Friday, October 26, 2012

Movies: White Vengeance- Characters and Review


A good manly man movie to watch, in a sense. Note this is an opinion of a female, it is more into politics and barely touches into the romantic aspects that something might have. A movie that goes on about the fight over power.

After the death of the first Qin Emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, there is a despise by King Kuai where whoever can capture the city of Guanzhong can be the emperor. Who will win the battle where only one can live? Liu Bang or Xiang Yu?


 Because I am too lazy to go into length about the plot here it is, courtesy of IMDb:

White Vengeance tells the story of two brothers contending for supremacy during the fall of the Qin Dynasty, which ruled Imperial China from 221 to 206 BC. As rebels rose, the nation fell into chaos. Liu Bang (Leon Lai) and Xiang Yu (Feng Shaofeng), became leaders of the rebellious army, and also became sworn brothers in battle. Xiang Yu and Liu Bang are close friends who both serve King Huai of Chu. King Huai uses a plot, saying that whoever can subvert the Qin kingdom in Guanzhong would be the Lord Qin, in order to benefit from the competition between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. Xiang Yu is over-confident. He fights against the main force of Qin army, and entrusts Liu Bang with Yu Ji (Liu Yifei), the woman he loves. Liu Bang expresses his love to Yu Ji and takes the chance to invade Guanzhong first when most of Qin army is outside fighting against Xiang Yu's army. Xiang Yu is furious & betrayed when he found it. Xiang planned to kill Liu at a banquet held in Hong Men, during which Zhang Liang (Zhang Hanyu), the mastermind of Liu Bang, and Fan Zeng (Anthony Wong), the mastermind of Xiang Yu, have a direct confrontation. But who will emerge as the winner from this epic battle and survive to claim their path to the crown?


Cast and opinions.
Even though the two "leads" did well, I find this to be something where the supporting cast is really the meat of the production and made it what it was. 
Leon Lai as Liu Bang.
It's really a no brainer to know how the movie ended if one is educated in Chinese History. Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han. Simple as pi, not. Sure he did good but sometimes I kind of forgot he was there because his character lacked something to draw someone in. Towards the end his character does some, or a lot, of dramatic things make makes your jaw drop and heart sink, but it still wasn't enough to save this sinking ship of acting. I'm sure he's good, I never said he was bad, but the director could've gave him something more to deal with instead of letting others do the work for him. Yes it was his plan intentionally, but it could've been executed better instead of him getting overshadowed by the other actors.

Feng Shao Feng as Xiang Yu.
For someone who isn't in admiration of FSF,  find that he delivers his character well. I had no past knowledge of Xiang Yu and after watching this, I can infer on what kind of person he was. Job well done. 

Han Yu Zhang as Liang Zhang.
Favorite character right here. As Liu Bang's mentor that makes him quite an intelligent person. His character had the most depth in my opinion. He was put under different circumstances than everyone that allowed him to shine in this. This guy seems to have a lot of wisdom and after watching this, all you would want is to have this guy as your mentor and for him to teach you how to play Weiqi.

Anthony Wong as Fan Zheng.
As I was watching this, I kept thinking to myself how this guy seems so familiar to me and I was right because he was in the 2008 Legend of the Condor Heroes where he was exceptional. Same goes for here, he did really well. He was one of the better characters you liked and just wanted to skip to. Towards the end I just got really sad when I realized what had happen *sigh*.


Andy On as General Han Xin.
Ehh this guy comes off as.... arrogant, cocky and selfish. He is suppose to be a great general and warrior, which he was but his greed and attitude made you not like him. I understand that that was the role he was suppose to portray, but I judge movies as I see them. He did well though if that helps.

Jordan Chan as Fan Kuai. 
So this guy is kinda the man right here. I respected him the most in the movie. Yes most people found it irrelevant but I liked him. He's truly the most humble and loyal person in this person. Worth watching him.

Extra Notes and Opinions.
  • I realized watching this that most of the locations of this drama were the same as Qing Shi Huang Fei.
  • It was at a surprising slow pace that made you want to sleep. I was lucky enough to make it through
  • nice costumes and cast.

3.57/ 5 stars. 
Over all it was a good, movie. The slow paced for me kinda killed it, but everything was done well. I felt like the interesting parts didn't last long and that it got really confusing through most of it.


1 comment:

  1. It was a terrible movie starting with its incomprehensible plot line which was not helped at all by the wooden acting.

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