The Legend of Zu (2001)

The Legend of Zu (2001)

Aka: Zu Warriors
Chinese Title: 蜀山傳

Translation: Legend of Shu Mountains

Starring: Ekin Cheng Yee-Kin, Louis Koo Tin-Lok, Cecilia Cheung Pak-Chi, Kelly Lin Hsi-Lei, Zhang Ziyi, Jacky Wu Jing, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Lau Shun, Patrick Tam Yiu-Man, Wu Gang

Director: Tsui Hark

Action Director: Yuen Woo-Ping

I would go on a limb to say that The Legend of Zu represented the first fruits of the international success of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. A costume fantasy? Check. An acclaimed director? Check. Yuen Woo-Ping directing the action? Check. A member of CTHD’s cast showing up for a paycheck? Check—in this case, it was Zhang Ziyi. 

For this particular effort, Tsui Hark, hot on the heels of Time and Tide, convinced investors to foot the bill for a big-budget remake of his own groundbreaking fantasy epic, Zu: The Warriors of Magic Mountain. Both films were based on the novel Legend of the Swordsmen of the Mountains of Shu by Huanzhulouzhu, although this film is almost completely unrecognizable from the earlier film, save for Sammo Hung wearing the same get-up he did that, and a brief moment where see Cecelia Cheung dressed in the same blue dress Brigitte Lin wore in the earlier film. Everything else is a bloated, incomprehensible CGI mess that is more exhausting to watch than anything else.

The film starts with some title cards and a narration informing us that the Shushan, or Zu Mountains, in the Sichuan province (bordering on Tibet) are the home to lots of legends and mysticism. The narrator informs us that the peaks of the mountains have become home to a race of demi-gods who train in the martial arts and use the region’s mystical energies to lead them into a constant state of rebirth, thus guaranteeing them immortality in this world. I guess the difference between that and the birth-rebirth cycle of regular mortals that is described in Buddhism is that the inhabitants of the Zu mountains who are reborn often do so as adults and can access their old memories from previous lives with enough meditation and martial training. So it feels less like living a new life than it is continuing an old one in a new body.

All of that puts the film into Xianxia territory, which is different from wuxia in terms of storytelling mechanics. Wuxia pian involves itself with the Wulin (i.e. The Martial World) and the Jianghu (i.e. the swordsman and martial artists who inhabit it) and although some of the esoteric martial arts styles may be outright supernatural, they are still people fighting against other people. Xianxia delves deeper into the fantasy genre, where the characters are often what sources call “Cultivators,” people who try to achieve immortality based on magic and supernatural powers, which are rooted in Taoism. Stories that involve conflict between heavenly, mortal and demon realms fall into the Xianxia genre. And The Legend of Zu ticks all of those boxes.

The film opens the Kunlun Peak in the Zu mountains, where Dawn (Cecelia Cheung, of The King of Comedy and Running on Karma) is passing her final teachings to her student, Sky King (Ekin Cheng, of The Storm Riders and Heroic Duo). Apparently, Dawn should be indestructible, but she has allowed her feelings for Sky King to keep her from reaching her potential. At that moment, a swarm of CGI skulls (referred to as “evil spirits”) show up and destroy Dawn. But she leaves her signature weapon, the Moon Orb—a large crescent blade that can fly around according to the user’s thoughts—to Sky King.

Some time later, the Ormei School, led by Whitebrows (Sammo Hung, of The Millionaire’s Express and Filthy Guy), is prepping its students to fight against the evil spirits, who are under the control of a powerful demon named Insomnia. There is a huge battle of CGI effects between Insomnia, Sky King, and Red (Louis Koo, of Paradox and Warriors of Future), who is Whitebrows’s senior student. The fight drags on quite a bit and, at one point, both men are forced to fight their clones. Whitebrows is ultimately able to defeat Insomnia, but a piece of him is broken off and flees into the Blood Cavern.

Our heroes can’t use their powerful weapons in the Blood Cavern, lest they get absorbed by the locale’s magic. So, Whitebrows leaves Red to watch over the entrance to the cavern while he reconvenes at the Ormei school to consult with Buddhist priest Master Transcendental (Lau Shun, of Swordsman and A Chinese Ghost Story Part II) as to how to defeat Insomnia. They come to the conclusion that the Heaven and Thunder swords can be combined to create a superweapon surpassing all limits. 

But to combine them requires something resembling a Dragon Ball Z level of fusion between their respective holders—Enigma (Cecelia Cheung again) and Thunder (Patrick Tam, of The Duel and A Chinese Tall Story). For the record, Enigma is, as you guessed, a reincarnation of Dawn. The two Ormei students attempt the fusion for the good of the universe. Thunder hesitates (or gets distracted or something) at the last second while attempting the fusion and blows up. 

Whitebrows and Transcendental are able to reincarnate Thunder in adult form as Ying (Jackie Wu Jing, of Wolf Warrior and The Wandering Earth). However, it will take time for him to re-learn his martial arts skills and become “illuminated,” which will allow him to remember his previous life. Whitebrows retreats from the Zu Mountains and leaves Sky King in charge of Ormei. Sky King tries to help Enigma recall her previous life as Dawn—and almost burns himself to death trying to transfer the ownership of the Thunder sword to himself. Meanwhile, Red is just chilling at the mouth of the Blood Cavern and befriends a little pixie named Amnesia (Kelly Lin, Fulltime Killer and Running Out of Time 2). She turns out to be a minion of Insomnia and possesses Red, transforming into an evil angel. Plus, there soldiers who fight with razor-sharp vertebrae swords, mystical blue flames, new weapons, a giant monster made of CGI blood, and Zhang Ziyi thrown in for good measure!

Watching The Legend of Zu is a frustrating experience. The movie has that same breakneck pacing that a lot of Hong Kong films, especially 1990s wuxia pian, have, but almost nothing resembling real exposition. The film depends on one’s familiarity either with the source material, of Chinese wuxia and fantasy tropes in order to understand the story. And even then, there are enough characters, powers, and secret weapons that there is no time to explore any of it. It almost feels like an RPG in which the dungeon master was just making up lore as he went along…or perhaps a particularly-involved hard fantasy novel series in which Tsui Hark adapted Book Five (of Seven) and left out all the backstories and magic mechanics described in earlier entries. It’s simply impossible to developing any feelings for the characters amidst the deluge of fantasy plot tropes thrown at the viewer at dizzying speeds and CGI miasma assaulting one’s senses.

The Miramax trailer for the 2005 straight-to-DVD release was rather dishonest. Zhang Ziyi was still basking in her fame from CTHD; Rush Hour 2; and Hero (“presented” by Quentin Tarantino) when this finally reached American shores. So the trailer was cut and narrated to make it sound like she was an integral part of the story: the human warrior who must team up with a god (Ekin Cheng) in order to save the world from Evil. Anyone who expected much from her was surely disappointed. Zhang Ziyi plays the daughter of a mortal general stationed in the lower heights of the Zu mountains who travels to the peaks in order to join the Ormei school. But she really does not contribute anything to the actual story and the resolution of the external conflict. It is mainly an extended cameo by someone who was really popular at the time.

Viewers who were hoping for Yuen Woo-Ping to give us more of his wire-fu magic like in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon will be sorely disappointed with The Legend of Zu. All of the action is CGI nonsense. Louis Koo’s Red is a little neat in that his initial form has him fighting with razor-sharp metallic wings like X-Men’s Archangel. But yeah, mainly “swords” that are manifested as beam weapons and stuff like that. The only real martial sequence is a brief sword fight between Zhang Ziyi and Wu Jing, which is not related to the actual narrative. It’s like the filmmakers said, “We have this martial arts actor and this actress that people think knows martial arts, we should probably have them fight…for some reason.” The choreography in that scene isn’t bad, but it is far from enough to satisfy fight fanatics. And to think that the entire film needed three action directors—assisting Yuen is his protégé, Ku Huen-Chiu, and Tsui Hark regular Yuen Bun—just boggles the mind.

Tsui Hark would follow this disappointment with Black Mask II and Era of the Vampires (aka Tsui Hark’s Vampire Hunters). It wouldn’t be until 2005 that Tsui Hark would get his touch back with Seven Swords, which was him doing for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and those films what his own The Blade had done for movies like the Swordsman trilogy and Butterfly and Sword. Frankly, he should have stuck making loopy Jean-Claude Van Damme action vehicles than a lot of these films. Heck, I would have liked to have seen a JCVD film choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping.