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Reviews
Ying xiong (2002)
Disappointing
I had been waiting for at least a year when I went to see "hero". So maybe I was expecting too much, because it really was a disappointment to me. I don't know if the dubbing was part of the problem. When I watched "crouching tiger,...", I saw it in Chinese with English subtitles. But this time, the film was dubbed in English, and I can't stress enough on how bad it was. All the dramatic scenes were overplayed, and because of that, the movie theater broke into laughter on many occasions during scenes which were supposed - I think - to be dramatic. And the translation didn't help either. I mean the English-dubbed script doesn't sound of Chinese origin, at least in martial arts movies. It sounded like a parody.
As for the fight scenes, well I don't want to keep comparing to "crouching tiger,...", but the director seemed to be over-stressing on the artistic side of it while wasting much of the substance. I understand that the color theme of each scene was on purpose and it was related to each version of the story told by either "nameless" or the king, but this was too distracting to really enjoy those scenes.
Regarding the actors, "Jet Li" was plain and unimpressive as usual. "Maggie Cheung" was good, and "Zhang Ziyi"'s role was useless; at least how her acting made it seem to be.
Again, I never really thought that dubbing a movie could pretty much ruin it, so I think I'd have to watch it in its original version so I could make a clear opinion about it, but for now I'll give it a 3/10.
Le violon rouge (1998)
Great movie. "Shanghai" part stands out best.
This movie was really "mistreated" at the Oscars. It should have got more credit. The director did a really good job entwining all the stories, and capturing the essence of each location.
BUT of all the different parts of the movie, I liked the one in Shanghai. I don't know exactly why, but Sylvia Chang's performance in the movie was definitely the best one (in my humble opinion).
West Beyrouth (À l'abri les enfants) (1998)
First Class cinema
I wouldn't know how a non-Lebanese would look at this film. But to me, it's a very personal movie because I've lived similar events, even if 10 years later. It's definitely one of my favourite movies. And I have to say that the 3 leads have done great jobs for first-timers. "Carmen Lebbos" as the mother was superb, but my favourite character will always be "Leila Karam as" "Emm walid"