Brick
This movie looks damn interesting.
Add comment January 29th, 2006
Archive for January 29th, 2006
Azumi
Azumi is not a film that takes itself too seriously. It’s fluff - great for that sleepy sunday afternoon after a heavy night out. Basically a filmed anime, it does a one thing so right that it needs to be called out. The camera stays still while the fight moves around.
The recent trend in Hollywood has been to put the audience closer to the fight. Put them in the middle of the fight. (Looking at you Paul Greengrass). This does not help. In the middle of the fight is confusing. Bewilderment is probably not the emotion you want to elicit in the middle of a fight sequence.
Azumi has some great fight scenes, and they’re filmed clearly and with an eye towards an overview of the geography of the fight. The final battle starts with a wonderful crane shot over the hundreds of warriors running towards the lone heroine.
The camera does get to play a starring role at the end of the fight: Azumi and the evil villain fight on a plank suspended high above the ground, and the camera goes into spinning gyrations around the two as they spar. The vertigo inducing camerawork is excusable on the grounds that the seasick-inducing effect is probably what was wanted.
Add comment January 29th, 2006