MovieChat Forums > Di Renjie zhi Tongtian diguo (2010) Discussion > Didn't really work for me as a whole.

Didn't really work for me as a whole.

posted 12 years ago by layamaheshwari
6 replies | jump to latest

Hello.

I swear I didn't even know of the existence of this film till it cropped up on Richard Corliss' (TIME) list of Top 10 Movies of 2011. That got me intrigued. So I looked it up and since I'm generally a fan of lush, period epics (that it was set in China was just icing on the cake), I decided to give it a spin.

I didn't really like it much.

I mean, I found it interesting and intriguing...but only as an experiment. As in, how weird and trippy could it get. Holistically, there was this inconsistency to its tone that made it hard for me to take it seriously. Some of the fight scenes were so outlandish (even by the standards of a martial arts epic) that when juxtaposed with the straight-faced dramatic elements, a jarring contradiction arose. Which is why I was just apathetic to stuff like Dee ruminating at the end like a protagonist straight out of noir.

Also, while the sets were uniformly lavish, some of the VFX shots were head-scratchingly bad. I'm talking about stuff like the deer, the ships docked in the background of many shots etc. Anyone else feel so?

I don't mean to come off as a troll. There were bits I liked. It's just that the film, as a whole, disappointed me.

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world

[–] stardama69 12 years ago

I loved it. For pretty much the inverted reasons you listed. Great, great film, not just epic but more.

[–] Star_blazer_9000 12 years ago

I wasn't all that into. I remember being pumped for the movie back in 2010 coz it had a great cast and was directed by Tsui Hark with material he knows best. Very disappointing but I really like Richard Ng's part. It was a surprise appearence for me.

[–] timmytoo2001-2 12 years ago

I like Oriental films in general and really wanted to like this as it had Andy Lau,Carina Lau and Tony Leung in it and was directed by Tsui Hark but somehow, like the originator of this thread, I just wasn't grabbed by it.Who knows why-perhaps it was the ending as I really wanted Andy Lau's and Bingbing Lee's characters to get together. Not bad, but only 6 out of 10.

[–] lord_kobel 12 years ago

I thought it was great! Granted, the whiskey and cider might have helped, but even so....

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bron-tay 11 years ago

I thought it was standard fare for the genre. The talking deer though, ugh.

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