Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Movie Reviews
The Two Epics
Hero Vs Lord Of The Rings
Eastern Symbolism Vs Western Mysticism
Hero
Director: Zhang Yi Mou
China’s famous movie director, Zhang Yi Mou, directed an action movie for the first time in his career.
He also invited 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' producer, Bill Kong, Cannes Technical Grand Prize winner Christopher Doyle as director of photography, action director Tony Ching Siu Tung. Academy Award winning costume designer Emi Wada and Academy Award winning composer Tan Dun as part of his backstage crew.
Famous Hong Kong Hollywood stars include Jet Li as Nameless, the county sheriff who meets the mighty King of Qin. Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, from Wong Kar Wai's 'In the Mood for Love', are the assassins Broken Sword (Leung) and Flying Snow (Cheung) that King Qin feared. Zhang Ziyi, is Broken Sword's devoted servant, Moon. Veteran Chen Daoming plays the powerful King of Qin while star and martial artist, Donnie Yen (Sky) is the third assassin that the King fears.
It’s not every day that a critic director, aka Zhang Yi Mou gets to work with such a big production crew and an action movie at that. For his debut martial arts effort, Hero is indeed a groundbreaking movie for Chinese moviegoers (unlike the patronising Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon which boasts a strong cast with superb martial choreography but a thin story plot)
Chinese martial arts or action movies in general suffer from a lack of plot and tends to razzle dazzle its audience with lots of fighting scenes. Sometimes, a bit of stupid scenes to make you laugh.
Hero is however not just an action movie despite the jaw dropping martial arts choreography, majestic soundtrack, matrix like fight sequences and the special effects. One can be mesmerized by Nameless as he plunges his sword through the raindrops to attack Sky (in slow mo) or watch the Qin Army shoots their arrows as they attack the Zhaos. Hell, even watching the characters don on different costumes is eye candy.
The central tenet of this movie is however deeper in another level. It is the tale of Nameless who relates to the King of Qin about how he killed the three assasains the King feared most. Each story sees the characters take on different personalities and wearing different colour costumes. In Nameless first version, his characters are full of lust and hence, they are all donned in passionate red. Notice the teacher of Zhao and his students remaining in their seats while arrows enters their room and kills them. This, he maintains, is to show the Qins, their prowess. When Nameless asked Broken Sword to write him the word ‘sword’, the martial arts expert had to wrote different versions of the same word so that he can find the best one. As Nameless relates his “imaginary” fighting with Sky, one gets a sense of muted puzzlement as to what he really means.
It is such baffling innuendoes and attention to details that enriches Hero with a metaphysical touch. This could be highly attributed to Zhang’s previous indie cred efforts plus an experienced backstage crew and actors. One can only hope that this will trigger the betterment of Chinese movies.
The flipside (which is not a flipside if you choose to ignore) is the acting. Zhang Zi Yi is still the impulsive lass in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Jet Li drops his happy go lucky personae to become a stern non-emotional sheriff while Leong and Maggie are an unhappy quarreling couple. Not much acting. It’s as if actors are props to the story.
The Chinese government, for the first time, endorsed Zhang’s movie because it portrayed the current status quo as favourable. It can be superficially perceived or implied that The King of Qin also known as a tyrant, was justified in taking lives, waging wars and uniting China, a parallel to modern China which is still a country ruled heavy handedly by the government.
The film acts as a thinly disguised veil, more a prophetic statement as war looms. Can war ever be justified? What becomes of fundamentalists with their beliefs and common people when they unite? How should the intelligentsia react? Do heroes emerge in difficult times? Can they overcome their times?
It is quite unlikely in my opinion that Zhang was making a movie to appease the powers to be. Like most artists, he was using a well-known Chinese folklore to paint a bigger canvas of the current situation.
Lord Of The Rings
The Two Towers
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Critics often dismiss continuation of a film as ploys to cash on the success of its predecessors by following a fixed formula and Lord Of The Rings The Two Towers, which is the second installment of the series. (Note the misuse of ‘trilogy’ to describe the series as Lord Of The Rings as it is intended as a volume of six books) can hardly be perceived as along the same vein because we all know it will take three films to finish the whole story and missing one is akin to missing a puzzle in this fantasy fiction.
Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, Lord Of The Rings is the journey of hobbit, Frodo, also ringbearer towards Black Gates of Mordor and how its foiled with difficulties and enemies. Hardly any point dwelling the plot because its pretty straightforward if you follow the movies.
What really keeps audience entranced is most likely the breath taking sets and special effects, not forgetting the large scale battle scenes. There are a couple of “movers” in this episode including Gollum’s dual personality and the love between Aragon and elf, Arwen. In short, its pretty well covered for an epic. If you consider it an epic.
Perhaps the greatest irony of it all is that Frodo has to venture into the lair of the evil lord so that he can destroy it while at the same time resisting the ring’s charms. But then again, that’s why it keeps us captivated.
The Two Epics
Hero Vs Lord Of The Rings
Eastern Symbolism Vs Western Mysticism
Hero
Director: Zhang Yi Mou
China’s famous movie director, Zhang Yi Mou, directed an action movie for the first time in his career.
He also invited 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' producer, Bill Kong, Cannes Technical Grand Prize winner Christopher Doyle as director of photography, action director Tony Ching Siu Tung. Academy Award winning costume designer Emi Wada and Academy Award winning composer Tan Dun as part of his backstage crew.
Famous Hong Kong Hollywood stars include Jet Li as Nameless, the county sheriff who meets the mighty King of Qin. Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, from Wong Kar Wai's 'In the Mood for Love', are the assassins Broken Sword (Leung) and Flying Snow (Cheung) that King Qin feared. Zhang Ziyi, is Broken Sword's devoted servant, Moon. Veteran Chen Daoming plays the powerful King of Qin while star and martial artist, Donnie Yen (Sky) is the third assassin that the King fears.
It’s not every day that a critic director, aka Zhang Yi Mou gets to work with such a big production crew and an action movie at that. For his debut martial arts effort, Hero is indeed a groundbreaking movie for Chinese moviegoers (unlike the patronising Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon which boasts a strong cast with superb martial choreography but a thin story plot)
Chinese martial arts or action movies in general suffer from a lack of plot and tends to razzle dazzle its audience with lots of fighting scenes. Sometimes, a bit of stupid scenes to make you laugh.
Hero is however not just an action movie despite the jaw dropping martial arts choreography, majestic soundtrack, matrix like fight sequences and the special effects. One can be mesmerized by Nameless as he plunges his sword through the raindrops to attack Sky (in slow mo) or watch the Qin Army shoots their arrows as they attack the Zhaos. Hell, even watching the characters don on different costumes is eye candy.
The central tenet of this movie is however deeper in another level. It is the tale of Nameless who relates to the King of Qin about how he killed the three assasains the King feared most. Each story sees the characters take on different personalities and wearing different colour costumes. In Nameless first version, his characters are full of lust and hence, they are all donned in passionate red. Notice the teacher of Zhao and his students remaining in their seats while arrows enters their room and kills them. This, he maintains, is to show the Qins, their prowess. When Nameless asked Broken Sword to write him the word ‘sword’, the martial arts expert had to wrote different versions of the same word so that he can find the best one. As Nameless relates his “imaginary” fighting with Sky, one gets a sense of muted puzzlement as to what he really means.
It is such baffling innuendoes and attention to details that enriches Hero with a metaphysical touch. This could be highly attributed to Zhang’s previous indie cred efforts plus an experienced backstage crew and actors. One can only hope that this will trigger the betterment of Chinese movies.
The flipside (which is not a flipside if you choose to ignore) is the acting. Zhang Zi Yi is still the impulsive lass in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Jet Li drops his happy go lucky personae to become a stern non-emotional sheriff while Leong and Maggie are an unhappy quarreling couple. Not much acting. It’s as if actors are props to the story.
The Chinese government, for the first time, endorsed Zhang’s movie because it portrayed the current status quo as favourable. It can be superficially perceived or implied that The King of Qin also known as a tyrant, was justified in taking lives, waging wars and uniting China, a parallel to modern China which is still a country ruled heavy handedly by the government.
The film acts as a thinly disguised veil, more a prophetic statement as war looms. Can war ever be justified? What becomes of fundamentalists with their beliefs and common people when they unite? How should the intelligentsia react? Do heroes emerge in difficult times? Can they overcome their times?
It is quite unlikely in my opinion that Zhang was making a movie to appease the powers to be. Like most artists, he was using a well-known Chinese folklore to paint a bigger canvas of the current situation.
Lord Of The Rings
The Two Towers
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Critics often dismiss continuation of a film as ploys to cash on the success of its predecessors by following a fixed formula and Lord Of The Rings The Two Towers, which is the second installment of the series. (Note the misuse of ‘trilogy’ to describe the series as Lord Of The Rings as it is intended as a volume of six books) can hardly be perceived as along the same vein because we all know it will take three films to finish the whole story and missing one is akin to missing a puzzle in this fantasy fiction.
Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, Lord Of The Rings is the journey of hobbit, Frodo, also ringbearer towards Black Gates of Mordor and how its foiled with difficulties and enemies. Hardly any point dwelling the plot because its pretty straightforward if you follow the movies.
What really keeps audience entranced is most likely the breath taking sets and special effects, not forgetting the large scale battle scenes. There are a couple of “movers” in this episode including Gollum’s dual personality and the love between Aragon and elf, Arwen. In short, its pretty well covered for an epic. If you consider it an epic.
Perhaps the greatest irony of it all is that Frodo has to venture into the lair of the evil lord so that he can destroy it while at the same time resisting the ring’s charms. But then again, that’s why it keeps us captivated.
