sillybuddha Review of Tian di ying xiong

Tian di ying xiong (2003)

Flawed but entertaining - *contains spoilers*

[7/10 · 3 December 2006]

Very similar in theme to a Western, including absolutely stunning scenery of Chinese desert mountain ranges and lush pine forests like those often seen in cowboy movies. A bunch of retired war buddies loyally follow their ex-commander on one last mission to protect a mysterious caravan journeying to the capital. The positive points about the film include the charming performances from Wen Jiang as the leader, Kiichi Nakai as the Imperial agent and Deshun Wang as 'Old Die-hard' who really lend the picture some gravitas and show total commitment to their performances. Xueqi Wang is especially good as an arrogant villain, his dead blue-eyed stare evoking cold menace. As others have mentioned, the scenery is stunning, with lovely shots of camels crossing the desert and horses along rocky plateaus. The film really is a chance to see landscapes ignored by Hollywood. The religious element to the cargo so disdained by other reviewers was a nice little touch, something I did not expect - it had to be an artifact of this nature to raise the stakes and commit the soldiers to protecting it. For those with an interest in Buddhism it is a nice little element. Sadly the Buddhist precept of doing no harm is not followed by the plot when the relics kill the evildoers - perhaps not what Lord Buddha would do. I was also unsure if the monk was supposed to be Shakyamuni Buddha himself? Xueqi Wang's character seemed to recognise him at the end - was he a reincarnation? I had to watch the movie twice to fully understand what was going on - sudden cuts leave out portions of action, explained away by such narration as 'they gave up the chase and we arrived at the fortress' - there's a fair bit of telling rather than showing. The ending is particularly sudden, once the relics dispose of the baddies we aren't even sure which of our heroes are alive - we just suddenly jump to the capital. The fight scenes are frenetic but are deliberately filmed in close shots and in a rapid-fire confusing manner, meaning we are never sure who is fighting whom and who is winning. Most of these problems, I suspect are down to lack of budget or time. The film has beautiful scenery, some very nice locations at desert forts and towns, an interesting visual combination of Chinese and Arab cultures, and an undemanding Western style plot with some nice tense battles and good performances. You don't really care about the characters as individuals, but you want them to succeed.