Tag: disguise

Red Cliff
(Chì Bì,
赤壁);
Red Cliff II
(Chì Bì
Jue Zhan Tian Xia,
赤壁（下）)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 2 November 2024
No Comments on Red Cliff
(Chì Bì,
赤壁);
Red Cliff II
(Chì Bì
Jue Zhan Tian Xia,
赤壁（下）)
Sticky post

Director – John Woo – 2008, 2009 – China, Hong Kong – Cert. 15 – 139m + 135m

*****

As a warlord seeks to crush opposition in Southern China, its two kingdoms join forces to defeat him, with the deciding battle taking place at Red Cliff – plays as part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024

China, 208 A.D., around the end of the Han Dynasty. With the puppet Emperor more interested in talking to birds than the nitty-gritty of ruling his kingdom, his Prime Minister Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) talks him into a commission to subdue the rival Southern warlords Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen).

After a battle against the former’s forces in which his a loyal soldier is unable to prevent Liu’s wife getting killed but manages to get their baby to safety by strapping it on his back prior to single-handed combat, Liu’s advisor Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) sets out to persuade Sun Qian to join them in an alliance against the aggressor.

Despite unanimous opposition from his ministers, who would prefer to surrender to keep the peace, Sun agrees to fight along with his frontline commander Zhou Yu (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and, because she insists on joining them, his tomboy sister the Princess Sun Shangxian (Zhao Wei).… Read the rest

Tags 208 A.D., a man without friends, ablaze, action, admiral, advance party, advisor Takeshi Kaneshiro, aggressor, alliance, anchored ships, ankles, arguments, Art of Action, bagua, battlefield, bolted together, burning ships, Cao Cao, carrier pigeon, cast of thousands, casualties, CG, chains, Chang Chen, China, Chinese history, combat, commander, conquer, corpse, crush opposition, cujo, deciding battle, disguise, draw enemy fire, encampment, enemy camp, enlist, fleet promotion, foot level, forecasted wind, fortress, game, Han Dynasty, history, Hong Kong, impale, infection, intel, join forces, keep the peace, kingdom, kingdoms, Liu Bei, loyalty, mauled, mayhem, messages, military formation, military tactics, minister, plague, planning, pregnant, prime minister, princess, protection, prows ablaze, puppet Emperor, pyrotechnics, Red Cliff, romance of three kingdoms, shields, soccer, Southern China, spears, spiked cylinders, spy, straw men, stunts, Sun Quan, Sun Shangxian, surrender, talking to birds, tiger hunt, Tong Dawei, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, tortoise, tragedy, troop formation, Typhoid, warlord, water, wind, wind direction, You Yong, Zhang Fengyi, Zhao Wei

Features Live Action Movies

The Count of Monte Cristo
(Le Comte de Monte-Cristo)
(2024)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 28 August 2024
No Comments on The Count of Monte Cristo
(Le Comte de Monte-Cristo)
(2024)
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Directors – Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte – 2024 – France – Cert. 12a – 173m

*****

An innocent Frenchman framed and imprisoned as a Napoleonic partisan escapes to impose justice on his false accusers – new Dumas adaptation is out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 30th

There have been numerous adaptions of The Count of Monte Cristo for the screen, not to mention radio and other media, over the years; this latest one is directed by the screenwriters of The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan and The Three Musketeers: Milady (both Martin Bourboulon, 2023), who clearly have a strong feel for Alexandre Dumas’ works.

Much of what’s here is familiar: shortly after the fall of Napoleon, on the day of his wedding to sweetheart Mercédès (Anaïs Demoustier from The New Girlfriend, François Ozon, 2014), ship’s crew member Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney from Frantz, François Ozon, 2016) is arrested for Bonapartism, falsely accused by another crew member Danglars (Patrick Mille from the two 2023 Three Musketeers movies and Love Crime, Alain Corneau, 2010). Neither the crown prosecutor Villefort (Laurent Lafitte) nor Dantès’ friend Fernand de Morcef (Bastien Bouillon from Jumbo, Zoé Wittock, 2020) refute these allegations, although both know them to be untrue, since both have their own reasons for doing so: the prosecutor because Dantès could unwittingly ruin him, Fernand because he too is in love with and wishes to marry Mercédès.… Read the rest

Tags adaption, Adèle Simphal, Alexandre de La Patellière, Alexandre Dumas, Anaïs Demoustier, Anamaria Vartolomei, arrest, bastard son, Bastien Bouillon, body in the water, Bonapartism, burial alive, burial at birth, cell, Chateau d’If, coward, crown prosecutor, disguise, drowning, dungeon, escape, France, grief, incarceration, intrigue, jealousy, Julie De Bona, justice, Laurent Lafitte, Marseilles, Matthieu Delaporte, mistress, novel, partisan, Patrick Mille, Pierfrancesco Favino, Pierre Niney, post-Napoleonic. Napoleon, prison cell, prisoner, prosecutor, prostitution, put things right, recognise, remorse, rescue, revenge, rival in love, ruin, ship in distress, ship on fire, ship’s crew member, skulduggery, Stéphane Varupenne, storm at sea, The Count of Monte Cristo, the fall of Napoleon, treasure, tunnel, unsuspecting, Vassili Schneider, vengeance, Vivant, ward, wedding day, younger generation

Animation Features Movies

The Breadwinner

Afghan life under religious extremism

The Breadwinner
Directed by Nora Twomey
Certificate 12A, 94 minutes
Released 25 May

Parvana (voiced by Saara Chaudry) is one of three girls living with her mum and dad in Kabul, Afghanistan, which is occupied and run by the Taliban. When her father is arrested by the Taliban on account of his intellectual views, the family are put in a difficult position since women and girls aren’t allowed out on the streets alone.

Parvana’s mum nevertheless risks a journey to the prison to ask for her husband’s release, but is beaten up for her pains. So Parvana takes it upon herself to earn some money for the family by disguising herself as a boy and selling items on the street. She makes friends with another girl, Shauzia (voiced by Soma Chhaya) doing the same thing.

It’s rare to see a children’s movie dealing with a subject as tough as… [Read the rest at Reform magazine]

Trailer: