REVIEWS Wu Xia REVIEWED BY FIONNUALA HALLIGAN
Noirish and very more-ish, Peter Ho-sun Chan’s lunge into the action arena is a sophisticated and satisfying blend of martial arts and effects. It is a film which twists and turns and switches seismically mid-way, but Wu Xia is a smartly written thriller which kicks new life into the genre and should per- form well both in Asia and internationally, where The Weinstein Company holds a slew of rights. Hong Kong action movies have never short-
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changed their audience when it comes to lavish set pieces, but Chan, working with his star Donnie Yen as action choreographer, ups the ante here. A saloon brawl is first staged and then re-staged in slow motion as Takeshi Kaneshiro’s detective sits inside the shots, forensically dissecting the proceedings. It is difficult to top this gleeful inventiveness, though third-act showdowns with the triad parents from hell come a close second, and Wu Xia launches a race across the village rooftops which is at once an homage to and a progression of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s own nods to the Shaw brothers classics of old. The look of Wu Xia is darkly lush, and the all-
male dynamic is typically intense (see Chan’s War- lords). In a picturesque yet somehow menacing village in Yunnan Province at the end of the Qing Dynasty (1917), ordinary villager Liu Jinxi (Yen)
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HK-Chi. 2011. 116mins Director Peter Ho-sun Chan Production company We Entertainment International sales We Distribution, www.
wedistribution.com Producers Peter Ho-sun Chan, Jojo Hui Executive producers Peter Ho-sun Chan, Qin Hong, Zhou Li, Yang Zhiguo, Alan Zhang, Wang Jianxin Screenplay Aubrey Lam Action director Donnie Yen Cinematography Jake Pollock, Lai Yiu-fai Editor Derek Hui Production designer Yee Chung-man Main cast Donnie Yen, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tang Wei, Jimmy Wang Yu, Kara Wai Ying-hung, Li Xiaoran
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becomes involved in a fight with two wandering bandits. He dispatches them — or they dispatch themselves — without leaving a mark and the lov- ing husband (to Tang Wei) and father of two small boys becomes the town hero. Detective Xu Baijiu (Kaneshiro), dolled up like
Sun Yat-sen with a Panama hat and owlish glasses, is suspicious, however. The slow realisation that Liu is hiding his past leads Xu to the dreaded 72 Demons triad and the realisation that Liu may be part of kung-fu’s most dysfunctional family unit. Wu Xia, though cleverly written, could probably
have shaved off a few twists and dropped a couple of internal shots of organs exploding (“You have hit his Yummen Meridien!”). But it is so inventive, while still being so respectful of its forefathers,
that audiences will easily go the distance, espe- cially for a film which slyly inserts a few musical sequences before wrapping in a deus ex machina. Yen performs his choreography and acting
duties with aplomb, while Kaneshiro is solidly charismatic in the less showy role; not much is required of Tang Wei, but old master Jimmy Wang Yu’s return to the genre is a welcome one, and Kara Wai’s ‘mom’ is truly fearsome. Chan’s decision to engage two cinematogra-
phers, using Lai Yiu-fai for the action sequences and Jake Pollock for scenes outside has paid off here, and the look is fresh but quite dark. Water is a recurring motif, with the green of the paddy fields and the burnt-golden barn interiors con- trasting with the darkness in Wu Xia’s soul.
n 16 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 16, 2011
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