easternkicks.com » Wuxia / Swordplay

14 Blades

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 09:00:24 +0000

Director Daniel Lee is back, this time with Donnie Yen and Vicky Zhao in tow – thank god this is an improvement on Three Kingdoms then…

The 14 Blades in question are a special weapon only bestowed on the leader of the Jinyiwei, a select group of secret guards to the Emperor honed from childhood into deadly martial art experts, subservient to his every merciless whim. Their current leader Qinglong (Donnie Yen, Ip Man, S.P.L.: Kill Zone, Bodyguards And Assassins) becomes aware of a power play by the leader of the Imperial Court eunuch Jia, abusing his monarch’s disinterest, but is bound by the Jinyiwei laws to follow the Emperor’s orders – even if in reality they come from Jia – only to find himself betrayed by one of his own men.

On the run from his own deadly Jinyiwei, Qinglong fins sanctuary with wine merchant Jiao Zhong (Wu Ma, A Chinese Ghost Story, Swordsman, Deadful Melody) and his daughter Qiao Hua (Zhao Wei, Mulan, Red Cliff, So Close) – until they realise just how dangerous a man Qinglong is to be around. In order to create a diversion and uncover eunuch Jia’s plan, he kidnaps Jiao.

He soon finds out that Jia plots with the exiled Prince Qing (Sammo Hung, Ip Man 2, Three Kingdoms, S.P.L.: Kill Zone) to take control of the kingdom, qnd has sent his deadly daughter Tuo Tuo (Kate Tsui, 72 Tenants of Prosperity, Contract Lover) to do his bidding. Qinglong must stop this alliance from happening, but finds unlikely allies in the Sky Bandits led by Judge (Chun Wu, Butterfly Lovers), but can he truly start to feel beyond his duty?

After the abysmal and frankly embarrassingly condescending Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, Daniel Lee goes a long way to redeeming himself with this better paced, more fun action thriller. Sure, there are many common themes: Kate Tsui’s fem fatale is the spit of Maggie Q; there’s all that stupid, stupid dreadlock hair; hell, even most of the costumes look like they were left over. The film makes more of that spin on spaghetti westerns, and not just on the soundtrack this time.

Yet this time the characters get more of a chance to breathe. Wei Zhao is always a welcome presence (though my previously aired thoughts on Zhao in period dramas still stand – what, cast as another doting daughter?), and actually Yen is not at all bad. I rather like the way the film turns into a wuxia It Happened One Night for a while after Qinglong takes Jiao hostage. It’s all fairly predictable, but well played out.

And the action is particularly well choreographed by action director and Yuen Woo-ping collaborator Ku Huen Chiu (The Warlords, Fearless, Kung Fu Hustle, The Forbidden Kingd0m) – who even got a Best Action Choreography award at this years Hong Kong Film Awards for his troubles. After seeing Donnie Yen in so many more ‘grounded’ fight scenes, it’s actually rather fun to see him in a more ‘wire-fu’ based movie for a change. With such a long career in Hong Kong movies it is, of course, something he excels at.

The fights themselves are a delicious take on old school martial art movies, combining wire-fu with modern techniques they don’t overstep the use of CGI, a regular complaint of ours. (Though those hoping for a pre-emptive clash from Yen and Hung will still have to wait for Ip Man 2.)

Indeed, the whole film rather pays tribute to the martial art films of the 70s and 80s, updating them to a true 21st century look. The 14 Blades weapon itself recalls the increasingly inventive designs by Tong Kai for the Shaw Brothers for films like The Magic Blade and Deadly Breaking Sword, whilst the clandestine plan evokes Killer Clans. The pale eunuch a recurring figure during 80s/90s wuxia films, but most notably the villain of the original King Hu version of Dragon Inn. And just like then, it seems Hong Kong filmmakers hardly make films in Cantonese anymore, this is just in Mandarin.

Not perfect, but a lot of fun – this has enough going for it to appeal to Eastern and Western audiences alike.

14 Blades is released on DVD and Blu-ray (£17.99) by Icon Home Entertainment from Monday 16 August 2010.

Kamui: The Lone Ninja

Andrew Heskins — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 09:00:31 +0000

A very enjoyable manga adaption from director Yoichi Sai (Blood And Bones) and starring Ken’ichi Matsuyama (L Change The WorLd, Bare Essence Of Life), but ‘probably the best ninja movie ever’… what, really?

Based on the legenadry series created by Japanese artist Sanpei Shirato in 1964, Kamui: The Lone Ninja tells of it’s eponymous hero, played by Ken’ichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler), a young man who has spent all of his life as one type of outcast or another. Attempting to find true freedom away from inherited cast and clan he turns his back on life as a ninja, making him a target for the ninja hunters led by his one time master Dumok (Ekin Cheung, Storm Warriors, Tokyo Raiders).

Kamui finds fleeting solace with spirited fisherman Hanbei (Kaoru Kobayashi, Princess Mononoke, Tales from Earthsea) who invites him to stay with his family. Yet even here Kamui discovers himself face-to-face with a long-forgotten nemesis, another renegade ninja with a deadly score to settle. And all the while the ninja hunters are setting a trap from which there can be no escape…

Director Yoichi Sai (Doing Time, All Under The Moon), together with co-scripter Kankuro Kudo (Ping Pong, Zebraman, Go), keeps the film close to its source, becoming as much about the social commentary that ran through Sanpei’s work as it does of great battles. (And presumably it’s where the storyline gets some of its ‘weirdness’.) The opening titles, perhaps cutest thing in the whole movie, actually use frames from the original manga to set the scene.

Here he greatly benefits from solid performances from a great cast that also includes Suzuka Ohgo (Memoirs Of A Geisha), Koichi Sato (Sukiyaki Western Django, Starfish Hotel), Koyuki (Blood: The Last Vampire, Kitaro) and Yuta Kanai (L Change The WorLd). Ken’ichi proves again just how compelling and increasingly versatile he can be, making sympathetic but believable lead.

Easily one of the better manga adaptions of late, it’s easy to forget beyond the seeming overwhelming trend that there’s something of a long history to live-action adaptations from manga, and from its predecessor martial art novels. A note that brings to mind two of the more successful efforts from the same period as the original Kamui manga, Zatoichi and Lone Wolf And Cub. The former expanded from a minor character in a novel, the later itself very close to the original material.

Arguably Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s work picked up where Sanpei left off, itself a well research commentary on social status both then and now. Of course, the film adaptions of Lone Wolf and Cub fell foul of the early 80s video nasties label. Though violent, the films embodied the original manga values and visual composition, making them both poignant and surprisingly beautiful.

With Kamui, Yoichi has created something rather similar, having some for the almost deliberate over-the-top approach of samurai and martial art movies from the late 70s and early 80s, like Lone Wolf, many Shaw Brothers films, and even Ching Siu-tung’s delightful Duel to the Death.

But ‘Probably the best ninja movie ever made’ as critic Tony Ryans said?. That quote may have been somewhat overused (largely by myself) but I admit it gave me high expectations for Kamui which were not quite fulfilled. The overuse of CGI is frankly distracting, as though animating humans may not quite look as bad as it used to, it’s still a bit weird. I’d rather see more clever use of wire work and editing. The recent Goemon did a better job (though admittedly you might expect that from green screen king Kazuaki Kiriya). Then there’s just odd uses of it in other places, like the awkward superimposing of water when the characters are on a calm sea, and so on – it just seems a bit cheap and needless.

Visually the film fails to really find a character for itself. It’s well shot but in quite a mainstream Western action movie bland sort of a way. The aforementioned comparison with those old Lone Wolf movies is not favourable.

So ‘best movie’? Perhaps if your reference point is Ninja Assassin or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but no, I wouldn’t go that far. But enjoyable, and with a deliberately open ended conclusion, I wouldn’t mind betting there’ll be more on the way soon…

Kamui: The Lone Ninja is released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Manga Entertainment on 9 August.

Goemon

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:00:04 +0000

Director Kazuaki Kiriya’s follow-up to Casshern is as visually dazzling as its predecessor – thank god it’s a bit easier to understand, too…!

In 2004 fashion photographer and music video director Kazuaki Kiriya burst onto the filmmaking scene with his mind-blowing adaption of an early 70s manga and anime series, Casshern. One of the first movies to be shot almost entirely on a studio back lot with it’s actors against a greenscreen, it was a dazzling, imaginative vision of a future world, the nearest to a proper live-action version of an anime we will probably ever see.

Unfortunately it was so much of a visual overload that it made what narrative there was all but incomprehensible!

Five years on Kazuaki is back with a similarly breathtaking period tale of action and adventure, Goemon.

It’s 1582 and the ruler of Japan Oda Nobunaga has been brutally murdered leaving the country in a state of political chaos. Master thief Ishikawa Goemon (Yosuke Eguchi, Shaolin Girl) has risen as a hero of the people due to his inclination to take from the rich and give to the poor. His latest haul could get him in trouble, as it includes small box that holds a secret that could rock the kingdom to its roots.

Unfortunately for Goemon, he’s discarded it into the crowds, caught by a street urchin. On discovering it’s value he quickly tries to reclaim it, only to find it’s also come to the attention of legendary swordsman Matahachi (Tetsuji Tamayama, Norwegian Wood, Casshern) and legendary ninja Hattori Hanzo (Susumu Terajima, Hana yori mo naho, Casshern, Ichi The Killer, Hana-Bi).

Soon there’s far more at stake than untold riches, as it transpires there’s far more to Goemon than meets the eye. But can he save the nation from destruction – does he even care anymore?

Produced by Takashige Ichise, best known for launching so-called J Horror with films like Ringu, Dark Water, Ju-On: The Grudge, and Shutter, director Kazuaki Kiriya’s latest film is as sumptuous a creation as Casshern. As with his earlier film, Kiriya’s obsession with classical art creates a beautiful sets and costumes as Renaissance art mixes with a baroque vision of Feudal period Japanese design.

There’s definitely a particular style at work, and Goemon’s tendency to wear masks that cover the lower half of his face is just one of many similarities with the films predecessor. The pacing and basic plot structure is almost an exact duplicate, as are many of the filming techniques used and black and white for flashback, etc – but here at least Kiriya lets the characters breathe a little more. And if the conclusion is, once again, that war is terrible and countless innocents are lost just so warring commanders can make their plays for power (yada yada), then at least this time Kiriya doesn’t take himself quite as seriously. It’s easily a lot more fun than Casshern, and this time there’s much more focus on shooting the action, and more combat between humans rather than CGI’d robots and endless jetting around.

Sure, there is a mass of CGI, and with the period setting this makes the film seem a little less original than Casshern. Computer generated fireflies, for instance, seem to have been used countless times now, including way back in The Storm Riders. The film itself is rather like an extreme version of Chen Kaige’s The Promise, but, again, perhaps a bit more enjoyable.

The character of Ishikawa Goemon is indeed a real folk hero, Japan’s equivalent of Robin Hood, who has been referenced in films and media many times before, including as a regular character in the animated series Lupin The Third (Lupin III), occasionally directed by a pre-Studio Ghibli Hayao Miyazaki. Like our very own (though rather older) Robin Hood folk tale, very little is known in truth about this figure. Even then (surprise surprise!) it’s hard to find much correlation between any of the known legends and Kiriya’s take on them, let alone the actual documented historical events. (Though many of the characters are named after real Feudal figures of the time, such as Mitsunari Ishida, played by Jun Kaname, Blood, K-20: Legend of the Mask, Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers, and Hideyoshi Toyotomi, played by Eiji Okuda, The Sea Is Watching, Black Kiss.)

See it as a Casshern 2.0 and you won’t be far off. It might not be quite it’s visual equal, but it’s a far better story – and that’s got to be a good thing!

Goemon (cert. 15) is released by Momentum Pictures and will open at selected UK cinemas this Friday, 23rd July 2010.

The Storm Warriors

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:00:32 +0000

A decade on Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok return as Wind and Cloud in this highly-anticipated sequel to The Storm Riders by The Pang Brothers, directors of The Eye – but if special effects have come a long way in that time, the art of narrative seems somewhat lacking…

Back in 1998 The Storm Riders was a pivotal moment in Hong Kong filmmaking. Directed by Andrew Lau and co-produced by digital effects company Centr0, it was one of the first HK films to use CGI to great effect. Based on the popular manhua or comic book by Ma Wing-Shing, Fung Wan, it reinvigorated the wuxia / swordplay genre – just in time for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But whereas Ang Lee would play up far more traditional influences of the 60s and 70s, Lau pulled heavily his own popular Young And Dangerous to appeal to a post-MTV generation.

(And arguably it helped the comic book movie makeover boom of the late 90s, early noughties, too.)

Now the Pang Brothers (whose Danny Pang co-edited the original) have brought together the original leads Cheng and Kwok for a spectacular, dazzling follow-up.

Many years on from the events of The Storm Riders, China now finds itself in the grip of an invading army led by ruthless Japanese warlord Lord Godless (Simon Yam, Vengeance, Election) and his son Heart (Nicholas Tse, The Promise, Bodyguards And Assassins), both hell bent on ruling the nation. Wind (Ekin Cheng, Tokyo Raiders, Forest of Death, Heroic Duo) and Cloud (Aaron Kwok, Murderer, Divergence, Saviour Of The Soul) are not a match, and even legendary martial artist Nameless can not defeat him.

With time running out for China and the captured royal family, both Cloud and Wind try desperate measure to turn the tables: Cloud becomes Nameless’ new disciple, creating a new sword fighting style; Wind decides to learn evil martial arts, but can he keep his dark side in check? Soon these old friends find themselves pitted against each other for the future of China.

I rather liked the idea of picking up the story so long after the original timeline, consciously echoing the passing of time between films in the real world, rather than trying to make a direct sequel and have the actors pretend they’re the same age. (Mind you, not that Kwok looks any different other than appearing to have spent all that time in a gym!)

So there’s no need to worry if you’ve never seen the original. Trouble is, even if you have seen Storm Riders you may well feel like you’ve walked in halfway through the film. Never ones for overdoing expositions, the Pang Brothers drop you straight in the action, and never let up, taking us from one conflict to another. Sure, it’s exciting and definitely keeps the attention levels up, but it’s not, well, you know, a movie, is it?

The cast do the best with what they have, but there’s little for them to get their teeth into. Kwok, in particular, is engaging as Cloud, with his character finally learning to care about something or someone other than himself. But there are subtleties in their portrayal and subplots that are lost on all save the most devoted of the original comic books.

Visually the film is stunning. The quality production of sets and costumes, mixed with seamless compositing of CGI effects is superb. All of which goes to show just how far computer graphics have come since the original film (which itself didn’t look bad considering the undoubtedly limited budget available).

One sequence in particular, when Heart is shown cruelly pursuing Nameless and destroying every martial art school he comes across in the process, however, hints at an even more striking visual route. Taking it’s cue from the Frank Miller style of Sin City and 300, reflecting the comic book roots of the story. It would have been great to see much more of this in the film, even if it might have brought comparisons with the latest from the green screen king, Casshern director Kazuaki Kirita, Goemon. (Though there are intimation’s that would have just proved too expensive.)

Storm Warriors is a highly enjoyable, quality action production. I just wish they’d paid a bit more attention to the script.

The Storm Warriors is released Monday 12 July on Blu-ray and DVD by Cine Asia.

The Storm Riders

Andrew Heskins — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:00:29 +0000

With the long-awaited sequel The Storm Warriors out next Monday, we look back at the original adaptation of Ma Wing-Shing’s comic book Fung Wan, directed by Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs)…

In ancient China, the appropriately named evil Lord Conqueror (played by Sonny Chiba, The Streetfighter, Legend Of Eight Samurai, Kill Bill, on particularly fine raucous, bellowing form) learns from a Buddhist prophet that his future as ruler lies in two children, Wind and Cloud, and sends his legions out, King Herod style, to find and bring them under his wing and kill anyone who gets in his way.

But the final part of the prophecy must wait 10 years, as Wind (Ekin Cheng, Tokyo Raiders, Heroic Duo, Forest Of Death) and Cloud (Aaron Kwok, Murderer, Divergence, Saviour Of The Soul) grow up to be the most powerful weapons in Conqueror’s arsenal.

Wind is kindhearted, oblivious to the truth that his father Whispering Prince (Alex Fong, One Nite In Mongkok, Portland Street Blues) was killed during a dual with Conqueror. Cloud, on the other hand, is fully aware of the part Conqueror played in his father Striding Sky’s (Rongguang Yu, Mulan, New Police Story, Musa: The Warrior) death, and has become bitter, a cold and ruthless servant.

When the second part of the prophecy us revealed, that Wind and Cloud will not only make him, but also be his undoing, Conqueror sets about setting them against each other. This only results in backfiring on him, with his daughter Charity (Kristy Yang, A Man Called Hero, The Duel) murdered by his own hands.

Soon both Wind and Cloud have reasons to revenge themselves on Lord Conqueror, but can they work together to do it?

When The Storm Riders debuted at cinemas in 1998 it marked a turning point in Hong Kong filmmaking, the introduction of a high percentage of CGI effects that were (at that point) state-of-the-art. Even now the effects stand up pretty well. And that was kind of the point, co-produced by Hong Kong based Centro Digital Pictures, the film can be seen as much as a calling card for their work as it can a blockbuster, and really proved that HK could match Hollywood special effects.

Still riding the success of the Young And Dangerous series, which turned Ekin Cheng into a star and is attributed with glamorising triad life to teenagers of the time, this one-time Wong Kar-Wai cinematographer invigorated the wuxia genre, which had waned in popularity since the early 90s, setting the scene for Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon a few years later.

Taken from the successful long-running manhua, or comic book series Fung Wan by Ma Wing-Shing, it’s interesting to look back on The Storm Riders and see how reverent it is to what came before. In the same way that Wing-Shing referenced the martial art novels of the 50s and 60s, Lau looked to the big screen adaptions, such as those by the Shaw Brothers studio.

In particular it’s the series of Gu Long adaptations by director Chor Yuen such as The Magic Blade and Death Duel that come to mind, as Each character is announced with text on screen. The later Buddha’s Palm seems quite an influence too, with that films attempt to imbue martial art powers with post Star Wars effects. Lau doesn’t stop there, there’s the casting Chiba with his long history in Asian film; the childhood scenes and stylised vision recall Ronny Yu’s The Bride With White Hair; and the dual between Conqueror and Whispering Prince in a bamboo forest pays homage to that in King Hu’s Touch Of Zen, much as Lee would do a couple of years later in Crouching Tiger.

Yet unlike Lee, Lau brought a more modern sensitivity with him. He pulled on those modern references from Young And Dangerous, with slo-mo action scenes with more in common with pop promos, and fights set to dance music (rather than more classical Chinese influence music), much as The Matrix would do a year later. This was wuxia re-interpreted for the post-MTV generation, echoing Tsui Hark’s early, anarchic take on the genre in The Butterfly Murders, and was probably the biggest step on since Hark’s own Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain and Ching Siu-tung’s A Chinese Ghost Story.

With an all- star cast, including Shu Qi, Michael Tse and Anthony Wong, The Storm Riders is still a highly enjoyable film, reaching the right balance of narrative and action (unlike it’s successor!).

Unsurprisingly, it was immensely popular. Inspiring another Ma Wing-Shing adoption, A Man Called Hero and the similarly themed The Duel, both also starring Ekin Cheng, and setting the scene for Hark to revisit his earliest triumph in the disappointing CGI led Legend Of Zu. Lau then tried an (unofficial) attempt at bringing computer game Tekken Fist to the screen in The Avenging Fist and rebooting the Wisley character (Legend Of Wisley, The Seventh Curse) in Wesley’s Mysterious File, before moving on to the Infernal Affairs series that finally made his name internationally.

The Storm Warriors is released Monday 12 July on Blu-ray and DVD by Cine Asia.

Mulan

Andrew Heskins — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:00:11 +0000

The lovely Vicky Zhao stars in this fine live-action version of the famous Mulan legend – so why is there such an overwhelming feeling of Déjà vu…?

Thanks to the 1998 Walt Disney film of the same name everyone knows the Chinese folktale of Mulan, right? The young maiden who takes her poorly father’s place in the Chinese army and ends up becoming one of China’s greatest heroes in the process. Go on, girl power!

Directors Jingle Ma’s (Tokyo Raiders, Silver Hawk, Seoul Raiders) and Wei Dong’s take on the legend takes a different slightly direction to the Disney film, as you would hope in an adult film. As with the earlier film, Hua Mulan (Vicki Zhao, Red Cliff, Shaolin Soccer, Painted Skin) takes her father’s (Rongguang Yu, New Police Story, The Storm Riders, The East Is Red) place in the Wei army when she realises he is too old and weak to survive the conflict with the invading Rouran hordes.

In the encampment keeping her identity is paramount, particularly as women aren’t allowed there even as girlfriends, let alone as soldiers, but Mulan soon shows herself to be an exceptional warrior. Her remarkable courage and knowledge of the art of war quickly propel her through the ranks to the position of General. Her fellow comrade Wentei (Chen Kun, Painted Skin, Let the Bullets Fly) recognises just how great she could, if she can just leave behind her one weakness on the battlefield – her affection for him.

As seems to be the trend nowadays, the style of Mulan follows the rough and rugged look pioneered by Musa: The Warrior and the highly successful The Warlords, if somewhat less plausibly. Sure, it’s all a bit grimy, but never quite as dark as Peter Chan’s film. Unsurprisingly the early training sequence is played much for laughs, which brings co-star Jaycee Chan (Invisible Target, 2 Young) as close the sort of comedic performance we’d expect from his father Jackie yet.

But about half an hour in or so, I suddenly have a feeling I’ve seen all this before. It takes me a little while to place, then I realise I have – in the first part of John Woo’s Red Cliff II when Zhao’s character goes undercover in the enemy’s army! (Admittedly, Woo was in turn no doubt inspired by Mulan in the first place.)

This casting (Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Liu Yifei were allegedly also up for the role) brings other unfortunate comparisons: the action through most of the film does not compare to other recent historical dramas, even the otherwise terrible Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, despite action director Stephen Tung Wai’s other recent work on Bodyguards And Assassins. When it finally comes down to showing Mulan’s tactical genius, director Ma rather fudges it – instead showing a rather vague montage sequence (much like Three Kingdoms did).

What I’d really like to seen, at least once, is a finely orchestrated battle sequence in line with those in Red Cliff, something that proves just how clever she is.

Vicki Zhao, once again, gives a solid performance in the lead, though oddly decides to play the role in quite a feminine way. Perhaps this is too avoid overplayed, Yentel style deep voices, but it’s hard to imagine anyone being fooled into believing this very (very, very) attractive and somewhat emotional woman being anything but? Personally I still find Zhao a little incongruous when cast in historical roles, even though that seems to have been all she’s done lately. As with Red Cliff I’m happy to overlook that, but perhaps it’s time for Zhao to find a more up to date part?

There’s sturdy support from the cast, including Rongguang Yu, but once again it’s Hu Jun (Bodyguards And Assassins, Infernal Affairs II, Red Cliff) who excels at the villainous of the Rouran Dayan, Mendu, relishing evey minute of screen time as a thoroughly unlikable and dishonourable leader.

It’s obvious that it doesn’t take itself as seriously as many other recent efforts, and in doing so (as is obvious from behind the scenes footage included on the DVD/Blu-Ray) greatly enjoyed themselves on the set while making the film. This shines through, making Mulan a surprisingly enjoyable historical romp, and more enjoyable that many of its peers.

And hell, it’s Vicki Zhao. ‘Nuff said!

Mulan was released on 21 June by Cine Asia on DVD and Blu-ray.

Tai Chi Master

Andrew Heskins — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 09:00:07 +0000

Another martial arts classic from Jet Li finally makes its way to UK DVD, this time from the height of wire-fu – co-starring Michelle Yeoh and directed by Yuen Woo-ping…

There’s no doubt that Weinstein-owned label Dragon Dynasty has truly become the modern day equivalent of the UK’s highly regarded Hong Kong Legends label. Heck, the DVD even has a feature length commentary by Bey Logan. This latest release, licensed by Cine Asia in the UK, is one of many of Jet Li’s back catalogue that has previously languished in terrible edited and English-dubbed only release from Hollywood Pictures, misadvertised as Twin Warriors complete with a shot of Li from Fist Of Legend. (The irony being that the Weinstein’s contemporary Miramax studio was, like Hollywood Pictures, owned by Disney.)

Perhaps that’s why HKL had to settle for The Tai Chi Master’s pseudo-sequel, the Jacky Wu vehicle Tai Chi Boxer (aka Tai Chi II) and Wing Chun.

Mind you, it’s no surprise that Tai Chi Master has so often been overlooked – just look at how prolific star Jet Li and director Yuen Woo-ping were in the year it was released, 1993. Still high on the success of Swordsman II, Li’s output went from the sublime Fong Sai Yuk and sequel, Once Upon a Time in China III and two dreadful Wong Jing directed vehicles, Last Hero In China and Kung Fu Cult Master. Yuen’s work also included Iron Monkey and Beggar So (aka Fist Of The Red Dragon) both Donnie Yen vehicles, and co-directing Li on Last Hero In China. Even co-star Michelle Yeoh had her hands full, appearing in the sequel to her comeback film Police Story 3, Project S, The Heroic Trio and it’s respective sequel The Executioners, and Butterfly & Sword.

Phew. Did Jet Li even sleep that year? Did anyone?

Running on from the success of appearing as Wong Fei Hung in Once Upon A Time In China and Fong Sai Yuk, Jet Li is rather predictably cast as another legendary martial arts master. This time Zhang Sanfeng, the alleged creator of Tai Chi. At this point it wasn’t unusual, even Yuen Woo-ping’s Iron Monkey was loosely based on the childhood of Fei Hung.

Playing as fast and loose with the history of Zhang as the legends themselves, we follow young Sanfeng as he grows up in a Taoist monastery with his best friend Chin Bo (Chin Siu Ho, Mr. Vampire, The Seventh Curse). Inseparable, Chin’s impulsive nature often gets the pair in trouble, eventually getting them booted out. (Though the way these guys are ganged up on, it’s pretty obvious they never made any friends!)

With no idea how to live in the outside world, the two soon find themselves up against the corrupt forces of local Governor Liu Jin. After falling in with the local rebels at a restaurant, including a disheartened Siu Lin (Michelle Yeoh), the pair fall out with each other when Chin Bo decides he can live a far more profitable life working for the local militia, and he betrays them to the Governor.

Destroyed by Chin’s betrayal, a downcast Zhang doesn’t know how to go on, until he discovers the power of Tai Chi.

Moving swiftly between silly slapstick comedy and deadly seriousness, it’s often hard to know just how to take Tai Chi Master, but at its best it’s a showcase for some fantastic and inspired ‘wire fu’ sequences from one of the greatest action directors.

As you might expect there are similarities with the superior Iron Monkey, but Tai Chi is a lot of fun, with Yuen celebrating Hong Kong’s glorious filmmaking history with plenty of references. The major allusion being to The Shaolin Temple, the movie that launched Li’s film career back in 1982, and undoubtedly the film that it in turn referenced, the magnificent 36th Chamber Of Shaolin. (Yue Hoi, action director and star of Shaolin Temple, even appears in a similar role as Master of the Taoist pupils.)

The restaurant scenes evoke King Hu’s Come Drink With Me and Dragon Inn, as do the strong female characters and pale eunuch Liu. And the themes of betrayal hark back to Zhang Che’s classic The Blood Brothers, remade in a gritty, epic style recently by Peter Chan as The Warlords and starring Jet Li himself.

It’s in his fight scenes that director Yuen excels, combining spectacularly acrobatic wire fu with close knit, tightly edited combat. And this sure is showing off, with standout sequences including Yeoh using two broken table legs as stilts, or where the two Taoist monk exiles repeal 30 or so of their peers, spilling oil to slip them up then sliding across the floor on them. It’s when Yuen shows Sanfeng creating Tai Chi – using objects own force against them, from Weeble style Bop-bag, to the power of nature itself, the ball forced by air to float back to the top of the water – that he creates one of the most iconic scenes in Hong Kong filmmaking: when Sanfeng uses the power of Tai Chi to collect and compact fallen leaves without touching them. Outrageous it may be, but it shows a respect for all martial art styles and depicting them fairly, shared by Li and his regular action collaborator Corey Yuen.

Yet if anything, what stands out most of all about this likable gem is the strength of the female cast, including Fennie Yuen, none of whom are depicted as weak and all of whom seem to have kung fu skills just as good as their male counterparts. Not that it was uncommon at this point, with stars like Yeoh, Maggie Cheung and Brigette Lin marking a return in Hong Kong cinemas of strong women for the first time since the 60s.

Oddly it seems ironic set against both Li and Woo-ping collaborations that year with Wong Jing, a deeply old school and – okay, lets not beat around the bush – misogynist. Undoubtedly this laid the groundwork for Woo-ping’s arguably more impressive (if less successful at the Box Office) Wing Chun.

Fun fun fun… but just you wait till Cine Asia release Fong Sai Yuk!

Tai Chi Master is released on DVD by Cine Asia / Dragon Dynasty on Monday, 26 April 2010.

Geisha Assassin

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:00:52 +0000

One dimensional Samurai revenge flick that harks back to the cheapie B movies of the 70s…

In period Japan, a Geisha (Minami Tsukui) hunts down the man she feels responsible for a father’s death. A fierce warrior, she faces many skilled fighters in the course of her revenge..

Ahem, and that’s it really! A lot of Kung Fu fans will appreciate the way this feature jettisons any character development whatsoever and just gets straight into the action. I guess that’s what you’d expect from the debut feature by former stunt man and action director/choreographer Go Ohara (Chanbara Beauty, Death Trance). Of course, it makes the whole affair rather one dimensional, and without enjoyable performances by the cast, or real standout action scenes, there’s little to attract audiences.

It’s not as if the filmmakers and cast don’t try, but the low budget too often shines through, spoiling the fairly decent fight scenes. There’s nothing new here, and it lacks the reverent nod to what has come before that you’d find in other filmmakers on similar projects such as Quentin Tarantino.

More disappointingly there’s little effort to make the most out of the geisha subject matter. At least the films original title, Geisha Vs. Ninjas, was a little more honest – she’s not an assassin! Then again, there’s not much mileage made from her, allegedly, being a geisha. (It’s not like we discover what she’s been up to in the decade or so since her father’s murder.)

Indeed, having opened with the wild statement that Samurais themselves are ‘Gie’ or geisha, the film then does nothing to expand on it. The geisha movement and dance at the beginning of the film seems clumsy and barely researched. (Compare, for instance, with the spellbinding geisha dance sequence in Zatoichi.)

It’s only a few weeks ago I complained how cheap Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl looked, even in comparison with the previous undoubtedly shoestring efforts by the team behind splatter-punk movies like Tokyo Gore Police – now this seems even more so. Like several friends got a camera, raided a costume shop, and went out to recreate their favourite Kung Fu scenes.

And good on ‘em I say! You just wish the filmmakers would follow the splatter-punk example and have a bit more fun next time…

Geisha Assassin is released today by MVM on DVD.

Dororo

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:00:09 +0000

Osamu Tezuka’s (Astro Boy) Dororo gets the live-action makeover, from director Akihiko Shiota, starring Memories Of Matsuko’s Kou Shibasaki, but spoiled a little by wishy-washy CGI and under-par action from legendary Ching Siu-Tung…

Legendary and prolific manga artist and animator Osamu Tezuka’s work continues to hold an appeal for modern filmmakers. The most famous of which is Astro Boy, which is not only attributed with creating the Anime aesthetic but also brought it to an international audience, and it’s also due for a big Hollywood 3-D makeover this Autumn. Other works to be more recently reinterpreted include his Fritz Lang inspired Metropolis, Kimba the White Lion, Black Jack, and now Dororo.

Dororo started life as an ongoing manga that Tezuka himself never completed in the late 1960s. It quickly made the transition to an animated series in 1969, when it seemed like an heir apparent to Astro Boy, but the series concluded after 26 episodes. More recently it resurfaced as a Video Game, proving the source material still had an appeal for fans (even if it wasn’t a monumental success), so why not a live-action version at last?

A hapless thief, Dororo (Kou Shibasaki, Memories Of Matsuko, One Missed Call, Battle Royale) befriends the mysterious Hyakkimaru after he saves her from a demon in a bar fight. Hyakkimaru (Satoshi Tsumabuki, The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift), as it turns out, had most of his body parts replaced as a baby after his warlord father Daigo Kagemitsu (Kiichi Nakai, When the Last Sword Is Drawn, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles) made a deal with 48 demons which involved promising them most of his vital organs and limbs.

Only Hyakkimaru isn’t aware of all that. Discovered by a numinous physician who has managed to replicate most of his organs synthetically, he roams Japan only knowing that each time he dispels one of these demons, armed with his mystical blade for a left hand, a real organ is returned to him. Dororo joins him on his quest, but Hyakkimaru is about to discover his true origins, and a real reckoning is coming for the pair.

An enjoyable slice of fantasy, this live-action version of Dororo seems to pull heavily on the recent resurgence of such programmes as Monkey (even if the movie version of the new series, Monkey Magic, didn’t fair so well at the box office). In hindsight, you could even argue that the original 70s Monkey series was partly inspired by the Dororo series, its depiction of Demons seems so familiar. (And then you could just plane turn that argument on it’s head, and suggest that perhaps Tezuka was inspired by the early 60s Shaw Brothers productions of the Journey To The West – but enough already!)

Dororo and Hyakkimaru’s world is nicely brought to life by director Akihiko Shiota (Canary, Harmful Insect), allegedly shoot on location in New Zealand. (I guess there’s nowhere else for fantasy films to go since Lord Of The Rings?) It’s a nice looking film, with some interesting ideas. There’s the moth demon and her caterpillar offspring); and the physicians Edward Scissorhands style laboratory where he creates Hyakkimaru’s new limbs and organs.

However, often the standard of CGI lets it down. It seems rough and simplistic, but not in any sort of stylised way, and with little effort to blend it with the filmed shots. It feels rather cheap, not helped by, shall we say, ‘real’ demons (or at least not CGI) whose masks seem equally as shoddy – not even a match of the original Monkey series, let alone the recent film.(If there’s a big budget to this film, you wonder where it’s gone?)

Surprisingly, the involvement of legendary action choreographer (not to mention director) Ching Siu-Tung (Curse Of The Golden Flower, An Empress And The Warriors, House Of Flying Daggers, A Chinese Ghost Story) does little to raise the quality. Sure, the action scenes are well directed, but not outstanding by any means, let alone inspired. And considering how many films he was involved with during the height of the ‘wire fu’ craze, it’s hard to put that down to Ching being stretch too thinly with his own projects and other films like Kung Fu Dunk. It’s almost as if he just couldn’t get how the green screen action would play out – but again, it’s not as if he hasn’t worked with CGI before.

Thankfully the leads are pretty likable in their roles, with Shibasaki’s feisty Dororo (a male role in the original manga) playing up her tough but cute persona. Tsumabuki is strong too, despite being remarkably sanguine about his predicament and abandonment by his parents. There’s a solid supporting cast too.

Like the recent equally enjoyable if a little better played out) Ichi, Dororo suffers from being a little too long for it’s own good. There seems to be a lot of time spent on exposition, explaining Hyakkimaru’s origins, too much for my tastes, and the plot often seems to stall. Contrast that with very little time spent on the eponymous character herself (though perhaps that’s deliberate, considering two sequels are slated and we end the film already halfway through the 48 demons?)

Dororo is a fine fantasy film, but ultimately you wish it was a little quirkier. It lacks the ‘super-cuteness’ of Osamu Tezuka’s original manga, let alone his distinctiveness, and that seems a shame to me.

Three Kingdoms: Resurrection Of The Dragon

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:00:10 +0000

From the same novel that spawned John Woo’s Red Cliff comes Three Kingdoms, surrounding the legend of Zhao Zilong who became known as The Undefeated General. But do we need another hysterical – I mean historical – drama…?

(And no, it’s not about resurrecting that dragon – they haven’t found a way to bring back Bruce Lee… yet!)

Zhao, played by Andy Lau, is a commoner who joins Liu Bei’s forces in the hope of helping end the wars between the three kingdoms in China. With his courage and exceptional martial art prowess Zhao soon rises through the ranks, becoming of of Liu Bei’s five generals (who also include 70s Shaw Brothers star Ti Lung as Guan Yu) – particularly when he saves Liu Bei’s baby son from the forces of Cao Cao (in an all-too-fleeting cameo by Damien Lau) – a scene also shown in Woo’s Red Cliff, where Jun Hu played Zhao.

Several years later Zhao finds himself still fighting for new leaders, the country still torn apart by war. Deceived into a trap that brings him full circle to the outpost where his calling began, he finds himself up against Cao’s daughter Ying (Maggie Q, Die Hard 4.0, Mission: Impossible III, Gen-X Cops 2), and an inevitable showdown…

Guanzhong Luo’s 14th century historical novel, Romance Of The Three Kingdoms is said to be one of the four classic Chinese novels, alongside Journey To The West, The Water Margin and Dream of the Red Chamber. (And yes, I admit even I had to look up that last one…) Unlike Woo’s more recent Red Cliff, director Daniel Lee’s (Black Mask, What Price Survival?) script and direction does little to honour that novel, encompassing both too little of the source material, and too much of Zhao’s life span. (And it’s nothing to do with Lee’s loose take on the material, either, Woo was just as free with the details.)

In fact, the battle for Red Cliff itself is not even eluded to, perhaps due to Lee wanting to distance himself from Woo’s long promised and undoubtedly epic take on the novel. Yet by trying to show us how Zhao first became a legend, cover the battles he fought and bring us to his disillusioned end, Lee simply glosses over his characters, providing none of them with any depth to like, let alone get caught up in the sentimentality heaped on us.

I’ve begun coining the phrase ‘hysterical dramas’ (rather than historical) for films like this, the mounting levels of melodrama and hysteria having become so over-the-top. It’s something The Warlords did, which also starred Andy Lau, but did well, and Red Cliff, somehow, managed to avoid. Yet Lee even makes a mess of that. We don’t care about the one-dimensional characters, or what happens to them. He lazily inserts flashback after flashback to attempt to pull at our heartstrings, yet only infuriates as they often come within minutes of being originally shown. Gone are the days when we’d get a classic Woo cum Peckinpah flashback of friends in happier times, before seeing them blown to pieces one last time. You can’t help but feel Lee would have been better placed concentrating on the latter part of Zhao’s life.

It’s heavy handed, simplistic and somehow very patronising – I can’t help but feel like Lee is aiming his sights purely on the Chinese market, and that says something rather sad about how sophisticated an audience he considers them. At best it’s a misguided attempt to recreate the simplicity of the Shaw Brothers classics of the 70s that starred Ti Lung and Damien Lau.

It’s also strangely nihilistic. Having fought so many years and given up any happiness of his own, only to find himself in exactly the same out that his heroic journey began, now betrayed by his oldest friend, and even used as a pawn by the great strategist Zhuge Liang. This is the part of the film where the lead is supposed to find a resolution, a meaning for his life, and the true elevation of dying with honour (I hope I’m not spoiling the plot here) yet as with director Lee’s sweeping generalisations, this rings as hollow and unconvincing. There is no discernable victory to be found, let alone moral high ground. (Zhao doesn’t even honour his own words to die defending the outpost.) Could this be deliberate – probably not, and hardly has the desired result.

On the positive side, the action choreography by co-star Sammo Hung and fellow Peking Opera student Yuen Tak, who both attended the same school with Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao, is outstanding. (Even if the scale is dwarfed by Woo’s production several times over.) The cinematography is also impressive, the great, dusty, desolate golden-saturated landscape created by director of photography Tony Cheung mirrored in a main theme that is more than slightly reminiscent of a spaghetti western.

The cast, however, get such a bum deal with the script there’s little for them to sink their teeth into. Andy Lau, initially rather miscast as the young Zhao, is disappointing and rather unconvincing in the lead role. Just compare with his recent performances in Protégé, or even the similarly themed The Warlords – this is more an actor simply going through the motions, but with this script who can blame him. Similarly, Sammo Hung’s support is fine, but not exceptional.

Instead it’s Maggie Q, whose casting was heavily criticised when the film was released in Asia, who actually makes quite a promising appearance as the daughter of Cao Cao, as does Andy On as Zhao’s second-in-command Deng Zhi. It’s just with such a short amount of time devoted to their part of the story, we don’t see enough of them!

Yep, this might sound a bit harsh, but you’re better off trying to catch the theatrical release of Red Cliff while it’s still playing in cinemas. Overall this is a disappointing ‘historical drama’ that should be left to true fans of the genre.

easternkicks.com » Wuxia / Swordplay

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