SUMMARY: For avid fans of JOHN WOO’s Action films, this TWO-PARTER, after a 5-year long absence is DEFINITELY one of WOO’s EPIC BEST. So don’t miss it!
“All WARS are the same. Either you KILL or get KILLED.”
THE CROSSING is in part, a romance film, a disaster film and a war film all rolled into one. The battle cries make you wanna go home and hug Mama dearest.”
You won’t like him one single bit in the beginning.
He’s arrogant, cocksure and bullish.
Until you learn that he has A BIG HEART to match his GENEROUS SOUL.
THE GLOOM OF WAR. Pathetic.
THE DOOM OF WAR. Scary!
SHE PINES FOR HER LOVER TO RETURN SAFELY. Yet will she survive the swallowing waves in PART TWO?
MASAMI NAGASAWA and TAKESHI KANESHIRO play a doomed couple.
HUANG XIAO MING and SONG HYE-KYO play a happily MARRIED COUPLE. Will they survive the deadly storm?
SHE SCREAMS IN FEAR, FIGHTING FOR DEAR LIFE.
TONG DA WEI may be understated, but he is an accomplished actor.
” THE CROSSING 1 / 太平轮 (上) 2014″
MOVIE PREVIEW
” THE CROSSING 1 / 太平轮 (上) “ is, by all accounts, an eye-opening feature taking us through the bloody horrors of war.
You have, on dry land, the civil wars that are brewing non-stop to a broil.
Out on stormy seas, another kind of danger lurks.
It’s a no-win situation.
Either way you get to die, or be eaten alive!
THE BRIEF:
The significant date is Jan. 27, 1949. The luxury liner Taiping is fast sinking after it collides with a cargo ship near Taiwan’s Chou Shan Archipelago. Panic prevails on board.
Only a handful of 50 out of the 1,000-plus passengers is going to see the light of day. Which one of the leads will perish in the perilous waves?
We will be shown how Mao Zedong’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) closes in on the Nationalist government, peremptorily exercising mastery over the ship.(known for often making the numerous escapist trips between Shanghai and Keelung (eastern Taiwan).
It would be one of the last lifeboats ferrying escapists to freedom in a foreign country, far away from the communist rule.
Set during the turbulent war years of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his nationalist army flees to Taiwan after losing the civil war to the communists, the NT$2 billion (US$ 64 million) film is gracefully decked with a pan-Asian, all-star cast headed by China’s Zhang Ziyi (章子怡), Huang Xiaoming (黃曉明) and Tong Dawei (佟大為), Taiwanese-Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武), Japanese actress Masami Nagasawa and Song Hye-kyo from South Korea.
Dubbed the Chinese version of Titanic, “The Crossing” is a weepie, albeit a love story — or three, to be exact, as the film zooms in to highligt three star-crossed couples fleeing China on an ill-fated ship bound for Taiwan in 1949, during the retreat of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
THE PLOT:
Tong Daqing (Tong Da Wei), a common soldier, meets an impoverished Yu Zhen (Zhang) over posing for a fake “happy family with baby in tow” photo assignment in Shanghai. Tong needs this photo to apply for a “food sanction” for his aged parents. Yu Zhen needs the money.
Their paths cross and quickly separate again, leaving Tong longing for a second encounter. By this time, he is in love.
Released from the prisoner-of-war camp when the war ends, Yan Zen Kun (Takeshi Kaneshiro) returns to Taiwan, only to find that his Japanese girlfriend, Noriko (Nagasawa), has been repatriated to Japan.
The final looming civil war is soon to become a dire reality. Lei Yifang (Huang Xiao Ming) sends his wife (Song Hye-Kyo) to Taiwan before departing for the frontline.
Across the Taiwan Straits, Zhou has a premonition that she might never see her husband again as he is fighting a doomed battle against the Communist Chinese army.
“The Crossing” is a magnificent project that unites three parallels to tell an epic tale of love and courage in a turbulent age.
Supported by a super duper technical crew led by top-notched Director-of-Photography Zhao Fei, the film’s graphic battle sequences brilliantly depicts the cruelty of war, and serve as a counterpoint to the characters’ longing for peace.
A combination of health issues and some difficulties winning script approval from Chinese authorities partly account for the four year hiatus.
“The Crossing,” previously known as “1949,” has subject matter that could certainly be sensitive in China: it depicts the voyage of three refugee couples from mainland China to Taiwan during the War of Liberation.
The ill-fated Taiping ferry capsized on January 27th, 1949 in the Baijie Straits.
As I sit in the darken cinema previewing the REIGN OF ASSASSINS …..
I am suddenly assailed by a strong sense of nostalgia.
It’s as though I am reviving the memories of a long gone era ….
It’s like taking an exploratory saunter into the 60s, visiting the SHAW BROTHERS Studios in Hong Kong, where the Wu Xia films were once-upon-a-time exploited to a hilt.
More …..
I can even appraise the remarkable touches of the late KING HU (Come Drink With Me) and ANG LEE (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) in the film’s directorial treatment …..
showcasing this as one of the finest WU XIA films to arrive at our shores after the lapse of a long, long time.
In the 60s, actress CHENG PEI PEI dominated the big screen as the swordplay queen.
These days, it’s MICHELLE YEOH the indisputable thespian of action flicks who presides in a steely role that earns our respect.
Viva, MICHELLE!
REIGN OF ASSASSINS is indeed, JOHN WOO’s first WU XIA film.
He also doubles as the producer and co-director.
It is a collaborative effort with Taiwanese film director SU CHAO PIN who helms the movie.
The PLOT centres around a notorious female assassin Drizzle (MICHELLE YEOH) who grows tired of her incessant killings.
She is determined to quit her GANG of killer swordsmen called THE DARK STONE.
However, DRIZZLE is in possession of one part of a mystical Buddhist monk’s remains and becomes hunted by her former compatriots, who seek the valuable secret hidden within it.
In a bid to escape, she requests an old doctor to perform surgery on her face.
Armed with a new look, she flees the scene and settles in a small little known town.
As fate would have it, she soon falls in love and marries a young man (JUN WOO SUNG),
but even her new found husband harbors a secret agenda.
This is where the plot of the REIGN OF ASSASSINS starts to unfold ….
Here’s a soulful story of conviction and redemption that reminds us that in forgiveness, we will have the strength to do what is right.
To love we must sometimes risk everything.
Yet some sins cannot be forgotten as in REIGN OF ASSASSINS …. the character DRIZZLE must come to terms with the guilt of killing the father of the man she loves.
And as the past manifests itself layer by layer, she has to confront the killer comrades she once collaborated with.
She badly wants to leave the disturbing echoes of the unhappy memories behind, but she realizes that she cannot simply pull a veil, or paint over her past.
What had happened, have already happened.
Life has to move on ….
She now has to navigate these shadowy recesses in a story that will make you glad that you’ve decided to come for a ride.
A top-notched cast, a painstakingly fabulous script
and breathtaking swordplay action aptly capture the classic essence of the WU XIA genre.
Such are the powerful torrents of REIGN OF ASSASSINS.
There are bitter-sweet moments towards the end – during the husband-and-wife confrontation in a fight for death, where vengeance runs amok but love delves deep.
The finale is taut and touching, as the Chinese title SHOWERS OF SWORDS implies, adding poetic justice to a spellbinding twist.
After CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, this is another classic that will keep you glued to your seat.
