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Showing posts with label Cinema. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cinema. Show all posts
Ashes of Time Redux [1994 / 2008]
'Ashes of Time Redux' is a good film, dreamlike, disjointed, and possessed a stunningly complex narrative poetry. Often hard to follow and the colouring of the desert scenes is at times rather overexposed and abstract. Though the front cover quite clearly has a swords man this film is more about self-meditation and thoughts of the protagonist than out and out action.
The action scenes that are included are blurry and snarly, not cut together particularly well. However, the purpose of these scenes is to illustrate the tale, and provides this purpose well. The early storyline(s) are tough to follow, but are explained as you go. It had me and my housemate staring at each other in confusion early on.
Ashes of Time Redux (東邪西毒：終極版 : literally meaning "The Heretic East and the Venomous West": The Ultimate Edition) is set in five parts, five seasons that are part of the Chinese almanac. The story takes place in the jianghu, the world of the martial arts. Ouyang Feng the main character is a hard man to figure out, and at the end still leaves you pondering whether he is wise, or an idiot.
Ashes of Time Redux (東邪西毒：終極版 : literally meaning "The Heretic East and the Venomous West": The Ultimate Edition) is set in five parts, five seasons that are part of the Chinese almanac. The story takes place in the jianghu, the world of the martial arts. Ouyang Feng the main character is a hard man to figure out, and at the end still leaves you pondering whether he is wise, or an idiot.
Ashes of Time Redux is inspired by characters from Louis Cha’s martial arts novel ‘The Eagle-Shooting Heroes’. It centers on a man named Ouyang Feng. He left his home in White Camel Mountain when the woman he loved chose to marry his elder brother rather than him. Instead of seeking glory, he ends up as an agent hiring skilled swordsmen to carry out contract killings. His wounded heart has made him pitiless and cynical, but his encounters with friends, clients and future enemies make him conscious of his solitude...
The novels the film is based around actually have the lords of the east and west as much older men and arch nemeses. I would be very interested to read the books at a later date. All in all a good film; if you have the patience to navigate the honestly, mind boggling first half, of a somewhat abstract poetic film.
The novels the film is based around actually have the lords of the east and west as much older men and arch nemeses. I would be very interested to read the books at a later date. All in all a good film; if you have the patience to navigate the honestly, mind boggling first half, of a somewhat abstract poetic film.
Ashes of Time Redux [1994 / 2008]
Wong Kar-Wai: Director
Leslie Cheung, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Tony Leung Kar Fai
Mandarin w/English Subtitles
Wang Bianlian (Xu Zhu) is an aging street performer known as the King of Masks for his mastery of Sichuan Mask Changing Art. His wife left him with and infant son over 30 years ago. The son died from illness at age 10. This left Wang a melancholy loner desperate for a male heir so he could pass on his rare and dying art.
A famous master performer of the Sichuan Opera, Master Liang offers to bring Wang into his act, thus giving him fame and possible fortune, but Wang opts for staying the simple street performer. Then, one night after a performance he is sold a young boy by a slave trader posing as the boy's parent. "Grandpa" finds new joy in life as he plans to teach "Doggie"(Zhou Renying) (an affectionate term often used for young children in China) his art. All is well until Doggie is found out to really be a girl.
Set in 1930s China, this 1996 film ranges through the heart-breaking and joyful. Showing how hard life was for the characters you truly see the depths and heights of human existence in this film. The actors are all perfect, such that you feel like you have really entered a different world.
Bian Lian: King of Masks is very predictable and has great mirroring of pivotal moments within the film. I reccomend this heart warming tale for all. I watched it for the first time on Youtube. I enjoyed it so much, that I will be buying it.
Video Trailer: IMDB
A Chinese boy from Xingwen in eastern China aged 9 has been admitted to hospital after drinking petrol in order to become a Transformer robot.
Xiao Fang, sipped petrol as he ate food in the belief that it could help him emulate the powers of robotic superheroes such as the Transformers. However, he has been left critically ill and has suffered serious nerve damage.
The Doctor treating Xio Fang says he is surprised the boy managed to keep the petrol down, and Xiao Fang's father said "I did wonder about the smell of petrol in our house."
This news comes as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has made a huge breakthrough at the Chinese Box office. Transformers have taken record haul of 400m Yuan (£35m) in its first four weeks of release.
The success of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is partly due to the increasing number of cinemas in China, which employs a quota system for foreign movies. Each year, only 20 or so films made outside China are allowed into the country, though Hollywood movies are distributed everywhere, via illegal DVDs.
News Source:
Telegraph
Guardian
Photo Source:
Flickr
