" America they know how to package. Even a terrible movie. They package it and everybody go to see it.
In China we make so beautiful movie but we don't know how to package.
We don't know how to present the movie to the audience."
Jackie Chan, June 29th 2005.
Title: DragonBlade.
Director: Antony Szeto.
Year: 2005.
Country: HK.
Well-known actors: Karen Mok, Daniel Wu, Stephen Fung, Sandra Ng...
Don't bother to search the web for a review of this film. There are none.
Nobody went to see this film even though it is completely unique.
It is the first Full-3D CG animated feature entirely produced in HK.
Synopsis:
Since time immemorial, a legend has been passed down about a weapon of ultimate power. Bestowing invincibility in battle, it is a blade which may only be wielded by the pure of heart and noble of spirit.
For untold generations, warriors have sought to discover its hiding place, a place so secret and fraught with danger that no one who has gone in search of it has ever prevailed.
This ultimate weapon is known as DragonBlade.
As you've guessed, DB is a sword-play film.
But more than that DB is a very fun movie, full of wire-fu and gravity-defying stunts which reminds me of Iron Monkey, Tai-Chi Master and all those other great movies that disappeared ten years ago.
The characters are interesting, the voice-acting is good, but still this movie really feels like a "prototype".
There's a problem with the rythm. Sometimes there is too much comedy, sometimes there's too much action and there are times where the movie lingers on useless details and the pace slows down considerably.
There's also the classic annoying stock character that was known in Mulan as the Eddie Murphy-voiced dragon.
Here, Bali-ba the stupid talking bird (voiced by Sandra Ng) is as annoying as they get.
But despite these few flaws, DB is a very nice little movie, littered with references to older classics like:
-Snake in the eagle's shadow.
-Drunken Master.
-Iron Monkey.
-Sammo Hung's Blade of Fury.
And now for the mini-review:
Title of the film: Dragon Blade.
Alternate title: The movie that nobody has seen.
Director: Antony Szeto.
Cool actors: Karen Mok, Daniel Wu, Sandra Ng, Stephen Fung.
How do I summarize the plot to a friend if my phone's almost out of batteries: "In a China full of skateboards and other anachronisms, Bali-ba the stupid talking bird holds the secret of the whereabouts of the mystical DragonBlade sword. When a huge monster invades the village, martial arts student Lang decides to go and find the sword in the land of Arcadia to kill the monster."
The scene that I love and would like to see one last time on my death bed: The scene where Lang chases the "night thief" on the rooftops. Classic Yuen Woo-Ping-like moment. 8)
The thing that makes me want to throw a molotov cocktail on the movie screen: Bali-ba the stupid and useless bird.
When the movie's done, how many of the 20 viewers will dress like Iron Monkey and start running on rooftops ? 16. ( 16/20 or 4/5 ).
