What I've Watched: 投名状

Met up with some of my OG mates for a movie session. We watched the movie at Tiong Bahru Plaza because some of them work near the mall. I wonder how they managed to get a job since the holidays are only about a month long.

投名状 is set in the late Qing Dynasty during the 太平 Rebellion, tells about three sworn brothers (played by Andy Lau, Jet Li and Takeshi Kaneshiro) who turn against one another over a beautiful woman (Xu Jinglei). It is a war film in the earlier two-thirds and goes deep into each character for the final third.

There was a trailer for a Thai horror film before the movie and Victor gave Wan Yan a nudge during the scariest part of the trailer. The result - Victor giggled, Wan Yan almost screamed and those in front of us stared at us. Nice one, Victor (haha)!

Random thoughts about the film:

- there's too many close up shots of Takeshi Kaneshiro. I guess its to cater to the female viewers.

- if you're one of the main actors, your face will only be 'just' dirty, while the extras looks like they have never washed their faces in their lifetime.

- I wonder how much they paid for the extras 'acting' as dead bodies, the body count is almost as close to the film '300' (Edit: I guess there's some video editing done).

- Jet Li must be some kind of superhuman, he continued to kill close to a dozen of enemy soldiers after having a spear through his shoulder.

- Takeshi Kaneshiro sure looks like he's in the wrong era during the final third of the film as he's dressed in winter clothing that looks like something wore in Russia.

- only Takeshi Kaneshiro thinks that shaving is important as he's the one that appeared clean shaven almost throughout the entire movie.

This is for you if you like war films (and Takeshi Kaneshiro). The final third of the film is paced too slowly and almost put me to sleep.

3/5 - Its not my type of movie.