Its has great martial art fights but its not even too focused on that. The intelligence is found in the way the story is revealed to the audience. Such awesome directing! The synopsis tells you all you need to know to begin watching the movie but when I watched it, I had no clue what it was about aside from the fact that it was a martial arts movie featuring Donnie Yen. In the end, the only issue I found with this movie is that the 1st half of it is so awesome and engages the audience thoroughly in this roller-coaster ride (a 10/10), while the second half of it is a bit dull in comparison like the roller coaster slowed down a bit (a 7/10). All together it still remains and awesome movie which I rate 9/10. Highly recommended! XD
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1Homage to Jimmy Wang Yu's One-Armed Swordsman
Wu Xia aka Dragon was a nice homage to The One-Armed Swordsman, even casting Jimmy Wang Yu as the Big Bad. My review is based on the shorter international version which was thankfully subbed and not dubbed but was still almost 20 minutes shorter than the original version.Liu Ji Xi makes a living making paper and lives with his wife, stepson, and young son. Their lives are quiet and idyllic until one day two notorious criminals who have escaped custody break into a shop and brutalize the older couple who own it. Ji Xi clumsily stumbles in and intervenes. Afterward when the village is celebrating Ji Xi’s heroic acts, Detective Xu Bai Ju arrives. He believes that there may have been more than luck involved when the simple papermaker defeated too skilled killers. His suspicions are confirmed when the 72 Demons Gang attacks the town in search of Ji Xi.
Donnie Yen played the papermaker with a mysterious past giving the kind of performance you’d expect from him. He also choreographed the fights which meant they were entertaining to watch. Tang Wei played his wife, Ah Yu. Sadly, she didn’t have much to do in this film. Ji Xi’s bespectacled antagonist was the investigator played by Kaneshiro Takeshi who had his own murky past. I suspect some of the edits came at the cost of Kaneshiro’s character as there was more to him hinted at than what I saw. I would like to think Tang Wei’s time was also cut because in the 97-minute version she was criminally underused. Jimmy Wang Yu played the nefarious Master of the 72 Demons gang who was a formidable martial artist. I was never a fan of Jimmy’s old kung fu flicks, even blasphemously the original One-Armed Swordsman. To my relief, he gave a more nuanced, if menacing, performance here. Kara Hui (My Young Auntie!!) bounded in as one of the Demons and at 51 years of age held her own with Donnie in their choreographed fights.
Dragon had superb fights, two male leads with painful pasts trying to make the best of their lives, and a thriller element when the 72 Demons came to town with swords drawn. The film called into question whether there was room for empathy in enforcing the law. Dragon might not have broken any new ground, but it was stylishly filmed and well-acted. Not a bad way to spend an hour and a half.
7 November 2024
Trigger warnings: Body parts went flying in three different scenes as well as a tooth
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However, the movie had many aspects that kept it from being outstanding in my view. First of all, I felt the movie had an identity crisis. It wouldn't settle for one and go through to the end. The first half was purely a scene investigation done brilliantly and, as a mystery junky, I was totally absorbed by it. During the end of the first half, it started leaning towards horror type which, though not my type, I understand that many mysteries use it to add more thrill. Then suddenly, just halfway through, all the secrets get revealed and nothing is left to be uncovered. It becomes a pure action movie. The problem here is, instead of incorporating the two genres in a complementary way, it felt that they just pasted together, without mixing it at all. At that point, all the character development and exploration get thrown out the window.
Another thing I cannot get over is the music here. Overall I mostly enjoyed how sound and music have been used here. That is except for one scene. It marked the beginning of the action sequence and starts with this guitar soundtrack. It only lasted seconds but it was a mood destroyer.
One last complaint is the death of one of the characters in the end. I wonder if I was supposed to laugh but that is what I did. I laughed at it though, not with it.
Again, despite my complaints, I was delighted to watch this movie. Well, my delight was mostly to watch Kaneshiro Takeshi but neither he nor Yen Donnie disappoints.
;)
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