07-31-2012, 12:53 PM
This is the latest from Vincent Zhao Wenzhou, who I've always really liked. He's an underrated kung fu star. Here, he plays an Indiana Jones/Asian Hawk like adventurer from turn of the century. He's a scholar because he wears Harry Potter specs and a scarf, but an adventurer with a slick leather trench. Josie Xu plays his cutesy fighter daughter dressed like Amelia Earhart with Princess Leia hair. She bugged me. Too cutesy. Mini Tang is Zhao's hot rival. Louis Fan is as bug-eyed as always, and he studies sleeping kung fu, which is as absurd as it sounds.
This is a kid's film, or I should say it's kid friendly. There's even what I call the 'Disney death' where a character dies and everyone is sad for a moment, then they are miraculously restored to life. Disney did that with Lady and the Tramp, Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, actually it would be easier to list the films where that wasn't done. In Wudang, it happens twice, right in a row, which isn't even a spoiler because the plot is fairly predictable.
Set on location, Wudang has some spectacular backdrops and rich textures. Having been to Wudang, there was a lot of 'been there, done that' for me. The costumes are lavish. The story is simple, a bit long-winded between fight scenes. There's some really crappy CGI which comes in late and totally spoils the feel of the film. It circles around a search for some mystical items and when some of them finally appear, they are disappointing because the CGI feels dated by a decade or so.
I had a stuttering rip with only Chinese subs. That messed up my view of the fights, but didn't really impede my understanding of the film as the story is not very complicated.
It's choreographed by Corey Yuen, who is the king of cartoon kung fu. There's a lot of flying about, including my fav wire kick, often dubbed the Wong Fei Hung kick, where someone flings their body through the air horizontally and unloads several kicks in mid air to the opponent like they're dancing the fandango on them. I know that's not possible, but I still dream of kicking someone like that. There are several dance-like fights, including a particularly funny one with Zhao and Tang fending off assailants. Lots of sword fights. It's all about finding a mystic sword and Wudang is famous for swordsmanship. There's also fan fights, necklace fights, pudao fights, and several chick fights. The choreography is all stereotypical Corey, good flow with absurd gravity-defying moves not in anyway realistic but entertaining nonetheless. The violence is very stylized, not brutal. It's not bloody, save a few standard blood spit-ups to show when someone is actually supposed to be hurt. There is one portion of the final fight where the mystic power is swirling around, bending time and space, that's pretty cool, but the sequence only lasts a few minutes, then goes back to the mediocre CGI.
This is a kid's film, or I should say it's kid friendly. There's even what I call the 'Disney death' where a character dies and everyone is sad for a moment, then they are miraculously restored to life. Disney did that with Lady and the Tramp, Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, actually it would be easier to list the films where that wasn't done. In Wudang, it happens twice, right in a row, which isn't even a spoiler because the plot is fairly predictable.
Set on location, Wudang has some spectacular backdrops and rich textures. Having been to Wudang, there was a lot of 'been there, done that' for me. The costumes are lavish. The story is simple, a bit long-winded between fight scenes. There's some really crappy CGI which comes in late and totally spoils the feel of the film. It circles around a search for some mystical items and when some of them finally appear, they are disappointing because the CGI feels dated by a decade or so.
I had a stuttering rip with only Chinese subs. That messed up my view of the fights, but didn't really impede my understanding of the film as the story is not very complicated.
It's choreographed by Corey Yuen, who is the king of cartoon kung fu. There's a lot of flying about, including my fav wire kick, often dubbed the Wong Fei Hung kick, where someone flings their body through the air horizontally and unloads several kicks in mid air to the opponent like they're dancing the fandango on them. I know that's not possible, but I still dream of kicking someone like that. There are several dance-like fights, including a particularly funny one with Zhao and Tang fending off assailants. Lots of sword fights. It's all about finding a mystic sword and Wudang is famous for swordsmanship. There's also fan fights, necklace fights, pudao fights, and several chick fights. The choreography is all stereotypical Corey, good flow with absurd gravity-defying moves not in anyway realistic but entertaining nonetheless. The violence is very stylized, not brutal. It's not bloody, save a few standard blood spit-ups to show when someone is actually supposed to be hurt. There is one portion of the final fight where the mystic power is swirling around, bending time and space, that's pretty cool, but the sequence only lasts a few minutes, then goes back to the mediocre CGI.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse