Tsui Hark directed and produced one of the most elaborate digital effects fantasy films I have ever seen. It's visually stunning and stunningly incoherent as a film.
The story:
In the floating Zu Mountains good and evil have been at war for thousands of years. Now the Blood Demon is releasing his blood clouds has he prepares his final assault on Zu. Meanwhile "White Brows" has summoned "King Sky" and "Red" to keep the Blood Demon inside the blood cave. Unfortunately Red has become possessed by "Amnesia" a flower demon and now wants to destroy Zu. "Enigma" and "Hollow" will unite in Ying and Yang with their divine swords to stop the blood demon's blood clouds.
That's just half of the plot I actually figured out and that took some work.
What the Legend of Zu is really about is Tsai Hark letting his imagination run completely out of control with digital computer effects. Watching what Hark has created is one of the most visually overwhelming experiences I have ever sat through.
I believe Tsai Hark was attempting to translate traditional visual storytelling into some kind of new kinetic graphic expression. For all the CGI that is used in Hollywood films, no one has had the guts to push it to this extreme and this film came out 10 years ago.
This was an expensive Hong Kong film production that failed to find and audience. I can imagine watching this film in a theater was probably an overwhelming and exhausting experience for the average film goer.
The Legend of Zu is an important film and also a fascinating failure at the same time.
104 minutes, written by Tsai Hark and Lee Man-choi.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment