I'd been waiting for this film since I missed it at the London Film Fesitval, hungry. And it opened, and I went, and it was not what I expected and I loved it so much I straight back in and saw it again.
I love kung fu films, and especially the Hong Kong ones, as wonderfully foreign as the Chinese and slicker. I expected the film to have even better production values and suffer a little Hollywooding in balance - and the reviews and hype had me salivating. Instead I found two horrendously lovely poignant love stories entwined in soul enlarging landscapes and fucking marvelous, luscious, sweet watermelon juicey, whirlwinding leg spin into head to head arm striking and blocking via utterly preposterous flying to weapon fantasia and Green Destiny worship fight scenes; and it's the women doing the fighting (until Yun-fat gets involved and adds his classic old master style to the proceedings)This is such a 21st century film. I went for a heavy fix of fantasy and I got it, big time, but only as sauce to the most substantial emotional workout I've had since I fell in love with my tv. It purifies the imagination like a heafty bowl of bran. No one could not get something out of this film. It is intense and broad at the same, immense time. This film is genius and does things other films deny the possibility of with every pittiful emotional manipulation they make. This film is art. Go and see this film, this film is Jane Austen with sex, comfortable clothing and magical fighting.
Chou Yun-Fat strides onto screen with the dignity of a aristocrat and the sex appeal of a saint. Michelle wasn't like anything, to be honest she got me hot, never unbending nor revealing her smouldering passionate eyes and the love and care she evinces with every glance and action; then there are the young lovers, wreaking havoc with every hormonal escapade. And a baddy you can be scared of and sympathise with at the same time. The evil spider, lurking, contaminating, killing. The witch. Bitter, yearning, warped soul.
I liked this film.
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Production Year: 2003 - Martial Arts - Director: Paul Hunter - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scott, James King, Karel Roden
Production Year: 1972 - Martial Arts - Director: Bruce Lee - Original Language: English\Cantonese\Chinese - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Chuck Norris, Robert Wall, Jon T. Benn
Production Year: 1991 - Martial Arts - Director: Tsui Hark - Original Language: Cantonese - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Donnie Yen, Jet Lee, Rosamund Kwan, Yuen Biao, Mok Sui Chung
Production Year: 1981 - Martial Arts - Director: Kenji Misumi, Robert Houston - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Kayo Matsuo, Minoru Ohki, Akiji Kobayashi, Shin Kishida, Masahiro Tomikawa, Tomisaburo Wakayama
Martial Arts - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Bruce Lee, Sho Kosugi, James Ryan, Jim Kelly, Jimmy Wang Yu, Bolo Yeung, Christopher Lee
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