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dsulpy
Reviews
Xing fu shi guang (2000)
A beautiful little film
It seems that most of the negative reviews that this film has gotten are based upon people's misconception that the film should be what THEY want it to be, not what it really is. The truth is, although there's certainly humor in the film, it's not a comedy - nor does it pretend to be a fairy tale, or a social expose, or a political statement. To me, it's a film about cruelty and compassion - both by human beings and by fate. I found it both life-affirming, and heartbreaking - often at the same time, and I thought the acting was excellent on everyone's part. To me, well worth seeing, and quite unique.
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Compelling thriller
An original plot, great cinematography, direction, and an unforgettable
performance from Robert Mitchum. Also the best premiere directing job by
anyone since Orson Welles did Citizen Kane - what a shame Laughton didn't (or couldn't) direct more like this. Also, the fact that the film has "artistic" shots isn't a flaw for most people - it's a plus, and this film is very well done.
Riget (1994)
DVD details for a great series
A beautiful balance of humor, horror and mystery in this one-of-a-kind masterpiece. It's almost impossible to think of someone seeing the end of the final episode of "Kingdom" and NOT doing everything in their power to locate a copy of "Kingdom II" so they can continue.
Kingdom has just been released on DVD in Canada and the U.K., and was previously available on a (now out of print) Taiwan edition. Unfortunately, none of these is very satisfactory. The Taiwanese edition attempts to fit the 4 hours (plus) onto one side of one DVD, creating artifact problems that, at times, make the DVD look more like a VCD. It does have removeable English subtitles, though. Von Trier's comments are included for the final episode - but are not subtitled.
The British DVD looks far better, and also has removable subtitles. The last half of the final episode, though, is riddled with tape glitches, and all of the original credits (except at the beginning of the first episode) have been done away with and replaced with not-very-attractive digitally overlaid titles. There's no sign of Von Trier's post episode comments, and some of the dialogue has not been subtitled (including one of the highlights of the series, where Stig cries out: "Danish scum!" to the heavens).
The Canadian DVD, on the other hand, has ALL of the original post-episode comments complete (and subtitled!), as well as all of the original opening credits and selections from previous episodes which open Episodes 2-5. That's the good part. The bad part is that this disc has the absolute worst subtitles I've ever seen on a DVD - they're white letters in ugly black boxes (!!!), and all of them are justified to the left of the screen rather than centered. For someone who's used to watching subtitled films, this makes the series almost unwatchable.
I've read that Von Trier's company is itself working on releasing "Kingdom" (complete with a "making of" documentary, it seems!). Unfortunately, this is said NOT to contain any English subtitles. So, unless LVT changes his mind and includes English, the best we can hope for is for a decent American release somewhere down the line... Criterion would do nicely, as this fine series deserves it.
Xi yang jing (2000)
Very enjoyable.
A lovely little film about the introduction of motion pictures to China. Captures the amazement of film's first audiences pretty much as it's described to have been worldwide, and uses actual Lumiere films for most of the actualities. I don't agree with other people about bad acting on the British fellow's part - I thought he was fine, but the Chinese lead really stole the show. In any case, I found myself with a smile on my face through most of the movie. People who fear subtitles might note that a lot of the film is in English (which for some reason is given subtitles as well as the Chinese on the DVD).
Tin dei yuen moon (1991)
Surprisingly effective.
Based upon the DVD's cover design, perhaps, I expected this to be some kind of routine horror film. Instead, this is a very entertaining film with a lot of humor and, of course, Lam Ching Ying.