A Touch of Zen
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Movie Reviews of A Touch of Zen
Movie Review: A Touch Too Little, Too Late?
Summary: 3 Stars
A TOUCH OF ZEN is a little marvel of a film that modern cinemaniacs probably don't revere as much as they might given the fact that much of what's explored in the legend has already influenced countless other more contemporary films, and, thus the impact of ZEN has probably lessened over the years. This tale of redemption has experienced a resurgence of interest on the coattails of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, but it lacks the emotional resonance of that film for today's more cynical audiences.Still, ZEN isn't easily dismissed. It's a formidable story, based on legend, that's well worth the screen time. A word to the wise: the film clocks in at around three hours, and this is largely due to the photography of lush visuals. Arguably, ZEN is one of the most beautifully photographed films of its time.
Disadvantages? The aforementioned audio track does sound less-than-remastered. Especially, the music accompanying the story has a decidedly 'tinny' quality to it, and the track actually drops about five seconds of any sound during one of the tense moments of Part I (the film is told in two pieces). Also, the wonderful choreography of two major fight sequences unfortunately take place at night, shrouded in darkness; while the filmmaker clearly wanted to use the mystery of darkness to his advantage, I don't think he wanted his audiences squinting so much. The translation of this film from the big screen to the small screen even darkens those scenes more, and the action is a bit of a loss as a result.
Definitely worth a rent for fans of serious martial arts films. The mysticism is thick here, and, while some may only guess at the possible impact of the film's conclusion, it's a great conversation starter for film groups.
Movie Review: Finally on DVD
Summary: 3 Stars
I am glad to see this movie on DVD finally - but it seems to be MONOaural and thats too bad. Have the movies been mono in 1960s ? Sad. Also, the picture doesnt seem to good....Movie Review: Waiting too long for English
Summary: 2 Stars
This movie was released in 1969 which makes it thirty six (36yrs) years to this date, and there is still not an ENGLISH version. I was so "pi...pi...pi...pi...piss-off" when I popped in this DVD and Movies are meant to be WATCHED not READ. Otherwise, this movie seems promising.
And Amazon, can you PLEASE put an alert on DVDs that are not in ENGLISH....especially foreign films. This would be a BIG help.
Movie Review: Idiocy to fast forward through
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie is terrible. It is three hours of nonsense. The pacing is so slow that you have to make a lot of use of the fast forward button. The fight scenes are laughable. The fighters hop like bunnies. Every single fight scene in this film, and in almost every other oriental so-called kung fu film, is absolute worthless garbage. Fast forward through all the fight scenes, which means fast forward through most of the movie. Also fast forward through all the scenes where nothing is happening. That doesn't leave much. They have a 15 minute movie with 170 minutes to skip. And someone tell me why the two stars of the film look so Caucasian. Is that the Chinese ideal of beauty? In the movie they make fun of superstition and belief in ghosts, but at the end they give us a final shot of a godlike image, more superstition. The star is actually some magical Buddhist abbot. Gimme a break. The only good thing about this horse manure is that the leading lady is very cute. Other than that, I can't think of a reason to waste 3 hours on baloney. And for all the people who place this idiocy at the top of their all time movie list, I have to question your motives. Do you want to seem smart? Is it cool to recognize crap simply because it is from another country? That is an insult to all the truly great foreign films. Just cause it's foreign, doesn't mean it's worth a damn. Placing this trash on a par with the truly great foreign films simply because it is foreign is an insult to the great ones. This movie, pure and simple, is inferior. It makes me wonder if the Chinese movie audience has the taste of little children.