euynawk

If only they could take out that enforced romance and put in some scenes of the German high command gnawing over the corpse's message. True or not? Show it to Hitler or not? That would be a more thrilling subplot than that boring romance.

Spoiler alert! There is a serious flaw in this story that claims that it is "A True Story". If he has REALLY FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING, how come he can still speak in English? The Psychology Professor deems this as complete Amnesia, then Bruce can still speak English. He even can't remember his name!!! How is it he remember to speak in English???

I have just finished watching the 166min DVD of this most riveting movie. But must admit that, this is a second watching. The first time I watched it was 2 days ago, and I had to re-think many of the scenes to try and understand each one of them. By the way, I have not read the book. I only got half the picture (no pun intended ;)). Then decided must watch it again, to remove the lingering and unsettling kinks at the back of my head which refuse to go away for that 2 days. The only minor criticism is that the idiocy of Kameda is a little underplayed - his 'idiotic' countenance could be made a little more pronounced. As it is in the movie, he appears to be more of an angelic innocence rather than an idiotic but wordly-wise innocence - I tended to find in him a character more to be sympathised with than more as a lovable character (I wonder if Dostoyevsky meant for him to be sympathized with or to be loved - really don't know). As to this as a movie, now I am in total comprehension and appreciate what a great job Kurosawa did! This goes to my shelf of treasured DVDs.

The director of this semi-pornographic movie is NOT the same person as the great Li Han Xiang, who is too renowned and reputable to stoop so low to direct a movie like this. Some idiot has plagiarised the great name to boost this sub-standard movie. The great Li Han Xiang does not need this kind of money - he retired a very prosperous and well respected personage in the Hong Kong movie circles. This movie may have its merits for the kind of audience it is meant to target at, I am not disputing the artistic value of this particular show ( although my personal opinion is to put it in a sordid, boorish and overly lascivious interpretation of a very classic well-written albeit slightly erotic piece of Ming-period literature).