I’ve been sick with a summer cold recently so I’ve been feeling yucky. There is no better time to indulge in watching martial arts movies! Shaolin Soccer arrived from Netflix a couple days ago, and I watched it, fell into a cold-induced coma, woke up and watched it again. Even though I rented it I know I’ll buy it at some point. I don’t know what Miramax was thinking when they bought, chopped up, and buried the film. It is very nice that the dvd contains the US version and the uncut Chinese version. I will never think about kung-fu and soccer the same way again 
Steven Chow is a cinematic genius. If real soccer games featured balls that turned into fire and levitating players, I’d totally watch it.
I dragged myself out of bed today to see Hero and it was gorgeous. The use of color reminded me of old technicolor movies. When I was driving home thinking about the movie I remembered Funny Face, because of the way scenes were totally dominated by one color. I’m not totally sure about the Rashomon style impressionistic plot, but the movie is so lovely to look at, the plot doesn’t matter. It is the highest quality eye candy. It’s not mere candy, it’s a handmade Belgian truffle. I really liked seeing Jet Li in a Chinese movie as opposed to a formulaic action flick with DMX.
I really admired the fact that Quentin Tarantino wouldn’t put his name on the film if Miramax in any way sliced or diced the film (pun intended), ala Shaolin Soccer (ugh.)
I swear I played a video game on the ol’ Super Famicom back in Thailand which had the same premise as Shaolin Soccer. I remember different teams (ninjas, monks, fishermen) who all had different specialties, and can use special powers in kicking the ball. The soccer ball would morph into a fish and jump all over the field unpredicatably towards the goal. Watching Shaolin Soccer made me wanna play that game all over again.
Aww, I hadn’t realized that about Quentin, good for him.
That sounds like an awesome game!!!!
Does anyone know if it’s true that Jet Li became a monk?
Um, I think that he might be developing a movie where he plays a monk, but I haven’t heard that he turned into one.
I think his wife might protest…heh…but seriously, since Thailand was brought up, and that’s my homeland, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other cultural traditions that almost require men to become monks for a period of time like it is the case in Thailand. I got a really cool pic of one of my older brothers in the saffron robes…I think I might have to post it at my blog…