Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger
Reviewed by YTSL
Saddled though it is with the sort of (English
language at least) title that led to initial rumors of it being a spoof
of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, that which looks to be a Hong Kong-Mainland
China -- and maybe also in small part Thai? -- co-production actually turned
out to be a serious – even if very heavily action packed -- period piece.
While the not unambitious effort -- whose choice of name plus (desert and
high country) settings seems to readily invite what would otherwise be
an undoubtedly unfair comparison between it and the winner of four Oscars
along with various other awards – surely is some ways away from being as
awe-inspiringly epic and all-round sophisticated in tone as the Ang Lee
helmed wuxia work, I nevertheless am inclined to look askance at the ethically
dubious steps taken by Harvey Weinstein to ensure that it would not get
to see the light of day in many parts of the world.
This is not least because FLYING DRAGON, LEAPING
TIGER stars Hong Kong action movie fan favorites Sammo Hung (as a legendary
bandit named Luk Cheng Yeung), Cheng Pei Pei (as his formidable estranged
wife), Fan Siu Wong (who plays an escaped detainee turned dedicated follower
of Cheng Pei Pei’s Liu Ru Yuen character) and Jade Leung (as the attractively
spunky daughter of Luk and Liu). Adding to the strong amount of promise
plus interest that was generated by the announced co-appearance of this
pair of veteran and younger talents is the happy realization that first
time director Allan Lan knew enough to provide the Golden Sun Film’s four
principal cast members – and quite a few of the more capable supporting
performers, among whom is this effort’s near legendary lead actress’ real-life
daughter, Eugenia Yuan – with plenty of opportunity to impressively show
off their martial artistic moves (or, at least (especially in the case
of Jade Leung), their ability to give off the sort of fiery intensity and
throw out the kind of stares that are guaranteed to chill the bones of
worshippers of feisty fighting femmes).
FLYING DRAGON, LEAPING TIGER’s story is one that’s
thematically simplistic yet structurally convoluted. The first half
hour or so of this clash filled offering – one that gets off to a surprisingly
quick start, and whose unexpected feel was undoubtedly enhanced by my spending
a few moments searching in vain for English (never mind Chinese) subtitles
to supplement the Bahasa Malaysia ones on the 35 mm print version that
I viewed (in a Malaysian cinema) -- has Cheng Pei Pei taking center stage
(as the kind of enigmatic character who is a force to be reckoned with,
even when badly wounded), then sharing it with Fan Siu Wong (whose wide-eyed
countenance helps to endow him with an appropriate air of admirable idealism).
Sammo Hung – whose assigned hefty role is that of a man whose continued
loyalty to a sworn blood brother (Kiu Hung is essayed by Fong Ji Go), even
after this individual betrays him and seriously endangers his family by
leading a troop of armed government men to his hideout, results in his
less forgiving wife deciding to separate from him and elect to bring up
their daughter on her own – doesn’t really have to do much early on but
turns out to be the pivotal personality around whom others, and certain
salient developments are revealed to, revolve around.
Although her character has strong links with those
of Cheng Pei Pei as well as – as it turns out -- FLYING DRAGON, LEAPING
TIGER’s two main men, Jade Leung doesn’t actually appear in the picture
until well after the elder woman permanently leaves the tragedy fraught
scene. When she does so, it’s in the wake of two equally assured
young females (one of whom is portrayed by Eugenua Yuan), who are part
of what could be described as her commanding character’s retinue.
And it is a good deal prior to the proceedings shifting to her part of
the picturesque expanse of the (old) Silk Road -- that looks to have played
host to the cast and crew of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” as well as
this Lan Tien Hong production (whose Tiger and Dragon look to be more hidden
than the Columbia-Sony offering) – that the often glowering villain of
the piece (who, to the best of my knowledge, was played by Tsiu Ke) makes
his entrance and also shows his misguided revenge-seeking hand.
If I were to cast a critical eye over FLYING DRAGON,
LEAPING TIGER, I’d have to fault this recognizably budget-constrained production
with particularly coming up short in the editing, music, costuming and
dramatic acting departments. There also are those occasions when
the film’s fight scenes – which, should it not be already manifestly apparent,
constitute the movie’s biggest plus points – suffer from over-excessive
under-cranking plus are let down by examples of poor wire work and, more
than anything else, distinctly El Cheapo looking CGI effects. At
the same time, this (re)viewer will vouchsafe that it’s not at all like
there’s nothing whatsoever in the turn of the Ming and Qing Dynasties action
work that can’t entertain, thrill and even elicit a gasp or more from those
viewers who have latterly felt starved of realistic looking swordplay and
the types of skilled martial artistic moves that fewer and fewer contemporary
Hong Kong – never mind Hollywood -- actors and actresses appear capable
of enacting.
In a nutshell: For all of it being so that many
of FLYING DRAGON, LEAPING TIGER’s battling action scenes can appear pretty
workmanlike rather than absolutely creatively inspired, this effort does
possess its share of at least competently choreographed, nicely shot, well
framed plus exuberantly performed kinetic sequences that can be a real
joy to behold (as well as appear like venerable throwbacks to the not so
long ago Golden Age of Hong Kong cinema). Consequently, fight fiends
ought to be happy enough with an offering whose familiar as well as familial
tale of long term grudge-bearing and harboring of secrets together with
inter-generational revenge-seeking can come across as more tired than timeless.
And even if it were only to spite the (dick)head of Miramax, I’d urge (East)
Asian movie fans of all stripes and genre proclivities to track down and
check out that which cannot be considered a classic but still surely does
not deserve to be callously consigned to major obscurity.
My rating for the film: 6.
(Pictures from various sources on the web +
from Femme Fatale article on Eugenia Yuan)
Cheng Pei Pei and Eugenia - 2002 and 1972
