I saw Peter Ho-sun Chan’s Wu Xia (or Dragon as the Weinstein Co. currently plans to inexplicably call it for domestic release) at the Cannes Film Festival and I led off my review with the following:
Playing as a 1917-set, martial arts version of David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, Wu Xia boasts a fascinating story and some excellent action scenes, choreographed and featuring Donnie Yen. There are moments when it plays a little too long leaving for a few dead spots throughout, though this does make you cherish the action scenes that much more when they arrive.
The film begins with the deaths of two bandits in a small remote village and the investigation soon leads Detective Xu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to believe the unsuspecting papermaker Liu (Donnie Yen) is more than he appears to be.
Just below is a new eight-minute international “trailer” that details the death of the bandits as seen at the beginning of the film, followed by Xu’s investigation, offering a different interpretation of the events. It’s filled with action and comedy and while it doesn’t have subtitles the events aren’t too hard to follow. As of now the Weinstein Co. has not set a release date for the film, but you can read my Cannes review right here.
