Reviews

Fagan is definitely the most interesting episode this season, not only because of its queer plot, but also because it's the most "commoners-focused" episode The Crown has ever delivered. The episode spends more than half an hour focusing on Fagan in the common settings. It's filled with classic British dry humor that I absolutely adored and the actor is extremely talented. The choice of music in this episode, however, is is the main reason why I think this is one of the best episodes from The Crown. The songs from The Cure symbolizes the changing time in this era, foreshadowing the revolutionary concept of Punk Rock and Grunge music in the 90s, further constructing the weird position the crown represents in the modern world. It's an Interesting way to demonstrate the ongoing contradictory nature in traditional value of the crown during this changing era.

It's kind of an anti climatic, way too many slow-motions, flashbacks revelations were overused, and that soundtrack in the last 30 seconds was horrendous.

But it's still fun nevertheless.

Over hundreds of films from the Shaw Brothers, this film is really something else, and it's a shame that this film didn't get a huge buzz, because to me this is one of the most unique film I've seen.

Saw the first film of this "adaptation" a while ago, but the first film was actually released earlier than the book, and it's called Swordsman Of Large (1971). The movie was fun and enjoyable, Lung Ku did an amazing job with its writhing, but it's actually pretty much a genre film, which not necessarily a bad thing, but the execution was average at best. The basic premise was a hero with a good heart, and a damsel, a villain and a heroine with skills, which was also exactly how this film from 1978 was going.

However, Chor Yuen, as a director with fantasy in mind, transforms this film into something weirdly unconventional considering the time period of genre machine. Tommy Tam has just stumbled upon a "toy house", a doll-like world where dozens of souls were trapped in it.

The setting itself was almost fabled, the house was like the studio, and we as an audience were watching the story made from this particular studio, characters and actors were frozen as puppets.

The movie may not be too mature in this kind of concept, but what I'm trying to imply is that in the history of Hong Kong cinema, there were actually films that have a concept that was ahead of its time. During this period, rarely had a film with this kind of Utopian plot, not even in Chor Yuen's magically crafted worlds in the past. What Yuen did in this film is experimental, but also pretty interesting to ponder.

This is like an Art House film stretched into a tv series, it's full of wonder and peculiarity, I really love its blurry storytelling, the way they uses the flashbacks narrative and the poetic narration, leading us viewers dive deep into this world, with some exotic environments and those amazing soundtracks, this makes us feel like the narrator's carrying us through time and space, and it's magnificent.

Though we still don't really understand the motivations of some characters, and I still can't see what the story's trying to say or what kind of idea it's trying to imply, but it's really a unique show, the visuals and styles kind of reminds me of some Krzysztof Kieslowski's movies, and I love it.

Comparing this to the previous seasons, especially season 8 to be exact, this was definitely a tremendous stride. The dialogue is clear, simple and straightforward, no more pretentious and exquisitely cheap words, no more logically flawed motivation, no more lazy "feelings" monologue. What's more important was that it didn't feel forced like season 7 and 8, it's smooth and juicy, though it may be slow, but every scene has its own purpose for storytelling, the time-jumped backgrounds blended in the story amazingly well, this episode is a pleasant surprise for me after the disappointing season 8.

I remembered when I finished this film in the theater at Taipei , I walked out with my heavy steps, furious, nearly fainted ,never have I been so angry about a film ,I've seen more than 1300 films in my whole life, whether it's old or new , whether it's France or Japan , I've seen many kinds of films, but there's just nothing like this ,this is not even a movie, this is just an advertisement for the audience between the two countries: Taiwan and Japan. That's it, there's no plot in this film , there's no emotion , no measurement, no character, no substance, no motivation ,nothing, absolutely nothing, there's even nothing good about this film, really , nothing, there's not even a reason for this film being existed. And most importantly, the material of this film was just amazingly dull, there's nothing unique about it for the adaptation. Romance between two countries ? There's a friend of mine is doing the exact same thing, even my own sister has an Indian boyfriend, so don't tell me how special you are, your story may be sweet and warm, but seriously, there's really nothing to say in a film, one plotline can't carry a film , unless this is something like Paris,Texas ,or Mad Max that's actually has a reason for a simple story, but it's not, it has no story to convey or style to invent, only a great amount of some hideous MV-type cinematography, the direction and the settings are just like something straight out from an insurance's ad that shown in an train station, with a photoshopped frame . If there's any true events that was interesting enough for an adaptation, this is the least of them. This was the worst movie experience in my entire life, not even Fan4stic or Emoji Movie or Mummy can surpassed this horrifying film.