Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Wenzhuo Zhao | ... | Su Can / Su Qi-Er (as Vincent Zhao) | |
Xun Zhou | ... | Yuan Ying | |
Andy On | ... | Yuan Lie | |
Xiaodong Guo | ... | Colonel Ma | |
Jay Chou | ... | God of Wushu / Drunken God | |
Michelle Yeoh | ... | Dr. Yu | |
Xiaogang Feng | ... | Pickpocket | |
David Carradine | ... | Anthony | |
Cung Le | ... | Militia Leader | |
Chia-Hui Liu | ... | Old Sage (as Gordon Liu) | |
Ka-Yan Leung | ... | Su Wan-Kun | |
Jacky Heung | ... | Imperial Prince | |
Ni Yan | ... | Bar Owner | |
Will Liu | ... | Iron Lad (as Genghong Liu) | |
Luxia Jiang | ... | Iron Maiden |
Su Qi-Er retired from his life as a renowned Qing dynasty general in order to pursue his dream of a family and his own martial arts school. However, Su's peaceful life is shattered when his vengeful adopted brother, Yuan Lie, kidnaps his son and leaves Su for dead. Saved from his demise by his wife Ying and the reclusive doctor Yu, Su resolves to perfect his technique so that he may defeat Yuan Lie and reunite his family. Suffering from visions that he aided in his training by two of the "Eight Immortals" in the form of the mystical "God of Wushu" and the eccentric "Old Sage" master of Drunken Boxing. He embarks on the path that would eventually give rise to the legend of the "King of Beggars." Written by Sam Sung-Sang
Chinese movies of this type are very appealing. This one fits in with the likes of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (this worlds best movie), "House Of Flying Daggers" and "Hero". It doesn't quite achieve the same level of greatness, but is surely in the same spirit.
So the story is touching, and in a way that these movies do better than any other. It's not quite developed enough though. In fact, it feels like the fight-scenes had priority over the story. Had the priority (between story and fight-scenes) been shifted the other way around, I think this movie might have been top-league.
When you've seen blood splatter out the mouth of some poor kungfu-blasted victim for the umpteenth time it gets to be a bit of a cliché. The fight-scenes weren't badly done, there was just way too much of it.
The movie feels a bit rushed, like there perhaps wasn't enough time to finish it properly. A bit like "hurry up, we haven't got all day, just wrap it up as it is and hope nobody will notice the slack", and "don't worry if it's half-finished, we'll just throw in another fight-scene and call it a day". That detracted quite a bit. I wouldn't go so far as to say it had the Hollywood mass-production feel to it, but neither did it achieve the true-art feeling that the 3 master-pieces I mention at the top has.
Still, it is a moving film that did indeed manage to pull on the heart-strings. But it just could have been better.