HERO, by Zhang Zhimou.
This film tells us a beautiful story, and accomplishes this with a beautiful photography. The story is that of the man who would be Emperor of all China ("all under the sky", as ancient Chinese scholars wrote) and those who would be his assassins.
The structure of the film resembles that of RASHOMON, by Akira Kurosawa, with different versions of the same events. The director declared that this film was also a tribute to Kurosawa.
Despite the conflict narrated in the film, there is a sense of harmony throughtout all the film. There is the harmony of music, of caligraphy, of martial arts, and of Nature itself and, in the end, the very harmony of the peoples...
The acting is superb. The actors and actresses adapt well to the very different moods of the different parts of the film. The powerful and expressive use of colour (รก la Kieslowsky) does its share to set these moods.
On the criticism side, it has to be noted that a part of the audience may find the hight number of combats tiresome, even when they are justified. Some of these fights are extremely suggestive and beautiful (for example, the imagined combat on the lake). This is no MATRIX II nor one of the imitations of the trilogy. Also some have established comparisons between HERO and TIGER AND DRAGON. I have to agree with most of these comparisons: HERO is better by much, and much less commercial.
The special effects are great and most of them are in the service of the story, not in a protagonist role.
To sum up, a beautiful, artistic and entertaining movie, maybe not for all but that certainly will be enjoyed by a vast majority of its public.
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
DOLLS, by Takeshi Kitano.
This films comprises three stories that are not completely unlinked. The true theme of all these is love in its mightiest form (involving sacrifice and memory) and the power of true love, beyond all hope.
The three stories, set in our days:
- Two “tied beggars” wander around Japan tied by a red string. He had left his soon-to-marry girlfriend for the daughter of the president of his company. In the day of the wedding she attempted suicide, but failed and her brain resulted damaged. She no longer recognizes anyone. Now they walk together aimlessly.
- An old yakuza chieftain left his love of youth when he left his former life to become a criminal. She promised to await him every Saturday at the same park where they met every Saturday. One day, a Saturday, he feels nostalgic and visits this park. There he sees a mature beautiful woman.
- A pop star suffers an accident that defaces her. She abandons her career and takes refuge in a house by the sea. She does not want to be seen by anyone. However, she was everything for a humble worker that still seeks to meet and maybe helping her.
The director has tried to import to the filmic language that one of the old Japanese art of puppet theatre called Bunraku, what he makes clear from the beginning of the film in an interesting short prelude in a documental-like style.t
Those familiar with “Beat” Takeshi's cinema will find recurrent elements like angels, scenes by the sea, beautiful landscapes and so on. Obsessions as well as words in his language.
There are some cinema critics that consider Takeshi Kitano as the better director alive. Well, his amazing capacity to express complex feelings with few resources, his broad filmic language, his mastery of the image, his sense of rythm (never too fast), and the aesthetic beauty of his films may well make him deserve this calificative.
I was deeply moved by DOLLS, and it happened that the people who came with me liked it a lot, too, even when they had never seen before a film by Takeshi Kitano and were certainly unfamiliar with Japanese cinema in general. However, I guess (and for the criticism I've found among some critics, mostly American, this may be true), those who are not interested in the deeper human emotions or who expect an easy movie may be dissapointed. This movie is not for popcorn eaters; instead it demands attention from the watcher.
This films comprises three stories that are not completely unlinked. The true theme of all these is love in its mightiest form (involving sacrifice and memory) and the power of true love, beyond all hope.
The three stories, set in our days:
- Two “tied beggars” wander around Japan tied by a red string. He had left his soon-to-marry girlfriend for the daughter of the president of his company. In the day of the wedding she attempted suicide, but failed and her brain resulted damaged. She no longer recognizes anyone. Now they walk together aimlessly.
- An old yakuza chieftain left his love of youth when he left his former life to become a criminal. She promised to await him every Saturday at the same park where they met every Saturday. One day, a Saturday, he feels nostalgic and visits this park. There he sees a mature beautiful woman.
- A pop star suffers an accident that defaces her. She abandons her career and takes refuge in a house by the sea. She does not want to be seen by anyone. However, she was everything for a humble worker that still seeks to meet and maybe helping her.
The director has tried to import to the filmic language that one of the old Japanese art of puppet theatre called Bunraku, what he makes clear from the beginning of the film in an interesting short prelude in a documental-like style.t
Those familiar with “Beat” Takeshi's cinema will find recurrent elements like angels, scenes by the sea, beautiful landscapes and so on. Obsessions as well as words in his language.
There are some cinema critics that consider Takeshi Kitano as the better director alive. Well, his amazing capacity to express complex feelings with few resources, his broad filmic language, his mastery of the image, his sense of rythm (never too fast), and the aesthetic beauty of his films may well make him deserve this calificative.
I was deeply moved by DOLLS, and it happened that the people who came with me liked it a lot, too, even when they had never seen before a film by Takeshi Kitano and were certainly unfamiliar with Japanese cinema in general. However, I guess (and for the criticism I've found among some critics, mostly American, this may be true), those who are not interested in the deeper human emotions or who expect an easy movie may be dissapointed. This movie is not for popcorn eaters; instead it demands attention from the watcher.
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