Recommended movies: Zatoichi and Hero

[ziritrion]

I have no idea whether these two movies have been released yet in the US or if any of you have seen them, but since no one has mentioned them before, I guess I will .

Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi: you know Zatoichi, the Japanese character who became the inspiration for Zatoino. If you don't, well, Zatoichi is a blind masseur who happens to be a really skillfull swordsman. Also, there's lots of people who seem to be after him for some reason. Well, this remake by Takeshi Kitano premiered here about 3 weeks ago and it's just GREAT! However, don't expect a story à la UY or any other chambara film. As a matter of fact, it's more of a comedy/musical than an action film. Some friends said that the movie was a bit slow-paced, but I had a great time watching it and I had some of the best laughs in a movie in the last 6 months. Don't miss the choreographies!!

Hero: starring Jet Li, "Hero" premiered here at least 3 months ago, so it's been a long time since I saw it. But no one has talked about it, so here's my review. "Hero" is a Chinese movie with a "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" feeling. The story is about Nameless, a warrior who seems to have killed 3 assassins who were after the lord of the (I can't remember the name. Sorry!) region. This lord is fighting against the surrounding regions in order to annex them and unify China. He also hears about Nameless' deeds, so he receives him in his castle, and Nameless starts narrating how he killed each one of the assassins. The movie is based on historic facts - both Nameless and the lord existed. In fact, this lord eventually unified China, became the Emperor and started to build the Great Wall (most likely someone here in the Board will know the name of the lord). The movie is beautiful, the story is amazing (it's treated as a legend, very much like CTHD), and it even was nominated for the Oscars (Best Foreign Language Movie, I think it was 1 or 2 years ago). Very recommended.

A little bit off-topic: due to "The Last Samurai" and "Zatoichi" effects, all the kendo schools in Spain are experiencing a sudden increase in students (we've got 5 new people where I go; we where around 15 before so it's a pretty big change ). Although I thought that TLS was ok, it's always good to have some sort of publicity . Let's see how long the new students will last (unluckily, there's always some guy who tries something new for a very short time, gets tired of it, and quits, just because s/he thought doing that thing would be cool and easy ).

[Deerock]

What a pleasant surprise that someone brought that up. It's been a year since I watched that movie on DVD. I shall be a sport and share my 2 cents about this.

The move takes time in final years of Warring State Era (Japanese word: Sangoku means the same thing) that spans between BC 403 ~ BC 221. China was in the height of its Bronze Age and iron was only used on utilities such as agriculture tools. The name of the lord in the film "Hero" (soon become emperor) is Yíng Zhèng (Like Japaneses, Chineses name is "family name" "given name" as Yao Ming or Suzuki Ichiro). Yíng Zhèng is also known as "Qin Shi Huang" which means "The first emperor of Qing" as "Shi" = First, "Huang" = Emperor in Chinese. Hope this will clear some of the confusion about the lord's name. Since all Chinese lords/emperors carry a title like that to indicate their historical significance.

We all know that under the leadership of Yíng Zhèng, Qing State began the campaign to conquer all the rest of the China and succeed. Since the rest of the States (including Zhao, Wei, Han, Chu, Qi and Yan) couldn't achieve military victories, assassination were attempted. (However, it seems that Japanese is the only civilization truly professionalize these "covert operations" into Ninjas) The Nameless played by Jet Li is actually Jing Ke (Ke pronounced as "cut" without "t"). And Jing nearly succeeded because Ying Zheng couldn't pull his sword (size of a Scottish claymore) out in panic, but Jing missed the lord and stuck his dagger onto the pillard, which gave Ying Zheng enough time to score the kill.

Another side note about the brutality of The Warring States era. Even though "Hero" is just a movie, but weapons like crossbows and bronze casting for the weapons were for real. For anyone think Chinese are more "peaceful" and "civilized" for the sake of Confusism BUZZ!!! Wrong!!! One of the hugest battle kill count in Chinese history would be the battle of Changping, BC 260, between State (or Kingdom) of Qing and Zhao. Casualty count, Qing: Unknown, Zhao: 400,000.

Deerock the Gorilla

[takematsu]

Let's see how long the new students will last (unluckily, there's always some guy who tries something new for a very short time, gets tired of it, and quits, just because s/he thought doing that thing would be cool and easy ).

It could be worse-- you could get someone who thinks they're a martial adept and thus won't listen to the instructions of those who actually know what they're doing... no matter how often/hard you hit them Been at it for a year now, and we've seen a good month's worth of improvement out of him.

For anyone think Chinese are more "peaceful" and "civilized" for the sake of Confusism BUZZ!!! Wrong!!!

Doesn't a Confuscian war at least require people dying in order according to rank and importance? "Hey, they've run out of peasants! We've just got a few commanders to get through, then it's onto the scholars!"

[Steven Hubbell]

As with the Lone Wolf DVD, the new Zatoichi movie is listed for a May release in the March issue of Diamond's Preview catalog...
Abayo...

[SoundNin]

I own Hero had it for a little while now, damn good movie. It has a fantastic use of color in that film and some pleasing wirework.

[wulf]

I know this is kind of an old topic, but I saw Zatoichi at an independant cinema at the weekend, and it was fantastic! great mix of comedy, morality and extreme violence!