True Legend (2010, Hong Kong)
The first thing to delineate about this Hong Kong martial arts film is whether the name Yuen Woo-ping means anything to you. If it does, then I need say no more – definitely go out and rent this film. It may not be his greatest work, it may not be a great film, but it's Yuen Woo-ping!
If it doesn't, then . . . why the hell not? A light of recognition often dawns on people's faces when they hear he did the action choreography for "The Matrix" and "Kill Bill" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
But people into Hong Kong cinema know he's much, much more than that. In fact, I only know him as the foremost martial arts choreographer and innovator from back in the late 80s/early 90s. Before that, he was a director for a long-ass time, before which he was an actor.
The film is about a good guy and his
After parting ways for many years, bad guy, having perfected the same martial art power his father was accused of misusing, comes looking for good guy and his father to avenge his father's death. And as the spawn of evil, he has become evil incarnate himself. Complicating matters is that good guy is now married to bad guy's sister and has a young son.
After being defeated and nearly killed in their encounter, good guy begins a long road to recovery which nearly drives him mad, transforming him from the clean-cut army general/wushu master into a long-haired, mangy, beggar-like apparition, thus the English title "Beggar Su".
The martial arts choreography is everything anyone would expect from Yuen Woo-ping, although there is a bit more CGI in the fantasy sequences. It's slick and looks fake, but Yuen Woo-ping action sequences from the late 80s/early 90s also had fantasy sequences that were stylized and just had to be accepted; same goes here.
I'm going to recommend this film and give it a fresh 8 out of 10 tomatoes. It's not a film that will change anyone's lives, but fans of Yuen Woo-ping have a high likelihood of liking it, and for others who are just fans of the genre should get a taste of Yuen Woo-ping and won't be disappointed by the martial arts sequences.
Zoom Hunting (2010, Taiwan)
This local film was a bit of twist for me. I don't think I've seen any other local film that was an outright "suspense/thriller". Taiwan mostly does drama or indie or high concept, but not basic suspense/thriller, with plot, mystery and twists, and isn't my favorite of genres.
The film is about 2 sisters who live together, one a professional photographer, the other a professional novelist. The photographer is kind of a free spirit, the writer is a little more tightly wound.
The photographer also engages in black and white film art photography, and upon impulse to photograph a bird that flies into her apartment and then out, she catches on film what turns out to be an affair in an apartment some ways away (she is ostensibly using a pretty powerful zoom lens).
What initially is just a curiosity for her turns out to be more involved as the sister turns out to be involved with what's going on in that apartment, with early hints in her narration of the affair happening on screen.
I was intrigued by the narrative style, as verbal narration wasn't dependent upon witness of the events. What we know isn't dependent upon what a character knows, and sometimes we see in a string of events what a character doesn't. The film's narrative is always completely in the information the filmmaker is giving and doesn't depend on what a character knows or doesn't know. Pretty cool because it can be regarded as high concept.
The premise of the film is pretty cool, albeit it took a second viewing for everything to fall into place. It's not my favorite of genres so I want to give it a low fresh 6 out of 10 tomatoes rating, but for fans of suspense/thrillers (mind you this isn't as intense as Hollywood films of the same genre) I would rate it 7 out of 10 tomatoes. But because of the final scene, which is a recreation of one of the first scenes in the film with a twist, I think I could give it an 8 out of 10 tomatoes.
There's just something about that last scene which gives the film more meaning. It's like at the start of the film, we have a blank slate. Innocence. Then during the course of the film things get ugly, suspicions are raised, feelings of betrayal arise. But then that return scene, even with the twist, brings the film back to benign innocence. I thought it was well played.
I complained about a flashback sequence in an earlier film, and I wondered whether I was too stupid to realize it was a flashback. But no, I do think the flashback in that film was clumsily done. There was a flashback in this film and the filmmaker knew how to do it to make it clear it was a flashback.
