I recently scored some tickets from Mocca Perks to watch Wu Xia [武侠] at GV Vivocity, and it was on the Gala Premiere night. Star studded night and I was one of the first to catch the movie!
For those who haven't heard of it, it's a Kungfu movie by Donnie Yen 甄子丹 (who acted as Ip Man), heart-throb Takeshi Kaneshiro 金城武 and Tang Wei 汤唯 (Yes, the lady who had a heated bed scene with Tony Leung in Lust, Caution - 色，戒). Another highly respected actor who was involved in the movie was Jimmy Wang Yu 王羽. You guys might see him on screen mostly with glasses on, so you might not recognize him in this film. Let me show ya his picture.
Wang Yu was famous for this movie
This is how we always see him on screen.
This is Wang Yu's image in the movie.
Moreover, this is a movie directed by Peter Ho-Sun Chan, 陈可辛. He's highly respected for the movies he did and the ones that I love the most are "The Warlords" - 投名狀, "Perhaps Love" - 如果.爱 and "Three" - 三更.
Director Peter Chan, who very much seen alongside Sandra Ng.
Ok, so much talk about the characters but so little about the movie. Let me share the synopsis of the movie first:
It is 1917 Yunnan and Liu Jinxi (Donnie Yen) lives a quiet life with his wife Yu (Tang Wei) and their two young sons Xiaotian and Fangzheng. Liu runs a paper mill and the village prospers. One day, two fugitives arrive demanding money and after a long fight with Liu, end up dead.
The bigger one is identified as an especially powerful fighter. Liu becomes a local hero but detective Xu Baijiu (Kaneshiro Takeshi), an expert in physiology and pressure points, is puzzled how a seemingly ordinary man like Liu was able to defeat two hardened fugitives.
Liu finally tells Xu that he is actually a convicted killer and spent 10 years in Jingzhou prison. However Xu, who notices that Liu is surrounded by a powerful qi force-field, is still suspicious, and when an associate (Jiang Wu) reports from his investigations in Jingzhou, he realises Liu is actually Tang Long, second-in-command of the murderous 72 Demons gang and the favourite son of its Tangut leader (Jimmy Wang) and his wife (Kara Hui).
This is an extended version of the trailer.
I don't wana be a spoiler and start telling you guys the story, but I guess a lot you guys can figure out from the trailer above too. I set my mind thinking I will be watching yet another Kungfu 'Ka Pow' movie, but no, if you are a follower of Peter Chan's movies, each of them carries a very meaningful moral behind the movie and makes the audience go home with a lesson learnt. I would say this is like the Hong Kong version of "Kindaichi". The director has cleverly mixed Kungfu with immaculate detective works mixed with knowledge of Chinese acupuncture.
The movie opened with amazingly beautiful scenery, infused with thick village life "morning symphony" and it has already taken my breath away. Throughout the movie, there was also alot of places I don't think normal tourists can access and it can be seen that alot of hardwork was put in researching about how people live in the village. I would say not only is one entertained when watching the movie, he/she is also learning about how people live in the villages.
Everyone gave their 101% acting and you truly see acting skills, not just fanciful camera angles and effects. One I must praise is Takeshi Kaneshiro. Not only did he break through his pretty boy look, he even went to learn to speak with a Sichuan accent. Check out the videos below, and see how much effort the director and each actor has put in.
I left the cinema totally in love with the movie, almost wanting to go back for round 2. Why? Because for a very long time, I have not watched a movie that does not have something 3D enhanced in every scene. 3D works were kept to minimal, no crazy fighting scenes where you can't even make out who has beaten who and most of all, nothing arty farty of having to match costumes to background scenery (if you know which other Kungfu movie I was talking about).
Although there were some gruesome scenes, I held onto my hubby's arms, but I must say this a movie that everyone should go watch at least once.
I give it a rating of
4.5 / 5 hearts
So, here are the photos that I took at the Gala Premiere and I have to admit, I thought that I was early and I would get the front standing area, so I brought just my 14-42mm lens and I got to tell you all I had in my head was "DANG!" when I reached there, but not to fret, I managed to get the permission from incinemas.sg to use their photos. Mucho Gracias incinemas.sg!
Guess what greeted me when I went upstairs to collect my tickets!
When I came back downstairs, the host was already on the stage.
I was almost bursting in tears when I saw the crowd...
Super eager fans.
Before Donnie Yen and Peter Chan walked on the red carpet, there were some local celebrities who went on stage to share their views on Kungfu.
Dawn Yeoh and Nat Ho.
Zheng Ge Ping and his wife, Hong Hui Fang
Cheng Hong Yu
Can you guess who they are?
Fly Entertainment artistes, Adele and George Young.
Love the media board section before the red carpet.
Alaric Tay and his wife, and Jimmy Taenaka.
And last but not least, Allan Wu and wife, Wong Li Lin.
Which I got the honours of taking individual pictures with.
Yes! I felt the chest! *Sound like pervert right?*
I even spotted Roystan Tan outside the cinema after the movie!
Ok! Now is the climax. Let's welcome Donnie Yen and Peter Chan!
The suavy director appeared first.
Fans fighting to shake Donnie's hands.
Say hi!
A pleasant surprise for Donnie Yen! A Birthday Cake prepared by GV for his upcoming birthday on 27 July. Donnie Yen notes that he'll be 28 soon. =D bringing laughter to the crowd. Fans sang the Birthday Song in Mandarin. Donnie Yen thoughtfully invited his wife (left in the photo) up on stage to share the joy with him.
I didn't get a shot with Donnie Yen and much to say Takeshi Kaneshiro, so this shall make it for it. :P
And I got my hero right next to me...
So hop on down to the nearest cinema and catch Wu Xia [武侠] this weekend! Let me know your comments after watching it ya?
