Fantasia ’16: Judge Archer

His word carries authority and so does his arrows. The man called Judge Archer resolves disputes between early Twentieth Century Chinese martial arts schools. It is his job to tell the masters to play nice and eat their peas, so nobody likes him very much. The persona is a burden under the best of circumstances, but the young new Judge is also plagued by personal demons. Things will really get interesting when the martial arts arbiter is caught between two femme fatales in Xu Haofeng’s Judge Archer (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Those who saw Xu’s Sword Identity and The Final Master, might expect the wuxia novelist and martial arts scholar to rehash that same plot a third time (or rather technically the second time, since Archer was completed well before Master). However, this film is entirely its own animal. Nobody seeks to destroy the Judge’s archery techniques. The Archer himself is a different matter.

The current Judge Archer was born of peasant stock. When the landlord assaulted (as they euphemistically put it in Twins Falls, ID) his younger sister with impunity, it caused a psychotic break. According to the monks overseeing his rebirth ritual, the young man is take the first words he hears as his new name. As ironic karma dictates, those would be “Judge Archer.” Choosing to accept fate, the aging Judge Archer takes his new namesake under his wing. Unfortunately, he will not have enough time to teach the new Judge as much as he would like, but his successor is still pretty hardnosed.

Unfortunately, his relative lack of experience will allow JA to be ensnared in a complicated power struggle. Erdong, or femme fatale number one, recruits the Judge to help her avenge her father. It is a little outside his jurisdiction, but justice is justice, so he starts surveilling steely old Kuang Yimin disguised as a fruit seller. Immediately sensing a narc, Kuang has his wife Yue Yahong (femme fatale #2) seduce Judge Archer. However, she might do too good a job of her honey trap assignment. Of course, there is a wider power struggle underway, but Judge Archer really doesn’t care about the politics. For him, the situation is strictly personal.

Xu’s approach to martial arts goes beyond old school, embracing ancient nearly forgotten traditional techniques, no matter how cinematic they may or may not be. Fortunately, in this case, the seated hand-to-hand duels (sort of like Kung Fu patty-cake) look great on-screen. Still, it is definitely true Xu’s characters are more likely to brood their lights out than go skipping from rooftop to rooftop.

The fab four characters are also drawn quite distinctively. Xu regular Yang Song probably does his career-best work as the emotionally damaged Archer. Similarly, Li Chengyuan and the Chinese American Yenny Martin are not just pretty seductresses. They are also acutely sensitive and deeply tragic as Yue Yahong and Erdong, respectively. To complete the central quartet, the late, great Yu Cheng-hui exudes crusty old Sean Connery-esque badassedness as Kuang.

There are several very cool fight scenes in Judge Archer which also have the additional virtues of originality and authenticity. It is strange that it took the film (which debuted internationally in 2012) so long to get here, but it is worth the wait. Judge Archer is top-shelf but scrupulously grounded wuxia, highly recommended for martial arts fans, following its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

The Final Master: Trying to Keep Wing Chun Down

In martial arts, masters and apprentices should keep faith with each other, but they absolutely, positively must always stay true to their discipline. For a Wing Chun master from the south, this means he must assure the great school of martial arts lives on after him, but Tianjin’s martial arts syndicate intends to freeze him out. Vested interests will face the elegant smack-downs delivered by the master and his disciple in Xu Haofeng’s The Final Master (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

There are nineteen fully approved Kung Fu schools in Tianjin. If Chen Shi wants to open the twentieth, as per his late master’s dying wish, he must best eight of the establishment masters. Of course, that would be a piece of cake for Master Chen, but it is not as simple as that. Were he to show up the syndicate like that, he would be summarily banished from town. Fortunately, semi-retired Grandmaster Zheng Shanao has some sage advice. Groom an expendable disciple to fight his battles and get banished in his place. Geng Liangechen should be perfect for the job, because the street laborer has natural talent and an instinctive resentment of authority.

Everything seems to be going according to plan when Geng starts mowing down rival schools. However, Master Chen rather inconveniently finds himself caring about his fall guy disciple. Strangely enough, he is also developing real feelings for Zhao Guo Hui, a waitress with a checkered past, whom Master Chen married for her legit roots in Tianjin. Unfortunately, this also implies unforeseen weaknesses when the Tianjin masters start fighting dirty—and nobody fights dirtier than Madame Zou, the calculating chair of the syndicate.

If this sounds somewhat familiar, you might be remembering Xu’s earlier film, The Sword Identity, in which parochial martial arts authorities try to suppress an innovative sword designed by the nameless hero’s deceased master. In this case, the martial arts syndicate is acting in an even more cravenly protectionist, guild-like manner. However, we all should know Wing Chun will endure, thanks to the illustrious master Ip Man and his famous student, you-know-who, who blended it into his Jeet Kune Do concept.

Regardless, Liao Fan and Song Yang (from Sword Identity) are all kinds of fierce in their fight scenes as Master Chen and Geng, respectively. Although she forgoes any fighting, Jiang Wenli is still spectacularly villainous as Madame Zou. Her cold-blooded manner gives us the impression she really enjoys all the Machiavellian machinations. Song Jia’s Zhao develops some terrific hot-and-cold chemistry with Liao’s Master Chen, while Maidina adds even more poignancy as Geng’s potential love interest, the bookseller.

It is strange how muddled Xu’s narrative is, considering how assiduously he has been working and re-working these themes, having previously written the screenplay for Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, as well as Sword Identity and the short story on which Final Master is based. Still, everything seems to make perfect sense whenever the characters are fighting, thanks to Xu’s gritty but undeniably cinematic action choreography.

Song has thus far only appeared in one film not helmed by Xu, but he seems primed to breakout big, while the surprising range displayed by Chinese television star (and Tianjin native) Jiang will most impress many fans. Thanks to them, the film is consistently entertaining, even when character motivations are somewhat obscure. Recommended for martial arts fans, The Final Master opens this Friday (6/3) in New York, at the AMC Empire and the Village East.

NYAFF ’12: The Sword Identity

The Ming Dynasty valued stability.  For the four martial arts masters of coastal Guancheng, a new discipline based on forbidden Japanese swords represents anything but.  The nameless warrior will have to prove his late master’s sword the hard way in Xu Haofeng’s The Sword Identity (trailer here), which screens during the eagerly anticipated 2012 New York Asian Film Festival.

Anyone who has seen Donnie Yen, this year’s Star Asia Award recipient, in the Ip Man franchise knows full well what a new master in town has to do before they can open a new school.  They have to fight through the martial arts establishment, even if that means going toe-to-toe with Sammo Hung on a rickety table top.  Coincidentally, Xu is the screenwriter for Wong Kar-wai’s long-awaited competing Ip Man epic, so he must have an affinity for innovative masters.

The unnamed swordsman and a somewhat less fierce comrade duly smack their way through the first three vested interests, but the fourth will be a trickier proposition.  Labeling them Japanese pirates because of their sword, the acting fourth Master Qie and his predecessor, the reclusive Qiu Dongyue, will not play ball.  Suddenly a fugitive, the man with no name teaches a foreign dancing girl (and potential love interest) Sailan a secret move to hold off all comers, while he sneaks over to Qie’s, spoiling for a fight.  Again, he cannot connect with his slippery nemesis, but there he enlists the unfaithful wife of old Qiu to similarly defeat hordes of martial artists single-handed, allowing him to continue his skulking about.

Essentially, the swordsman’s second secret move boils down to blindsiding people as they come through the door, but Xu makes it sound mysterious and mystical.  If it works, it works.  The sword is what is really important.  The invention of the nameless man’s master, the late illustrious General Qi Jiguang, it was devised specifically to counter the verboten swords employed by real Japanese pirates, which makes its current identity crisis so frustrating for the disciple.  Indeed, Identity is more about notions of legacy and loyalty than martial arts spectacles.

Still, there are some memorable fight scenes in Identity, but Xu’s approach is distinguished more by its cleverness than full-throttled adrenaline.  While some of the drama going on with Qiu, Qie, and Madame Qie is a bit awkward, there is some nice chemistry developed between the swordsman and Sailan, played by Song Yang and Xu Fujing, respectively.  Frankly, they should have had more scenes together.

The austere look of Identity is a refreshing change of pace from the many lushly produced post-Crouching Tiger Wuxia epics, chocked full of CGI.  Song Yang is an engaging Spaghetti Western martial artist and Sailan’s attractive dancer colleagues provide some appealing comic relief (though not so much the pompous officer of the guard they adopt).  Distinctive and ultimately quite satisfying, The Sword Identity screens this Sunday (7/1) and Wednesday after next (7/11) as part of this year’s NYAFF.