If you couldn’t tell from the title of today’s report from Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, the theme of Day Three for me could be boiled down into one word: subtitles. And if it wasn’t for one of the five films I watched today–not counting Cheap Thrills, which has its own, fuller review elsewhere in the …
One of the strengths of the film is that both men are right and both men are wrong. Lu’s vision of the law stripped of compassion is a law that is also vulnerable to corruption as judges use the letter of the law to line their pockets rather than represent justice. Liu’s belief that he can literally remake himself as a better man ignores the addictive nature of violence. (When Liu begins to fight the robbers, he can’t stop himself from killing them – instead of subduing them – any more than a drunk can have one shot from a bottle and stop there.)
Tai Chi Zero Directed by Stephen Fung Written by Kuo-fu Chen, Cheng Hsiao-tse and Zhang Jialu China, 2012 If you find yourself at the cinema, and you happen to have a fistful of quarters, then, by all means, go and see a discount matinee of Stephen Fung’s Tai Chi Zero. But if for whatever reason you can’t, …