The sets and costumes look great, but the movie is mostly a melodrama with bad acting. I did like the acting from the older actors such as Tzi Ma (Yu Hing, Evil Triad Leader from Hong Kong) and Tsai Chin (Madame Pong with a Heart of Gold), but the younger actors had wooden line delivery and horrible dialog.
The majority of the movie is about Peony (Exceptional Virtuous Kung Fu Gal) and Tom (Great Looking Nice Guy / Chef) falling in love near Sutter's Mill, but the acting and writing was horribly melodramatic (for example the bench scene where Tom shuffles near Peony and if it was for comedic effect, it wasn't) and unbelievable. The white people pick on Chinese and the Chinese Tong pick on the Chinese. Then we throw in some random Kung Fu.
When the couple finally get together, (insert weirdly long lyrical sex scene compared to the rest of the film) they run off to Los Angeles and hide with a Family Association there. But of course, the Triad finds them and causes the riot in LA that kills 19 people.
There's a badly filmed melodramatic fight between Peony, Tom, and Yu Hing during the riot. And Yu Hing has a derringer that doesn't seem to need reloading.
The riot / lynching party which is emphasized in the trailer is only about 10 mins of the film. This, the most interesting part of the movie is a side note.
I wished this movie was more of a documentary or followed a documentary style of storytelling instead of a badly done love story with slight bits of comedy, Kung Fu, PG-13 sex scene (no breasts), bad fight scene, and bad acting.
The Chinese in the movie spoke Mandarin, I would rather they spoke Cantonese or Taishan to make it more historical. The English dialog was odd to in that you'd think they'd speak Mandarin when they were weren't any white people around. I would have preferred that as their English delivery was pretty terrible and would have preferred that they spoke in their native language.
Overall, there's not enough movies with a majority of Chinese actors, too bad this movie is terrible.
The majority of the movie is about Peony (Exceptional Virtuous Kung Fu Gal) and Tom (Great Looking Nice Guy / Chef) falling in love near Sutter's Mill, but the acting and writing was horribly melodramatic (for example the bench scene where Tom shuffles near Peony and if it was for comedic effect, it wasn't) and unbelievable. The white people pick on Chinese and the Chinese Tong pick on the Chinese. Then we throw in some random Kung Fu.
When the couple finally get together, (insert weirdly long lyrical sex scene compared to the rest of the film) they run off to Los Angeles and hide with a Family Association there. But of course, the Triad finds them and causes the riot in LA that kills 19 people.
There's a badly filmed melodramatic fight between Peony, Tom, and Yu Hing during the riot. And Yu Hing has a derringer that doesn't seem to need reloading.
The riot / lynching party which is emphasized in the trailer is only about 10 mins of the film. This, the most interesting part of the movie is a side note.
I wished this movie was more of a documentary or followed a documentary style of storytelling instead of a badly done love story with slight bits of comedy, Kung Fu, PG-13 sex scene (no breasts), bad fight scene, and bad acting.
The Chinese in the movie spoke Mandarin, I would rather they spoke Cantonese or Taishan to make it more historical. The English dialog was odd to in that you'd think they'd speak Mandarin when they were weren't any white people around. I would have preferred that as their English delivery was pretty terrible and would have preferred that they spoke in their native language.
Overall, there's not enough movies with a majority of Chinese actors, too bad this movie is terrible.