relief, because the dodgy fingerpicking and the sound it generates bear scant relation.

If you can just let this movie roll over you, it's pure fun. If you try to understand what's going on, you'll be frowning from the word go. As far as I can make out, there are at least four, and possibly many more, power mad characters trying to get their hands on every last scroll, jade medallion, power "stance", and otherworldy deathray in existence on earth and in the spirit world, in order to do some fancy showboating in kung fu technique heaven. I found myself thinking of Steven Chow's Kung Fu Hustle on more than one occasion. The tongue in cheek campness is fairly relentless from start to finish, and I reckon it would make a great pantomime script.

Not recommended for beard stroking intellectuals or biff bang wallop Shaolin purists, but it's compulsive viewing once it's up and running/flying/zapping/ disintegrating etc. Silly and fluffy escapism it may be, but it's bonkers enough, and keeps a straight enough face to entrance kids of any age. Compared to pompous overblown garbage like Stormriders, it's self-parodying low-budget nirvana.

Killed by the TERRIBLE translation.

[rebirth_2008 · 9/10 · 5 December 2006]

I love this movie, it's a Classic Chinese Fantasy story (along the lines of The Lord of the Rings). The actresses made the movie and I thought it was superbly casted. The story was complex, interesting and nicely adapted from the book. Granted, I speak Cantonese so it was not a problem for me to follow the twists and turns. I also speak English and *sigh* the translation really bothered me. It was wayyyyy off.

The actual dialogue is quite serious and it is spoken in "Traditional Chinese" like The lord of the rings. All the characters, stances and scrolls have really cool names but in the translation it sounds ridiculous. For example Tian Shan Tonge Low roughly means the all powerful eternally youthful one (there is only one, hence the fighting for the status). In the movie it's translated as "Tian Shan KIDDY" LOL

Anyways, all in all I think this is one of the best Chinese Fantasy movies from the genre.

luminous fantasia

[diuscorvus · 8/10 · 15 May 2019]

What to say about this film?

The only reason I know it because I watched it as a kid more than twenty years ago and was absolutely transfixed.

The source material is an epic by Jin Yong, arguably his magnum opus, "Tian Long Ba Bu." That novel has three major threads; this film picks the most tantalizingly fantastic one, ignores the rest, and basically makes a fantasia on that.

In order to understand this film, it helps to be conversant with Jin Yong's world and the Chinese fictional matrix. There are sects, there are martial arts, there is Shaolin monastery. There's also a very strong thread of an element that I can't quite translate, but "divinity" might be the right word. Basically, there is the idea that if you practice martial arts enough, or find some kind of shortcut, you can become a divine being.

The best way to understand this film is to see it in levels of power. Power here isn't money or political; it's basically having superpowers, that "divinity" I mentioned. Like I said, one can cultivate power by practicing martial arts, but there are those who are at an unreachable level of power, which gives them the ability to fly across huge distances, launch powerful attacks that destroy mountains, etc.

It also makes them incredibly beautiful, and it makes sense that they're played by two great ladies of Chinese cinema, Brigitte Lin and Gong Li. They are luminous in every frame they are in. The other, earthbound characters look a bit dingy and a bit pinched, but Lin and Gong are stunning, caressed by incredible lighting and color. The camera does what the plot can't do; it truly convinces us they are gods.

Anyway, back to the plot. These two ladies are two all-powerful beings, but -- and this is important -- they're enslaved by their very human desires. Gong is in love with Lin's twin sister, who loves their martial brother instead; Lin loves him too, but he isn't interested. So you have these two superpowerful people who are deeply unhappy with life.

In the background are the "commoners," per se. They're the squabble who have some martial arts abilities, but are puny in comparison to Lin and Gong. There's the power-hunger villain Ding Chun Qiu, the hustling Ah Zi who tries her best to ride the coattails of the great, and the naive Xu Zhu, who basically wants none of this. This film is about the reversals of fortune -- Ding manages to gain great power, but basically becomes a monster and the others combine to defeat him; Xu Zhu gains great power that he doesn't want; Ah Zi finally gains power when she least expects it. And Lin and Gong, in the end, lose their power without having achieved what they truly wanted.

There's something beautiful in the last glimpses we have of those two ladies, especially of Lin, who has been a campy firecracker throughout the film. She's walking through a monastery, still beautifully lit, still luminous, but now with a tremendous air of sadness. She has finally come to enlightenment, or at least Buddhist enlightenment; everything is transient, power becomes nothingness, human desires are illusions.

So is this even a good film? One first has to answer the question of what kind of film it is and understand what kind of milieu it's in. The characters are operatic, the plot is fantastic. But something about it has stuck with me over the years, and something about it is, I think, quite beautiful and moving.

High flying wizardry and power struggles.

[KingLouie · 31 May 2000]

First off, let me say that you have to be into the fantasy/sorcery style of asian kung-fu movies to like this one. As typical, the movies of this type where the characters have super-natural powers use lots of what some would see as "campy" special effects and profuse of wires and such.

Anyway, about the movie... The story-line is good. (Which you can read in the plot line.) Basically, there is a family clan in which all the members seem obsessed with power. And they stick together only so long as they need each others help. But as in the old Clint Eastwood westerns, you can trust no one. There is plenty "back-stabbing" as each seeks the "ultimate" kung-fu powers that will put them on top.

There isn't really that much traditional martial arts in this movie. In fact, barely any. However, it is somewhat entertaining. The movie I saw was in Chinese, with English sub-titling. So if you read like.. "bob .. a-and jerrry ... went", then just ignore the words and just look at the happenings. Because in these kinds of movies, things happen quick. Anyway, the words I can tell, don't translate very precisely.

So, this is not a "must see", unless you just like seeing that Lin woman. I wonder if she's as pretty without all the make-up they obviously must be using lots of (for I'm sure she must be nearly middle-aged by now.)

This movie has got everything

[marianobrangeri · 10/10 · 6 November 2023]

It's hard to rate this one. It has everything that is great in it.

Jin Yong wrote the book.

Gong Li in her prime. The casting could not be better, and she is as brilliant as ever in this role.

Gorgeous, beautiful visuals, photography, palette, composition, make-up, costume designs, SFX (NO CGI - AS THE LORD COMMANDETH).

Some westerners might be surprised to find out the plot revolves on (somewhat unrequited) love between women. This movie is from 1994.

Its fast, entertaining, chop-chop, action kung-fu in the best Hong Kong fashion.

One downside: you WILL need to pause and rewind at times to get a full grasp of the plot, since its given away way too early, way to quickly, and the names are all similar and it's presented in a most confusing fashion. BUT, you are not watching this on a theater, suit yourself. It's a great movie nonetheless. The sort of which I wish there were more abundant.