Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Zhang Yi-Mou returns to form. The last film of his that I liked was The Road Home, aka My Father and Mother. Well, make that the last film of Zhang Zi Yi that I liked as well. Hero and House of Flying Daggers were quite embarrassing to watch. Lesson learnt, don't give the man too much money to make his films ... The casting of Ken Takakura is a master stroke, the veteran Japanese actor uses mostly his facial expressions and minimal body gestures to reflect his thoughts, his pain, and subsequently his conciliations with his past and present. Over at the Chinese camp, it seemed that other than the boy, everybody else played themselves, which is an amazing casting achievement, showing that every other rural Chinese can act for Zhang Yi-Mou, I guess ... the locations in Li Jiang, Yunnan, and subsequently the Stone Village, and the rocky and mountainous landscapes were really awe-inspiring. I half suspect that the film had a lot of Japanese funding behind it, as it was so pro Chinese- Japanese relations, but I guess it is nice to have a film between two countries that are not about bashing each other up, remember Paradise Now ... Hope this film does well.

♥ 11:30 pm