- When rap music
entwines with Asian cultures
We've got
ourselves another weird one here folks. I've seen a few movies over
the years that mix the mean streets of inner-city youth along with
the quiet flow of honour and law of some Asian cultures. For example
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), albeit that took place in
America with Asian culture, our movie today is a full-blown Asian
movie with one rapper in a critical role and a soundtrack that is
almost entirely rap music. Wire jumping, enough martial arts to
shake a stick at, and some really terrible acting by almost all
counts.
The movie was
directed by RZA (real name Robert Fitzgerald Diggs) who also acts in
the movie as the main character Blacksmith. Now, he has been in
movies before and his acting is certainly not the problem within the
film, but this is RZA's directorial debut and while the movie had
some noteworthy events, his ability to get all his actors in a row
was messy. RZA co-wrote the story with Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino presents the movie so it's going to be quite the messy
flick with blood baths all around but I'm not looking for just a
blood bath in this movie, since it's not marketed as one. I'm not
looking for best film award here but I'm looking for substance, and I
just don't get it.
The movie begins
with the blacksmith giving us a rundown on the current events in
China. We get a glimpse of some of the cast and of course a little
bit of tragedy. Overall, most of the characters are diverse enough
that quickly you'll know who is who, except all the Lions with their
shaggy hair could easily be mistaken for another Lion (don't worry,
all but Silver Lion are completely inconsequential to the story).
Our blacksmith is hired to make quite a number of instruments meant
for solely killing, while a lot of different faces keep appearing in
the quiet town. It isn't much a new story but at this point it's
soaked with interesting atmosphere, and no matter your persuasion I
think there is something for your eyes to behold in many of the
actors/actresses.
This movie,
however, is one of those instances where you really aren't sure how
serious the movie is trying to be. Some roles are oversold while
some seem "phoned in". Silver Lion (played by Byron Mann)
in the first half of the movie is just silly. I believe he should be
coming off as someone intelligent, perhaps ferocious and sneaky. He
comes off as goofy, silly and no threat to anyone else we see within
the first half of the movie. While in contrast Jack Knife (played by
Russell Crowe) comes on stage, has this amazing introduction
involving quite a few sexual innuendos, a vicious murder and then he
basically stays sex-filled for the first half of the movie. Really
the first half of the movie this legitimate badass just has sex with
prostitutes which I guess is some sort of character development but
nothing near as satisfying as his introduction and he plays again a
pivotal role in the last half. I could go on with almost every
character having some major problem within one of the two halves of
the movie. Most characters are just flat for half of the movie, save
for the blacksmith. It is his story and so it makes sense he doesn't
fall flat but he isn't enough to carry the movie. If Zen Yi/ The
X-Blade (played by Rick Yune) was cut out, the Gemini twins were cut
out and Brass Body (played by Dave Bautista) was given more storyline
to parallel the blacksmith or even Lady Silk (played by Jamie Chung)
the story wouldn't have been as messy. I heard a story that the
original cut of the movie was four hours long and it was trimmed to
this meager 95 minutes. I'd love to see the four hour version.
 |
| Here you put your arm up like this and I'll do this. Oh we'll look so awesome! |
If you can get
past some of the poor acting and quickly resolved or quickly
abandoned story lines, it's a decent looking movie as I really liked
the special effects for Brass Body, the wire-fu is all decent as
expected, and it's a tolerable film for a sole viewing. It's just no
classic film, even within its own genre unfortunately.
I give it 5/10
PS: Brass Body
really needed more fleshing out as he really could have been a great villain.
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