Sunday, March 11, 2007
and then there are others that i get to watch for free, courtesy of some friends. i was lent 'the promise' and 'hero' (chinese movies) just this weekend, and took the time to watch both (since i had to return them immediately).
supposedly the most expensive chinese movie ever. but you could see how it was spent on graphics (some weren't topnotch, but suspend your belief, people!). visuals were really good, particularly the detail on clothes. there's also this goddess with a floating halo on her head, and i was really distracted by it. the fight scenes were not really martial-arts heavy, but you gotta love the background. my fave one was the fight with the revolving chinese panels...
story-wise, it was pretty simple. it had some mythological concepts in it (the goddess butts in very significantly) and there is a bittersweet love story, too. but it's really the visuals that captured it for me... and the villain. was it wrong to root for the villain? he had such an enigmatic prescence, i was almost always cheering for him!
hmmmm... i am not a jet li fan. i'm sure he's a likeable guy...
visuals also play a role in this movie, but more in dominant colors. there are different versions of the story, and as each version unfolds, the characters always change the hue of their clothes. it has a lot more impact story-wise for me, particularly when its supposedly based on historical data (the warring states period of china).
while 'the promise' had the effect of putting me in a momentary trance-like state of wonder at the vibrant colors, 'hero' strongly urged me to be introspective. long after the movie was finished, i found myself unable to sleep as i wrestled with my thoughts.
'hero' has a good-for-all mentality. there are notable lines in the movie such as "the pain of one man is nothing to the suffering of all", and something about a path rooted in hatred or revenge is bad. another message, albeit more subtle, was the nobility of how one person, can die for a good cause (for me, a very Christian self-sacrifice ideal i understand so well). while these are all true, however, it also emphasizes a uniquely and dominant asian culture. this is not to say that thinking of others is wrong. it wasn't the denial of self that bothered me, but the denial of truth.
(warning: spoiler movies to follow, if you haven't watched 'hero' yet)
while the emperor had the foresight to unite the states of china, it was done in a manner that involved a lot of killings. it was only natural that assassins with personal vendettas would hunt this emperor. at the very end, however, the assassin has a change in heart, realizes that a peaceful nation is more important, then he gives up willingly, and let himself be killed instead.
peace from mass bloodshed? i could not get around the logic of that. neither could i understand the emperor when he broke down as he lamented how few people understood his vision of unity. unity is good, but the killings were not. THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS.
i guess because the movie had a political ring to it. it was almost short of saying, there would be anarchy if the government doesn't do this and that. and yes, anarchy is bad, but so is a government that is willing to look the other way all for the sake of vision. it's even more worse if the government doesn't even do any compensation, not even a public apology, for the losses of the people they step on.
there's this movie with wesley snipes (murder at 1600) where a character justifies the killing of a young woman by saying somewhere along the lines of "if i were to choose between righteousness and peace, i choose righteousness". it was more on the context on how and when he said that, which was entirely wrong, especially as he used those words to rationalize the death of an innocent. then the character follows it up with "she was a casualty of war!".
** man. i hated that bastard. **
some people will say, rationalization is not an entirely bad strategy, weighing the pros and cons, and seeing how many people would benefit. i plead guilty, since i do the same thing (i'm asian!), but i guess not in extreme life-or-death circumstances. i guess it does depend on which situation it is used.
however, if rationalization, or the use of logic, is employed to deny reality and emotion -- i might say it even borders on removing self-responsibility -- and attribute the outcome or decision as a necessity, then rationalization needs to be considered, investigated and debated carefully. if not, it will only become a defense mechanism to repress the truth.
3 comments // 4:13 PM
