The Great Wall (2017 Film)

I am a huge fan of Zhang Yimou's work, so I was quite eager to see "The Great Wall." Overall assessment: pretty decent, with caveats.

Yimou does 2 major genres: historical dramas and martial arts. His historical dramas are the ones I prefer. They are, without a doubt, some of the best Asian cinema ever made. His martial arts movies tend to emphasize spectacle and symbolism. The Great Wall has this, but, again, with caveats.

I preferred this film to "Curse of the Golden Flower" and "Hero," two of Yimou's other martial arts films. Hero, to me, while visually stunning, had a weak main lead and a message I didn't agree with. Curse of the Golden Flower, while deeper than this film in symbolism, was a lot more depressing. Great Wall is fun, if light on symbolism.

The core message is East-West cooperation against a common foe. That's why Matt Damon is in there. The film is not a "white savior" flick like Last Samurai. Damon's character is there to specifically contrast with the honor and duty of the Chinese. And he grows as a character when he follows their lead. He is the one saved, rather than the one doing the saving.

The lead female, played Jing Tian, is really, really good. If we can get another big Asian actress in America (and we only ever seem to get one at a time), I hope she fills the role. In appearance, the armor design, make up, and hair combined perfectly. They eschewed any romantic subplots and that was a good move. It kept her character from being arm candy and allowed her to take a leadership role (one Damon's character played support to).

Now, caveats. The editing is not normal for Yimou's movies. He is known for amazing establishing shots with gorgeous visuals. We get some of it, but it was clearly cut down for American audiences. Likewise, the edits are quick and jerky between different subplots.

I have the distinct impression they edited this release for America while China got a different (and likely superior) cut. We got all the Damon scenes and stuff with his friend. They probably got characterization of the main generals and more exposition about the kingdom itself. This is a guess, anyway. The movie is not edited to the same maestro level I expect from a Yimou film.

I hope we get an extended edition or international cut of this film down the road. If not, I'll be disappointed. The lack of depth to the other Chinese characters really made the film seem much lighter weight than it should have been.