There is a theater in the Atlanta area called "Tara Cinema".
Tara Cinema
is located on the corner of Chesire Bridge and LaVista, in the same
corner
as a shitty nightclub called "Club 7" or some shit like that is,
where
luminaries and world leaders such as Puffy Combs and DMX come to
hang out
when they are gracing Atlanta with their presence. Tara Cinema
though, is
usually known for carrying avant-garde films, or basically films
that the
typical movie audience is just not gonna understand.
So it was with this conception that I went to see "Crouching Tiger,
Hidden
Dragon", a Hong Kong film that has been out for awhile overseas
in Asia
and is now making its rounds in America (in fact, it's out on DVD
in Asia
as we speak). I had heard good things about this film and
the trailer on
the Internet looked great, so I was pretty excited to see it.
The film is definitely a very different martial arts film than you
might
expect. Don't go and expect it to be like "Enter the Dragon"
or even much
like "Mortal Kombat" or some kind of American martial arts film--
the film
is much, much better than that. It has an intricate story
that unfolds
and draws the characters into the plot and it is all superbly done
by
director Ang Lee, who is not known for doing action films.
While the movie's main star attraction is Michelle Yeoh and Chow
Yun Fat
(from Hardboiled, among others), one of the best performances is
given by
Zhang Zi Yi, a 20-year-old girl that plays a princess in the
movie. Without spoiling any of the plot, let me just say that
the
performance she gives is something to behold and none of the current
20-somethings around in the industry, including Natalie Portman,
can hold
a candle to her.
Aside from the great action and intricate plot, the movie is a work
of art
as far as locations. From the Gobi desert in Mongolia to lush
forests and
waterfalls, the movie has very epic qualities about many of the
scenes,
with a lot of influence from movies such as "Lawrence of Arabia"
and
"Ghandi". I personally had no idea that China was so beautiful
and it
makes me want to go and stay for about a year. Too bad they
are commie
bastards.
My only complaint about the movie is that you have to suspend your
belief
in gravity a lot in the movie. There is a lot of wirework
in the movie
and sometimes the action sequences seemed a little TOO nimble, but
overall
the fighting sequences are extraordinarily well done.
If you go see this movie, make sure you understand that you should
not
expect all the fighting to be perfectly repicable in the real world--
after all, if Neo can dodge bullets and Trinity can run along walls,
maybe
so can martial artists. Seek out a good theater with good
screens because
you will have to read subtitles, but you will get used to it after
4
minutes or so. Overall I would say that this movie is extremely
good and
it is by far the best movie I have seen over the last couple of
months. I
expect the movie to get some kind of Academy Awards nomination.
-*(CC)*-
"Sapere Aude"