Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
射雕英雄传 侠之大者
China, 2025, colour, 2.35:1, 145 mins.
Director: Xu Ke 徐克 [Tsui Hark].
Rating: 8/10.
A very enjoyable slice of swordplay cinema, with lively playing and veteran film-maker Xu Ke [Tsui Hark] at the top of his technical game.
STORY
Northern China, mid-12th century AD. In the Middle Land 中原, in 1127, the Song dynasty fell to the invading (non-Han) Jurchens who then set up the Jin dynasty, while the remnants of the Song retreated south to what became known as the Southern Song. Meanwhile, the Mongolians, to the north of the Jin, united to protect their borders and managed to beat the Jin back to the Middle Land. After one mighty battle, as they pursue some retreating Jin, Mongolian soldiers come across a Mongolian-speaking Chinese, Guo Jing (Xiao Zhan), who says he is looking for a young woman. They let him go on his way. (Guo Jing was born in the “time of turmoil” and his widowed mother Li Ping [Cai Shufen] fled north with him to the grasslands of Mongolia, where he was raised. As an adult he left the grasslands to study martial arts in the Middle Land, training under a group of seven masters. While there he met, and formed a close friendship with, Huang Rong [Zhuang Dafei], daughter of Huang Yaoshi, aka Heretic East, one of the Five Greats of the Middle Land. She also led a group of rebels known as the Beggars’ Clan. Guo Jing was warned by his masters not to become involved with her. But she challenges him to improve his technique under Hong Qigong, aka The Northern Beggar [Hu Jun], who teaches him many powerful new skills in the mountains. Guo Jing and Huang Rong become separated, and his masters on Peach Blossom Island are seemingly slaughtered by her father. Guo Jing eventually discovers this is not true, and reconciles with Huang Rong, but they are again separated.) While searching for Guo Jing, Huang Rong is followed and captured by Ouyang Feng, aka Venom West (Liang Jiahui), who wants to possess the powerful Novem Scripture 九阴真经 in order to rule the world. He knows Huang Rong is the key to finding Guo Jing, who once beat him in combat and has the key to the Novem Scripture. By playing a trick, Huang Rong manages to escape from Venom West. Meanwhile, Guo Jing has helped to save some Mongolian soldiers from an evil poisoner; they recognise him and offer to take him back to their base camp to the Great Khan (Bayaertu), who will help to find Huang Rong, and to his mother, from whom he’s been away for two years. Meanwhile, Huang Rong has picked up Guo Jing’s trail and is close to the base camp when she’s attacked by Venom West and his men. She’s rescued by the Great Khan’s daughter, warrior princess Huazheng (Zhang Wenxin), who takes her safely to the base camp. There, Huang Rong learns that Guo Jing was Huazheng’s teacher and childhood friend, and that they’re soon to be married. Meanwhile, Huazheng learns that Guo Jing met an unnamed young woman while in the Middle Land and that he never intended to marry Huazheng, despite the Great Khan’s wish.
REVIEW
After half a century in the industry, Hong Kong film-maker Xu Ke 徐克 [Tsui Hark], now 75, has lost none of his energy – as demonstrated by Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants 射雕英雄传 侠之大者, a large-scale martial-arts saga based on a section of the much-adapted novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes 射雕英雄传 by Hong Kong author Jin Yong 金庸 [Louis Cha] (see left). The wuxia genre is one that Xu has visited regularly throughout his career, either as director or producer, accounting for a good 20% of his output. It’s also resulted in some of his most memorable films. This one doesn’t have the sheer orginality of The Blade 刀 (1995) or the retro joy and all-star cast of Flying Swords of Dragon Gate 龙门飞甲 (2011), but it’s a hugely enjoyable slice of swordplay cinema into which Xu seems to have poured a lifetime of technique and experience. Released during Chinese New Year – which was dominated by the colossal success of the animated fantasy Ne Zha 2 (RMB15.21 billion) – it took a handsome but not major RMB680 million, placing it fourth among the five big contenders, well behind Chinatown 1900 唐探1900 (RMB3.57 billion) and Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force 封神第二部：战火西岐 (RMB1.23 billion).
Maye it was just a bit too traditional for today’s young Mainland audiences, as it certainly draws on some tropes that go back to 1980s Hong Kong wuxia cinema. The script, by Xu and Song Xuan 宋𫍽, is based on the final seven chapters (34-40) of the novel and centred on young martial artist Guo Jing (Mainland boybander Xiao Zhan 肖战), a Song dynasty Chinese who grew up among Mongolians and now finds himself helping them beat back the insurgent Jin dynasty. In only his second leading role on the big screen (after the costume martial-arts fantasy Jade Dynasty I 诛仙I, 2019), Chongqing-born Xiao, 33, again manages to look both innocent and ingenuous while cutting a believable figure with his six-foot frame. However, as often in Xu’s movies, he’s outshone in the character stakes by his two female co-stars, Shenyang-born actress-singer Zhuang Dafei 庄达菲, 24, notable in Johnny Keep Walking! 年会不能停！ (2023) and especially Be My Friend 我才不要和你做朋友呢 (2024), and Henan-born newcomer Zhang Wenxin 张文昕, 27, a Xu discovery from an acting training camp he held in 2018.
Guo Jing’s split loyalty between his Chinese side (born a citizen of Song but cast out by the Jin invaders) and his Mongolian side (raised on the northern grasslands, fluent in Mongolian, and regarded as an adopted son by the Great Khan) is made flesh by the two women who love him: Chinese warrior Huang Rong (Zhuang), the plucky daughter of Heretic East, one of the Five Greats of the Middle Land (= China), and Mongolian warrior princess Huazheng (Zhang), daughter of the Great Khan and his friend since childhood. (Inexplicably, she’s wrongly Laing Jiahui, called Huajun in the English subtitles.)
Much of the film’s central section is taken up with the two women and Guo Jing ending up in the huge Mongol base camp but he being unaware that Huang Rong is there and Huazheng unaware that Huang Rong is the woman who threatens her marriage to Guo Jing. Handled with a light touch, this section is almost like a period rom-com sit-com; but the chemistry between the two women is subtly handled and finally combusts in an entertaining duel between the them – prior to, of course, becoming BFFs. Meanwhile, Guo Jing, unaware of all this, goes about his business trying to help the Great Khan defeat the Jin without betraying his Chinese roots.
Hovering in the background as an all-purpose villain who wants to get his hands on the powerful Novem Scripture 九阴真经 to achieve world domination is Ouyang Feng, aka Venom East, another of the Five Greats and here played with full panto-villainy by Hong Kong’s Liang Jiahui 梁家辉 [Tony Leung Ka-fai], unrecognisable below grotesque makeup. He and other super-characters account for a good chunk of the VFX, which otherwise enhance rather than dominate the film. More’s the pity, then, that the climax is let down by an over-long VFX extravaganza of Guo Jing and Ouyang Feng doing battle before massed troops. It’s the one false move (clearly playing to the VFX gallery) in an otherwise nicely paced movie, and could easily be cut by half.
Thankfully the script’s central contradictions are subsequently resolved by a verbal confrontation between Guo Jing and the Great Khan, the latter nicely played throughout the film by Mongolian actor Bayaertu 巴雅尔图 (Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms 封神第一部 朝歌风云, 2023), with a mixture of authority and paternal warmth. Also notable are cameos by Mainland actor Hu Jun 胡军, almost unrecognisable as a jocular martial-arts master who likes his food, and Hong Kong’s Cai Shaofen 蔡少芬 [Ada Choi] as Guo Jing’s mother.
With Xu crediting himself as director, co-creative producer 监制, co-writer, chief production designer, co-stylist and action designer, it’s clearly his movie. What could easily have been a chaotic, episodic chunk of swordplay drama is held together by his sheer mastery of film-making technique, corralling the fluid, mobile camerawork of versatile d.p. Gao Hu 高虎 (better known for comedies like Jianbing Man 煎饼侠, 2015, or I Love You 我要和你在一起, 2022), the silky smooth editing by South Korea’s Yi Mun-ho 이문호 | 李文昊, the striking use of Mongolian hardware, costumes and faces, and above all the terrific, almost continuous score (heroic, pastoral, romantic) by Hong Kong’s Li Yunwen 黎允文 [Henry Lai] and his orchestrator Li Ye 李野. Li Yunwen is a variable composer but here, as in The Lost Bladesman 关云长(2011) and The Climbers 攀登者 (2019), is on top form, making the whole movie flow from start to finish like a broad, mighty river and even incorporating vintage songs by Gu Jiahui 顾嘉辉 [Joseph Koo] and Lu Guanting 卢冠廷 [Lowell Lo]. Recorded in the Czech Republic under conductor Stanislav Vavřínek, the orchestra was composed of only strings and brass, including nine horns.
The film shot for over a year, from Jan 2023 to Mar 2024. During the end credits, which contain extra footage, there are copious hints of a sequel featuring the three main characters. It would, indeed, be a pity to see the characters go, especially Zhuang’s plucky Huang Rong, who also leads a comic group of misfits known as the Beggars’ Clan that could fill a whole separate film.
CREDITS
Presented by China Film Creative (Beijing) (CN), China Film (CN), Zhejiang Hengdian Film (CN), Tianjin Lian Ray Pictures (CN). Produced by Publicity Department of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee (CN), China Film (CN), Lian Ray Pictures (CN), Film Workshop (HK).
Script: Xu Ke [Tsui Hark], Song Xuan. Novel: Jin Yong [Louis Cha]. Photography: Gao Hu. Editing: Yi Mun-ho. Music: Li Yunwen [Henry Lai], Li Ye. Production design: Xu Ke [Tsui Hark], Wu Ming. Costumes: Guo Shumin. Styling: Xu Ke [Tsui Hark], Bayarsaikhan Orgilbayar, Li Bijun. Sound: Yin Jie, Bai Xiaofeng, Zhang Zhen’an, Sun Ce, Steve Burgess. Action design: Xu Ke [Tsui Hark]. Action: Chen Chao, Lin Feng, Ling Fei. Visual effects: Ruo Lin, Xi Mengluo.
Cast: Xiao Zhan (Guo Jing), Zhuang Dafei (Huang Rong), Liang Jiahui [Tony Leung Ka-fai] (Ouyang Feng/Xi Du/Venom West), Zhang Wenxin (Huazheng, princess), Bayaertu (Great Khan), Aruna (Tolui, fourth prince), Cai Shaofen [Ada Choi] (Li Ping, Guo Jing’s mother), Hu Jun (Hong Qigong/Bei Gai/The Northern Beggar), Wu Xingguo (Loyal South/Yideng Dashi/Monk Sole Light), Li Chen (Guo Xiaotian, Guo Jing’s father), Mandakh Naranbaatar (Jebe, Mongolian general), Yitegele (Jochi, first prince), Li Haitao (Chagatai, second prince), Tumen (Ogedai, third prince), Willis (Yelu Chucai, Mongolian minister), Yuan Bin (Liang Ziweng/The Owl), Du Yuming (Shatongtian/The Shark), Shi Yanneng (Peng Lianhu/The Dirty Cat), Xu Minghu (Houtonghai/The Lizard), Li Xinyang (Lingzhishangren/The Mystic One), Sun Jiankui (Lu Youjiao/Elder Lu), Xu Xiangdong (Elder Liang), Wang Yongcheng (Elder Jian), Liu Zhanling (Song Zhangbo), Zhuang Qiqian (Shitou), Xie Guangsong (Ma Yazi), Guo Weichen (Jin Yinlai), Zhang Hongwei (Li, lord), Mengketuoguli (Subutai), Zhang Zhihong (Li, deputy general), Zhao Shuai (Xiaohe), Yan Yongxin (Ke Zhen’e), An Fuqiang (Zhu Cong), Zhang Lei (Han Baoju), Ren Yibin (Nan Xiren), Zhang Qiyu (Quan Jinfa), Jiang Chuan (Han Xiaoying), Yuan Wu (Song, deputy general), Hongtongbatu (Mongolian cavalry commander).
Release: China, 29 Jan 2025.