An End to Killing
止杀
China, 2012, colour, 2.35:1, 108 mins. (local version), 99 mins. (international version).
Director: Wang Ping 王坪.
Rating: 5/10.
Episodic tale of a Daoist master and Genghis Khan has great scenery but not much drama.
STORY
Central Asia, Khwarezmia region, 1219. Driving relentlessly westwards as he expands the Mongol Empire, and searching for the elusive “city where the sun sets”, Genghis Khan (Tumen), now in his late 50s, finds his army ravaged by plague. Becoming aware of his own mortality, he sends one of his generals, Liu Zhonglu (Geng Le), back east to summon 72-year-old Daoist master Qiu Chuji (Zhao Youliang), who is reputed to possess “immortality pills”. Liu Zhonglu finds Qiu Chuji in the village of Wendang, in Kunyu mountain, eastern China, but the sage refuses to set out until the rains arrive and end the drought there. One of Qiu Chuji’s disciples, the young Zhao Dao’an (Yu Shaoqun), tries to stop his master going but eventually joins the group. In Fox canyon, at Yehu ridge, an innkeeper (Li Xiaoran) asks to come along so she can find her husband (Nakaizumi Hideo), who is one of Genghis Khan’s prisoners-of-war, but Qiu Chuji refuses. En route they come across a massacred town and Qiu Chuji refuses to travel on until every body is properly buried. After more than a year they reach the Mongolian grasslands, but Qiu Chuji is already weak from the journey. Later, they are attacked by some masked warriors, whom the Mongols defeat, but Qiu Chuji insists on freeing the prisoners, among whom is the innkeeper, disguised as a young man. She finally joins the group on their journey. As Qiu Chuji becomes weaker, and refuses to eat as they pass through a starving region, Zhao Dao’an and the innkeeper go in search of the medicinal snow lotus. Zhao Dao’an, however, dies in an avalanche. After two years, and 19,500 kilometres of travelling, Qiu Chuji arrives at Bahru bay and finally meets Genghis Khan. Qiu Chuji helps cure the Mongol army’s plague and wins Genghis Khan’s respect, even when he tells him he has no “immortality pills”. But now he sets himself the even more difficult task of convincing Genghis Khan to renounce killing.
REVIEW
The words “pacificism” and “Genghis Khan” are the unlikeliest of bedfellows, and big-budget costume drama An End to Killing 止杀, which centres on a famous Chinese Daoist master convincing the Mongol leader to stop massacring people, ultimately fails to make a convincing case for itself on the big screen. More a glorified travelogue than an involving human drama between two opposites, it has some spectacular locations that are vividly captured by ace d.p. Sun Ming 孙明 – if without his trademark burnished look (Life Show 生活秀, 2002; A Time to Love 情人结, 2004; The Seal of Love 秋之白华, 2011) – and is solidly directed by Shandong Film Studio head Wang Ping 王坪. However, it’s let down by an episodic script (based on a true event) from which big chunks seem to have dropped out. A much fuller version could have had real epic scope and human drama.
[The version reviewed here is the “international” one premiered at the Busan film festival. Five months later, the film was released in the Mainland in a version running about 10 minutes longer and with a slightly different Chinese title, 止杀令, which still has the same meaning as the English one.]
After a 20-minute opening which sets up the story and finally sees the Daoist sage setting out to meet the Khan (who’s somewhere in Central Asia), the two-year journey occupies a further 35 minutes, with some battles, martial arts and great scenery along the way. When the two legends finally meet after almost an hour, the stage seems set for an interesting meeting of minds and wills, but despite the best efforts of the lead actors, Chinese veteran Zhao Youliang 赵有亮 and Mongolian Tumen 涂们, the personal drama fails to catch fire.
In a refreshingly different incarnation, Genghis Khan is played by Tumen (good as the gruff husband in Heavenly Grassland 天上草原, 2002) as an almost twinkly-eyed old scoundrel who is amused by the Daoist’s lack of fear, while TV drama actor Zhao, underneath all the philosophical phrases, shows a sly delight in twisting the Mongol round his little finger. However, the script has no real debate and no real focus, incorporating side elements like the love story of a feisty innkeeper (spiritedly played by Li Xiaoran 李小冉, the wife in Driverless 无人驾驶, 2010) and her POW husband, and the more formal, courtly love story between Genghis Khan and his wife (glacially played by South Korea’s Bak Ye-jin 박예진 | 朴艺珍, best known for her debut in Memento Mori 여고괴담 두번째 이야기, 1999). In the event, the strongest relationship is between the Daoist master and his military minder, played with some nice bluster and swagger by Chinese actor Geng Le 耿乐 (Shanghai Calling 纽约客@上海, 2012).
There’s also an inescapable feeling of cultural condescension hanging over the whole enterprise, as the unwashed Mongol hoards are taught by the Chinese sage to bathe regularly and even believe in “immortality pills” when they’re repeatedly told they’re nothing of the kind. Some realistic balance is furnished in the end titles, which note that Genghis Khan soon went back to his day job of mass slaughter and the Mongols eventually took over China itself and set up the Yuan dynasty.
Action sequences are stronger when showing massed Mongols on the move than in smaller fight scenes, and the score by Japanese composer Kawai Kenji 川井憲次 is only so-so. Journeyman director Wang has done better than this, specifically the female-centric drama Six Sisters in the War 沂蒙六姐妹 (2009) set in 1947.
CREDITS
Presented by Shandong Film Studio (CN), China Film (CN), Shandong Wohan Culture & Media (CN), Shandong Film & TV Group (CN).
Script: Ran Ping. Photography: Sun Ming. Editing: Zhan Haihong, Tan Junyan. Music: Kawai Kenji. Production design: Tong Yonggang. Costume design: Na Risu. Sound: Wang Danrong. Action: Oh Se-yeong, Jiao Xiaoyu. Choreography: Wu Lanhua.
Cast: Zhao Youliang (Qiu Chuji), Tumen (Genghis Khan), Bak Ye-jin (Hoelun, Genghis Khan’s wife), Geng Le (Liu Zhonglu, general), Yu Shaoqun (Zhao Dao’an), Li Xiaoran (innkeeper), Xu Jinjiang [Elvis Tsui] (Long Beard, Genghis Khan’s adviser), Nakaizumi Hideo (innkeeper’s husband).
Premiere: Busan Film Festival (A Window on Asian Cinema), 5 Oct 2012.
Release: China, 22 Mar 2013.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 14 Dec 2012.)