Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I love it when someone writes us a review like this, when they’ve just seen a movie that blew their mind and they can’t wait to tell the world about the revolution that’s about to being RIGHT FREAKIN’ NOW!!
Check this out and see what I mean. It’ll make you smile. Guaranteed.
Dear Harry and Moriarty,
Generally, gents, I leave reviewing movies to others, keep my head down, and trudge onward with my own artistic labors. I, like yourselves, have a deep love of our movies and our media, even as I struggle to reform it. Love is why folks like all of us work so damn hard. We have this need to pour ourselves into these debilitating, isolating, often humiliating projects, to see an idea, a dream, come to life, and to see it affect the world in some way. We need to make a difference.
I’ve just seen “Red Trousers”, an action/documentary Directed and Produced by Robin Shou of Mortal Kombat fame, on the lives of the action stuntmen of Hong Kong cinema. This incredible piece of filmmaking drips with that exact love – every frame. Every actor, every shot, shows the deepest most profound love for the traditions of Chinese Opera, for the medium of cinema, for the casts, crew, and fellow stuntmen behind Hong Kong movies, and for the families and the nations that support them. It is a feeling, as an audience member, that floods over you. Robin’s stated objective was to give us, as Americans, a sense of respect for what these guys go through, and why. He’s given us so much more. Frankly, I’d never given his career much attention before this film, but he’s shared something intimate with me, and with everyone who trudged out to the Nuart tonight, and the fact that he came to see our reaction made it all the more personal. The movie made me feel so good, and at the same time, it illustrated just how far some people go for their art and craft. I’m humbled by Robin Shou. Harry, this is not the day I expected to have.
I should mention, at this point, that this profundity in no way detracts or impacts the sheer amount of ASS KICKING that takes place on the screen. Robin’s done something very creative here. He made a movie, just to dissect it. He puts together a fun, short, action-packed martial arts flick, and breaks it down stunt by stunt, giving you behind the scenes looks and the general plot of the film in a completely non-linear way, that keeps you guessing despite the extreme simplicity of the story. You get invested in the fight scenes, and then you get to know the stunt people behind them, and get invested all over again, as someone you’ve just gotten to know throws himself heedlessly out of a third story window, just to keep the plot moving. You’ll see that stunt five or six times, with different takes, from different sides, and it will scare you every single time. You’ll see people fall off of buildings, balconies, bridges, and land on any number of unfortunate targets, most often concrete. You’ll see more people get hit in more ways than you will be able to remember, once the movie is over. The story of the movie, and the story of making the movie, weave together, and with every stunt, you’re just hoping that everything comes out all right, for the characters, for the actors, everybody. As a movie, it works, it’s got an amazing narrative flow, and it’s definitely the most exciting watch of the year so far. As a statement on filmmaking, or on art, or on anything that means a damn to you, it is one of the most compelling things I have ever seen. Why has nobody made a movie with this much unapologetic, untainted, completely open and relentless passion and love before? Robin Shou makes me question if I even could. This movie makes me want to step up to the plate, not because of how inspirational it is, not because it has a message of hope for the future, but because I now have a very clear idea of what people making much less money than myself are doing for the art they love.
Robin, if you’re reading this, and I hope you are, thank you. I’ll be e-mailing you to express my deep appreciation for your film, if I can track you down. Hopefully that e-mail will be more dignified. People of the film industry, people who want to be, please, please, watch this movie, and be humbled.
Moriarty, get out of the house, right now, and haul ass to Santa Monica and Sawtelle like your life depends on it.
Harry, if you can, make sure this movie gets out there. How do guys like us open an oscar campaign?
If this review is a bit on the unprofessional side, it’s because my fingers are trembling. I’m more than a little emotional, right now. I’ve been slapped in the face, by a bunch of people who will make the absolute most of their lives, or die trying, and I needed it. We all do.
The film is “Red Trousers”.
I’ve gone by Archive in the past. My name is Tennyson E. Stead. I make role-playing games, finance movies, and I’m going to make the absolute most of it, or die trying. Period.
I know the feeling, man. Happened for me with BRAZIL. SE7EN. STAR WARS. CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. THE IRON GIANT. And more others than I can list. That sort of punch to the gut where you just can’t even stand up after you see something because of how incredibly personal your reaction is. It’s the reason we go back to the theater so religiously... because unlike heroin users, we know we can have that same sort of high again and again and again. All it takes is an open mind and a willingness to give every film a chance. You never know when you’re going to get blindsided.
I’ll definitely keep my eyes open for this one now.
"Moriarty" out.
