I do not know the reason why directors jump into production of wu-xia martial arts movies today, but I still have not seen anyone worth to watch since Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).
Here is the trailer and poster for the new Jet Li‘s martial arts movie Flying Swords of Dragon Gate will be presented in a 3-D IMAX version as well as standard 3-D digital. The film, directed by Tsui Hark and produced by Bona Entertainment Co Ltd will be released in Christmas releasing season on December 18.
Although this film is based on the story of 1992’s New Dragon Gate Inn, Tsui denied that this film will be a remake of the old classic but more of a re-imagine. He also worked on the screenplay in addition to directing and producing this martial arts movie, to ensure the originality of the story. Before Jet Li was signed on for the role of Zhou Huai’an, Tsui reportedly offered the role to Donnie Yen but he turned it down due to the fact he doesn’t wish to be in sequels/remakes of previous films he has already worked on. Jet Li was signed with US$ 12 million contract to start in this film.
Tsui also invited Chuck Comisky, the visual-effects supervisor for James Cameron’s Avatar, as the 3-D director to manage the special effects. Comisky will lead a team of 3D crew from China, Korea, Singapore, Spain, etc.
The word “wuxia” is a compound word composed of the words wu (武), which means “martial”, “military”, or “armed” and xia (俠), meaning “honorable”, “chivalrous”, or “hero”. A martial artist (or pugilist) who follows the code of Xia is often referred to as a xiake (俠客, lit: “follower of xia”, “hiệp khách”) or youxia (游俠, “wandering xia”, “du hiệp”). In some translated works of wuxia, the pugilist is sometimes termed as a “swordsman” although he may not necessarily wield a sword.
I do not know is it good that Donnie Yen turned this movie down or bad, but I really tired of all wu-xia movies. The Lost Bladesman was not so good, Wu Xia is too boring. Of cause Donnie always looks good in fighting scenes, but that’s not the everything what makes the martial arts movie worth watching. Yen’s next wu-xia poject is Da nao tian gong, the story of a Buddhist monk’s pilgrimage to India to collect religious texts. It is the first time when Donnie will be playing alongside Yun-Fat Chow and Aaron Kwok.
The last Jet Li movie worth to watch was Rogue where he played alongside Jason Statham, I like to see Li as a bad guy and if some producer/director will want to make the movie with both stars I prefer Donnie as a hero and Jet as a villain. Jet Li signed on the next 4 wu-xia martial arts movies – The Sorcerer and the White Snake, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, Tai Chi, The Teacher.
Do we need so much wu-xia?
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