THE KNIGHT OF SHADOWS (2019)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*

Considering how awful some of Jackie Chan's 21st-century productions have been, whether from the East or the West, KNIGHT OF SHADOWS is certainly way ahead of any of those embarrassments. Though it's almost entirely formulaic, at least there's some sense of what the formula is supposed to be.   

We're in medieval China, probably around the 17th century, since Chan's character Pu Songling is based on a famous storyteller of that era. The author's stories, particularly the supernatural ones, were often adapted in China, most famously in the original CHINESE GHOST STORY movie. But this fictionalized version-- I'll call him "Pu" for short-- isn't content to write about the supernatural. He also travels from town to town, exorcising demons whenever he comes across them. Pu's principal weapon is the "Yin-Yang brush," a calligraphy-brush with which he can sketch mystic patterns that in turn banish demons. He also travels with three goofy CGI demons, and the fact that one demon is named "Farty" aptly describes the level of humor the film's shooting for. This accords with Chan playing Pu as a jolly bumpkin, seemingly more concerned with selling his story-pamphlets in every town to which he travels. He's not a dedicated demon-hunter but just fights the critters wherever he happens across them.    

In one town, Pu gets mixed up in with a demon that rips off some precious jewels, but that's just an excuse to have him encounter a comic foil, a naive young village cop (Lin Bohong) who eventually becomes Pu's apprentice, little as Pu wants one. However, the more crucial support-character is another demon-hunter, Yan (Ethan Juan). Yan is on the trail of a pair of female demons, Xiaoqian (Elane Zhong) and Jin (Lin Peng). These two demons feed on human souls by promising immortality to young women and then imprisoning them in a painting for eternity. Yan has had a romantic relationship with Xiaoqian that one source claims is derived from the same story that gave rise to CHINESE GHOST STORY. However, KNIGHT adds some confusing business that I don't think would've occurred to a 17th-century teller of tales: that Yan apparently used to be a demon and Xiaoqian used to be a human. These needless complications, happily, don't distract from the strong melodrama of the Yan-Xiaoqian love scenes, which are as ripely melodramatic as anything in CHINESE GHOST STORY.

Between the heavy panting of the romance scenes and the wacky comedy of the funny demon hunters, KNIGHT forces viewers to put up with a lot of tonal shifts. The script compensates with a very episodic structure, making those shifts fairly tolerable. Not much of the comedy works, except for a bravura sequence with Pu in a room full of mirrors. Not only can Demoness Jin strike at Pu through the mirror-surfaces, slapping or choking, she also cuts him off at the waist, literally, so that Pu's two halves run around the room doing silly things. Given that sixty-something Chan can't possibly ever duplicate the martial feats for which he became famous, it's fun to see him try to come up with wild stunts via CGI. KNIGHT is never in the least profound, but it's highly colorful and lively, and that makes it worth a look.