It all looks good. You’ve got a good cast, the sets are coming up a treat and then presto chango, all of those fantastic elements fail to synthesise into a coherent whole.
So it goes with Derek Yee’s lightweight period romance cum political thriller The Great Magician, which pulls any number of comical and dramatic stunts but just can’t get around to pulling a rabbit of the hat. Having one of the best Hong Kong crime films of the past decade (One Nite in Mongkok) on his directing resume, in addition to being a producer/cinematographer/actor, Yee is a multi-hyphenate all-rounder. In this case, however, his talent just kept the plates spinning, while the show itself crashes to the ground.
The film tells the story of the rather comical General Bully Lei (Lau Ching-wan) in warlord-dominated early 20th Century China, and his seventh wife – and only true love – the recalcitrant Liu Yin (Zhou Xun, recently seen in The Flying Swords at Dragon Gate, but who first captured my imagination in the Vertigo-influenced Suzhou River). On the cusp of doing an arms deal with the Japanese and heavily reliant on the manoeuvres of his double-crossing right-hand man, Liu (Wu Gang), Bully Lei also wields the power of life and death over Yin’s father (Paul Chun) who is being tortured for the secret to the mystical scroll of seven wonders.
According to the China loyalists who seek to liberate Yin’s father, the only man who can set matters right is Master Chang (Tony Leung Chiu-wai of In the Mood for Love fame), a clever illusionist and – just to make things complicated – Yin’s ex-lover who abandoned her years before. Using his skills as a magician, Master Chang sets about with a plan to kidnap the unsuspecting General for a potential swap for Yin’s father.
It’s a complex mixture that could have been a clever drama, but playing most of the scenario for laughs sabotages the story so thoroughly that the only magical thing about this 'comedy’ is that it makes any sense at all.
Tony Leung is a clever actor with sufficient gravitas that his foes don’t have to be complete buffoons to be outwitted by him. Lau Ching-wan is a charming clown, but a sudden (albeit temporary) switch into a murdering swine is unconvincing. The pair seems to be auditioning as a comic double act, but their acting styles jar. Despite the humorous tone, Zhou maintains the stung moroseness of a jilted Marlene Dietrich, though she fails to deliver putdowns with any conviction of her moral superiority to the men around her. At times, the film feels like a poorly conceived copy of the more manic, less sensible, but more entertaining Let the Bullets Fly. In contrast to that film, Yee just can’t seem to get the lightning in the bottle. Every scene feels like a missed opportunity.
A couple of cameos provide distraction (director Tsui Hark is a hook- handed warlord, while handsome Daniel Wu has a brief moment as a soldier), but it’s the fleetingly seen child and grandfather double act who speak in rhyming Mandarin couplets as they gather crowds for street performers who are the most memorable of the background players.
