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Xi you fu yao pian (2017)

Setback to the previous film

Firstly, it is impossible (and it makes no sense) to analyze a sequel without comparing it to the previous film, but initially I will analyze the film's qualities on a more individual basis.

Special effects: I noticed a big improvement compared to the previous one (which was to be expected, after all the sequel takes place 4 years later), especially the part about the spider demons.

Otherwise, I can't remember any positive parts worth mentioning.

Now, to the film's problems:

Change of actors:

• The Monk: The naive/innocent good-hearted style of the monk's acting from the previous film is gone. The monk character doesn't convey credibility, doesn't convey wisdom, nor innocence, reminding him at several moments of a fake monk/scammer, especially in the opening scene at the circus. In my opinion, this was a huge mistake in the script/acting/actor choice, taking into account the 3 previous films.

• The Monkey King: Analyzing it in isolation, it was the least wrong change, as the performance is quite convincing within what the director wanted.

• The demon fish: Again, the continuity problem. The 2013 film ends with one actor and begins with another, completely different in appearance, physical size and even personality. They weren't even careful at searching for a similar actor. And the chosen actor did not perform well enough to reduce the problems arising from the poor choice.

• Pigsy: Another actor change. This one wasn't so serious (on the one hand) because they chose a physically similar actor, but they chose to make the pigsy a sex maniac, a totally unnecessary and inappropriate type of "joke".

Anyway, the biggest problem is the script itself. The film is a waste of opportunity and even disrespectful to the story on which it is based, because, unlike the previous film, there is practically nothing that reminds us of the principles of Buddhism and I will cite some examples:

• The monk spends his time missing his love (the actress from the 2013 film was not changed, which makes the changes in the other actors more unpleasant), a situation that doesn't make any sense for someone who at the end of the previous film became enlightened. Even arguing that the enlightenment was temporary or partial (something possible in Buddhism), the setback on his spiritual path is hardly credible. This, added to the change in the actor, makes the result disastrous.

• At the beginning of the film the monk has a dream that he is a giant, etc., where, looking from a Buddhist point of view, the dream is ridiculous and even a form of criticism or parody, because that "halo" is a representation of enlightenment, and in the dream this is "installed" and not achieved, which makes no sense taking into account the ending of the third film. It's as if the film sabotaged its own message.

• About the monk not realizing that the woman is a skeleton demon: Too ridiculous. In the previous film he was able to see the demons because of the purity of his heart (check pub scene), but now, after becoming enlightened, he can no longer see anything. Simply ridiculous.

I would have more to say about the monk and how his actions don't make sense considering everything that happened before and Buddhist teachings, but I believe the general idea was conveyed.

• The Plot:

I believe that one of the reasons why there are not many films that deal correctly with Buddhism is because after enlightenment occurs there is no longer any risk and, because it is something apparently very distant, the viewer would not be able to connect with the character.

In any case, I believe that the problem is not that, but rather the lack of creativity and a certain laziness on the part of directors and studios in telling different stories, like the one that was so well told in the 2013 film. After all, a being that became enlightened but continues in this world would certainly have a lot of work!

Despite this, in this film the director chose the easy path. He filled the film with CGI and left it empty of story, empty of character development and the feeling you get when you finish watching the film is that no story was told at all.

And, to appear to be a film that talks about Buddhism, in the end we have a scene with an allusion to Buddhism, an imitation of the ending of the previous film.

5/10 for the fact that it is the sequel to the wonderful 2013 film and for the special effects, some of which are innovative.

It's worth watching if you want to know the sequel or if you just want to see an action film with an oriental theme.

Sai yau gei: Sin leui kei yun (1995)

Better than the first, worse than the third

I watched it right after the first one (A Chinese Odyssey Pandora's Box) and I can say that this one is superior in practically everything, but still maintaining a style that borders on parody at several points.

Thus, unlike part III (Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons), the references to Buddhism are still more superficial and the focus is on humor.

In this film, the tragic part begins to take shape, even if demonstrated in a slightly lighter way than we are used to in Western films.

With this, it can be said that the film begins to "mature", both in story and direction, which one seems to have learned from the mistakes of the first film.

The time travel part is quite interesting and presents a common concept in Buddhism that time is not linear, but that everything happens at the same moment, as the passage of time would be an illusion.

I recommend watching it, just like the first one, if you are interested in Stephen Chow's filmography, interested in Buddhism or if you want to watch all the films in the series.

Sai yau gei: Yut gwong bou haap (1995)

Feels like a parody

Warning: Might contain spoilers.

I first watched the impressive part three (Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons), so now I'm watching the other parts.

Part one (this film) has some problems that make the experience less pleasant and enriching than part three, let's look at them:

• Too many jokes: The film series is based on a Chinese novel, which in turn is based on a true story of a monk who, around the year 600, begins a journey to India to recover sacred scriptures with the altruistic aim of benefiting humanity.

Well, it seems that this was a little forgotten in the film, which is more like a humorous B-movie, considering that in some moments it goes overboard and makes jokes that sound like invalidation instead of the very welcome innocent jokes seen in general in the film.

• Unpleasant directing style: The film is based on quick cuts and many moments in which the camera is accelerated. This makes the experience tiring and some things get lost in this;

• Poor accuracy (or just bad subtitles): I watched the film with English subtitles and the Buddhist elements were damaged. The deity (not goddess) that appears in the film and imprisons Wukong is Kuan Yin (Guan Yin), the Chinese version of Avalokiteshvara, bodhisattva of compassion. I only discovered this because of her appearance and my knowledge of Buddhism. The scene where someone like her (a being with an absolute level of compassion) almost loses her temper with Wukong just demonstrates how the film does not aim to be accurate or taken seriously. Either way, it sounded unnecessary and disrespectful;

• The film is tiring: Although the film is short, due to some of the points raised above, it is tiring and confusing.

Positive points:

• Some scenes are really funny;

• Looking at a film from the 80s, made outside of Hollywood, I can recognize several great achievements, such as fight scenes, intelligent practical special effects and an acceptable and interesting result in general.

Conclusion: I believe this is not a film for everyone, but only those who are interested in Stephen Chow's filmography, Buddhism itself, or want to watch the entire series.

The Old Man (2022)

Gratuitous violence

The show is basically a history of a anti-hero that doesn't respect any other living being except his dogs and his daughter.

And when he has the option to spare a life, he never does that.

That's it. Oh, and the show finds interesting to focus the camera on people diying violently, because nowadays a lot of people like this kind of entertainment.

Well, it's weird how Western entertainment goes. Maybe it's a sign of problems with a society that believes and nurture violence and selfishness, and usually, violence is caused by selfishness, so they walk together.

To sum up, I tried the show because of Jeff Bridges, a great actor that has some great acting as in Wild Heart and Great Lebowski, but, this is another kind of "show", this is a homage to violence, and nothing more.

World War Z (2013)

The best zombie movie that I watched

This is the best zombie movie I've watched, together with 28 days and 28 weeks later.

Brad Pit is a great actor and is acting very well in this movie, as usually.

All the tension, ferocity and fear that comes of the situation is present in the movie and the pace is frantic until near the end, when the paces slow down, even though remaining tense.

The worst problem in a zombie movie, in my opinion, is to be credible, because the subject is something that doesn't exist in the real world. In World War Z they had success to deliver a credible plot, credible behavior of the "alive" people (with some small flaws, little dumb choices) and a credible outcome. The scene at the traffic is simply impressive, for example.

So that's it! Watch if you want a good action movie with a good plot and and if you like zombies movies, watch too.

Serenity (2019)

This is not a conventional movie

Serenity is a movie that shows a metaphor about the place where people go after the death, and also about the questions about the "creator", in a theistic point of view.

Matthew McConaughey is a great underestimated actor and I hope that he shows up more on the screen. In the movie, he is a fisherman living in a heavenly island that is obsessed by a big fish that he's been trying to hook for some time, and by the memories of a son that he is not able to see for some reasons that are explained later.

The movie is good, not deserving in any way the 5,3 rating that is showing in this site at this moment. The question is that the plot twist was explained in a rushed single moment and if the viewer wasn't paying attention and didn't see, the plot twist or the revelation of the reasons became less believable.

When Matthew jumps in the sea for the second time there's like some radio stations playing in the background and one of the radio stations or voices captured says that if the container has the neural structure of enough complexity it can be able to receive consciousness, and that would explain how a avatar or a virtual person in a videogame could receive or acquire conscience.

So if the son of the deceased Matthew character created a place that matches perfectly the wishes of his father, it could be possible to attract Matthew's conscience to the island and to the virtual character in the videogame.

The problem is that all of this was rushed and for people not paying enough attention (a nowadays problem), that bridge just wasn't built.

To sum up, if you like movies that aren't obvious, with good actors, photography and makes you wonder, I recommend Serenity to you.

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

A good sci-fi movie

People got too critic nowadays. The movie is good, has a good dose of action, a good story and a fair good ending, with some elements from the "The Mist", without being just a copy.

I like space movies, there is a specific atmosphere filled with silence and loneliness there that some movies are able to emulate very well, like the masterpiece Alien.

Talking about that, The Cloverfield Paradox brings a good atmosphere, it's believable that that ship is really floating in the space.

I gave a solid 8 to the movie, specially because it's really hard to watch a good sci-fi movie after some very good titles that have been created. The sci-fi genre it's not like the action genre, for example, where you can watch the same dumb story again and again and (for some people), get entertained every time.

In sci-fi genre, when an idea is used, it becomes really unlikely that that idea will work again.

So, in my opinion, if you like the genre, go and watch it.

The Leftovers (2014)

The third season was a let down

The first and the second seasons were very interesting and worth watching, but everything that the two first seasons pointed to were undone and the final season followed a different way and adopted a boring rhythm with lots of flashback memories that were misplaced, because they almost exclusively "explained" some background histories of the characters.

And, finally, when the last chapter arrived, there wasn't a single drop of an explanation about the reason why 2 % of the world population simply vanished. Nora went there, didn't like to see her children and husband happy again with another woman, so she went back to this side and lived a life drowned in sorrow and self-pity, until Kevin arrived and "saved" her from herself.

We need to Talk about Kevin (sorry for the joke). He was a character that changed from a badass policeman with doubts about his own goodness. Just a very interesting complex character, that became a stereotyped good person suffering in a bad place. Poor guy...

In the end, we had a lot of questions unanswered, like what were those dogs following the deer? And why and how those 2% went to the other side? What is the connection between those people in the past (Stone Age and maybe 17th century)? And so on.

It's still worth watching in my opinion, but the best is to know in advance that it will leave the major questions unanswered.

Captain Fantastic (2016)

A spiritual movie about altruistic love, wisdom and education

The plot is about a dad who is raising his six children without Television, smart phones, hypocrisy, no lies at all, and the challenges that come from that.

His wife is sick and his step father hates and blames him in all ways because of the choices the couple has made.

Meanwhile, one of his teenage sons start to confront him and his choices. So, against all the common sense, the Captain Fantastic (a Fantastic Viggo Mortensen) must struggle to keep taking care and giving the best education to his family as he believes.

And, when his wife dies, a fantastic adventure starts, when the Captain and his crew must struggle against the rest of the family to be able to fulfill her last wish, even if they must trespass the law to do it.

One of the gifts from this movie is that it makes us rethink our choices as parents and remember how hard and precious is the mission to raise children.

This movie is a rare jewel that sometimes arises from time to time, to remember us that cinema is still an art.

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

A below average Sci-fi movie

A below average Sci-fi movie

Before finally watching it, I've read some reviews here and my expectations weren't high. After watching, I can sum up in five points:

1 – A noticeable number of plot holes;

2 – They've made the movie shallow to gather more viewers;

3 – The directors relied on special effects to mask the actors' and plot' flaws;

4 – The (bad executed) tentative to make the movie teenager friendly to attract the public of successful franchises;

5 – A rich universe was created, but impossible to explain in two hours. Probably the initial plan was a trilogy, after being condensed in one movie. The result isn't good.

Making a good Sci-fi movie nowadays isn't an easy mission to accomplish. Viewers are addicted to a frenetic and mindless action, and the history isn't crucial to the masses.

And, to make a movie is an expensive enterprise, and the director must entertain the crowds, so the point of equilibrium is to make a movie with loads of action without forgetting the plot and, in the case of a Sci-fi movie, science is needed also.

In the Jupiter Ascending, I couldn't see much of science, but only a lot of impressive things that looked more like magic than science to me, because absolutely nothing was explained how was possible, like the teleport, the tattoos, how they extracted the "essence" from humans, how people was killed in the gatherings or harvests, haw they created the protagonist and who created him, where and so on……

Why there were dinosaurs? Why did they speak English? And about the "reincarnation" thing, another "dust in the wind". How a girl born from a woman from earth could've be the reincarnation of a empress born almost hundred thousand years before, some light-years beyond?!

And, despite she was the reincarnation, she didn't have nothing to do with a empress. The behavior, the lack of courage or intelligence….just weak in all matters.

So, Titus kidnapped her family to force her to abdicate, but if she abdicated he would gather all the earth population, and she only realized that in the moment she was about to do that!

In the end, everything lacked of credibility and watching the movie was a painful experience, specially when remembering that came from the Wachowskis brothers.

About Time (2013)

A Great story about love and life

Yes, this is a romantic movie, but if you aren't found of love stories it's still worth watching.

It tells us about how important is to cherish the simple moments in life and how they are *in most cases* the most important parts of our life, if we pay attention to them.

The actors are very well suited for the movie and it feels that everything is just in place, making every piece of it just very pleasurable to watch.

Even if you don't believe on that culture-imposed information that everybody needs someone to be happy, you can take out all of that and just enjoy the trip.

Man of Tai Chi (2013)

A very good action movie and a lesson about spiritual principles

Congrats to Keanu for this movie. He directed and also acted and played a good role in there.

The movie is also about Buddhism, meditation and spirituality in general. I feel very happy to 've watched a mainstream movie talking about meditation and a true spiritual path in the right way.

The fighting scenes with master's protagonist were poetry to me and made me very happy and content.

Another good point is that it escapes the obvious and boring places that we often see in Hollywood movies and the actors were mostly all Asians and the spoken language was mandarin.

Sure is a must see for action movies lovers and spirituality lovers too.

Other than that, the movie has a lot of subtle messages that I leave to you to find.

_/\_

Xi you: Xiang mo pian (2013)

Wonderful experience, a masterpiece

Editing the review after having rewatched the film (in addition to having watched parts 1 and 2).

First, it's important to say that I don't consider it necessary to watch the previous ones to appreciate this masterpiece (but I recommend it if you're interested in the story as a whole).

The leap in quality of script, acting, special effects and message is huge compared to its predecessors and even today (August 2024), the experience is very pleasant and has not been harmed by the "aging" of the film.

This film, unlike the previous ones, finally inserts Buddhist elements into the story in a more precise and non-parodial way, which in my opinion was a great benefit.

Drawing a comparison, it is very common in film production for the protagonist to be driven by hatred and desire for revenge and all the elements in the film justify such conduct.

In this film, on the contrary, the protagonist is driven by the desire to help all beings, including demons. Oh! This practically sounds like heresy to many of us, doesn't it?

Furthermore, the film shows that the greatest power has nothing to do with physical strength or superhuman powers, while delivering great fight scenes and great special effects (taking into account the natural aging of an 11-year-old film).

More than ever, I highly recommend this film to any human being who seeks to be better and to free themselves from suffering and the causes of suffering.

Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

Watch until the end of the credits

I'll try to go direct to the point. The first is far better than the sequel.

Sometimes the movie is very boring and lack depth, and I felt like kick-ass was "downgraded" and became a dumb and coward nerd teenager again, like he was at the first movie, and that director's choice is one of the major reasons for this "low" rating to a sequence of a very good movie.

Some acting is worth commenting though: Jim Carrey, John Leguizamo, Chrisptopher Mintz and obviously Chloe Grace are very good in their roles.

The movie becomes better near the end, but better is not good as expected. Nevertheless, there are some pearls of wisdom here and there and one occurs near the end, so pay attention when watching the movie for them.

After all, some surprises (again) near the end make the movie worth watching, so in my opinion they really tried to create a "crescendo", and we can say they failed even though they succeeded because the final is good, but maybe just because the rest of movie isn't so good as expected.

Don't get me wrong, watch the movie, because it seems there's something more (and better) coming in the future.

The Road (2009)

This journey is not for the weak

This is not an easy movie, and that's my tip if you aren't sure if you should watch this.

The world is dying, and it looks like the nature is doing the job, so people just make it worse by fighting and eating each other.

And there is a father and his son who are trying to still on the right side, and it isn't easy, to say the least.

Well, there is a world with no hope, but real good people keep being good till the end, right?

To sum up, humanity is the real tragedy on this movie. Take a look if you dare.

8.5

The Quiet Earth (1985)

What makes us what we are?

Nice and original sci-fi, and weird too.

The movie has an atmosphere of strangeness all around it, and the protagonist question himself if he is alive, and that's a logic question, because the earth without people it's just another thing, some unknown piece of land.

And above that, what we are It's a LOT based on what people think and judge about what we are, so without the "judges", we have to face the question to discover that we just don't know the answer.

For me I felt the protagonist's loneness, specially when he finds another "survivor", a very attractive woman (for a 80's perspective) and he starts feeling attracted by her when he finds another survivor, and the girl fall in love with this other guy and they stay together.

Besides, the protagonist do what is right in the end, forgetting about himself in the name of humanity.

Good movie!

Dredd (2012)

As Dredd should be

Dredd is the guy. A personification of justice and the bitter medicine that is needed in Megacity 1.

He doesn't hesitate, never, because there's much more work to do.

And he is incorruptible, and doesn't care about rising in crime rate despite his efforts, because he is doing his part and doesn't have time for theories and chitchat.

He is ruthless, also. And he applies the sentence the way the criminals kill their victims, to show them the pain they caused.

Right or wrong, leave to the theoretical, because Dredd will keep cleaning the streets.

The Fountain (2006)

Thank you for bringing the most precious spiritual principles to a Hollywood movie

For me the movie is perfect and one of the most successful (if not the most) in bringing spiritual teachings to the screen.

The message is so subtle as special and compassionate; that you don't need to cling to "this" life or to "that person, because you don't need "to" love someone, but just to let this limited conscience dissolves, so you can become compassion and love and shines upon everyone.

Dissolution - the letting go of self - that's what the movie is about.

So, the protagonist's quest; to stop death, changes to a worth quest - to stop suffering, and everything just begins to flow again.

Thanks Darren for this rare gem.

John Carter (2012)

A good sci-fi movie

It's a considered long movie (more than two hour length), but I didn't feel that. It's has a lot of action like 99% of the nowadays sci-fi, what's not a problem for me, even though it's not a quality, too.

It's starts as a story about John Carter, a former soldier in XIX century who is sick of war, lost his wife and child and starts to search for gold, when he discover and kill an alien, getting his medallion and being transported to Mars, where two races fight for the control over the planet.

Besides that, we have a group of evolved aliens that watch over the progress of civilizations and manipulate things the way they want over thousands of years.

And the aliens choose the "evil" side, and John Carter chooses the other side, which one has a beautiful princess (an obvious Hollywood fishhook that most of us love to get hooked by).

The rest of the movie is the obvious, the John's heroic choice of fighting the righteous war (subliminal propaganda anywhere?) and saving Mars from the "bad" people.

Near the end, there is a surprise that was nice; but not enough to make me forget that the most interesting thing in the movie, which is the story about the aliens and the manipulating plan behind the curtains.

And because of that, and the feeling that was left on me similar to when I've watched Prometheus, of something not properly explained, that this movie deserves "only" a 7.

And in this case is worse than on the other movie, because on this there isn't a sequence planed.

But still, it's a worth seeing movie.

Obs: I didn't red the book.

Jack Reacher (2012)

It deserves a 8.5 for several reasons

Good action movie with a decent overturn, nice action scenes and a story that fits well into the genre.

But with some very welcomed differences when comparing with almost all other movies, action or not.

OK, there is a romantic couple, but even though it seems they like each other, they don't stay together in the end, and thanks for that fresh air.

The hero (Reacher) kill the bad guy in the end, avoiding an annoying prosecution and any chance of Zac getting away. If this is right or wrong it's up to you, but he did what thought was right.

Reacher just used a gun in two scenes, and because it was necessary. I'm not against weapons, but I'm against movies trying to brainwash us telling we need guns almost all the time and to solve every tricky situation we might get in.

And I liked very much the scene where Reacher talk about real freedom and points out some office workers. That was nice, because usually Hollywood tries to make us believe the world we live in is a wonderland, when we know nowadays it's just the opposite.

8.5 for all these reasons.

Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)

Achieved a good result with little money

Like most of the movies I've been watching lately, I searched here at IMDb before watching this, and this one has a 7,3 average score and the plot caught me, so it was enough for me.

The story is about people who commit suicide and the place where they go, what seems to me a lot like the purgatory from catholic church.

Even though the special effects are very bad, the movie itself is not bad, because this is not some mindless action movie, so that's OK if special effects suck.

What concerned me was that, for a "different" movie, with a "out of the box" story, it just ended like all the other movies, with the protagonist staying with the beautiful girl.

I'm so tired of that kind of brainwashing about a romantic couple, doesn't matter if we are talking about a war on Mars or a suburban family trying to pay the bills, it's like a recipe people follow just to reach some final goal, that is the approval of the audiences.

About the acting, it's average, with some highs and downs. The Russian guy was very nice, but the protagonist was just around average.

Nevertheless, it's a funny movie with some good ideas that show creativity and makes us think.

Concluding, for a overall average movie, 6 seems a just score.