Legend of a Warrior (2012)
dir. Corey Lee
***
Reviewed By Greg Klymkiw
There's nothing more exciting on film than movement. Yeah, sounds nuts, right? Movies are movement. Moving pictures. Motion pictures. The movies. What I mean, however, is when the camera captures a great dance number, or chase scene or fight.
In recent years, all three have succumbed to the need to supplicate the MTV-and-post-MTV generations with the utterly annoying ADHD-styled shooting and cutting wherein the camera never rests for more than a few seconds on some (usually) poorly composed shot and is cut montage-like to fake the rhythm (as opposed to utilizing montage to convey information, dramatic or emotional beats of a narrative and/or to provide juxtapositional imagery to convey a thought or idea).
This drives me completely up the wall. It's lazy filmmaking and denies audiences the true power and beauty of an exquisitely choreographed dance, chase or fight.
Luckily, if Legend of a Warrior had nothing else going for it (and it has plenty to offer), it has the distinction of featuring some absolutely terrific fight scenes (mostly within the context of training action in the gym) shot the way they should be - mostly in long, wide or medium shots and only punching in for anything closer when there's a reason to do so. Most of the time, the superb camera work hangs back and the editing is spare in all the right ways.
Given the film's title and the way I've chosen to lead my review, you might think I was describing a new action picture starring Jason Statham. Curiously, I watched Legend of a Warrior just after seeing Statham's newest fight-fest Safe. The latter featured some spectacularly choreographed action and fights that were almost completely ruined by a boneheaded "director" who had no idea where to place the camera and tried to create thrills by throwing as many closeups as possible with a ridiculous number of cuts. The former, however, was like a breath of fresh air.
Oh, and it's a documentary - with a simple and solid story (as opposed to Safe, an action drama with a simple story convoluted by sub-par filmmaking).
Director Corey Lee delivers a very personal documentary. Corey was born in Edmonton, Alberta. He's half Chinese and worries that both he and furthermore, his kids, need to discover their ethnic roots while they still have time to do so. The ticking clock is Corey's Chinese father. He and Dad have, for much of their life as father and son, been estranged.
Corey decides to not only change this state of affairs, but to document it on film.
His Dad is the legendary Frank Pang Lee, a great master of the martial arts who not only runs his own gym in Alberta, but was the personal trainer to the equally legendary Billy Chow, the reigning world kickboxing champion through much of the 80s and a stalwart actor in over 50 martial arts pictures (having co-starred with the likes of Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Jet Li, Jacky Wu and among many others, Donnie Yen).
Frank's world famous self-designed White Crane technique is also the stuff of legend. Speaking of legend, Frank is 70 years old. I can't actually believe he's 70. This guy is in stunning physical condition and to see him in action is utterly mind-blowing.
Corey has not practiced martial arts for over twenty years, so he decides the best way to get to know his father and reclaim his Chinese heritage is to train with Dad. These sequences are absolutely brutal - not in a nasty violent way, but in the visual/aural combination of punishing, almost obsessive physical exertion with the naturalistic sounds of the gym itself.
Through the film, Corey definitely gets into better shape and his kung fu seems to be really progressing during the weeks of training. What's not quite happening is the father-son thing he's been hoping for. This only starts to happen once the two of them take a trip to Hong Kong together.
There's a scene in the film's final third which, in a drama, could have been machine tooled to pretty decent effect, but because this is a documentary, it takes on an added power. Suffice it to say that this aforementioned scene is tremendously moving. (I spewed more than a few geysers of liquid salt from my tear-ducts.)
Between training sessions and a glorious tournament sequence in Frank's gym, we get dollops of Frank's own story - his early years as a gang thug in China, the threat of communism and his eventual escape to Canada.
Once in the New World, Frank's fighting prowess comes in mighty handy when he works a few local Edmonton dives as a waiter/bouncer. His exploits at tossing innumerable tough customers reach far and wide and soon, tough guys from all over Western Canada and the far north make their way to Edmonton to try their luck at NOT being turfed by Frank. It's like Frank became the gunfighter with a reputation that always needed to be challenged by young turks who thought they were tougher.
Ah, Alberta! Lotsa beef, lotsa horses and plenty of rough customers straight out of a Randolph Scott western (and in this case, cross-pollinated with some chop-socky).
Many of the early years of Frank's life are rendered via some very evocative animations (still drawings - almost like anime sketches with a few simple moves). These are deftly integrated into the film and even subtly cut into live action moments when necessary.
For the most part, this is a truly compelling TV doc, but the two things that, for me, keep it from crossing into the scope of a "theatrical" experience is that some of the narration is far-too on the nose (especially in the early going) and secondly, that the movie delivers on the emotional arc of the father-son story, but lacks a good visceral punch. I was expecting, but never got, a final match between Corey and an opponent of equal calibre. The narration sometimes drove me a bit nuts - often delivering stuff we didn't need to know and if we did need to know it, I think it might have been better to just let the audience piece it together all on their lonesome. Much of the voice-over was of the "I think this, I think that, I hope this happens, I hope that happens" variety. It often came over dynamic visuals and I'd have preferred a more cerebral approach to conveying these feelings.
This, however, is not ultimately going to deter anyone from enjoying the film at all. It's a terrific story.
Interestingly, if I were the producer of the film, I'd be doing everything in my power to be selling the dramatic remake rights to a studio. There's a great martial arts movie with some heart here. A few embellishments wouldn't hurt, mind you - like a big match at the end of the movie, or better yet, add an underworld subplot requiring father and son to kick some gangster butt together. Or better yet, just try to make the movie without a studio. Get Chow Yun Fat to play Frank and concoct a good villain role and cast Jackie Chan against type in it. Toss Tony Jaa into the mix as Corey. And hey, set the damn thing in Edmonton. There's plenty of Ukrainians there. Toss some Uke mob action into the mix. George Dzundza would be a fantastic Uke mob boss.
Yeah, I know - that's a different movie, and kind of cheesy, but crazier things have happened in this gloriously nutty business.
"Legend of a Warrior" is playing Mon, Apr 30 9:15 PM at the Cumberland 2, Thu, May 3 1:30 PM at The ROM Theatre and Fri, May 4 4:00 PM at the Isabel Bader Theatre during Toronto's 2012 edition of the Hot Docs Film Festival. To order tickets, visit the Hot Docs website HERE.