White Crane Chronicles Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

White Crane Chronicles Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's Marni Nixon when you really need her?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 27, 2020

The Carradine family has certainly contributed more than their fair share to not just the film industry, but some associated Arts (a case in point, it’s sometimes forgotten that Keith Carradine won a Best Song Academy Award for “It’s Easy” from Robert Altman’s Nashville). That said, there’s a kind of sad undercurrent running through the filmographies of both John and David Carradine in particular, even given what many still grasping for the veritable brass ring of Hollywood stardom would probably consider to be long and successful careers. I just finished reviewing the mammoth set Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection, which features several latter day John Carradine performances, all of which are perfectly fine, even if the material can be at least relatively substandard, and the budgets obviously extremely paltry, something that can just kind of put a pall on Carradine's very participation in the projects. David Carradine probably never really approached even the level of (largely character actor) film stardom that his father did, and despite some really interesting performances in films as disparate as Bound for Glory and Kill Bill: Volumes 1 & 2, his entire career probably ended up being colored for better or worse by Kung Fu , a television series that didn’t last all that long in the grand scheme of things, but which has continued to ripple through the cultural zeitgeist in various ways arguably to this very day. Kung Fu Killer was a made for television affair that, like his father's Adamson movies, came later in David Carradine's life, and in fact only a year before he was rather shockingly found dead in Bangkok. This 2008 effort has been rebranded White Crane Chronicles for Blu-ray release for some reason, but if a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, a derivative television move admittedly with some interesting stunt casting to its (literal) credit will probably still seem as silly.

It’s obviously no coincidence and just one example of how this effort was designed to cash in on external references that David Carradine’s character White Crane, sometimes referred to simply as Crane, is named very similarly to Caine in Kung Fu, as well as carrying at least some of Caine’s “outsider” status. The fact that the film also reunited Carradine with his Kill Bill co-star Daryl Hannah, here tasked with playing a supposedly sultry lounge singer named Jane Marshall, is just another example of how this property was “packaged” to create some buzz. Unfortunately, the story itself is so hackneyed, and some of the performances less than convincing, that all of the “meta marketing” doesn’t ever really pay off.

White Crane Chronicles suffers from both a completely ridiculous plot as well as from some rather odd structural issues. To cite just one example, the story begins with a Chinese army wiping out the Wudang monastery where White Crane has returned to live out his final days, and in fact White Crane is left for dead after being shot with an arrow. White Crane's Grandmaster (actually a Grandmistress) perishes in the attack, but before she dies, she urges White Crane not to dishonor her by seeking revenge. Yeah, right. Only what would seem to be the story's main "payback" angle is solved almost as soon as it begins when White Crane rather hilariously dons a pinstriped "gangster" suit and infiltrates a Shanghai nightclub (where Jane is "singing"), where he almost instantly finds the guy who shot him and summarily takes him out. It's "good" news (I guess, anyway) that this now deceased character was simply a henchman, allowing White Crane to go after the ostensibly "real" villain, a mastermind rather hilariously named Khan (Lim Kay Tong). Adding into the patently ridiculous nature of the tale is the fact that Khan is on the ever important quest for world domination, and has kidnapped Jane's scientist brother in order to develop some kind of killer gas.

Meanwhile, White Crane is kind of the “Keye Luke” character here (no surprise, really, given Carradine’s age when he made this), offering mentorship to his own “Grasshopper” in the form of Lang Han (Osric Chau). For a telefilm supposedly about kung fu, though, there’s precious little hand to hand fighting, and instead the story is filled with all sorts of firearms (including Gatling guns, pistols, rifles and cannons), along with a fair supply of knives and spears. The first half of the enterprise actually wraps things up pretty solidly, leaving the second half to kind of meander aimlessly while White Crane spouts supposedly meaningful homilies which instead are often laugh out loud hilarious.

Carradine doesn’t really “fight” here, instead consigned to often ridiculously framed “reaction” shots as he just misses getting clobbered by some combatants, but he at least brings a certain gravitas to the production. Daryl Hannah is either horribly miscast or simply not that interested in creating a character in this piece, and her “singing” leaves more than a bit to be desired (it’s also patently odd how the film takes pre-existing songs like “Saint Louis Blues” and refashions them, in this case as “Shanghai Blues”). The production design in White Crane Chronicles is intermittently rather luxe if occasionally hilariously off the mark timeframe wise (the story ostensibly takes place in the late 1920s, which begs the question as to why the cars seen in screenshots 18 and 19 aren't DeLoreans, since they've obviously time traveled), as is the cinematography (this was filmed entirely in China).

White Crane Chronicles Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

White Crane Chronicles is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The IMDb reports this was captured with a Sony CineAlta model, and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. While there's some passing banding on display, as well as some deficits in clarity in some of the more dimly lit scenes, this is often a rather beautiful looking transfer. Detail levels are generally very good, and in some close-ups especially, excellent. The palette is very nicely suffused, and some of the reds in particular really pop extremely well. Occasionally contrast looked just slightly variable to me, leading to some milky blacks that can make certain darker scenes appear a bit on the hazy side.

White Crane Chronicles Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

White Crane Chronicles features a nicely expressive DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. Apparently, the often pretty score by Jim Guffridge got some kind of recognition along the way (according to the Awards tab on the IMDb), and it provides a lot of the depth and width to this track. There are numerous battle scenes, and some of the explosive sound effects resonate very well. Dialogue is generally cleanly delivered, but there are some pretty heavy accents to navigate at times, which will probably make the optional English subtitles appreciated for some.

White Crane Chronicles Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements of any kind offered on this disc. The Main Menu features a "Subtitles" option, and that's it. There is a digital download code included.

White Crane Chronicles Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

With a plot line at least initially involving late 20s era Shanghai gangsters, White Crane Chronicles had some interesting elements to explore, but what should have been a living cartoon comes off as a pretty tired made for television movie. I doubt even Carradine and Hannah fans are going to be clamoring for this release, but for those who are interested, this sports generally solid technical merits.