The Bride With White Hair starring Leslie Cheung and Brigite Lin.

Note: This review is for the UK Tartan release of the film.

Film and stuff.
The Bride With White Hair is an epic fantasy-martial arts-romance film full of colour and grandeur. Starring Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing and Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia in what probably is my favourite roles for them both from all the films which I have seen them in so far. The Bride With White Hair is a film which will not fail to disappoint, as it has something for everyone. It was another film which came about during the fantasy boom in Hong Kong cinema which was initially sparked off by A Chinese Ghost Story. This film is not a remake or an imitation of that film, but of all the films which were made during that period, this in my mind is by far the best.

Cheung is Yi-Hang, the senior student in the Chung Yuan clan and it is primarily through this character which the film is told. Simply put, the entire film is a flashback, save the beginning and the end where we are at the film's present time. At these points in the film Yi-Hang gives a voice over briefly explaining how things got to be the way they are, and what he is doing. This in itself is a brilliant technique, as the opening narration is very sparse on the details, kind of assuming that you have prior knowledge of the events that have taken place, making you immediately interested. With the quick swordplay and the talk of love and the strength of those feelings, the person behind Yi-Hang's outer appearance is cleverly detailed, and also the film gives off this great sense that something special is coming. I certainly thought so, and I was not disappointed.

Unlike the rest of his clan, Yi-Hang is righteous and does not want the warrior's way of life, despite being the best warrior in his and all the other great clans. We see flashbacks of his youth, practicing the sword, and also of the time when he first met the Wolf Girl (Brigitte Lin). In the main part of the story, however, the Wolf Girl has been taken in by an evil cult led by a siamese twin consisting of a brother and sister, Chi-Wu-Shuang. They have taught her exceptional martial arts and she is their assassin.

When Yi-Hang and the Wolf Girl meet for the first time in their adult life, there is an instant connection between them, as the Wolf Girl, while still being the evil cult's assassin, is also righteous and does not take well to injustice. This is shown by the first scene in which we see her and her whip, and also by the giving birth scene. It is in the birth scene where Yi-Hang and the Wolf Girl meet, but she quickly tries to run away from him. Yi-Hang pursues her and, in time, ultimately saves her life. There connection strengthens and a deep love grows between the two.

From this point on, I will not give much detail about the film or plot as it truely is a spectacular film, and I do not want to ruin it for you. All that I will say, however, is the common phrase: "The path of true love never runs smoothly"!!

Being a fantasy film, with great martial arts ability comes the ability to fly. So if you are one of those people who really does not appreciate the wire-fu style fighting, then in places this film is very likely to annoy you. I personally would much rather have a good choreographed fight scene which has zero reliance on wires over a wire-fu scene, but the unbelievable, unrealistic jumping and flying fits much more in key in this film than in any other film I have seen - even Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The reasons for this, I think, are the whole fantasy style fairytale love story, as this pounds on you the amazing, the unbelievable, the fantastic and makes you accept it as the norm, and also because of the stunning scenery. Now I do not mean that the scenery is greatly picturesque, as there are no roaming mountain shots or anything like that here, but the colours used in each scene basically ooze atmosphere and feeling, couple that with the spectacular cinematography and you have a perfect combination.

So how about the choreography in the fight scenes then? Well, even though there is quite a bit of flying etc. there are still plenty of decent swordplay moments. Each one is great to look at, and is well performed. My favourite one, however, is at a point where Yi-Hang is somewhat depressed and drunk, and there is a battle going on around him. He simply gets up, picks up a thin and small tree branch, then calmly waltzes through all the fighting bodies, besting everyone whom he passes despite only having a stick! Even though he is drunk, he is still able to do this, and for me this emphatically emphasises how superior Yi-Hang's sword skills are compared to everyone else.

In The Bride With White Hair, everything just seems to work. Film wise, plot wise, script wise, acting wise, action wise, I just cannot seem to fault it. The film is among my favourite Hong Kong films ever, and is probably my favourite so far in the fantasy genre. All this from the man that directed the atrocious Bride of Chucky! The rest of the review is to see whether the DVD can do the film justice.

Audio and Subtitles
Audio wise there is a choice of Cantonese (the original language) or English dubbed. Now I am a purist, and I hate dubbed films, so the english dub is not even going to get a mention; especially since I never listened to it! The cantonese is clear sounding, but unfortunately the lip synchronisation is a little bit off, as the voice comes in a small fraction of a second after the lips start moving. It is only just noticable and if you are reading the english subtitles, then you probably won't notice it all. All the rest of the sounds are also crisp and clear, from the crackles of the burning fires to the cracks of the Wolf Girl's whip.

As far as the subtitles are concerned, gramatically and spelling wise, they are nigh on spot on. I cannot remember noticing any errors at all. While this does not mean that there are none, it does mean that if there are any, there are so few of them that they I don't remember noticing them. This could be more of a reflection on my memory then the subtitles, but I will stick my neck out and state that there were no spelling or grammar errors. A good job certainly has been done with the english. The actual subtitles are white, clear and bold, and are positioned on the film print at the bottom. Given the films aspect ratio of 2.36:1, even on a widescreen TV (aspect ratio 16:9)there are small black bars at the bottom of the screen which gave the subtitles plenty of room, so positioning them a bit lower would have been appreciated a little, but that is just a minor criticism. Top marks overall though.

Quality
The film print quality, on the whole, is very good. On my 32" widescreen TV, once the TV had automatically fit the film to widescreen aspect ratio, the picture obviously was bigger, but none of the detail had been lost. Individual hairs could be resolved on Leslie Cheungs head at times when he was not moving, something which I'm sure wasn't possible with the VHS copy which I first saw a few years ago. Throughout the main part of the print is, like the sound, crisp and clear, doing the wonderful colour schemes that are used in many scenes the justice they deserve. You may have noticed that I said "the main part of the print", well how about the 'not main part of the print'. Well by this I mean, throughout the film, or at least I think it is there constantly throughout, at the very top and very bottom of the print (next to the black bars), there is a thin line where the colour has been deformed from what it should clearly be. It is much lighter in shade, to pretty much the same extent at the top and bottom. Why this is is beyond me. Maybe in the original film print clean up process, this was a side effect. I honestly do not know. All I do know is that it is there, it is not overly noticable unless you are looking. But I am one of those people where once I have noticed something that is hard to notice, I keep noticing it at every opportunity! Again, this is a minor flaw, as the lines are thin, but it is something that the film would have benefited from being without.

The DIsc and Extras
Ok, the dvd itself comes with a beautifully done animated main menu. It has a clip from the film of Yi-Hang in his younger years practising his swordplay. The reds and the oranges in that scene perfectly compliment the design of the rest of the menu. In the sub-menues, however, there is no animated backdrop. Those menues are static. For extras there are Star and Director Filmographies, Stephen Teo film notes, Eastern Cinema Trailer Reel, Language and subtitle selection and scene selection. Pretty much the usual sort of thing, although thankfully still more than quite a few Hong Kong released DVDs.

Overall
Overall this is a excellent film on a pretty good dvd. The audio, subtitles and film print, with the exception of the minor niggles which I have mentioned, DO do this superb film justice, although due to these niggles only just. Where it is let down is in the extras department. Interviews with the actors/actresses/director would have been nice, a behind the scenes look at the filming of many of the scenes would have been nicer, but what you do have is the usual sort of 'run of the mill' extras. That is a shame as the film deserved more. Nonetheless, I cannot recommend this film strongly enough to you. It is a brilliant film, full of everything, action, fantasy, swordplay, love, romance... Whatever you are looking for in a Hong Kong film, this is bound to have - with the obvious exception of any sort of gun play! Find it somewhere and buy it!



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older