100 Yards

It's a period drama whose dense plotting, florid dialogue, and thrilling action scenes often either overload our expectations or glide by them without calling attention to itself.

100 Yards thrives during its many different ambushes and stand-offs. The fights are frequent and unpredictable, while their choreography is so fast that you can practically feel each phantom punch whooshing past your head.

Action fans simply seeking top-drawer wushu combat should be satisfied, but general viewers may grow impatient with a repetitive plot that struggles to deliver compelling human drama from its promising elements.

Even with ample action and a truly tantalising score, this one doesn’t quite live up to expectations.

Directors Xu Haofeng and Xu Junfeng are new to the scene, but they exhibit an ability to really focus in on the intense kineticism of the warriors we watch fight, whether using weapons or their bare hands.

100 Yards is primarily here to entertain, with its many scenes of hand-to-hand combat and just as many layers of intrigue and atmosphere.


Some of the best martial arts hitting the big screen in a while. The fighting is tight, concise, and focusing on those pressure points. Unfortunately to two main leads are aggravating, but overall still fun.

An intricate exploration of rivalry, social change, the weight of tradition and expectation, and much more, all wrapped in top-tier martial arts choreography.

The result is a fascinating spectacle because the feud between An and Quan has the passion of a brawl while still maintaining the respect of competition. There's something refreshing in that.

It's a very fine piece of action filmmaking, yes, but admirably, the film offers a bit more than that.