There was a long moment where it looked like the Chinese martial arts drama "100 Yards," a commanding period actioner set during the mid-1920s in Tianjin, might not be released here in North America. That was a little more than a year, to be fair. Still, it felt longer, especially if you followed the good word of mouth generated at international film festivals like Shanghai, Toronto, and Fantasia. In August 2023, Well Go USA announced their intention to distribute "100 Yards" here in America. Nothing was a given, though, especially if you knew that "100 Yards," about the power struggle that follows the death of a revered kung fu master, was co-helmed by the indispensable filmmaker Xu Haofeng.
In 2016, Xu's "The Final Master" helped to establish the director's name with American action fans. (he was previously best known as the screenwriter of Wong Kar-wai's "The Grandmaster") Three years later, Xu's "The Hidden Sword" was mysteriously and abruptly shelved for "market reasons," even though it also screened in 2017 at a couple of international film festivals (Montreal and Taipei). Some of us started to worry: would the crowd-pleasing "100 Yards" ever play beyond the festival circuit?
It's out now, by the way, and oh man, what a relief.
"100 Yards" perfectly illustrates what makes Xu a filmmaker worth following. It's a period drama whose dense plotting, florid dialogue, and thrilling action scenes often either overload our expectations or glide by them without calling attention to itself. By contrast, Xu's characters constantly remind each other, through literal sparring matches or verbal tit-for-tats, that they're not the people that either you or they seem to be, even if their backgrounds or pre-existing relations make it hard not to judge.
In the opening scene, old Master Shen (Guo Long) orders his star pupil Qi Quan (Andy On) to duel someone. Qi Quan's just returned from somewhere and his opponent, Shen An (Jacky Heung), has been waiting for a moment. Shen An's the Master's son, by the way, but that's not clear at first, when he only appears to be a cocky challenger who, according to the venerable (and now bed-ridden) Master Shen, needs to be taught a lesson.
A complete drama plays out wordlessly in this opening duel, including an interrupting shot or two to establish the master's presence as he observes the fighters from his bedroom window, propping himself up with a comforter.
First, Qi Quan has the upper hand, and then Shen An takes the lead, followed by a stalemate of blows.
"An, your kung fu improved," Quan says.
"You taught me 10 years ago," An replies tartly.
"If you don't beat [An], he won't know what I taught you," the master interjects. "Later, he'll be beaten by others."
So Quan takes An out.
"That's more like it," says Master Shen, who then promptly expires.
We then learn more about Quan and An's presumed beef through a series of episodic tangents and sub-plots. Quan seems poised to take his master's place in Tianjin's circle of martial arts academies; Master Shen also insists that An quit martial arts to pursue a cushy bank job. But An doesn't like his new job, and his bosses don't care about his new identity; to them, he'll always be a martial arts fighter. The academy circle's leaders, on the other hand, cautiously accept Quan and his offer to lead their group. They're less concerned with who's at the helm than how they'll maintain the peace (and therefore preserve their autonomy) in Tianjin. Hence, the movie's title, an agreed-upon range of sanctuary that extends around every academy's property. Meaning, there's no fighting beyond 100 yards of Tianjin's martial arts schools. In theory, at least.
In time, we learn that both An and Quan—and their romantic interests, Gui Ying (Tang Shiyi) and Xia An (Beahayden Kuo)—are and aren't defined by their prescribed roles. Master Shen is dead now, so all bets are off. To match that dramatic and stylistic instability, Xu and co-director Xu Junfeng continually reorient the way we look at their characters by showing them moving and interacting with each other in new and surprising ways.
During An's long walk over to the movie's climactic brawl, the camera changes positions and perspectives enough times to make you realize that you never really knew the full dimensions of this street, which is tall in one shot, then flat, now curved, and then with a dangling corner that leads to who knows where. Not even An can take in all that detail in any single shot.
That's the heart of "100 Yards" and its playfully disorienting drama. It's a stylish and modern action movie that also features some of the year's most satisfying fight choreography and action filmmaking. Light on its feet and eager to show off, "100 Yards" confirms Xu's status as one of the best working action directors.
