Hollywood has Saving Private Ryan, and now Asian film buffs have Saving General Yang. The two films operate on the same general concept – a group of brave fighters head into enemy territory to bring one person back to safety. Curiously, Ronny Yu’s action blockbuster never quite manages to grab hold of the heart the way Steven Spielberg does when he sends Tom Hanks out looking for Matt Damon, even though his story is about a set of seven sons intent on rescuing their father from certain death. But Yu does at least make up for the lack of emotional connection by packing his film with several fantastically choreographed action sequences.
General Yang (Adam Cheng), a righteous, experienced military strategist, suffers a setback in the court of his Emperor due to his sixth son’s (Wu Chun) ill-fated decision to fight for the love of the princess. Thereafter, General Yang is sent to the frontlines of a battle with the encroaching Khitan clan. When he’s trapped there by his vengeful opponent Yelu Yuan (Shao Bing), his devoted wife (Xu Fan) dispatches his seven sons – led by Eldest Brother (Ekin Cheng) – to fetch him home.
The stakes are clearly huge for the entire Yang clan – and yet, the emotional weight of their predicament never quite feels real, largely because character development tends to get swept away in favour of spectacle. Only three (or so) of the seven brothers display characteristics that differentiate them from the rest of the pack. Even then, it’s not their personalities that set them apart so much as a weapon (the quiver of arrows belonging to Vic Chou’s Third Brother) or a particular skill (the medical expertise of Raymond Lam’s Fifth Brother) they possess.
Yu’s cast is an impressive gathering of testosterone, and they all valiantly imbue their characters with stony-faced gravitas. Both Adam and Ekin Cheng come off well, father and son burdened by a responsibility to the name they all bear. With the film pivoting around his character’s romantic exploits, Wu proves more impressive as the narrative progresses – his final fight is bruising, devastating, and wonderfully choreographed for maximum impact.
In fact, Saving General Yang is largely saved by its fantastic action sequences. Working with veteran action choreographer Dong Wei, Yu lines up climactic showdown after climactic showdown, whether it’s entire armies charging at each other, or just two men engaging in a no-holds-barred sword fight. Almost every one of the main characters gets a moment to shine in battle, but it’s Chou who tumbles away with the most impressive scene, a balletic confrontation between two master archers in a golden wheat field.
Yu has been missing from the movie scene for seven years, after taking an unfortunate ten-year detour into Hollywood slasher flicks (think Bride Of Chucky) and making the moderately successful Fearless with Jet Li way back in 2006. It’s good to see him back on form – kind of – with Saving General Yang, which is a solid, grounded, good movie, if not a particularly heartfelt one.
Basically: Oddly, this movie about seven sons setting out to save their patriarch isn’t as heartrending as it should be, but it’s still solidly put together and a really rather good action movie.
Written for F*** Magazine
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