Thursday, April 10, 2008

Three Kingdoms


When I planned to watch this movie on the theater, I must admit that I was skeptical. Well, my worries were justified. Despite its great in almost everything, the plot was mostly nowhere near the original story. I mean, Cao Ying? Come on, don't be ridiculous. Or that Zhao Yun got killed in battle? Now that would just like saying that Abraham Lincoln died while leading his army during the civil war. From start to finish, I'd say it was a tormenting moments. Zhao Yun didn't start from lowly position in the Liu Bei's army. He even saved Liu Bei's life in the beginning of their acquaintance. Such a shame. The original was a great story, why couldn't just keep it that way? Despite that, the movie was well directed. The emotional stirring was pretty felt. Acting was all good, but the harp-playing scene was awful. No need for that one. Heck, no need for even put Cao Ying on the scene. The score for the plot was 3, the directing was 8, the acting was 8. Overall, it was an obvious disappointment of 6.

Still, there is another release planned regarding the Three Kingdoms. Tony Leung will be a part of it, and it would be focusing on the Battle of Red Wall. With the Chinese government involvement in the project, I guess the quality must be way better than the Resurrection of the Dragon.

I'd also still see the TV series was way better than Resurrection. Well, sometimes some novel just couldn't be fitted into a single movie. Learn from the LotR.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

The Darjeeling Limited

Just watched it this morning. My interest wasn't actually on who acted in this movie. It wasn't on who directed this movie also. Instead, it was the title that intrigued me. All I know that Darjeeling is some sort of tea. After watching it for a while, it appeared that Darjeeling Limited was the name of the train the three brothers used. An interesting way to tell a story, though. Nice work, but the story was rather dull. The acting was of standard quality, not too good, but not bad either.
If it was supposed to be a life-changing, spiritual journey, well I couldn't see how that could possibly happens. At least not to me. I'd take it as a simple vacation. Fortunately, it wasn't like those stupid comedies with same plot "a group vacation/journey" with lots of things happening during the journey. Well, the story was so-so, I'd give it a 6, the acting was slightly good, worth a 7, the directing was interesting, making the movie a joy to watch. I'd give it an 8. Overall it was a simply average movie to watch.


Well, I'm planning to see The Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon tomorrow. I hope it's good...