hurts so good
House of Flying Daggers.
Another cinematographic visual holiday on ice. I like pretty kung fu, what of it? I also like love stories that end in sadness. In Shakespear's time, I believe they used to call them tragedies. I love it -- I hate it -- I love it more than I hate it. (Here, before I forget, let me just say that Lemony Snicket... did a decent job of nudging this category out of the romance genre. Yay for everything falling to shit.) Oh, I like the feel-good movies too, it's just that it starts to have analgesic effects after a while. In other words: mind numbing.
I do have to conceed that it was predictable, given Yimou's track record, that the lovers would have some sort of sorrowful (and fatal) parting. But can a flame that burns so bright keep going? Would I have wanted to watch a film where the characters fall deeply in love, run off together, start bickering, stop paying attention to each other, go through menopause, get bored, get habitual, and eventually you would really like them to just kill themselves and be done with it? I'm all for the short, hot, tragic flame. Even if it makes me cry.
Another cinematographic visual holiday on ice. I like pretty kung fu, what of it? I also like love stories that end in sadness. In Shakespear's time, I believe they used to call them tragedies. I love it -- I hate it -- I love it more than I hate it. (Here, before I forget, let me just say that Lemony Snicket... did a decent job of nudging this category out of the romance genre. Yay for everything falling to shit.) Oh, I like the feel-good movies too, it's just that it starts to have analgesic effects after a while. In other words: mind numbing.
I do have to conceed that it was predictable, given Yimou's track record, that the lovers would have some sort of sorrowful (and fatal) parting. But can a flame that burns so bright keep going? Would I have wanted to watch a film where the characters fall deeply in love, run off together, start bickering, stop paying attention to each other, go through menopause, get bored, get habitual, and eventually you would really like them to just kill themselves and be done with it? I'm all for the short, hot, tragic flame. Even if it makes me cry.