Fantasia in Theaters: 100 Yards (and Meanwhile on Earth, too!)

Go way back to the Fantasia vs Fantasia" preview four months ago, "Round 14" basically had me choosing between Azrael and 100 Yards, and contrary to what I wrote in July, I wound up going for 100 Yards - based on wanting the crowd for that one more and there being guests for Self Driver on Friday but maybe not Sunday. After all, I figured both Azrael and 100 Yards would have theatrical runs in Boston, though I figured 100 Yards would have the bigger one.

Turns out that wasn't the case - Azrael wound up playing once a day for a week at inconvenient times at Boston Common, and I wound up seeing it there (review on Letterboxd). I'd like to be able to say I guessed that something was wonky with the release for 100 Yards, but I didn't. I did see that it had been on the festival circuit for a year, without apparently getting an actual release in China, but didn't think much of it, and just figured that finding good release windows could be harder in China than in America, and this may be a great action movie, but it's specifically martial-arts movie (no CGI or explosions!), kind of an art-house action movie at that - writer/director Xu Haofeng can be an acquired taste. Near as I can tell, this didn't even get a proper release in China so much as one night using whatever the Chinese equivalent of Fathom Events is, right before the big wave of National Week films. Well Go likely couldn't play it in North America until that happened, and then all those National Week films were coming out here. Then when the North American release date comes, two other Chinese films - Cesium Fallout and The Unseen Sister, plus Weekend in Taipei co-starring Gwei Lun-Mei, wind up grabbing the screens that it would normally play on.

The upshot: It's getting one screening in the Boston area, a 9:45pm show on Friday at the Seaport Alamo, billed as "Fantastic Fest Presents". As I write this, it has sold no tickets, not even to friends of star Andy On driving up from Providence. It's worth checking out, though, and would be better with a crowd.

Speaking of Providence, they're actually getting a full schedule for Meanwhile on Earth, although that's also playing Boston Common Thursday to Wednesday. Mostly matinees - I think Sunday evening is the only time it plays Boston after 4pm all week - it's a scheduling strategy that often frustrates me, but I wonder if someone at AMC has data showing that French films mostly play to seniors and students who can catch this sort of matinee.


Men qian bao di (100 Yards)

* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 2 August 2024 in Auditorium des diplômés de la SGWU (Fantasia 2024, laser DCP)
Not yet streaming in the USA, but listings for when it is

Xu Haofeng is the martial-arts lover's martial-arts filmmaker, to the point where his movies can feel almost as detached as the masters who will spend years honing a technique but would never be so crass as to get into a fight. Maybe it's the presence of a collaborator here (brother Xu Junfeng), but 100 Yards is not just his best work yet, but genuinely thrilling, the sort of film that is not just great entertainment but a demonstration of why he's so into this.

As the film opens in 1920, a martial arts master (Guo Long) in Tianjin lays dying, with son Shen An (Jacky Heung Cho) returning home, presuming he will inherit the school. Instead, Master Shen orders a duel between An and his top student Qi Quan (Andy On Zhijie). Quan wins just as the Master passes, taking control of the school, while An takes a job in a French-owned bank that his father has already arranged, and where mixed-race fiancée Xia An (Bea Hayden Kuo Bit-ting) is already a fixture (though his return also reunites him with Gui Ying (Tang Shiyi), a childhood friend and daughter of an allied master). An cannot bear the insult, though, and attempts to challenge Quan to a rematch, but there are strict rules about such things, enforced by Chairman Meng of the martial arts association (Li Yuan) and Quan's bodyguards. But when Quan starts talking about teaching martial arts to street fighters, foreigners, and other undesirables, some members of the association begin to covertly assist An.

It unfolds like a great novel from the start - the sort that characters in Wong Kar-wai movies write - immediately serving up an emotionally charged rivalry, adding dimensions, and building out a world that feels as if it is designed to do more than lead to fights or restrain people in the name of honor. The pieces beyond the margins feel like part of the story without being immediately relevant, and there's a level of corruption and compromise built into the martial world that Xu has occasionally shied away from. And while An eventually winds up more of a traditional protagonist, the movie becomes engrossing in large part because neither he nor Quan seems exactly wrong in their beliefs, and the shifting allies who likely have their own agendas toward the start keep things interesting. Add an extra level of soap with the secrets that both Xia An and Gui Ying harbor, and you've got a good hunk of pulp even before they start settling scores with fists, feet, swords, and anything else.

And, man, those fights are something else. If you stay to watch the end credits, you'll note how few stunt doubles are credited for a movie with so much action; the Xus have cast a bunch of genuine martial artists who know what they're doing; it lets them use fairly long takes where a bunch of moves are exchanged, and you can see the chess match going on within a fight that is just as good as the ways Quan and An try to misdirect each other before actually squaring off. They're some of the best on-screen fights you'll see, Xu Haofeng has not always been able to merge an enthusiast's interest in detail with a filmmaker's ability to thrill, but he does here, also bringing a teacher's clarity to make sure viewers understand the small details that a duel can hinge on. Aside from being terrific demonstrations of athleticism, it heightens the palpable sense of danger when An removes the tapes wrapped around weapons meant to keep fights non-lethal.

That many of the fighters are martial artists first and actors second doesn't make things dull or wooden, though; Jacky Heung and Andy On are screen fighters more than masters, and while they can move, they also dive into their roles with gusto Hayden Kuo and Tang Shiyi are excellent as the women in their lives, and the film is peppered with great supporting characters, few more entertaining than Li Yuan's Chairman Meng, who wears fantastically tailored men's suits, carries herself like a master with no need to actually fight, and comes off as a longtime friend of An's while still wielding plenty of authority.

Xu can still get self-indulgent at times: There are two man-versus-mob pieces toward the end when one would probably do (didn't we just do this?), and he seems a bit constrained by the period at times. I don't so much expect him to misrepresent it, but he does seem more concerned by the intricacies of the political maneuvering as an abstract than the ethics of it, and how this may be viewed a hundred years later, at times. And he twice has interesting characters shot out of nowhere without seeming particularly worried about who did it, because they have served their purpose in connecting the things he is really interested in.

Those things aside, this is a downright terrific example of the rival schools genre, one that should please both the most obsessive fans of real-world martial arts and those who want a good story with their action.