MovieChat Forums > Musa (2001) Discussion > Finishing scence didn't work for me

Finishing scence didn't work for me

posted 18 years ago by herberd
18 replies | jump to latest

I just watched this movie and I liked it all the way through until one of the finishing scenes, when the Mongol general attemps to kill the princess (Ziyi Zhang) and the warrior guy (Woo-Sung Jung) dives and takes the spear for the princess. Well, the hole time he was running to get in the way of the spear he himself had a spear in his hand and could have thrown it at the mongol general, killing him and detering the throw. This scene really didn't work for me, and right afterwards I just turned the movie off; didn't even care about the end. Anyways, just wondering what others think.

[–] rachid_usmc 18 years ago

Its too cliche of how it ends. They should of just let the princess died just to mix up the audience's reactions a bit.

[–] moconnell-2 18 years ago

Yeah my friend and I thought the exact same thing. I knew the Korean general would die but I was yelling through the damn spear! You could see it coming however and as the other poster said it was very cliche. It did not put me off as much as it did you but still the ending could have been better.

[–] Stanley_L_Walker 18 years ago

I loved that moment. It showed just how much he loved her, and the pain of the loss of their future and everything their love could have been was just overwhelming. And was that beeeeeeeyoooooooooooooooootfully shot? Oh yes.

[–] rachid_usmc 18 years ago

nah it was lame....

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] scotty-38 18 years ago

well lets put it this way, what would have been more dramatic? Him taking the spear or him throwing the spear????

[–] raiftel 18 years ago

He didn't really have much left to live for. He had no home to go to, people would still think of him as a slave, and the love of his life can't even understand a word that he says. He just wanted to die in Battle.

[–] jnagarya-1 15 years ago

Yeosol was committed to PROTECTING her, at wahtever the cost, before there was any indication of his "love" for her. So that was done out of duty before anything else.

[–] tom-is-uzumakinaruto 18 years ago

he doesnt want to kill the General of mongolian in return for saving his life. Just like the general dont want to kill him to make the slave warriro as a general to really free him and give him something he deserve..

[–] t-a-hall 18 years ago

Its perhaps a little like the scene at the end of House of Flying Daggers, in that in both cases their final act is to protect the one they love, not to kill.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] thegovernator 17 years ago

great SCENE, great film, bad spelling from OP. lol

[–] jnagarya-1 15 years ago

That was a strange fight.

First, she takes three days to fall down and die.

Then the two guys get into a wicked -- but evenly matched -- fight that lasts for at least weeks, without even breaking for naps.

Then it turns out she isn't dead.

Then the guy with the dagger in his shoulder -- which has been there for at least weeks -- loses his sword, but finds he'd lucked in by not having removed the dagger, as he can then pull it out and use it as a weapon.

But then he doesn't use it except to drip a drop of blood onto the snow.

And then she finally does die -- but only after she -- though no longer pretending to be blind -- throws the dagger (also conveniently stored in the scabbard that her chest had become) and -- for only the second time in the entire film -- MISSES HER TARGET!

That fight must have taken at least half the total length of the film. It seems it did, anyway.

[–] SmileyParo 17 years ago

I agree with herberd, but in the sense that I wanted the Princess and Yeosol to end up together in the end. As for the ending in general, it could have been better. Anyone else wonder why Yeosol didn't throw the spear he was holding at that Mongol general. He was an EXPERT too and it was a stupid move to step right IN FRONT of the spear. Another solution he could have done was tackle the Princess to the ground and then threw his spear at that General Mogul. hahah :) That would have been something to see and surely a shock yet approving scene for the audience.

In addition, Zhang Ziyi's shocked reaction after Yeosul unnecessary decision by stepping in front of the spear was well acted. I wonder if there were technically a dialogue scene after she went to Yeosol's side--maybe that would have been cliche. Overall, good and exciting film! If only the Princess were anything like Zhang's characters in her other films. She would have helped fight greatly and more characters could have lived. Loved her scenes with Woo Jung-Sung though and I do wish for them to work together again. Their chemistry were FANTASTIC!!! Anyone seen their water commercial?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O44pdsl7XXs

[–] barbayat 15 years ago

Yeah, it was more a "Oh *beep* I want to die, I had enough" ending on Yeosol's part and that was just plain ehm unsatisfactory. Not to mention it would have been more dramatic, if he saved the Princess and then both being alive would still have been seperated by their social class ... (not that I believe for one second that the Korean General had any chance to win her hand in marriage)

But then again it's probably my main problem with Asian Movies that it always seems that the characters don't really want to live. It's always about duty, honor and dying the right way. While I don't necessary mind honor or duty, I kind of like characters to have a bit more longing for life itself.

So the stepping in the spear was really a let down (although an expected one). I do like the movie, I just found it painful to bear to see one beautiful man after another biting the dust. I haven't seen so much wasted hotness since 300.

"Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe?" - "Because it's dull, you twit, it'll hurt more"

[–] silverbullets 14 years ago

Eh, people...we all love and cherish Hollyweird endings (I know I do), but a Tragedy is a Tragedy, and this is a good one. The heroes are supposed to die in the end, and the audience expects it. Or we don't, b/c we're used to the expectations HW has trained us to have, i.e. Scene Where Realistically the Hero Should Die But Instead Prevails Against All Odds or Scene Where People Who No Way Could Get Together Defy All Logic Thanks to a Secret Law Against Logic Just Discovered At the Last Minute, etc.

But if you want to consider plot-logic (rather than the logic of the scene as it was having to do with the unlikeliness that someone already in the act of throwing a spear at someone a few yards away will actually not release the spear even if speared by someone else--meaning dead princess anyway), the bottom line is what someone's already said at the top of the page: both men respect each other for different reasons so as to have sufficient motivation to not kill each other, even at the cost of their own lives. So maybe that's not totally logical in terms of smarts (i.e. just kill unstoppable spearmaster so he can't kill any more of your men/turn around and kill general who's just let you live so that he won't kill any more of your people), but it's totally logical for a story plot, b/c we humans are complex and weird when it comes to our hearts. We have these weird ideas like honor and love and respect and stuff that make us do somewhat logically not-smart things...if the goal is just self-preservation and survival of the fittest. But then that's not really a story.

Cinematic Asian Tragedy WIN

[–] Tsavo 12 years ago

You know, i really loved the film until the character started dying in the most cliche ways possible, it really killed it for me.