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Reviews
Kung fu (2004)
True Martial Arts Movie!
This is a true Kung Fu movie. I know there're a lot of KungFu movies out there, but IMO (and that's coming from someone who read hundreds of Kung Fu novels multiple times) this one finally got it right. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" may have got the physical form right, "Hero" may have got the mood right, "House of Flying Daggers" may have got the romance right, but "Kung Fu Hustle" got the "Kung Fu" right, or rather, the "Wu Xia" right (you'll probably have to wikipedia the word ... since it holds a lot of meanings). The movie has some brilliant scenes with exquisite form and style, like the three masters face the two musicians scene and toad fight scene. However, it's the other parts that shows they truly understand Kung Fu, like how the true masters would rather live in Pig Sty Alley than going out showing the world what they're good at; how a boy with humble backgrounds can eventually become the best martial artist; and especially the ending, when the Beast asks "What is the name of your technique" and he answers "You want to learn? I will teach you!". That is a very Taoist thing to say. Just that one line could win me over. Kung Fu may seem like it's about fighting and winning, but actually it's also about teaching, preserving, and spreading. And in Kung Fu tradition the latter may be more important than the former. Mortal enemies don't have to stay as enemies, they are really on the same side in the pursuit of great martial art (provided they no longer run around trying to kill people). It's an art form first, fighting skill second. What impressed me most is they delivered this rather serious topic in a simple, fun and cool way. I highly recommend this movie!
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998)
Quite a disappointment
I only watched Lion King II because I taped it from TV. I watched it twice and still wondering if it's made by the same group that did the first movie.
It's quite a disappointment. The characters are not interesting any more. Their facial expression has too many changes in one second it's not natural. And I'm hoping it's just me, I found Kiara very annoying, probably because of her sometimes-nasal voice (that always gives me a fake-cry impression). Besides, unlike Simba, she wasn't given the chance to mature. She was the same spoiled little girl from the beginning to end. It's a good thing they want to have a princess instead of a prince, but it's easy to tell the plot is still highly underneath Kovu. It's strange to talk about character chemistry in an animated movie, but I found Lion King II lack the kind of chemistry the first one had. Probably the director's fault.
The plot did mature a lot, though. During a great length of the movie I thought Zira was to live. She's not really a villain, just some poor old thing stuck in the thoughts of revenge for too long. But I guess little kids won't understand it that way, so Kira dies at the end. Given a plot like this, it's pretty hard to screw up the characters due to lack of complicity, but they did.
Eternally Yours (1939)
Excellent characters. Great Chemistry.
I enjoyed this picture a lot. It has the warmth of the classics, yet the characterization and the whole plot fits to today's world. The incredible chemistry between the two leads is (I found) very rare among movies from that age.