Clearly due to the ongoing Tony Leung hype, Netflix has now dug up this rather mediocre film from 2011, which grossed a not-so-impressive $27.2 million at the Chinese box office in the first half of 2012 – on an estimated budget of $15 million – but was at least the highest-grossing Chinese-language film at the time behind eight Hollywood blockbusters. Apart from two festival screenings, the film never made it to Europe or the USA.
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The Hong Kong/Mainland co-production is so disappointing because at first glance it gives cause for optimism. Derek Yee is an experienced director who has a number of successful films, including “People’s Hero” (1987), to his credit. Then there is a basically splendid cast. Alongside Mr. Leung, other actors include Lau Ching-wan, the always great Zhou Xun, Paul Chun, Lam Suet and, in a not so small role, Wang Ziwen, who later caused a stir in the Chinese series “Three-Body” based on the bestselling novel by Liu Cixin. There are also cameos from Hong Kong director Vincent Kok and Grandmaster Tsui Hark himself, both as rather dim-witted warlords – because the story takes place in the Republic of China in the 1920s.
The warlords in question, including Lei Daniu (“Big Bull”), are not really comfortable with democracy and are trying to seize power in rapidly changing alliances. A number of Qing Dynasty nostalgics are also involved, as are Japanese spies, harbingers of the impending invasion, a dubious filmmaker and many more, including the general’s six bitchy wives. And of course Tony Leung, who plays the great magician Chang Xian with a large number of computer-generated tricks. He is supposedly taking part in a magic competition that General Lei has announced, but of course his agenda is a different one, politically as well as privately, because the general’s somewhat reluctant seventh wife is Chang’s ex-lover, whom he abandoned for a long time.
Unfortunately, the plot, which is fairly straightforward at the beginning, becomes increasingly confusing and difficult to follow, and at some point you get the impression that it is all about hustle and bustle, slapstick and showmanship (there are suddenly futuristic tanks that could have come from “RoboCop”). The rather grim historical drama at the beginning turns into a wild farce over time, in which nothing fits together at the end, the timing is no longer right and large holes appear in the plot. It seems as if at a certain point they gave up all consideration of how things should continue. Even the actors can’t save this mess.
Tsui Hark may have felt at home, as some plot elements and parts of the setting are more or less shamelessly stolen from his hit “Peking Opera Blues” (1986), even if they are used much less charmingly and subtly here. This goes as far as the styling of the general, who looks like a brother of Kenneth Tsang’s General Tsao from Tsui’s film. In its exuberant mix of ideas, “The Great Magician” is also reminiscent of some of Jackie Chan‘s rather unsuccessful attempts to try his hand at historical films.
Much is missing, especially an organizing hand, and so the running time of 128 minutes has probably gotten completely out of hand as well. Ultimately, all the visual exclamation marks fizzle out in the general confusion, and even Tony Leung’s magic tricks are repeated too often over the course of the plot. Even sadder and stranger: not much of the love story between him and Zhou Xun remains in memory.
“The Great Magician” may have been conceived as an ambitious attempt to bring a chapter of Chinese history to life on screen through a spectacular production. The ambition of those involved cannot be denied, but unfortunately the film only makes you want to be alone in a darkened, quiet room with a cup of calming tea.