The narrative unfolds in 1920s Tianjin where a well-known wushu instructor is on the bed ready to breathe his last. We see chairman Meng supervising the academy, alongside witnessing a duel between Shen the master’s son, and Qi, both of whom are over the age of 18. Shen loses the duel but his father never had any such hopes pinned for him to be a martial artist, instead, he intended for him to work a regular 9-5 job at the bank. But it was Qiang who wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, while the Qiang swept the floors at the bank, his father was constantly trying to shove his dreams up Qian’s throat. The dwindling in fighting saw the involvement of local street thugs and other groups which made the feud even more jaw dropping, leaving behind so many rules, including the most important one which was to never fight in public.
The reason that local wushu leaders are furious, and everyone else involved is in a worse position than before.
A rather modern action movie based on martial arts is co-directed and co-written by Xu Haofeng and Xu Junfeng. It is a rather unorthodox action film that borders on film noir and western genres while still abiding by the norms of wuxia. Looking at the prior as a reason, the director’s evolution has a tinge of how HK action drama would usually unfold with a bit of tradition. The film is richly endowed with the legacy of wuxia, including the idea of the younger disciple of the martial arts school competing with the older apprentice, secret techniques and unusual arms.
Another compelling dimension of the narrative is how women fit into the overall story embedding suspense, femme fatales, or beauties in mainstream action Xia An Shen’s girlfriend who lies between betrayal and the past, plays a very key role in one of the most inventive plots where deceit and storytelling take the front seat.
So, at the very beginning, my attention was caught quite actively by the performance of Bea Hayden Kuo in this film as she respects her role of a femme fatale and even a victim too. She effortlessly switches roles while portraying Shiyi as Gui Ying. Mark that her versatility has outdone her previous performance. In contrast to the previous too stylish characters Wah Yuen played with sharp precision Li Yuan as Chairman Meng is also impressive in her excess of speech on the role of women in today’s society. There is also a critique which attempts to highlight the disparity in status of women in a fully developed society with the male characters of the film. And still, the female heroes in the plot perform the dominant role of a romantic melodrama which is also interesting, both as a chronotope of the story, and as the beginning of action proper.
Watching the two main antagonists Shen An played by Jacky Heung and Qui Quan by Andy On in all their different interactions, both quarrels and friendly, is also enjoyable as they bring out a dangerous sense by performing cool and sometimes surrealistic stunts so convincingly and artistically.
But since ‘100 Yards’ is a martial arts film, just like any other Wuxia movie, it is 100 yards of action. The movie is centered around fighting.
Hence it is correct to say that Duncan Leung’s martial arts choreography, the stunts and the main characters complement for a sequence of well made scenes, only that this time the one placed in a blizzard and a few of the ones in the final stands parallel in the realms of being over-stylized and as such, even more appealing to look at. In this respect Shao Dan’s photography is perhaps the best part of the movie, the ultra stylist approach really here in this case serves the purpose. Both of these, the action scenes and the overall visual effect which the movie contains, have been stunning. Equally noteworthy is the excellent work done in the music and the sound in general where the western influence is present as a Canadian being the most here. Lastly Kong Jinglei’s cutting does leave the pacing upbeat and even swifter during the action parts seamlessly fitting the film outlook.
“100 Yards” showcases an astounding film experience, a wonderful collaboration and well executed vision of what Wong Kar-Wai along with Hou Hsia-Hsen set out on their deconstruction with, however in this specific case, it appears that the same amount of overall appeal has been achieved through both style and action which would appeal to a wide range of martial arts enthusiasts.
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