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The Legend of Tomiris (2019)
#1
(06-25-2020, 06:21 AM)Drunk Monk Wrote:


Epic. If you don't know the legend, Tomiris was a nomad queen of the steppes who battled King Cyrus of Babylon in the 5th century BCE. I was unfamiliar with the tale.

This film was made in Kazakhstan, so the locations are stunningly panoramic. It would have been a spectacle on the big screen. The armor and costumes are exotic - I had no idea what steppe nomad attire and armor looked like so it was a cool revelation. It was beautifully actualized. They speak ancient Turkic and Persian, which makes it work even more. 

It's long. 2 and a half hours. Starting from Tomiris' childhood, it's a long journey. The first part is what the live-action Mulan should have been. The later chapters are Tomiris' climb to queendom, and her doling out revenge and justice. 

It's all about Tomiris. She's played by Almira Tursyn, a psychologist selected from 15K person search. And she nails it. She has the ferocity - uncompromising and vengeful. She sells her horsewomanship, her archery, and mostly her swordswomanship. 

That's right. Plenty of sword fights. Some major battles on the steppes, horse soldiers, archers, lancers, chariots, and swords fighters. The battles escalate in intensity as they should in an epic like this. There's some good choreo - a tad heavy on the spin and slash move, but that looks cool. There's a lot of kneeling spin and slashing - I'm not sure that any more effective. But it looks cool. There's a nice battlefield sword fight seduction, and I have a soft spot for those.

Almira makes it work. She's awesome and I hope she continues acting. 

So yeah, swordfights. Stabby, choppy, spinning swordfights on big battlefields. It's a bit of alright. 

DOOM recommended. On Hoopla.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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#2
Just reserved this on Hoopla.  Got three days to watch.

I thought I posted a book review on DOOM -- Women Warriors: An Unexpected History -- but not finding it.

Maybe it predates the stable DOOM.

Anyway, it covers Tomiris (spelled Tomyris) in the first chapter.  Highly recommended.
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#3
I remember you recommending that book to me personally. It was one of those titles that I put in the queue in the back of my mind, but I was spoiled while working at KFM because I got a ton of free books. Most of them sucked and I sold them back to used bookstores. I got a great price from Logos because the bookbuyer there was also the manager at Plum Publications (the sig0 of Ted at the Academy where I train). But then Logos closed so I had to find other places to dump books. And now, I'm not the receiver of sample books at Tiger Claw. No one is. No one there is martially literate.

But I digress. Hope you like TLoT cf. I thought of you because I know your penchant for women warriors and that you can endure movies of this length, plus you might enjoy the scenery. The steppes are so expansive. I also thought of PPFY because I know he likes a good ancient battle. 

I suspect they dropped a few horses for this. There was a lot of CGI, some of which was obvs like an opening elk hunt that turns into a nice welcoming fight scene, and a nightmare lion of Babylon. And there's clearly a lot of CGI fattening up the big battle scenes. But there are a lot of cavalry fights, so a lot of horses drop. There's a nice move in one of the battles where one fighter cuts out the legs of a horse to drop it and the rider that was clearly CGI.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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#4
I can rent it on amazon for $5, and I prolly will.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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#5
Get on the Hoopla train, bro. It’s free from your local library. I’m sure SF is part of the program. Kanopy is part of this too.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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#6
Saw it.  Exotic locales, costumes, and customs, stunning vistas, lots of swordfights and battles, but there seemed to be a formulaic western influence to the storytelling -- straightforward and not many surprises.  Still, a very satisfying film.

I'm not remembering what the book Women Warriors said about Tomiris.  I do think there was considerable embellishment in the film -- which I'm pretty much okay with, as long as it adds to the drama.
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