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Å]°ì­¸Às (1991)
The Stone Age Warriors


Reviewed by: Chungking_Cash
Date: 03/24/2007

"The Stone Age Warriors" is a fever dream conjured up by an industry known for pacing its action/adventure films at a fever pitch.

Former second unit director Stanley Tong makes his debut in the director's chair with a peculiar tale that borrows from other (often superior) sources but is peerless in terms of plotting.

Deep in the rain forests of New Guinea, merciless natives attack a group of Asian tourists (that cut off Dick Wei's hand!).

A Hong Kong insurance investigator (Nina Li Chi), girlfriend to one of the men on the tour (Chang Kuo-chu), leaves for New Guinea to clear their names following accusations of staging the incident to collect money by way of insurance fraud.

Accompanying the investigator is her boyfriend's daughter (Elaine Lui) who just so happens to be a star of Japanese karate flicks.

Once there, they inadvertently step in-between a war of two native factions and are saved by the more humane one, only to discover that one member of the tribe is the son of a Chinese missionary (Fan Siu-wong).

The insurance agent, the movie star, and the Christian set out to find the whereabouts of the missing boyfriend in the midst of war where the other tribe's come into alignment with a group of multi-national cocaine traffickers.

Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: mrblue
Date: 09/26/2006

Stanley Tong is one of the most well-known directors in Hong Kong, having helmed most of of Jackie Chan's recent work produced in Asia -- and it all started with Stone Age Warriors, an ultra-low budget picture. While it falls into many of the traps of the genre, it still generates enough thrills during its' running time to warrant a viewing from fans of Hong Kong action films.

The story begins with an explorer named Nakamura heading deep into the jungle to find a hidden treasure. But the "treasure" is actually a drug cache guarded by a vicious tribe, and Nakamura is captured. His daughter, Eko (Elaine Lui) heads off to find him, with an insurance investigator (Nina Li) in tow. Along the way, they meet Lung Fei (Fan Siu-Wong), a missionary's son whose kung fu skills come in very handy as they head deeper into the jungle.

Stone Age Warriors starts off quite well, with a tight action sequence where Dick Wei tries to fend off the tribe going after Nakamura. There's severed limbs, spikes in heads, and faces splattered -- great, bloody stuff. Unfortunately, like most low-budget films from this era, the next forty-five minutes or so are alternated by dopey comedy and boring expostion scenes. Stanley Tong is a fine action director, but he can never seem to get good performances from his actors.

Thankfully, the pace picks up over the last half-hour, with a series of solid stunts and fights (some of which Tong would later re-use in Police Story 3 and Project S). It's not enough to totally negate the filler which preceeded it, but if you're in the mood for some brainless action, then Stone Age Warriors is probably right up your alley.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]

Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: ksbutterbox
Date: 03/18/2002
Summary: Real Cool Movie..

This one is always a pleasure to view every 6 months or so..Kung Fu/Tarzan/& sheer jungle triad horrors all rolled into a Stanley Tong wonder! Highly Recommended ! Very creepy in places..much more so than most HK films!


Reviewed by: STSH
Date: 03/17/2000
Summary: I second that opinion

Steve's said basically all I'd say.
Just a couple more things ->
Despite the full-on action opener, the story takes awhile to fully warm up. It jumps from Papua New Guinea to HK to Japan to Irian Jaya, and finally back to PNG. From there on, it's full-on action and thrills.
Lastly, I think any New Zealander would be surprised to hear that there are Maoris in New Guinea ;)

Reviewer Score: 9

Reviewed by: spinali
Date: 12/08/1999
Summary: NULL

In this movie miracle, kung fu star Eko Lee (cute Elaine Lui)links up with an insurance investigator, Lucy (Nina Li Chi) to find Lee's father, who's presumed dead in New Guinea -- possibly for the life insurance money. They dodge warring Maori tribesmen and equally menacing treasure hunters, flee from man-eating komodo dragons, survive a twenty-foot drop down a waterfall, escape from ferocious mercenary tribesmen, perform some jungle fu, and get live scorpions on their arms and down the front of their blouses -- all without stunt-doubles. Frightening, fast-paced and completely convincing, many of the fight and action sequences inspire a Raiders of the Lost Ark kind of awe. Stay around for the astonishing outtakes at the end.

(4/4)



[Reviewed by Steve Spinali]

Reviewer Score: 10