Reviews

A really, really charming film. Charming being the word for movies with really simple plots, very down-to-earth stakes, and the ability to leave you with a big G-rated smile on your face afterwards. If you like cross-cultural fish-out-of-water movies such as My Big, Fat Greek Wedding, you're going to love this story of a postmaster who gets reassigned to the apparently misunderstood (in many senses) northern region of France, and how lives change accordingly.

But what really impressed me the most were the subtitles. The English subtitles amazingly captured all the nuances of the convoluted wordplay that was obviously happening on screen. This becomes an even more impressive feat when you consider that much of the verbal fun of the movie comes from the various misunderstandings between the French-speaking lead character and the folks who speak in the northern provincial "Schticks" dialect. Because of this added layer of complexity, I realized that capturing these dynamics cannot be the product of any ordinary clerical translation job.

And it turns out I was right. I later read that the director, Dany Boon, actually took an active role in ensuring that all the subtitles for the different languages properly and lovingly reflected the nuances and intent of the on screen banter. With truly impressive results.

So kudos to Boon for paying attention to this particular detail. Oftentimes, foreign audiences miss out on much of the seeming in-jokes that movies play for their local audiences. "Schticks" made it a point to share its world with everyone else. Great job.

Crouching Tiger is a beautiful movie, no if's and but's about it. And yet it suffers from one disturbingly serious flaw.

The real star of the movie is Jen (Zhang Ziyi). But you won't know that from the trailers. In fact, I have the DVD here and Zhang is only fourth in its billing, which is outrageous. This is like giving Liam Neeson only fourth billing in Schindler's List.

Apparently, the movie's producers wanted to leverage the star power of Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh to the hilt. If that meant playing with the credits, then so be it. Unfortunately, they went further than that. Much further. The producers went so far as to alter the sequencing of the movie's events just to make Michelle and Chow the apparent stars.

Ideally, the movie should begin with the story of Jen's desert adventure, where we can establish her history with proper attention. Unfortunately, to do so would also establish her as the real star of the movie, which the producers felt may threaten its box office appeal. So the producers decide to open the story with Yeoh and Chow instead.

Unfortunately, the end result is rather clumsy: the only way to segue back to that important desert scene is thru a painfully long flashback, which becomes distracting and eventually damaging to the epic flow of the movie. And all because the producers refuse to admit, to this day, that Zhang is the real star of the movie.

Politics aside, however, the movie is a beautifully rich production. The cinematography is astonishing, the setpieces are lavish and, in the end, it made me wish that I too could fly.