Dragons and Tigers

[SweepEm]

I went to see the movie Wo Hu Zang Long
AKA Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon today.
Subtitled.
It was good.
The fight and weapon scenes were excellent.

Many of my friends who have no knowledge of martial arts have seen the movie and enjoyed it also.

About the only criticism is the special effects where they walk on walls and fly on roof tops and in trees.
But this is typical of many Asian movies, especially the martial arts movies from Hong Kong.

Interesting coincidence that on cable,
I saw "Anna and the King" last night.
Chow Yun Fat was in that movie also.
Micelle Yeoh was in the recent James Bond Movie "Tomorrow Never Dies"

movie review:
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0190332
IMDB rated the movie 8.9 out of 10

Oh and in the previews, Oleg's movie with Robert De Niro was showing. It looks really good. Oleg has a big part in the movie, playing a Russian murderer.

[Robin Hood]

What is thgis movie? I keep seeing it get mentoined hear but never heard of it?

[EJ]

Thanks Sweepbert.

[Fiery Ermine]

I like the bits where they run up the walls and fight on the tree tops and stuff. It's not much less realistic than the fight scenes, really. These are heros with magical powers, it's the way they do things.
The movie was much fun. I recommend it.

FE

[E1am]

I don't know why this movie is so critically acclaimed. I went to see it last summer in Hong Kong. My (now ex) girlfriend and I were laughing it was so bad. Yeah, the fight scenes were cool and it looked really nice, but the story line was cheezy, boring and disjointed. If you are a Mandarin speaker like my ex you will probably also be annoyed with the bad accents. Only one of the main characters actually speaks the language. The rest were Cantonese speakers faking it. She said she had to read the subtitles sometimes. Of course that didn't make a lick of difference to me. If you want to see a good kung-fu movie, rent Drunken Master 2. If you want to see a good Chinese epic, rent a Gong Li movie.

[Ryu (non-working password]

E1, even though you bug me sometimes, I am going with you on this one

Ryu

[aseepish]

Yep, Both Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun Fat struggled somewhat with their Mandarin. Man, even I could tell!

Both Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Anna and the King were directed by Ang Lee. The same guy did a Taiji pic (not an action movie) called Pushing Hands that is worth seeing.

Zhang Zi Yi, 'Jen' in the movie, is being touted as the new Gong Li. She's already been in a couple of Zhang Yi Mou flicks. She's only about 20, so I think she has some work to do before she can live up to Mdm. Li's standards.

Even though there were some problems with this movie I still enjoyed it. My first impression when I saw the movie (last July) was that the wire-work was a bit over the top, but I saw it again last Tuesday and I now feel that it adds to the visual beauty of the movie.

-Tony

[sccr06]

What is the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese? Is it like American vs. British English? Or are they two separate languages? Like Portuguese vs. Spanish?

Thanks

[E1am]

aseepish,

I saw 'Pushing Hand.' I liked it too. Especially that scene where no one could get the old man out of the restaurant.

sccr06,

I haven't studied either language but according to my Lonely Planet guide to Hong Kong the difference in the spoken language is like the difference between one Romance language and another. I know in Hong Kong (and Taiwan) the writting system is different from China because the Chinese simplified a lot of the characters at one point (1940s?).

[SweepEm]

Hey, I heard that they are filming the Matrix II, I am wondering if the same dude that did the choreography is involved with the new Matrix?

anyone know?

[aseepish]

Having studied both, I can say that Mandarin is quite different from Cantonese. Both are considered to be dialects of Chinese, which is the written language. A big difference is the number of tones. Mandarin has four (plus a neutral tone), Cantonese has as many as nine, depending on who you ask. Another major difference is the pronunciation of the Chinese characters. A Cantonese speaker who hasn't had any exposure to Mandarin (unlikely) won't understand much. A Mandarin speaker with no exposure to Cantonese (more likely, especially in northern China), will likewise not understand any Cantonese. Both however, could communicate through writing. I have a number of Chinese students who only speak Mandarin, and they are able to communicate with their classmates from Hong Kong in this way. The difference between simplified and traditional characters is something that they do have to overcome. The traditional characters that are used in Hong Kong and Taiwan can sometimes be vastly different from those used in the PRC (and in Singapore).

Here are some examples of Cantonese vs. Mandarin:
English: Hello Mr. Wong, are you Chinese?
Chinese (traditional):

黃~{OHIz~}﹐~{Dc:C!#DcJG2;JGVP~}國~{HK~}﹖

Mandarin (pinyin): Huang Xiansheng, ni hao. Ni shi bu shi zhong guo ren?

Cantonse: Wong xinsaang, lei ho. Lei hai m hai zong gwok yan a?

The Cantonese speaker would write the "shi bu shi" part with different characters.

There are many many different Chinese dialects out there, a couple or dozen or so. Most are all but impossible to be understood by someone with no previous exposure to them.

-Tony

[Chopstix]

hey sweepem, they are currently training for matrix 2..
yuen woo ping is training the actors, but is at a conflict with the directors i think, and might not choreograph the the second matrix, which will cause big problems. the acots have had sidelining injuries. Michelle yoeh and jet li were approached for a part in the movie, but turned it down.

[SweepEm]

Damn, too bad, Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li would have added to the movie.

[YeLLa-TiGeR]

If Jet Li was in that movie, it would of kicked ass

[E1am]

'The Matrix,'

There's another movie who's popularity I don't understand. Sure, it was kind of entertaining, but not worthy of the status it obtained. The movie 'eXistenZ,' written and directed by David Cronenberg, deals with the same theme but is so much better.

E. Bert