Though Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmasters may not be be in Toronto or Venice, its screenwriter Xu Haofeng is in both with his directorial debut The Sword Identity.
A trio of clips have arrived from the film and, surprisingly, with their use of long takes and minimal dialogue they feel almost like clips from a classic western though the content is obviously quite different. Production design and staging is excellent and this looks to be an unusual and compelling spin on the martial arts picture. Take a look at the three clips below.In a martial arts event during the Ming Dynasty, a young swordsman must use not only his exquisite swordplay technique, but also his wits, when competing against the masters of four different philosophies of combat... Fascinating debut from the acclaimed novelist and co-writer of Wong Kar Wai's upcoming THE GRANDMASTERS.
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THE SWORD IDENTITY (2011) Official Excerpt from Richard Lormand on Vimeo.
THE SWORD IDENTITY (2011) Official Excerpt from Richard Lormand on Vimeo.
THE SWORD IDENTITY (2011) Official Excerpt from Richard Lormand on Vimeo.
It has an interesting mood, but feels weird (the arrow in the hat, the hero with an überlong sword)
The action did not convince me enough, though there isn't much of it to see here.
What's this, high quality promotional material for a Chinese movie uploaded to Vimeo? No low res, compressed-beyond-recognition trailer? How refreshing :-)
The clips do seem more meditative then most martial flicks with the long takes, the slow camera movements, the deliberative steps of the actors, and the spare backgrounds. There's very little to distract the eye which is a refreshing take from most films of the past 20 years. The production design is minimal but doesn't seem to overly rely on camera/post production filters everybody has been using the past few years although the lighting does suggest more blue than the eye would see.
Perhaps the finished product will change, but I like what I've seen so far. Seems much more like a post-war Japanese film than most contemporary Chinese productions I've seen.
Is this more drama oriented than the synopsis suggests? The second clip seems out of place for a movie about a swordsman in a martial contest.
If I see Gordon Liu in this clip, I'll think this is a HD-remastered classic kungfu movie.
Again, looking forward to this one. Is it possible that there might be a total absence of wire work and minimal cgi in this one? I would enjoy that even more.