Xanda

I picked this up from a flea market for three reasons: 1. Asian movies aren't the most commond find around here, 2. it was cheap, and 3. IT'S MARTIAL ARTS, MAN!!

The box description led me to expect something scary brutal, like heads flying in the ring... but the movie was actually quite tame. Especially in the beginning there's a lot of humour. I suppose that's a tradition in Chinese kung fu movies, that there is fighting but also funny moments. Towards the end the movie gets a little more intense because there's more fighting. The thing I liked the most was that the fighting scenes were very nicely shot, with a lot of cool camera angles. The kind of material that would be perfect in a music video!

As a whole the film seemed a bit unmemorable to me. Nothing really special about it. If you like movies with boxing or other fighting sport in the ring, then you will probably enjoy it to some extent. But if you miss it, you won't miss really that much.

Our handsome hero Qiang has to punch and thwap and slap and kick his way to prizewinning super-stardom in this Chinese Rocky road to get the money to pay for his pal's operation. As clichéd as all that sounds for westerners like me who do not see many kick-boxing films made in china proper, XANDA is reasonably interesting in a cross cultural way. Modern as 2003 China can be and with romance, pals in peril, beefy cool hero and bleach blond nemesis (like in Blade Runner or Rocky 3), XANDA intersperses training heroics with kick-boxing pussycat fights, some roving camera romance scenes, an exasperated girlfriend and the big tournament that will see fist and flying fur and glistening muscles etc.... and the music in the DVD I sat though sounded like it was from a Faye Dunaway soap opera movie of the mid 70s. If it all sounds a bit gay, well it is, and might make great moving macho wallpaper in a gay bar, with Kylie or Madonna music tunes played over the thwacketty thwaps on the soundtrack. Probably XANDA also good for teens who have not seen Rocky but want to study Asian kick-boxing... with a 'do not try this at home' disclaimer. I think the film was not very successful in China, hence me finding it for $1 in a bargain bin in Chinatown Sydney.

XANDA is probably a better movie than it has any right to be. The leading man is brand new, there are no big stars, and the script is too brisk, cutting necessary exposition in favor of a fast pace. And yet XANDA hits all the right buttons, giving some excellent martial arts sequences in combination with some effective romance between the two young leads. Leading man Sang Wei-Lin is a revelation, and Xanda, the fighting style featured in the movie, looks like the style of the future. It's fast, ferocious, and powerful. My only complaint is that the film is too short. Other than that, XANDA puts a film with a similar premise, Daniel Lee's STAR RUNNER, to shame.

7 out of 10

(go to NIXFLIX.COM for a more detailed review)

Xanda is the story of Qiang (Weilin Sang), a countryside kung fu master who moves to a big city to pursue his dreams. There he gets introduced to Xanda, or Sanda as it is more popularly known, a modern Chinese fighting style developed in the early 1900s. And of course he gets pulled in and eventually gets a shot at the crown title match.

What this film lacks is a red thread running throughout it all. Its story is hard to follow and is generally all over the place. At first we don't even know which characters are alive and which are not because the film keeps jumping back and forth in time so much. Eventually we figure out that this character is supposed to be dead and because of that this character acts the way they do, but it's much too little much too late.

It's also very... Rocky Balboa -ish. Like, this whole film is basically Rocky I in modern China. It's not quite beat for beat, but it's uncomfortably close. Sure, the Rocky film are the quintessential boxing films, but you still can't copy them quite this blatantly and not expect to be called out on it.

All that being said, this film had its moments, mostly whenever it didn't try to be a martial arts sports film.

This is like a Rocky clone.

What i like: the film character is very realistic and the situation is on par with the real world and not the fake Hollywood crap. For one thing, the main character is very influence by western and not that kind of hero we see. He like an ordinary person with a dream of getting a car, cellphone etc. Some Tsui Hark filming which is solely missing since he's stop acting. The fighting was awesome and entertaining and very realistic too.

What i hate: The acting was pretty bad, the over the top fighting, they should make it more like Rocky camera angle and not keep moving around. The cantonese dubbing was pretty horrible. Also the acting (which i heard they are real life xanda fighter and not actors) was pretty bad, but i can't blame them. The film look low budget, has a Tsui Hark film it should look something glamorous and not like those Fruit Chan film (not that his movie are boring, in fact i love Fruit Chan movie).

Of course Rocky was a much better film, but this movie was at least not boring.