10-21-2011, 11:08 AM
One of the stronger openings I've seen, and it's all a frozen still shot that the camera zooms in and out of, tracks along and through the scene, revealing various details of the frozen action. If I understand the technique correctly, it requires scores of cameras. If so, this must have taken 50 to a 100 cameras, and even then they'd need to do post-production interframing to make the tracking/zooming/etc. absolutely smooth. Very cool.
Then they introduced the characters and the problems arose. The main dude was incredibly wooden-faced and charisma-challenged in every way. Oddly, his motivations aren't made clear until the very end, in a flashback about his wife, and afterwards I kept thinking it would have helped me give an eff about him if I'd seen that early. Then again, to each director his own. Leaving the motivation until the end worked brilliantly in Once Upon a Time in the West, but that was a brilliantly done epic with compelling characters and scenes throughout. This one, it needed to grab our interest early and hold it, but I found myself zoning out, even during some of the major action scenes (which is not a good sign).
The pregnant damsels in distress was pretty weird. I found myself grinning during those scenes. Not that they weren't dramatic. Just whackily over the top.
Chen Kuan Tai's cameo was solid. I didn't realize that Meng Lo had a cameo too until I noted it on imdb (he's listed as "tram witness"). Oddly, it seemed the less screen time, the better the acting. Vivian Hsu was surprisingly effective in her few scenes. I cared about her more than anyone else in the film -- except for the dwarf with the huge hairy mole in the middle the forehead that kept telling dirty limericks.
I watched this with headphones on. Afterwards, Lady Cranefly asked why I said, "Don't fuck with me," at one point during the movie. I told her it didn't have anything to do with the movie. I was zoning at the time, and just giving the world an ominous warning.
Then they introduced the characters and the problems arose. The main dude was incredibly wooden-faced and charisma-challenged in every way. Oddly, his motivations aren't made clear until the very end, in a flashback about his wife, and afterwards I kept thinking it would have helped me give an eff about him if I'd seen that early. Then again, to each director his own. Leaving the motivation until the end worked brilliantly in Once Upon a Time in the West, but that was a brilliantly done epic with compelling characters and scenes throughout. This one, it needed to grab our interest early and hold it, but I found myself zoning out, even during some of the major action scenes (which is not a good sign).
The pregnant damsels in distress was pretty weird. I found myself grinning during those scenes. Not that they weren't dramatic. Just whackily over the top.
Chen Kuan Tai's cameo was solid. I didn't realize that Meng Lo had a cameo too until I noted it on imdb (he's listed as "tram witness"). Oddly, it seemed the less screen time, the better the acting. Vivian Hsu was surprisingly effective in her few scenes. I cared about her more than anyone else in the film -- except for the dwarf with the huge hairy mole in the middle the forehead that kept telling dirty limericks.
I watched this with headphones on. Afterwards, Lady Cranefly asked why I said, "Don't fuck with me," at one point during the movie. I told her it didn't have anything to do with the movie. I was zoning at the time, and just giving the world an ominous warning.
I'm nobody's pony.