jchrisobrien (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jchrisobrien) wrote2005-09-22 09:41 am
jchrisobrien) wrote2005-09-22 09:41 am
a great beauty in the North
I watched the House of Flying Daggers (at last) last night. I enjoyed this a little more than hero. I didn't get Hero the first time around, and felt it was a little long. Flying Daggers was more straight forward, and very pretty. I recognized the director's use of colors, and he filled the screen with pretty things to look at. Did I mention that it was pretty?
I thought it was a shame that American movies can't be this good, but they can. Foreign films look so much better because their style is new to you, not necessarily because they are better. Generally, you usually see the cream of the crop of foreign films too, so they would be good by any standards. House of Flying Daggers certainly was that.
Tuesday was a tasty dinner celebrating the birthday of SilentQ. Before hand, while shopping for a gift, I listened to New Order blaring from a widescreen television, videos from a new compilation DVD. Cris would love it (if he doesn't have most of it already). I really liked some of the new (to me) songs from it. It turns out most of the songs were from Republic and Get Ready.
As you can see, I'm well behind the curve when it comes to pop culture.
I thought it was a shame that American movies can't be this good, but they can. Foreign films look so much better because their style is new to you, not necessarily because they are better. Generally, you usually see the cream of the crop of foreign films too, so they would be good by any standards. House of Flying Daggers certainly was that.
Tuesday was a tasty dinner celebrating the birthday of SilentQ. Before hand, while shopping for a gift, I listened to New Order blaring from a widescreen television, videos from a new compilation DVD. Cris would love it (if he doesn't have most of it already). I really liked some of the new (to me) songs from it. It turns out most of the songs were from Republic and Get Ready.
As you can see, I'm well behind the curve when it comes to pop culture.
Re: oh yeah ...
Zhang Yimou really is awfully good at what he does, especially his use of color, and his emphasis on characters as the heart of his stories (along with the great fighting). Tak Fujimoto also did a great job with colors in Silence of the Lambs (he was the cinematographer, as opposed to the director, which was Johnathan Demme).
There are a lot of good visuals in American cinena. Again, I think it's a matter of the Newness of it, as well as the beauty and overall quality of Yimou's work.