The Myth

Year:2005
Director:Stanley Tong Kwai-Lai
Cast:Jackie Chan, Kim Hee-Sun, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Mallika Sherawat, Yu Rong-Guang, Choi Min-Soo, Patrick Tam Yiu-Man, Ken Wong Hap-Hei, Sun Zhou, Shao Bing, Jin Song, Ken Lo Wai-Kwong, Hayama Hiro
Description:
Calling
The Myth a good movie is a tough thing to do,
because it's not really a movie. The Myth is
actually two movies intertwined into a questionably
coherent time-spanning plotline that works better
in concept than in execution. Jackie Chan takes on
two roles; some of the time, he's a Qin Dynasty-era
general named Meng Yi, and the rest of the time, he's
Meng Yi's reincarnation, archaeologist Jack Lee. Basically,
what happened in the past fuels the plot in the present,
but the parts don't work as well as advertised. Still,
The Myth provides welcome flashes of Jackie
Chan's trademark cinematic panache - and even manages
to throw in a surprise or two. The film is also cheesy
and occasionally embarrassing, and features a SFX-enhanced
ending that's best left to a standard Hollywood
wannabe film. Sadly, you can't win them all.
When we're first introduced
to Jackie Chan, he's playing General Meng Yi. A supreme
leader and warrior, Meng Yi is assigned to receive
the Emperor's latest wife, a Korean princess named
Ok Soo, played by Korean megastar Kim Hee-Sun. Ok
Soo's union with the Emperor isn't heavily popular
with some Korean nationals, including General Choi
, who attacks Ok Soo's entourage to
get his point across. In the ensuing melee, Ok Soo
is endangered, and Meng Yi and his superpowered horse
manage to save her, but not without
getting cut off from the rest of the Chinese army.
Ok Soo and Meng Yi are stranded and must journey back
to China alone, during which romance blooms and the
overbearing orchestral score swells.
Meanwhile in the present,
archaeologist Jack Lee finds himself dreaming of his
past life and his love for Ok Soo...though he has
no idea it's his former life. Currently, Jack is involved
in a deal with scientist pal William . The
two are investigating meteorite fragments that possess
gravity-defying abilities. Basically, the rocks can
make things float, and there's a coffin in Dasar,
India that's proof of this special power. However,
in raiding the tomb, Jack stumbles upon a painting
of Ok Soo and an ancient sword that likely belonged
to Meng Yi. Past and present collide, and Jack soon
finds himself chasing a dream that may actually be
reality. Plus there's time-outs for comedy, Jackie
Chan-style action, a voluptuous yoga-practioner named
Samantha , and even
more flashbacks to ancient times. Somewhere in there,
there's content that's actually supposed to wring
some emotion out of the audience. Emotion in a Jackie
Chan film? No way.
Yes, way. Director Stanley
Tong and Jackie Chan have gone on record stating that
The Myth is meant to be a departure from the
usual Jackie Chan norm - and it is. Sometimes. The
present day story features the typical Jackie Chan
stuff, i.e. a mixture of stilted exposition, amusing
action and prop sequences, and uneven comedy that
would probably be funnier if it were dubbed. Chan's
Jack Lee is your typical nice-guy Chan character,
and is ultimately as interesting as that uncle you
see once a year at Christmastime. This is standard
post-nineties Jackie Chan stuff, and fun for what
it is. Tony Leung Ka-Fai plays an amusing "dope"
character, and Mallika Sherawat is supreme eye candy,
if nothing else. At its best, the modern day scenes
play like a kinder, gentler version of the original
Armour of God. At its worst, the scenes are
like leftovers from The Accidental Spy. Thankfully,
nothing here is as bad as anything in The Medallion.
The modern-day scenes are
a far cry from the Qin Dynasty-era stuff, and the
effect can be heavily jarring. While the present-day
scenes can be eager-to-please and throwaway, the sequences
set in the past go straight for the heartstrings.
Meng Yi's ill-fated romance with Ok Soo is given mega
importance, and the romantic sequences are presented
in a disturbingly bombastic way. Stanley Tong punctuates
every gooey scene with a swelling orchestral score
that's overbearing and damn near laughable. If the
romantic scenes work at all, it's because the insanely
beautiful Kim Hee-Sun manages compelling emotions,
plus Chan looks appropriately tortured as the conflicted
Meng Yi . Regardless,
the filmmakers wield a pretty heavy hammer for the
emotional moments - and they're not afraid to use
it. Subtlety, thy name is not Stanley Tong.
However, the scenes
in the past do yield the film's best surprises. Unlike
his usual "aw shucks" good guys, Jackie
Chan cuts a surprisingly heroic and even tragic figure
as Meng Yi. Chan gives the character a world-weary
honor that's quite effective, especially during the
harrowing battle sequences that reveal Meng Yi's ultimate
fate. Much of The Myth is set against true
Qin Dynasty lore, and while a sense of pageantry may
be missing, Tong and Chan do get the most out of their
Ancient China settings. Chan still engages in some
nimble fisticuffs, but Meng Yi is weighed down by
his sword, and armor, and the resulting effect on
the action sequences almost seems to work better than
the typical Chan action seen in the present-day scenes.
If the goal of The Myth was giving audiences
a Jackie Chan they've never seen before, then the
filmmakers accomplished their mission. That it works
as well as it does is practically a bonus.
Still, that's only part
of the time. Unfortunately, even the Qin Dynasty-era
scenes are not saved from silliness. Meng Yi's superpowered
horse has supreme kicking skills, and can even deflect
boulders without splintering his legs. The bad guys
use normal arrows on human beings, and silly-looking
big arrows on horses. The present-day stop in Dashar
bleeds silliness, especially when yoga-practicing
Samantha and her omnipresent navel enter the picture.
Then there's the ending, which decides to take past
and present plotlines and smash them together into
a goes-on-forever ending that feels less like Jackie
Chan, and more like Michelle Yeoh's egregious The
Touch. The ending itself manages to be unlike
any Jackie Chan film known to man, but that fact merely
renders The Myth noteworthy, and not necessarily
good. By the time the SFX-enabled ending rolls around,
there are likely to be many diehard Chan fans wondering
what went wrong.
They'll probably still
stick around though, which is what any Chan fan would
do. There's always the promise that something - anything
- will occur in a Jackie Chan film that will make
it more than just another movie. It's that promise
of something special that makes all Jackie Chan films
worth watching, even if they don't always deliver
- the result of which is usually a movie that's better
in parts than as a whole. The Myth sometimes
does deliver, as its patchwork plotline and tone manage
some moments of genuine surprise or entertainment.
Jackie Chan manages to do a few new things, and when
he doesn't, he compensates with some of the old. If
you can ignore the silly plot, concede Chan his advancing
age, and forgive Stanley Tong for China Strike
Force , then The Myth can
be a diverting yarn. Overall, the whole film isn't
that good - but like any Jackie Chan film, parts of
it can be.