They meet up and are soon ambushed by the 'green army', the 'yellow army' and the 'red army'. They can't both be right, and since Ti Ming agreed with both, he must be wrong) and East Zu Soldier (Samo Hung) is just on the run from the war. Ti Ming (Yuen Biao) is court marshaled for agreeing with two of his own generals (one wanted to attack by land, the other by sea. The film starts with two rival soldiers, Ti Ming who fights for the 'blue army' and East Zu Soldier who fights for the 'orange army', trying to escape (quite comically I might add) the absurdities of war.

However, Hark uses this fantasy backdrop for politically charged themes and metaphors. Zu Warriors is the ultimate Martial Arts fantasy. And, only Tsui Hark could make such a convoluted mess of a narrative so much pure fun to behold. Zu Warriors is also pure Hark: no other director could have crammed 3000 years of Chinese mythology into an 98-minute mini-epic with as much visceral stimuli, humor, over the top action and nuttiness as Hark did.

The film is really a site to behold, moves at an unbelievably fast pace, and employs some of the zaniest special effects and action sequences ever captured on film.

To truly appreciate Tsui Hark's film Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain, one must approach the film from a total aesthetic view.

Mount and blade magic