Movie Review - 武侠 Wu Xia
Some well choreographed and exciting fight scenes (an interesting pairing with rock music to great effect). But for a flick like this, too few and far between. I was caught yawning and napping at the long, slow and absolutely laborious exposition and subsequent plot. Just start killing each other already.
It seems to want to rise up as a huge, and epic film - of the likes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, but falls short as it tries to be too many things at once. Is it a kung fu/pugilist epic? Or a weak CSI ripoff? Or a tragic-comedy/police drama/historical/arty flick slash this slash that.. You get the picture.
Nonetheless, I rather liked some of the depiction of rural Chinese cultural elements. Some attention to detail (I hope) to rituals, songs (though sounding rather modern) and way of life.
Thespian skill is mostly painful and pathetic, even with Kaneshiro's forced Sichuan accent - which was honestly very annoying. The show would have been greater if more attention was paid to acting, it's time to leave the botox syringe at home.
Oh well - at least the tickets were free and I was ...reasonably entertained.
7/10
Click to view