Shaolin As a complete suprise, I loved this film. The so so to negative reviews, Andy Lau and done to death subject matter kind of threw me off. But I purchased it any way (Tse completist here) and last night I have watched it.
Now maybe it is because I missed them so much but this film reminded me of pre China HK films. Benny Chan is never an iconic director (not like Johnnie To or WKW) but I like his films with their big explosions shown again and again (milked to the last drop in Shaolin), corny melodrama and lots of action.
The film is about redemption and it also critiques imperialism in their divide and conquer methods. Of course these two with Buddism (I think Buddha was one of the prophets) worked for me so well. And I have a fondness for melodrama which made me cry cry cry throughout the whole thing.
Also it presented an interesting study for me. Acting, imho, is a talent either you are borne with or not. It is something different from star quality and/or on screen presence. Some actors are naturally gifted and also work hard on this and become better with each film. Some actors are naturally gifted but they do not work hard and sail by (Nic Tse is one such actor) and some actors do not have the natural talent but work hard, Andy Lau (our protagonist) is such actor. He has amply star quality, a likable and commending screen presence but he doesn't have the natural talent. This didn't prevent him from working hard at acting, even though he could have sailed by on his already lucrative acting and singing career. I don't like this guy but he is very good in some films (Running Out of Time, Running on Karma, Needing You - I guess Johnnie To knows how to get a performance out of him, and Infernal Affairs where I appropriately hated him as I was supposed to) and in Shaolin he did a very very good job and I felt so much sympathy for his character. Nic Tse is handsome and his performance worked for me. It is good to watch two type of different acting and to enjoy them both.
All in all this seemed like an early 90s HK film with better cinematography. I enjoyed it very much. But is it a good film? Nah, not really.
Now maybe it is because I missed them so much but this film reminded me of pre China HK films. Benny Chan is never an iconic director (not like Johnnie To or WKW) but I like his films with their big explosions shown again and again (milked to the last drop in Shaolin), corny melodrama and lots of action.
The film is about redemption and it also critiques imperialism in their divide and conquer methods. Of course these two with Buddism (I think Buddha was one of the prophets) worked for me so well. And I have a fondness for melodrama which made me cry cry cry throughout the whole thing.
Also it presented an interesting study for me. Acting, imho, is a talent either you are borne with or not. It is something different from star quality and/or on screen presence. Some actors are naturally gifted and also work hard on this and become better with each film. Some actors are naturally gifted but they do not work hard and sail by (Nic Tse is one such actor) and some actors do not have the natural talent but work hard, Andy Lau (our protagonist) is such actor. He has amply star quality, a likable and commending screen presence but he doesn't have the natural talent. This didn't prevent him from working hard at acting, even though he could have sailed by on his already lucrative acting and singing career. I don't like this guy but he is very good in some films (Running Out of Time, Running on Karma, Needing You - I guess Johnnie To knows how to get a performance out of him, and Infernal Affairs where I appropriately hated him as I was supposed to) and in Shaolin he did a very very good job and I felt so much sympathy for his character. Nic Tse is handsome and his performance worked for me. It is good to watch two type of different acting and to enjoy them both.
All in all this seemed like an early 90s HK film with better cinematography. I enjoyed it very much. But is it a good film? Nah, not really.
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