Good lord - 6 years since I've been on Ciao! Well, let's see if I can start my crazy rantings again....
Good lord - 6 years since I've been on Ciao! Well, let's see if I can start my crazy rantings again... :)
Member since:23.07.2001
Reviews:29
Members who trust:28
Ok, we all know that this film has been one of the longest awaited with baited breath movies for quite a while. I feel like I'm being a little bit irreverant and blasphemous but I have to say that its all been done before, in some ways better, in some ways worse.
You can't take anything away from the film makers or the actors, the choreography, particularly the women, and the landscapes were absolutely stunning. I have rarely seen female martial artists be allowed to perform with such strength, we usually see them as almost an apologetic addition to stop the feminist uprising of the female martial art society. Also the fact that for once whilst following women being strong, the women were not portrayed with the hatred stemming from outrage at sexism (apart from the jade fox, but we can forgive her that because she is not the main character). Instead the emphasis is on a young persons curiosity and defiance that creates setting (and the fact that she just happens to
be a woman is not a gender issue). The techniques we see are fantastic, there are some truly majestic fight scenes which will probably have left the audience trying to beat each other up and going to their nearest Kung Fu lesson to become Masters as soon as possible.
The landscapes are of truly epic proportions and are beautiful to behold. The scene setting seems to fold out as characters cross the screen - instead of being rudely introduced as a by product. You get a real sense of nature being an intrinsic part of the movement throughout the film.
Having said all this I have to admit that I don't really rate Chow Yun Fat as the right choice for the male lead. It is true that he has a pressence about him that younger males of this genre don't quite command, and also true that Jackie chan, although a more fantastic techinician by far, has got too much of a comedy aura, but I still feel that there is alot lacking in his performance. He is supposed to be the best there is yet the female's continually show his performance up, hi martial arts are not in the same league. I think that his style is far better suited to the pseudo-westernised action films that he normally does. I have to admit that he had a good stab at it though!
The storyline would have been easy to follow for die-hard martial art film fans, purely because pretty much every MA film follows the same story (sorry but they do!) ie. defiant youngster wants to prove they are better, lots of mysterious deaths, bit of treachery and the youngster realises too late that even if they are better its purely in their potential as a student that they can full realise this etc etc. But, your average film goer who is just going to see what the hype is all about will have problems following it - this is because they will not have been introduced to the tradition, honour and respect that dominates MA technicians to the point of unconditional and blind following of the student to teacher relationship above all else; so will not understand why they were all willing to die for each other etc.
Lastly, the technique that was made popular to main stream audiences by the matrix - the infamous wire action sequences. Although they made the fight scenes more interesting, they didn't quite pull off the function they were there for. Instead of making exciting fight scenes better, they gave an almost balletic feel to what should really be the raw energy of a fight scene. There are plently of old wire fight sequences in plently of old but still fantastic films (in the Chinese martial art section, specifically the ones dominated by the supernatural) which harness the energy of the fight scene and make you ignore the fact that the actors are suspended by wire because they are too busy beating the living daylights out of each other in explosive style! I think the underlying energy of the film was slightly too romantic and medative for me, it sort of put a lull on what really are some of the most fantastic fight scenes I have seen. The wire scenes made the movements look pretty instead of dynamic and the whole film had a dream like quality which made it feel epic but not substantial.
Although I sound pretty negative I will definately be adding this monumental film to my collection and I would like to congratulate the Martial Art Technicians for their outstanding performances but I will feel a little like settling down with popcorn and watching the technical aspect of the film, instead of gripping the edge of my seat and giving involuntary body movements and jerking my head and fists about as I react to the fighting without knowing it - as I do when watching the golden oldies of MA theatre!
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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: 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
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
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Jul 24th, 2001
(Jul 26th, 2001)
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