Appraising AN EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS
It’s been interesting to see the responses I received from my ‘comeback’ blog about ‘Tai Chi Master’. Its obvious that the Dragon Dynasty audience has only deepened and broadened since I’ve been (temporarily) off the TWC scene. Thanks for your continued support. Please keep your comments and queries coming, either to bey.logan@gmail.com or http://www.alivenotdead.com/beylogan or on my Facebook page.
Continuing the ‘new to Blu Ray’ theme, we have ‘An Empress and The Warriors’ scheduled. This was a relatively recent acquisition; I remember asking its star, Donnie Yen, about my visiting the set, and his dissuading me because the location was too remote, and also they weren’t shooting any action scenes at the time I could have come.
I saw various incarnations of the film. My friend Andrew Loo, producing partner to the legendary director Andrew Lau (‘Infernal Affairs’ series, available on DD!), was a key player in shaping the final cut of the film. I remember coming in to the production company offices one Saturday to see an early cut; my son Ryan was with me, and sat watching ‘Uncle Donnie’ with rapt fascination.
From the outset, I thought this was a wonderful film. The biggest surprise to me was pop idol Kelly Chen. Though she’s appeared in numerous Hong Kong movie productions, including a rather superfluous role as an unlikely psychiatrist in ‘Infernal Affairs’ (!), I must admit I had previously dismissed her as being primarily a lightweight rom-com actress. ‘Empress’ sees Chen take it to a new level: she rides, she fights, she bleeds and, yes, she acts, and acts well! The story owes more than a little to the legendary tale of Mulan, a girl is forced to take up arms to save the nation. For the film to work, actress playing the lead needs to make that transition from shy palace flower to woman warrior, and Kelly delivers.
Another pop idol, Leon Lai, plays Chen’s primarily love interest in the film, a forest-dwelling warrior mystic. Where Donnie Yen’s character teaches the princess how to win the war, Leon’s shows her how to win the peace. I’ve often felt that Leon has been underrated as an actor; he’s never been allowed the range of roles that, say, Andy Lau has. I think Lai is just great in ‘Empress’. The middle section of the film, basically a two-hander between Kelly and Leon, is one of the most genuinely romantic interludes in recent Chinese cinema.
For Donnie Yen, this role came during the period after his Hong Kong comeback movie, ‘Kill Zone’ (AKA SPL) (available from Dragon Dynasty) and before his long overdue rise to superstardom with ‘Ip Man’. Director Ching Siu-tung, fresh of Peter Chan’s masterpiece ‘Warlords’, went for a brutal, ‘Braveheart’ style of action. There are none of the elegant movements of earlier swordplay actioners, but the intensity of Yen’s screen persona gives the battlefield choreography additional impact.
At the time, I remember that, when Donnie went in to loop his lines for the film, he was dismayed to see that a final dialogue exchange between his character and Chen’s had been cut. It’s a shame this couldn’t have been included on the DVD as a deleted scene. Maybe on a future special edition re-issue! As it is, I think Yen’s last stand in ‘Empress’ ranks as one of the most genuinely dramatic of his career.
It’s a shame that Tony Ching Siu-tung has directed so (relatively) infrequently, and instead lent his prodigious energies to choreographing action for the films of other helmers. I noted that the same shinobi-style assassins turn up in many of his films, ‘Curse of the Golden Flower’, ‘Empress and The Warriors’, and so, in his honour, I have dubbed them ‘Chingjas’! Tony can be a prickly character, but, when I ran into him at the ‘Empress’ production company offices, he seemed genuinely pleased when I told him how much I liked the film.
Like ‘Seven Swords’, ‘Empress and The Warriors’ is a film that was even better appreciated overseas than it was in China. If you missed the original DVD release, which was already gorgeous, treat yourself to the Blu-ray and enjoy an Asian epic that delivers the requisite blood and steel, but also something for the heart as well…
Comments
- Josh Parmer, Columbus, Indiana | 2010-08-13 08:55:40
- Colin, Vancouver | 2010-08-12 03:34:28