White Vengeance (HK) - Exciting Battle of Wits Periodic Movie

White Vengeance
Synopsis:
The movie started with a group of scholars and their teacher touring the chamber of 1st emperor of China's Han Dynasty and was deliberating about the historical known incident, Banquet of Hongmen. During that time, a stranger walks in and told a story of how the Banquet of Hongmen comes about. The movie then panned to 2 opposing Generals Xiang Yu (Feng Shaofeng) and Liu Bang (Leon Lai) who met and became friends and allied to overthrow the current dynasty, the Qin Dynasty. In the beginning all was going smoothly until one fine day when Liu's loyal forces (Jordan Chan,and others) influence Liu Bang to seek his own leadership than to follow the shadow of Xiang Yu. So, it is then transpired that whomever takes control of the city of Xianyang first will become the rightful leader and take possession of the current Qin Dynasty seal. Xiang Yu who aspire to become the leader, inform Liu Bang to accompany his lover, Yuji (Liu Yifei) to his village while he fights a final battle before transcend to Xianyang. However, while accompany Yuji, Liu Bang took the opportunity to take control of Xianyang and thus, anger Xiang Yu into believing that Liu Bang betray him and plot to take over Xianyang with force. This forces Liu Bang to seek help from a local bred genius military adviser, Zhang Lian (Zhang Hanyu). However, Xiang Yu also has a very experience and genius military adviser in his step-dad, Fan Zeng (Anthony Wong) to reclaim the city. Both of them are then engage in a battle of wits in the Banquet of Hongmen where both played 5 sets of chinese chess called Weiqi simultaneously. Miraculously Zhang Lian survived the onslaught and tries to deceit Zhang Lian by agreeing to become his personal military adviser and plot the defeat of Zhang Lian. When Zhang Lian is killed in the battle with Liu Bang, Liu Bang became the emperor of Han Dynasty. However when Liu Bang ascend to become emperor, he order the execution of his trusted lieutenants including military adviser, Zhang Lian because he is paranoid of being back stabbed and killed. In the end, it was revealed that the stranger that told the story is Zhang Lian.
Review:
When i first watch it, i thought that it was going to be another hack-slash chinese emperor-era movie. But as the movie developed, i was engaged and totally absorbed with the intelligent dialogue and fast paced of the movie. There was not a moment of dull except when it involves Yuji but luckily that was kept to the minimal and the movie focus was on Anthony Wong and Zhang Hanyu playing battle of wits which kept the whole movie entertained. In fact, i think that Anthony Wong's performance as the blind but genius Fan Zeng was nothing short of brilliance and whenever he is on-screen, the movie lights up. With strong performance from other cast members - Leon Lai, Feng Shaofeng and Jordan Chan, i placed the movie's entertainment factor similar to Red Cliff or even a notch better. The battle scene for the movie was a disappointment but the heavy plot and brilliant chess game was enough to cover any weakness of the movie.

Verdict:

I give this movie a 4 out of 5 star. A terrific good movie.