This past Tuesday, director Derek Yee’s romantic fantasy actioner, The Great Magician, debuted on blu-ray from Well Go USA. The film, which is adapted from Zhang Haifan’s novel, stars Tony Leung as Zhang Xian, a great magician who arrives into town to open a magic show but with a secret mission of rescuing his old flame Yin (Zhou Xun) from the warlord Bully Lei (Lau Cihng-wan). Bully’s lieutenant uses magic to recruit people into joining Bully’s army with the ulterior motive of restoring the Qing dynasty to its former glory and destroy the republic that replaced it. Bully also uses magic to woo Yin, who he loves and wants to make her his seventh wife, but she wants nothing to do with Bully since she doesn’t know where her father is and he won’t’ force her to marry him. When Zhang shakes things up in the village and an attempt to kidnap Bully goes wrong, Zhang and Bully enter a battle of wits in order to win the love of Yin while also trying to prevent a hostile takeover of the village by the Japanese and the Qing revolutionaries.
The trailer for The Great Magician is interesting but the movie was far different from what I expected and ended up being a real joy to watch. What makes the film so much fun is the ridiculous personality of Bully, his infatuation with Yin and every interaction he has with Zhang. Zhang’s personality is the exact opposite; he’s clever, shows restraint and knows how to create the perfect illusions (or lies) to get by. Zhang uses Bully to get to Yin but Yin seems to want nothing to do with either, making the exchanges between all three hilarious and semi-reminiscent of the film This Means War. I ended up giggling quite a bit throughout the film at how absurd some of it was but my ability to let my inhibitions go allowed me to sit back and enjoy what Yee dished out to us.
Visually, The Great Magician is beautiful and the blu-ray quality makes sure you notice it. The effects work is pretty good, there are a ton of vibrant colors and all of the magical sequences are wonderful to watch. Even if it seems a little repetitive at times, you’re able to overlook it because Zhang dishes out some tricks you’ve never seen before in a magic show, making you feel like you’re actually part of the audience. It’s Leung’s great acting chops and Lau’s charisma that keep you locked into the film while the beauty keeps your eyes’ hunger for beauty satisfied.
The issue that most people will find with the film is the introduction of so many characters and plot lines within the first half hour. For some it might be really tough to figure out what is actually happening, who is important, and what the main objective of the film is. Additionally, Yin, the main interest of both our leads, isn’t anything special and her flat and calm delivery makes her very uninteresting to the audience despite how much our leads love her.
Overall, I believe The Great Magician is a film that can appeal to the folks looking for some easy entertainment even if the plot is a bit more convoluted than most mainstream fantasy period love films are. This is a film that prides itself on being happy go-luck, high spirited, and offering a joyous spectacle for the viewers which is why I enjoyed it. In fact, the movie is ripe for an English remake and would probably be PG or PG-13, it’s that fun, family friendly and generally appealing even if I’m in the minority about its quality.
As for the bonus features, the film comes with a Making the Magic 38 minute behind the scenes featurette and a trailer for the film. The featurette is pretty fun and contains short segments of interviews with most of the principal cast and crew who offer their thoughts on the production.
Movie Rating: A funny love story masked behind the illusions of a great magician and an attempted political takeover (6/10)
Blu-ray Rating: Very light on bonus features but at least the movie looks sharp (4/10)
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