Wu Xia
Peter Chan
The story: Liu Jinxi (Donnie Yen) appears to be a simple papermaker living with his wife (Tang Wei) and two sons in a quiet village. His real identity is questioned when he, unarmed, kills two highly skilled brigands who try to rob a shop. Detective Xu Baijiu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) investigates and discovers his connection to a powerful, shadowy figure known as The Master (Jimmy Wang Yu).
When director Peter Chan named this movie Wu Xia – which refers to the adventures of martial arts proponents and the category of movies dealing with such tales – it signalled his grand ambition to take on an entire genre that is as rich as it is well worn.
And he has turned in a work that is invigorating and exhilarating, undiminished by the fact that acclaimed auteurs such as Zhang Yimou and Lee Ang had in recent years left their marks on the genre with modern-day classics Hero (2002) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
While big names such as Donnie Yen and Takeshi Kaneshiro headline the film, it is the casting coup of Jimmy Wang Yu that elevates Wu Xia to a different level.
Wang was the biggest male star of the late 1960s and he was best known for playing the heroic pugilist in classics such as The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), a film that Chan pays homage to here.
The imposingly authoritative Wang brings a palpable sense of menace to the role of The Master and his final fight with Yen is both emotionally tense and physically intense.
Before the electrifying showdown, however, the film has to cover quite a bit of ground first. The first part of Wu Xia plays like a mix of Reign Of Assassins (2010) and Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame (2010) by way of American rock band REM’s visually inventive Imitation Of Life video.
As Xu investigates the deaths of the robbers, the fluidly executed robbery sequence – props to Yen for the action choreography – is played back in fast-forward, rewind and slow-motion modes as the camera zooms in and out on small details.
Wu Xia has a strong sense of a specific time and place, as opposed to the more generic wuxia settings seen in recent gongfu movies such as 14 Blades (2010) and True Legend (2010).
It adds to the film’s emotional resonance to see villagers expressing their feelings in song and there are striking scenes of them hailing Liu’s heroic exploit and berating Xu when he goes too far in his investigation.
In another welcome surprise, Yen actually turns in a genuinely moving performance. Whereas his hooded eyes sometimes seemed to be masking boredom as he went through the motions in other action flicks, here they serve to hide a painful past which his character would rather forget.
For a film-maker known for his sensitive dramas such as Comrades: Almost A Love Story (1996), Chan fittingly offers more than just sterling action and serves up musings on the nature of law, justice and humanity.
As Xu digs deeper into Liu’s background, he ponders whether it is worthwhile to pursue justice at all costs: “Is the law more important than humanity?”
Wu Xia is a cinematic treat that engages the eye, the heart and the mind.
(ST)