Disney is selling it now on DVD
Disney is selling it now on DVD.
I presume (hope) it will be with subtitles. Can anyone verify?
I got Disney's DVD. It has two versions of the movie on it.
One is the original in Cantonese with English subtitles.
I watched this version and I review it briefly below.
The other is English dubbed and about 20 minutes shorter.
I only watched enough of the English one to see that the
story is a little different and Zhang Ziyi is given a bigger
part (only be having her English voice actress do some
voice-overs which were not in the Cantonese version.)
Review:
If you liked Tsui Hark's 1983 version, you will probably
like this. Tsui Hark's silliness and style are the strengths
of this movie. It's weakness is mainly that he seemed
to be restraining his silliness.
There is a lot of green-room work and some wire-fu. There
is almost no real kung fu even though one of the stars,
Jacky Wu, is a real kung fu master.
I hope Jacky Wu and Tsui Hark make more movies together
because Jacky Wu can do Tsui Hark silliness really well.
I was actually impressed with Zhang Ziyi's acting (so sue
me.) I was impressed that she could pull off some Tsui
Hark-style wide-eyed, scrappy, silly girl. I wish she had
been given the chance to develop the character more.
Tons of computer-generated effects. Just like in the 1983
version, immortals fly around with colored streaks following
them.
This is definitely a Tsui Hark movie. If you like his humor,
you will laugh, but only a few times. It seems he's trying to
be too serious in this and that is one of the film's biggest
faults. This could have been a great silly Tsui Hark movie
with some serious messages behind it. But the silliness was
uneven.
It's not as philosophically interesting as his "Green Snake".
There is a moral (personal righeousness is a prerequisite to
a just and safe community, if you must know.)
There is almost no real Kung Fu and the wire-fu is not even
as beautifully done as in CTHD or Hero.
It's mostly green-screen plus computer effects and the effects
aren't great. This would have been fine if Tsui Hark had let
his silly instincts go, but he restrained and the movie takes
its silly self too seriously.
http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=15071543
That's fine, but i think you didn't get much from this film as i see. There's literally over hundred philosophical meanings in many various ways, not just one or two(?!?). Nearly every object, angle, design represents or symbolizes something. If the effects are not great, why do you think they were so immensely groundbreaking for the industry and why they were reportedly not surpassed to this day yet, at least in HK. This film changed the direction for the special effects in the HK industry that these modern films are still following. I guess you didn't know that.
Another thing, the reason it takes itself so seriously relates to the reason why this film was made in the first place. This film is supposed to reflect the adults point of view just like the first Zu was reflection of the younger generation. Another reason why it's serious and a little depressing is meant just to show the restraint of the emotions the Immortals had to abide by in order to defeat the evil sleeping inside of them: jealousy, hate, greed... you know, it was explained at the beginning. So the whole mood of the film perfectly reflected the life and feeling of the Immortals. So believe it or not, that's a high improvement from my viewpoint. By the way, i think this the most philosophically loaded film i might have ever seen in my life... and i watch this kind of soulful films almost 20 years... so imagine how much of the human meanings there must be hidden behind those effects and images.
Thanks for your comments. I see that my review did not
communicate clearly enough that I personally liked this
movie. I wrote some negative remarks because it is not
Tsui Hark's best, in my opinion. Also, I wrote what I
did so people would be able to judge whether they might
want to see it. I see now that I focused too much on the
negative.
So, I should stress: I enjoyed this movie. It's good Tsui
Hark style. And I repeat: if you liked the original "Zu
Warriors" or similar Tsui Hark movies, you will probably
like this.
There are philosophical and psychological messages in
"Zu Warriors". However, I didn't find them to be as deep
or as well-executed as in Tsui Hark's "Green Snake". This
is my personal point of view. Some will disagree with me.
There is some silliness in this movie as well, but again,
not as much as in many of his movies. I think anyone
would agree about this. This does not make it a bad movie.
I only mention it so that you know what to expect.
As to the special effects, while they are good for HK,
they don't look good compared to what comes out of the
US or NZ. However, I don't see this as a negative mark
on the movie. I think that the special effects reflect
Tsui Hark's style very well. They don't have to be
the best in the world.
So, I say again, if you liked the original "Zu Warriors"
you will probably like this. I liked it also. It's
just not my favorite Tsui Hark. It made me want to watch
the original again. It's been a long time.
http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=15071543