The White Haired Witch of
Lunar Kingdom
Director: Jacob Cheung
Year: 2014
Rating: 5.5
For Hong
Kong film fans, this title will almost instantly bring to mind the 1993 classic
The Bride with White Hair starring Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung. I thought
perhaps it was going to be an attempt at a remake and though there are vague
similarities such as using the song that Leslie sang in that film at the end
of this one and the turning of hair white - it isn't so much TBWWH that it
copies but that both films are based on the same source. This was the
immensely popular three-part novel Baifa Monü Zhuan written in 1957 in
serial form. There were a few TV series based on this novel as well as other
films. That may partly explain why I found this film befuddling with a disjointed
narrative that was harder to follow than a jackrabbit in heat. Perhaps the
Chinese audience is so familiar with the story that you can tell it in shorthand
and expect audiences to fill in the blanks. A familiarity with the warring
clans and the historical setting might be useful as well. I have none of
that so basically watched going "what", "who", "why".
The film is certainly easy on the eyes
though - that color book CGI that Mainland wuxia films seem enamored with
permeates the screen. Tsui Hark is actually credited as "Artistic Consultant"
whatever that means but he has also at times fallen guilty to this impulse
to make everything on the screen pulse unrealistically with color and beauty.
In truth the most beautiful thing on the screen was Fan Bingbing who radiates
but more as an AI dream than real. With her pale unblemished skin and large
limpid luminous eyes, she is ephemeral, somewhere between android and anime.
The director came as a surprise to me.
It is Hong Kong's Jacob Cheung who was one of the more serious directors
following in the footsteps of the New Wave of the early 1980s with the social
condemnation of treatment of the poor in Cageman, the spooky The Returning,
three films for UFO - one being about a lesbian relationship, the poignant
Lover's Tear, the well-respected The Kid and Midnight Fly. All smallish personal
films but then he broke that trend with the big budget period action Battle
of Wits which at the time I wrote "the dramatic elements of the film are
sadly lacking in emotional resonance. You never really care about any of
the characters or what happens to them because they are either cardboard
cutouts, not particularly interesting or simply not at all likable." The
same could be said of this film. Personalities, intimacy and romance get
lost in the blizzard of CGI and confusion. At this time, Cheung has only
made one obscure film since this one.
The young Zhuo Yihang has just been named
as the leader of Mount Wudang by the elders and given the responsibility of
taking the Three Red Pills to the Emperor. Yihang is played by Humang Xiaoming
who has been in a number of big films - The Banquet, The Sacrifice, Ip Man
2, The Guillotines but I have not come across him that I recall. He is stiff
and dignified and forgettable. On his journey to the Capitol, he runs into
a fiery woman who he jousts with and is smitten by her beauty. He promises
to give her a name the next time he sees her. He delivers the Red Pills and
the Emperor is poisoned and he is on the run needing to prove his innocence.
At the same time two women try and save a number of commoners who have been
jailed. The two women are the Jade Rakshaa (Fan Bingbing) and her sister
and they are martial arts masters. The Jade Rakshaa in the book is a thief
for the poor who goes after evil-doers. Not sure if this is connected to
the Shaw Brothers film, The Jade Raksha with Cheng Pei-pei looking for revenge
against a family and getting it.
The action scenes are choreographed by
Stephen Tung-wai who performed the same duty in Battle of Wits. Lots of high
flying and grace. Yihang witnesses this and comes to her aid and they both
go off to her small kingdom, Fort Luna, that is well-protected by a mountain
moat. They fall in love and he names her Lian Nishan (Silk Fairy) and promises
her never to leave her. But complications and treachery make this impossible.
Love is the deadliest of poisons. The villain is played by Vincent Zhao (The
Blade) and is the most interesting character in the film.
