From the Rental Vault: White Vengeance (2011)

Although imperial China has a long history, the very first imperial dynasty, the Qin, had a short lifespan, falling victim to what was seen as its own cruel tyranny once it forged its many different predecessor kingdoms into a single nation. After just 15 years in power, the Qin fell apart into two main kingdom groups and several smaller ones in 206 BC. The two most significant powers were the Western Chu, led by the Hegemon-King Xiang Yu and the Han, led by the King of Han, Liu Bang. Formerly allies, Xiang Yu sent Liu Bang to the far edges of the former Qin Empire in order to keep him at bay. But the wily Liu Bang didn't stay pent up in his outland realm and almost immediately began a campaign to retake power and the lands ruled by Xiang Yu. He won a final battle over Xiang's forces in 202 BC and established himself as Gaozu, the first Emperor of the Han Dynasty, which would last four centuries.

This history is the framework on which the 2011 Donnie Lee movie Hong Men Yan was based, taking for its title a banquet at the Hong Gate that was a major meeting between the two leaders. When it was released in English, it was given the title White Vengeance in reference to the strategy game weiqi or go played by the two leaders' respective advisers in the movie. Liu Bang's side played white and was defeated and humiliated by Xiang Yu, but his later victory was seen as his revenge.

The movie plot keeps the main characters and events but shifts them in order to make the four-year struggle between them fit into a 2 hour, 15 minute movie. Quick scenes establish the battlefield camaraderie between Liu and Xiang, and then Liu's humiliation when he is initially sent off to a far kingdom with the errand of seeing Xiang's consort Yu to one of his palaces. At first Liu tries to rival himself for Yu's affections but she returns to her true love, Xiang. Though at first it seems Xiang's forces are too powerful for Liu to win, he eventually wins over the support of some of the other, smaller kingdoms and faces Xiang with a larger army as two meet at Gaixia for a final confrontation.

Given the convoluted history of this time between the end of the Qin dynasty and the founding of the Han -- my recap leaves out at least a dozen kings, generals and advisors -- trying to tell the story is a daunting job for director and writer Lee. He structures it almost as a series of discrete episodes with some dialogue packages designed to cover the intervening events, but it's entirely successful.

Part of the problem is casting; Xiang Yu's fatal flaw as a leader was said to be his cruelty and viciousness but as played by Feng Shaofang he's more somnolent than sinister. He saves the most emotion for scenes with his advisor Fan Zeng and a little bit for some concluding scenes with Yu (played by Liu Yifei, star of the live-action version of Disney's Mulan). Otherwise he's mostly blank. Leon Lai doesn't do much better as Liu Bang, most of the time giving off an air of grim puzzlement.

The role of Yu is also not very creative; she's almost an ornament to be competed for until the very last of the movie and the way the movie presents Liu Bang as desiring her could have opened the door for her to have been far more active and interesting. Historically that probably was the role Yu had, but the movie's already taken plenty of liberty with the actual events and one more couldn't have hurt. Lee seems to want to show us the people at the center of these swirling and violent events more than simply recite the complicated history but his own storytelling choices and the overly mannered and restrained performances from his three main cast members drain White Vengeance of most of the heat the title would lead you to expect.