Chen Kaige's new film is not the first to make me wonder why I didn't give up on the director long ago.

Monk Comes Down the Mountain continues his losing streak, turning a well-reviewed Republican-era novel into a poorly structured, illogical martial arts story that descends into farce.

The 120-minute movie follows the adventures of unworldly young monk He Anxia (Wang Baoqiang) after he leaves his famine-stricken mountaintop temple to make a living in the world below.

The first-third of the film shows He's coming of age, as he becomes the disciple of surgeon Cui Daoning (Fan Wei), tries to find out what he longs for and reflects upon his past. This section veers between the ridiculous and the boring, but at least it helps build interest in the titular monk's story.

However, He is then relegated to an observer for the second-third of the film, which depicts a struggle between Peng Qianwu (Yuen Wah), the cruel and shrewd head of a martial arts school, and the peerless but detached Zhou Xiyu (Aaron Kwok Fu-shing).

Even in the last third of the film, which follows He on a quest to track down Zhou's partner, Mr Cha (Chang Chen), our lead feels almost superfluous. He falls flat as a sidekick that fails to make real connections with any other characters, or display any character development. In sum, the best supporting role goes to the lead actor.

A scene from the film

Further flaws

The film falls foul of Chen's two biggest vices - moralizing, which is a long-time favorite of his, and trying to ingratiate himself to the audience, which is a habit he picked up more recently. Caught in the Web (2012) was already a good example of the latter, but this film is in its own league.

Chen's efforts to please the audience are clear in his choice of what to excise from the complex source material. Unsurprisingly, the more titillating elements remain. He orchestrates a bromance between Zhou and Cha, the latter who is a minor character of the novel, falling in line with the current fad in Chinese entertainment for homoeroticism.

But he does this clumsily. A flimsily conceived war zone seems to exist solely to provide an excuse for prolonged physical contact between the two as they shelter from incoming bombs. Other unsubtleties include a parting conversation resembling that of Brokeback Mountain (2005), that has zero emotional impact.

Chen also overextends in his attempts to make the film fun and edgy, with mix-and-match costumes and crazy hairstyles. At least they help distract from the clunky story line.

Chen packages the film with his iconic pseudo-intellectual preaching by having a Buddhist master (Wang Xueqi) take up the part-time job of spiritual tutor to deliver speeches of amusingly pretentious nonsense soaked in overused concepts and a comical air of mystery. As in The Promise (2005), Chen wants to teach a lesson that is fundamentally simple, but ends up doing it poorly.



Action heroics

The film does have a few great action scenes. The duel between Peng and Zhou is gripping from start to end. When a battle takes place between police and Cha, the director cleverly combines martial arts movements and Peking Opera singing to achieve a well-paced and beautiful scene.

For those who lamented over Chan Chang's small presence in Wong Kar-wai's Republican-era martial arts film The Grandmaster (2013), these few minutes are a real treat.

But making comparisons between this film and The Grandmaster immediately highlights Chen's incompetence in leading the actors. Unlike Zhang Yimou, who continues to mix new faces with established actors, both Wong and Chen stick to an all-star casting.

Yet, while Wong manages to develop what was latent in the northeastern cross talk celebrities and find a convincing place for them in his sophisticated world, Chen is content with hiring new and old partners to play what they are known for - Wang, an uncouth nobody; Lin Chi-ling, a sexual fantasy; and Chang Chen, a rebel.

It is lazy directing and intensifies doubts about whether Chen will ever regain his former glory.

A poster for the film Photos: CFP

Everyone's a critic

Mr Hei

32, IT

"For the last decade the audience has been questioning whether Farewell My Concubine (1993) was ghost-directed, and this film will continue that rumor for its weak story line and inconsistency. It is full of platitudes and not-so-clever drama."

Ann

20, student

"It is a pain to watch a film without much substance that aims to be meaningful and recondite at the same time. Every time the Buddhist master begins talking, I feel I am faced with a vendor of chicken soup for the soul. I paid attention to the English subtitles of his speeches, which appear all the more pretentious - I guess they might appeal to those attracted to so-called Oriental wisdom and philosophy."

Yang Tao

28, editor

"Chen is still respectable in terms of the use of camera, the design of scenes and casting. I am not a fan of the over-sentimentalism in some of the story, but overall it is intense and exciting."