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Warriors
of Virtue
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In a truly virtuous world, the films of Ronny Yu would be held in higher esteem than those of Oliver Stone or Robert Redford. This highly imaginative Hong Kong director made one of the liveliest and most wonderful works of the decade, the supernatural action epic The Bride with White Hair (1992). Yu finally found his way into Australian mainstream cinemas with the curious fantasy film for children, Warriors of Virtue. Shot in China and Canada, and financed by a family of American doctors, it is a diverting patchwork of genres and impulses – a formula plot resembling The Never-Ending Story (1984) spiced up with the fanciful pyrotechnics of Hong Kong screen fantasy, plus a dose of camp villainy (borrowed especially from Stargate [1994]) to pacify any stray adult viewers. The purely cinematic qualities that made The Bride with White Hair such a remarkable and thrilling spectacle are still evident in virtually every shot of this concoction: water and mist everywhere, askew angles, liberal use of variable slow motion, and a deft, sweeping camera that transforms even the most banal exclamation (like "cool!") into a rousing dramatic high-point. The storyline is not particularly engaging. Ryan (Mario Yedidia) is a kid with a bad leg and a self-esteem problem. Falling into a whirlpool suddenly lands Ryan in a parallel universe of magic and wonder, armed only with a cryptic Book of Legend that is coveted by the forces of virtue and vice alike. This other world uncovered by our hero is the direct inverse of WASP, suburban USA – a multicultural, inter-species paradise teeming with wise Asian elders, cagey munchkins, flamboyantly bisexual bad guys and a crack squad of warriors who are seeming mutations of kangaroos. Using such a convoluted premise may be the only way that an American film can today avow its massive debt to non-American traditions such as contemporary Hong Kong popular cinema. The passion of Yu's previous work came not only from its over-stoked fairy-tale atmosphere and pleasantly mystical themes, but also its taste for bloody violence, mind-boggling perversity and an acutely tortuous form of amour fou. Most of these latter, more adult ingredients have been expunged from Warriors of Virtue – although there are odd moments when the film appears to shift between addressing young kids and older, savvier teenagers. Still, there is a young damsel named Elysia (Marley Shelton) who switches in a split second from fair maiden to busty sex-kitten (much to the alarm of our pre-pubescent hero) – and a villain, Komodo (Angus Macfadyen), who gleefully quotes Marx ("the centre cannot hold!") as he wreaks destruction. The uneven combination of Yu's high style with these passing grace notes does not quite add up to a coherent movie, but Warriors of Virtue is still streets ahead of most screen entertainment served up to younger audiences these days. MORE Yu: The 51st State, Freddy vs. Jason © Adrian Martin June 1998 |
