Wu Dang [Blu-ray]

Treasure hunting in 1920's China
"Wu Dang" takes place in 1920's China. There is a rumor that secret treasure is hidden in Wu Dang Mountain. An American man, greedy for gold and riches, brings his daughter, a prodigy in martial arts, to compete for a championship title in kung fu combat, while planning to find and steal the riches for himself. It won't be easy. Fierce competition, dedicated protectors, and unexpected romance block the path to the Wu Dang fortune. The closer the treasure hunter gets to his prize, the more elusive it becomes.

This is strictly a movie for martial-arts fans. There is plenty of well-staged action, a simple plot, and passable visual effects. In Mandarin, with English subtitles, the movie begins promisingly enough, but soon sinks under the weight of a weak script.

There is a making-of featurette on the Blu-ray release.

Interesting Cast, Nice Production Design, Average Action and ... Poor Storytelling
With costumes by Oscar-winning designer Emi Wada, "Wu Dang" is a martial arts action movie that looks great, but lacks in most other ways.

Tang Yunlong (Vincent Zhao) is a treasure-hunting archaeology professor and martial arts fighter trying to locate seven artifacts and one holy sword. Tang Yulong and his daughter Tang Ning (Xu Jiao, who was Stephen Chow's young "son" in "CJ7") travel to a monastery in Wudang Mountains, where a martial arts tournament is about to be held. But there are other warriors looking for the same treasure, including a beautiful female fighter Tianxin (Yang Mi).

The story, which is set in a fictional China in the 1910s, looks like a cross between "Indiana Jones" and "Dragon Ball." Directed by Patrick Leung, the adventure film starts pretty well, but loses its momentum when the competition gets under way. With one dimensional personalities and non-existent back-story of characters, the film does not know what story it is trying to...

watch for fight scenes only
This film reminds me of the line from The Godfather: "Don't insult my intelligence." Michael Corleone would have definitely given this film the Don's kiss of disapproval. The storytelling is so bad it seems intentional. It hurt my brain to watch the plot crash around like it did. It would have been more graceful to have the actors tie their shoelaces together and trip over their own feet instead of saying their lines.

For the most part, I found fight scenes to be good and enjoyable to watch. But no swordfighting for Vincent Zhao? He is unrivaled with the sword, yet the only times he picks one up in this flick is (1) to break into pieces and (2) scrub the rust off. For most of the rest of the movie he's running around playing Indiana Jones.

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