Reviewed by: pjshimmer Date: 10/04/2005 Summary: Severely miscast This movie is adapted from the novel Xia Ke Xin by Louis Cha. It's shorter than his major works, which is why I chose to read it. As usual, Chang Cheh's wuxia adaptions lack the emotion and excitement of the original source. There is almost no expression on any actor's face. The acting, or lack thereof, is laughable, but that's to be expected from the old school period. Several actors are severely miscast. For example, the Bastard is supposed to be 12-13 years old in the first scene, yet Kuo Choi is clearly much older. Bei Haishi in the novel is an old coughing man suffering from illness, yet Sun Chien is healthy and youthful as anything. Min Rou in the novel never really got by a scene without crying, yet the actress here got by without crying at all. The movie is probably about 60% faithful to the novel. For those interested, I have summarized the major changes: -The Galland Island is completely omitted. Instead, Xie Yanke (Wang Li) is the one who executes the Rewarding / Punishment. the Changle Association and the other clans are afraid of Xie Yanke because of this. -As a result of the above, Xie Yanke appears in the movie a lot more than in the novel. -Mei Fanggu confirms that Bastard / Shi Potian (Kuo Choi) is indeed the son of Shi Qing. -Bei Haishi and the other members of Changle Association now feel remorse for having setup the protagonist. They even assist him discover his identity. [5/10]

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 09/20/2005 Summary: A mini series crammed into a movie!! The main character was quite annoying at first but the "stupidity" of the character helps his cause as he is granted a wish by a great martial artist and then is lured into the martial arts world and is confused for some a villian in the martial arts world. From there, a tug of war occurs in terms of his identity. And thats only half the story. It is a complex story with different side plots, its amazing they squeezed so much in 1.5 hours. OF course if the movie was longer,the story would flow a lot better but they done a good job with the time constraints!! 7/10

Reviewed by: MrBooth Date: 08/15/2005 Summary: 7/10 - Good story, a bit short on fights ODE TO GALLANTRY is adapted from a Jin Yong story that shares some elements with HEAVEN SWORD & DRAGON SABRE but on a much more manageable scale for a film. The result is an enjoyable tale with a nice dual role performance from Kuo Choi (who is rather cute and funny in one of the roles). It's not deep or heavy but provides decent entertainment for an hour and a half. There isn't that much kung fu for a film with 3 Venoms in it, which might disappoint the hardcore fans, but the final scrap is very good and ought to please those who would rather have a good story than people leaping about all over the screen for 90 minutes :) Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: sirrunrunshaw Date: 03/28/2001 Summary: Rare Shaw-if you find it buy it Rare old school Shaw Brother flick, very good fight scenes,good story,some cool techniques.End fight is something to see.