Young Hero of Shaolin (1984)

Young Hero of Shaolin (1984)
Aka: New Young Hero of Shaolin; The Young Hero of Shaolin, Part I
Chinese Title: 新方世玉
Translation: New Fong Sai Yuk

Starring: Xun Feng (as Shut Bo-Wa), Chen Yong-Xia, Du Xiong-Wen, Guo Liang, Zhao Zhi-Gang, Chi Ke-Chuan, Chow Kung-Kin, Wang Shao-Min, Zhang Hua, Li Wang-Hua, Xiao Hong-Fu
Director: Ngai Hoi-Fung, Yang Fan
Action Director: Zhao Chang-jun

Young Hero of Shaolin is the first of a two-part series of Mainland films directed by cinematographer-turned-director Ngai Hoi-Fung, whose career in Hong Kong went all the way back to the 1940s. He is best known for directing a handful of old school kung fu films, including Jackie Chan’s first leading role in Cub Tiger from Kwangtung, not to mention Story of the Drunken Master. Both this film and its sequel covers the life of Chinese folk hero Fong Sai-Yuk, played by Mainland wushu stylist Xun Feng, billed here as Shut Bo-Wa.

The film starts at a Fong’s birth, much to the joy of his parents, Fong Tak (Du Xiong-Wen, of A Loyal Overseas Chinese Family) and female martial artist Miu Chui-Fa (Chen Yong-Xia, of The Magic Beggar and Golden Dart Hero). The celebration of his birth is interrupted by a wicked priest (Sun Zhen-Ming) and his student, Lui Hung (Guo Liang, of Pride’s Deadly Fury and Tai Chi Chun—his character is referred to in the dub as “Raepon” or “Raehon”, which often sounds like “Raekwon”). The priest demands all sorts of money to leave the family alone, but Miu Chui-Fa gets in a fight with him. He is ultimately repelled by Miu’s teacher, the Shaolin nun Wu Mei (Chi Ke-Chuan, of Revenge of Swordsmanship). The defeated monk swears revenge on the baby Fong.

Miu Chui-Fa raises Fong, teaching him the basics of kung fu and bathing his body in special herbs in order to increase his endurance and durability. In his early adulthood, he is attacked by the old monk and injured. Fong’s parents decide to send him to Shaolin to study kung fu in a more structured setting. Although a bit too impish for Shaolin rules at first, he still curries the favor of the Abbot (Chow Kung-Kin, of Ninjas and Dragons) and starts to grow in his kung fu skills.

Some of the senior students (and the abbot’s second-in-command) don’t really like Fong and try to get him in trouble when he helps out a destitute young woman, Xiaohua (Zhang Hua, To Cross the Dadu River), and her ailing grandfather (Xiao Hong-Fu). They accuse him of having a girlfriend, which is strictly against temple rules, but he is exonerated just as he’s about to quit and leave the temple. The senior monk manages to perform a special kung fu demonstration that piques Fong’s interest and convinces him to stay and finish his training. After three years, him and fellow layman disciple Wu Wai-Kin (Zhao Zhi-Gong, of Kung Fu Hero Wang Wu and A Terra-Cotta Warrior—playing the same character Chi Kuan-Chun played in Chang Cheh’s films), are invited to face the Lo Ha Formation in order to graduate from their studies.

Now, one of the cruxes of the Wu Wai-Kin story is that he was never as good as his colleague and was unable to officially pass the Shaolin Exit Exam (this comes up in Shaolin Temple and The Kung Fu Master series). As a result, it is implied he had to sneak out of Shaolin in order to get his revenge on the dye company who killed his father. Fong Sai-Yuk, on the other hand, is more than a match for the formation and is given an honorable release from the temple.

From there, Fong Sai-Yuk’s personal journey will bring him back to Lui Hung, aka Tiger Lu, who is now the Captain of the Guard in another town and is running crooked martial arts tournament.

Young Hero of Shaolin (Part I) is a rather episodic kung fu film, hitting various parts of the Fong Sai-Yuk legend, although often failing to bring it all into a single cohesive narrative. Certain events of Fong’s life, like his duel with Li Bashan (Chui Ngai, of Out of Danger and Murky Shadows Over the Gorges) atop a series of wooden poles, are included, but feel divorced from everything else happening around it. Even after it is revealed that Li Bashan is Tiger Lu’s father-in-law, it doesn’t link that detail to the previous duel on the poles.

The first hour of the film focuses on his early life and experiences at Shaolin. Sadly, the training sequences aren’t very detailed, with a few scenes consisting of montages of different monks (and later Fong Sai-Yuk) performing all sorts of open-handed and weapons forms, but with little of the gradual build up from “undisciplined scamp” into “kung fu dynamo.” This is especially disappointing after he gets a sample of the advanced Shaolin techniques from his monk friends and decides to stay at the temple. I wanted to see him training in those moves, but alas, the film didn’t showcase any of that—it just skips to the Lo Han Formation test.

The fighting doesn’t really kick in until the hour mark or so, beginning with Lo Han Formation sequence. Fong Sai-Yuk and Wu Wai-King take on a contingent of Shaolin monks—about 80 or so—who take on the formation the Swastika (the Buddhist variation, not the German one). The formation creates “corridors” of monks that the heroes have to navigate, getting attacked on all sides. This sequence is frequently filmed from high overhead shots, which allows us to see all the monks, presumably played by entire schools of wushu students, running around in perfect synch. Logistically, it is an impressive scene.

The next fight is the duel atop the poles with Li Bashan. The fight is well-shot, although a lot of angles from the closer shots make me wonder if they had two sets of poles--a taller set and a lower one—on which to film. The choreography is pretty decent, considering the balance necessary for the actors to maintain (even on a lower set of poles), but it admittedly a bit slow at times and noticeably undercranked at times.

The last 20 minutes or so of the film revolve around a kung fu tournament thrown by Tiger Lu (or Raepon, depending on the dub). The early part of the tournament features different fighters using a variety of styles, including one guy who sticks out using Monkey Fist kung fu. The big disappointment of the set piece is when Fong Sai-Yuk throws down with the old priest who had injured him years before: Fong knocks him off the platform in two moves.

The emphasis of the finale is on Fong Sai-Yuk’s two duels with Tiger Lu. In their first showdown, leading man Xun Feng uses the Yingquan (Eagle Fist) and Southern Eagle Claw, especially the former. Meanwhile, antagonist Guo Liang uses both Bagua and Praying Mantis. There is a interruption in the fight, which allows Fong to regroup and learn a new technique from Wu Mei, thus preparing him for the second and final duel with Tiger Lu, which is a bit more drag-out brutal in its presentation. The choreography is attributed to Mainland Wushu Champion Zhao Chang-Jun, best known for his appearances in The Undaunted Wudang and Blade of Fury. The fights are generally solid by Mainland action direction standards, although not as good as those movies that had Hong Kong choreographers.

Overall, Young Hero of Shaolin is a decent, but uneven effort. The narrative of its sequel, Young Hero of Shaolin (Part II), is a bit more focused and enjoys better overall fight action. This one does have the beautiful Mainland Chinese scenery expected of these wushu movies and a solid second half. Worth a view to genre fans, but I prefer Part II.

Capsule Reviews - 2 Mainland films

Real Kung Fu of Shaolin, Pt 1 (1980/1984)
Aka: Shaolin Dragon Snake 
Chinese Title: 忍無可忍
Translation: Enough is Enough

Starring: Siu Yuk-Lung, Yin Long, Jiang Lili, Weng Yu-Lin, Leung Siu-Wah, San Sin, Lee Fat-Yuen
Director: Kao Yang
Action Director: Zaung Sea-Yang

This was one of the earliest Mainland kung fu movies, predating Jet Li's Shaolin Temple by two years. It got a release on VHS by Ocean Shores and later by Tai Seng and let me just say that I really dislike some of these 1980s Ocean Shores dubs. The problem isn't so much the voices, but the mixing. The volume of the dubbed voices is much higher than the original background music and sound effects, so it feels completely unnatural and distracting.

The film revolves and Siu Ching (Siu Yuk-Lung, who mainly had bit roles in Shaw Brothers films before this), a young man who was brought to Shaolin as a child by his mother. His father was murdered by the evil Mr. Wu, who is evil because...I don't know. I think it has something to do with Warlord period of the Republic Era of China, but other than talking about buying copper and asbestos for military use, we never see him do warlord stuff. Siu Ching grows up in Shaolin and learns numerous styles: the Iron Head technique, Finger Boxing, Qigong, Kitchen Fu, and Broom Fu. He eventually finds out that his mom is living in a village not too far away and Siu Ching fights the Four Guardians of Shaolin in order to get released from the temple.

Once he is reunited with his mom, he discovers that Mr. Wu and his flunkies, led by the wicked Mr. Jyiu, are trying to steal the commoners' land by beating them to death if they don't just up and vacate. Siu Ching and his mother go to stay with his uncle, who now runs a restaurant. Siu Ching gets a job as a waiter and falls in love with his cousin (Jiang Lili), who is also the subject of the lecherous designs of Mr. Wu's son (Leung Siu-Wah, of The Black Belt and Land of the Brave). Siu Ching beats him, beats the corrupt Red Monk, and brawny Korean fighter named Pak. Mr. Jyiu forces Siu Ching's uncle to sign over his restaurant while Mr. Wu kills Siu Ching's mother and Wu's son tries to rape his cousin. Time for our hero to dispense some kung fu justice.

Real Kung Fu of Shaolin, Pt. 1 is interesting because it doesn't feel like a Mainland film. It is filmed in China, but it lacks those sweeping Chinese vistas that fans of Mainland films enjoy so much. The story and its execution feels a lot closer to a Hong Kong film, bereft of the pro-CCP propaganda that shows up in a lot of 80s wushu films. Overall, it just lacks the scale of a lot of the Mainland films made in the 1980s, feeling closer to a low-budget Taiwanese movie in terms of overall feeling. That said, the story lacks a real sense of urgency or even much development on the part of the villains: we never learn what they are really about and what their endgame is.

There is a fair amount of action, choreographed by Zaung Sea-Yang, whomever that is. It is obvious that most of the actors are wushu stylists. On the other hand, the lead actor is a Hong Kong veteran and it's clear he is using more Southern styles in his fighting than the usual Northern Wushu we see in these movies. He gets to fight with a sword and his fists and is certainly less flowery in his presentation than most Mainlanders in these movies. There is a villain who gets to use a rope dart, if only briefly. The hero's mother uses the double daggers, wushu style. The female love interest does some nice cartwheels and acrobatics, even if her actual fighting lacks real power. The fighting on the whole is pretty good, although the climax could have benefitted from more choreography and less running. Old school fans should check it out, if for nothing else than for its historical value.

Ninjas & Dragons (1984)
Chinese Title: 忍者潛龍
Translation: Ninja Hidden Dragon

Starring: Junya Takagi, Dong Li, Xia Qing, Sun Genfa, Xu Li, Song Wenhua, Chu Ah-Lin, Lu Yun-Ling, Rong Ro-Pei
Director: Ding Cheuk-Lun
Action Director: Kazuyuki Saito

At first this looks like what may be a Mainland Chinese rip-off of Ninja in the Dragon's Den. But it's not that. I'm not quite sure what it is (or when it's supposed to be set...perhaps the Yuan Dynasty?). The tone is often a lot lighter than most other Mainland kung fu films of the era, save Kids from Shaolin. But it ultimately suffers from a distinct lack of action.

So, there is a Japanese ninja named Hayate (Junya Takagi, who had previous sung on the soundtrack of Kabamaru the Ninja) who has come to China looking for the Oni-masked ninja, Kensuke, who murdered his father and most of his clan. Hayate has also been hired by a general--a Mongol general? a Khitan general?--to serve as a bodyguard against possible inside jobs against his life. And lo! and behold, one of the other generals, Hurasi (I think is Sun Genfa, of South Shaolin Master), does assassinate his brother and then has Kensuke murder him so that Hurasi can get his official jade seal. Why? Well, I guess he wants to send his armies into China, something that the previous general was hesitant about. And Hurasi is supported by his scheming, ambitious "mother" (Xu Li, another South Shaolin Master alumni); her ugly daughter Ying Yong; and her creepy baby midget helper.

Hayate is captured during the coup and he'll be out of commission until later. There is also the righteous Liang family, which includes the patriarch, the filial son, and the daughter Ching (Xia Qing, of Eastern First Assassin and Bi Xue Bao Dao). Ching has a suitor in the form of the righteous martial artist, Lin Feng (Dong Li, of Revenge of Swordsmanship). Anyway, Liang opposes Hurasi's military aims and has enough sway in the region that he can get the martial talent together to block the transport of supplies to the front lines of the area. Hurasi and his "mother" have Ching kidnapped and try to force her to marry him. And when Ching and some of the villagers save her (and Hayate, too), they just go and kill the Patriarch Liang. It all culminates in a fight near the Great Wall.

The movie jumps back and forth between light comedy and serious historical action drama. Much of the comedy stems from the villain's cousin, Hutuhan, who provides some of the film's basic slapstick. He's one of those characters that is always bragging about his kung fu, but mainly just gets involved in hijinks instead. He ends up taking a liking to Ching and helps her escape a forced marriage by pretending to have r*ped her, thus making her used goods and of no interest to Hurasi. Uh....okay. And it is supposed to be played for laughs. And then Hurasi allows one of his cronies to have his way with Ching, which leads to both men killing each other and all I can think is..."Man, that escalated quickly."

The action was stated by Kazuyuki Saito, whose filmography suggests he was a member of Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club--his credits include Karate Warriors; Dragon Princess; The Executioner; and some of the Sister Street Fighter films. And to be perfectly honest, he does a very decent job with the action. Despite Japan having a slightly different style than Hong Kong or the PRC, Saito acquits himself to "shapes" surprisingly well, like in a playful scuffle between Lin Feng and Ching early on. The main problem is that there is not enough of it. The first fight that really sticks out is a flashback sequence in which see the evil ninja Kensuke killing a bunch of ninjas from Hayate's clan. There is some good choreography all around there.

And then there's the finale, which is your typical Mainland free-for-all of different wushu stylists fighting each other. Ching and a male character with an eyepatch take on Hurasi, who is wielding a pudao, or assault blade (i.e. a less ornate variation of the kwan do). Ching wields a pair of iron-ribbed fans during this fight. At the same time, Lin Feng and Hayate team up against "Mother", Yin Yong, and the creepy midget, who have a nifty three-fighting-as-one technique: the Mother stands in one place with Yin Yong behind her and the midget between her legs and when you attack her, you have extra pairs of hands coming out of nowhere to attack you. And the way in which the midget is dispatched is pretty darn goofy. Hayate fights with a blade and a claw, which you see in the poster. Like I said, pretty decent choreography overall, but I wonder why there wasn't more of it.

Super Bodyguard (2016)

Super Bodyguard (2016) Aka: The Bodyguard; Iron Protector Chinese Title: 超級保鏢 Translation: Super Bodyguard

Starring: Yue Song, Xing Yu (as Shi Yanneng), Li Yufei, Collin Chou, Michael Chan Wai-Man, Shang Tielong, Xu Dongmei, Yang Jun-Ping, Li Changhai

Director: Yue Song

Action Director: Yue Song, Xing Yu

Yue Song is an interesting name in the annals of martial arts cinema. Much like director Xu Haofeng, he is his own creature with his own vision, which he has dedicated his career to carrying out. Both of them are martial arts filmmakers and both men write, direct, choreography and often produce their own films. Yue Song goes the extra mile and stars in his movies, making them these bizarre vanity projects in which he gets to kick the hell out of everyone because he just so awesome. And yet, looking at the outtakes of this movie, it’s clear that he does wish to return prestige to the Chinese kung fu movie, which many will agree has not been the same since 1990s. While Xu Haofeng’s movies are artsy, meticulously crafted love letters to the Wulin, or Martial World, Yue Song’s films are more bombastic, comic-book inspired affairs.

The movie begins with the crowd of people in the (fictional?) city of Lengsheng gathering around some guy in a brown leather overcoat doing the splits. That guy is Wu (Yue Song, of Iron Monkey and King of the Streets), the master of the Iron Leg and Iron Fist style. Wu kicks into action when a business man is being chased by some would-be robbers, whom he beats into submission. Wu turns down a reward from the guy, which will serve him well later. When Wu returns to the public square where he was getting in touch with his inner Van Damme, he is approached by Li Jiang (Xing Yu, of Kung Fu Hustle and Flash Point).

Li Jiang turns out to be Wu’s older martial brother. We learn through flashback that Li was kicked out of the school for some unspecified reason and ended up in the Big City. These days, Li Jiang runs a huge bodyguard service and invites Wu to work for him. Now that their master has died—Wu is carrying his ashes with him—Wu doesn’t have much else to do. And what do you know? His first client will be that same old businessman he saved earlier. The old man is not impressed with the big bruisers that Li Jiang suggests, and decides on Wu because he’s a “simple man.”

Wu gets hired to watch over Fei-Fei (Li Yufei), the man’s bitchy daughter. When she meets Wu for the first time, she’s drunk at a club and is almost getting carried off until Wu cracks the skulls of those who would take advantage of a girl who’s soused off her rocker. The next morning, he’s doing the splits in front of her room, so that when she gets out the shower, he can see her. (NOTE: the walls of her room are plastered with James Bond posters for some reason) She hates the idea of having a bodyguard—we learn that she’s had them around her since she was a child—and tries to insult him, buy him off, and even get him beat up, but his kung fu is too good for any of that. She even has one of her well-endowed friends try to seduce him, although he’s hiding a fancy salt shaker or something in his pants and that scares her away. Wait…what? It’s one of those Steven Seagal moments where the girl is doing a sexy dance in front of the guy who was in charge of all aspects of the film’s production and it becomes clear that he just wanted an in-script reason to look down her dress. Yue Song, you ol’ devil!

Anyway, there is a kidnap attempt on Fei-Fei, which Wu is able to stop because his kung fu allows him to run down a moving van despite his wearing shoes that weigh 50 pounds each. Oh, so Wu is like Goku from the Dragonball series. Just like in Bodyguard from Beijing, this is the moment where Fei-Fei starts to accept his presence, even though she doesn’t get all wet between the legs like Christy Chung did in that film (Jet Li, you sly dawg). We find out Li Jiang is working for a crime boss named Mr. Fu (who will be played by Michael Chan Wai-Man, of Broken Oath and Spirits of Bruce Lee). Li Jiang needs to guarantee Fei-Fei’s kidnapping and tries to remove Wu from her protection, but the decides to protect her sans payment. They hide out from the bad guys on an island, but it isn’t long before they get found out.

As you might have inferred from the synopsis above, Super Bodyguard is essentially a remake of Bodyguard from Beijing, itself a remake of Kevin Costner’s The Bodyguard. Being a remake of a remake, there is a bent quality to this film in that our hero is less Jet Li and more Donnie Yen from Dragon Tiger Gate. That goes for the fight scenes, which are exaggerated in terms of the hero’s abilities, and the characterization. Yue Song is pure Steven Seagal mode, displaying no weakness of character or lack of wisdom when the occasion calls for it. People criticize Jet Li’s stoic performance for the majority of Bodyguard from Beijing, but he does have some moral qualms to deal with when Christy Chung turns the seduct-o-meter up to 11. Yue Song is practically perfect from both the moral standpoint and his martial arts, which is expected in a film that he both wrote and directed.

That means that the action is largely one-sided. The film kicks off with a beatdown on some would-be muggers (or kidnappers), in which Wu takes down the ruffians with a combination of punches and takedowns. We later get a nice fight between Yue Song and Xing Yu, the only person in the film whose skills remotely matches Yue Song’s. There is also a good flashback fight with Xing Yu laying down the whoopeth against a bunch of Triad thugs. He shows some good moves and like the opening fight, wires are used extensively, but only for people to get knocked back 15-20 feet after each punch or kick.

The showstopper is an extended fight between Xing Yu’s main enforcers (including Li Changhai, Jiang Baocheng, and female fighter Xu Dongmei, apparently one of Jackie’s “New Seven Fortunes”) at an abandoned warehouse. The fight involves chains, hatchets, a horse-chopping blade, a head-butting style like in Drunken Master, wooden pallets, and giant tires. It’s a long and brutal fight and really the only moment that Yue Song is ever vulnerable or outmatched.

The finale consists of three set pieces. The first one has Yue Song finally kicking off the boots and fighting an entire army of bodyguards. The whole scene feels like a remake of the “Burly Brawl” with the Agent Smiths from The Matrix Reloaded, but with less CGI. At one point, Yue does the thing where he runs in circles on the bodies of the dozens of men surrounding him. Yes, it is wired, but it is complemented by plenty of footwork from him that is grounded. It does go overboard on the slow motion, moreso than the other fights. We then get a rematch between Wu and the Jin Gang from the warehouse fight. 

The last duel is a rematch between Yue Song and Xing Yu, in which the latter is wearing special iron gloves, which make him look like Jax from Mortal Kombat. It has some moments of good choreography, but it is surprisingly short and mainly consists of two men punching and kicking apart metal objects as though they were made of balsa wood. I think Michelle Yeoh and Luke Goss did it better in Silver Hawk. 

Super Bodyguard is enjoyable in a goofy way. The action is exaggerated enough to be fun. The fights almost all feel like the second restaurant sequence in Dragon Tiger Gate where Donnie in beating up an entire army with his bare hands. Yue Song does this, but with less of the extra posturing that Donnie often does these days.

Green Snake: The Fate of Reunion (2022)

Green Snake: The Fate of Reunion (2022) Chinese Title: 青蛇：前缘 Translation: Green Snake: Anterior Edge

Starring: Gillian Chung, Henry Mak, Lin Yo-Wei, Sun Meinan, Michelle Jiang, Xiao Yuanxi, Zhou Luoyi, Yu Qinghui

Director: Luo Jie

Action Director: n/a

I came into Green Snake: Fate of Reunion expecting something of a sequel to White Snake (2021), although I don’t think they were from the same studio. It would have been interesting if this were an adaptation of the Chinese Opera sequel to the legend, in which Qing the Green Snake hones her magical powers in order to defeat Fahai and save her older sister from the Liufeng Pagoda. So, it is isn’t a sequel. Nor is it a remake of the Tsui Hark fantasy classic (well, borderline classic—those rubber snakes at the end…). It is a slightly different creature all around.

The first character we meet is Qing’er (Gillian Chung, best known for singing alongside Charlene Choi in the C-pop duo The Twins), a powerful Snake spirit who has cultivated her qi long enough to assume human form. She lives on the enchanted Jiling Mountain, which is inhabited by lots of friendly spirit animals and ruled by Lord Zi Yue (Henry Mak, of Operation Red Sea and Raging Fire). Qing’er has been anxiously waiting for the reincarnation of her lover, Dao Qing. 

As the story goes, Qing’er was poised to for sagehood (or Godhood) in the realm of the Gods—much like Lady Bai in White Snake. To help her pass the tests, Dao Qing—a tree fairy—gave her the fruits of a divine tree. The Gods punished him by making him mortal and inserting him into the death-rebirth cycle, usually with the caveat that he will die a horrible death at a young age. Qing’er has been waiting for his reincarnation, which she can do for hundreds of years now that she’s effectively immortal (thanks to the fruit). There is also some talk about her being hit with some sort of ice curse, which will freeze and destroy her soul if she leaves Jiling Mountain.

While all this is going on, some sexy scorpion demons are causing havoc at a brothel in the local human town. A group of Taoist ghostbusters led by Cui Lan (Lin Yo-Wei) destroy one scorpion demon. He then points out that his sick master (Yu Qinghui?) now only needs the blood of a snake demon to cure his illness. So Cui Lan leads his men to Jinling Mountain to go snake hunting. Following him is the lead Scorpion Spirit who also wants Qing’er’s heart so she can be immortal and stop feeding on human souls. There is a big magical battle and Cui Lan almost drowns in a lake.

He is rescued by Qing’er, who is convinced that he is the reincarnation of Dao Qing. Initially, he is against her because she is a spirit and all spirits are evil (or so he was taught by his master). It takes him a while to warm up to Qing’er, but he is eventually convinced by her warmth and kindness, which flies in the face of his master’s teachings. And when gets kidnapped by the Scorpion Demon, Qing’er will leave Jinling Mountain to rescue him, even though that may trigger the ice curse and kill her…

There is a lot going on in this, plus a handful of twists and plot complications. It comes to a head with a final magical battle on Jinying Mountain, which actually features a giant monster duel. Three of the Five Venoms—the animals, not the actors—show up in this: the snake, the scorpion, and the toad (at the climax). The big reveal—and SPOILER ALERT!—is that the film is a prequel to the White Snake legend, much like White Snake. But this one is a bit more creative this time around: It is set about six hundred years before the events of the White Snake legend, which is Qing’s age in the legend. At the climax, Qing finds herself having to give up her thousand years of cultivation in order to save the man she loves, causing her to start over again as a green snake. I thought that was a cleverer twist than the one in White Snake, since it gives the film a lot more room to move around with (usually a problem with prequels). END OF SPOILER!

I’m guessing this was a much higher-budgeted affair than White Snake. It has a real cast, including Gillian Chung in the lead role. It is fitting that she plays Green Snake here, as her “twin” Charlene Choi had played the same role in Sorcerer and the White Snake. The effects are a lot better than both those two films, especially the CGI snake. The FX are a bit wonky during the Dr. Strange-esque magic battle in the forest, where it feels like physical concept of space is warped: the landscape folds into itself, everything becomes topsy-turvy, etc. And the film ends on a giant monster battle! The rest of the action is pretty nondescript. It mainly consists of wires, posturing, and magical attacks. It very much feels like a Dr. Strange movie in that respect.

I have seen so many of these films that I feel like I’m running out of things to say. The commentary about the hypocrisy of the religious class isn’t as strong as it is in the earlier adaptation, but that wasn’t really the point. I suppose you can make an argument that this is a sort of criticism of the concept of the Heavenly Realm as defined in Chinese mythology, who will doom a person (or a spirit) to an unending life-cycle of unhappy endings for a single sin committed in an earlier life. That is supremely unfair. 

I suppose one could argue that the message is that Spirit Class of living beings is no different from people: you have your good ones and bad ones, and they all should be treated on an individual basis. The other adaptations hint at that, but end up dwelling on love story aspect of the question: Can two beings from different realms be allowed to love each other, even if it may impact their respective destinies? In this film, Qing’er loves the current incarnation of her former lover, but is more concerned about breaking his death-rebirth cycle than she is physically consummating her love for him. Maybe now that Gillian Chung is now in her (early) 40s, they filmmakers opted for a more benevolent love than something outright sexy, like in Tsui Hark’s Green Snake. On one hand, it goes to show how much she has matured as an actress. On the other, it might just be the filmmakers being really shallow.

White Snake (2021)

White Snake (2021) Aka: The White Snake: A Love Affair Chinese Title: 白蛇：情劫 Translation: White Snake: Love Robbery

Starring: He Hua, Wen Yi-Fan, Yu Li, Xu Ning, Xu Shaohong

Director: Liu Chun

Action Director: Ge Shuai

Of all the films I’ve seen on the topic in the past month, the 2021 iQiyi film White Snake is arguably the most unique in terms of its storyline. It diverges the most from the original plotline, although it has a pretty good reason for doing so, which I will mention in a bit. I mean, the general story beats are the same, but there are some noticeable differences, mainly in terms of who the main antagonist is.

We open with Demon Hunter Brigade operating in the city of Jiangnan. They are chasing what they think may be a snake demon, but it turns out to be a Centipede demon instead. As these things go, the demon initially looks like a beautiful woman, but then transforms into a 20-foot-high monster. Only the combined efforts of Demon Hunter Brigade and a Taoist exorcist by the name of Meng Hai (Xu Shaohong, I think) are able to defeat the monster.

From this encounter (and a couple of scenes shortly afterward), we learn that the Demon Hunter Brigade is operating like a sort of Gestapo in the province. They are given free reign by the local magistrates, who are either deathly afraid of them or bewitched by them. Yes, this will be theme. Meng Hai is suspicious of them, but that will have to wait.

We meet our resident White Snake, Lady Bai (He Hua), who has been cultivating her qi for 900 years and is now able to transform into a human woman. Her little sister, Qing (Yu Li), is still not strong enough to maintain a human form for an extended period of time. The gods in heaven have said that if she goes to the human realm to experience (and presumably overcome) “mortal coils,” she will be granted sagehood and immortality. Her first attempt to become human is unsuccessful, and she is found lying on a rock in her snake form by a young doctor names Xu Xian (Wen Yi-Fan). He tries to nurse her back to health, some scares from Qing notwithstanding.

Anyway, Lady Bai resumes her human form and heads to Jiangnan where Xu Xian lives and practices medicine. They meet and hit it off and are quickly summoned to the house of young Master Gao (Xu Ning), one of Xu Xian’s colleagues and a disciple of Meng Hai. Gao’s father is dying and Xu Xian is the most talented doctor at the local clinic. It is with Lady Bai’s (telepathic) assistance that he places the acupuncture needle in the right meridian, freeing up the old man’s energy and saving his life.

Later on, both Xu Xian and Lady Bai are invited to the Gao residence for a banquet in their honor. Young master Gao tries to have them married on the spot, although Meng Hai shows up and spoils the party by accusing her of being a snake from the outset. Meng Hai is on her trail because of a series of murders committed in town that have been attributed to a snake spirit, but we know better. Lady Bai drops enough hints—disappearing into thin air, miraculously curing his blind grandmother, etc—that it doesn’t take too long for him to figure out her secret.

After she is injured in a battle with the Demon Hunter Brigade, Xu Xian arrives at the conclusion that he loves her. He even declares her to be his wife while talking to a local boatman. Unfortunately, that boatman turns out to be Meng Hai in disguise. A magical battle erupts and Xu Xian decides to swear off his love in order to save her life. He promises to become a disciple of Meng Hai, although he sticks to his guns about not thinking all demons (or spirits) are evil.

Shortly afterward, the Demon Hunter Brigade attack the clinic where Xu Xian works and slaughter all of the doctors looking for Xu. Xu tells Gao where the snake sisters reside and asks him to warn them about the pending arrival of the Brigade. But it turns out that Gao is a turncoat and is working for the Brigade, whose leader is a demon himself and wants Lady Bai’s “Millenial Orb,” which is how she and her sister can live so long.

So the big twist—and SPOILER alert to anybody interested in watching this—becomes apparent if you have seen enough adaptations of the material and have read Paragraph 4 of this review. In all other versions of the tale, it is said that she is a 1000-year-old serpent. But here, she is only 900 years old. Was it a math error? No. In this adaptation, the big twist is that it is set 100 years before the events of the legend we all know and love. So, whatever the end of the film is, it will ultimately lead into Lady Bai pursuing Xu Xian again in the next life (which is the final scene of the film). End of SPOILER.

The movie introduces a new set of villains in the form of the Demon Hunter Brigade, which we suspect early on and then can confirm are mostly demons themselves (but the evil sort). Their leader is after immortality and is willing to slay as many demons as possible to that end, or frame the White Snake for a myriad of killings in order to ferret her out into public. They have all sorts of magical weapons and attacks, although the story has so much going on that none of it gets explained very well.

That is a problem with the film. Like an early 1990s wuxia film, there is enough happening and enough characters with different motivations and end games that 90 minutes isn’t enough time to adequately tell the story. Some elements just seem to pop out of nowhere, indicating that either entire scenes were left on the editing floor or just were not filmed and the editors screwed up royally. For example, the scene where Lady Bai returns Xu Xian’s umbrella, but it was never preceded by any scene suggesting that he had lent it to her in the first place. Near the end, Qing the Green Snake fakes joining forces with the Demon Hunter Brigade in order to buy time for her sister. She leaves and returns almost immediately to free her sister, talking about selling her body to the demon hunters in order to steal their Soul-Breaking Spear. But we never see any of that or anything that hints at it. I’m guessing a scene was cut.

Another flaw is that actress He Hua has simply got nothing on Joey Wong at her prime or Eva Huang at any time. Joey was one of the sexiest demons to walk this earth in Green Snake and Eva was comely and fetching and all that jazz. He Hua isn’t any of that. She’s mildly cute, but she brings no sensuality, seductiveness, or magnetism to her role. I mean, even Brigitte Lin is…well…she’s Brigitte Lin. She needs no introduction. Hu Hua is simply “fair-skinned Chinese pop idol-esque type with no real personality of her own.” Yu Li does an alright job as the more mistrusting Qing, but she too pales—heh… “pale” and White snake—in comparison with Maggie Cheung (nobody will beat the raw eroticism of Maggie’s performance) and even Charlene Choi (whose flirty-cum-cynical turn as Qing I actually liked).

The action is staged by Ge Shuai, who appeared to be a member of Yu Song’s stunt team. In the past few years, he has worked on films like Huang Miao Village’s Tales of Mystery; Maoshan Uncle; Zombies in the Old Temple; and Mountain Guardians. Those films feature a one-eyebrow Taoist priest in the lead role and at least one of them has Billy Lau in the credits, which leads me assume that they are all part of a Mainland Chinese reboot of the Mr. Vampire series. That said, I have not seen of Ge Shuai’s work to be able to critique his style.

Not that he has much to do here. Lots of wires and wooshing and random sword swinging, but not a lot of real choreography on display. Characters wield spears and snake daggers (the ones with the undulating blades) and whips that appear to be made from snake vertebrae, but there isn’t much hard choreography in the film. Just a lot of fantasy action with the occasional appearance of a snake tail whacking people or a giant white snake (which actually works better here than in Sorcerer and the White Snake because it doesn’t suffer from budgetary overreach).

It's flawed and a little bland, but never offensive. It offers a few twists on the material, but it needed either better action or more sensuality from the female characters. But that may be a Mainland censorship thing that causes their female characters to be all vanilla like a Disney princess film.

Wolf Warrior (2015)

Wolf Warrior (2015) Chinese Title: 戰狼
Translation: Wolf Warrior

Starring: Jacky Wu Jing, Shi Zhaoqi, Yu Nan, Zhou Xiaoou, Scott Adkins, Deng Ziyi, Kyle Shapiro, Samuel Thivierge, Sona Eyambe, Ni Dahong

Director: Jacky Wu Jing

Action Director: Nicky Li Chung-Chi

Wolf Warrior is the probably the film, even more than Sha Po Lang, where almost twenty years of hard work finally paid off for Wu Jing. He had gotten his start in film in 1996 in Yuen Woo-Ping’s Tai Chi II. While Wu had an excellent showcase for his wushu talents, the film was made a couple of years after period wire-fu films had stopped being popular. He made the transition to TV, like his fellow Beijing Wushu Academy alumni Vincent Zhao Wen-Zhuo, but the movie gods were not done with him yet. He had a couple of false starts, like The Legend of Zu and Drunken Monkey. The former represented the first fruits of the popularity of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, while the latter was the last (failed) attempt to rejuvenate the once-great Shaw Brothers studio.

His big break came with Sha Po Lang (2005), which but Donnie Yen back in the limelight, jump-started the Hong Kong action film, and was Wu Jing’s first real success. Donnie Yen became the Great White Hope of martial arts cinema on the Jade Screen, while Wu Jing found himself getting more film work, although usually in supporting roles. In 2008, Wu Jing got his first taste of directing with The Legendary Assassin, which is fun, if a bit generic in terms of storyline. Wolf Warrior took Wu Jing out of Hong Kong and back to his native People’s Republic of China, where he returned to the director’s chair. The film made about 89 million dollars, or about 543 million Yuan, at the local box office. That would have placed it at about #13 among domestic releases. It was successful enough to justify a sequel, which ended up becoming the most successful non-Hollywood film ever at the time.

The film revolves a military sniper named Leng Feng (Wu Jing), who has been disciplined for disobeying orders during a military action. Said action was a raid of a drug lab run by Wu Ji (Zhou Xiao’ou, of Police Story 2013), the kid brother of one of the biggest crime lords in the Golden Triangle. After a lot of shooting and explosions, the soldiers have cornered Wu Ji, who has taken a hostage. The soldiers are given the order to stand down, but Leng Feng goes rogue and takes Wu Ji out by a daring stunt in which he puts three bullets through a concrete wall where he approximates the guy’s head to be. For his disobedience, he is placed in confinement.

Some time later, Leng Feng is approached by Commander Long Xiaoyan (Angel Warriors’s Yu Nan). Despite his mistakes, Long has chosen him to join the Wolf Warrior squad, the Chinese equivalent to the Army Rangers. Almost as soon as he joins the outfit, the Wolf Warriors are called into participate in war games with the regular army. Although Leng Feng is a bit more opinionated than his commanding officer Li Zhijun (Confucius’s Ma Qiang) would like, Leng’s hunches end up being right. Due to a series of circumstances that I don’t quite understand, Leng and some four of his comrades end up alone in the forest trying to find their way to the extraction point. 

This is where things get hairy. In the second scene, we saw the Chinese police arresting Min Deng (Ni Dahong, of both The Assassin ’93 and The Assassins), the brother of the deceased Wu Ji. But before they can even get him inside the police car, a small gang of mercenaries led by Tom Cat (Scott Adkins, of Boyka: Undisputed and The Debt Collector) show up and kill all the police with enough firepower that Dutch’s team would be impressed. Min Deng and his mercenary team have snuck into China on official business, but the mercenaries have a side mission: kill Leng Feng.

An initial attack on the Wolf Warriors hanging out in the forest results in the one of their deaths. Let’s see: there is random guy #1, random guy #2, random guy #3, and random #4, who is always talking about his baby daughter back home. No points for guessing who gets it. Anyway, they meet up with a group of army soldiers who had been sent after them as part of the war games. But there’s not much they can do with guns loaded with blanks. But when a helicopter shows up and drops off supplies in the form of actual weapons, it’s time for the Chinese to show those evil FOREIGN mercenaries just how good China really is!

The three-act structure of this film is a bit odd. The first act sets up Wu Jing’s entry into the Wolf Warriors squad and who the main villain is and what his motivations are. The second act mainly consists of the war games, ending with a mini-climax of sorts with the first attack by the mercenaries. The third act is the running battle between good guys and bad guys. The problem is that there is no elapsed time from the scene of Wu Jing meeting his superior and the start of the war games. So, we really don’t get to know anybody in the film other than Wu Jing’s Leng Feng. It makes the film extremely one-dimensional in its characterizations. And the evil plot of the drug traffickers, beyond revenge, feels like it was tacked on, with no perceived stakes.

Like its sequel, this is a pro-China saber rattler of the likes of an old 40s war film or an 80s “Let’s win Vietnam this time” film. There is lots of talk by the superior officers—who spend most of the film staring into the camera or down at a map with concerned looks on their faces—about the greatness of the Chinese military. There is lots of Michael Bay-esque movie music meant to get the adrenaline pumping and manipulate the emotions. But the scope of the film is surprisingly small for a film meant to be propaganda, since it’s reduced to “a handful of Chinese soldiers, a couple of them being Special Forces” against a handful of dirty, capitalistic foreign mercenaries.

The action was staged by Nicky Li Chung-Chi, whom had worked with Wu Jing on a number of earlier projects—Fatal Move; Invisible Target; The Legendary Assassin, and City Under Siege. There is not a lot of martial arts in this. Actually, there is really only the final fight between Wu Jing and Scott Adkins, which is mainly knife fighting with a few stylish kicks thrown in. What the fight is not, however, is a good showcase for either men, or a suitable follow-up to the knife-fight goodness that was Donnie Yen vs. Wu Jing in Sha Po Lang. It's adequate, but I expected more from two giants in the industry.

The rest of the action is made up of gunplay and explosions (grenades, claymores, and landmines), although once the third act begins, the mercenaries fall a lot easier than I was expected. There is a very tense sequence where the men are kept at bay by a sniper (Kyle Shapiro), which is followed by an almost-equally tense scene where Wu Jing tries to chase him down. But once the stand-off between the parties devolves into men running through the woods firing at each other, the action becomes less interesting. Even my father-in-law, who was watching this with me, was surprised that the mercenaries did not pose that much of a threat to the soldiers, especially given the lethal efficiency of their introduction. Sometimes, filmmakers, pro-nationalist propaganda needs to take a backseat to good storytelling: don’t establish the villains as intimidating and then have your heroes take them out without breaking a sweat.

The movie feels like the climax of First Option (1996) with Michael Wong dragged out to 90 minutes. But that film actually took time to breathe from time to time. This one never stops to develop any of its characters or external conflicts, and still manages to be just average in its action scenes.