The White Dragon (2004)

Thanks for the memories!

People are voting emotionally.

Brilliant and touching

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Honestly the general story or theme of the movie is pretty good. I had feeling for the characters, there persona, especially Chickin Feathers. But there some things that bothered me in it also. First of all, what is the thing about Chinese incorporating flying in there martial arts. The Chinese kung fu itself is beautiful and grace full, they could do awesome martial arts movie whiteout adding stuff like that. I have a lot of trouble getting in the fights with this style. If i watch a sci-fy movie, i know there is gonna be stuff not possible, but a martial arts movie, i need it to seem at least with possible movement. I don't mind 1 or 2 wired shot, like Romeo Must Die or Jet Li's Fearless, but well... not a whole fight. Second the whole "computer stuff" ... what was that? Stupid. And finally, for a movie with martial arts in the synopsis, there is not much of it... There like 3 short fights in the whole movie... It felt way more like a drama than a martial arts movie. I don't say drama is not good, its just that the advertising seem wrong for me. But like i said, the story part, the "drama part" if you will was pretty good. It only needed a little more polishing on the fights, maybe 2 or 3 mores too, and the "comedy" aspect didn't felt at the right place at all.

This movie seemed promising, following in the wake of movies like House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden dragon, this movie seemed to follow in their footsteps. Already a few minutes into the movie, I find that I am partially right, the wire-work and choreography is clearly inspired by previously mentioned movies, however, the quality of said elements lacks the dance-like qualities Crouching tiger, Hidden dragon and Flying daggers had, and the tempo makes it less enjoyable to view. The movie has some interesting camera use, but it doesn't reach the sophisticated level of the two previously mentioned movies.This movie clearly shows how eastern movie-making becomes heavily influenced by western ideas of how a movie is supposed to be made. Roughly the first half hour of this movie could just as well have been an American college-movie moved to a Dynasty era China. The dialog and thematics are heavily modernized. You even hear some modern expressions and one asiafied American brand name, if this is supposed to be a joke, or very poorly disguised product placement, I don't know.The plot is strikingly similar to any American romantic comedy, and the ending fails to surprise with anything, except exceeding all limits for exactly how happy it can be, almost to the point where it becomes parodic, but not quite.All in all, I feel that this movie had promised me another Flying Daggers, but ended up giving me an Asiatic movie that tried too hard to appeal to a western audience, and ended up turning silly, possibly even provoking for fans of Asian movie-making.

Saw this on a double bill with "Springtime in a Small Town".What an odd pairing!"Springtime" was a deliberately paced, beautiful period piece and "The White Dragon" was an in-your-face laugh riot.Another movie patron warned me that I would be wasting my time, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. Never laughed so hard at an Asian film!A lot of sight gags but Francis Ng's over the top performance won me over. Cecilia Cheung does a credible job as his foil.Certainly not "high art", but if you desire a little levity and silliness, you won't be disappointed.The late afternoon-evening that I spent watching these two films is one of my favorite solo adult experiences, so they'll always hold a place in my heart.

When I saw Cecilia Cheung for the first time in The Legend of Zu (2001), I was immediately struck (if not smitten) by her beauty, and I hurriedly started looking for her in other movies. After a bunch of modern-day dramas (slightly boring, truth be told), she's finally back in a fantasy martial arts epic, looking better than ever.I was immensely thrilled to find White Dragon, and I was elated as I saw the first twenty minutes of it. There is so much cool action, so many great laughs; so much delightful entertainment.The rest of the movie is not bad, but it slows down a great deal to focus on building up the love story. It has many of the same plot elements that other Asian movies of this type has; someone is blind (yet a superb kung fu master), the girl is betrothed to another but can't help falling in love with the hero (yes, just like in House of Flying Daggers), and the love story completely takes over the movie after about a half-hour opening of great action and comedy (the great 2002 comedy Chinese Odyssey had the exact same structure). This is a little disappointing; one would really have liked the action and comedy to be sustained throughout the movie.However, it's still an uproariously entertaining, beautiful and funny movie, and the actors all do an amazing job.8 out of 10.