10-05-2006, 11:41 AM
We held our Fearless screening last night, so I got a chance to see it on the big screen with subtitles. The subtitles didn't reveal anything that I hadn't already figured out watching it without subtitles. It's really a simply movie - all this discussion of it having a profound plot just indicates how insipid most MA movie plots are. *SPOILER ALERT* I found myself being totally unmoved by the fhater daughter relationship and I'm particularly sensitive to those. It was acted well enough by Jet, but it was so predictable that it seemed more like checking a scene of the why-we-need-revenge list. Even the clutching of the daugther's kercheif in the redemption farming sequence was ineffectual. What was up with the blind girl? Where can I find a blind girl like that?
The sets were magnificent and it's encouraging to see MA films move away from the ridiculous low budget sets of years past. How many final fights did we have to watch in empty lots? A lot of the set details were lost on my little TV screen. Yu isn't as expansive a director as say, Zhang Yimou, when it comes to shooting good panoramas, but he pulls some beautiful stuff that deserves to be seen on a big screen.
The choreography impressed me a lot less on the big screen then on video. Yuen Woo Ping relied heavily upon what I'm going to call the 'stripper pole' move where someone gets knocked off something, like the leitai or out of the ring or off some precipice and then swings around using some impossible physics to deliver a riposte. He also used a lot of weird kicks when being flipped, sort of a variation of the stripper pole, more impossible physics. That seemed rather unimpressive when Tony Jaa is doing these kinds of moves for real. Jet's stuff looks clean as always, but it was almost as if Yuan didn't know how to direct a martial artist anymore and failed to fully exploit Jet's talents. The 3-section scene, aside from a few spins, is mostly Jet doing right-hand baton work. He's not fully using the weapon. And I'm getting tired by Yuan's Matrix slow-down-the-blow cinematography technique. In my book, Yuan has lost the title of top martial arts choreographer to Jaa and to Donnie Yen.
But still, it's always great to see an MA film on the silver screen. I had a very enjoyable evening last night and look forward to Rogue.
The sets were magnificent and it's encouraging to see MA films move away from the ridiculous low budget sets of years past. How many final fights did we have to watch in empty lots? A lot of the set details were lost on my little TV screen. Yu isn't as expansive a director as say, Zhang Yimou, when it comes to shooting good panoramas, but he pulls some beautiful stuff that deserves to be seen on a big screen.
The choreography impressed me a lot less on the big screen then on video. Yuen Woo Ping relied heavily upon what I'm going to call the 'stripper pole' move where someone gets knocked off something, like the leitai or out of the ring or off some precipice and then swings around using some impossible physics to deliver a riposte. He also used a lot of weird kicks when being flipped, sort of a variation of the stripper pole, more impossible physics. That seemed rather unimpressive when Tony Jaa is doing these kinds of moves for real. Jet's stuff looks clean as always, but it was almost as if Yuan didn't know how to direct a martial artist anymore and failed to fully exploit Jet's talents. The 3-section scene, aside from a few spins, is mostly Jet doing right-hand baton work. He's not fully using the weapon. And I'm getting tired by Yuan's Matrix slow-down-the-blow cinematography technique. In my book, Yuan has lost the title of top martial arts choreographer to Jaa and to Donnie Yen.
But still, it's always great to see an MA film on the silver screen. I had a very enjoyable evening last night and look forward to Rogue.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse