SIFF 2012 #11: Dragon
More kung-fu goodness tonight with Dragon, whose actual Chinese title is more like "Martial Arts Hero". It stars current Sino-Japanese Hong Kong favorite Takeshi Kaneshiro and the awesome Donnie Yen. It involves a seemingly simple case of a humble village paper-maker taking down two hardened criminals. One investigator can't let the case go.
There's a lot of great action in this, but a story as well, that revolves about the question of whether a man's nature is changeable or not. Also if things are what they appear (and how sometimes perhaps they are). Kaneshiro's investigator shares features with Wilhem Dafoe's in Boondock Saints and, at the risk of spoiling the story, there's a recent movie by a Canadian director derived from a graphic novel which Dragon has strong echoes of.
The landscape of South China is also shot beautifully in this film. Just as last night's movie gave the audience a view into upper-class China in the early 20th century, this one shows us rural clan life in southern China. Unlike "Woman Knight", however, the martial arts didn't take me out of the story, because in many ways they were the story. Plus, it's also nice to see Donnie Yen's reluctant sad-sack face about to put the hurt on someone.
There's a lot of great action in this, but a story as well, that revolves about the question of whether a man's nature is changeable or not. Also if things are what they appear (and how sometimes perhaps they are). Kaneshiro's investigator shares features with Wilhem Dafoe's in Boondock Saints and, at the risk of spoiling the story, there's a recent movie by a Canadian director derived from a graphic novel which Dragon has strong echoes of.
The landscape of South China is also shot beautifully in this film. Just as last night's movie gave the audience a view into upper-class China in the early 20th century, this one shows us rural clan life in southern China. Unlike "Woman Knight", however, the martial arts didn't take me out of the story, because in many ways they were the story. Plus, it's also nice to see Donnie Yen's reluctant sad-sack face about to put the hurt on someone.