SEE ALSO A TO Z CONTENTS LISTINGS ATHEISM / HUMANISM CULTS AND BRAINWASHING ENGLISH CIVIL WAR HISTORY AND RE-ENACTMENT PAGES EROTICA (ADULTS ONLY) .FILM REVIEW PAGES FUNNY PAGES GENERAL ARTICLES GENERAL PHOTOGRAPHS HOME PAGE LINKS TO OTHER PEOPLES PAGES LISTS (MY TOP TENS OF EVERYTHING) MANCHESTER, ENGLAND MY FICTION MY POETRY MY SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY AND HORROR PAGES MY SCRIPTS NEWS PHOTOGRAPHS OF ME UPDATES WEBSITE REVIEWS FACEBOOK - http://profile.to/arthurchappell/ My Space http://www.myspace.com/arthurchappell E-MAIL arthur@chappell7300.freeserve.co.uk MY BOOK REVIEWS These reviews and abstracts cover just about every book I have read recently. Scroll through the whole alphabetical list of abstracts and reviews below, or look through the following genre and sub-category list SUB-CATEGORIES - CHILDREN’S BOOKS CLASSIC LITERATURE COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS CULTS ENGLISH CIVIL WAR EROTICA (ADULTS ONLY) FANTASY HISTORY HORROR HUMOUR MANCHESTER, ENGLAND NEWSPAPERS/MAGAZINES NON-FICTION PHILOSOPHY POETRY RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORIES A TO Z OF BOOK REVIEWS BY AUTHOR A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z (Superhero comics are listed alphabetically by the name of well known heroes, i.e., Batman Superman, etc).

FILM REVIEW – ARRAHAN

Intelligent, perceptive, tense and often very funny Chinese martial arts film with something of a nod to the Matrix. What separates this from the competition is the sense of conflict between ancient traditional values and modern crass commercialism. A group of Taoist Masters of extreme Martial Arts lament the lack of customers seeking their training. The kids they need to train are all too caught up in TV, and computer games. They consider using their skills in some kind of publicity stunt to attract new disciples.

One day, the trained and beautiful daughter of one of the masters uses her powers to stop a bag snatcher in his tracks. She uses a trick called ‘Open Palm’ which allows her to hit a man without physically touching him. The blast is however so powerful that she also knocks out a young hapless, naïve police man. Realising that he is hurt, she takes him back to the headquarters of the Seven Masters so that they can heal him. They are stunned however when his Chi energy heals him from within. They realise that the policeman has the potential to become a new Master like them. The policeman is reluctant at first, but the power of Open Palm impresses him. He has enemies who beat him up regularly. He wants to learn open palm so he can fight back effectively. However, he is obliged to learn everything else too, which he doesn’t want to do. His trainers rapidly lose faith in his ability to discipline himself properly.

The Seven masters now operate from a town centre hall, but once had a glorious temple out in the mountains. They lament at how impractical it was in that they had to spend more time climbing up the mountain than actually training once they got there. The Temple was gradually buried under the development of houses and shops on the mountainside, but the Masters learn that it has now been discovered and that it could soon be renovated. They exploit this to go on TV and show off some of their skills. This proves to be dangerous.

As the walls of the temple are broken open, the renovators are shocked to find an elderly man deep in meditation there, years after he was buried within. He gets up, and moves masonry around by sheer will and escapes. He is a devourer of Chi energy who seeks a key, which will give him the power to take over the World. The Five surviving members of the Seven Masters (nicknamed Power rangers by the cop) know that he killed the other two Masters.

The cop now finds that he is developing his powers effectively. He spontaneously takes on the thugs who have been tormenting him, much to the annoyance of the young girl who is a Master’s daughter, who he has come to love. As they argue, the man who escaped from the Temple (now having swapped bodies with a younger man) attacks tem. The cop defends himself, despite the girl warning that the man is too powerful a foe. Some of the Masters are injured, but in a truly epic battle that is brilliantly staged if rather too long, the cop wins the day. He and the girl are now the carriers of the key (a series of tattoos on their backs).

There are great moments of comedy among the thrills. The cop convinces himself that he can walk on eggs without breaking them and trashes whole crates of them in a shop, much to the annoyance of the owner.

There is also a lovely scene in which the naïve cop is told to look for signs of ordinary people doing extraordinary things because they have natural Chi. He looks at men cleaning sky scraper windows without fear of heights. He sees a media report of an old woman chasing off armed bank robbers single handedly. The imagery starts off naturalistic, but son gets silly when he sees a man carrying a heavy fridge-freezer on his own. A fun film that has likeable characters and some genuine tension amidst the laughs.