A Sumptuous Feast From Familiar Ingredients

There are undoubtedly those who, in the wake of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers, would balk at yet another sumptuous wuxia film which appears to tread well-worn creative territory, albeit with western budgets. Looking at the Cannes Promo Trailer included on the second disc of HK label Mega Star’s superb region 3 2-disc DVD set, jaded western reactions seem understandable. After all, the aforementioned films have found entirely new audiences for their vision of wuxia, audiences lacking the experience of the genre, the knowledge of its history, and in particular, young female audiences, once not interested in the slightest in such films. Criticisms raised of these new wuxia films include the old “style over substance” line, the feeling that these films are made with that female audience in mind rather than the traditional action-loving male one, and the notion that these films are watered-down, jazzed-up versions solely for export to the west. There is some truth in all of these accusations, but The Banquet refutes the notion that a film incorporating the above elements in its creation must therefore be creatively bankrupt.

The plays of Shakespeare have proven fruitful inspiration to the creative talents of other cultures, not least the immensely respected films from Russia and Japan. That tale of his which conforms best to the requirements of modern action cinema, as demonstrated by Zeffirelli’s version starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, is of course Hamlet, closely followed by Macbeth. The creative team here have taken the former, added a dash of the latter, and spiced the whole mixture with proven elements from the international wuxia successes of recent years. The result is nothing short of stunning, a gorgeous cinematic interpretation of classic drama played out in an unfamiliar, yet ideal setting. It appeals to the new audiences without losing the cognoscenti, to women as well as men, and is well worth sitting through.

The story is set up as follows over the course of the opening credits. The year is 907 A.D. The Tang Dynasty is falling into ruin, and rebellions throughout the country have led to declarations of independence and new kingdoms, giving rise to the name for this period: The 5 Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms. Against this background of widespread turmoil, treacherous officials and royal conflict, Prince Wu Luan is in self-imposed exile in the Southern heartlands, trying through music and dance to forget the maiden Little Wan, who is now his mother-in-law. Messengers arrive from the Empress to inform him his uncle has killed his father, usurping both the throne and the Empress, and to urge his return. The new emperor, however, has already sent assassins….

Director Feng Xiaogang, arguably mainland China’s most bankable director, brings a commerciality to the wuxia genre that manages to reach beyond the colour-coordinated beauty of Hero for something simultaneously more realistic and more elaborately contrived. The key visual influence appears to be The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, with CG used to create immense stylised buildings within real landscapes, or to increase the scale of crowds and armies (credits reveal staff from London-based MPC (Kingdom Of Heaven, the Harry Potter films) and Toronto-based Technicolor), but a sense of realism being aimed for instead of the out-and-out fantastic, the possible instead of the impossible. All things are rendered sensually, from the new Emperor’s seduction of the Empress, to an Army General’s execution, to the exquisite choreography of Master Yuen Woo Ping and Yuen’s Stunt Team. The latter bring all of their recent experience on such Western fare as The Matrix: Reloaded and Danny The Dog aka Unleashed to bear on their work in Crouching Tiger, advancing their aesthetic to a point of almost unbearable beauty, made so by the bloody savagery on display. Make no mistake, the red stuff flows in this film, at times producing abstract art amidst the choreographed chaos of combat, and director Xiaogang ensures that cinematographer Li Zhang and editor Miaomiao Liu lay it all out for the audience to see, enhanced by the brilliant environments created by production designer Tim Yip, the whole shaded by a great score from award-winning composer Tan Dun, both of whom also did the same duties on Crouching Tiger. At no point did I feel I was missing alternate footage, or another possible vision of the individual scenes or the story as a whole – the aesthetic of the film is at one with the story and structure, all of which diverge sufficiently from the Shakespearean inspirations to reach their own climactic tragedy. The actors are all up to the task, but do not expect the variable Daniel Wu to live up to some of the other Hamlets over the years – this, in the end, is not his film, but that of Ziyi Zhang’s Empress, a Gertrude/Lady Macbeth robbed of her innocence and purity far too early in life, creating dire consequences in trying to reach back for some of those lost qualities. Following her excellent work in 2046, she continues to impress in more adult roles, appropriately enough here looking a little too young to be carrying so much weight, which, of course, the woman formerly known as Little Wan is. Ultimately, though, You Ge steals the show from her with a handful of subtleties not expected of his role as the villainous Emperor.

Disc 1 of the Mega Star region 3 2-disc DVD edition contains the film and nothing more, allowing for the sumptuous visuals and crystalline soundscape to be rendered at their best in anamorphic 16:9 and both DTS and 5.1 as a film this new should be. This is one of those DVDs that shows how much the medium has brought to home viewing of cinema, arguably reference quality, something that newer HD formats now overshadow, but worth remembering if you grew up with 16mm projections at home or school, followed by VHS. The subtitles are excellent, with only two or three minor errors. Disc 2 contains the following supplements: a 15 minute Making Of, 8 minutes of Interviews, a 16 minute Behind The Scenes split into 8 parts, a comprehensive 40 minute Behind The Scenes that starts with the opening ceremony for the production and runs right through to the final shots, and finally a grab bag of Trailers, TV Spots, Poster & Promotional Gallery and a Photo Gallery. There are no English subtitles on this second disc, but the menu is in both Chinese and English, and there is still much to admire in the on-set footage. Both discs are housed in a single-width keepcase, itself within a pretty but thin card sleeve that adds nothing to the whole.