OPENS JAN 8th Time: 2:21 (141 Minutes) THE TAKING OF TIGER - TopicsExpress

OPENS JAN 8th Time: 2:21 (141 Minutes) THE TAKING OF TIGER MOUNTAIN (2015) Cast Zhang Hanyu Tony Leung Ka-fai Tong Liya Lin Gengxin Nan Yu Director Tsui Hark Throughout the 80s and 90s, when the action cinema of Hong Kong was at its artistic and commercial peak throughout the world, arguably the key figure in their film industry was the hugely prolific Tsui Hark. As a producer, director and/or writer (and usually in some combination of the three), he was involved with many of the key cinematic works of this period—Peking Opera Blues, the A Better Tomorrow trilogy, The Killer, Dragon Inn, A Chinese Ghost Story and the jaw-dropping Time and Tide to name just a few. In recent years, he has slowed down his output a bit—he now averages maybe one movie a year when he used to crank out two or three—but as his latest work, The Taking of Tiger Mountain, demonstrates, he has not lost any of his filmmaking fever. The story takes place in northwest China in the winter of 1946, a period in which civil war raged throughout the land between marauding gangs of bandits and the Peoples Liberation Army, who were charged with bringing them down. Although inspired by historical incident, one does not need to be an expert in this particular period of Chinese history to understand what is going on in The Taking of Tiger Mountain. Once the opening expository scenes are passed, the film is essentially a typical guys-on-a-mission war movie in the manner of Where Eagles Dare and can be understood solely on that basic level--the good guys are good, the bad guys are horrible and anything remotely smacking of ambiguity is lost amidst all of the explosions and gunfire. Cutting through a lot of the potential narrative confusion for those without a working knowledge of Chinese history are the immensely charismatic and captivating performances by Hanyo Zhang as Zirong and Tony Leung as Hawk--the former does an excellent job of conveying the gravity of his situation without ever showing anything other than unflappable cool while the latter is clearly have a blast play the worst of the bad guys while still finding the occasional note of sympathy for him as well. Another standout moment comes when Zirong finds himself battling a hungry tiger in the woods, a skirmish that finds the two fighting among the treetops—obviously, this is as ridiculous as can be but it is a bit of thrilling beauty to behold. After the triumphant-but-realistic finale, the end credits have begun to roll, Tsui provides us with an alternate ending in which good defeats evil in an over-the-top manner. Kill Bill anyone? Make sure stay back like them Marvels releases till end credit is really done. Enjoy the movie, opens wide in Msia Thursday 8th!