A Fun Fight Flick
Summary
Nine-Ring Golden Dagger is a well-paced 95 minutes packed with fight scenes and bloodshed; some of the humour doesn’t work and there is too much wirework, but it’s a harmless watch ad our 3 leads are appealing.
Plot: During the Northern Expedition of Yongxi in the early Song Dynasty, General Yang Ye heroically sacrificed himself, and his posthumous reward, the NINE-RING GOLDEN DAGGER, fell into Liao territory. A decade later, his daughters, Yang Baba and Yang Jiumei, set out to reclaim it, facing relentless dangers. On their return, they ally with Jiao Guangpu, a former soldier of Yang Ye. Together, they outwit and overcome three enemy attacks, ensuring the dagger’s safe return to Song lands.
Review: Directed by first-time filmmaker Xiaojun Feng, NINE-RING GOLDEN DAGGER stars Song Tian Shuo (Cliff Walkers), Zhang Xin Tong (A Man Called Hero), and Zhang Kai (The Tai Chi Master). The movie opens with a fantastic last stand by General Yang Ye who keeps battling his enemies despite being assailed with arrows. It’s an immediate attention grabber and sets the tone for the rest of this entertaining and well-paced epic.
Nine-Ring Golden Dagger is around 90 minutes which automatically gets my seal of approval as it rarely slows down for more than few seconds; there are near constant fight scenes which sadly incorporate a lot of wirework, but they still have a lot of energy to them and it doesn’t skimp on violence either.
The tone is at times light with some moments of goofy humour, but it does become more dramatic as it goes on with a few betrayals along the way. The antagonist our group face off against at the end is a decent showdown although how any of them survive is beyond me. I did find there were too many characters and it all got a bit cluttered at times, but it’s still an easy enough watch.
Overall, Nine-Ring Golden Dagger has fight scenes every few seconds and it’s well paced however, I’ve never been a lover of wirework of which there is a lot here. Some of the humour doesn’t quite land either, but this is still a fun ride.