04-21-2014, 09:27 PM
These days I never know for sure what movies I’ve seen. I took a chance on this one. Nope, haven’t seen it before. It’s the last collaboration between director Zhang and actress Gong Li and also marks the end of their romantic involvement (actually, they reunited for Curse of the Golden Flower in 2006).
The movie is very pretty to watch. Give Zhang credit for that. But my goodness, so little happens. The point-of-view character is a simple country boy who becomes Gong Li’s servant. He spends his time on call, ever waiting, and when he is called, he invariably messes up because he’s a country bumpkin. He’s not a very interesting set of eyes for seeing the movie’s action, of which there is damned little. Oh, there’s a major gang fight, but it happens off-stage, leaving us to look at the bloody corpses afterwards and people being patched up. What’s up with that?
The DVD (from the library) stopped playing with 20 minutes to go, so perhaps a miracle happened and the movie is actually mindblowingly good. But I’m going to assume it’s just more of the same and not bother looking for a good DVD to finish it. The only bright spot is Gong Li, who plays the boss’s mistress. She’s bossy and spoiled, but begins to reveal a fragile and insecure side. Gong Li stands alone among Chinese actresses in how she is able to move. She’s got extra gimbals in her hips, waist and elsewhere. I recall in Green Snake how Maggie Cheung and Joey Wang did their best wiggle walks, and bless them for trying and that’s still a guilty pleasure for me; but Gong Li has enough snake in her to play a whole pit full of vipers. Indeed, she could out-snake a snake. As for her breasts, yes, let’s speak of Gong Li's breasts. They’re a touch low-slung, just enough so you notice, which spells pendulous with a capital P. Later, in that Curse of the Golden Flower movie, director Zhang barely manages to contain their pendulosity with a titanium-alloy pushup bra.
What a shame. What a disappointing vehicle for her. She deserves far better.
The movie is very pretty to watch. Give Zhang credit for that. But my goodness, so little happens. The point-of-view character is a simple country boy who becomes Gong Li’s servant. He spends his time on call, ever waiting, and when he is called, he invariably messes up because he’s a country bumpkin. He’s not a very interesting set of eyes for seeing the movie’s action, of which there is damned little. Oh, there’s a major gang fight, but it happens off-stage, leaving us to look at the bloody corpses afterwards and people being patched up. What’s up with that?
The DVD (from the library) stopped playing with 20 minutes to go, so perhaps a miracle happened and the movie is actually mindblowingly good. But I’m going to assume it’s just more of the same and not bother looking for a good DVD to finish it. The only bright spot is Gong Li, who plays the boss’s mistress. She’s bossy and spoiled, but begins to reveal a fragile and insecure side. Gong Li stands alone among Chinese actresses in how she is able to move. She’s got extra gimbals in her hips, waist and elsewhere. I recall in Green Snake how Maggie Cheung and Joey Wang did their best wiggle walks, and bless them for trying and that’s still a guilty pleasure for me; but Gong Li has enough snake in her to play a whole pit full of vipers. Indeed, she could out-snake a snake. As for her breasts, yes, let’s speak of Gong Li's breasts. They’re a touch low-slung, just enough so you notice, which spells pendulous with a capital P. Later, in that Curse of the Golden Flower movie, director Zhang barely manages to contain their pendulosity with a titanium-alloy pushup bra.
What a shame. What a disappointing vehicle for her. She deserves far better.