Dragon / Wu Xia
Directed by Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Hong Kong/China, 2011, 98 minutes
Starring Donnie Yen, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tang Wei
Dragon (a.k.a.
Wu Xia) , a terrific combo martial arts and detective mystery movie, was shown at the 2012 New York Asian Film Festival this past July. The film will begin its U.S. theatrical run this coming Friday, November 30th, 2012, in eight confirmed markets (listed at the end of this review). As many as seven additional markets may be added.
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| Donnie Yen as Liu Jinxi |
Donnie Yen (
Hero;
Seven Swords;
Kill Zone; both
Ip Man films, etc.) stars as Liu Jinxi, a papermaker and seemingly run-of-the-mill fellow. He’s married to lovely Ayu (Tang Wei,
Late Autumn;
Crossing Hennessey; and
Lust,Caution).
They have two boys: the older is Ayu’s from her previous husband, who
abandoned her and the child, the younger one is her’s and Jinxi’s. They
live in a small, remote village in Yunnan in southwest China.
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| Tang Wei as Ayu, Liu Jinxi's wife |
Their life of peaceful anonymity and marital bliss goes all to hell
one day in 1917 when two thugs come into a village store and demand
money. When the shopkeeper tries to resist, the pair go ballistic on him
and everyone else in the store. Initially cowering behind a cabinet,
Jinxi emerges and wraps his arms around the larger would-be-robber.
Holding on for dear life, he is flung around the store and ultimately
winds up in a river. But it’s the two robbers who somehow end up dead.
When it turns out that one of them was a top wanted criminal, Jinxi
becomes somewhat of a celebrity and is commended for his role in
bringing the pair to justice, though he claims that he was just lucky.
 |
| Takeshi Kaneshiro as Inspector Xu Baijiu |
Inspector Xu Baijiu (Takeshi Kaneshiro,
Chungking Express,
House of Flying Daggers, the two-part
Red Cliff
movie) is unconvinced. With his glasses and straw hit, he displays
Sherlock Holmes-like investigative abilities, including that of
recreating exactly what happened by carefully examining the evidence and
the testimony of those involved. Having made the mistake of going easy
on a young criminal in the past, a mistake that cost innocent people
their lives, Baijiu is fanatical about enforcing the letter of the law.
He doggedly pursues Jinxi, not believing his account of what transpired
with the two crooks and convinced that he is hiding something from his
background. As a result Ayu comes to question everything she thought she
knew about her husband, and the lives of Jinxi, his family, Baijiu and
all the villagers are threatened by a group known as the 72 Demons, led
by Jimmy Wang Yu, star of the legendary Shaw Brothers film
The One-Armed Swordsman (1967).
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| Jimmy Wang Yu (left), the head of The 72 Demons |
Like the films of Quentin Tarantino,
Dragon
alludes to many other movies. The revealing of the surprising past of
a seemingly ordinary family man is reminiscent of David Cronenberg’s
A History of Violence.
Baijiu, as I’ve already indicated, comes across much like an early 20th
Century Chinese Sherlock Holmes. There are visual flourishes of the
body’s inner workings similar to goings on in Andrzej Bartkowiak’s
Romeo Must Die. And besides the presence of Jimmy Wang Yu, who is absolutely fantastic here, there is, suffice it to say, another nod to
The One-Armed Swordsman.
This is in no way to cast any pallor on Chan’s film. I loved the references, nods or similarities I noticed. But it won’t
diminish your enjoyment of
Dragon one bit if you have no familiarity with any of the other movies alluded to.
Director Chan (
The Warlords, Bodyguards & Assassins) has crafted a fabulous tale that features terrific martial arts. (Yen, besides starring, was also the action director).
Dragon
also offers compelling family drama and intriguing criminal
investigative techniques. Underlying it all is the question — and it’s a
big one that’s given serious and due weight here — of whether or not
one can really achieve redemption and truly atone for past mistakes, sins and crimes.
ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; very highly recommended.
These are the markets that have been confirmed so far
:
1. NY: Village East
2. LA: Sundance Sunset
3. Cleveland: Atlas Great Lakes Stadium
4. Hartford, CT : Front Street 4
5. Orlando: Colonial Promenade
6. Tampa: Britton 8
7. Phoenix: Shea 14, Scottsdale
8. San Diego: Gaslamp
Check local listings for showtimes.
