Movie review: The House of Flying Daggers
The sub-title of the latest Chinese action flick by Mr. Zhang Zimou could be "... and pigs can fly, too."
Before I go on, I must admit that I am not a professional movie critic, and I was in a rather unusual frame of mind when I watched this particular movie. Thus, my comments here do not necessarily reflect an objective opinion, even if I do say so myself.
Anyway, being beside myself, the first thing that hit me about the movie was that there were no blooming English subtitles, and the Malay ones were so faint and barely legible - especially at the beginning of the movie when the artful director put in a prologue to help audiences that are unfamiliar with Chinese history and legends.
On top of that, the Malay subtitles were often annoyingly inaccurate. Thus, my whole slant on the movie was already tainted by such technical failures.
Nevertheless, somewhere in the middle of the movie I felt very sleepy... despite the action-smaction that was going on. Well, this must have been because I had a rather trying meeting before the show, and I was actually watching a midnight movie.
Later on, forcing myself to stay awake, I realised how incredulous some of the things in the movie were. Normally, I enjoy movies very much and I would suspend belief whilst watching them.
However, on this ocassion, the action really seemed incredibly far-fetched, especially in light of the fact that the director is portraying something that happened in the past, and not a fantasy or science fiction story about the future.
And the incredible storyline was further blemised by the incredibly complicated love affair going on between the main characters, and how one of them could repeatedly come back to life.
Thus, I decided to dub the movie "the House of Flying Pigs."
Having said that, the cinematography was very well crafted, and I'm sure many would appreciate the special effects, too.
So, if you are looking for a good entertaining movie, by all means catch this flick.
However, if you are looking for a well crafted film AND a credible and balanced storyline, do not waste your time.
In any case, if there is a message that can be distilled from this film, it is the extent to which some people will go for the sake of love (of a person or thing), including the extent to which the director is willing to go to attain critical acclaim.
Before I go on, I must admit that I am not a professional movie critic, and I was in a rather unusual frame of mind when I watched this particular movie. Thus, my comments here do not necessarily reflect an objective opinion, even if I do say so myself.
Anyway, being beside myself, the first thing that hit me about the movie was that there were no blooming English subtitles, and the Malay ones were so faint and barely legible - especially at the beginning of the movie when the artful director put in a prologue to help audiences that are unfamiliar with Chinese history and legends.
On top of that, the Malay subtitles were often annoyingly inaccurate. Thus, my whole slant on the movie was already tainted by such technical failures.
Nevertheless, somewhere in the middle of the movie I felt very sleepy... despite the action-smaction that was going on. Well, this must have been because I had a rather trying meeting before the show, and I was actually watching a midnight movie.
Later on, forcing myself to stay awake, I realised how incredulous some of the things in the movie were. Normally, I enjoy movies very much and I would suspend belief whilst watching them.
However, on this ocassion, the action really seemed incredibly far-fetched, especially in light of the fact that the director is portraying something that happened in the past, and not a fantasy or science fiction story about the future.
And the incredible storyline was further blemised by the incredibly complicated love affair going on between the main characters, and how one of them could repeatedly come back to life.
Thus, I decided to dub the movie "the House of Flying Pigs."
Having said that, the cinematography was very well crafted, and I'm sure many would appreciate the special effects, too.
So, if you are looking for a good entertaining movie, by all means catch this flick.
However, if you are looking for a well crafted film AND a credible and balanced storyline, do not waste your time.
In any case, if there is a message that can be distilled from this film, it is the extent to which some people will go for the sake of love (of a person or thing), including the extent to which the director is willing to go to attain critical acclaim.
posted by Malaysian X at 12:30 PM
1 Comments:
I am glad to read such negative review from you. Indeed, on the night when few of you,after gathering in Mr Ho Rest., wanted to go for the movie, I wanted to warn the gang on how bad the movie could be although "The Star" gave a very good review.
The problem with all Feelers are, critic will not be welcomed. It is the consensus that being treasured.
I have problem in appreciating Chang Yi Mou's Wu Xia (kung fu & hero) movie. Comparing the fighting scene in Hero & Lee An's Crouching Tiger Hidden Drago:
a. in Hero we saw summerswots, flying man,just like every Hong Kong cheaply produced movie
b. in CTHD, we saw our imagination (from the Wu Xia books we read) came true. Remember the running on the roof and walls? Remember the man standing on tree branches, remember the fight between Chang Tze Yi and Michelle Yeoh? (change of variety of Chinese weapons and ways of fight)
It is not just luck that CTHD won Oscar. And about Hero and The House of Flying Dagger...long way to go...
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