The Banquet

Director Feng makes a spirited attempt to join the likes of Ang Lee or Zhang 'Curse of the Golden Flower' Yimou with The Banquet, throwing in everything and the wirework genius of Yuen 'The Matrix' Wu Ping, the mournful strings of Tan 'Crouching Tiger...' Dun, plus the largest movie set ever constructed in the People’s Republic.

But, the director’s black comedy back catalogue is all too evident in unintentionally gigglesome combat scenes that occasionally border on self-parody.

With the Emperor dead at his brother’s hand, the Empress Wan (Zhang) manipulates both the duplicitous pretender to the throne (Ge) and his court advisors while coveting the affections of the brooding fatherless prince Wu Luan (Wu), her stepson and childhood love.

Ignorant of this incestuous plotting, the new Emperor makes repeated attempts to assassinate Wu Luan and sever any threat to his power, but is unprepared for the fey prince proving handy with a blade.

However, when Wan discovers Wu Luan’s love for Qing Nu, the daughter of a court advisor, her plans grow more vengeful and destructive.

Equivalent to attending a massive feast only to discover the main course is missing, The Banquet is frequently stunning, beautifully shot, but ultimately undernourishing.

There is more wirework than you can shake a quivering sword at, with highlights being an assassination attempt in an open air theatre with Imperial guards slaying masked acrobatic doppelgangers searching for Wu Luan, or a sudden skirmish on a frozen plain as guerrilla fighters battle government troops.

But balletic wirework during love scenes crashes to earth, and the unwavering atmosphere of doom and despondency grinds after two hours, with the revenge murders at the titular banquet striving for a climactic bang but fizzling out with a whimper.

Feng keeps the visuals as dark as his characters' motives, echoing Kurosawa’s shadowy Shakespeare adaptations, and Zhang Ziyi, in a part originally intended for Gong Li or Maggie Cheung, gives her best performance to date as the scheming, sympathetic, and vengeful Empress, keeping the movie alive when it threatens to flat line.

Feng’s follow-up stab at respectability, the war movie Assembly, would prove more successful.

Rob Daniel