Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Lust, Caution; Zatoichi

Finally got around to watching these movies (impulse buys from that shop in SC) - Lust, Caution yesterday and Zatoichi just tonight. Impressions (and spoilers) follow.


Lust, Caution

Tony Leung. Case closed.

Seriously, though, they could film Tony Leung sitting in a chair for two hours and I'd probably enjoy watching it. The man has screen presence. I couldn't quite reconcile him with his villain role in this movie, though.

I enjoyed the attention to detail, and the languor of the film, though near the end it did feel a little... stretched too thin. Still, one can't fault the immersion.


Zatoichi

I was expecting an old-fashioned samurai flick, and boy was I surprised. (My fault for not reading the blurb closely enough.)

Takeshi Kitano plays the titular role, a blind master swordsman (apparently an iconic character in Japanese culture), in this energetic romp of a period piece. Excellent comedic timing, wonderfully-choreographed action scenes (and percussion interludes!), and, all in all, a pervasive sense of plain old fun make the movie a crowd-pleaser you won't feel guilty watching.

No comments:

Post a Comment