lang:Chinese

I persuaded the parents to get Kung Fu Hustle (功夫) for cheap, a purchase that I don’t regret at all. It is one of the funniest, most hilarious and whacked-out things I’ve ever watched. Then again, I almost never watch comedy, or anything in that mien… but Kung Fu Hustle is worth seeing at least once.

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House of Flying Daggers (十面埋伏; shi2 mian4 mai2 fu2) was a letdown. No, indeed, there wasn’t much of a story. The intents and purposes of the main characters were quite vague, and never became all that clear to me. Not that I can’t handle vague intents — but in this case, the vagueness wasn’t pulled off convincingly. I couldn’t be properly convinced that he felt this way, she felt that way… and that that was all workable. It took a deliberate biting back of disbelief to pay attention throughout the movie.

But it was elegant and fluid. The fight scenes were wonderful, and the flying daggers made me like daggers even more. The ambience and the mood and orientation of characters on the screen were all exquisitely placed. The melding of sounds with the setting is something that comes through in House of Flying Daggers and Hero, which is what I think makes these two movies such aesthetic pleasures to watch. But Hero had a tight and powerful story, while this one felt a bit indeterminate and fuzzy. The ending… well. Gee. That’s what I thought when the credits came up, and I still can’t think of anything else. What an ending. Should I be sad? I think I should, but I felt indifferent and empty.

I really, really tried to like House of Flying Daggers, but I couldn’t. A movie definitely requires both a strong story and strong visuals to appeal to me. This movie didn’t have the story to a convincing degree. Alas, it was a beautiful letdown.

Vega has a Favourite Movie of 2004 now: 英雄 (ying1 xiong2), otherwise known as Hero. I like it very much, moreso than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (which I want to watch again), it’s more of an epic than a martial arts film. The use of colour is extremely clever and the storyline’s quite intriguing. Furthermore, it’s a very authentic depiction of China during the Qin dynasty — that’s an aspect of China I haven’t really delved into. Something to do in the future: get up to snuff on Chinese history.

Hero has martial arts and fighting, but it’s the story that makes it different from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. One also gets a closer picture on the philosophy associated with swordsmanship and calligraphy. The landscape, the culture and the methods of warfare are all very inspiring and beautiful. And I love the way the Chinese language is able to sum in so few words, whereas English takes a sentence to express the same thing. (If I wasn’t, I’d be rather worried.)

It’s a good movie to watch, if only to get a picture of the ancient Chinese culture. Definitely Vega’s Movie of 2004. There’s one thing I have to figure out, though: Who is the hero in the story?