...otherwise known literally as THE CITY OF GOLDEN ARMOR, is china's selection as the entrant for best foreign film for the OSCARS...directed by the darling of chinese cinema ZHANG YIMOU (he of JU DOU, RED SORGHUM, HERO and HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS fame), it is a lavish and opulently-scaled tragic melodrama costing us$45 million (the most ever for a chinese production)...
set in the 10th century tang dynasty era, it stars the ever-so-cool CHOW YUN FATT as the ruthless and icy cold emperor with GONG LI as his vengeful empress cum nemesis...the other notable personage is mr mumbly pretty boy JAY CHOU (of chinese popstardom fame) as his second son cum empress's pawn...
the movie's pageantry of over-the-top opulence and bejeweled riot of colours is almost blinding to behold...in fact too much of a good thing...the movie piles spectacle upon spectacle and tragedy upon tragedy until the whole movie nigh collapses under the sheer weight of it all...a veritable greek tragedy of epic proportions...
the movie's pageantry of over-the-top opulence and bejeweled riot of colours is almost blinding to behold...in fact too much of a good thing...the movie piles spectacle upon spectacle and tragedy upon tragedy until the whole movie nigh collapses under the sheer weight of it all...a veritable greek tragedy of epic proportions...
zhang's penchant for the grand spectacle tends to overwhelm the storyline and by the time the storyline asserts itself, it's all become a tad bit campy and overwrought...
chow's turn as the merciless emperor ping is fantastic...he conveys soooo much intensity and craftiness in a mere look and looks ever so natural in the regalia of ancient china that one could easily picture him as the real thing back in ancient times...
gong li has been, in the past, THE muse for zhang and in this movie she shows the breadth of her acting chops perfectly...i have to admit though that i was severely distracted by her heaving bosom almost to the exception of everything else...
mumbles just looks weird and out of his depth in this movie...he doesn't emote well, face remaining wooden and devoid of expression in pretty much every scene of the movie and one might surmise that he was cast only to appeal to the younger crowd...well the young nubile ladies would definitely squeal their delight in his dramatic fight scenes...
overall, it's still terribly watchable this movie...just too melodramatic for me, i guess...meriting a 7 outta 10 then...
2 comments:
why u nvr tok abt Ms Chan, my fav =))
she not that fabulous lah...not my type...altho the dingdangs quite solid...hehe...
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