Review of TRACING SHADOW: Agreeably Zany, Madcap Action/Adventure Farce

TRACING SHADOW is a throwback to the kind of wacky, zany HK "new year's comedy" that was popular in the late 80s, early 90s. In those days, every Chinese Lunar Year brought forth a slew of lowbrow farces that involved a lot of dumb, greedy characters on the hunt for either a lump of money or a treasure buried or hidden somewhere, replete with scatological humor and a truckload of satirical jabs at contemporary HK pop culture, business and politics - the latter usually eluded western viewers. And, often, a romantically involved couple thrown into the mix for good measure. Kung fu? Yeah, that too.

Many of these elements are present in TRACING SHADOW. The story focuses ... just kidding: This is a HK comedy, so there's no true focus ... on the Manchurian swordsman Yehe Changgong, the reigning "martial arts super hero" in some parallel late Ming dynasty wuxia netherworld. Yet he loses his latest challenge, on purpose, to live a quiet life as the owner of a low-rent restaurant in a North Eastern Chinese border town, together with his wife, former ninja(!) Xin Mingyue (Pace Wu, easy on the eye) and their adopted, adult daughter Xiaowei (Mainland Chinese TV personality Xie Na: cute!). Their restaurant isn't going so well because they serve only two dishes, no matter what their patrons order. Across the street there are three different shops, owned by Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Andy Lau, respectively.

Yep, that's true. The characters are named after three of the best known Chinese/HK martial artists (or actors) of the past two decades. And the actors who play these roles are dead ringers. They not only look very much like the real thing, they also have these celebrities' mannerisms and facial expressions down pat. The resulting parody provides TRACING SHADOW with much of its humor (more so because they are actively involved in the plot), even if the film eventually overplays its hand by introducing even more lookalikes.

Francis Ng, who co-directed the film (with Marko Mak, remembered as a veteran editor of many of HK's major 1990s releases, including those by Tsui Hark), plays the central role of Changgong as an often curmudgeonly and tired swordsman with energy and conviction, matched by ethereal beauty and steely resolve of Pace Wu's Xin Mingyue. Jaycee Chan, the son of the real Jacky Chan, lives up to the level of absurd humor as effeminate, vain but essentially good-hearted landlord who own the treasure map that everybody's been after. There's a scene where he meets the fake Jackie Chan which is rather funny.

Eventually the film drops the more blatant attempts at humor and satire for an action-packed, Indiana Jones-style finale that offers a fair level of excitement. As a surprise to nobody, the film ends with an elaborately choreographed duel between Changgong and his rival Nalan, who had defeated him in the first scene.

All of this is presented with conviction and energy, and it's obvious from the extended Making-Of that accompanies the (German) Blu-Ray release that the actors involved had a lot of fun making TRACING SHADOW, despite the freezing temperatures on the Northern Chinese set. The fight choreography is as accomplished as that of any of the recent, more "serious" wuxia flics, the cinematography very dynamic. Obviously, co-director Marko Mak knows his way around an editing room. The sets and costumes are pretty elaborate, evidence of a higher-than-usual budget - the music score offers a wild and woolly mix of Western and Eastern sounds, including a hilarious rendition of Strauss' Radetzky March scored entirely for Chinese instruments.

If you know what you're getting into, TRACING SHADOW can be a lot of fun. Memorable it isn't, but neither were most of these earlier Chinese New Year's comedies. But a lot of enthusiasm and genre-savvy went into it, and you can see it on the screen.