THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR is a
Chinese folk tale moved to the 1600s to resonate
with the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the rise of
the Manchus. The cinematography is terrific, the
story is okay, but the dialog and the fighting
scenes are the usual Hong Kong hokum. This would
have been a better film if it had been more about
the history. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to
+4) (Also included are comments about THE BRIDE
WITH WHITE HAIR II)
The historic backdrop for THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR by itself would have made a better film than THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR did. What makes this an interesting film is something that will be missed by viewers of the film with little knowledge of Chinese history. The fantasy is the story of Yi-Hang who appears in the film as a friend of Wu San-kuei. They are two men who will react very similarly in different but parallel struggles. Each will betray people who depend on him and in each case it will be for the love of a woman. Supposedly the story of the film is an old folktale, but to play up the thematic similarities to actual history it is set in the 1640s with only a few brief references to what was happening with Wu San-kuei. Here is a quick summary of what was happening.
For too long the Ming Dynasty had ruled selfishly and had sown the seeds of their own destruction. A whole class of hangers-on--60,000 people all claiming to be part of the royal family--were supported at public expense, impoverishing the peasants. They did little for their keep but collect taxes. Whole families would go first into debt and then into slavery in their own villages. Public suicides were common. In 1628 there was a famine in the Northwest and out of it rose a rebel leader, Li Tzu-ch'eng. The people could take no more, and a peasant army rose up under the leadership of Li Tzu-ch'eng and captured Northern China in 1642 and Beijing in 1644. The Ming Emperor committed suicide, but his army for the most part stayed loyal to the Mings.
Both Wu San-Kuei and his father had been military commanders for the dying Ming Dynasty. They had been charged with repelling the powerful Manchus, the descendents of the Mongols, wanting to sweep back into China. What was stopping the Manchus was the Great Wall and the tactical difficulty of getting past its army defenses.
But Li's rebel army had captured Wu's father to hold as a hostage. Then adding to Wu's pain they captured his favorite concubine. So the peasants, the Manchus, and the Mings were each trying to take control of China. Li offered a Wu San-kuei a truce with the Mings and an alliance to push back the Manchus. But Wu's hatred was so great now he wanted no part of an alliance the peasant army. Li attacked Wu. Wu made his alliance with the Manchus. He opened the Great Wall gates at Shanhaikuan and allowed the Manchus to enter China on the promise they would help defeat Li's rebellion and if they had power would allow the elite to retain their privileges. Perhaps Li felt he could control the Manchus or perhaps his hatred of the peasants who captured two people he loved was just too great. But he let the Manchus into China, and it was like ringing the dinner bell. The peasants held Beijing for just a month before they were crushed by the combined might of the Mings and the Manchus. Then suddenly it was just the Mings and the Manchus vying for the country. Soon the Ch'ing Dynasty of Manchus were China and they remained China for 267 years until 1911. Wu San-kuei had indeed changed the course of history, but only to open the door for one dynasty to defeat another.
THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR is purportedly based on an older folktale, but is retold against the backdrop of the falling of the Ming. Wu San-kuei shows up briefly in both THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR and its sequel, THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR II. His story runs simultaneously and parallel to that of Yi-Hang who would be called a traitor to the eight good clans who form the Wu Tang. He would be accused of unleashing the forces of a very different evil.
Yi-Hang was just a young boy, but already a student of martial arts, when he was chased and nearly killed by wolves. What saved his life was a girl about his own age who seemed to have the ability to command the wolves. For years she remained just a memory. In typical martial arts film fashion Yi-Hang (Leslie Cheung as an adult) grows up frequently getting into trouble usually through no fault of his own. But his virtue and his martial arts skill get him out of any problem. He becomes the best fighter of the eight Wu Tang clans. But there is trouble for the eight clans coming from an evil rival clan, the Chi Wu Shuang, led by a somewhat unique pair of evil sorcerers. What they are I will not describe, but clearly magic was involved in their origins since it is a biological impossibility. But their secret weapon is a third and powerful sorcerer, the beautiful woman, Lian Nichang (played by Brigitte Lin) who uses her hair to entangle her enemies. Yi-hang finds Lian bathing in the woods and recognizes her as the wolf-girl of his youth. He falls in love with her, or realizes that he has loved her since she was a child. But she is of the rival clan threatening to destroy the Wu Tang. We have a sort of Romeo and Juliet story of the love between these two martial artists.
The story does not have a lot to offer that we have not seen before. And the martial arts fighting is augmented by special effects and by modifying the camera speed. So the fighting we see is about as believable as the story. What makes this film worth going out of ones way to see is the photography. In spite of the fighting and the blood, this is something of an art film just for the stunning visuals. Director Ronny Yu apparently wanted to give this film a unique look that is a visual feast. The film's rich use of colors, the beautiful costuming, and the art direction are just terrific and make up for a multitude of other sins. The cinematographer is Peter Pau and he did more to create this mythic film than anyone else involved. THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR really deserves to be seen for the rich visual imagery. I rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR II continues the story ten years later. But the relationship it bears to its predecessor is a lot like SON OF FRANKENSTEIN bore to THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. It has the same director, it even has the same actors, but the creativity is all gone. Instead of being about mythic characters, the film is about people who know the mythic characters. Lian Nichang is no longer a three- dimensional character but has been reduced effectively to being a monster (again parallel to the FRANKENSTEIN films). I do not know who the cinematographer was but I could bet that it was not Peter Pau. Blue filters are over-used to try and recapture some of the look of the first film, but too much of the magic has gone out of the story. I rate THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR II a 4 on the 0 to 10 scale and a low 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1999 Mark R. Leeper
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