We’ve watched nearly every film directed by Jiang Wen due to recommendations from our cinephile and probably because he’s one of the most interesting mainstream Chinese directors. After watching this latest one, I’m not sure I’m interested in seeing more of his work however as his recent films all share the same style. While they are visually exciting, they all seem thematically empty to me and make no sense in terms of plot.
Li Tianran is the sole survivor on his kung fu master’s compound by an elder disciple who wants to allow the Japanese to make and sell opium on the land. He is rescued by an American doctor and raised in the US. Fifteen years later he returns to China for revenge but also apparently works for the American government. Once he arrives, he finds that his target, Zhu Qianlong, is now the head of the city police who has blamed him for the massacre. Soon enough he is caught up in a complicated plot that involves Zhu, Zhu’s wife, a Chinese gang leader named Lan Qingfeng, the Japanese governor and a mysterious seamstress Guan Qiaohong. Tianran is eager to get on with his mission but both his adoptive American father and Qingfeng urges him to be patient as they are mindful of open war breaking out between the Chinese and the Japanese.
Once again this is a technically impressive film and despite usage of CGI that still looks a bit too overt, offers some shots that are quite visually striking. The film goes out of its way to show off the body of its male lead Eddie Peng and his athleticism. There are pretty much no fight scenes in the entire first half of the film which is an odd choice yet the film still feels actioney enough due to Peng’ physical stunts. There is a special fondness for rooftop shots here as Tianran kung fu parkours his way across his city, rides a bicycle on the roofs and flirts with the seamstress. It looks pretty but feels strangely disconnected as the rooftops belong exclusively to him and Qiaohong with no other character being allowed to share in those scenes. Combined with the pre-war setting, this has a very pleasant Chinese pulp fiction atmosphere with classical music, plenty of dialogue in English, elegant Western dress, kung fu, guns and Japanese swords all thrown into the mix.
Unfortunately the film is very weak in terms of theme and plot. Just as the director seems to favor hyper-energetic quick cuts to switch from one scene to another without allowing you time to consider if the latest plot development makes sense, the one constancy of the story is that it refuses to be pinned down. Every time the plot starts to settle down into a recognisable pattern, the film twists away again in an unpredictable direction. There’s a convoluted reason to explain why Tianran doesn’t immediately kill his targets when he clearly knows who and where they are and has the ability to do so but I don’t understand it. Until the end, Qianlong denies so hard that he killed his master that I wondered where the film was going with this and yet it goes nowhere. The sub-plot with the seamstress is a complete waste of time as well as it turns out to have nothing to do with the main story and goes off in its own direction. It’s so awful that I wonder if the director just filmed a bunch of scenes and then just stitched them together while editing.
The saddest part is that even the fight scenes are bad and unsatisfying. Tianlong’s abilities are just as inconsistent as the plot so the fights lack any credibility. His eyes can be gouged and his fingers twisted in one shot and he seems fine in the next. He can dodge bullets and launch deadly projectiles with just his fingers yet still acts as if a pistol can be a threat to him. All in all, this is an empty, pointless endeavor that just happens to be made by a director with good technical skills and a generous budget.