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Thread: Wuxia (武俠) The Movie - Takeshi Kaneshiro, Donnie Yen, Tang Wei, Wang Yu

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    Senior Member xiaolong's Avatar
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    Default Wuxia (武俠) The Movie - Takeshi Kaneshiro, Donnie Yen, Tang Wei, Wang Yu

    Takeshi Kaneshiro returns to the big screen in 2011 after winning over global audiences as Zhuge Liang in the epic and box-office breaking mega-movie Red Cliff. He teams up for a third time with director Peter Chan (who also directed Takeshi in Perhaps Love and The Warlords) for the upcoming Wuxia (武俠) The Movie, co-starring Donnie Yen, Tang Wei and famed 1960s HK movie icon, Wang Yu.

    Donnie Yen plays a fugitive wuxia-master, who has adopted a new identity and lives in a remote village with his wife, Tang Wei, and their two sons. Takeshi is a detective investigating a series of gruesome and unexplained murders.

    His investigation leads him to the village and to Donnie, resulting in Donnie coming out of hiding to fight an evil wuxia master played by Wang Yu.

    Wuxia trailer:


    Wuxia BTS:

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    Senior Member sniffles's Avatar
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    I want to see this!
    你看这些云彩,聚了又散,散了又聚,人生离合也是一样。

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    Senior Member Surferket's Avatar
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    It's a very good show and not your typical kung-fuey movie. More like Kurosawa type with different versions of what happened in the initial robbery. Kaneshiro's forensic approach is more like CSI with computer generated images showing how the blow affected the human body, especially the heart; how 1 punch/blow can kill a human being. Good thing is Donnie's character survived the final fight but the end result of the fight is a bit of a cop-out.

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    Senior Member xiaolong's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Surferket View Post
    Good thing is Donnie's character survived the final fight but the end result of the fight is a bit of a cop-out.
    Actually, I won't say I was disappointed by the cop-out ending to the final fight. The ending was so unexpected that it actually made my heart jump - so I'd classify the final fight in Wu Xia as one of my all-time favourite fights!! LOL. I know with Chinese movies, they never have a perfectly happy ending, but I felt so sorry for Takashi's character's death. It's like only upon death he came to realize humanity is above the law.

    It's strange that some of the most minute scenes in movies can leave such a deep impression on me. One of the most heart-wrenching was when Tang Long (Donnie Yen) was still part of the 72 Demons gang and they came to the butcher's family to massacre them. The way the young son cried to him for mercy, "Ge Ge", was heart-breaking. It was the deciding moment that brought out the humanity in Tang Long into the path of repentance. And the way he wept as he remembered the "Ge Ge" pleading voice while watching his son sleep - you can feel his heart was broken and forever repentant over his past.

    What I found was a cop-out was the way the rest of the 72 Demons left peacefully after Tang Long cut off his arm as a sign he's no longer part of them. I expected a much fiercer response from them, but the final showdown with his father/master more than made up for it. It was amazing to see the blade slice at the master's flesh and yet couldn't penetrate his skin.

    The first part was my favourite part - it was almost comical the way Detective Xu/Takashi analyzed and reconstructed the scene of how Tang Long, disguised as a simple paper-maker, managed to dispatch two top wulin fighters/serial murderers. Takashi looked incredibly cute in those big glasses - somehow reminds me of Dr Watson more than Sherlock Holmes, LOL.

    I was pretty amazed by Tang Wei's performance. In the previous two Donnie Yen movies I watched - Legend of Chen Zhen, Lost Bladesman - his chemistry with his leading ladies (Shu Qi, Sun Li respectively) completely tanked. But over here, I felt genuinely touched by Donnie-Tang Wei's care and affection for one another. Interestingly, Li Xiao Ran has a cameo here as Takashi's wife - even as a bit role, she can convey a single powerful emotion of sadness and resignation at her husband's obstinate adherence to the letter of the law above humanity. And I love Kara Hui as a lady fighter from 72 Demons! Amazing sinews!
    Last edited by xiaolong; 08-17-11 at 10:51 AM.

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    Senior Member charbydis's Avatar
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    Watched it yesterday. I actually enjoyed the narrative and little fighting up until Jimmy Wang showed up. He was supposed to look scary but I felt like laughing when he finally appeared. As powerful as he was, he did not look as frightening as he was supposed to. I disliked the final fight and how I ended. My fav fight was between Donnie and Kara and the bulls. Very nicely done and unpredictable.

    Wu Xia showed a lot of old school skills like Qing Gong, accupressure points and tried to link it with more modern medical explanations. I like the visualizations of the sinews and blood vessels breaking but all the flashing was annoying. I actually hated it when a limb went flying. Takaeshi's accent was distracting as I had to focus on the subtitles to understand all the accupressure point terms he was using. I didnt find it necessary to the plot'and was more of an unintentiional comedy effect.

    I really like Donnie acting in here and his interactions with his family. The kids were cute. Tang Wei's role was a vase but she actually did very well in her scenes. Her crying is very good and on the spot.

    And what did people think of the music? I found the themesong annoying.
    "Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
    Cyril Connolly

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    Senior Member patricia n's Avatar
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    I want to see this, but it sounds too gory for me.
    Last edited by patricia n; 08-19-11 at 03:38 PM.
    if you have the time and enthusiasm, please join in on the new and fabulous wuxia rpg fic /rpg discussion. (<--- click here)

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    Senior Member xiaolong's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by patricia n View Post
    I want to seethes, but it sounds too gory for me.
    No, not gory at all. It's actually pretty touching. The fight scenes were really awesome without being gory.

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    Senior Member Cesare's Avatar
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    Wu Xia is a supreme display of great filmmaking.
    The way the visuals contribute to the story, some truly clever narrative methods, great music and a lot of intriguing imagery, much of which is, I believe, loaded with symbolism.
    Stylish, contemplative, poetic, emotional - and so richly layered it gives you enough food for thought to keep your mind preoccupied for quite a few hours.
    Peter Chan rules.

    And I really dig this song:
    http://youtu.be/hXLp0XD6aTs
    别想把黑暗放在我的面前
    太阳已经生长在我心底
    不再有封闭的畏惧
    奔腾的灵魂飞上天际
    太阳 我在这里

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    Senior Member xiaolong's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cesare View Post
    Stylish, contemplative, poetic, emotional - and so richly layered it gives you enough food for thought to keep your mind preoccupied for quite a few hours.
    Peter Chan rules.
    Definitely one of the best wuxia movies I've ever seen. The combination of humour, cool wuxia movies and ruminations on humanity vs law was executed beautifully. This movie is almost like a poem - beautifully choreographed but not "too beautiful" like Zhang Ji Zhong - balanced with show of raw, hard, manly knocks.

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    Senior Member patricia n's Avatar
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    How can it not be gory with limbs flying everywhere?
    if you have the time and enthusiasm, please join in on the new and fabulous wuxia rpg fic /rpg discussion. (<--- click here)

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    Senior Member xiaolong's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by patricia n View Post
    How can it not be gory with limbs flying everywhere?
    No worries, there won't be limbs flying. Just wonderful wuxia kicks, swipes and jumps choreographed by Donnie Yen himself. It won't have too much gore, but instead some really interesting scientific (Chinese medicine style) analysis on how certain wuxia strokes can affect the internal organs and stop the heart. More like how Innerspace does it

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    Senior Member Surferket's Avatar
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    I too dislike the end fight. More like a cop out act of god ending. It's cheating.

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    Senior Member xiaolong's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Surferket View Post
    I too dislike the end fight. More like a cop out act of god ending. It's cheating.
    Well, I guess it's controversial. But I don't see how Tang Long/Donnie could overcome the Master with so much blood lost after he cut his own arm off, plus the added disability of fighting with just one arm. The injection of the acupuncture pins on the feet of the Master (which finally killed him) by Detective Xu is like a coming to a realisation of his own personal journey/life-long reflection of whether to put humanity above the law. And he finally chose humanity. Hope I'm making sense

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    Senior Member xiaolong's Avatar
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    The famous copped out finale fight in Wu Xia. I'm still at two minds about this...while I loved the way the camera dissected the anatomy of the fight to show Jimmy Wang's immunity to blade stabs which requires qing gong of the highest order, the lightning strike at the end made it seem like a defeat without much of a fight.

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    Senior Member Ian Liew's Avatar
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    Before I commit to watch this in my shallowness, does Donnie and his family have a happy ending?

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    Senior Member xiaolong's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ian Liew View Post
    Before I commit to watch this in my shallowness, does Donnie and his family have a happy ending?
    Yes, there's a happy ending for the happy family.

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    Senior Member Cesare's Avatar
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    Yes, there's a happy ending for the happy family.
    With a huge question mark.
    别想把黑暗放在我的面前
    太阳已经生长在我心底
    不再有封闭的畏惧
    奔腾的灵魂飞上天际
    太阳 我在这里

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    Senior Member Ian Liew's Avatar
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    I just watched the ending in the video shop where they were playing it. It looked like a good ending to me as long as you don't have too many conspiracy theories. The final fight was.. terrible, like others pointed out. Unless it was a pre-planned move by Detective Xu to have that exact effect, but it didn't look like it.

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    Senior Member Cesare's Avatar
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    It is a happy ending, sure - but that feeling of things never going to be quite the same as before is pretty strongly present. The finale has a distinctly claustrophobic feel to it. There seem to be unresolved tensions.
    别想把黑暗放在我的面前
    太阳已经生长在我心底
    不再有封闭的畏惧
    奔腾的灵魂飞上天际
    太阳 我在这里

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    Member xianzai's Avatar
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    I thought it was quite a good movie but not perfect, and am glad to see films like it, Reign of Assassins, and The Lost Bladesman being made.

    SPOILER

    WRT the ending, it doesn't make it clear if Donnie will return to his family, or leave like Tang Wei's first husband.

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