As much as I have been transported by some of Zhang's epics in the way he manages to play with that kind of feeling and develops an interesting sense in the beauty of the images through colorful surroundings, graceful gestures and the the sometimes tragic intensity of themes of the ancient mystified past of the Chinese culture.
As much as I cherish those attempts, I must say the book, from which this story is profiled, is entirely prominent on a variety of aspects. For a start, the main character shows a completely different behavior throughout the original story. At the beginning, for example of demonstration to the comparison I am making, he shows himself much more arrogant and unconscious. That attitude is an important factor that leads him more naturally to be an easy prey for this gambling that has become a fierce influence. And it heats up his mind in a rhythm almost like a trance of forgetfulness. Also it is said that the head of the gambling house is playing with him in a more subtle way, that the dices were loaded and that the game is set much more viciously against him, that he is on longer run of being manipulated thats it shows on the screen. Hence When he realizes that he's at the end of the road, that he has lost everything, he doesn't start crying like a little boy going "oh no what have I done and so on", no, the realization comes on to him like a heavy burden of unspeakable knowledge of the consequences he mindlessly ignored until it fell on him in single overpowering blow, and that is mostly how it happens with a lot human mistakes and which gives a sense reality to it, if you mind my experience on many materials related to this given fact. Even with the necessity to squeeze out the script many events thus making it possible to turn the initial story into a 2 hour film (at least for a challenge such as this one), a lot misjudging was avoidable on that part.
I could go on and on about the important details that have been so mindlessly ignored and that washed the essential core of this heart ripping story, and yet it is full of fleeting joy through what seems to be an endless downfall of bitter events that strikes this man and his family.
This film is like a bad Walt Disney version of it's original form, it's too much of a sentimentalist view to hook onto the historical veracity to which junctions the credibility of the tale, also the conditions the characters go through by what they confront should show noticeable side effects which a bit light on the screen. Thus the initial dimension of the characters has been sterilized by these severe lacks. If all those components had been more seriously followed then there is no doubt this adaptation could have reached a totally different result on its quality scale and it really is just a shame.
As much as I cherish those attempts, I must say the book, from which this story is profiled, is entirely prominent on a variety of aspects. For a start, the main character shows a completely different behavior throughout the original story. At the beginning, for example of demonstration to the comparison I am making, he shows himself much more arrogant and unconscious. That attitude is an important factor that leads him more naturally to be an easy prey for this gambling that has become a fierce influence. And it heats up his mind in a rhythm almost like a trance of forgetfulness. Also it is said that the head of the gambling house is playing with him in a more subtle way, that the dices were loaded and that the game is set much more viciously against him, that he is on longer run of being manipulated thats it shows on the screen. Hence When he realizes that he's at the end of the road, that he has lost everything, he doesn't start crying like a little boy going "oh no what have I done and so on", no, the realization comes on to him like a heavy burden of unspeakable knowledge of the consequences he mindlessly ignored until it fell on him in single overpowering blow, and that is mostly how it happens with a lot human mistakes and which gives a sense reality to it, if you mind my experience on many materials related to this given fact. Even with the necessity to squeeze out the script many events thus making it possible to turn the initial story into a 2 hour film (at least for a challenge such as this one), a lot misjudging was avoidable on that part.
I could go on and on about the important details that have been so mindlessly ignored and that washed the essential core of this heart ripping story, and yet it is full of fleeting joy through what seems to be an endless downfall of bitter events that strikes this man and his family.
This film is like a bad Walt Disney version of it's original form, it's too much of a sentimentalist view to hook onto the historical veracity to which junctions the credibility of the tale, also the conditions the characters go through by what they confront should show noticeable side effects which a bit light on the screen. Thus the initial dimension of the characters has been sterilized by these severe lacks. If all those components had been more seriously followed then there is no doubt this adaptation could have reached a totally different result on its quality scale and it really is just a shame.