“The Last Supper” Chinese Theatrical Poster
Director: Lu Chuan
Cast: Liu Ye, Daniel Wu, Chang Chen, Qin Lan, Sha Yi, Nie Yuan, Huo Siyan, Zhao Xiang
Running Time: 120 min.
By HKFanatic
Over the past decade, international audiences have been inundated with dozens of Chinese historical epics, from Zhang Yimou’s Hero to John Woo’s Red Cliff and back again, to the point where a sense of viewer fatigue has settled in. But chances are good you’ve never seen one of these high-minded historical pictures photographed quite like Lu Chuan’s The Last Supper.
Lu Chuan’s style here edges closer to Terrence Malick than the wuxia-flavored House of Flying Daggers: expect wistful voice-overs and lonely figures tearing through wheat fields at magic hour. Chuan has a habit of skipping over the ‘big’ moments that would be climactic setpieces in the hands of any other director, but he isn’t interested in staging protracted battle sequences. As a filmmaker, he finds his meaning in the quiet moments that precede or follow such a conflict: a wife’s trembling hands as she helps her husband put on his body armor, the utter desolation of a battlefield strewn with human bodies.
The screenplay of The Last Supper zeroes in one of the famous event of the Hongmen Banquet, which was already the subject of the 2011 Chinese film White Vengeance. Before you worry about retreading familiar territory, rest assured that the two films couldn’t be more different. Rather than build the entire movie around the Banquet as White Vengeance did, Lu Chaun merely frames the event as one of many turning points in the lives of his three central characters. As the film opens, a 61 year-old Liu Bang (actor Liu Ye) sits on the throne as the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty. But heavy is the head that wears the crown: as Liu Bang reflects back on the events that shaped his political career, particularly his relationship with two rivals played by Daniel Wu and Chang Chen, he is increasingly overcome with paranoia and doubt. Director Lu Chuan cuts between flashbacks and the present, letting us see the rise of an empire as well as its tragic downfall.
This is drama that’s positively Shakespearean, perhaps even Biblical (hence the title), but the story’s political implications were enough that the Chinese censors blocked the release of The Last Supper for several months. Apparently the censor board felt that Lu Chuan was drawing parallels between Liu Bang’s paranoid assassinations of his former allies and the purges of Communist leader Mao, the later still being a contentious figure in China. For Lu Buan’s part, he’s done nothing but confirm the fact that he uses the ancient past as a way to covertly discuss our current era; but as with any artistic work, it’s up for the viewer how much they do or don’t read into The Last Supper.
Those seeking wire-assisted action or large-scale battles will likely walk away disappointed from this film. And despite the prominent billing of Chang Chen, a Taiwanese star who is on the rise thanks to recent turn in The Grandmaster, neither he or Daniel Wu receive a great deal of screentime. This is a contemplative piece and it belongs to Lie Yu’s mad Emperor. Director Lu Chuan’s particular success with The Last Supper is the way he’s able to take events from thousands of years ago and make them feel as immediate as the here and now.
HKFanatic’s Rating: 7/10
