10TH OLD SCHOOL KUNG FU FEST: SWORD FIGHTING HEROES EDITION REVIEW!
Chu Liu-xiang (Adam Cheng) has been in hiding for years, with only a few individuals knowing his true whereabouts. One day, however, he is drawn back out into the open to help stop a series of attacks by people wearing black with the ability to seemingly vanish into thin air. The Night Orchid is a harrowing story of magic and mystery that sees Chu fighting for his and others’ lives.
The Night Orchid is one of the kitschiest films that I’ve ever seen–truly incapable of developing real drama throughout. That reality stems greatly from the score and the sound effects–as they both often feel out of place, even deafening. Some of the action sequences that exist throughout the course of The Night Orchid have the potential to be so much fun. However, they aren’t fun in a way that a kid would enjoy them, but rather in a more intense fashion so that it might appeal to adults. The potential for these sequences to do this, however, is crushed by the horrific use of sound. Rudimentary sounds plague the film from beginning to end, and if there at any point had been a chance for viewers to suspend their disbelief and appreciate the film as a whole, I’m afraid that is thrown out the window with the truly remedial and immature soundscapes of the film.
Horrible, choppy editing causes many of the more interesting scenes in The Night Orchid to fall flat and ultimately appear silly. Another issue that The Night Orchid runs into is the editing. What this team attempts to create as it navigates magic and mystery is a challenge for sure–and there’s no doubt in my mind that they used the best of whatever was available to them at the time. The reality is, however, that the choppy editing causes certain instances to seemingly disappear, with a few seconds here and there missing from the finished film. It’s clear where filming stopped and started, and as a result of the editing, there’s a small gap that often exists throughout parts of The Night Orchid.
I honestly believe that The Night Orchid will hold a special place in the hearts of some viewers as a result of it existing in this really strange pocket of cinema. The Night Orchid is most certainly a film that warrants a cult following, one that looks viewers in the eye and lets them know just how ridiculous it is. That’s actually quite appealing–when a film is very self aware, able to understand how absurd it is. Understanding itself is an important part of film, an important part of whether or not viewers can understand and appreciate a project; The Night Orchid does a wonderful job of understanding itself and projecting that understanding onto viewers.
Asian cinema in general tends to appeal to a specific type of viewer–one that is able to understand and appreciate the nuances of the style of filmmaking that it typically employs. The Night Orchid will not extend itself past the typical audience, as it seems to adhere to what many might consider the guidelines of the genre. Where it does veer, however, is in the score/sound effects and the editing–but not in the way that it should have. With the issues that exist throughout The Night Orchid in its entirety in regard to the aforementioned qualities, the film as a whole becomes rudimentary and ineffective. It surely has the potential to appeal to its usual type of viewer, even produce something of a cult following–but the film fails to hit the mark.
Directed by Peng-Yi Chang.
Written by Lung Ku.
Starring Brigitte Lin, Adam Cheng, Yi-Chan Lu, Don Wong, Eddy Ko, Yi-Lung Lu, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/10
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