Gilded Insanity
11 January 2007 09:44Wow, nothing like the Chinese to do an insane movie! I'm a sucker for those chop/suey flying fight movies and often they make little sense, are full of stunning visual imagery and lots of death. Or as my friend commented as we left - McBeth for the Chinese!
Look what happens when you are locked up in an imperial palace - you go crazy and take everyone with you! Stunning visuals, sweeping silk, swirling petals, ninjas like spiders dropping down from the sky, rows of gold, swirling blades, shinning gold all over, no doors, people following you everywhere, no privacy, so many to see everything and do everything. It's definitely a visual mindfuck in which you sit there, blink and think - wow - what happened? What was the number of that truck?
You realize just WHO is the evil villain about the time he succeeds (?) and everyone dies - and not all by 'his' hand - their own, each other, etc.
Not too heavy on the fights, though you get some huge ones at the end in which ninja's drop out of the sky on robes like spiders and then a huge battle sequence with a crushing wall which reminds one of Helm's Deep (LOTR). And even during this fight - it's all about the visual impression, color, pattern.
It's also a pattern for all those family fights - you think you've seen a family fight? Guess again. This family goes all out - incest, betrayal, filicide, fratricide, suicide and homicide. The only thing they DON'T do is patricide or regicide - and that's not without trying!
Look what happens when you are locked up in an imperial palace - you go crazy and take everyone with you! Stunning visuals, sweeping silk, swirling petals, ninjas like spiders dropping down from the sky, rows of gold, swirling blades, shinning gold all over, no doors, people following you everywhere, no privacy, so many to see everything and do everything. It's definitely a visual mindfuck in which you sit there, blink and think - wow - what happened? What was the number of that truck?
You realize just WHO is the evil villain about the time he succeeds (?) and everyone dies - and not all by 'his' hand - their own, each other, etc.
Not too heavy on the fights, though you get some huge ones at the end in which ninja's drop out of the sky on robes like spiders and then a huge battle sequence with a crushing wall which reminds one of Helm's Deep (LOTR). And even during this fight - it's all about the visual impression, color, pattern.
It's also a pattern for all those family fights - you think you've seen a family fight? Guess again. This family goes all out - incest, betrayal, filicide, fratricide, suicide and homicide. The only thing they DON'T do is patricide or regicide - and that's not without trying!
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Date: 11 Jan 2007 18:32 (UTC)no subject
Date: 11 Jan 2007 18:34 (UTC)