After watching the first 20 minutes of this film, I had a deja vu. Despite what I thought was a decent introductory narrative exposition and a concerted effort on my part to keep track of the characters and the parties and the alliances and motivations, I was totally confused and decided to look up the plot online.
This also happened when I watched Red Cliff, part 1, which is interesting because it turns out I wasn't wrong in noticing that a lot of names in this film sounded distinctly familiar. Like names of the characters from Red Cliff!
And surprise, surprise, they are indeed the same characters. Apparently there was a historical novel called Romance of the Three Kingdoms that is the source material for many modern fictionalizations of what happened during the Warring States period, roughly the first few centuries of the Common Era.
This film is about one of the exploits of Guan Yun Chang, the title character of the Chinese title (the English title is horrible in the anonymity of this great general; that a) he is "lost", and b) he is merely a "bladesman").
I vaguely do remember the character from Red Cliff. He's not a main character there, but he's portrayed as a great general and has a very distinct look, befitting a historical personage. Such as if Abraham Lincoln were portrayed, there are certain stock images whereby all Americans can identify him.
In this film, Guan Yun is an enemy general held captive by his benevolent captor Cao Cao (who in Red Cliff is the arrogant and power-hungry villain). Guan Yun is portrayed as extremely capable and righteous, and Cao Cao, who isn't exactly wholesome, but not the villain he's portrayed as in Red Cliff, acknowledges these virtues and hopes to gain his allegiance.
It turns out Guan Yun is a willing captive to protect and be close to his sworn brother's concubine, also being held captive, who he secretly loves. Actually, Guan Yun is such a fierce warrior, he could fight his way out any time he pleases.
When his sworn brother, Liu Bei, sends a message calling for him, Guan Yun decides to leave captivity. Cao Cao knows he can't stop him, and wanting to stay on his good side orders that he be allowed to leave unmolested.
However, the emperor, who is Cao Cao's puppet (the same relationship is shown in Red Cliff), thinks releasing Guan Yun is a bad idea and boldly goes against Cao Cao and orders Guan Yun killed en route.
The basic story as told in the records is Guan Yun's escape journey, encountering the resistance set up by the emperor.
It's a competent martial arts film, but not a remarkable one. The fight scenes are competent, but they're not remarkable. Donnie Yen as the title character does a great job portraying a man of impeccable virtue, but he seems to be doing a lot of that recently. OK, anyway, he's very good.
I'll pass this film with a nominal 6 out of 10 fresh tomatoes. It's not a great film, but definitely watchable for fans of Chinese period pieces. I also found it a fascinating counterpoint to Red Cliff with its different portrayal of the characters.
With a title like "Nowhere to Turn", I imagine someone who falls into dire straits, someone who has done everything she can and tries hard, but fate keeps dealing her all bad cards, none of which are her fault. In this film, the main character elicits no sympathy for having "nowhere to turn".
The main character wants to be a musician, but it's soon clear that she's delusional and is nowhere near where she needs to be to make it as a musician. She's not only delusional but she thinks the world owes her something while doing nothing herself. She's arrogant, self-righteous, smug, self-absorbed, unapologetic, and overall pathetic.
She wants her mother to send her abroad to pursue a career in music and blames her for refusing, while she herself is too lazy to consider getting a job and figuring out what it means to be responsible.
She mooches off people she knows, not sure they can be called "friends", and takes advantage of all of them, even stabbing them in the back. Whenever she's given a chance, she turns out to be a major disappointment because of her own selfishness and arrogance, and she ultimately blames everyone else for her failures. All she does is take and never gives.
Actually, that's wrong. At one point she "gives" when she loses her virginity to the guy she's mooching off, but complains and whines about it hurting throughout the whole 15 second ordeal.
I was hoping for some sort of redemption, transformation or self-realization in the character, but she remains unlikable to the end. Even a hint of being emotionally tortured or having a mental disease or that she sniffed glue through most of her elementary and high school years would have made her character a little bit palatable (in many scenes she is slack-jawed and looks like she's been sniffing glue, but there's no explanation for this unappealing portrayal).
The supporting "boyfriend" character isn't very strong and has almost as bad manners as she does, even though he does occasionally express himself in moments of truth that are few and far between, calling her crazy or having no conscience, and finally calling her a bitch, which she is.
I don't recommend this film to anyone. Rotten 2 out 10 tomatoes. Maybe the only good thing about this film is that it's an unintentional homage to Korean films in the 90s, which were unspeakably awful. This film would have fit perfectly amongst some of those films that I saw, and reminds me how far Korean film has come.
