The Story In Temple Red Lily is Crash Cinema's latest entry in their superb Pagoda Films Premium Collection and it's a classic tale of good vs. evil and plenty o' clanking swords. Red Lily may not be the finest martial arts film ever made but still remains a heck of a good time nonetheless and thanks to Crash Cinema, near essential viewing thanks to this impressively laid out DVD.

Ancient folklore tells us that back in the day an evil Baron was trying to conquer China one step at a time. Moving from temple to temple his evil minions would move in and wash out all the good to put on a fresh coat of evil. Temple Red Lily will have none of this. When the Baron moves in and his monks take hold of the temple, the prince and princess of Red Lily fight like true underdogs should and their men and women remain right behind them. It's a massive fight to the finish as Red Lily tries to defend its turf against the evil Baron and his dark and deadly minions. It ain't gonna be pretty here folks, but it sure is gonna be a heck of a lotta fun!

Pieced together with some of the best elements your classic struggle of good against evil would entail along with some skillfully placed elements of comedic interludes (we need something to bring us back up don't we?) along with incredibly laid out fight scene after fight scene... you'll start to get the idea of how Red Lily delivers the goods. Despite its flaws (of which there are a few), Red Lily is a top-notch example of dynamic storytelling that skillfully blends all of these elements together to entertain the hell out of the viewer.

It's Temple Red Lily's defiance to give in to the evil baron that drives the flick, and what a drive it is. While we see repeated bad guys over and over again, (why doesn't Red Lily just dispose of them and get it over with?) we're given ample opportunity to view some tremendous fight scenes and action set- pieces that hit us quite hard and rapidly return after just a bit of slow down (just enough time to catch one's breath). Sure a lot of the fight scenes lack purpose and may appear as padding to achieve a certain running time, but with fight scenes like these...who the hell cares? Never dull or dragging, Red Lily remains an incredible visual treat from the first fight to the last. Just to give you an idea, I counted at least 4 major fight set-pieces within the first half hour alone... and these aren't half assed fight scenes either, we're talking sword in hand almost epic battles. In other words, it's fun stuff.

Like I said earlier, if Red Lily had its downfall it would be in its ultimate predictability and need to throw in more of the action that doesn't fuel the story the second or third time around. It's a familiar story and it's true that the evil vs. good scenario cannot carry the film without the bonus scenes of action. Hell, even Braveheart probably had one battle scene too many and I still consider it one of the true greats. Indulge and give in, there's no better way to get your high flying sword clanging fix than with this flick right here. Not to mention the fact that there is so much madness within the last half hour, you really do need to see it in order to believe it. It's pure madness, I loved every minute of it.

Crash Cinema gets pretty high marks on this one in the quality dept. The film looks to be properly letterboxed and overall looks quite good on this DVD. There are some elements of print damage including some specs and the occasional light scratch, but overall we're dealing with a fairly high quality transfer...much more than we could have expected. A few of the darker scenes appear a bit to dark (nothing a slight brightness adjustment cannot fix) and overall colors appear quite solid. There's really no evidence of pixelation or artifacting either the transfer is quite pleasing. Not reference quality mind you, but serves the title at hand quite well.

Audio is presented in a mono mix that gets the job done, but you're probably not gonna want to turn the volume up too loud. Some of the more high-pitched sounds (higher voices or clanking swords) will probably make your ears ring from their ultimate shrillness. If you keep the volume at a respectable level, you should be A OK. The dub job is acceptable and there's really no evidence of background noise or hiss (which is always a plus).

Extras keep in line with previous Pagoda titles... trailers, filmographies, stills (taken directly from the flick) and a bonus unrelated fight scene (also in pretty decent quality)

Bottom line here is that this is a fun flick and Crash Cinema gives us a presentation that really allows us to dig in and enjoy. In the world of kung fu on DVD, you'd be hard pressed to do much better than Crash Cinema's The Story in Temple Red Lily. It's got a little bit of everything, and a whole lotta sword swingin' to spare. This is a great kung fu/action flick and an impressive presentation from Crash Cinema. Red Lily comes with my highest recommendation, enjoy!

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