Bingo!

Rating: Null/10 (31 March 2001)

A lot of my friends in this part of the world do not think much of this film. They either think they have seen similar films before or they say they do not see any plot in this film. I must say I totally disagree with them. Having long given up hope that any good will come of a Chinese big screen production, I was dragged into the cinema by my other half to see this film just because she has a crush on Chow Yun Fat (mind you, that was in July last year in Hong Kong and before any hype). But, bingo! Here it is, a film which, in my opinion at least, succeeds in bringing out, where so many others have failed, the mood/atmosphere created by those good Wuxia novels that many Chinese of my generation spent their past time reading in their adolescence. It is difficult to describe what that mood is but it includes many of the elements that have already been discussed in this column, honour, chivalry, the majesty of the Chinese landscape and the subtlety of the Chinese culture. It is indeed a dream comes true. Although I think there are flaws with this film (the plot being one of them, probably because it was based on only part of the novel and seems somewhat disjointed at time), I think these are minor flaws in an otherwise magnificient effort on the part of Ang Lee et al. I also hope that this is not the last. But this may just be wishful thinking as there seem to be few Chinese film makers these days that possess, like Ang Lee does, both a healthy respect/understanding of their home culture and a good sense of the market. So Holywood can feel at ease. Finally, I heard that a Chinese action film director is planning to team up with a Canto-popstar to make a film on a Sung dynasty war hero. I sincerely hope that he will not turn this Sung chap into some kind of Kungfu master character.