Change Your Image
david-crean-167-510993
Reviews
Su Qi-er (2010)
Good action, but for God's sake hire some writers...
If you're looking for excellent action choreography and not a whole lot else, you've come to the right place! Legendary director/choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping's first directorial effort since 1996 is a dazzling display of over-the-top martial arts coupled with all the narrative cohesion of a choose-your-own-adventure book.
It's essentially two films awkwardly sewn together -- the first is a typical Kung Fu premise we all know and love from the 80s: hero is betrayed; hero gets beaten up; hero trains to improve his skills; hero kills all enemies. In this case, Su Can seeks to avenge the murder of his father by his traitorous adopted brother (Yuan), who has mastered a supernatural technique whereby he is able to store venom from all kinds of nasty creatures in his body, then transfer it to his enemies through open palm strikes (huh??). As if that weren't enough, the first half really ratchets up the bizarre by having Su's trainer be the "God of Wushu" who is always accompanied by a cackling, long-bearded sage (Gordon Liu in an excellent cameo). Did I mention that these two only exist in Su's imagination? Yeah. Michelle Yeoh plays a supporting, but ultimately useless role as a brilliant healer who purges the venom from Su's body after his first battle with his nefarious ex-friend. She leaves the film as suddenly and inexplicably as she entered. Anyway, the way-too-long training section ultimately culminates in a pretty anti-climactic and effortless battle with Yuan, ending with his death as well as the death of Su's wife (and Yuan's sister) Ying.
That's the end, right? No, apparently not. Time lapse several years and Su and his son (who never seems to age over the film's several-year time span) are living as beggars on the street in now-colonized China. This second half is so appallingly contrived that I won't even go into it. The lowest point is the awful David Carradine's cameo as a Russian trainer who mysteriously speaks English with an American accent (hmm...)
Anyway, if you're looking for mindless (and I do mean MINDLESS) entertainment and A+ action choreography, this is the film for you. The choreography itself is a bit more "realistic" than some of Yuen-Woo Ping's recent efforts (Matrix, Crouching Tiger, etc.) with minimal flying, but maximal fake blood and tumbling through walls.
Shi yue wei cheng (2009)
Slick, well-made piece of propaganda
This is an excellently produced, written, and acted film that tugs mightily at the heart-strings even as it mesmerizes with action sequences. Indeed, it borders on emotional exploitation at times, as one character after another meets a gruesome and tragic end. The unfortunate thing, and the reason I can't give it 10 stars, is that the whole spectacle is in service to a fairly transparent ideological agenda: that one must sacrifice, property, happiness, loved ones, and even oneself in service to the vaguely-defined "revolution" that will bring "prosperity to 400 million people." To put it a little more bluntly: the life of an individual is worthless except when sacrificed for the good of the society. To be sure, this isn't the explicitly pro-PRC type of trashy propaganda that rarely even makes its way to America, and the revolution in the film is not the one that toppled Nationalist China and brought Mao to power (although it's not hard to see how one stands in for the other in the minds of the creators, and probably many viewers in the PRC). On the other hand, the film is actually worse than the typical hack-job because the message is diffuse enough that many western viewers (and seemingly many reviewers here) won't even catch it.
A troubling movie on many levels, but it's hard to find anything wrong with it as a piece of cinema. Hardly a bad way to spend two hours, but know what you're getting into.
Mao quan (1978)
Uh...what?
This film is totally incomprehensible, and I mean TOTALLY. Either they tried to create an entirely new plot with the English dubbing, or they spliced about three separate films together hoping nobody would notice. There's something going on with gangs and a microfilm, and somehow the main characters are involved, but beyond that, it's anybody's guess what the hell is going on. Sets of characters drift in and out with no explanation, nobody is ever given a name so it's hard to tell who is doing what, and perhaps most hilariously of all, the nightclub band that obviously features a saxophone is overdubbed with a trumpet. The last fight scene is not terrible, but it's nothing special and can't nearly compensate for the rest of this god-awful mess.
Sadaetonguimun (1978)
Don't bother
An extremely poor 70s Kung Fu film; I'm not sure why it is rated so highly on here, except perhaps for comedic value. Even by chop-socky standards, it's substantially below par. I've heard good things about Casaova Wong, but he looks surprisingly incompetent in this movie. He even walks weirdly. It also has absolutely nothing to do with Shaolin. The original has clearly been heavily spliced and edited, often extraordinarily obviously. The dubbing is awful -- most of the time the character who is supposed to be speaking isn't even moving his or her mouth. The costumes are also ludicrous -- most of the villains look like Indians from a 50s western. All this would be forgivable if the fight scenes were well done but, alas, they are actually the most disappointing aspect. Every scene relies heavily on comically obvious wire-work and ham-handed editing. The only scene it seems anybody bothered to choreograph is the last, which barely rises to the level of mediocre. Even there, it's not at all smooth, and the villains tend to stand still and wait for the hero to get around to hitting them. There are much better examples of genre that are just as easily obtainable as this forgettable trainwreck.
Bu bu zhui zong (1974)
Satisfactory, if not Exceptional
This is an extremely enjoyable example of the genre, featuring good action and surprisingly above-average voices and dubbing. For once, the anglicized voices don't seem totally haphazard and incongruous, and the dubbing is by and large tolerable. There are a few too many amazing leaps for me, but the actual fighting is accomplished with minimal wirework and reasonable fluidity (look out for the scene where the hero fights on stilts!) Kuan-Hung Wang (male lead) is impressive, his female counterpart slightly less so, and the villains not at all. There's some kind of relationship between the male and female leads, although it's not entirely clear whether it's brother/sister or more romantic in nature. The two main characters are supposed to be circus performers; it's never explained how the became so adept at martial arts, but I suspect this is some kind of cultural phenomenon that doesn't quite translate to the west.
He xing dao shou tang lang tui (1979)
Diamond in the Rough
This film features the very unfortunate combination of an extremely talented cast and extremely poor production quality. The Kung Fu is some of the best you will see in films from this era: both stars are exceptional, as is the main villain. There is almost no use of wires, the editing isn't choppy and designed to mislead, and at first glance there doesn't seem to be any use of dummies. On the downside, the dubbing is terrible, especially with the ridiculous voices they've chosen for the leads, and the picture quality is quite low. The plot isn't the worst, but is also not especially memorable. The whole thing seems to have been an attempt to feature as much action by the stars as possible, which is perfectly alright, considering their level of accomplishment.