Wu xia

Four years after The Warlords (2007) earned him Golden Horse awards (best film and director), Peter Chan has new grounds for being seen as one of Hong Kong's grandest movie-makers. His Wu Xia is an intriguing martial-arts period (1917) piece blending the concepts of David Cronenberg's The History of Violence, US TV's CSI franchise, Tsui Hark's Detective Dee, Guy Richie's Sherlock Holmes and Kitano anti-heroes.

A seemingly humble paper miller (Donnie Ip Man Yen) becomes a rural community's unexpected hero when he tackles a pair of notorious bandits and is "lucky" enough to kill each of them by accident (in the first of three action scenes directed by Yen). The magistrate (ubiquitous Takeshi Kaneshiro) inspecting the case suspects that skilled martial artistry accounted for the luck, and is shown, through slow-motion replays and imaginary in-body fast tracks, proving his forensic conjectures.

Yen's humble character eventually admits that he's the son of the maniacal leader of an evil gangster sect. He'd left his father, finding peace with a young woman (enchanting Wei Lust, Caution Tang) whose husband vanished leaving her with one son. The couple's own son is sought out by the vicious grandfather, leading to the son's self-amputation of an arm and a final stand in which the scientific mind of the detective and the swordsmanship of the miller prevail.

Unlike recent Chan movies, this one doesn't flaunt a cast of thousands and epic scenes. Musical interludes do pop up like Greek chorus routines, sung/declaimed in dialect, and there are the expected showcases for Yen's martial choreography, but the film is mostly a character study and real drama. Much credit (and many awards, surely) must go to screenwriter Aubrey Lam (Chan's frequent associate).

The cinematography by Yiu-fai (Confession of Pain, 2046) Lai and Jake (Yang Yang, Monga) Pollock would also be noteworthy if it hadn't used film that looks like a suitable case for re-mastering. Too often, scenes were murky, their dullness contrasting badly with vivid sound effects and lively acting.

Multi-lingual Japanese-Taiwanese Kaneshiro yet again rules the acting roost, with a restrained Depp-style individuality. Yen performs the necessary acrobatics well (finely utilising a trio of veteran character/kungfu actors whose facial acting pushes bland-faced Yen out of an audience's focus), but his character's non-stop niceness is not credible given the past evils and despicable parentage shown on the screen.

Once again, Hollywood's Weinstein team quickly identified a possible winner and also bought the re-write rights for the US market. Understandably, they've abandoned the literal translation (Swordsman) and opted for a snappier title that has nothing to do with the story (Dragon). Although that sounds like counter-productive product marketing, the Weinsteins usually know their markets well. Maybe they'll add a suitable subheading, CSI China 1917, if Bruckheimer would let them. No way he will; he'd probably commandeer the concept himself.