Tai Chi 0

[Drunk Monk]

I mentioned this on the Shanghai Steam thread (<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2454">viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2454</a><!-- l -->)

This will get a limited U.S. release next week - see <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.wellgousa.com/theatrical/tai-chi-zero#showtimes">http://www.wellgousa.com/theatrical/tai ... #showtimes</a><!-- m -->. I'll probably hit up the Union Landing showing during my Friday lunch break....it's for work, after all. ;-) It's 3D (4D if you can get to Korea) and there's been a ton of buzz on it.

[youtube]6_9KK3U1LhY[/youtube]

[Drunk Monk]

Probably good in 3D, although I think it's post-prod 3D. It was good to see it w/CF.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I'm going to guess press screening since I don't see it playing at my local AMC. I was thinking about going since tQ is out of town and I don't think she would mind if I saw that without her.

[cranefly]

It was good to see Chen Village again. I had forgotten what it looked like, tucked amid scenic mountains, with a stream running next to the main part of town, and the nice big village gate and the walls.

The lead actress was very striking -- you know, the kind that transcends sexuality so that your mind rises out of the gutter and you just gape at her for the pure joy of looking at her. Absolutely captivating. DM felt she resembled that long-necked babe on V. I can see some of that (very delicate long neck), but something about her tranquil expression, as well as her expressions when she was not so tranquil, just mesmerized me.

There were some hardcore martial artists in this movie, which brings up one puzzlement. Tony Leung, who is not a martial artist, essentially played the top-dog martial artist. That just seemed a bit odd. Still, it's nice that they realized the importance of actors to the success of a movie, rather than just rely on great martial artists with limited acting abilities.

There were interesting games played with subtitles. When a new character was introduced, the subtitle not only gave the name, but often the actor playing the role, along with pertinent info (such as 3-time wushu champion, or played so-so in such-and-such a movie). But the thing is, these subtitles were not up for very long. On several occasions I simply couldn't read stuff in time. I'd think the Chinese would err on the side of lingering subtitles. No so with this movie.

A movie full of experiments, some of which worked, some of which didn't, but interesting to take in and to study.

[Drunk Monk]

Giraffes. Mesmerizingly gapable.

[cranefly]

Oh, sure.
Why not...

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I'm going with Morenna. I liked her in Serenity and the Firefly series.

The choice tonight is whether to see Tai Chi 0 or Let the Bullets Fly or Old Boy.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

No Tai Chi 0 for you.

No subtitles. No watchee. Yes, I'm perpetuating damaging Asian stereotypes.

[Drunk Monk]

So the sequel is out for one week in 7 theaters in North America, including SF and Cupertino (go figure). My bosses cut out early and things were in decent shape at work, so I cut out early to catch it -besides, it's my job. Been working this movie angle for years and finally, the distributer (Well Go USA) has bought web ads with us, bit fat expensive ones. Fought traffic all the way there, arrived just in time, and then stood in a line that was little more than half a dozen people long that took over 20 mins, so I thought I was late and hecka pissed, but no, the film was delayed for the 4 of us in the audience and didn't start until 15 mins after it was supposed to, after I complained, but there was this old dude talking loudly to his date about kung fu and that was hysterical as he was sorely misinformed about many things, so it's all good. Well, no, no it wasn't. There was a problem with the subs so of the 100s of subtitles that should have appeared, we got about 2 dozen total at complete random points. Dammit. No subs. As y'all know, I'm pretty accustomed to that, but still...I fucking paid for this film. Shiiiiiit.

Anyway, the film is disappointing. It picks up right where TC0 left off, but it lacks the experimental aspect, the videogame/comic book sensibilities that made the first film outstanding. Also, some of the more interesting characters, like the little Chen village girl, don't really do much. Choreography is a lot of crappy wire work, even though it's by Sammo. Frankly, there's not enough fights. SPOILERS There's a central fight where 4 heroes (3 unarmed, 1 armed with a steampunk glider and bombs) take on an army (armed with rifles, spears and steampunk howitzers). That fight is silly, but there's two funny bits, one about dim makking horse genitals to make them buck off their riders, another about dim makking spearmen so they are paralyzed and form a ring wall so the main protagonists can duel. The finale fight with Yuan Biao has a great premise, but in the end, fails to go anywhere novel. I expected a lot more from the teaming of Biao and Hung - that scene could have redeemed the film but it misses. END SPOILERS. I didn't see it in 3d, but the film seemed very HD, exacerbated by Fung's penchant for extreme close-ups where faces take up one entire side of the screen so they are like 20 feet tall on the big screen, making us painfully aware of every pore in Leung's face (although not so bad with Angelbaby). There is a belt-sword fight, some blood but no spitting and no Bollywood.

This was planned as a trilogy and the final scene is super awesome - SPOILER the beaten villain goes to a steampunk skull-shaped asylum for repairs . END SPOILER. Hopefully, part 2 will regain the spirit of part 1. I suspect that, if Fung can achieve this, part 2 will be negligible and skippable.