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Review : Deadful Melody on DVD
Check it Suckas! It is Deadful Melody on DVD!
This movie is yet another cool Tai Seng DVD release. Tai Seng does not make movies themselves but they do a wonderful job translating and re-mastering Chinese movies for a US release that is true to the original. When they do a "Special Edition DVD" and the director is not there or can't speak English they have this American Hong Kong martial art film historian who is a uncanny human encyclopedia of these movies. He does a very informative and entertaining commentary. I love Tai Seng releases and I implore you to seek them out.
But on the 1993 movie Deadful Melody. I first wrote it down as Deadly Melody but Mr. EvilNinja pointed out the errors of my ways. I do suck.
This is a fantasy martial art movie set in a historical period that uses modern dialog and wire powered martial art fights to make an entertaining movie. These are know as Wire-Fu to the fans of the Genre. Deadful Melody is a good Wire-Fu movie but it is my no means one of the best.
It is a story about a magical lyre, a Chinese harp that has magical powers and can devastate an army with explosive blasts just by playing it. There is the mistress of the lyre played by Brigitte Lin who hired a security company run by Yuen Biao to transport the magical device. The lyre is sought by Carina Lau a student of a fanciful group of leaders of the martial art world. God the costumes of the martial art leaders are something else. I love the "Fire leader" who has a bright red beard and looks just like an orangutan.
Bridget Lin my favorite actress in international action movies and she is great in this movie just like she is in Bride With White Hair and Dragon Inn. Yuen Biao is a childhood friend of Jackie Chan and a lot of the martial art comedy style comes out in the dialog and gags between him and Carina Lau.
This movie is a wee bit psychotic and hard to follow. Fantasy historical Wire-Fu comedy action movies tend to be colorful and bipolar.
This movie is intentionally stupid and is not that accessible to a typical western audience. Iron Monkey would be a safer choice but for those who are no stranger to the wacky world of Wire-Fu this should be a good hour and a half.
Jake at July 9, 2003 
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Comments
it sounds and looks fantastic to me...
Posted by: Lilly at July 9, 2003 6:06 AM
I'm currently considering getting the dvd for shaolin temple, aka Death Chamber, aka, precursor to 5 Masters of Death (aka Death Chamber 2), you get the idea ;)
This is one of my all-time favorite shaolin based movies in which the shaolin temple gets burned down and they're trying to look for the traitor. Has everything from secret hand symbols to tea drinking to identify who is the real shaolin. Great stuff, check it out if you get the chance ;)
Posted by: wuji at July 9, 2003 7:50 AM
