04-20-2013, 02:46 PM
This is a Thai remake of one of my all time favorite films, Rashomon. I love Rashomon. I've even read Akutagawa's original short stories that we're combined to make that film. It's way up there for me, like the top five films ever, IMO. AtGotG is extremely mediocre, especially when compared with the original, and interesting only by comparison. It's got this overbearing Buddhist theme, as heavy handed as Heston in The Ten Commandments. The Thai style, with lush tropical backdrops, is engaging, yet not enough to make this film. Some of the scenes are exact duplicates of Kurosawa's work. Ironically, AtGotG uses a lot of cool color schemes, which totally undoes the premise that it is extremely hot and that's a huge part of the mood. In Rashomon, you can feel the heat - it's so palpable - and that was B&W. Kurosawa rocks. Plus how can anyone hold a candle to Mifune, Shimura and Chiaki, three of the Seven Samurai, which remains my all time fav film ever. Where does AtGotG really fail? The swordfights. Rashomon had two of the greatest choreographed swordfights ever. The tension, the way those two fights play out, is simply brilliant. AtGotG doesn't even come close. I'm glad to have seen this, just because like Battle Beyond the Stars, it is triflingly amusing to see where they take the story, but in the end, AtGotG doesn't add anything worth watching.
As a side note, the preview trailers included both John Dies at the End and Sushi Girl, which made me think of Greg.
As a side note, the preview trailers included both John Dies at the End and Sushi Girl, which made me think of Greg.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
