More LEGEND OF ZU Just For You!! New Trailer & Review!!

Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

I don't care what anyone says. I want to see this one with my own eyes. I've heard good, I've heard bad. All I know is, it looks sweet, I'm interested.

Got this e-mail this evening:

Hi Harry,

Some news regarding Legend of Zu...

There is a new trailer --

CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!!

But there is also a new official website on which you can find a lot of posters, pics of characters and pics from the movie (it is in Chinese but posters in English):

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE SITE!!

Enjoy

Squale

I also just happened to get in another review of the film. Everyone who's written in so far has had very personal views on the movie. No one seems to agree completely. That's interesting, wouldn'tchasay? It definitely seems to leave an impression on viewers.

Here's the review from a spy named Sominex, a sure-fire cure for Insomnia...

dear Harry,

truly enjoy your website

anyway managed to catch legend of zu recently and thought I would send you a review:(some spoilers)

Somewhere removed from the lands and minds of men, there is a magical place called Zu where the forces of good have managed to seal off the evil in the universe. Fairies and elves dwell there, in the guise of Hong Kong movie stars.

As the story opens, we learn that a powerful evil force named Insomnia has managed to break through the barrier keeping out the bad guys and is wreaking havoc throughout Zu.

I'd like to take a moment to address this odd bit of super-villain nomenclature: Insomnia? Should this guy be bitter towards his supreme-demon parents, or what? (“Gee, First Brother is the Ravager of Worlds, Second Brother is the Eater Of Souls ... even my good-for-nothing sister, who never wanted to go into the family business, is Nightmare. And I get ... Insomnia? What did I ever do to you, dad?”)

Apparently, the actual meaning of the character's name is closer to “the Devil” or “Ultimate Evil” or somesuch. But, Insomnia? I don’t think I’ll ever sleep again until I figure this one out.

Let’s not forget Insomnia’s crony Amnesia, who will hopefully extend her spell to help me forget that I ever sat through this interminable, incoherent shambles.

To say that Legend Of Zu is a bad film would be doing it an injustice; then again, it would also be doing bad movies an injustice, because most films, however poor their quality, at least know where they're heading. This one doesn’t seem to care where it ends up or how it gets there.

Like some veteran newsmen tend to advise younger writers: once you've written a story, read it back and be convinced that it makes sense to you because if you, the writer, can't understand it, there's no way in hell the reader is going to.

Such advice may have prevented Tsui Hark from unleashing this torment upon the moviegoing public, then; I'm sure the mind that could come up with Once Upon A Time In China and the Swordsman series would have recognised Legend Of Zu for the confusing, unfinished product that it is.

As for the story: Insomnia rips through the lands of Zu like an unstoppable force, laying waste to various outlying lands including Kun Lun, which is where our hero Sky King (Ekin Cheng) and his teacher/girlfriend Dawn (Cheung) live.

Sky and Dawn have been studying together for about 200 years, we are told. Studying what? Why, she's mastered the art of striking a delicate feminine pose, while he is the supremo of the brooding mountainside squat. But pretty or heroic posing means nothing to unstoppable evil forces, so Insomnia destroys Dawn and Kun Lun, and Sky slinks off to hang upside down from a tree for another 200 years (no kidding).

In all that time, Insomnia gathers its strength for an all-out attack on the heart of Zu. Let me end this agony (for myself, not so much for you) by ending the synopsising here. Let's just say that the heroes are forced to divide their numbers to accomplish the various tasks needed to defeat Insomnia.

You needn't concern yourself with the specifics of how they intend to get this done, because – hey, why do the filmmakers' job for them? If Tsui Hark and his collaborators couldn't be bothered to piece together a coherent story, why should we hapless moviegoers go to such lengths either?

The Zu movies are said to be based on a massive epic novel; anyone not familiar with it would be going in at a disadvantage but, isn't it the hallmark of a good adaptation that even those who haven’t seen the source material should be able to follow it easily?

Shouldn't the scriptwriter and director have enough concern for the person watching their product that they take a little time out for exposition and filling in background details? Tsui Hark’s 1983 foray into Zu territory still suffered from the man’s trademark slap-dash moviemaking; but at least it was fun.

Alas, for this sequel it seems like all Tsui Hark had on his mind was throwing special effects scenes together without any thought for flow, structure or story. There's very little action, mostly just people flying through the sky and swaggering on the ground. If you thought the CGI-heavy finale of Spawn was a pain to watch, imagine an entire movie made that way.

Forget about the actors, who just stick out their jaws at one another throughout the film and deliver line after line of unconvincing dialogue. As for Zhang Ziyi, who has become something of a draw after her stint as a stooped feline predator, her character is not even relevant to the main plot. What’s she doing here, then? It’s yet another mystery that’s beyond the ken of us mortals. Speaking of the mortal/immortal gulf, the characters are all so far removed from humanity that it's impossible to sympathise or connect with any of them. Even Zhang's human-warrior-stuck-in-the-middle-of-titanic-conflicts is aloof to the point of alienating the viewer.

A few days after previewing The Legend Of Zu, I managed to find a (legit) VCD of Michelle Yeoh’s Yes Madam, in which Tsui Hark has a supporting role as a forger. His character gets chased, beaten up and finally shot. There was something oddly vindicating about watching that.