Stone Age Warriors Film Review

Stone Age Warriors

Director: Stanley Tong
Year: 1991
Rating: 8.5

I sincerely hope that Nina Li and Elaine Lui received combat pay for performing in this amazing adventure film directed from Stanley Tong. The things Stanley put his two female stars through in the jungles of New Guinea boggles the mind. This film is like The Perils of Pauline on speed. Headhunters, snakes, scorpions, Komodo Dragons, raging waterfalls and numerous killers all pose constant threats to the two women.

In the opening scene a group of treasure hunters are searching through the jungles of New Guinea when a tribe of natives sets upon them. In a brutal, violent and gory fight it appears that all of the party are massacred.

Switch back to HK where Nina Li is getting lambasted by her boss for giving the head of the party – Tanaka – a life insurance policy. I don’t know too many insurance agents that would go into the deepest jungles to make sure their client is really dead, but Nina does. First though she stops off in Japan and teams up with Elaine Lui who is the daughter of Tanaka.

Off they merrily go to see if they can locate Tanaka. Nina Li in her fashionable red hat cuts quite a sight among the natives and fauna. Before too long they literally find themselves in the middle of a tribal war, but they are saved by Fan Siu-Wong – the guy from the Story of Ricky. He does some astonishing fighting in this film and I am perplexed as to why he has such a short filmography.

The film then goes into overdrive for the next forty-five minutes as the three of them survive one near death experience after another. It’s a terrific roller coaster ride – full of action and thrills. Elaine Lui gets her share of great fight scenes while Nina Li acts more as a comic foil, but is also knee deep in the fun.

I’ve wanted to see this film for quite a while and it lived up to its reputation. In an interview, I recall Tong saying what a difficult shoot this was and I can certainly imagine why. He also said that for the most part it is the actresses doing their own stunts. If you watch this film, that fact will amaze you.