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Jul. 30th, 2006 09:43 amWhile lounging around, trying to make peace with what felt like some allergy/sinus thing, I caught most of the incredibly plot heavy movie, Swordsman II: Legend of the Swordsman. I'd see the even more plot heavy sequel, East is Red years earlier, and liked it, a lot.
I *think* it's meant to be a cautionary tale about the temptations and consequences of the pursuit of power, but that's not really what I take away from it. In Swordsman II (from what I understand, there's very little plot connection, and a whole new cast, than Swordsman I, which I've never seen), there seemed to be some conflict over obtaining a secret scroll, and utilizing it's mystical martial arts techniques. The "bad"(-ish) guy is Master Asia (played by Bridgitte Lin: mmmmm, Bridgitte Lin...), the badass dude who has the scroll and is working on mastery. There are lots of shots of gorgeous colors, costuming, and interiors, and the director of photography wisely lets the camera linger on Lin almost as much as it wants. There's also multiple overlapping love plots (Jet Li has three women on the "good" side he's involved with, Lin has a concubine who's absolutely obsessed with him, and then Li and Lin have this intense forbidden attraction going on, on top of it all), and it's a very sensuous, lush movie (Imagine a Zhong Yimou movie less concerned about political or intellectual statements, more overtly decadent, and oh yeah, with some of the best fantastical kung fu caught on film).
As the movie progresses, Master Asia gets officially femmier and femmier (that Lin is just meant to be a slim, pretty man at first is delightfully pleasing conceit early on, that adds a touch of frisson between he and his concubine), such that Li mistakes "him" for a beautiful girl being held for some mysterious, unexplored reason by Master Asia. Confronted with the young, earnest fresh faced kung fu badassedness of Jet Li, Asia plays along, at one point even engaging his concubine to sleep with Li as though it were him, er, her, or.... it gets confusing at this point.
You see, the "great irony" of the secret scroll is that in order to fully realize all the power it promises, one must become "the opposite". At some point in the movie, Asia becomes a woman (I think?), symbolized by wearing makeup, letting his hair down, and wearing gorgeous red and white silk robes. "This is how it will be from now on!" Asia declares to her frightened, and obviously very excited, concubine. And then, the plots all hit at once, and much kung fu ensues (including scenes in which the psychotic "good" guy fights with giant claws and chains against Asia, who fights with needle and thread; it's so amazingly cooler than it sounds).
I really think Asia is meant to be a cautionary example, an embodiment of the dangers of pursuing power for its own ends (though a case can be made about the relative merits of sacrificing body (Asia) or sanity (Wu, the "good" guy), with the answer seeming to be that they're both about the same), but I naturally watch it differently. Morally, sexually, and gender ambiguous Asia is clearly the hero, to me, and irresistible to the earnest "heroes" in both movies, such that they go to great lengths to deny his/her identity to themselves until a confession is forced (which suggests that a great deal of the ambiguity may well be intended, even if not overtly).
In any event, I highly recommend both movies. If you liked Bride with White Hair, I or II, you absolutely must see these.
I *think* it's meant to be a cautionary tale about the temptations and consequences of the pursuit of power, but that's not really what I take away from it. In Swordsman II (from what I understand, there's very little plot connection, and a whole new cast, than Swordsman I, which I've never seen), there seemed to be some conflict over obtaining a secret scroll, and utilizing it's mystical martial arts techniques. The "bad"(-ish) guy is Master Asia (played by Bridgitte Lin: mmmmm, Bridgitte Lin...), the badass dude who has the scroll and is working on mastery. There are lots of shots of gorgeous colors, costuming, and interiors, and the director of photography wisely lets the camera linger on Lin almost as much as it wants. There's also multiple overlapping love plots (Jet Li has three women on the "good" side he's involved with, Lin has a concubine who's absolutely obsessed with him, and then Li and Lin have this intense forbidden attraction going on, on top of it all), and it's a very sensuous, lush movie (Imagine a Zhong Yimou movie less concerned about political or intellectual statements, more overtly decadent, and oh yeah, with some of the best fantastical kung fu caught on film).
As the movie progresses, Master Asia gets officially femmier and femmier (that Lin is just meant to be a slim, pretty man at first is delightfully pleasing conceit early on, that adds a touch of frisson between he and his concubine), such that Li mistakes "him" for a beautiful girl being held for some mysterious, unexplored reason by Master Asia. Confronted with the young, earnest fresh faced kung fu badassedness of Jet Li, Asia plays along, at one point even engaging his concubine to sleep with Li as though it were him, er, her, or.... it gets confusing at this point.
You see, the "great irony" of the secret scroll is that in order to fully realize all the power it promises, one must become "the opposite". At some point in the movie, Asia becomes a woman (I think?), symbolized by wearing makeup, letting his hair down, and wearing gorgeous red and white silk robes. "This is how it will be from now on!" Asia declares to her frightened, and obviously very excited, concubine. And then, the plots all hit at once, and much kung fu ensues (including scenes in which the psychotic "good" guy fights with giant claws and chains against Asia, who fights with needle and thread; it's so amazingly cooler than it sounds).
I really think Asia is meant to be a cautionary example, an embodiment of the dangers of pursuing power for its own ends (though a case can be made about the relative merits of sacrificing body (Asia) or sanity (Wu, the "good" guy), with the answer seeming to be that they're both about the same), but I naturally watch it differently. Morally, sexually, and gender ambiguous Asia is clearly the hero, to me, and irresistible to the earnest "heroes" in both movies, such that they go to great lengths to deny his/her identity to themselves until a confession is forced (which suggests that a great deal of the ambiguity may well be intended, even if not overtly).
In any event, I highly recommend both movies. If you liked Bride with White Hair, I or II, you absolutely must see these.
