War is dirty.
It’s filled with blood, sweat and tears mixing in the mud of the trenches; trickling into the centre of the battlefield with the fluids of enemies and allies being indistinguishable. The world has been learning of the realities of war, with the 21st Century being filled with conflict observed constantly in the same fashion as reality television.
The films documenting history’s most recent conflicts have been more interested in making audiences angry at the enemy. But once upon a time filmmakers would strive to create empathetic characters for the civilians back home to root for – for example, any ANZAC film. ‘The Taking Of Tiger Mountain’ strives to do the latter, but is less about empathy and more like a World War II era Disney cartoon – obvious propaganda, but ridiculous fun.
‘The Taking Of Tiger Mountain’ is a re-telling of a historical battle during the Chinese Civil War – a battle which has become a legend in China. After the surrender of the Japanese in World War II, bandits have taken over abandoned Japanese arsenals littered across the Chinese countryside. The People’s Liberation Army – the nation’s armed forces - led by Captain 203 (Lin Genxing) trek across the countryside in an effort to protect villages and to stop the bandits’ attacks. Fearful of continued attacks by bandits and their leader, Hawk (Tony Leung Ka-Fai), the unit stays to protect the villagers, while also sending Yang Zirong (Zhang Hanyu) undercover to infiltrate the gang, and attempt to push the bandits out of their fortress on Tiger Mountain.
The film takes a very different direction to the war movies audiences are used to seeing: filled with drama, despair, futility and the constant questioning of the purpose of conflict. Instead, ‘The Taking Of Tiger Mountain’ disassociates itself with such themes in favour of over-the-top fight scenes, which would normally come across as crass, but director Tsui Hark makes it a ridiculously fun action film.
The film is filled with the tropes of classic action films: the good guys have sharp jawlines and can dodge bullets; and the bad guys have goatees, rotting teeth, and the leader Hawk not only resembles his bird namesake with his beaked-nose, but he also possesses a hawk as a henchman. The action and fight sequences put recent Western outputs to shame, filling scenes with bullet-time effects straight from ‘The Matrix’, and this year’s most unbelievable fight sequences taking place on a fighter plane crashing along an airstrip hidden underneath the castle lair.
The use of 3D may also outrank a lot of Hollywood films too; making audiences feel as if they are viewing a museum set-piece filled with layers-upon-layers rather than a screen. However, like most 3D films, watching the film can be nauseating, with the overlong running time adds exhaustion to the mix. Leaving a film feeling sick and tired isn’t something an audience should experience.
Because the good-morals-and-good-looks of the soldiers, the film does come across as propaganda. A lot of propaganda films take battles where the side of the filmmakers won and give their heroes superhuman abilities in an effort to manipulate citizens into putting more faith in their government. ‘The Taking Of Tiger Mountain’ does have a history as propaganda, being a re-make of an opera created during the Cultural Revolution headed by Chairman Mao in order to put his government in a more positive light.
{youtube}HLA6IVAPYrg{/youtube}
Tsui Hark, however, manages to not overwhelm viewers with the fundamentals of Chinese nationalism, and instead reframes it as a folk story thanks to scenes set in modern times with a young descendant of the characters reflecting on the famous tale of his ancestors. These scenes give the film a new context and inject some emotion in to what could’ve been a deluge of action.
It’s not often a fun war film appears; with ‘Inglorious Basterds’ and ‘3 Kings’ being the most recent to come to mind. While ‘The Taking Of Tiger Mountain’ isn’t as well-crafted as it’s Hollywood counterparts, it sure is a ridiculous amount of fun.
Three and a half out of five beard-stroking cartoon villains.
