I think this is my 2nd review...
Review on Storm Rider - Clash of Evils (Chinese animated movie)
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>> More screen caps below!
Movie release date – 2008
Preface
I have never read Ma Wing Shing’s mega-hit comic “Fung Wan” (Wind and Cloud) before. But I did drool over Aaron Kwok many years ago when he played the protagonist Cloud in the movie adaptation “Storm Riders” (of course I was very, very, very small back then). The second movie installment “Storm Warriors” stirred a buzz, so I browsed around for information. Out of the blue came “Storm Rider – Clash of Evils” (henceforward CoE), an animated film produced in China.
Synopsis
This is a wuxia story set in ancient China. Wind and Cloud were the leading disciples of Conqueror, head of the powerful “World Association”. The plot picks up where the live action movie “Storm Riders” left off, when Wind and Cloud killed Conqueror in revenge for their parents’ murder. Unfortunately, the battle roused the Kirin Demon in Wind, and the sworn brothers fell off a cliff in the ensuing struggle. Meanwhile, an ambitious Ao Jue from the Sword Worship Manor ganged with the deceitful Duan Lang, an expelled traitor from the World Association, to track down Wind and Cloud for the Kirin Blood in their bodies. This Kirin Blood was the priced ingredient to forge the supreme sword “Jue” – an essential step towards Ao’s goal of avenging his family deaths and conquering the world.
Review
Story – 3/5
Before one evaluates anything, one should first place it in perspective of its purpose and category. This is wuxia, which means fight, revenge, fight, love, fight, power, and fight. Yes, the plot is shamelessly driven by the mysterious need to show-case a myriad of cool martial arts. As there are only that many recyclable plot devices for the purpose, all wuxia stories are by default cliché-ridden. In viewing wuxia, one should check reality at the door before plunging into the fantastical escapee world. Do not expect any life-changing message or applicable insight into reality. It is an exciting ride, but you will not be inspired to sacrifice for the world walking out of the theatre. Hey, mental massage has its place in our mundane society. Just don’t mistake it for spiritual food.
Within genre restrictions, CoE provides a compact story-line bursting with extreme evilness and nobleness, with a bit of interspersed cute humor. You have the typical power struggle involving the world’s most powerful organization, mighty noble warriors who are dragged into the schemes of mighty wicked warriors, good people transforming into evil beyond themselves and becoming a pain for other good people, revenge and regrettable reflections following revenge, bloodshed and heartrending lamentations after bloodshed, etc. YET, woven among the clichés and intense action are a number of scenes that do strike a chord, which deserves commendation considering fighting made up at least 2/3 of the whole film. In particular, I find the friendship and loyalty between the sworn brothers finely portrayed. The beginning scenes where Cloud sacrificed himself to stop Wind and Wind agonized over Cloud’s fate are deeply moving to me. The contrast in attitude between the young and present Cloud to orphans was another nice touch. The growing attachment between Cloud and the child gang brings a smile, and there was an oh-so-romantic scene in the dandelion fields between Wind and Second Dream. Clichéd, but not yet corny. These scattered heart-warming moments lifted the anime above the live action movie which, despite my old love of Aaron and his figure, pales as nothing but a bunch of pretty models posing.
Now Fung Wan fans may scream, “I knew they would slaughter the plot! X did not happen and Y should be Z!” As a non-fan viewer, I’m concerned with effectiveness, not accuracy. It may follow the original word by word and come across as cheesy as pizza, or it may slash the original story yet pluck at my heart-strings. No matter. Comics and movies are two very different media anyway. Here I only find that the heavy story-line ultimately proved to be a burden. Overall, the story feels disjointed and unfocused. There are too many subplots, characters, and side details, likely threaded out from the mega-story of the original comic still running after a decade. Having only watched “Storm Riders”, I initially had trouble sorting out the part on Ao and Duan, and the identity of that ominous sleeves-waving guy at Wind’s Kirin ceremony remains a mystery. Even more baffling are the concepts of Kirin blood, Kirin Demon, and the Blood Leech, which raised some serious concerns on plot consistency. We learn the trivial history of why a minor character could not marry a villain, yet have to accept that Wind and Second Dream fell in love following minimal interaction. All these resulted in nice emotional moments here and there that do not exactly connect to a smooth line.
Nonetheless, I find that the plot weaknesses did not significantly affect my viewing pleasure, as they were generally overpowered by the lightning pace. Whenever something puzzled me, something else caused me to aw or wow. Case in point: the abrupt introduction of Nameless was bewildering, but then he started summoning the waves with his poignant er-hu tune. Aw… wow… How this worked proved yet again that wuxia is a heart-pumping affair to be enjoyed, not a life’s lesson to be learned.
Characters – 4/5
There are the usual flat stereotypes, but these are made up by the formidable appeal of the Wind and Cloud duo. Amnesia obviously did Cloud a good turn. Little of his notorious viciousness and extremism reared its head; as Wind commented in the story, Cloud had changed, and for the better. He gained the ability to emote, learned to connect with people without wasting much words, allowed a glimpse of raw innocence to shine through, all the while showing off his unflinching muscles… and staunchness of course. How cool is that? I like this Cloud, although it remains possible that fans may complain he is “not Cloud enough”. As for Wind, fans will be relieved to know that he was still the perfect knight in shining hair. This can easily turn boring or even annoying, but I’m pleased to report that Wind was absolutely adorable here. He was so genuinely sad, and then so genuinely happy, all for the sake of his sworn brother. He was so very kind and gentle when he was normal, that it was so very heart-wrenching when he was not. And who would complain about the generosity of this sweet boy in fighting topless all the time?
While all the fighting inevitably precluded in-depth character development, everyone fell snugly in his/her place. There is no annoying overkill. Second Dream was iced with quiet wisdom on top of her serenity, and Zhi Ning was cute as a button. Nameless was cool and big-hearted as ever, and even Ao came across as pious and dignified. And there was this cute comic relief Captain Handsome who sparked some of the best lines.
Art/Style – 4.5/5
I love the art and style of CoE. The tone was dead-on – exactly how I’d picture wuxia in animation. The overall feel was poetic and at times epic, with atmospheric backgrounds beautifully drawn. Some may complain about the dark color scheme, but I find it well chosen. In fact, CoE is strongly reminiscent of the classic wuxia movies in the golden 90s that I love so much – Swordsman II and New Dragon Inn comes to mind.
Wind and Cloud expressed excellent image design as epitomes of beautiful/sexy men – kudos to both Ma the creator and the film artists. How ethereal was Wind with his flowing hair and fair skin! I love his white robe with its fashionable turned-up collar, although he went without it half the time. No complaints there; his long legs deserved to be seen! Cloud had nice tights revealing his infamous biceps, and his blue crisp hair was cute and sexy. And when he puts on his cloak, he gave the air of a regal conqueror. I’m not sure how Zhi Ning was supposed to be like in the comic, but she was a sharp little lolita with a cute haircut who looked surprisingly compatible with Cloud. Second Dream was the blandest among the protagonists. Her pastel-colored costume was bleh, and her hair made her look like a common village girl; definitely not stunning enough for Wind. I heard she’s supposed to have a cool scar, which was absent here, so she became just an okay pretty hanging around. That’s the catch for making the male protagonist too beautiful: it’s tough to create a good match for him in appearance! As for the other characters, who can forget the god-like figure of Nameless with his famous five o’clock? Others were fine except Can Ji. Since when did she join Cirque de Soli??
Now for the weakest part – the face. As in many other animations, inconsistency plagued the facial delineation of many characters, most glaringly in Wind. I spotted at least three distinct styles of how his face was drawn throughout the film. The upside, I guess, is that no matter which style, his pretty face was always refined without being over effeminate. Influence from Japanese anime was evident, especially for female characters. The best drawn and most uniquely wuxia is Nameless. I wonder if his five o’clock helped?
Animation – 4/5
Again, we have to place the film within its category. This is no cutting-edge 3-D technology galore, but a classic 2-D animation well done. Animation was smooth and on par with Japanese anime; the level attained is worthy of a movie ticket or DVD purchase. Obviously lots of thought and energy were put into the choreography. We get to enjoy no-slack action design and smooth execution. Painstaking hand-drawn movement was combined with computer graphics to a highly satisfactory effect. My favorite was the fight sequence in the pavilion by the lake showcasing sound control of the waves. Classic wuxia!
One note on the violence level. This is quite a bloody animation in line with typical wuxia tv series, but there are no direct shots of brutal deaths. Thank goodness they realize that man-slaughtering by our pretty boys is only cool in the mind, not in the eyes.
Voice – 2.5/5
Voice-acting is, em, a major weakness of the film. Instead of going the Japanese professional way, the producers followed the questionable Hollywood trend of getting movie stars to voice major characters. The result is an unfortunate mixed bag of colorful marbles in the mouth. Among the Mandarin stars, only Han Xue’s Second Dream deserved a nod. Get Nicholas Tse to pose for a poster, you get nice photos. Get him to star in a mandarin movie, you get reasonable acting enhanced by life-saving voice over. But get him to voice Cloud, and in MANDARIN?? What did you think you will get, crash-landing star power my dear? With the combination of a fledgling pitch, meek tone, frustrating accent (alright, everyone has an accent, but his was a painful one), and an obvious consciousness of all of these resulting in mumbling like marbles in the mouth, I eventually realized that the only positive out of this exercise was that Cloud was taciturn. Suddenly Richie Ren’s lackluster performance as Wind seemed a blessing, although the professional voices of Ao and Nameless quickly reminded me that it was still sub-par. Oh and the kids’ voices were adorable. Basically the whole deal was a fabulous lot of professional voice acting for minor characters ruined by sorry star performances for the two most important characters. Aiya.
The Cantonese protagonists fared better. Raymond Lam provided a nice deep voice that suited Cloud perfectly. Whoever that girl is, she made a sweet Zhi Ning with very expressive intonation overshadowing Whoever Else’s mediocre Second Dream. I cannot decide on Hins Cheung’s Wind. Poor Hins has a soothing voice pleasant to the ear, which is great for a gentle scholar in white robe. Alas! But it was not meant to be, for Wind evidently didn’t like staying in his scholarly robes very often (you get my point!). Fine, the overall effect is that the Cantonese protagonists were much more reasonable than the Mandarin ones. Plus Juno Mak pulled a surprisingly good performance as Ao. Maybe the producers sensed this, so they attempted to close the gap by throwing in some real bad Cantonese voices for other characters. The girl who played Ice Shadow managed to catch my ear with her maddening horrible voice with the few lines she had, and she didn’t even have the excuse of poor Nic. Her way of speech oddly reminded me of Lee Lai Shan, the respectable wind-surfer who won the first Olympics gold medal for Hong Kong but was regrettably ungifted in speech. The kids’ voices also took a wrong turn in Cantonese. The young Cloud sounded like… marbles in the mouth. Entered Di Long’s Nameless like Judge Bao – very commanding, very stately, very melodramatic, very ridiculous. It was like hearing Cantonese opera singing suddenly breaking out as Invincible Asia was pinning Ren Woxing down with his needles. Ouch. Huh?
Overall, the best voice for both versions was… drums… Captain Handsome! No, he was not a major character. Yes, he was a very good comic relief. What a relief.
Music – 4.5/5
Music is, yay, a major strength of the film. It was comparable to any big budget movies out there. The epic score, flawlessly performed by a blessed orchestra, was a critical enhancement to the overall atmosphere. The pacing was right on and carried the ups and downs of the mood perfectly. In fact, now I wonder if my small heart swelled up mainly in response to those pounding notes that came at the moment Nic’s Cloud cried, “Wind, I’ll go down with you!!!”
The title theme song was fantastic as well. Everything clicked – melody, lyrics, arrangement, and singing by Richie Ren. I like it so much I did a cover for it. Should people find my singing terrible, I hope they will feel the urge to listen to the original.
So we are stuck in a painful dilemma: to mute or not to mute? After ridiculing the voices left and right, I’d strongly recommend leaving the sound on. The top-notch music does make up far and beyond for the vocal failures, plus they only talked for less than 1/3 of the film anyway. Wait, actually the Cantonese version did feature tons of “Aah!” and “Hey! Hor!” during fights. Extra efforts!
Conclusion
Why, am I not a windbag granny? Concluding from ALL of the above, I confess I love this animated film despite its many flaws. This is the kind of movie that took my breath away at the time of viewing. Criticisms only start to float up as I steady my thoughts to write a review. Doesn’t the value of a movie lie in the actual sitting experience? While 4.5 and 5 are reserved for those rare mind-changers, this one is a solid entertainer.
Overall Rating: 4/5
Epilogue
Now that I am done, let me break the bad news: most professional critics out there disagree with my rating. They will tell you that the story is poorly crafted, the characters pathetically clichéd, the animation not 3-D, the drawing imperfect, and that Expression watched too few movies to know a good one. On the last point they are probably correct.
Do you know that fuzzy feeling of suddenly discovering a toy that you missed in your childhood dreams? One becomes overjoyed, dances around, and shows it to everyone. Most of them smile with you, but that serious toy factory professional snorts and declares it below art standard.
No matter. I enjoy this toy and cherish it with gratitude. It helps knowing that this film took 5 years and $10 million US to make. All this time and effort paid off – I never dreamed of a Chinese anime of this quality before. Unfortunately I heard that the Chinese box office, though fair, wasn’t good enough to break even, which will probably dampen investment interests in similar future projects. I was so moved and saddened that I set myself to write (and complete) this review – know that I’ve only completed one other review before, on another childhood love. This is certainly no resume towards my professionalism, but it does bear witness to my feelings.
Heartily recommended.
Preface
I have never read Ma Wing Shing’s mega-hit comic “Fung Wan” (Wind and Cloud) before. But I did drool over Aaron Kwok many years ago when he played the protagonist Cloud in the movie adaptation “Storm Riders” (of course I was very, very, very small back then). The second movie installment “Storm Warriors” stirred a buzz, so I browsed around for information. Out of the blue came “Storm Rider – Clash of Evils” (henceforward CoE), an animated film produced in China.
Synopsis
This is a wuxia story set in ancient China. Wind and Cloud were the leading disciples of Conqueror, head of the powerful “World Association”. The plot picks up where the live action movie “Storm Riders” left off, when Wind and Cloud killed Conqueror in revenge for their parents’ murder. Unfortunately, the battle roused the Kirin Demon in Wind, and the sworn brothers fell off a cliff in the ensuing struggle. Meanwhile, an ambitious Ao Jue from the Sword Worship Manor ganged with the deceitful Duan Lang, an expelled traitor from the World Association, to track down Wind and Cloud for the Kirin Blood in their bodies. This Kirin Blood was the priced ingredient to forge the supreme sword “Jue” – an essential step towards Ao’s goal of avenging his family deaths and conquering the world.
Review
Story – 3/5
Before one evaluates anything, one should first place it in perspective of its purpose and category. This is wuxia, which means fight, revenge, fight, love, fight, power, and fight. Yes, the plot is shamelessly driven by the mysterious need to show-case a myriad of cool martial arts. As there are only that many recyclable plot devices for the purpose, all wuxia stories are by default cliché-ridden. In viewing wuxia, one should check reality at the door before plunging into the fantastical escapee world. Do not expect any life-changing message or applicable insight into reality. It is an exciting ride, but you will not be inspired to sacrifice for the world walking out of the theatre. Hey, mental massage has its place in our mundane society. Just don’t mistake it for spiritual food.
Within genre restrictions, CoE provides a compact story-line bursting with extreme evilness and nobleness, with a bit of interspersed cute humor. You have the typical power struggle involving the world’s most powerful organization, mighty noble warriors who are dragged into the schemes of mighty wicked warriors, good people transforming into evil beyond themselves and becoming a pain for other good people, revenge and regrettable reflections following revenge, bloodshed and heartrending lamentations after bloodshed, etc. YET, woven among the clichés and intense action are a number of scenes that do strike a chord, which deserves commendation considering fighting made up at least 2/3 of the whole film. In particular, I find the friendship and loyalty between the sworn brothers finely portrayed. The beginning scenes where Cloud sacrificed himself to stop Wind and Wind agonized over Cloud’s fate are deeply moving to me. The contrast in attitude between the young and present Cloud to orphans was another nice touch. The growing attachment between Cloud and the child gang brings a smile, and there was an oh-so-romantic scene in the dandelion fields between Wind and Second Dream. Clichéd, but not yet corny. These scattered heart-warming moments lifted the anime above the live action movie which, despite my old love of Aaron and his figure, pales as nothing but a bunch of pretty models posing.
Now Fung Wan fans may scream, “I knew they would slaughter the plot! X did not happen and Y should be Z!” As a non-fan viewer, I’m concerned with effectiveness, not accuracy. It may follow the original word by word and come across as cheesy as pizza, or it may slash the original story yet pluck at my heart-strings. No matter. Comics and movies are two very different media anyway. Here I only find that the heavy story-line ultimately proved to be a burden. Overall, the story feels disjointed and unfocused. There are too many subplots, characters, and side details, likely threaded out from the mega-story of the original comic still running after a decade. Having only watched “Storm Riders”, I initially had trouble sorting out the part on Ao and Duan, and the identity of that ominous sleeves-waving guy at Wind’s Kirin ceremony remains a mystery. Even more baffling are the concepts of Kirin blood, Kirin Demon, and the Blood Leech, which raised some serious concerns on plot consistency. We learn the trivial history of why a minor character could not marry a villain, yet have to accept that Wind and Second Dream fell in love following minimal interaction. All these resulted in nice emotional moments here and there that do not exactly connect to a smooth line.
Nonetheless, I find that the plot weaknesses did not significantly affect my viewing pleasure, as they were generally overpowered by the lightning pace. Whenever something puzzled me, something else caused me to aw or wow. Case in point: the abrupt introduction of Nameless was bewildering, but then he started summoning the waves with his poignant er-hu tune. Aw… wow… How this worked proved yet again that wuxia is a heart-pumping affair to be enjoyed, not a life’s lesson to be learned.
Characters – 4/5
There are the usual flat stereotypes, but these are made up by the formidable appeal of the Wind and Cloud duo. Amnesia obviously did Cloud a good turn. Little of his notorious viciousness and extremism reared its head; as Wind commented in the story, Cloud had changed, and for the better. He gained the ability to emote, learned to connect with people without wasting much words, allowed a glimpse of raw innocence to shine through, all the while showing off his unflinching muscles… and staunchness of course. How cool is that? I like this Cloud, although it remains possible that fans may complain he is “not Cloud enough”. As for Wind, fans will be relieved to know that he was still the perfect knight in shining hair. This can easily turn boring or even annoying, but I’m pleased to report that Wind was absolutely adorable here. He was so genuinely sad, and then so genuinely happy, all for the sake of his sworn brother. He was so very kind and gentle when he was normal, that it was so very heart-wrenching when he was not. And who would complain about the generosity of this sweet boy in fighting topless all the time?
While all the fighting inevitably precluded in-depth character development, everyone fell snugly in his/her place. There is no annoying overkill. Second Dream was iced with quiet wisdom on top of her serenity, and Zhi Ning was cute as a button. Nameless was cool and big-hearted as ever, and even Ao came across as pious and dignified. And there was this cute comic relief Captain Handsome who sparked some of the best lines.
Art/Style – 4.5/5
I love the art and style of CoE. The tone was dead-on – exactly how I’d picture wuxia in animation. The overall feel was poetic and at times epic, with atmospheric backgrounds beautifully drawn. Some may complain about the dark color scheme, but I find it well chosen. In fact, CoE is strongly reminiscent of the classic wuxia movies in the golden 90s that I love so much – Swordsman II and New Dragon Inn comes to mind.
Wind and Cloud expressed excellent image design as epitomes of beautiful/sexy men – kudos to both Ma the creator and the film artists. How ethereal was Wind with his flowing hair and fair skin! I love his white robe with its fashionable turned-up collar, although he went without it half the time. No complaints there; his long legs deserved to be seen! Cloud had nice tights revealing his infamous biceps, and his blue crisp hair was cute and sexy. And when he puts on his cloak, he gave the air of a regal conqueror. I’m not sure how Zhi Ning was supposed to be like in the comic, but she was a sharp little lolita with a cute haircut who looked surprisingly compatible with Cloud. Second Dream was the blandest among the protagonists. Her pastel-colored costume was bleh, and her hair made her look like a common village girl; definitely not stunning enough for Wind. I heard she’s supposed to have a cool scar, which was absent here, so she became just an okay pretty hanging around. That’s the catch for making the male protagonist too beautiful: it’s tough to create a good match for him in appearance! As for the other characters, who can forget the god-like figure of Nameless with his famous five o’clock? Others were fine except Can Ji. Since when did she join Cirque de Soli??
Now for the weakest part – the face. As in many other animations, inconsistency plagued the facial delineation of many characters, most glaringly in Wind. I spotted at least three distinct styles of how his face was drawn throughout the film. The upside, I guess, is that no matter which style, his pretty face was always refined without being over effeminate. Influence from Japanese anime was evident, especially for female characters. The best drawn and most uniquely wuxia is Nameless. I wonder if his five o’clock helped?
Animation – 4/5
Again, we have to place the film within its category. This is no cutting-edge 3-D technology galore, but a classic 2-D animation well done. Animation was smooth and on par with Japanese anime; the level attained is worthy of a movie ticket or DVD purchase. Obviously lots of thought and energy were put into the choreography. We get to enjoy no-slack action design and smooth execution. Painstaking hand-drawn movement was combined with computer graphics to a highly satisfactory effect. My favorite was the fight sequence in the pavilion by the lake showcasing sound control of the waves. Classic wuxia!
One note on the violence level. This is quite a bloody animation in line with typical wuxia tv series, but there are no direct shots of brutal deaths. Thank goodness they realize that man-slaughtering by our pretty boys is only cool in the mind, not in the eyes.
Voice – 2.5/5
Voice-acting is, em, a major weakness of the film. Instead of going the Japanese professional way, the producers followed the questionable Hollywood trend of getting movie stars to voice major characters. The result is an unfortunate mixed bag of colorful marbles in the mouth. Among the Mandarin stars, only Han Xue’s Second Dream deserved a nod. Get Nicholas Tse to pose for a poster, you get nice photos. Get him to star in a mandarin movie, you get reasonable acting enhanced by life-saving voice over. But get him to voice Cloud, and in MANDARIN?? What did you think you will get, crash-landing star power my dear? With the combination of a fledgling pitch, meek tone, frustrating accent (alright, everyone has an accent, but his was a painful one), and an obvious consciousness of all of these resulting in mumbling like marbles in the mouth, I eventually realized that the only positive out of this exercise was that Cloud was taciturn. Suddenly Richie Ren’s lackluster performance as Wind seemed a blessing, although the professional voices of Ao and Nameless quickly reminded me that it was still sub-par. Oh and the kids’ voices were adorable. Basically the whole deal was a fabulous lot of professional voice acting for minor characters ruined by sorry star performances for the two most important characters. Aiya.
The Cantonese protagonists fared better. Raymond Lam provided a nice deep voice that suited Cloud perfectly. Whoever that girl is, she made a sweet Zhi Ning with very expressive intonation overshadowing Whoever Else’s mediocre Second Dream. I cannot decide on Hins Cheung’s Wind. Poor Hins has a soothing voice pleasant to the ear, which is great for a gentle scholar in white robe. Alas! But it was not meant to be, for Wind evidently didn’t like staying in his scholarly robes very often (you get my point!). Fine, the overall effect is that the Cantonese protagonists were much more reasonable than the Mandarin ones. Plus Juno Mak pulled a surprisingly good performance as Ao. Maybe the producers sensed this, so they attempted to close the gap by throwing in some real bad Cantonese voices for other characters. The girl who played Ice Shadow managed to catch my ear with her maddening horrible voice with the few lines she had, and she didn’t even have the excuse of poor Nic. Her way of speech oddly reminded me of Lee Lai Shan, the respectable wind-surfer who won the first Olympics gold medal for Hong Kong but was regrettably ungifted in speech. The kids’ voices also took a wrong turn in Cantonese. The young Cloud sounded like… marbles in the mouth. Entered Di Long’s Nameless like Judge Bao – very commanding, very stately, very melodramatic, very ridiculous. It was like hearing Cantonese opera singing suddenly breaking out as Invincible Asia was pinning Ren Woxing down with his needles. Ouch. Huh?
Overall, the best voice for both versions was… drums… Captain Handsome! No, he was not a major character. Yes, he was a very good comic relief. What a relief.
Music – 4.5/5
Music is, yay, a major strength of the film. It was comparable to any big budget movies out there. The epic score, flawlessly performed by a blessed orchestra, was a critical enhancement to the overall atmosphere. The pacing was right on and carried the ups and downs of the mood perfectly. In fact, now I wonder if my small heart swelled up mainly in response to those pounding notes that came at the moment Nic’s Cloud cried, “Wind, I’ll go down with you!!!”
The title theme song was fantastic as well. Everything clicked – melody, lyrics, arrangement, and singing by Richie Ren. I like it so much I did a cover for it. Should people find my singing terrible, I hope they will feel the urge to listen to the original.
So we are stuck in a painful dilemma: to mute or not to mute? After ridiculing the voices left and right, I’d strongly recommend leaving the sound on. The top-notch music does make up far and beyond for the vocal failures, plus they only talked for less than 1/3 of the film anyway. Wait, actually the Cantonese version did feature tons of “Aah!” and “Hey! Hor!” during fights. Extra efforts!
Conclusion
Why, am I not a windbag granny? Concluding from ALL of the above, I confess I love this animated film despite its many flaws. This is the kind of movie that took my breath away at the time of viewing. Criticisms only start to float up as I steady my thoughts to write a review. Doesn’t the value of a movie lie in the actual sitting experience? While 4.5 and 5 are reserved for those rare mind-changers, this one is a solid entertainer.
Overall Rating: 4/5
Epilogue
Now that I am done, let me break the bad news: most professional critics out there disagree with my rating. They will tell you that the story is poorly crafted, the characters pathetically clichéd, the animation not 3-D, the drawing imperfect, and that Expression watched too few movies to know a good one. On the last point they are probably correct.
Do you know that fuzzy feeling of suddenly discovering a toy that you missed in your childhood dreams? One becomes overjoyed, dances around, and shows it to everyone. Most of them smile with you, but that serious toy factory professional snorts and declares it below art standard.
No matter. I enjoy this toy and cherish it with gratitude. It helps knowing that this film took 5 years and $10 million US to make. All this time and effort paid off – I never dreamed of a Chinese anime of this quality before. Unfortunately I heard that the Chinese box office, though fair, wasn’t good enough to break even, which will probably dampen investment interests in similar future projects. I was so moved and saddened that I set myself to write (and complete) this review – know that I’ve only completed one other review before, on another childhood love. This is certainly no resume towards my professionalism, but it does bear witness to my feelings.
Heartily recommended.