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The
Magic Crane |
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review | notes | availability | |
Anita Mui rides the gnarly Magic Crane |
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Year: |
1993 |
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Director: |
Benny
Chan Muk-Sing |
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Producer: |
Tsui
Hark |
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Cast: |
Anita
Mui Yim-Fong, Tony Leung
Chiu-Wai, Rosamund Kwan
Chi-Lam, Damian Lau Chung-Yun,
Lawrence Ng Kai-Wah, Tsui
Siu-Keung, Jie Lin, Lau
Kam-Ling |
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The
Skinny: |
Messy,
uneven wuxia is also an enjoyable, entertaining ride. That is, if
you can get by the simply terrible looking magic crane, which apparently
was purchased on clearance at FAO Schwartz. |
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Review
by Kozo: |
This fantasy creature-feature is a rather over-the-top wuxia from
Benny Chan (A Moment of Romance) and Tsui Hark. Plot: various
martial arts schools jockey for position during a congregation of
all the martial arts schools. Supposedly, the meeting is to discuss
the boundaries of their territories, but in reality they just want
to find a way to dominate each other.
The tiny Tien Chong School (consisting
of Damian Lau and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) finds itself lost in the
middle as infighting between the schools threatens to cause lots
of problems. Thank god for Pak Wan-Fai (Anita Mui), a martial arts
princess who possesses the “scared text” [sic] and rides the magical,
intelligent, and poorly constructed Magic Crane. Pak Wan-Fai is
supposed to “stop evil” or whatever these martial arts princesses
are supposed to do. Complicating things is Butterfly Lam (Rosamund
Kwan), who has a personal vendetta against Pak Wan-Fai. It seems
her dad (and Pak Wan-Fai’s master) once chose to save Pak over Lam
and she’s really bitter about the whole thing.
A tad overstuffed, the film is nevertheless
a fun and entertaining ride except for one large thing: the special
effects are awful, and the Magic Crane is incredibly fake looking.
The rubber snakes of Green Snake seem Jurassic Park-like
in comparison to the gnarly papier-mâché contraption called the
Magic Crane. All suspension of disbelief is blown and unintentional
chuckles are a sure thing. Beyond that, the film is messy but enjoyable. (Kozo
1996) |
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Notes: |
•
Ground Zero Entertainment released The Magic Crane as one
half of its "Brooklyn Zu: Double Features" series, alongside
an unrelated grade-Z martial arts film, Rivals of the Dragon.
Surprisingly, The Magic Crane is not only letterboxed, but
comes with Cantonese-only language track and embedded Chinese and
English subtitles. |
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Availability: |
DVD
(USA)
Region 0 NTSC
Ground Zero Entertainment
Widescreen
Cantonese Language Track
Embedded Chinese and English Subtitles |
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DVD
(Taiwan)
Region 0 NTSC
Thundermedia
Widescreen
Mandarin Language Track
Embedded Chinese and English Subtitles |
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image courtesy of
World Video
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| LoveHKFilm.com
Copyright ©2002-2017 Ross Chen
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