MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Bride’ Is a Delightful Martial Arts Romance

“The Bride With White Hair” (Monica 4-Plex), aswirl with color and movement, is the period martial arts fantasy at its most romantic--and a textbook example of the virtues of taking genre material seriously. It has the look and feel of a sophisticated comic-book adventure, yet it is also genuinely poignant as well as witty and amusing. In drawing upon an ancient love story in Chinese literature director, Ronnie Yu and his co-writers reveal just how rich the possibilities are within the vital Hong Kong cinema.

On a promontory on a snow-covered mountainside a man guards a single rose--it blooms only every 20 years--which possesses the power to restore life to the dying. A contingent of men have come to obtain the rose for the ailing emperor, but the man tells them he is saving it for someone else. Soon we’ve moved a decade back in time, when the man, Zhou Yihang (Leslie Chung), is the heir apparent to his mentor, the chief of the eight traditional martial arts clans in Chung Yuan, the heartland of China.

Zhou’s bright future is forever changed with a chance encounter with the beautiful Lian Nichang (Brigitte Lin), as skilled as he is in the martial arts. Raised by wolves, she unfortunately had subsequently been adopted by crazed, extravagantly decadent Siamese twins, a brother and sister (Ng Chun-Yu, Lui Sau-Ling), who head an outlawed clan and have formed a cult around themselves. It doesn’t help matters that the brother is in love with Nichang.

“The Bride With White Hair” unfolds amid the most magnificent sets and costumes as a kind of martial arts “Romeo and Juliet” as Zhou and Nichang discover they cannot deny their love for each other despite the fact they belong to enemy clans. Its most inspired touch occurs when Zhou, transformed by love, starts to question the eight clans’ constant warring with peaceful foreign tribes.

Yu directs with passion and authority, shaping action sequences, sensual love scenes and campy bacchanals at the Siamese twins’ court into a stunning, lyrical whole. “The Bride With White Hair” is fun, lively yet exquisitely tender, suffused, finally, with a sweet sadness.

‘The Bride With White Hair’

Leslie Cheung: Zhou Yihang Brigitte Lin: Lian Nichang Ng Chun-Yu: Ji Wu Shang (Siamese male twin Lui Sau-Ling: Ji Wu Shang (Siamese female twin)

A Rim Films release of an Eastern Films (Singapore) production. Director Ronnie Yu. Producers Yu, Clifton Ko. Screenplay by David Wu, Jason Lam, Tang Pik-Yin, Ronnie Yu. Cinematographer Peter Bao. Editor David Wu. Costumes Cheung Sun-Yiu. Music Richard Yu. Production designer/art director Eddie Ma. Sound Ng Jae-Do. In Cantonese, with English and Chinese subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes.

Times-rated Mature (some lovemaking, standard martial arts violence). Times guidelines: mature themes and style; rather subtle sexual scenes.