The Storm Warriors – Huh? What The …

For the record, I am a huge fan of the Wuxia genre.  I am also a fan of the original Chinese comic book series “Fung Wan”.  OK, where shall I begin with this second installment?  Part one is my casual thoughts, which fans of the movie may disagree.  Part two is my deeper albeit random thoughts, which those with little background of the genre who may find interesting to read.

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Cynthia seems to like “The Storm Warriors”.  My mind seems to have paralyzed by the movie not sure if I like it or not.  Casual thoughts as follows.

• Those hair!  Oh my.  The hairstyle redefined the art of messiness.  I don’t recall it is that messy in the comic book.
• I think all the characters in the movie are badly in need of a good bath.  Maybe the costumes are badly in need of a good laundry.  OK, maybe with the exception of the two girls.  Just maybe.
• Lord Godless reminds me of the Lich King in World of Warcraft.  The evil Wind reminds me of the vampires in Twilight.  Maybe that’s why Cynthia likes the movie.
• Wow, you call that romance?  The relationship between Cloud and Chu Chu is lifeless.  The relationship between Wind and Second Dream doesn’t even go beyond a good hug.  One may say, so what?  Well, the love relationship between, say, Cloud and Chu Chu is supposed to be epic, for those who have read the comic book series.  Epic!  So epic that makes people cry.  So epic that makes me cry watching “The Storm Warriors” for what it could have been.
• For those who have forgotten the storyline of the previous installment (11 years ago, who would remember?), this part two does not quite help to refresh our mind.  The storyline of this installment – deviates from the original plot I reckon – leaves much to desire.  The climax, to me, would have been a joint force battle between the two main characters against an evil character.  If the story development is intended for a part 3, I would expand on the battle with Lord Godless, keep the long battle between Wind and Cloud short, and keep the ending as it is (though I still don’t like the bad romance).
• The original language of the movie is Cantonese I believe.  In Singapore, for reasons beyond my comprehension (or my acceptance), it is dubbed in Mandarin.  Often, I can deal with it if I have to though I would love to watch it in my language (and hence, I seldom watch Hong Kong films in Singapore’s theaters).  The issue I have with dubbing is a missing in synchronization between the acting and the voice emote.  At times, the voice seems to more involved into the plot than the acting (especially so for the two girls).  Just not natural, to me that is.
• The subtitles are laughable.  I have this urge to re-translate the dialogs just for Cynthia’s sake.  OK, without the background of Chinese and Wuxia, I admit some if not most of the concepts are hard to grasp.  As I read both the Chinese and English subtitles, some of the essence of the dialog could have been better preserved.
• Computer generated imaginary does not make great movies.  And we know that.
• 11 years we have waited for this 2nd installment.  Back then, in the year 1998, Ekin Cheng (Wind) was 31 and Aaron Kwok (Cloud) was 33.  Now, imagine if the 3rd installment is to come in the year 2020 with the original casting …

What I do like are the Thai-powered martial arts and the collateral damage incorporated in the storyline.  I think the movie comes alive after some innocent lives are taken.  Look.  If there is no sex and money in the plot, at least give us blood that pops our hearts.  No?

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Wow, part one of this entry is a lot longer than I have anticipated.  Perhaps I am passionate on this genre after all.

For those of you who may not be familiar with this genre, I have a few random thoughts to share.

• Unlike some of the Western fantasy series, Chinese fantasy series seldom have the demon and angel entities.  Seldom do we summon anything demonic from Hell, or battle the evil with the blessing of God.  In Chinese, characters are gods of good and evil.  It is the person who follow the path of good or evil, not an external divine entity.  We have celestial entities like the dragons and we have evilness in the form of greed and power and the desire of immortality that corrupts.
• Those who choose the path of good often take years to master the martial art.  In fact, the moral compass is often incorporated into the ‘form’ of the martial art.  If you recall, after the master Nameless has inspired Cloud to create his own martial art, Nameless comments that what Cloud lacks is the ‘form’.  Unfortunately, it is lost in translation.
• One could also master the martial art without going through the fundamental of the moral values embedded within.  I believe in real life, learning Yoga in its truest form requires practitioners to meditate.  If one is to master the martial art by taking shortcuts, one could be consumed by the chaotic power within and turns ‘evil’.  Why evil?  That goes back to the common observation that anything good be it as reputation, relationship, communal infrastructures, and etc. takes years to build.  Destruction takes seconds.  The same pair of hands spend years building a school can also detonate a bomb that destroys it all.  In the movie, Wind took a shortcut and has become ‘evil’.  So that he can be so powerful in just 3 days.  Interestingly, Cloud also gains a new martial art technique that makes him powerful in the same 3 days.  What gives?
• Are there any shortcut then for those who choose the path of the good?  According to the famous Wuxia writer Jin Jong, yes we can.  Decade worth of power can apparently be transfered from one character to another, in rare instances.  But that is beyond the scope of this movie.  In retrospect, I suspect the filmmaker wanted to incorporate this concept in the boosting of Cloud’s power by what remains in Nameless (the 10% after some bad wounding from the previous battle).  That would have made more sense as the path to good is often a long process.  I caught that in the dialog between the two.  But somehow, it is not executed that way in the movie.
• While characters in a Wuxia setting often wield or in perpetual search for the ultimate weapon and armor – one that destroys all and one that is invincible to any attack – even the martial art technique to shield one from all harm, there is always a weakness somewhere (otherwise the story would be incredibly boring, no?).  That is what the repeated clumsy subtitle “his weakest point is hiding behind his strongest point” tries to convey.  Since the intended audience of the English subtitles are the ones who should have some concept of the Western culture, I personally would simply use the term “Achilles’ heel” to help with the translation.

Wow, an equally long part two!  Thanks for reading.  Peace.