Review: 'Legends of the Condor Heroes' Has a Faster-Than-Light Pace
Jakarta. Chinese historical martial arts film "Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants" is now out in Indonesian cinemas. But for those of you who are about to watch this movie, make sure that your eyes are wide open for over 2 hours as the film runs at a pace that is faster than light.
Also known as the "Legends of the Condor Heroes", the movie is a wuxia, the literary genre of Chinese fiction on martial artists' adventures in ancient China. The story follows the fictional martial artist Guo Jing (Xiao Zhan) during the Southern Song dynasty. On his journey, he encounters Huang Rong (Zhuang Dafei), the daughter of Heretic East. Their friendship blossoms into romance within the first few minutes of the runtime. After about a 10-minute intro, Guo Jing decides to leave Huang Rong after the former accuses her father of murdering his past masters. Guo Jing later realizes his mistake of abandoning Huang Rong.
The Guo Jing-Huang Rong's romance becomes central to the plot. But the story unfolds way too fast, so the audience -- especially those who is unfamiliar with "The Condor" trilogy or wuxia films in general -- might struggle to keep up. The insane-fast pace can be attributed to director Tsui Hark's attempt to pack everything in a single movie. Reports show that the "Legends of the Condor Heroes" movie takes inspiration from chapters 34 to 40 of Chinese novelist Jin Yong's work of the same name. The movie also has a runtime of 2 hours and 27 minutes, significantly longer than most films now playing in Indonesian theaters.
"Legends of the Condor Heroes" is one CGI-heavy movie, and does have stunningly choreographed martial arts scenes. But then again, each battle scene only lasts briefly as the movie has to quickly move on to the next thing on the storyline. Despite the pacing issue, some of the main couple's moments can still make your heart flutter. It is likely that the movie can still remain enjoyable to the trilogy's fans.
All in all, "Legends of the Condor Heroes" is moving way too fast, just like Guo Jing himself.
as a preferred
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