A Different Kind Of Magic

Over thousands of years, the Good Force and Evil Force are unable to ever live in peace. The Head of Kun Lun Sect is Dawn (Cecilia Cheung), who has fallen in love with her disciple King Sky (Ekin Cheng). However, Insomnia, leader of the Evil Force, attacks Kun Lun and destroys Dawn and the entire Sect. Two hundred years later, the Evil Force is on the rise again. King Sky swears to destroy Insomnia but meets one of the disciples of Omei, Enigma (Cecilia Cheung), who bears a striking resemblance to his former teacher Dawn. King Sky and Enigma have strong feelings towards each other. Whitebrows (Sammo Hung) realises that Omei as lots its only chance to fight back. He makes a new plan to go in search of another powerful weapon whilst Insomnia still training at the Blood Cave. During a moment of being off-guard outside the Blood Cave, Red (Louis Koo) becomes possessed by Amnesia (Kelly Lin). Enigma needs to practice her swordsmanship with Ying (Wu Jing) who is recreated from Hollow’s (Wu Gang) ashes. Thunder (Patrick Tam) falls in love with a commoner, Joy (Zhang Zi Yi), and leaves Omei with her. This time, Insomnia’s Blood Clouds are ready to destroy Zu…

The above Synopsis, taken from the Extras on this China Star single disc edition, is probably an excellent piece of evidence as to why this film received so much criticism upon its 2001 release. A fantasy film not based in any western mythology, a CGI-heavy VFX extravaganza coming on the heels of A Man Called Hero (1999) and The Storm Riders (1998), both of which also starred singer/actor Ekin Cheng, and finally, yet another thematic volte-face by director/writer/producer Tsui Hark from the excellent and internationally well-received Time And Tide (2000), it seems no surprise that few writing publicly took to the film at any level. As a sequel/remake of his ground-breaking Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), it was also guaranteed to provoke those who admired the practical f/x of the original in preference to modern CGI. Finally, the attempted summary of the plotline above shows the narrative to be somewhat convoluted, if not a little sketchy when on paper. All in all, it is no surprise perhaps if, despite being a card-carrying Tsui Hark fan (I have been known, on occasion, to even make a case of the simple pleasures & testing ground aesthetic of his two Van Damme films), it has taken me until now to finally see the film.

My surprise, then, comes not from whether the film justifies such criticisms, as it does, in no small part. Instead, the film actually works on the level I think Tsui was aiming for, and does so triumphantly, marking the above criticisms of their time, not of the film itself. The fantasy world itself draws on traditional tropes of Chinese myth and history in the same manner as western fantasy authors such as David Gemmell: schools, magic swords, elemental powers, demi-gods, and the power of love across reincarnation are also, frankly, as common in western fantasy, and should not have proven any trouble for western viewers. Viewers weaned on the A Chinese Ghost Story and Swordsman trilogies rather than Willow should have no problems at all with either the narrative or the film’s visual style. The VFX are infinitely better than those found in A Man Called Hero (1999) and The Storm Riders (1998), all at the service of Tsui’s vision, permitting clarity even in the midst of console-game-speed editing. While none of the leading cast members at the time were particularly regarded for their acting abilities (except perhaps Zhang Zi Yi, who admittedly is pretty much wasted in her role), they all turn in acceptable performances, certainly not as indicative of green screen work as some of those throughout the recent Star Wars prequels. Indeed, with the entire film pitched somewhere between an anime and a Final Fantasy game, they only need to act well enough for the excellent score to help conjure their emotions, which all do.

After a run of action thrillers in Hollywood and HK, Tsui clearly needed to refresh himself, and with the possibilities of modern CGI, a return to Zu was a good creative decision, regardless of the film’s ultimate commercial fate. The lush visuals paint a world unenclosed by studio walls, a world in which truly epic confrontations can occur, in which magically-endowed beings can fight without the constraints of human bodies, and in which honour, loyalty, patriotism, love and sacrifice are not empty words. The Legend of Zu is all of those things and more, a glimpse of one film-maker’s rich imagination and the sweeping entertainment that can be provided when pushing the limits of the available means.

The China Star region 3 DVD contains the film and a small handful of extras, leaving ample room for a top-class rendering of the film in anamorphic 16:9, with both DTS and 5.1 Cantonese and 5.1 Mandarin. The subtitles are a mixed blessing, as while the menu and extras are all available in English, the actual subtitles in the film fail to appear for several chunks of dialogue, leaving the western viewer mystified. The pretty menus provide for a Plot Synopsis, Character profiles, Cast & Crew profiles, the Trailer, a 10 image gallery under the heading Production Notes, and a 19 minute Making Of that thankfully features liberal interview snippets with Tsui Hark, as well as the usual cast (actors explaining how hard green screen work is), crew (F/X supervisors explaining how hard creating Tsui’s detailed pre-production drawings is) and behind-the-scenes footage.