Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Twilight Samurai


This poster is a little misleading: there is precious little blood in this quiet, moving film. Apparently the critics mistook Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun Fat's understated acting as turgid and unemotional way back when "Crouching Tiger" landed on US soil. Not sure how this could have been said, as every gesture and glance spoke clearer love than I can even imagine, never mind endure..
"Twilight" has as powerful an emotional feel, in a slightly different period of time in history.
I'm betting the critics were too busy reading the subtitles to see the actors! A common complaint, "I want to watch movies not read 'em," apparently extends beyond the Kansas borders...
"Twilight Samurai" is the first part of a trilogy I have been hounded to watch for over a year now.
I was not fooled by the cover, and imagined a slow period drama sleeper, in spite of the stand up guy that recommended the film. I should have been more trusting, as this film is superb.
So you lean back, mumble a bit about my incoherent spoiler free reviews and think, well, he says it is a Samurai film without blood and has love at the core, so how could his original assertion that the film must be a boring period drama have been so wrong?
Alienation does not always mean tattoos and piercings or even that we are all storage cells for the hive mind!
Recommended

No comments:

Post a Comment