Legend of the Red Dragon is a typical low budget martial arts period movie starring the legendary Jet Li. There is nothing too amazing or classic about this movie, but it's worth buying if your a hardcore martial arts or Jet Li fan.

The story is nothing original. It's the typical plot for a typical movie. Li's village is massacred by the ruling dynasty, he flees with his young son and teaches him martial arts. The two keep running from officials across the country, and end up protecting Shaolin kids also being sought by the empire. The acting is wooden, as would be expected. The movie is very predictable, and the comedy is corny. The characters are largely stereotypical, such as the female con artist, invincible villain, and arrogant children.

One special thing about this film is that we get to see Jet's abilities with the spear. The spear is one of Jet's better weapons, and it's not too common for him to use it in his movies. It is similar yet quite different from the staff, which Jet has used frequently through his career. Jet is pretty amazing with the spear, so it's a wonder why he doesn't use it more frequently.

All in all, it's an average Hong Kong 90's action movie. If your a big fan of Jet Li, get it to watch Jet Li with a spear. Otherwise, it's nothing. fancy.

The American re-release of this film, "Legend of the Red Dragon", is a mess. Shows how important seven minutes can be to a film. Deannie Yip's part (Red Bean's mother) is ripped to shreds for no discernible reason whatsoever, which unfortunately makes an important plot twist seem trivial. Also, she has the best comic moments in the original film. Columbia-Tristar is the villain here. They must think 'Fu film fans are stupid - which only goes to show how stupid THEY are. A real insult.

The original film is by no means a great film; intentionally anachronistic and overly dependent on special effects, it is clearly a kind of throwaway for Jet Li and director Wong Jing (although certainly not as trashy as their Wong Fei Hung parody, "Great Hero/ Last Hero of China"). Still, it is entertaining to a surprising extent, largely thanks to Yip's comic performance. If you can find the original (I saw it on a Tai Seng tape),don't expect much, but you may find yourself enjoying it for the characters if not the martial arts.

I watched the dvd dubbed version of the movie. It was 80 minutes of fun and entertainment. I'm a big Jet Li fan and have seen many of his films and I must say this is on the top 5 list he is in. The casts were a great mix. The movie kept a fast action, high octane flow from the beginning to the end. I was either excited by the awesome action scenes, laughing out loud on the humorous scenes, or just enjoying the beautiful sceneries. The music to the movie was awesome too. It was shear enjoyment. I'll definitely watch it again and again in the future. Jet Li played a martial art master skilled in the magic spear and in this movie you get to see his skill with spears and the amazing things he can do with it from the opening action scene.

It's short enough to be watched on some idle evening but believe me you are in for a treat...especially if you are into martial art and period movies. A happy fan.