The Taking of Tiger Mountain (Tsui Hark)

[Stay Puft]

THE TAKING OF TIGER MOUNTAIN
Dir. Tsui Hark

http://i.imgur.com/kYGp2vg.jpg

IMDb page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3950078)

[Stay Puft]

As much as I appreciate that the Cineplex theatre near Chinatown here continues to screen Tsui Hark's films, I've been disappointed that it doesn't screen them in 3D. Young Detective Dee in particular seemed to have some creative, Saturday morning cartoon inspired visuals that probably would have been fun to see in 3D. With Tiger Mountain, however, I'm a bit more skeptical. Every time Tsui Hark would employ slo-mo to accentuate, say, a grenade exploding in mid-air, it felt tacky and cliché. I'm not sure 3D glasses would have helped here, and in fact, these blatant special effects sequences felt more like poor missteps in otherwise well crafted, practical battle sequences (the assault on the village mid-way through the film is otherwise tense and thrilling). Indeed, special effects are at a surprising minimum for a lot of the runtime, so they stick out like a sore thumb more than usual. Tiger Mountain, it turns out, is Tsui Hark's most grounded production in quite some time.

Grounded, but not realistic. Tsui Hark has dome something kind of incredible here by further developing the cartoon sensibilities of Young Detective Dee and applying that aesthetic to a character-driven, based-on-real-events war film. The sets, costumes and make-up all contribute to give the film the look of a hyper-stylized, live-action manga. Tony Leung Ka Fai disappears almost entirely into his role as Lord Hawk, and it's a wonderful sight to behold. There's one great shot where he sneers at a character in close-up, and it looks like he stumbled right out of a Tezuka manga panel and onto the silver screen.

And yet, this is perhaps the most frustrating of the recent mainland blockbusters Tsui Hark has made, because so much of it is borderline great, but so much of it is held back by the most inexplicable, downright awful artistic choices. I already mentioned the tacky, slo-mo 3D shots that painfully interrupt action scenes, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. There's also a bizarre, outrageous, and outrageously incompetent, framing device that is set in New York in the present day. I'm serious. The acting in particular is unbelievably bad, but worst of all, it has no apparent connection or importance to the narrative. I can only assume it's the remnants of a slavish adaptation to the film's source, poorly rendered, because nothing else explains why it would even exist at all. And don't even get me started on the ending. No. Oh, no. I won't spoil that. See it for yourself.

It's a shame that so much of the film is so strangely bad, because large chunks of the running time are legitimately engaging and well-executed. I was invested in the story and characters (at least once the framing device disappeared and let the rest of the movie simply unfold in real-time) and found myself moved and entertained by the film in a way Tsui Hark hasn't mustered in quite some time. But then it all comes crashing down (literally; oh god, I can't wait until someone else sees this). I'm too much of a diehard Tsui Hark fan to simply toss the film aside, so I'll give it a mild yay for everything that works, while quietly lamenting that Tsui Hark will probably never knock anything out of the park again. At least not while playing with mainland money.

[D_Davis]

I really wish that Tsui would get off of his 3D kick.

[D_Davis]

Jesus Christ this is total shite.

WTF happened to Tsui?

At one time, he hated the mainland and everything it stood for. He was afraid for his life at the time of the '97 handover.

Now, he takes the mainland's money and makes crap films.

He's completely and totally lost his edge, not to mention most of his creative drive.

What the hell is up with that framing device?

As for the ending goes, I couldn't even make it. Turned this off after about an hour.