Wu Dang (2012)

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

WU DANG is a period martial arts adventure with fantasy elements, enhanced by lots of wirework and CGI, set in China in either the second or third decade of the 20th Century. There are four protagonists, all potentially interesting, played by four likable performers who do mostly adequate jobs but don't add much beyond what's written on the page. As I watched it, I kept wishing this same script had been made 20-odd years earlier, in the heyday of Hong Kong wire-fu fantasies, and starred Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Donnie Yen and Joey Wang and been directed by either Tsui Hark, Yuen Wo Ping or Corey Yuen (this film's action director) and used on-screen real-time special effects with nary a computer in sight. In fact, there was a similar film, DR. WAI IN THE SCRIPTURE WITH NO WORDS (1996), directed by Ching Siu-Tung, and starring Li, Rosamund Kwan, Charlie Yeung and Takeshi Kaneshiro, but its storyline was more awkwardly structured than this one, as I recall.Professor Tang (Vincent Zhao) is some kind of expert in ancient Chinese treasures and seems modeled after a mix of Indiana Jones and the Hong Kong pulp fiction character, Wisely, featured in novels by Ni Kuang and various HK film adaptations (e.g. BURY ME HIGH and THE LEGEND OF WISELY). He and his daughter, Tang Ning (Josie Xu), travel to Wu Dang Mountain in China ostensibly to attend a martial arts tournament, but his secret mission is to locate and steal seven treasures that have some kind of magical power that he needs for a specific act of healing. Also showing up is female martial artist Tianxin (Mini Yang), representing a particular ancient family which lays claim to a magnetic sword that happens to be one of the seven treasures. She participates in the tournament but also spends her spare time helping Tang find the treasures, since they both came equipped with identical treasure maps. Various villains skulk about trying to stop them and there are lots of kung fu battles, mostly of the wire-fu variety, with combatants frequently crashing through doors, walls and furniture in these fragile ancient temples. (Where's the UNESCO World Heritage Committee when you need them?) There is a young villager from the area, Shui Heyi (Fan Siu-Wong), also participating in the tournament and he and young Tang Ning quickly become an item. Eventually, a supporting character emerges as the chief antagonist who seeks to claim the treasures and their powers for himself, leading to a special effects-filled climax.Much of it is shot on location somewhere in China and these scenes of sprawling village walls and centuries-old clifftop temples are quite impressive. (I can't locate any info on where the film was shot.) The locations are supplemented by CGI-created backgrounds here and there. The tournament is held on a mountain-top platform and two of the main characters are almost knocked off of it in scenes that would be quite harrowing if done exactly as they looked. They were quite convincing, although the steep drop behind them was added in the computer. The wirework and stunt doubling in most of the fights for the treasure are, however, not quite as seamless. The CGI employed to show the magical powers of the treasures is often very pretty to look at but not very convincing from a dramatic standpoint, particularly when we get to the magical plant roots which take on vaguely male and female human form and "meet cute," a scene that will have hardened kung fu buffs everywhere rolling their eyes and shaking their heads. There is some urgency to the plot, given the certain fate of one of the characters if a cure isn't found, but the characters are never terribly persuasive. I didn't even fully grasp Tang's motive until I watched the Behind-the Scenes featurette that came with this DVD. I'm not sure if it's the fault of the director, the script, or the actors, but the upshot is that none of this is as compelling as it should have been. There is, however, a lot of action and it should prove satisfactory to the least demanding fans, although Corey Yuen has done much better work over the last three decades in numerous previous films.I have mixed feelings about the performers. Neither of the two lead actresses had any martial arts experience prior to the film and it shows. Josie Xu, as Tang's teenage daughter, is cute and charming but so slight in form as to shatter our suspension of disbelief when she engages in tournament battles with much bigger opponents. Mini Yang, as Tianxin, an independent-minded femme fighter from one of China's "minority tribes," comes off best—attractive, funny, and suitably agile when wired up for the fight scenes. Miss Xu, who played Mulan as a child in the 2009 Chinese production of MULAN and Stephen Chow's son, Dicky, in the contemporary fantasy, CJ7 (2008), was 14 when she made this yet the actor who plays her budding romantic partner, Fan Siu-Wong (aka Louis Fan), was 38 at the time, a rather jarring disparity in ages. Fan is playing a much younger character, but he doesn't quite look the part. I assume he was hired for his fighting skills yet he has comparatively few fight scenes, mostly involving "sleeping kung fu," so I don't understand why a younger actor wasn't cast. Vincent Zhao, who once played Wong Fei-Hung in two of the lesser ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA entries, meets the physical requirements of Tang's character and has the requisite fighting skills, but he isn't quite forceful or charismatic enough to fully carry a film like this without some formidable co-stars, none of which can be found here.

I think you guys have it all wrong. Personally, I really enjoyed the movie. I'm in my second semester of Chinese, and I love being able to watch these movies and pick up on what they are saying, makes it far more enjoyable. I also find Daoism to be extremely interesting stuff, so that helps. Not to mention, I don't think this was intended to be super realistic......I think the more you know about the Chinese people, and their culture the more you can enjoy their movies. I just don't see the sense in bashing a perfectly good movie. Yes the special effects could've been better towards the end, but throughout the kungfu was very well done, and I am a sap so I dig the love stories and the happy ending. Overall, good movie in my opinion, but hey, to each his own.

Most of the scripts played are not consistent. Most of the scenes are not consistent and not related to the future story line. The feeling is like...they putting ice cream, fried noodles, pudding, sandwich into a bowl of rice. The only common thing is you are using chopsticks to eat them. The most unbelievable thing is, this movie is not a story teller. You have no idea why those people need to do this or do that during the movie. Never explain until it is happened. You will have a lot of "Huh!? WHY? What they are doing??"... You are watching a movie like, there are a man walking walking, go to temple with his daughter, hit some people, use a woman, stole something(you don't know what are those and why they do that for!!!), run away, leave his daughter, daughter sick and gonna die, suddenly come back and no one in the temple notice, bad guys come up and say "it is my plan~! hahaha"...., take the treasures, bad guys become very strong like a semi-god, kick that woman, suddenly that man become stronger than the semi-god...(then why need those treasures!?), win the battle, daughter died and come alive with using the treasure, that woman die too because that kick, oh wow, that woman come alive again. DKLM

The problems of most Chinese martial arts movies are always avoidably many: 1) the time frame or the historical background is always stupidly ridiculous; 2) the scenario, the plot and the storyline are nothing but nonsense; the 3) the costumes, the hairdos, the way of talking are always weird; 4) the actors, male or female, are always looked too modern; 5) the dialog is always stupid and awkward, making the actors become even worse when delivering the stupid dialog. With these fatal shortcomings pointed out as aforementioned, this movie is no exception. Guy met his wife in a Chinese Restaurant? Yeah, right. "Supermarket" in 1912? The mysterious female Kung-fu fighter wearing what? Her hair style? The tablet hung on the facade looked like just out of from a wooden artifact production line. Guy with his daughter came from America almost killed mother duck on the mountain trail, yet a Chinese guy knew to protect the duck? Once the father and his daughter arrived at Wu Dang Mountain, the screenplay and the storyline just turned into absurd and stupid status, it damaged viewers intelligence and common sense.