Forget about the mixed reviews."Banquet" was good

[Guest W Hong]

On the Internet, I've been reading that "The Banquet" has been getting mixed reviews, if that's true. I don't see why it got those mixed reviews. It was a good movie, in my opinion. I saw "TB" at the AFI Fest 2006, and the movie wasn't as bad as I've heard.

I guess that I feel kind of lucky for seeing it in a theatre just because this hasn't been released in U.S. theatres yet.

Anyway, I thought that Zhang Ziyi's acting was very good. I don't agree w/ what Time Asia's Richard Corliss or whoever said on the Internet about Ziyi being horrible in her role. Most of the other actors and actresses also gave good performances in this Chinese movie.

As for the fight scenes, I'd say that most of them weren't that good. That's because I don't like the use of wires, which meant the usual unrealistic kicking/flying around. I know that Yuen Woo Ping was the action choreographer, and that he's known for the use of the wires most of the time. However, I wish that he could've shown fight scenes similar to what he worked on before("Black Mask", "FoL", etc.). Maybe you can even include Jackie's "SitE'sS" and "Drunken Master" in that list if YWP was also the fight choreographer for those two movies, even though I know he was the director. If you're wondering about that, it's because I don't want to search YWP's on "HKMDB.com" because I don't always have the time to do so.

The rest of the fight scenes weren't that bad. And "TB" seems to be a very good choice to be Oscar nominated for Best Foreign Film. One thing that I did notice is that I couldn't understand the ending of "TB". Were any of you able to understand what happened?

[Guest jmungus]

I couldn't understand the ending of "TB". Were any of you able to understand what happened?

nope, didnt quite.

but imo that movie was so lame and flawed (particularly in terms of 'character writing', 'structure', 'plot', 'action' and- weighing heavy like a megaton- the uninvolving, cold, distant 'general vibe' they had created for this movie), that i wouldnt bother for a second trying to figure it out.

tho i do agree with most of w hongs points- the acting was rather good (its just their respective parts that all suck).

the fighting choreo isnt among the better of YWP`s more contemporary stuff (plus the director would destroy the last remaining bit of its prowess with a complete slow mo overkill).

i didnt care about a single character, ive fought inner demons not to give up on the lame story and the flicks`total lack of passion or any other kind of empathy or emotive elements for that matter (thx to the frequent superficial eye candy orgasms i could manage to stick along; but hey, if a movie has to rely on that, its always a bad sign) and frankly, ive never got the feeling there was any real substance to this project to begin with.

as far as i am concerned, i consider this movie a complete failure. my rating is 4/10 and im looking forward to "curse..." and "battle of wits" for better entertainment more than ever before.