The Miracle Fighters is a Yuen Woo-ping movie I’ve never seen and I’m glad Eureka put it out because this one is wild. This one is more about surreal magic fights, so you’ve got a guy in an urn with his arms and legs sticking out, fireballs and flying swords on wires, shapeshifts with old school methods of portraying their surreal transformations/sprouting extra limbs in fights, and even a talking fish.
Woo-ping still choreographs gravity defying wall walking, balancing on stilts nad other contraptions within the craziness. There are even some wild training methods worthy of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, or at least Woo-ping’s own Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow.
Two commentaries from Eureka’s usual experts help explain what we’re watching. In addition to Frank Djeng’s usual background, he illuminates some filmmaking tricks for the practical magic tricks, and speculates on how the movie would turn out had Sammo Hung been involved.
Mike Leeder and Arne Venema offer more about the entire Yuen family, and relate it to later films they worked on. They also have personal stories of many of the talent, many of whom ended up in RZA’s The Man with the Iron Fists.
A 2012 interview with Woo-ping compares choreographing to directing, and compares all the major martial artists he worked with in his films. Assistant director Fish Fong shares more of the practical techniques of Miracle Fighters and discusses his own career. Action designer John Kreng discusses the aesthetics and influences of Woo-ping on cinema and shares anecdotes from meeting the man.
So I would recommend Miracle Fighters. You’ve gotta see this one.