Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Film Review

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a Chinese martial arts film released in the year 2000. Since its release, it has received a lot of attention internationally and has received multiple awards for its art direction, cinematography, acting, musical score and much more. Armed with this knowledge, I knew I had a good deal on my hands when I saw this film being sold for 50p in a second-hand shop. I bought it without hesitation, and am now ready to give my opinion.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a film that does not fall into any single category. While it is, technically, a martial arts film, it manages to be so much more. As well as some of the best fight choreography I have ever seen, this film boasts an impressive cast of actors, as well as a character driven plot that manages to be deep and meaningful as well as exiting and fast pasted.

The action sequences in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon achieve what most modern action films can do with CGI, but does it without any form of computer generated effects, and looks all the more fluid and natural for it. The rules of physics break for the action in this film, allowing things like wall running and roof jumping to become possible. All of these effects are achieved with methods beyond my knowledge, and they look spectacular. The actual fighting is also very impressive, with fast paced sword duels and intense hand to hand combat. The action is so fast paced, it makes you wonder how long these scenes to choreograph and rehearse.

The plot of this film is, like every other aspect, fantastic. The story is one of love and betrayal, one of passion and vengeance, one of life and death. The characters are deep, complex and contrasting, each with their own back-story and motives. Where there is one character who wishes for peace, but lives the life of a warrior, there is another who lives a peaceful life, but dreams of being a master swordsman. There is a lot of symbolism in the film as well, which only makes it even more stunning to watch. The ending of the film is exceptionally beautiful, and leaves room for a lot of interpretation.

In conclusion, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of the finest foreign films I have ever seen. The viewing of this film is a beautiful experience that I will never forget.

I recommend watching in Mandarin with subtitles.

5/5

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) by Kanye West Album Review

For my first album review, I am returning to an album released last year. This album is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West, an album that is already considered to be not only a modern masterpiece, but also one of the finest works of the 21^st century and a milestone in hip-hop music.

This album is, for the most part, a mainstream hip-hop record, but don’t let that label put you off. Fantasy twists what it means to be mainstream into something strange and dark, but also something complex and heartbreaking.

Part of what makes Fantasy such a great piece of music is that you really feel like Kanye is speaking from the heart. He appears to be in a similar position that Michael Jackson was in during his golden days, going crazy from the fame. However, instead of hiding in plain sight, like Michael did, Kanye embraces his confusion and turns it into music.

The production on this album is the best in a hip-hop album since, well, ever. I honestly could not think of a record that manages to top the production seen on this album. Kanye’s samples are layered and fluid, just like his lyrics, and his vocal effects make the whole experience feel surreal, like you are diving into his subconscious. The lyrics are honest and human, displaying confusion, depression, sex and tragedy all at the same time. His own views on sex have become so tragically surreal and his self confessions are heartbreaking to listen to.

Fantasy features a huge array of guest appearances, ranging from fellow rappers such as Jay-Z and Raekwon, to more obscure acts, such as Bon Iver. Every appearance feels meaningful and doesn’t detract from the song in any way, shape or form. They do, however, make the songs a very long length. The average song length for this album is between 5-6 minutes, the albums total running time being 70 minutes. This makes each and every song feel epic and powerfully moving.

In conclusion, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is many things. It’s extremely dark. It’s wonderfully twisted and, most importantly, it is one of the most beautiful works of music to be released in the 21^st century.

5/5

Winnie the Pooh (2011) Film Review

It certainly is refreshing to see a traditional, hand drawn film that manages to stay true to the original formula and not to commit the offence that most animated features do nowadays, which is to be littered with pop culture references. This film is not a blockbuster. It’s not in 3-D. It doesn’t have CGI animation either. This is a humble film, confident in its ability to keep both younger and older audiences entertained.

The performances are all done extremely well. Jim Cummings does a fantastic job with both the ever-hungry Pooh and ever-bouncy Tigger (as he has done since The Tigger Movie) and John Cleese’s voice makes for a warm and welcoming narrator. My personal favourite performance however, has to go to Craig Ferguson as Owl. Owl is still the “intellectual” he’s always been, and this “intelligence” is the drive for most of the main plot elements.

The film is, in many ways, a love letter to fans of the original The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It has all the classic characters (no heffalumps) and tells a short story with no real climax and great musical numbers, just like the original.

The formula for the plot is similar to what’s been seen before, but what keeps it from feeling repetitive are the surreal and witty jokes made throughout the film. Each character’s trademark personality is used to form and strengthen the surprisingly sophisticated jokes, which leads to many “laugh out loud" moments.

The songs and their sequences are spectacularly animated and imaginative, the best example being the song Everything is Honey and it’s sequence, which feels very trippy. Another impressively surreal sequence is that of The Backson Song, in which the entirety of the song’s performance is displayed with moving chalk drawings. The re-imagining of the intro song to the original film is also noteworthy for its nostalgia factor.

In conclusion, Winnie the Pooh is a short, nostalgic gem of a film. If you love Winnie the Pooh, classic hand-drawn animation or are looking for an animated film that does not rely on CGI and pop culture references, then look no further than this beautiful film.

4/5