Movie Review: 龍門飛甲 (The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate)

The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate

Director: Tsui Hark
Cast: Jet Li, Zhou Xun, Chen Kun, Kwai Lun - mei and Li Yu - chun
Overall: 7.5/10
Spoiler Warning: Minimal. 

Continuing his theme in Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame last year,  Tsui Hark in The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate tells us one simple truth: power corrupts and perishes while trust and love, the Wuxia values, last.

In contrast to the all too realistic fighting in Ip Man, you'll see swords, flying daggers, chains and sharp silk lines whirling in the air. As Wuxia master, Chow Wai - on (Jet Li) elegantly fights with sword, while the devious Eunuch Yu Hua - tian (Chen Kun) hides his sword under his flipping robe. 

Still the beautiful Tartars Princess (Kwai Lun-mei) close - fights with a style akin to the Mongolian wrestling and also fights with a crescent that again tries to engage enemies as closely possible. Further, Gu Shaotang (Li Yu - chun) threw daggers that fly in a predictably unpredictable course. 

All these are done under the 3D effect which is not great, but acceptable. The 3D is still crude and undeveloped and it can hardly accomodate all the spinning and swirling of weapons and people. Nevertheless it does give some eye - opening surprises, particularly when Chow broke through the flag to kill  the Eunuch at the opening. 

Despite the martial art and the 3D effect, the plot is so weak that it renders all the characters as two - dimensional flat sheets. We never really know what has happened in the love story between Chow and Ling Yan - qiu (Zhou Xun), nor do we know how others have come together for the treasure hunt. 

Fortunately this did not stop Chen Kun playing the scheming Eunuch on one hand, and the blissful Wind Blade, on the other. The parts where Chen imitated the Eunuch to fool other people has added much lively element in the middle of the movie. Kwai has also unusually plays well the passion of the Tartars people.

Tsui interestingly put the very traditional Wuxia music, Dagger Society Prelude (小刀會序曲), at the opening and closing scenes, perhaps at a tribute to old Wuxia movies. 

The movie ends with the Eunuch, symbolizing lust for power and wealth, buried deep in the sand, while Chow has taken his turn to find his love, Ling, till the end of the world. In the world of Wuxia, love is perennial. 

Movie Review: 白蛇傳說 (The Sorcerer and the White Snake)

白蛇傳說 

Director: Ching siu - tong
Cast: Jet Li (as Fa Hai), Eva Huang (as White Snake), Charlene Tsoi (as Green Snake) and Raymond Lam (as Xu Xian)
Overall: 6/10
Spoiler Warning: Yes

The very story incurs me to make a comparison with Green Snake, directed by Tsui Hark starring Joey Wong as White Snake and Cheung man - yuk (or Maggie Cheung as she is now better known) as Green Snake.

Both basing their movies on the classical Legend of the White Snake, Ching tries to visualise all the supernatural powers, tsunamis, fights of the Fa Hai with the giants monsters and snakes with the CG technology but end ups with crude visual effects that almost wreck the movie altogether. The half - human half - snake looks of Eva Huang and Charlene Tsoi are horrible sights to human eyes.

During the time of making his movie (in the 80s), there wasn't so much CG technology available and so Tsui Hark relies on light, colours and illusions to beautifully show the mystical atmosphere throughout the whole movie. While Ching hopelessly uses the computer technology to present realistic scenes, Tsui unscrupulously perpetuates mysteries in a myth.

Ching made attempts to integrate some western elements in this Chinese myth. Turtles, rabbits, giant bat are all examples. The fight between Fa Hai and the giant bat monster in the volcanic mountain reminds me of the one between Gandalf and Balrog in the The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (but again, the CG effect seriously hampers the quality). It seems quite refreshing at certain times, especially the scene where Xu Xian goes to see 'relatives' (the badly disguised rabbit, turtle, and reptile) of White for marriage. But at other times, the overall effect is weird and even quite anti - climatic, like when the rats easily break the spells of the monks by biting them.

青蛇
(Green Snake)

Instead of putting something else into a melange, the Indian ball dance in the opening scene already shows how Tsui Hark merge exotic elements with the seductiveness of snake. Rain with lightning, the strange metallic Indian music coupled with the laughters of men and women arouses Green from the deep lake to crawl onto the roof to have a look inside. Eager to participate, she transformes into human form, half naked, and danced with the other Indian dancers (This scene is still available in YouTube, here). This is one of many other scenes to show how seductive the snakes are (especially Maggie Cheung at her prime time) but also the decadences of the people at the time.


Time and space only permit me to compare the visual arts. Let me deal with the character and plot in the next entry.