Monday, February 11, 2008

Wrong Story

When you watch a movie you don’t understand, should you watch it again?

I am a Jet Li fan and I watch every film available bearing his name. Last month a nephew brought a dvd copy of the “Warlords”. I tried watching it but it’s such a bad bad copy that I ejected the disc after 5 minutes.

Yesterday, Ms. Chubby Pirategirl smiled as she willingly offered me her new movies. So I bought the Jet Li flick. The picture was very clear. But they spoke in Chinese and the sub-title reads more like a comedy that I don’t really understand the movie at all. I thought he’s the good guy having survived a slaughter. And that he found a beautiful girl who helped him regain his strength. Then he joined a band of bandits and rose from the ranks because of his leadership and fighting skills. They signed a blood compact and declared themselves as brothers. Battles and battles followed. Arrows against cannons. Swords against guns. His conquest led him to greater heights. But at the end, passion overtook him because his girl was married to one of the elder brothers, and theirs was an illicit affair. He plotted to assassinate his bloodbrother, whom he swore to protect but someone plotted against him too. What an ending!

The movie is for the Jet Li fans because if it’s the first time you watch his film, you’d be angry at him. There is rather a shortage of the usual Jet Li fight scenes (like 1 against 100 or something). And he looks awkward everytime he’s near the girl. He’s too hard-hearted.

To be honest I was very very wrong in my understanding of the movie as I narrated above. It’s the wrong story. Good thing the helpful wikipedia filled in the gaps. I think I should watch the movie again, probably in the big screen. Or perhaps study Chinese just to understand the movie.

(image from easy-tv[dot]org)

5 comments:

Miki said...

nyahahaha!!! back in high school, my heroes were meng fei, shoji karada, chen xing, kathy lee, jackie chan, and bruce lee.

that dates me clearly huh? ;p

Lazarus said...

miki, i only know jackie chan and bruce lee. that dates me a decade younger than you. he he.

Miki said...

yes it does bai, wahehehe
well, i can't deny it
i grew up on kung fu movies
i wished i could fly like them, too
or use a fan as a weapon hehehehe

Anonymous said...

yaargh!!! i almost finished reading. there's a few spoilers kaya di ko tinuloy. hahaha...

i love chinese movies in general, or hong kong movies rather but i don't like jet li :( never liked any of his films. but my chinese comrades here told me jet li don't realy have a big part in this movie. andy lau is good, so is the kaneshiro kid

Lazarus said...

kotsengkuba, you can continue reading. these are not spoilers but my wrong interpretation of the movie. ha ha.