Storm Riders
*flail* CLOUD! AARON KWOK! CLOUD! *flail*
*hem*
So, like Dragon Tiger Gate, Storm Riders is based on a long chinese comic and, like DTG, making a two hour movie of it ends up with it being a little too condensed and moving almost too fast at times, but, like DTG, really, who cares?
Storm Riders is about Wind and Cloud, the sons(but not brothers) of legendary fighters. Both their fathers were murdered by Lord Conquer, who raised them(along with a third boy, Frost, who is also quite cool) to be his chief enforcers. Wind doesn't know that Conquer murdered his father, and think Conquer saved him from being eaten by wolves, so he grows up loyal and pretty nice and well adjusted(and with a penchant for using his fan in fights) Cloud, however saw his entire village get slaughtered by Conquer's troops, so he grew up ruthless and angsty and bitter and with a penchant for venting his angst by standing shirtless under a waterfall and screaming of which there were far too few scenes and the ones there were weren't long enough. Naturally, they're also both in love with Conquer's daughter, Charity who was completely unworthy of either one and when Conquer learns that he and Cloud have become lovers, he arranges for her to marry Wind(which, actually, was kinda a good idea...in RL, Wind would by far be the better choice, what with his being nice and well adjusted and all and Cloud being a little too "kill anything in my way now let me go angst" for his own good...I think most fathers moderately concerned for their daughter's welfare would have done the same)
Ok, Charity? I get that both guys probably fell in love with her because she was kind and pure and actually seems to have been the only girl around, but she planned to marry Wind and keep Cloud on the side...and thought that would make Cloud HAPPY. Oh, and never mind that Wind told her that if she cared about someone else(not a stupid man) he'd let her out of the marriage, but she told him she wanted to marry him and....aaaahhh...seriously, when Wind and Cloud were trying to kill each other at the wedding, all I could think was "Boys, seriously, she is SO not worth it...." Ah well, she died halfway through, so no biggee(except, looking at the d-wiki description of Wind and Cloud 2, it looks like Wind spends the rest of his life mourning for her, which sucks)
Onthe flipside, I adored Muse, the girl with a crush on Cloud who took care of him after he fought Conquer for Charity's body. I mean, first, she's cute and spunky and unlike another girl, she has a personality. She also has 2 of the best scenes in the movie. The first is when Cloud is delirious and unconscious and he grabs her hand thinking she's Charity and she's all "well...he's unconscious...and think's I'm her...and a kiss WOULD make him feel better..."(except, of course, her father-the doctor-catches her) The second is when she and Cloud return to Conquer's palace and they see Sword Saint frozen on the steps and Cloud is telling her not to touch him and she pokes him and he disappears in smoke and her face is all "oops...did I goof?" Seriously, love the girl. And from the Wind and Cloud 2 page, after this, she and Cloud go off into the mountains and make babies(now see, this is why I love cdramas...I can spend all of Damo and Emperor of the Sea and every wuxia movie ever just yelling at the leads to forget about all the stuff going on and run off to the mountains to make babies, and in cdramas, they actually do it!) which is great.
Now Wind? I like wind. He's nice, he's cute, he's honest and heroic and loyal and noble and all those things that A) make you a great hero and B)a grerat catch, plus he's a great fighter and could challenge Nic Tse in the fan department. But Cloud? *fans* Cloud is dark, he's angry, he's hopelessly screwed up because he's indebted to the man who killed his father and...you know, village. He thinks nothing of invading Conquer's palace during Wind and CHarity's wedding and making off with the bride, of of destroying an entire town to get something that MIGHT bring her back to life(again, SO not worth it) OTOH, Muse is great for him...he actually starts acting moderately human around her(though I question his sanity at leaving Muse alone outside when he went to defeat Conquer with Wind at the end...doesn't he know she's too curious to be left to her own devices for more than 30 seconds?)
Anyway, would have benefitted from being a series instead of a movie, but a blast and great fun. And Cloud and Wind are hot and Frost is pretty decent too.
Now to decide if the movie is enough basis for me to go ahead and check out the Wind and Cloud 2 series...
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