The Legend of Zu (2001)
Director: Tsui Hark
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Not so much a sequel to the 1983 Zu, more a way of life: Tsui's later films are so concerned with process that they hardly stand up as dramatic structures at all, and this barrage of digital effects (more than 1,500 shots involving CGI, they say) plays more like an extended showreel for a digital studio than a movie as such. This time around, no human character gets a look in; everyone on screen is a sword god, an enigmatic goddess (aside from a tiny cameo by Zhang Ziyi, virtually all the women are played by Cecilia Cheung) or a cosmic villain. China's sacred peaks are under attack from the dreaded Insomnia, whose Blood Cloud threatens total annihilation. King Sky (Cheng) is the sole survivor when the Kunlun School is wiped out (he was waiting 200 years for his beloved woman teacher to be reincarnated at the time); he flies around urging the other schools to set aside their differences and rally for the defence. Matters aren't helped when his chief ally (Koo) goes over to the Dark Side.Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Tsui Hark
Producer: Tsui Hark, To Wan, Wellson Chin
Cast: Ekin Cheng, Cecilia Cheung, Louis Koo, Patrick Tam, Kelly Lin, Wu Jing, Sammo Hung, Zhang Ziyi full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Duration: 104 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.



What do you think?
Post your review now