Intro to wuxia

I just learned about the genre term wuxia. Loosely translated from the Chinese, it means martial arts chivalric hero. So it's more or less a narrative set in ancient China about a knight-errant with kick-ass kung fu skills. The genre is more or less fantasy and there are apparently piles of books and a growing number of t.v. shows and films. Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) was most American audience's first introduction to the genre. (Wuxia is related to what is evidently referred to as "wire-fu." That makes perfect sense.)

So we've increased our familiarity with director Zhang Yimou considerably, watching two of his movies in the last few months Shi mian mai fu (House of Flying Daggers, 2004) and Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (Curse of the Golden Flower, 2006). Both of these movies are lush, lush, lush. The plot is less important than the look, as far as I can tell, although they both have pretty good stories.

House is about spies and stuff. Love, betrayal, deceit, love, a little murder, and lots of wire-fu. The costumes are fabulous. Everyone in gorgeous. The best scene is probably the great bamboo chase. And green has never been so green.

Curse is about an imperial family and their power struggles. This is not a heart-warming tale of love and loyalty. There's pride, betrayal, lust, murder, plotting, murder, revenge, poison, mass murder, and lots of blood. Again, the movie is gorgeous (as is Gong Li) and everything but the Matsumoto-rainbow-flavors-shave-ice decor in the hallways was total eye candy. And gold has never been so gold. (Also functioning as a nice contrast to all the red blood...)

Of the two, I'd say House of Flying Daggers was the most fun. The only criticism I remember having is that the final scene completely devolves -- both in terms of the narrative and the visuals (I've seen better fake snow in Hawaii). A follower of the genre or comics might get more out of this, but I just thought it was weird. Curse of the Golden Flower retained its coherence throughout and we were completely into it, but it's not fun and games. Brace yourself for complete and utter despair by the end. It's a beautiful road to despair, but you don't feel so good when you get there.