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| Friday, April 25, 2008 04:14 PM |
| On the Viewer - Cinema of Vengeance: Martial Arts in the Movies |
 by Fëanor |
I rented this 1994 documentary from Netflix because it sounded awesome (I mean, look at that title!). After I tried it in both our DVD players, I finally had to settle for watching it on the laptop - it was pretty scratched up. The video quality was not a lot better than the physical disc quality, either; it seemed pretty clear that the DVD had been made simply by transferring a crummy VHS copy of the movie to disc. It's also got a ridiculously cheesy synth soundtrack. Still, I did end up really enjoying the movie, as it features clips from many martial arts films throughout history, as well as interviews (some stock footage, some new) with many film critics, stars, producers, and other creators of the films. Even though the title seems to suggest it's going to analyze the genre from a specific thematic point of view, in fact the documentary is pretty much just a straight history of the art and business of martial arts movies, and that's fine with me. There are plenty of interesting stories about how these movies got made, and how their creators ended up in the business. And of course, there's plenty of amazing fighting. Definitely worth a viewing if you enjoy martial arts films at all. |
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