Herald rating: * * *
KEY POINTS:
Mainland Chinese director Xiaogang Feng's loose take on William Shakespeare's Hamlet, mixes melodrama and martial arts with a tale of turmoil within China's imperial family. The Banquet promises murder, deceit and revenge, and by golly it delivers on all three counts.
Set in ancient China during the period
of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (the 10th century to you), the film begins with the death of the Emperor, presumably poisoned by his brother Li (You Ge) who takes over the throne and marries his sister-in-law, the Empress Wan (Ziyi).
While Emperor Li sets about assassinating other possible heirs to the throne, the Empress betrays her new husband, warning Crown Prince Wu Luan (Wu) about his plans. A student of the performing arts, Prince Wu Luan lives in an artists' retreat in the countryside and has no ambition to rule. However, thanks to the manipulative Empress Wan, everybody is pulled into a bloody battle for the throne.
Story-wise, this is not a concise or precise adaptation of Shakespeare. There are no ghosts, Empress Wan is the central character, and it's more a story about brutality and power than tragedy. The film does, however, have a slow theatrical sense to it.
Once you are through the wonderfully rousing beginning and set-up the pace slows, and those wishing for some of action master Yuen Woo Ping's (The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) martial arts wizardry have to be patient.
While The Banquet has graceful moments (thanks to the exquisite Ziyi), opulent costumes, and the melodrama you'd expect from a wuxia film production of this size, there is a more sinister tone overall, which is portrayed in the action sequences, and the moody, dark sets.
The fighting sequences are hardly relaxing viewing. Feng focuses on blood being spilt, slowing sequences of it hitting white surfaces, such as snow. There is plenty of wire work within these scenes, but unlike Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers, Feng's aren't graceful or sublime. Instead they are hard hitting and realistic, leaving little doubt those involved have died a bloody, violent death.
Directors such as Lee and Yimou have led the way when it comes to introducing wuxia films to an international audience, and they've set the standard very high. The Banquet should launch Feng's international career, but its odd mix of slow-paced drama and martial arts has created a lacklustre movie that won't make the mark its predecessors have.
Cast: Ziyi Zhang, You Ge, Daniel Wu
Director: Xiaogang Feng
Running time: 132 mins
Rating: R16, violence
Screening: Rialto
Verdict: The mix of Shakespeare's Hamlet and martial arts makes for a strange drawn-out drama