jethro
03-28-2006, 10:55 PM
Whoever is the director of this is da man, cause this is sweet. Just since most probably won't look through my whole review I will tell you people that this movie is a slash em up that has a good story, just don't expect the greatest of true martial arts being shown, I'm not hugely into japanese cinema, but this freaking blew my mind.
Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle DVD ~ Asano/Nagase
Price: $26.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
20 used & new from $4.95
THIS MOVIE IS ABOUT A MONK WHO WANTS TO SLAY A DEMON AND IT IS REALLY FREAKING GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, March 24, 2006
Once again I edited this and now it's gone so sorry if I have 2 reviews for this. Hopfully my review will be better after watching this like 5 times instead of just once.
First off the acting is way way way above average, way above. This guy who is the monk is a very serious actor. He has had a lot of troubles in his life and is now looking to make some of that up. He wants to slay a demon that has been terrorizing the Gojoe Bridge and this monk is going to put a stop to it.
I know some of you people are looking at that 5 stars and saying that I have to be wrong, but this is one of the most unique movies I have ever seen. I cannot believe that people are warning other viewers that if you need a frenetic pace than this is not for you. Now I try to watch a movie like every other night and have a lot of them. Now this just may be me, but this movie I thought was way too frenetic. I mean I have movies like blade of fury and that is just insane. I don't know if you have seen any of the wong fei-hung ripoffs, but that is what I call frenetic and a lot of the time it is unwatchable. But this movie is just so beautiful. There is a scene where the demon is slashing through people one by one and you see him, but he looks kinda like a shadow, it looks like cgi, but you can tell it's not, it's just great filmmaking using a black outfit and some quick shots. So you see this demon, but barely, and right above the trees all you see is blood spraying upward. OHHHHHHH it was so cool. I could go on and tell you like all 10 scenes that absolutely blew me away, but I will let you experience these eye popping visuals for yourself.
But back to the frenetic pace, I will go ahead and say the reverse of what most of the other reviewers said. If you are prone to seizures, you are gonna need to go ahead and fastforward for like a freaking hour of this movie. If you are familiar with the newest zatoichi(27? The blond guy), then you will recogonize the demon in this movie, this guy is LITERALLY on a mission to claim a 1000 souls. And oh my god do they ever try to pull this off on screen. I saw at least 500(well that may be a bit much) people die and another 500 would have if they wouldn't have had that duel at the end. But the duel was WELL worth watching, but i will get back to that. The action scenes in this are just amazing. It's kind od the style from return of master killer where he starts out as an actor and he has all these people flying all around as gordon moves his hands. While it is definitely better than that, it still looks like the guys are waiting for the sword to strike them. The best way to desribe it is the fight scenes are kinda like gladiator, kind of I said, so take the 30 minutes of action in gladiator times it by 2, then take the intensity and multiply by around 50. What you come up with is the action in Gojoe: spirit war chronicle.
So I saw a reviewer sayy that the movie was all about throwing seashells, there is some of this, and it is meaningful, and if you can actually sit through like 3-4 minutes of this, it leads to a mind game between the demon and the monk. And you then find out a whole lot more about the demon and who he really is and I don't want to give anything away but I'll just tell you that there is a royal position involved with this whole 1000 souls thing. And I found ALL of the non-action scenes pleasent, especially because of the fact I almost had a heart attack during like 3 of the fighting scenes, it really is a nice break to some of the coolest action you have ever seen. I mean this demon is mowing through tens upon tens of people and he is not even taking his eyes off of his goal, the monk.
You can tell the entire movie that these 2 are destined to have a duel, and man do they ever. They don't really focus on sword techniques, rather they just bang swords together like donnie yen used to do. But like I said with gladiator, the fighting is WAY better in this movie. SO don't expect your normal sword fight, like I said before, if you are prone to seizures you are going to need to fastforward through this. INSANE.
Now this movie is sort of teetering on that 4.5 mark and should be given a 4 for the movie, but the over the top but yet realistic fight scenes easily push this to a five.
Now the sound is amazing, though not the greatest music, still very good, and the bass will be punding even if you turn it ALL the way down like I did. The sound is honestly out of control, but very nice 5.1 sound. But when the music is not playing it is an EXTREMELY quiet movie, very weird, but just fine with me.
Now the picture is incredible except it will go from clear to grainy for about 10 seconds a few times in the movie, but I GUARANTEE you that you will not care. I experienced this also with Rekka: the deadly outlaw, but didn't mention it becuase it honestly didn't bother me, and in gojoe it doesn't happen during any of the action scenes, but you probably won't even notice this.
The special features are some of the better ones that I have seen in a while. The first one is a featurette presented like a feature presentation. it is really hard to explain but if you if you enjoyed the movie you will love this behind the scenes thing, because it is almost a movie itself. And it is in 5.1 sound that is louder than the actual movie.
The next one is a very short and quiet making of and I can't remember if it is in this one or the last but you get to see the live scenes before they edit it and digitally enhanced them. Though there is very little enhancement unless swords are banging or blood is spraying. But you get to see the movie like you are watching a play and man is it amazing watching the acting abilities AND athletic skills of the 2 main actors. THIS WAS TRULY A DELIGHT TO WATCH.
Haven't seen the interviews, but I am sure that you will have trouble finding time to watch it too because every time you pop this thing in, you will want to watch the movie over and over again so you should feel lucky that I even remebered to write about the ones I did see.
Go ahead and buy this today, I saw it at best buy for 16.99 and got mine for 7.99 at the local used store. But for 26.99 you should be getting the original lone wolf and cub or something.
Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle DVD ~ Asano/Nagase
Price: $26.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
20 used & new from $4.95
THIS MOVIE IS ABOUT A MONK WHO WANTS TO SLAY A DEMON AND IT IS REALLY FREAKING GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, March 24, 2006
Once again I edited this and now it's gone so sorry if I have 2 reviews for this. Hopfully my review will be better after watching this like 5 times instead of just once.
First off the acting is way way way above average, way above. This guy who is the monk is a very serious actor. He has had a lot of troubles in his life and is now looking to make some of that up. He wants to slay a demon that has been terrorizing the Gojoe Bridge and this monk is going to put a stop to it.
I know some of you people are looking at that 5 stars and saying that I have to be wrong, but this is one of the most unique movies I have ever seen. I cannot believe that people are warning other viewers that if you need a frenetic pace than this is not for you. Now I try to watch a movie like every other night and have a lot of them. Now this just may be me, but this movie I thought was way too frenetic. I mean I have movies like blade of fury and that is just insane. I don't know if you have seen any of the wong fei-hung ripoffs, but that is what I call frenetic and a lot of the time it is unwatchable. But this movie is just so beautiful. There is a scene where the demon is slashing through people one by one and you see him, but he looks kinda like a shadow, it looks like cgi, but you can tell it's not, it's just great filmmaking using a black outfit and some quick shots. So you see this demon, but barely, and right above the trees all you see is blood spraying upward. OHHHHHHH it was so cool. I could go on and tell you like all 10 scenes that absolutely blew me away, but I will let you experience these eye popping visuals for yourself.
But back to the frenetic pace, I will go ahead and say the reverse of what most of the other reviewers said. If you are prone to seizures, you are gonna need to go ahead and fastforward for like a freaking hour of this movie. If you are familiar with the newest zatoichi(27? The blond guy), then you will recogonize the demon in this movie, this guy is LITERALLY on a mission to claim a 1000 souls. And oh my god do they ever try to pull this off on screen. I saw at least 500(well that may be a bit much) people die and another 500 would have if they wouldn't have had that duel at the end. But the duel was WELL worth watching, but i will get back to that. The action scenes in this are just amazing. It's kind od the style from return of master killer where he starts out as an actor and he has all these people flying all around as gordon moves his hands. While it is definitely better than that, it still looks like the guys are waiting for the sword to strike them. The best way to desribe it is the fight scenes are kinda like gladiator, kind of I said, so take the 30 minutes of action in gladiator times it by 2, then take the intensity and multiply by around 50. What you come up with is the action in Gojoe: spirit war chronicle.
So I saw a reviewer sayy that the movie was all about throwing seashells, there is some of this, and it is meaningful, and if you can actually sit through like 3-4 minutes of this, it leads to a mind game between the demon and the monk. And you then find out a whole lot more about the demon and who he really is and I don't want to give anything away but I'll just tell you that there is a royal position involved with this whole 1000 souls thing. And I found ALL of the non-action scenes pleasent, especially because of the fact I almost had a heart attack during like 3 of the fighting scenes, it really is a nice break to some of the coolest action you have ever seen. I mean this demon is mowing through tens upon tens of people and he is not even taking his eyes off of his goal, the monk.
You can tell the entire movie that these 2 are destined to have a duel, and man do they ever. They don't really focus on sword techniques, rather they just bang swords together like donnie yen used to do. But like I said with gladiator, the fighting is WAY better in this movie. SO don't expect your normal sword fight, like I said before, if you are prone to seizures you are going to need to fastforward through this. INSANE.
Now this movie is sort of teetering on that 4.5 mark and should be given a 4 for the movie, but the over the top but yet realistic fight scenes easily push this to a five.
Now the sound is amazing, though not the greatest music, still very good, and the bass will be punding even if you turn it ALL the way down like I did. The sound is honestly out of control, but very nice 5.1 sound. But when the music is not playing it is an EXTREMELY quiet movie, very weird, but just fine with me.
Now the picture is incredible except it will go from clear to grainy for about 10 seconds a few times in the movie, but I GUARANTEE you that you will not care. I experienced this also with Rekka: the deadly outlaw, but didn't mention it becuase it honestly didn't bother me, and in gojoe it doesn't happen during any of the action scenes, but you probably won't even notice this.
The special features are some of the better ones that I have seen in a while. The first one is a featurette presented like a feature presentation. it is really hard to explain but if you if you enjoyed the movie you will love this behind the scenes thing, because it is almost a movie itself. And it is in 5.1 sound that is louder than the actual movie.
The next one is a very short and quiet making of and I can't remember if it is in this one or the last but you get to see the live scenes before they edit it and digitally enhanced them. Though there is very little enhancement unless swords are banging or blood is spraying. But you get to see the movie like you are watching a play and man is it amazing watching the acting abilities AND athletic skills of the 2 main actors. THIS WAS TRULY A DELIGHT TO WATCH.
Haven't seen the interviews, but I am sure that you will have trouble finding time to watch it too because every time you pop this thing in, you will want to watch the movie over and over again so you should feel lucky that I even remebered to write about the ones I did see.
Go ahead and buy this today, I saw it at best buy for 16.99 and got mine for 7.99 at the local used store. But for 26.99 you should be getting the original lone wolf and cub or something.