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Legend of Zu continues Hark's artistic success and box office failure...
Author: Peter Nepstad
Date:
20 November 2001
Why should we be surprised? The Blade flopped, but was brilliant. Green
Snake -- a classic, also didn't do very well. The original Zu: Warriors
from Magic Mountain was
#119 in the box office rankings of that year, while the long forgotten
film Let's Make Laugh was number 4. These days, Hong Kong moviegoers seem
to be flocking to feel-good comedies like Needing You and Love on Diet,
and generally spurning innovative productions like Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon and Legend of Zu.
What makes Tsui Hark a great filmmaker is the pursuit of his own personal
vision. But instead of using art house aesthetics, he saturates his film
in the language of pop culture. When a movie looks like Indiana Jones and
The Temple of Doom but feels like Schindler's List, people tend to stay
away.
Take Legend of Zu. I watched this for the first time last Friday. I have
still not recovered. Sometimes, I just sit there, going through every
option on the DVD. A subtitled "Making Of.." featurette, cast
descriptions, and interestingly enough, character descriptions. The
trailer. Sometimes I skip out to a chapter and watch a bit. I dug out Zu:
Warriours from Magic Mountain and watched it again to compare (which is very interesting...).
I've done everything but sleep with it under my pillow.
It's such a strange creature. With CGIs absolutely flooding every second of
every shot, the closest American film to compare it with is Star Wars
Episode 1, The Phantom Menace. Which is so fitting: after all, Zu Warriors
was in many ways inspired by, with special effects by, creators of the
original Star Wars films.
But unlike Phantom Menace, Legend of Zu has no Jar-Jar Binks to lighten
things up. It has no amusing announcer to narrate a race. In fact, it is
largely without humor of any kind (you know -- the kind of humor which
completely ruined Phantom Menace). The action, though near constant, does
not thrill like a roller coaster ride. Instead, it too contributes to a
generally dark mood. Legend of Zu, beneath all its special effects, is a
very, very depressing film. It looks into what it is like to be eternal,
and finds that it is a lot like getting lit on fire and plummeting to
Earth. Love is a distraction, which draws one away from the path of
perfection. Death, if it occurs, is only temporary, until you are
reincarnated from the pool of souls once again. Without deep human
connections, without fear of death nor love of life, what is it to be
immortal?
This, clearly, is not what most filmgoers like to go to the movies to
ponder. No, the preference is for Andy Lau in a fat suit.
Another turn off for Legend of Zu is the no doubt un-faithful adaptation
from the book. At least, I can only hope that Tsui Hark was not faithful
to the book -- I really hate it when directors do that. More preferable is
for an artist such as a Director to add their own contribution to the
material. However, not everyone agrees with this philosophy of film
adaptations, so no doubt many fans of the book were disappointed at Hark's
re-imagining.
My only complaint is that the movie is far, far too short. I wouldn't take
out a second. But we needed at least another 20 minutes for Zhang Ziyi's
character and her relationship with Duan Lei (Tan Yao-Wen) to
develop. I could have used some more time for the development of Lian Xing
(Wu Jing),
too, another richly drawn character with little to do.
All in all, I believe Legend of Zu will gain fans, many fans, in the years
to come, and twenty years from now, when people look back at the box
office records for 2001, they will be surprised to find Legend of Zu low
on the list, and wonder who ever heard of Love on Diet.
Side Notes:
It was very interesting to go back and watch Zu: Warriors from Magic
Mountain again after watching Legend of Zu. I noticed a lot of things:
* Those who remember Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain being filled with much more real combat,
and less posing and special effects, think again. Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao
square off in the opening scenes, but once the Sword Immortals fly in,
that's it. The two films are pretty even in terms of real vs. SFX-fu.
* Both films seem incomplete, like they could have had so much more, but
for whatever reason, don't.
* Adam Cheng's character from Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain is equivalent to Louis Koo's
character in Legend of Zu. Watch especially for the moment in Zu: Warriors
from Magic Mountain
when his sword fans out into dozens of swords before flying back to him.
Special effects have come a long, long way since then.
In the original Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain, the Sword Immortals were completely
incomprehensible. They each squabbled over their petty factions, each had
powers beyond the comprehension of mortals. But the human world was
divided into meaningless factions as well. To a large extent, this was
part of the theme of Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain -- we are factionalized, but the
differences between us are far less than our similarities. But the elder
Immortals and generals can't figure that out -- it's up to the new
generation, the young, to come together over old prejudices. There are a
lot of political connotations to this message, but perhaps also there is
something more personal. Tsui Hark was part of the "New Wave," and
bringing in new ideas. The kids have come in and were doing it their way.
So the idea of the young, untried warriors stepping up to save the day was
very much in step with the idea of the new generation of directors
breathing new life into HK Cinema -- which he certainly did.
These days, he's a lot older. He is a grandmaster of cinema, despite the
fact that few of his films do well. When he returned to the same ground,
why wouldn't he now look at the seniors -- the Sword Immortals, and have a
new interest in telling their story instead. The petty factionalism, so
omnipresent in the original, is here downplayed. In the original, the
older generation behaved like a bunch of lunatics. Here, he is more
sympathetic. They have their good days, and they have days when they just
light on fire and crash to earth (you know, like Knock Off -- but then,
maybe I'm taking this metaphor too far).
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