After a nice three days, I decided to end tonight watching a film. Out of the choice of the Sherlock film, and a Korean archy-warchy lots of fighting-y film, I decided to watch the one that was least likely to be watched by any friends coming over.
So I put the Korean DVD in the laptop.
War of the Arrows
Choi Jong byeong gi Hwal
This is a film about heroes. The main hero, Nam Yi, goes through a very traumatic childhood, (as every main hero tends to) and trains to be an archer/hunter kinda dude. It all goes well, and he gets pretty badass, until he decides to take to the bottle, starts camping out in the forest and visiting brothels. Then he's all pretty lame, until he finds a reason to live and fight. His sister and her partner is taken away by Chinese forces and sent back to China as slaves. Time to become an archer/hunter again, and fight the Chinese army despite being completely outnumbered.
What I like about the film is how the characters develop. Each main character have a turning point of absolute bravery, and would rather die standing.
Against a sword, even Nam Yi's sister isn't lame in this pretty macho film.
The enemy is pretty cool too, with their studded leather and similar, menacing haircuts. They have stronger bows, and swords. You really feel the effort Nam Yi has to go through, and his ordeals.
There were many small things I liked about the film for example, Nam Yi's consistent inventiveness, the focus on the bow as a weapon rather than the sword, the major, major references to Korean culture as it was back then, and the sign language dude in the enemies' army. He is pretty dang funky, has a lot of lines to sign and really impressed me. It was quite unexpected in this film.
There were many small things I liked about the film for example, Nam Yi's consistent inventiveness, the focus on the bow as a weapon rather than the sword, the major, major references to Korean culture as it was back then, and the sign language dude in the enemies' army. He is pretty dang funky, has a lot of lines to sign and really impressed me. It was quite unexpected in this film.
What did get to me however was at the end of the film, I was getting too much of a House of Flying Daggers feel, though I won't spoil the ending!
The Plot: +7 Points
The Quality of Drama: +10 Points
Music/Settings/Charisma of the film: +9 Points
The Characters: +10 Points
Cheese: 0 Points
Bonus Points: +2 for fighting lady,
- 2 for cliché, - 2 for ending.
This film scores 34, equivalent to 3 and a half stars!
The Plot: +7 Points
The Quality of Drama: +10 Points
Music/Settings/Charisma of the film: +9 Points
The Characters: +10 Points
Cheese: 0 Points
Bonus Points: +2 for fighting lady,
- 2 for cliché, - 2 for ending.
This film scores 34, equivalent to 3 and a half stars!
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