Ridley Scott's Somalia

Every time I encounter a Somali person on the bus to or from work, Ridley Scott's 2001 film 'Black Hawk Down', which is set in Somalia, springs to mind. And I wish I had the chutzpah to ask them what life was really like in Somalia, at the height of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's misrule. And what they thought of Scott's cinematic interpretation of Somalia and the events of that Sunday in 1993, when several U.S. army Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in the war-torn capital Mogadishu.

(Images: [top] paintedframe.blogspot.com, [middle] killermovies.com, [bottom] fanpop.com)

Review: Ronny Yu's 'Fearless'

'Fearless' is about real-life early twentieth century Chinese folk hero and martial artist Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li). The film begins in Yuanjia's childhood, when he practices martial arts, behind his disapproving father's back. It is during this time that he has two pivotal experiences: seeing his renowned martial artist father Huo Endi (Collin Chou), seemingly defeated in a fighting contest and experiencing his own defeat at the hands of Zhao Jian (Shang Yapeng), an obnoxious neighbourhood child, shortly afterwards. He swears that he will never be defeated again. As a man, blindly fuelled by these two experiences, and having acquired impressive martial arts skills, he defeats numerous opponents, eventually acquiring the title "Champion of Tianjin".

After Yuanjia hastily fights and kills Chin (Chen Zhihui), the head of a rival martial arts school, who had severely beaten one of his students Liu Zhensheng (Yi Shixiong), Yuanjia's family is butchered in retaliation. Yuanjia goes on to kill… the butcher (Jacky Heung). When he finds out that the cause of all the bloodshed is trivial -- Liu Zhensheng's having a secret love affair with Chin's wife -- Yuanjia leaves Tianjin, grief-stricken and ashamed. He ends up in picturesque rural China, a place that looks like something out of a fairytale, and it is while there, that he finds healing and returns to Tianjin, to right his wrongs.

'Fearless' was beautifully shot, the cinematography was absolutely stunning. It was a feast for the eyes! I enjoyed the rich, vibrant colours and evocative lighting. Of note are the scenes set in the aforementioned picturesque locale, that Yuanjia ends up in. And the images at the end of the film, of Yuanjia gracefully practicing his art, while a magical light illuminates his face and shoulders, against a stark, dark blue background, lending a 'heavenly' quality to the images. Absolutely stunning.

There were hints of 'The Last Samurai' -- a warrior who has gone off the rails, finds his way back to the light, with the help of a beautiful female with whom he has no sexual relations, in a picturesque, somewhat secluded country setting. And Masato Harada, who played Japanese diplomat Omura in 'The Last Samurai', was present as Mr. Mita, also a Japanese diplomat.

There are three qualities that I look for in a screen fight -- grace, power and clarity. The fights in 'Fearless' had all three. They were a pleasure to watch. Fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping is like the postman -- he always delivers. Although, there's one fight that takes place on a wooden platform elevated very high up from the ground, that was somewhat dodgy. Parts of the fight didn't transition smoothly into each other, it was jerky, as though some footage had been unskilfully excised. And the fight wasn't quite 'natural', the wire-assisted moves were rather too apparent.

I enjoyed the restrained but impactful interactions between Yuanjia and Moon (Betty Sun), the lady who helps him heal. In some instances, Li and Sun conveyed much without speaking, but merely with the look in their eyes. It was beautiful.

I watched 'True Legend' (2010) before I watched 'Fearless' (2006), and so the advantage of hindsight or is it foresight, or both?… came into play. It seemed to me that 'TL', which debuted several years after 'F', was somewhat a retread or remake of 'F'. I find it interesting that both films were scored by the same composer, the talented Shigeru Umebayashi; Yuen Woo-ping choreographed the fights in 'F' and on 'TL', he directed everything, the fights and all other aspects; the theme of re-igniting Chinese pride by trouncing invading foreigners in the 'ring', runs strong in both films; and the set design, in both films, of the area where the bouts take place, is similar. And I wonder if Collin Chou, who played Huo Endi, Yuanjia's father in 'Fearless', is related to Jay Chou, who portrayed the 'god of wushu' in 'True Legend'. If 'True Legend' was intended as a remake of 'Fearless', then the former wins, hands down!

'Fearless' isn't the best entry in its genre, but it's definitely worth a look.

Jiéshù

(Images: blu-ray.com)

The Dark Knight Rises: Second Impressions

The first time I watched ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, it blew me away. But on watching it for the second time, it didn’t appeal to me as much. I found it far less enjoyable. Was I in a ‘Hollywood-marketing-machine-induced’ euphoria when I watched it the first time? Was the euphoria of my own making? I’m not certain.

The unintelligibly edited hand-to-hand fights, that had held a sliver of appeal for me before, didn’t appeal to me at all, this time. Perhaps Nolan and crew should have hired master fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping (The Matrix, Fearless, True Legend; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon etc.) and asked him to tone down the awe-inspiring, gravity-defying moves that characterise a great deal of his work! I’m certain that master Yuen, even with his wings clipped to suit Nolan’s ‘realistic’ style, would have done a superb job.

The sound effects and score seemed to drown out the dialogue. Was it a result of poor sound-mixing on the part of the filmmakers? Was it the theatre’s sound system that was faulty? Was it my ears? I don’t know. Although, I doubt very much that it was my ears – they are still in fairly good condition you see. The other two are more probable.

I still don’t know how Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) had what seemed to be close ties to Bane (Tom Hardy) or how she knew so much about him. I know that the answers lie in the film’s dialogue – if only so much of it wasn’t so difficult to hear!

The epic scale of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, demands that one be in awe of this film. Its scale is epic indeed; a marvel. One example is the huge vehicular chase involving Batman as the pursued and almost all of the Gotham Police Department as pursuers.  But I’m currently of the mind that there isn’t that much mass/substance to this colossus of a film. Ah, the epic proportions of this film, the spectacle of it.

In some instances, the film – the moving images – relied too much on the score, to generate excitement, to the point that the score overshadowed the images. The score made grand promises of excitement while the images failed to deliver. An example is when ‘The Bat’ flies the ‘nuclear bomb’ out of Gotham so that the ‘bomb’ detonates out at sea. The music in this sequence is grandiose, but what’s happening on screen isn’t grandiose.

It’s annoying to watch a film that was partly shot on IMAX film and be unable to see, fully, the grandeur of the IMAX shots, because you’re watching the standard-sized print, on a standard-sized screen. Such was the case with ‘The Dark Knight Rises’.

The theatre screen wasn’t large enough to accommodate the whole film image. The film image exceeded the boundaries of the screen, such that part of it could be seen on the area around the screen. That was very annoying. Are movies nowadays being shot in a wider aspect ratio than before? Is it because ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ was shot on a variety of film stock sizes – IMAX, 35mm and I-don’t-quite-remember-what-else. Did the projectionist not know what he was doing? I don’t know.

I don’t think that this film would have been any less enjoyable without Talia al Ghul (Marion Cotillard), Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) and Robin John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). These characters felt a little tacked on. I felt that their presence wasn’t integral to the story. It was as though they had been added at the last minute, when the filmmakers felt that there weren’t enough characters to keep the audience interested. ‘Batman’ films have always been an ensemble piece, after all.

The idea of a prison with a shaft leading up to the surface seemed rather too implausible this time. So were the prisoners chanting the phrase “deshi basara” and a TV installed in prison, especially for Bruce Wayne to witness the destruction of Gotham.

Jodhpur, India, which was chosen to represent the landscape outside the prison, because of its ‘desolate look’, didn’t look foreboding to me at all. Instead, it looked beautiful. The rustic colours were absolutely majestic.