Using thousands of extras, great vistas, panoramic view-scopes of harbors filled with ships, lavish costumes, the motion picture describes the Opium War events that led to the british occupation of what is now Honk Kong. Ironic how exactly those lavish emperors and lifestyles that were once the target from Communist China are now used by the same Communist China to instill nationalistic feelings. While the motion picture is a big budget endeavor, it is not artistic. Some of the text captions are too educative, as if the audience were in kindergarden (for example, a slow view of an opium smoking den was indeed capioned with bright while lettering "Opium Den" as if the audience couldn't figure that out). That is what I meant as not being artistic: stating too evidently what is already too obvious. Everything is spelled out. But to its credit, I really appreciated its authenticity in regards of languages spoken, where two languages were spoken. The english tongues were precise, including an american tongue. Couldn't verify wether the chinese characters in the movie spoke Mandarin or Cantonese, nor can I comment on wether at the time (1839) which one was spoken in the regions where the story takes place.
Review of The Opium War
