Has anyone else seen CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON?

I guess I'm one of the few who didn't like it! Guess I saw TOO many of the flying in the air,walk up walls,leap up to the 2nd. story & LONG fights ,from martial arts movies when I was younger!
jim
 
Gus & not2sharp - I think it's a matter of cultural sensibilities, what we've become accustomed to accepting -- the US moviegoing audience generally takes it in stride when someone fires 500 rounds from a 30 round clip, or when explosions in space make noise, or spaceships make aerodynamic turns in the absence of any atmosphere.

When I saw the film, I noted with interest that the audience, as a group, twittered a bit at the first appearance of the things you mention, but then everyone quickly accepted it and just "went with the flow" and got into the story.

I have a theory that part of the reason for the success of The Matrix was that the cyberpunk/virtual-reality "this isn't really real" setting of much of the picture gave the audience leave to accept a variety of surreal martial arts moves more common to Hong Kong style action films...

If more films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon achieve success in the US, perhaps one day US audiences will accept a hero's ability to, for example, leap to a second story roof, as evidence of the hero's prowess, just as they now accept the hero's ability to shoot a bad guy in the forehead, at a hundred yards, firing a handgun from the hip while running backwards
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I thought the film was fabulous, BTW.

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Carl /\/\/\ AKTI #A000921 /\/\/\ San Diego, California

Think this through with me ... Let me know your mind
Wo-oah, what I want to know ... is are you kind?
-- Hunter/Garcia, "Uncle John's Band"
 
The language was a bit strange because only Zhang Ziyi actually speaks it right, and then she didn't always act it right. It was kind of weird, actually, to see Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun Fat speak mainland Mandarin.

Also I thought the wire work was too obvious. Not that you can see the wires or anything crass like that, but there often wasn't a sense of even slight push-off when they took off upwards. The ground work was fine, though and there were a lot of bladed weapons other than Chow's sword.

Incidentally, this story wasn't written by one of the traditional pool of wu xia storywriters. Maybe it was for this reason that I missed the wu xia moral. I mean, there were moral *characters*, but in the traditional wu xia story, the world is better for it having happened, whether the hero dies or not. Didn't happen for me here.

Still and all, it was a good movie.

PS: does anyone know what knife James Coburn had in The Magnificent Seven?

 
Very pleasant and well-filmed adolescent fantasy, altho it could have used more skin, I thought (any swearing didn't make it through the sometimes comic subtitles). Gorgeous scenery, costumes, with a comic book plot. Enjoyed it immensely, especially the parts where the young girl heroine sliced through iron weapons (does she use a Lansky sharpener, or sharpen freehand) and beat up the Chinese equivalent of a motorcycle gang.

[This message has been edited by Alberta Ed (edited 01-22-2001).]
 
Carl,

What do you mean... I always shoot like that!
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It may just be old age setting in. After a while you just get the impression that there is something wrong with watching a "good guy" indescriminately poor 30 rounds in the general direction of the bad guy, while the bad guy stands in front of 100 innocent bystanders.

Then again kids used to jump off tall building while wearing Superman Costumes. I think I'll grab a beer and go watch it again this weekend.
 
This is way off topic for this forum, so I apologise in advance...

For you folks who are into unreal levels of (movie) swordplay, this is Uncle Andy's two recomendations from HK action cinema:
- Swordsman II. Directed by Tsui Hark. Jet Li as the wandering swordsman. My all time favourite.
- New Legend of Shaolin. Jet Li's spearplay is the highlight of the movie. Should be, he was 5 times all China martial arts champ.

Red



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"Praise not the day until evening has come;a sword until it is tried; ice until it has been crossed; beer until it has been drunk" - Viking proverb
 
redvenom,

Amen brother. Jet Li is definitely the best. He was just beginning to gather audience in the U.S. I even saw some old films of his at Blockbuster at one time.

Jumping up to roofs? Flying? Well I've seen some demonstrations where martial artists jumped as high as 4 meters (12 ft) above ground without much effort. What did they call that skill? Gin kang? Whatever...
 
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