Wuxia films have always had a long history in Asian cinema
but have only really broken through a few times in the States. It received a
modest amount of a cult following in the 70s and early 80s through video tapes
and grindhouse theaters in the large cities. It gained a larger, more
mainstream success here in the early 2000s with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers. The Wuxia
stories of heroes and honor are pretty universal stories that any can
understand but at times get out shadowed by the martial arts and use of wires
in the stunt work. One of the big stars in the genre is Donnie Yen. He and
Director Peter Chan decided to try to make a film more in line with older films
from the 60’s and early 70’s in the genre. That gives us the film Dragon, known
as Wu Xia in China.
Set in 1917 China we meet Liu Jinxi, a seemingly meek man
and his family going about a normal day in Liu Village. One day as Jinxi was in
the general store two bandits attempt to rob it and start attacking the
shopkeeper and his wife. Jinxi reluctantly engages the bandits and in the
battle kills them both. A detective, Xu
Baijiu sent to investigate the case finds out one of the bandits is highly
wanted criminal and deduces that there is more to Liu Jinxi than what he says.
To be honest this film does seem to take some from the 2005
film A History of Violence in its
mystery surrounding Donnie Yen’s Jinxi. He does a good job of keeping the viewer
in the same position as Takeshi Kenishiro’s Baijiu in terms of not knowing if
you believe his story or not. Both give good performances throughout. The film
seems to add a bit more realistic weight to this very romantic genre of Wuxia.
The fight choreography directed by Yen himself is also
pretty spectacular in rhythm and complexity. While it also shows the violence of
the fight and the severity of the damage it does keeps it fluid and beauty of
the form with little highlights of fancy like a little of the floating nature
of the kicks and jumps seen in other wuxia kung fu films. A lot of care is also seemed to be taken in
supporting characters. Jimmy Wang does a great job as the main antagonist. He
brings a lot of heft as the one Jinxi and Baijiu have to overcome.
There are some flaws though. The last act does at one point
take a turn into a different film for a bit. Also a few of the characters make
a pretty out there decisions to get from point A to point B in the beginning of
the third act. While it is a lead up to a pretty amazing final fight scene in
the film it doesn’t really serve much of a purpose other than it being homage
to character from old series of kung fu films from the 70’s and it doesn’t
really help the story and tone of the film.
