Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger (2002)

Aging, yet powerful swordsmen and their youthful counterparts clash in the desert over an unresolved incident twenty years prior.

Much has been rumored about the swordplay epic Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger prior to its release and most of it has turned out to be false. The title and its post Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (CTHD) production schedule led some to believe that it was a spoof of Ang Lee’s film. Not true. Because it stars Sammo Hung, others assumed it was a Sammo Hung production. Not true. But what has turned out to be true is that the film offers martial arts swordplay to rekindle the lost flames of Hong Kong’s New Wave era when the territory once set the standard for action worldwide.

The script also models past swordplay films by constructing an overly complex world of noble fighters who are ruled by the dictates of saving face and revenge. Chang Pei Pei (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Come Drink With Me) appropriately plays a powerful swordswoman who loses her child in a fire set by enemy forces. She learns that they were led to her home by a former ally named Kiu Hung (Tsui Goh) after he was captured and tortured. The irony is that Kiu Hung’s daughter is now in the care of Pei Pei because the mother feared for her child’s life after the father was abducted by the soldiers. Twenty years later Pei Pei goes on a journey to kill Kiu Hung and is joined by Louis Fan, playing an inexperienced fighter with great potential. Yet, an internal wound is slowly killing Pei Pei and she is unable to complete her quest. Meanwhile, Kiu Hung’s daughter, who is played by the lovely Jade Leung is an impetuous young fighter whom Sammo Hung decides to mentor. Louis Fan eventually joins them and tells of Pei Pei’s fate. Sammo allows himself to be captured by Kiu Hung’s aggressive son in hopes of settling his differences with Kiu Hung. After Fan and Leung mistakenly attempt to save Sammo, tensions mount and a final struggle becomes unavoidable.

As one might be able to guess, there isn’t much room for humor in Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger, aside from a repugnant horse pissing scene. Jade Leung, who is best known for her excellent debut performance in Black Cat (1991), is playing a character very similar to Zhang Ziyi’s role in CTHD. The other noticeable parallel is the elder roles of Sammo Hung and Cheng Pei Pei to that of Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh. Yet, this time the repressed love affair is replaced by contradictory feelings regarding the film’s “villain.” In truth, there is no villain as Sammo rightly recognizes that Kiu Hung deeply regrets his actions and has lived in seclusion as a result. Tsui Goh portrays him as a man driven near insane. Sammo rightly plays the film’s most powerful fighter, yet his desire to leave the “swords world” and make amends with Kui Hung is what drives his actions. The viewpoint of a world weary warrior seeking a quieter life is a staple of the swordplay genre dating back to at least the mid-sixties classics of Shaw Brothers that were often based on literary works of authors like Gu Long.

The biggest challenge faced by this film is living in the massive shadow of CTHD. The film’s release was delayed in Hong Kong and early reports of worldwide distribution by Miramax fizzled. It just doesn’t compare and it shouldn’t have to, but it can’t be helped. This is both a shame and understandable. The film is first and foremost an actioner. The swordplay choreography is good and by general standards great. There is some fancy wirework, although little or no flying. All of the actors perform adequately, including Cheng Pei Pei’s real daughter, Eugenia Yuan who plays Jade Leung’s attendant. But still, most of the combat fails to stand out. The one exception is Sammo Hung’s kung fu duel atop a pillar and this ends in a poorly done CGI effect of the pillar breaking apart.

Secondly, the film is still steeped in the typical Chinese period melodrama that worked well in Shaw Brothers films and is kept alive on Chinese television, but doesn’t play well to your average Western viewer. The convoluted plot and mix of mostly uninteresting characters could have slid by if not for the film’s dour tone. I can see that director Allen Lan and the rest of the crew were shooting for a meatier story, but the tragic fate of these noble knights just seems blandly derivative. Essentially, what the narrative was lacking was an edge or a spark of originality.

The photography makes good use of the mainland Chinese desert locales. The synthesized score is an unwelcome throwback to the typically cheap Hong Kong soundtracks of the past two decades. You would think that the filmmakers could spring for some traditional music, but apparently this is not the case.

Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger may have come a decade too late, but for fans to see Sammo Hung and Cheng Pei Pei fight in another period martial arts film after all these years is worth putting up with the muddled story and only passable acting. The addition of plenty of straight forward and quality action choreography does little to propel the genre forward, but remains a pleasant reminder of what Chinese action directors are still capable of when they put their minds to it.