Shaolin: sombre way to start the year

continuing the movie marathon for chinese new year, the third on my list is Shaolin... actually i ddi not plan to watch this movie. jackie chan's annual cny movie era had passed, and i am not a fren of andy lau either. however, since the movie opportunity landed on my lap, i could not resist any cny movie treat.

as i understand it, from numerous site introduction and review, apparently this movie is a remake of an old movie starring Jet Li. hmmm.. not interested in the fact. probably anyone can google the answer to that.

lets go to the technical aspect first. the acting was good, as the usual fare u can expect from andy lau with his emotionally intensive look. jackie chan in his usual goofy antics. tse was superb as the villain, believable. the direction was superb, the script was intensive, filled with buddhist teaching here and there.

not much of boring moment in the film. the action was believable, however there are still gravity defying action sequence which was definitely wire made. love some of the kungfu sequence. after all, the movie boast that it portray some of unseen kungfu in shaolin which was used NOT for exhibition. great. the moves are really fluid.

now come the story. warlord was ruthless in the beginning. bad ass. belittle shaolin. betrayed by fren, fall from grace. went to shaolin for refuge, turn over new leave, help shaolin, big showdown, died. basically tat summarize the whole show. usually cny movie has hole in their story bigger than any holes u can find in the local badly made ceiling which always collapse. suprisingly, the story was rather fluid here without much gaping wound. so that is a plus point i guess.

now comes the problem i have with this movie. the whole movie appeared to be andy lau. so centralized on him. then again, he is the protagonist and hero, so i think i have to live with it. big deal. the other issue is the whole story was predictable up to the point that i was yelling come on, get on with it!. big deal either, all cny movie is predictable in some ways. the main issue is as a lot of other people say this show is moving, tear jerker-la... i dun like my year to start off with such a movie. i prefer my cny movie to be more happy. all though this is still far from district 9 (which spoilt my whole morning) and bodyguard & assasins; which both were great great movies. i still prefer it to be more "uplifting" rather than more serious and depressing.

well, overall, it is not a bad movie. in fact, it is done rather good. just not my cup of tea.

ratings: 3 poinks! (if it is not cny, probably 3.5 ler...)

comments: fans of andy lau, go n watch.