Wu Xia (2011) (aka 武俠, Dragon)

[DiP]

First trailer is out.

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[Drunken Monk]

That was certainly an unusual trailer. Slow motion and CGI of internal organs being broken? Hm. I'll withhold my verdict until I see more.

[ShaOW!linDude]

It looks sort of good. More wire fu. Meh.

[sen_pai]

The trailer looks bad. It makes me think of American movies, or something like "Green Hornet" where they focus on slow motion. The showing of the inside of the body, hopefully is just a small part of the movie or doesn't overtake the film.

I have bad feelings for this film.

[DiP]

The Weinstein Co. has bought US distribution AND remake rights to the movie. Wu Xia now also goes under the title of "Dragon".

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=77432

[ShaOW!linDude]

The Weinstein Co. has bought US distribution AND remake rights to the movie. Wu Xia now also goes under the title of "Dragon".

What! Another one? You guys will have to help keep me straight so I don't get confused.

[Space]

Looks decent for wire-fu. Certainly not a traditional movie, but that's fine, too many of Yen's movies these days take themselves too seriously. The cinematography looks better than The Lost Bladesman.

[hardz]

Agreed, and so does the lighting and attention to detail. Looks good (except the running on rooftops again).

[DiP]

Wire-fu? Hard to tell.

[mpm74]

I know it's not "official", but I don't see any sign of it being a 'one-armed' remake. (and I'm not focusing on the arms either, I'm talking about everything).

I dig the trailer. Looks awesome. I have faith in Peter Chan. You get a good filmmaker (who usually doesn't do action movies) to do a martial arts movie, you almost ALWAYS end up with gold.

[BaronK]

I know it's no longer a OAS remake but it was said to now be a different spin on it. I find it strange that the trailer doesn't even slightly imply a one armed anything. The title and trailer imply something onto itself. Is it is a OAS type, it's weird to have a trailer like this then.

Wire fu? You must have seen some trailer other than the one that is out now and in this thread.

[DiP]

The Hollywood Reporter interviews Peter Chan about the movie.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-qa-wu-xia-director-187902

[ShaOW!linDude]

Wire fu? You must have seen some trailer other than the one that is out now and in this thread.

I viewed the clip again. Looks like wire fu to me at the 0:43 - 46 and 0:52 - 55 marks.

[Yakuza954]

I have faith in Peter Chan. You get a good filmmaker (who usually doesn't do action movies) to do a martial arts movie, you almost ALWAYS end up with gold.

The only worry I have is that sometimes when these directors (especially the ones who are considered more art house) make a martial arts movie, they often a) don't film enough martial arts scenes or film them with exotic camera angles and quick takes that don't do the choreography justice.

This is all a big generalizaton though. You get a good director, period, to direct a martial arts film and you usually get something good. After all, the best martial arts movies of all time were made by good directors like Lau Kar Leung, Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo Ping, and Chang Cheh--who just happened to be martial arts guys.

[DiP]

Director Peter Chan blows 1.8m yuan to fly "Wu Xia" to Cannes

HONG KONG: Hong Kong director Peter Chan revealed that he is shelling out 1.8 million yuan (S$344,444) to charter a plane to transport the first print of his new martial arts film "Wu Xia" from Thailand to France for the 64th Cannes Film Festival.

"To save time on transit and customs, we hired a plane to ensure that the print will reach Cannes on May 13," said Chan in a press statement on Tuesday.

The print is getting better treatment than even some of the stars attending the prestigious film festival and it isn't even competing in any category!

However, Chan expressed that "Wu Xia", the only Chinese film participating at this year's Cannes Film Festival, is more than just your average martial arts flick.

"Cannes is the starting point to bring the wu xia (martial arts chivalry film genre) to the world.

"This is my first wu xia film and I hope I can, starting with Cannes, bring a completely brand new world of wu xia onto the international stage," said the 48-year-old director.

Wu Xia mayhem

"Wu Xia" may well be the right film to reinvent the wu xia film genre and propel it forward.

The US$20 million (S$24.9 million) film tells the tale of Detective Xu Bai-jiu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who tries to unravel the mystery of how an unassuming paper maker Liu Jin-xi (Donnie Yen) managed to slay Yan Dong Sheng, a murderer on a killing spree. His investigations inadvertently put Liu and his wife Ah Yu (Tang Wei) in a collision course with the leader (60s wu xia star Jimmy Wang) of the 72 Demons, a clan of vicious killers.

Unlike other wu xia films that have come before, "Wu Xia" features slower fight scenes that emphasize how each strike serves to incapacitate a human being, via cutaways showing the internal effects of the strike on the human body.

Detective Xu pieces together the results of postmortems and investigations of the scene of the fight to figure out what Liu did as well as uncover clues about who Liu really is.

"Wu Xia" is scheduled to open in Singapore on August 4.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/entertainment/view/1128439/1/.html

[DiP]

Cannes 2011: WU XIA Review

Say what you will about The Weinstein Company re-titling the latest from director Peter Chan Dragon for the English speaking market - and we say it's horrible - but they may actually have something of a point in moving the title away from the Chinese original of Wu Xia. Because Chan seems surprisingly disinterested in delivering any sort of conventional take on what most fans of the wuxia genre would expect from a film of that title. Which isn't to say that it's not good - because it is, very - but expectations may be skewed a bit in the wrong direction.

Wu Xia begins, surprisingly enough, as a detective story. When a pair of thugs try to rob the general store of a remote town they are fought off by local paper maker Liu Jinxi (Donnie Yen) and killed in the battle. The subsequent investigation - led by quirky detective Xu Baiju (Takeshi Kaneshiro) obsessed with solving crimes by observation of minute details and a rich knowledge of human physiology - quickly confirms who the dead men are and how they died but while the town is busy proclaiming the humble paper maker a local hero our detective becomes convinced that there must be more to him than meets the eye. For no untrained man could have dispatched two hardened criminals in such fashion.

And so the first half of Wu Xia plays out not as a martial arts epic nor as a meditation on honor - the two prevalent themes in wuxia films - but as a heady game of cat and mouse with Xu playing out theories of who Liu might really be. He's right, of course, there's more at play here than meets the eye and before all is said and done a secret society of assassins comes out of the woodwork to wreak havoc in this once peaceful town.

Leaning significantly more towards drama than action, Wu Xia is a beautifully photographed piece of work from the always visually impressive Peter Chan with an all star cast that includes Kara Hui, Tang Wei and - in a lovely nod to the film's origins as a remake of The One Armed Swordsman (a plan quickly abandoned) - Jimmy Wang Yu. Chan draws strong performances from his entire cast and the production values are simply stellar throughout. The script is engaging, the characters interesting and, when the action finally comes into play, the action is inventive and high energy.

Many will, no doubt, approach Wu Xia as a star vehicle for Donnie Yen - who also serves as action director - and on that level there is both good and bad. The good is that this is as strong a dramatic performance as Yen has ever turned in, Chan proving himself again to be a strong actor's director. Yen has taken a lot of heat over his career for focusing on the action while turning in wooden performances but this is very definitely not the case here, his Liu being a rich and complex man who Yen delivers well. The bad, unfortunately, comes in the action. Not that the martial arts sequences are bad, per se, but it is becoming increasingly clear now that Yen's physical skills are on the decline and are already significantly below the level of just a few years ago. As with several recent Yen pictures the use of a body double is fairly common while every fight sequence has had the speed manipulated significantly. In Yen's prime neither of these things would have been dreamt of, now both are required.

While Wu Xia will not cause the stir that pictures such as Crouching Tiger and Hero did on their release it is, nonetheless, one of the better films of the type from recent years and a welcome attempt to push the historical epic in a new direction.

http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/05/cannes-2011-wu-xia-review.php

[Guest Yi-Long]

As with several recent Yen pictures the use of a body double is fairly common while every fight sequence has had the speed manipulated significantly. In Yen's prime neither of these things would have been dreamt of, now both are required.

Uhmmmmm... Donnie Yen in his prime was known for having his action-scenes sped up. Iron Monkey, his tv-shows, Legend of the Wolf, etc.

Sometimes it worked (Iron Monkey), but often it would completely fuck up and ruin some action-scenes.

I didn't know about the name-change, but yeah, typical Weinstein bullshit. And just completely unimaginative again as well, as we're used to from them by now.

Worthless fat assholes.

[DiP]

Donnie Yen in his prime was known for having his action-scenes sped up. Iron Monkey, his tv-shows, Legend of the Wolf, etc.

We can't blame him. That was common back then for Jackie, Sammo, Biao, Jet and so on. The late 70s, the whole 80s and almost the whole 90s were the period of which MA filmmakers relied on undercranking to have fast-paced fight scenes in Hong Kong action movies.

[Ramji]

Also has the reviewer not seen The Lost Bladesman? Donnie Yen's pretty friggin awesome in that!

Saying that, I'm not getting my hopes up action choreography wise for this film. By the look of the trailer and stuff Peter Chan's been saying they've been going for something a bit different.

I hope that in the end it doesn't just become a frustrating experience to watch. Hopefully the strengh of the film will carry it through regardless of a lack of powerhouse martial art choreography.

[DiP]

Wu xia

(Hong Kong-China)

A Weinstein Co. (international)/We Distribution (in Asia) release of a Stellar Mega Films, We Pictures, Dingsheng Cultural Industry Investment Co., JSBC Eudemonia Blue Ocean TV & Movie Group, Yunnan Film Group presentation of a We Pictures production. (International sales: We Distribution, Hong Kong.) Produced by Peter Ho-sun Chan, Jojo Hui Yuey-chun. Executive producers, Chan, Qin Hong, Zhou Li, Yang Zhiguo, Alan Zhang, Huang Jianxin. Co-producers, Lu York, Dong Keyan, Hong Tao, Jiang Wenbo. Directed by Peter Ho-sun Chan. Screenplay, Aubrey Lam. Co-writer, Joyce Chan.

With: Donnie Yen, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tang Wei, Jimmy Wang Yu, Kara Wai Ying-hung, Li Xiaoran. (Mandarin dialogue)

The repressed return with a vengeance in "Wu xia," a satisfyingly sinewy fusion of martial-arts actioner and brain-tickling noir from busy producer-director Peter Ho-sun Chan. Channeling David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" by way of 1917 China, this clever if over-amped thriller tackles themes of identity, honor and the latent killer instinct with a playful spirit that's never at odds with its underlying seriousness. Pleasurable pairing of Donnie Yen's stoic heroics and Takeshi Kaneshiro's droll detection should woo local auds on August release, while offshore acquisition by the Weinstein Co. all but ensures Chan's widest exposure yet in Western markets.

Either very erudite or very imaginative in matters of Eastern medicine and physiology, Aubrey Lam's script not only deploys acupuncture and reflexology as plot devices but delights in presenting the human body as a strong yet unexpectedly vulnerable object. "Wu xia" is set in a world where a person's emotions can be controlled with needles, and a single, well-aimed blow to a pressure point can destroy a man, as depicted in perhaps one too many computer-generated close-ups of a victim's organs, blood cells and nerve endings right at the moment of rupture.

This lethal art is something only the most skillful assassins can pull off, and suspicion soon falls on Liu Jinxi (Yen), a humble papermaker who turns out to be disturbingly good at bumping off the bad guys who swagger into his small town in southwestern China's Yunnan province. After dispatching two especially nasty thugs without leaving a fatal wound on either body (one slo-mo organ severing notwithstanding), the bumbling, benign-seeming Liu claims he merely got lucky.

But dapper detective Xu Baijiu (Kaneshiro) thinks otherwise, and in a sequence that suggests an early-20th-century version of "CSI: Yunnan," he uses his knowledge of kung fu and forensic smarts to reconstruct the deadly fight as it really happened. In amusingly pedantic voiceover, Xu concludes that Liu, outwardly a loving husband to Ayu (Tang Wei) and father to their two boys, is in fact a highly trained killer who for some reason has gone into hiding.

Liu's complex backstory is teased out in creepy, suspenseful and darkly humorous fashion, and perhaps the most gratifying surprise is the degree to which the twists dovetail with revelations of character. It's a given that Liu is on the run from something or someone, but what's unexpected is the pic's concern for how his secrets have shaped his views on family, duty and personal payback, something hinted at by the title (which translates as "martial-arts chivalry"). The river that runs through town invariably becomes a dumping ground for the bodies that pile up over the film's nearly two hours, but its evocation of cleansing serves a deeper metaphoric purpose.

Yen and Kaneshiro maintain a dignified reserve throughout, even during the occasional slam-bang setpiece (directed and choreographed by Yen with customary verve), lending their opposing characters a nicely tense but not entirely adversarial chemistry. Kung-fu movie icon Jimmy Wang Yu pops up in a scary turn as a figure from Liu's past, allowing the Shaw Brothers vet to show off some still-killer moves. Given little to do but smile, weep and stand by her man, Tang nonetheless acquits herself well in moving scenes of domestic tranquility.

Chan has hit his B.O. stride in recent years, having helmed top local grossers "Perhaps Love" (2005) and "The Warlords" (2008), and produced Teddy Chen's critical and commercial hit "Bodyguards and Assassins" (2009). The confident action chops he shows off here could serve as a calling card should he ever opt to return to Hollywood, where he helmed such efforts as 1999's "The Love Letter."

Cinematographers Jake Pollock and Lai Yiu-fai find visually inventive ways to bisect the widescreen frame or isolate characters in darkness, and their ultra-crisp, color-saturated lensing maximizes the pictorial beauty of the Chinese locations and Yee Chung-man's production design, not all of which is left standing by film's end.

Still, there's at times an overwrought quality to the picture's look and tone, and Chan would have done well to rein in the excesses here and there, particularly in one reckless third-act scene of child endangerment. But for the most part, "Wu xia" is a robust genre exercise, set in distant times yet smartly tooled for contempo appetites.

Camera (color, widescreen), Jake Pollock, Lai Yiu-fai; editor, Derek Hui; music, Chan Kwong-wing, Peter Kam; production designer, Yee Chung-man; set decorator, Hu Zhongquan; costume designer, Dora Ng; sound, Traithep Wongpaiboon; sound designers, Nopawat Likitwong, Wongpaiboon; re-recording mixer, Lu Ke; action director/choreographer, Donnie Yen; visual effects, Digital Idea; assistant director, Feli Tang. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Midnight Screenings), May 14, 2011. Running time: 116 MIN.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117945222/

[DiP]

Cannes Review: ‘Wu Xia’ Mostly A Period Melodrama Punched Up By A Few Fights

The Weinstein Company has been on an acquisitions tear at the Cannes Film Festival this year and one of their pick ups, the Midnight Movie selection “Wu Xia,” certainly reflects the kind of film that interested Harvey and Bob even back in their Miramax days. A genre film with an impressive pedigreed talent and sold on Donnie Yen kicking ass, “Wu Xia” seems ready made to be a niche hit. But with only three fights—at the beginning, in the middle and at the end—the film stretches into a far-too-long two-hour running time to tell an ultimately tired story about a man looking to reform himself and has to reckon with his past first.

The story centers around the seemingly timid and meek Liu Jinxi (Yen). The owner of a paper mill that has brought prosperity to a small rural Chinese town in 1917, he lives a peaceful existence with his wife and two sons. One day, two toughs show up and attempt to rob the general store and Jinxi is drawn into a mess resulting in a 2-on-1 battle that ends with both men dead, seemingly more by luck than by anything Jinxi did. Spending most of the fight with the arms wrapped around the waist of one of the assailants, he is bounced around the store and into an adjacent pond. To the naked eye it looks like Jinxi largely flailed about during the fight but when Detective Xu comes into town to investigate the deaths, he suspects that Jinxi might be a lot more than who he says he is.

Played by Takeshi Kaneshiro, Xu isn’t quite ready to close the case. The two dead are wanted criminals and his higher would prefer to crown Jinxi a hero, but Xu believes that the vegetarian paper mill owner is hiding something and may not be who is. “ can’t trust humanity, only physiology and the law,” Xu says. A firm believer that a man can be incapacitated by simply exploiting his 12 meridians (that’s acupuncture talk), Xu begins to suspect that Jinxi harnesses incredible martial arts skills that take advantage of this knowledge, and moreover, that he may actually be a wanted killer hiding out in this tiny village.

Jinxi and Xu then circle each other warily. They share some philosophical back and forth—Jinxi contends that we are all accomplices in each other’s sin, that karma is a reflection of that (yeah, pretty heavy stuff for supposed actioner)—but this is the point where the film begins to slow down. Xu knows who Jinxi really is, Jinxi knows who Jinxi really is, hell, even the audience is aware there is more to this guy, yet the confirmation of who and how he came to be in the village and raising a family takes far too long to establish. Once we finally learn about the deadly clan he once belonged to, the action kicks back in and this is where the film shines. After watching Kenneth Branagh cheat his way about the fights in “Thor,” it’s wholly refreshing to see excitingly staged hand-to-hand fights where the geography and choreography are impeccable, and you can actually see each punch and kick. Director Peter Ho-San Chan wisely doesn’t get too fussy with the camera and knows that just letting Yen do this thing is all we really need. The second fight, in particular, which starts with a chase across the rooftops of the villages and ends in a bull pen is the high mark for the film.

But as we head into the final act, the plot churns with a whole sins-of-the-father/sins-of-the-son thematic twist that feels pretty stale, but luckily, the film closes with a final reel-worthy battle. But it will be interesting to see how his movie plays to its core. It’s definitely not a straight up chop socky flick, and spends more time with Jinxi’s familial woes and musing on how the scales of justice deserve to be balanced without anything of much significance to say about it. We wouldn’t be surprised—and frankly we’d advise—the Weinsteins cutting 10 to 15 minutes out of this thing if only to get the story moving along. The lush cinematography by Jake Pollock and the rock ‘n’ roll like score are also highlights, but they don’t hide the fact that “Wu Xia” is mostly a period melodrama with a few fights to keep things interesting. [C+]

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/cannes_review_wu_xia_mostly_a_period_melodrama_punched_up_by_a_few_fights/

[DiP]

Cannes Movie Review: Wu Xia (Dragon) (2011)

A fascinating take on the martial arts genre, though it needs about ten minutes snipped

One day after the Weinstein Co. acquired North American distribution and remake rights to Peter Ho-sun Chan's Wu Xia (Dragon), the Out of Competition title screened at the 64th Cannes Film Festival. Playing as a 1917-set, martial arts version of David Cronenberg's A History of Violence, Wu Xia boasts a fascinating story and some excellent action scenes, choreographed and featuring Donnie Yen. There are moments when it plays a little too long leaving for a few dead spots throughout, though this does make you cherish the action scenes that much more when they arrive.

Set during the late Qing Dynasty, Wu Xia opens as a pair of thieves attempt to rob a general store in a small village. Their robbery is, however, foiled by an act of bravery by Jinxi (Yen), a local papermaker, father of two and husband to Ayu (Tang Wei). After an investigation of the crime scene by Detective Xu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) it is learned one of the bandits was among the ten most wanted people in the land. Xu's chief is happy it happened under his jurisdiction while Xu begins to question how a seemingly innocent papermaker was able to, by stroke of luck, kill two seasoned bandits, one of them by issuing a single, but fatal, blow to the head.

Takeshi Kaneshiro (Chungking Express), who last impressed me in John Woo's Red Cliff and House of Flying Daggers before that, plays Xu as something of an early era C.S.I. investigator, a description Chan embraces, using CG to detail each suspected blow to the victims as Xu scrutinizes the crime scene.

As the audience, we saw the scene as it happened, but as Xu investigates he sees it a different way. Were we deceived? Did it actually happen as Xu sees it or is his imagination getting the better of him?

Believing Jinxi to be more dangerous than he is letting on, Wu Xia's comparison to A History of Violence becomes more apt, though I don't want to give too much away as the majority of the fun is in experiencing it first hand.

While Yen and Kaneshiro both handle their respective roles quite well, the bulk of the credit for this film goes to screenwriter Aubrey Lam (The Warlords), whose script presents a story of this sort unlike any I've seen. Depending on how knowledgeable you are of the twelve standard meridians in Chinese acupuncture you may be more ahead of the game with this film than me as they play a pivotal role in Xu's personal life and investigation. Audience members with a greater respect for the medicinal treatment may find even more value in the film than I did.

As a film, Wu Xia wasn't what I expected and when I looked up what the title actually meant (no, it's not "dragon" as the Weinstein Co. has arbitrarily renamed this picture) I was intrigued by what I found.

"Wuxia" is actually a genre of Chinese fiction centered on martial arts with a hero at the center of its story that "fights for righteousness and seeks to remove an oppressor, redress wrongs, or to bring retribution for past misdeeds." You'd never guess that based on the detective story that makes up the first half of this film.

With Weinstein taking control, however, I would suspect the opening 60 minutes or so will be trimmed down to speed up the story and get to the latter half where more of the genre's trademarks can be found and the action ratchets up a notch. The foundations of wuxia, however, are set in the early goings with references to such skills as Qinggong, Neijin and Dianxue, and don't worry if you're not familiar with these terms, I wasn't either, but exploring the particulars of this genre is actually quite fascinating if you're interested.

Where Wu Xia is going to find trouble upon domestic release is in any attempt to appeal outside genre enthusiasts. The problem isn't the performances or even the story per se, but in the film's tonal ambiguity. Several moments in Xu's initial investigation are quite comical, but I'm not sure if the tone will translate to a domestic audience. Then there's the matter of convincing audiences to take the more mystical aspects of the story seriously, something that's often proved to be difficult for a culture more likely to laugh at what they don't understand rather than respect it for what it is. I only mention this in response to ill-timed snickers that could be heard in my Cannes audience.

Overall, Wu Xia is a solid film that simply needs about ten minutes snipped from its running time to quicken the pace. I'll be curious to see how it's marketed because there is a serious possibility of reaching a wider audience considering comparisons that can be made to today's primetime police procedurals and the fact very few martial arts films have been hits since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won four Oscars in 2001. I'm not saying this film is on that level, not by a long shot, but the fact the Weinstein's obtained remake rights as well as distribution rights tells me they see the potential this film and its story holds.

GRADE: B-

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/cannes-movie-review-wu-xia-dragon-2011

[HyperDrive]

Chances are the wrong ten minutes will be cut and the US version will be a convoluted mess. And the remake will be even more so. Then again, seeing how they are planning a remake, this will hopefully go straight to DVD uncut.

[DiP]

Wu Xia (Dragon): Cannes Review

Venue: Cannes Film Festival, Out of Competition

Cast: Donnie Yen, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tang Wei, Jimmy Wang Yu, Kara Hui

Director-producer: Peter Ho-sun Chan

Screenwriter: Aubrey Lam

The Bottom Line: An exhilarating martial arts entertainment that modernizes the genre while re-emphasizing its strong points.

A detective comes across a paper-maker who may or may not be a renegade mass murder in director Peter Ho-sun Chan's latest film, to be released in the U.S. under the title "Dragon."

CANNES -- Bursting with light and color, and a torrent of martial arts action both swift and savage (arguably the best that lead actor Donnie Yen has choreographed for years), Wu Xia is coherently developed and stylishly directed by Peter Ho-Sun Chan to provide unashamedly pleasurable popular entertainment. Wu Xia created buzz before its premiere with acquisition by The Weinstein Company, which will release the title stateside as Dragon. Almost as picturesque as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the film has a chance of expanding overseas audience base beyond Asian genre ghettos.

Set in 1917, on the cusp of China’s transition from monarchy to republic, Wu Xia depicts the internal moral struggles of a detective and a paper-maker who may be a renegade mass murderer. Unfolding like a noir mystery in which Colombo meets CSI. It represents Chan’s ambition to bridge the gap between Chinese and international tastes by giving a modern spin to the genre, while paying homage to the golden age of Hong Kong martial arts films through the special appearances of legendary action star Jimmy Wang Yu and Kara Hui.

Donnie Yen plays the said paper-maker Liu Jinxi, who has settled in an idyllic, hospitable village in Yunnan for ten years after marrying single mother Ayu (Tang Wei). The peaceful life of his family of four is disturbed when he accidentally kills two robbers who threaten his paper workshop. The incident has detective Xu Baijiu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) sniffing in his backyard. Xu is convinced that Liu’s real identity is Tang Long, a runaway member of the 72 Demons, a dwindling clan of Tanguts (former rulers of China’s neighboring Xixia kingdom) for whom rape, pillage and massacre are a way of life.

What makes the exposition novel in the genre is the attempt to peel away layers of oriental mystique surrounding martial arts through Xu’s quasi-scientific or homeopathic theories of investigation, such as forensic science, physics, acupuncture and qigong, which also adds an endearingly nerdy side to his character. However, the CG-rendered charts of human anatomy are used too frequently until they interfere with the flow of action.

As a self-conscious homage to the brawny, starkly violent martial arts films of which Chang Cheh’s classic One Armed Swordsman series (starring Jimmy Wang Yu) is exemplary, Yen’s devises close-contact combats with a graphic, muscular, vicious style that aims to kill with a single strike. The three act structure each showcases a climactic combat in distinctly different styles. Liu’s fight with a female Tangut (Kara Hui) is the most inventive, as it takes place in an ox pen where they have to skirt nimbly, yet dangerously around a stampede of buffalos.

After going through the motions in a recent string of dramatically unsatisfactory works, Yen and Tang both return to acting form, emoting in a quietly stirring manner. Aubrey Lam’s subtle and understated script not only affectingly depict the pure but steadfast bonds of a simple family, but capture the neurosis of both Liu and Ayu, who separately grapple with their scarred pasts and fear that happiness is transient. The most fascinating character, however, turns out to be Xu, for whom the investigation becomes a personal moral and intellectual quest, in which he weighs the impartial efficacy of law against natural human compunctions of remorse and compassion. He too has to exorcize demons from the past, thus deepening the theme of redemption, which applies to Xu as well as to Liu.

Jake Pollock’s luscious widescreen cinematography adds a dash of fairytale color to the moist, glossy rolling hills, meadows and bamboo bushes of the ethnically-rich Yunnan countryside. While hard rock score of Peter Kam and Chan Kwong Wing (the composing duo of Bodyguards and Assassins, produced by Chan) tends to be too relentlessly energetic at times, sound is used expertly for maximum threatening effect, especially in the presence of the chief of the 13 Demons (Jimmy Wang Yu).

Venue: Cannes Film Festival, Out of Competition

Sales: WE Distribution

Production companies: The Weinstein Company, UGC, WE Distribution presents a WE Pictures production.

Cast: Donnie Yen, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tang Wei, Jimmy Wang Yu, Kara Hui

Director-producer: Peter Ho-Sun Chan

Producer: Jojo Hui

Screenwriter: Aubrey Lam

Director of photography: Jake Pollock, Lai Yiu-Fai

Production designer: Yee Chung Man

Music: Chan Kwong-Wing, Peter Kam

Costume designer: Dora Ng

No rating, 110 minutes

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/wu-xia-dragon-cannes-review-188449

[DiP]

Wu Xia (武俠)

Hong Kong/China

Period martial-arts drama

Directed by Peter Chan (陳可辛)

Sumptuously shot spin on the costume action genre has good performances but a slightly bumpy script. Good theatrical chances beyond Asia.

Story

A village in Yunnan province, southern China, 1917. Liu Jinxi (Donnie Yen) lives a quiet life with his wife Yu (Tang Wei) and their two young sons Xiaotian and Fangzheng. Liu runs a paper mill, and the village has prospered since he arrived. One day two fugitives arrive demanding money and, after a long fight with Liu, both end up dead. The bigger one is identified as Yan Dongsheng, an especially powerful fighter. Liu becomes a local hero but detective Xu Baijiu (Kaneshiro Takeshi), an expert in physiology and pressure points, is puzzled how a seemingly ordinary man like Liu was able to defeat two hardened fugitives - and by using specialised martial-arts techniques. He discovers Liu arrived in the village five years earlier, when Yu was already pregnant with her first son by her first husband, and was adopted into the Liu clan. Liu's original name was rumoured to be Gong, and his father a butcher in Jingzhou. Liu finally tells Xu that he was actually a convicted killer and spent 10 years in Jingzhou prison. But Xu, who's noticed that Liu is surrounded by a powerful qi force-field, is still suspicious, and when an associate (Jiang Wu) reports back from his investigations in Jingzhou, he realises Liu is actually Tang Long, second-in-command of the murderous 72 Demons gang and the favourite son of its Tangut leader (Jimmy Wang) and his wife (Kara Hui).

Review

Part period detective mystery, part martial arts drama, and part pressure-points manual, Wu Xia (武俠) is a sumptuously shot spin on the costume action genre whose only major weakness is a lack of narrative smoothness and tonal consistency. Hong Kong director-producer Peter Chan's (陳可辛) first directorial outing since his 2007 costume epic The Warlords (投名狀, 2007), the movie plays into the current mini-wave of period Asian detective movies (Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame 狄仁杰之通天帝國, Detective K: Secret of Virtuous Widow 조선명탐정 : 각시투구꽃의 비밀) while presenting a fairly familiar plot in a fresh way.

The film's totally generic Chinese title — literally, Martial Arts Chivalry, the equivalent of calling a US cowboy movie simply Western — leads one to expect a kind of ultimate statement on martial arts cinema. Instead, Aubrey Lam's (林愛華) script takes a subject that's formed the basis of everything from kung-fu movies in the East to westerns and gangster films in the West — a man settled in a new life finds his violent past catching up with him — to dissect the mechanics of martial-arts techniques rather than the chivalrous nature of its exponents.

There's very little that's chivalrous about either the lead character, a seemingly peaceful paper-maker, or the fight scenes, which range from rough-and-tumbles in an inn and, later, a cattle stall to a frantic roof-top chase and a brutish, claustrophobic battle at the end in the main character's home. The superb soundtrack, full of clanking metallic noises and other graphic sounds, gives the fights an immediacy and graphic "realism" which is matched by Hong Kong p.d. Yee Chung-man's (奚仲文) earthy sets and the saturated photography by Jake Pollack and Lai Yiu-fai (黎耀輝) of the Yunnan locations. The movie's natural but atmospheric sense of place, heightened by things like Kaneshiro Takeshi's (金城武) adoption of a strong Yunnan-cum-Sichuan accent, is one of the movie's highlights, and helps to sustain the drama even when the film's tone wavers and the script's development is sometimes bumpy.

Chan shows an understanding of Donnie Yen's (甄子丹) limitations as an actor and uses them to the film's advantage, focusing his character on either mild-mannered behaviour or whiplash action, with Kaneshiro's bespectacled, "scientific" investigator providing the film's humour and sense of enquiry. In that respect, Wu Xia is very much a shared movie, and the chemistry between the two is okay when together on screen. Caught between the two, Tang Wei (湯唯) doesn't have a great deal to do as the wife of Yen's character but she does it with grace and looks cute in Yunnanese peasant garb. For genre fans, the appearances of the legendary Jimmy Wang (王羽), now 68, and the semi-legendary Kara Hui (惠英紅), now 51, in two memorable fight scenes in the second half bring a real heft to the movie's action credentials, as well as providing an opportunity for a reference to Wang's 1967 Shaw Bros. (邵氏兄弟有限公司) classic The One-Armed Swordsman (獨臂刀).

The varied score, by three composers, works well in the action sequences and in lighter moments underscoring village life, and the device of bookending the film with similar sequences provides Tang with some of her best moments, especially at the quietly touching end. Less use of computer graphics to show the internal bodily results of martial arts techniques would benefit the film.

In some territories the film may also be released under the flat-sounding title Dragon.

http://www.filmbiz.asia/reviews/wu-xia