siff day 5
May. 28th, 2008 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaidenMongol
this film is an Academy Award nominated origin story epic about Tamudjin, the man who would become Genghis Khan. it's a pan-Asian cast, performing in Mongolian. (Honglei Sun as the blood brother was awesome. saw him previously in Seven Swords and then he was in the very next film, below.) nice love story and great mounted combat, all filmed on the steppes with little-to-no special effects (the credits were cut off due to time concerns, so i could not confirm or deny). it's bloody, and never sentimental, but it has a strong emotional core in Tamudjin's relationships with his blood brother and his wife. this is getting a release, and should be seen on the big screen.
the projector bulb blew right before the end, so we all missed a few beats, and then they killed the credits to bring out the director. (and cut off the sort of techno closer music with throatsinging. must seek out soundtrack.) the director interview was good, but too brief. Sergei Bodrov is wise and funny, but with a mediocre microphone/Russian accent/mild stutter getting in the way, we had to concentrate extra-hard to hear him and the Q&A pace was slow. it was wonderful that he could attend and saw a packed house.
in between films i ate a bagel dog out of desperation. but i kind of liked it. fear me.
Blood Brothers
this is what you get when you put gangster movies and westerns in a blender in Shanghai.
it's all style and gunplay, with a weak veneer of family saga and doomed romance. there are sumptuous period costumes and some cool shootouts, and at least one pointed visual reference to The Godfather. ultimately forgettable except for some of the club scene costuming. a rental.
the trip home was complicated by a man who must have been seven feet tall, in a motorized wheelchair that was made for a much smaller person. getting his trailing legs onto the bus lift was challenge one (apparently there are sensors that will stop the lift if something is touching them) and then there was challenge two of backing into place once on the bus. can't really help him, shouldn't get upset as my sleep time keeps draining away, fascinated by the way he seems to just let his feet drag rather than putting them on the footrests, trying to let him live his life and not stare. his companion seemed to be pointedly ignoring him, almost as if they had just fought. everybody on the bus was remarkably cool, and the driver was the most patient and helpful-but-not-smothering that i've ever seen.
this film is an Academy Award nominated origin story epic about Tamudjin, the man who would become Genghis Khan. it's a pan-Asian cast, performing in Mongolian. (Honglei Sun as the blood brother was awesome. saw him previously in Seven Swords and then he was in the very next film, below.) nice love story and great mounted combat, all filmed on the steppes with little-to-no special effects (the credits were cut off due to time concerns, so i could not confirm or deny). it's bloody, and never sentimental, but it has a strong emotional core in Tamudjin's relationships with his blood brother and his wife. this is getting a release, and should be seen on the big screen.
the projector bulb blew right before the end, so we all missed a few beats, and then they killed the credits to bring out the director. (and cut off the sort of techno closer music with throatsinging. must seek out soundtrack.) the director interview was good, but too brief. Sergei Bodrov is wise and funny, but with a mediocre microphone/Russian accent/mild stutter getting in the way, we had to concentrate extra-hard to hear him and the Q&A pace was slow. it was wonderful that he could attend and saw a packed house.
in between films i ate a bagel dog out of desperation. but i kind of liked it. fear me.
Blood Brothers
this is what you get when you put gangster movies and westerns in a blender in Shanghai.
it's all style and gunplay, with a weak veneer of family saga and doomed romance. there are sumptuous period costumes and some cool shootouts, and at least one pointed visual reference to The Godfather. ultimately forgettable except for some of the club scene costuming. a rental.
the trip home was complicated by a man who must have been seven feet tall, in a motorized wheelchair that was made for a much smaller person. getting his trailing legs onto the bus lift was challenge one (apparently there are sensors that will stop the lift if something is touching them) and then there was challenge two of backing into place once on the bus. can't really help him, shouldn't get upset as my sleep time keeps draining away, fascinated by the way he seems to just let his feet drag rather than putting them on the footrests, trying to let him live his life and not stare. his companion seemed to be pointedly ignoring him, almost as if they had just fought. everybody on the bus was remarkably cool, and the driver was the most patient and helpful-but-not-smothering that i've ever seen.
