The Banquet (Screen Daily Review)

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The Banquet (Yeyan)
Dan Fainaru in Venice 03 September 2006

Dir: Feng Xiaogang. Chi-HK. 2006. 131mins.

Announced as China's opulent version of Shakespeare's Hamlet and originally expected to surface at Cannes, Feng Xiaogang's The Banquet finally emerges three months later as an out of competition screening at Venice. Though the plot is definitely indebted to the Bard – and to Macbeth as well as Hamlet - the film’s look and feel is much closer to a tentative Hollywood blockbuster.

Staunch in its belief that bigger is better, The Banquet piles up enough condiments for a dozen meals but never really tries to cook them into one satisfactory repast. Zhang Ziyi may be the top star in China's cinematic firmament and Yuen Wo-Ping has choreographed superlative martial arts extravanganzas on both sides of the Pacific: Tan Dun's brand of lush Westernised film music has done solid service in earlier Oriental tales, while Feng himself is one of the most successfully commercial directors in mainland China.

But the $15m The Banquet is a case of the sum being very much less than its very tasty parts: a convoluted tale of love and treachery, desire and death, set in the 10th-century Beijing court. As such it plays out lamely, crossing a second-rate House Of Flying Daggers with the artificiality of something like Kingdom Of Heaven.

A purely commercial concoction which, one suspects, looked much better in production then it does on screen, it is way too long for its own good, and may prove quick-lived at box offices after initial attention. Opening in China on Sept 15, as well as other parts of Asia on the same month, it enjoyed good market buzz at Cannes and has sold to, among others, StudioCanal (France), Momentum Pictures (the UK and Spain), Eco Filmes (Portugal), Source Investment (Benelux, Scandinavia) and Korean Screen ( South Korea).

The tale sounds familiar. Empress Wan (Zhang) is secretly in love with the Emperor's son, Prince Wu Luan (Daniel Wu). A recluse, he is four years older then her and lives far away from the royal palace, his life dedicated to the study of music and dance.

When the Emperor is murdered by his ambitious brother, Li (Ge You), who covets the wife and the throne, the Empress chooses to accept the usurper’s offer and become his spouse, not only to preserve her title but also to save the life of her beloved prince. Little does she know that Li has already sent killers to do away with his dreamy nephew.

But while Wu Luan is a poet and musician, he also knows more than a little about the art of survival and soon comes to the palace, intent on revenge for his father’s demise.

It is at this point that the plot thickens, for Qing (Zhou Yun), the daughter of a manipulative minister, is desperately in love with the prince and willing to sacrifice her life for him. Meanwhile Yin (Huang Xiaoming, her brother and one of the bravest warriors in the Empire, is dedicated body and soul to his little sister.

All these characters, and several thousand more soldiers, bodyguards and courtiers, eventually gather in the vast festive halls of the Imperial Palace, to celebrate the crowning of the Empress and the grand finale of the piece.

There isn't much point going into the further intricacies of the story. Anyone who has read or seen even the sketchiest outline of Hamlet will be familiar them, as they push The Banquet towards its climactic unraveling. But since the star of the show here is the Empress, and not the tenebrous Prince, there is no reason why Wan, first introduced as a much younger and sexier version of Gertrude, should not acquire along the way some of the traits associated with Lady Macbeth.

Such changes could still have resulted in one of those satisfying, colourful larger-than-life epics, boasting staggering costumes and gigantic sets. Thousands of stand-ins could have been supported by an army of technical specialists, ready to catapult them through the air, twist them on a penny or cut them into little pieces, with tons of red paint splurging over white silks or fresh snow for better effect.

And indeed, no effort is spared, with almost every frame in the film a gloriously decorative masterpiece. Production design and camera work are no less than superlative and fitting for this type of production.

But where The Banquet finds itself ill-served is when it comes to the plotting, which is stodgily told and clumsily directed, inter-cut with expertly performed but by now predictable masses of martial arts choreography. That it is mostly shot in dark, burnished hues, particularly during the second half, doesn't help much either.

The music, ever present throughout, drowns out everything in massive sweeping chords, leading to a final theme song whose scale would make even Celine Dion feel envious.

The cast, yoked to a complex plot which needs all the assistance it can get to make sense, contribute as best they can with decorous stances.

Production company
Huay Brothers Picture Company

International sales
Media Asia (US/SE Asia/Japan)/Huayi Brothers (others)

Executive producers
Yuen Wo-Ping
Wang Zhonglei

Producers
Wang Jongzhun
John Chong

Screenplay
Sheng Heyu
Qiu Gangjian

Cinematography
Zhang Li

Editor
Lin Miaomiao

Production design
Tim Yip

Music
Tan Dun

Main cast
Zhang Ziyi
Ge You
Daniel Wu
Zhou Xun
Huang Xiaoming
Ma Jingwu