The Myth and The Review
Jan. 14th, 2006 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Oh, look it's the latest Jackie Chan movie. No, not Rush Hour 3. I recently got around to watching 神話 (Shen Hua), or as it is known in English The Myth. The Myth was probably The Pan-Asian film of 2005. There's a lot of stars here: Jacky Chan, Tony Leung, Korean superstar Kim Hee Sun, Indian eye candy Mallika Sherawat, and Jackie Chan's bodyguard?. And this is my review...
The story begins with an army of soldiers in ancient Chinese war garb marching across a barren desert landscape that I am 95% sure is supposed to represent the Mongolian steppes. Another calvary soldier comes racing across the screen and meets up with the general leading the army. Surprise surprise, Jackie Chan's the general. They start yapping in Mandarin, a fair amount easily comprehensible to even the casual Cantonese speaker (those that watch enough ancient dramas to recognize the feel of the language in that time anyway). At this point, I'm pausing my player and trying to get the subtitles (damn, soft subs) to work. Chinese subtitles are rarely helpful in that they go way too fast and just have too many characters in one line. So, I resign to the fact I will be working without subtitles.
Back to that opening sequence. The army meets up with another procession. General!Jackie starts blabbing about the Qin emperor (of the famed Terra Cotta army) and calls some type of princess forward to receive a royal edict. Another army suddenly shows up on a opposite cliff. This army's leader starts blabbing in Korean and yours truly is starting to get lost. A translator declares that they are there to retrieve/kill (whichever it came down to, the Koreans just didn't want one of their own with the Qin emperor) the princess. Anyone that got in the way would be killed. General!Jackie protests because said princess is now his empress and thus he must protect and bring her back to the Qin king. Arrows are fired, some boulders roll down a hillside and become ablaze, and General!Jackie's horse has apparently been trained to back kick flaming boulders. An ancient chariot chase scene commences and viewers finally get a taste of the usual close combat situations Jackie finds himself in. They (General!Jackie, princess, chariot, horses, everything) plunge off a cliff in a feat of obviously bad SFX.
And Jackie wakes up from his dream. Now meet the true protagonist of the story, Mr Jack Chan (surely this character wasn't created specifically with Jackie Chan in mind *sarcastic*). Jack is an archaeologist currently living on a renovated barge (complete with its own mini basketball court and golf tee-off area) after his research grants were cut and forced him to sell his apartment. He has been having these same dreams about these characters for the last few months. His friend, William (played by the ever-present Tony Leung), suddenly returns to Hong Kong from America to ask for Jack's help with a physics project he's been working on- Project Icarus. Project Icarus is basically looking for a way to create a non-gravity environment in the absence of an absolute vacuum. William is convinced Jack's research on the myth and floating holy men in Dasar, India is the key. So the duo go off in search of flying yoga masters, and this somehow leads to gravity-defying meteor fragments and the Elixir of Immortality.
Yeah, it's probably best not to think about it too deeply...
But since we're here, let's enjoy those fabulous Wing Chun moves Jackie is so famous for. Tony Leung is resigned to the role of "buddy" and comic relief. He also gets stepped on and nearly impaled a lot. The poor bastard just can't seem to get a break. Sadly enough, these scenes are probably the best thing about the movie.
At the same time, there are a lot of things in this movie that you wouldn't usually associate with the Chan-meister (omg, did I just really write that?). If the idea of Jackie Chan standing on a mountain of bodies severely disrupts your world view, you might want to reconsider watching this movie. There's notedly more bloodshed in this film than in any of his others (expect maybe New Police Story, but I haven't seen that yet). There's also a sizable amount of SFX used, mostly due to the nature of the story itself. Yeah, them floating-inducing rocks. While Jackie obviously still does the vast majority of his own stunts, he does so with the help of SFX in some scenes. Oh, and people die. Quite a few actually.
Like the various different languages spoken throughout, The Myth is hard to place as a film. It is action-adventure, period drama, love story, reincarnation tale, fantasy, and comedy (at times anyway). The problem lies in that it is trying to be too many things at once. Jackie promoted this film as something serious and more departed from his usual movies. One has to wonder if Jackie, Stanley Tong (director and one of the writers), and the other producers and writers had just allowed the film to be itself, it might have made for a more coherent movie.
So here's the lowdown...
xD aka The Relatively Good
Those close combat scenes- Hey, they're the reason anyone started watching Jackie Chan in the first place. And similarly...
Watching Tony Leung get kicked around- Don't get me wrong. I don't hate the guy, not in the least. I just like the idea of him getting smacked around like he was in this movie...
The ending- Now there's an ending for reincarnation tales you don't usually see. I like it purely for its novelty in that aspect.
Mallika Sherawat- Really flexible fighting eye candy. This one's definitely for the guys.
The mountain of bodies scene- Completely unrealistic, but definitely showcased some of the better acting of the film.
The flashback scenes usually transition pretty well in and out- At least the editors did their job right...
And almost forgot this one, Jackie's singing has improved. His songs used to make me cringe so bad...
OMG, BOO! aka The Bad
The historical inaccuracies- A reconstructed view of the Great Wall of China used in a Qin period (221 BC - 207 BC) film?! I think not!
The sub-par SFX- Hong Kong cinema has never been at tip-top SFX shape. At least this is less obviously fake compared to scenes from Twin of Brother. Hollywood has spoiled me in terms of special effects.
The "villain"- Talk about your flat character, but all the characters are pretty flat in general
The transition of the story- More like the lack therefore of. I'm not sure if it's just my lack of subtitles, but the film is not coherent when taken into consideration as a whole piece. It was more like: "Jackie Chan had this movie; And on this film, he had plot devices; Here a plot device; There a plot device; Everywhere a plot device"
Recommendations?
I hesitate to rank this film, so I'll just be thorough in recommendation. I think I'll look at it this way. It's certainly not the worst film that seemed to have came out last year. It could have turned out like The Promise. One thing is for sure, this film is not to be attempted with subtitles you can understand fully. There are actually English subtitles on the DVD. Aren't you lucky? *watched a DVD-rip with stupid non-functioning soft subs*
If you're a Jackie Chan fan, go for it. If you want a little brainless entertainment with some fun action sequences, go for it. As long as you're going into it not expecting too much and ready to accept a few WTF moments, you'll be fine.
Not for: serious consumers of ancient Chinese history, nit-picky writers, and people unable to accept the idea of Jackie Chan doing some good old fashion bloodshed.
Links
Buy here (DVD). Or you could go dig up a torrent somewhere.
Official site
The Endless Love (movie theme) music video
IMDB Profile
And no, I have no idea if they'll ever plan to port the film over here. But hey, if they thought about doing it for The Promise, maybe they'll do it for The Myth.
The story begins with an army of soldiers in ancient Chinese war garb marching across a barren desert landscape that I am 95% sure is supposed to represent the Mongolian steppes. Another calvary soldier comes racing across the screen and meets up with the general leading the army. Surprise surprise, Jackie Chan's the general. They start yapping in Mandarin, a fair amount easily comprehensible to even the casual Cantonese speaker (those that watch enough ancient dramas to recognize the feel of the language in that time anyway). At this point, I'm pausing my player and trying to get the subtitles (damn, soft subs) to work. Chinese subtitles are rarely helpful in that they go way too fast and just have too many characters in one line. So, I resign to the fact I will be working without subtitles.
Back to that opening sequence. The army meets up with another procession. General!Jackie starts blabbing about the Qin emperor (of the famed Terra Cotta army) and calls some type of princess forward to receive a royal edict. Another army suddenly shows up on a opposite cliff. This army's leader starts blabbing in Korean and yours truly is starting to get lost. A translator declares that they are there to retrieve/kill (whichever it came down to, the Koreans just didn't want one of their own with the Qin emperor) the princess. Anyone that got in the way would be killed. General!Jackie protests because said princess is now his empress and thus he must protect and bring her back to the Qin king. Arrows are fired, some boulders roll down a hillside and become ablaze, and General!Jackie's horse has apparently been trained to back kick flaming boulders. An ancient chariot chase scene commences and viewers finally get a taste of the usual close combat situations Jackie finds himself in. They (General!Jackie, princess, chariot, horses, everything) plunge off a cliff in a feat of obviously bad SFX.
And Jackie wakes up from his dream. Now meet the true protagonist of the story, Mr Jack Chan (surely this character wasn't created specifically with Jackie Chan in mind *sarcastic*). Jack is an archaeologist currently living on a renovated barge (complete with its own mini basketball court and golf tee-off area) after his research grants were cut and forced him to sell his apartment. He has been having these same dreams about these characters for the last few months. His friend, William (played by the ever-present Tony Leung), suddenly returns to Hong Kong from America to ask for Jack's help with a physics project he's been working on- Project Icarus. Project Icarus is basically looking for a way to create a non-gravity environment in the absence of an absolute vacuum. William is convinced Jack's research on the myth and floating holy men in Dasar, India is the key. So the duo go off in search of flying yoga masters, and this somehow leads to gravity-defying meteor fragments and the Elixir of Immortality.
Yeah, it's probably best not to think about it too deeply...
But since we're here, let's enjoy those fabulous Wing Chun moves Jackie is so famous for. Tony Leung is resigned to the role of "buddy" and comic relief. He also gets stepped on and nearly impaled a lot. The poor bastard just can't seem to get a break. Sadly enough, these scenes are probably the best thing about the movie.
At the same time, there are a lot of things in this movie that you wouldn't usually associate with the Chan-meister (omg, did I just really write that?). If the idea of Jackie Chan standing on a mountain of bodies severely disrupts your world view, you might want to reconsider watching this movie. There's notedly more bloodshed in this film than in any of his others (expect maybe New Police Story, but I haven't seen that yet). There's also a sizable amount of SFX used, mostly due to the nature of the story itself. Yeah, them floating-inducing rocks. While Jackie obviously still does the vast majority of his own stunts, he does so with the help of SFX in some scenes. Oh, and people die. Quite a few actually.
Like the various different languages spoken throughout, The Myth is hard to place as a film. It is action-adventure, period drama, love story, reincarnation tale, fantasy, and comedy (at times anyway). The problem lies in that it is trying to be too many things at once. Jackie promoted this film as something serious and more departed from his usual movies. One has to wonder if Jackie, Stanley Tong (director and one of the writers), and the other producers and writers had just allowed the film to be itself, it might have made for a more coherent movie.
So here's the lowdown...
xD aka The Relatively Good
OMG, BOO! aka The Bad
Recommendations?
I hesitate to rank this film, so I'll just be thorough in recommendation. I think I'll look at it this way. It's certainly not the worst film that seemed to have came out last year. It could have turned out like The Promise. One thing is for sure, this film is not to be attempted with subtitles you can understand fully. There are actually English subtitles on the DVD. Aren't you lucky? *watched a DVD-rip with stupid non-functioning soft subs*
If you're a Jackie Chan fan, go for it. If you want a little brainless entertainment with some fun action sequences, go for it. As long as you're going into it not expecting too much and ready to accept a few WTF moments, you'll be fine.
Not for: serious consumers of ancient Chinese history, nit-picky writers, and people unable to accept the idea of Jackie Chan doing some good old fashion bloodshed.
Links
And no, I have no idea if they'll ever plan to port the film over here. But hey, if they thought about doing it for The Promise, maybe they'll do it for The Myth.