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gluey_98
Reviews
Asoka (2001)
are u kidding me?
original and inventive direction and cinematography? didnt anyone else get the feeling that this was crouching tiger, hidden dragon with an indian story bolted onto it (and that too badly done!)?
where was the history? why dumb-ass and completely extraneous and unimaginative (except by indian standards) song and dance numbers, while a little bit about buddhist philosophy and not just a couple of orange filtered shots of a buddhist monk walking past the sunset?
right, plot...what plot? one scene develops to the next in such a contrived manner, one never knows why the war is being raged or any of the rest of it (eg. arya dying at the end...clearly the filmmakers intended, as is de rigeur in hindi films) that the audience must leave crying. but where is the dramatic role for arya's death? there isnt one...just the same as there is no dramatic kudos to any of the developments in the film, except perhaps to satisfy producers/distributors whims and demands.
direction...santosh sivan has clearly been watching and learning from ang lee and ridley scott amongst others and still manages to direct some of the most cack-handed action ever...could martial arts fight scenes be any more pedestrian?
i wont go on...but suffice it to say, i sat thru this more easily than the typical poor boy meets rich girl, whose father is a corrupt business type...his best friend dies at the end and he gets the girl type hindi film, but pls, dont think of this as original and ground breaking!
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
havent they learned yet?
hollywood these days cant even emulate its past successes. tomb raider was never going to be anything more than an update of the indiana jones formula. the success of the video games are based on the popularity of indy in conjunction with the popularity of pneumatic women amongst 10-16 year old boys. so all the film makers had to was update indy (ie woman in the lead role, keep the bad guys english, up the technology and SFX quotient, techno soundtrack...i could go on but u know what i mean) but they failed to even do that.
actors should act...remember olivier's comments during the filming of marathon man? well, similarly, a script needs writing, and a screenplay needs forming. even without these, a group of actors and a talented director can make something interesting...2001 had 40mins of dialogue only. ok this is unfair, but...what is the point of modernising action movies when such boring camerawork permeates this film? the bungee scene almost had some interesting camera, but are action film-makers unaware of the fact that films like the matrix and crouching tiger hidden dragon have been made? though x-men was written much better than this (in its genre) even that movie suffered from such pedestrian choreography and camerawork that potentially exciting scenes are never fully realised.
watch any decent hong kong action movie for style, and witness the matrix and crouching tiger for camera work. really we've come too far for action movies to look this boring. scripts and screenplays and things help even more.
Wo ai chu fang (1997)
stillness and poise
based on the book by bana yoshimoto, these are 2 of the features that permeate this quiet and composed reverie on the nature of loss and the impact breavement has on the spirit and what it takes to overcome this. the book is similarly composed although the characterisation seems to have been changed slightly...aggie seems a little more reserved and kooky than in the book and jordan chan in my opinion does not carry the depth that yoshio's character in the book had.
nevertheless, distanced from the book the film is still pleasing to watch, the grace of the visuals typically that of a slightly avant garde hong kong filmmaker, and as such the film tends to suffer slightly from a lack of substance, this is partly to be blamed on the screenplay. the majority of the emotional depth comes from the mother, who to be fair, was always going to be very difficult to portray on screen but is here accomplished very well. in my opinion, the scene of aggie on the rooftop which was mentioned in a previous review as being singularly demonstrative of aggie's gried seems contrived and trite compared to the reserved and less overt sadness carried by loui's mother in every scene she appears in, even when expressing joy the undercurrent of the loss he/she feels for her wife is manifest at all times; physically in her transformation into a woman.
this is a dreamy little wisp of a movie, whilst neither profound or a tour de force of acting, but if u like quirky little movies like this, then this is very well realised and i can say that i like it despite its flaws. the book can be film better; having seen in the mood for love, wong kar wai seems to be the man for the job though i doubt he will have time for it.