That was an excellent one.

Let's be realistic.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is an action, war, bullet ballet genre featuring two well-known actors - Tony Leung Ka-Fai and Yu Rong-Guang. It is set during one of the many periods last century when Japanese forces occupied Chinese cities. It opens with the lead actor, Peter Ho Yun-Tung, rescuing a countryman pilot from a plane crash. The two form a student-teacher relationship over guns. The next day the Chinese troops start trouble at the teahouse, Peter fights back, then is arrested. They are ambushed on the way back to headquarters. Peter shows his ability by out-shooting the snipers. As a reward, he is drafted. Tony Leung is his sergeant. Mission - kills the Japs. The lead actor, Peter Ho Yun-Tung, bears a striking resemblance to a Shaw Brothers star from the 1970s - Wong Yu (see The Spiritual Boxer and Rendezvous with Death.) The chase scene is above average and the rest of the action standard. If this is your genre then here you go.

I've recently been on a streak of war movies and I feel very lucky to have stumbled upon this one. The only surprise is that it doesn't seem to be a popular flick among movie fans seeing as only one person on IMDb reviewed it at the time of writing, 2 years after the movie came out.The movie is set during the Japanese invasion of China. Our protagonist (Chinese) is initially a hunter who, under a sequence of events, ends up being recruited into the Chinese army initially as a sniper.**Mild Spoilers Ahead** What's interesting about this movie is that the focus is mostly on a small covert unit, not an entire army. This makes it easy not to get lost in the details and occasionally forget who is who once bullets start flying. We get to see them get in and then fight their way out on a number of occasions. The action never let's you down. There is a romantic back-story on both sides which slowly build up into the climax of the movie. The movie slows down a bit midway but it never releases the tension it built because there's always the suspense of what might happen at any time. This works best especially if you are watching it for the first time. **End of spoilers** All in all if you looking to be entertained, ignoring any historic time-lines and events you might already be aware of, you should watch this one. It never claims to be anything else but an action movie. Come to think of it, it's actually the first time (unless I'm forgetting another) that I didn't cringe as watched a romantic plot from an Asian movie. I'm not stereotyping at all, maybe my choices have been bad. The other thing is I had to adjust to having to read subtitles, which I don't mind as long as the movie is good. So be prepared for that unless you can hear some Chinese/Japanese languages. Good plot, good acting and directing among other things. Watch this one. It's good. 8/10

I was lucky enough to see this film at its Chicago premiere courtesy of the Chicago Cinema Society. Don't know too much about director David Wu, except that he's edited some of the best action movies I've ever seen. The action touch was quite apparent here in Cold Steel. A young man somehow able to avoid the war raging in his country is recruited by the Chinese when they discover his skills as a sniper and need his help in the face of an ongoing Japanese invasion. The action is fast-paced, intense, and extremely well cut together. When at one point the lead character jumps off a roof into a neighboring building's window, a stunt cameraman follows RIGHT behind him in a nice first person view. I have never seen that before. Things slow down a bit halfway through for a romantic subplot, but it doesn't get too corny. And that's saying a lot considering this came from Hong Kong. You can do better for story or drama, but the flaws are minimal and the action is great as a sniper-thriller.