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E D I T O R I A L
Monday, January 15: Scenes From a Fractured Skull
What a fractured week for film viewing. Last Tuesday I received a small package with three disks. Naturally I popped in Drunken Master II first. I've seen it two or three times on VCD (with tiny, often unreadable burned-in subtitles and tinny sound) and once in a theater (in its English-dubbed, American-scored, theatrical release). The source print is not very good, and the "surround" sound moves inexplicably from channel to channel for no good reason. But the subtitles are removable and the original Chinese score is far superior to the newer American botch job. Still haven't seen it all the way through, but I will.
The next evening I sat down to watch Naked Poison - and recoiled in horror. At least a couple of reviewers included this film on their Top 10 list for 2000, so I'll give it another go, but this sort of nasty, garish, and extremely sexual Category III film may not be my cup of tea no matter how open-minded I try to be.
Friday afternoon I took off work to see the first showing in my area of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Despite my best efforts to avoid reading extensively about the film, it was difficult not to bring a certain amount of expectations and preconceptions into the theater. To some extent, CTHD confounded me. I was prepared for the extremely slow and static beginning and for the mostly spectacular martial arts sequences (although I thought the camera placement was disappointing), but it seemed like I was watching two different movies: one, a bloodless and restrained romantic drama, and two, an interesting wire-fu action flick. The two elements mixed like blood and water on first viewing. Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi gave excellent and stirring performances, and Peter Pau's cinematography was beautiful. I admired and appreciated the effort to depict characters with depths of emotions, and an ambiguous ending that can be interpreted by different people in different ways. In summary, after one viewing, I think it's very good but not great. My opinion may change, however, with multiple viewings, and I hope to see it in a theater at least one more time -- the Release 3 DVD is already out in Asia and available through import retailers, but I'll have to wait until the expected June Region 1 release.
Still trying to sort out my feelings on CTHD on Friday evening, I turned on the TV and saw that The Stormriders was playing on Pay Per View. Never having seen the film before (and unwilling to pay the high price the DVD commands), I punched the buttons on my remote and bought it. A moment later the film began. It was full frame and English dubbed (a version that has evidently been trimmed by an astounding 38 minutes!!!). I got through about 35-40 minutes before falling asleep. I woke up in time to see the special-effects filled final sequences. Now, some people really love this movie, and I suppose I should try to see the original-language, full-length, widescreen version, but it's not high on my priority list right at the moment. I did have a nice nap, however.
Somehow I ended up watching hours and hours of an American television show on Saturday afternoon and evening. It was set in a high school in 1980 and I must have been drowning in nostalgia for my miserable teenage years. Having recovered from that lapse (learning from the past is good, wallowing is bad), I feel ready to jump back into the unreal world of HK cinema. First up tonight: Conman in Tokyo!
As usual, feedback, whether positive or negative, is always welcome.
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