LEGENDS OF THE CONDOR HEROES: THE GALLANTS Review: Tsui Hark's Irresistible Action Eye Candy

Let it rip!

Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
The film is now playing in select movie theaters in Canada and the U.S. via Sony Pictures International Productions. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.

Over his long career -- his first feature directing effort came with 1979's The Butterfly Murders, and his first feature writing credit came the following year with We're Going to Eat You -- Tsui Hark has proven himself adept at rolling with the times and making (mostly) crowd-pleasing adventures. Mostly, he's made rollicking films that really move and are packed with marvelous action.

He's increasingly moved into worlds of fantasy that still feature spectacular action sequences, intertwined with more and more visual effects. The reminder for me of where he's been over the past 15-20 years arrived during one incredible battle sequence in which I realized a horse is depicted in the background, not only flying but also revolving in mid-air.

As silly as all the over-the-top effects can be, they still all make sense in the worlds he's created, including his adaptation of seven chapters of Jin Yong's classic novel series that provides a launching point for his new film, Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants. (Speaking of classics, allow me to point to Colin Geddes' absolutely fabulous, very deep review of a Mainland series, broadcast in 2006 * apologies for my error; it was a Hong Kong television show from the 80s -- that adapted Jin Yong's book.)

Given that the book has been adapted so many times, either officially or as an unofficial inspiration, Tsui is free to shape the putty into somewhat ungainly form, making a film that may overwhelm viewers, but is jam-packed with irresistible eye candy that frequently takes flight and is often dazzling.

The story begins as Genghis Khan (Bayaertu) and his Mongol Kingdom are seeking to conquer the Jing people in northern China, with an eye on further conquests after that, likely the Song people in southern China. Between the Jing territory and the Song territory is the Middle Land, where our hero, Guo Jing (Xiao Zhan), born in the Song territory, has been sent to be trained and perhaps learn the dark arts of the super-powerful Novem Force from the martial arts masters who live there among the more peaceful people.

While in the Middle Land, Guo Jing encounters Huang Rong (Zhuang Dafei), who is equally strong-willed. Naturally, they fall for each other, but complications arise, along with wrong assumptions, and they separate.

Meanwhile, one of the martial arts masters, Western Venom (Leung Ka Fai Tony), seeks to take control of the Novem Force for his own wicked purposes, and so he becomes the Big Bad of the piece, in opposition to Guo Jing, especially after he returns to the Song people. Upon his return, Guo Jing finds that a princess he left behind has been promised in marriage to him, which complicates his immediate regrets for scorning Huang Rong.

So we have a bit of a romantic triangle to contrast with the fierce battles that break out on a regular basis. We also have many declarations of honor, challenges to integrity, and millions of arrows and other sharp weapons flying through the air, commingling with the multitude of bodies that fly and thunk and descend and litter the landscape.

The actual shedding of blood is kept to a minimum. Even without explicit bloodshed, though, Tsui spends a good deal of time in the early sequences establishing the human toll of all the battles, allowing a sense of the violences that's being wrought on a large scale.

Though there are some lighter moments scattered throughout the narrative, this is primarily a straightforward and serious tale, leavened by the 'eternal, but separated by circumstances love' theme that is enacted between Guo Jing and Huang Rong over the course of the film. For the most part, the emphasis is on the action, which is large-scale and fairly bursts through the frames that barely hold it together.

Running 146 minutes, the pace occasionally slacks, but there's always something to watch. Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants may not rank among Tsui Hark's unassailable classics, but when a film rips like this, ranking films is the last thing that will be on any viewer's mind. It's rousing entertainment in the grand old style.