Tracing Shadow (aka Zhui ying) (2009) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

China 2009
Director: Francis Ng, Marco Mak
Cast: Francis Ng, Pace Wu, Jaycee Chan, Xie Na, Dang Haohan
Rating: -
Language: Mandarin
Release Date: 30 July 2009
Running Time: 1 hour 29 minutes

The Movie Review

Tracing Shadow film still 1


TRACING SHADOW -aka- ZHUI YING
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

It's been a long time since I saw something very confusing as Tracing Shadow. Back in my childhood I used to see kung fu films on TV or on Betamax video tapes that are now something of a rarity and even legendary, those are the films of Shaw Brothers'. Without realizing it back then when losing them without any regret now I feel so down every time I hear that those movies are now sought items. There's always something shocking or surprising seeing martial arts movies from the 70s. And yesterday, I was shocked to see Tracing Shadow... Shocked on how awful and dragging this movie is.

Tracing Shadow tells the story of several martial arts practitioners who are living normal daily life in a small town. Five years back, before settling as local businessmen, they are fighting with each other over a precious treasure map. But the wisest of them all, who is also the strongest, Ye He Chang Kong (Francis Ng), decided to throw the map away... Leaving them hopeless and eventually stop their fighting. Chang Kong and his love interest, Ming Yue Xin (Pace Wu), opens a bed and breakfast, while the other three warriors, respectively opens a singing course, becomes a monk and offering stuff to passersby and runs a clothing shop. Neither of them is successful... A bad condition for them for not having the money to pay the rent to the landowner, a young man named Xu (Jaycee Chan). Xu is not a rough or bad landowner, he in facts has a crush on Chang Kong and Yue Xin's adopted daughter, Xiaowei (Xie Na).

But suddenly one day, after an incident, the distress Xu is blabbering openly on the street that he possesses a treasure map that has been searched for all this time by those 5 warriors. And Xu himself doesn't believe in any buried treasure. But this map will ignite a new race for the five warriors in searching for the map to fulfill their needs in life. What will happen in this small town? Will Xu wins the love of Xiaowei?

Awful truly awful. I don't have any complain about the acting quality as they are pretty good, and the production value clearly not cheap. Essentially there's nothing particularly bad production-wise. But oh my goodness, why did the writers have to include comedy in this movie? The comedy is a major failure. Not funny, not moving, not emotional and downright flat. The storyline flip flops continuously between comedy and action, which resulting in failure of both sides.

The action/fighting scenes are not bad, though they are not special, but the scenes run too freakin' short, or too cluttered. It seems the writers didn't have a big goal in conveying their story and just made the story as an excuse to include humor. It's frustrating especially since the pacing is also dragging in most parts. I did feel lightly amused seeing some actors in Tracing Shadow are look-alikes of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Andy Lau and even Jay Chou, but nothing special. And talking about Jackie Chan, who is also the father of Jaycee Chan, now that's a good example of entertainment when it comes to mix action with comedy.

I believe most people have never heard of a drop dead hilarious movie called We're Going to Eat You (1980). Now friends, that's a marvelous example of kung fu film with heavy content of comedy and.... (you won't believe this) and Cannibal! Yep, the kung fu scene is cool, the characters are interesting and the comedy really hits the target, unlike Tracing Shadow. Don't trace this movie.