Sino-Dutch War 1661 (product link) Historical / War I was surprised by the movie's historical accuracy (insofar as that is possible with a character as disputed as Koxinga, and considering that a siege of some months had to be understandably condensed into a day), and it valuably conveys a sense of hard fought resistance to dynastic succession. Too often people have the impression that dynastic succession is some kind of light switch flipping from old dynasty to new. The film is well acted, although a little over the top at times (one rather expects that of HK cinema), and it is easy to sympathize with the characters (except the Dutch). The story is tragic and compelling, covering much more than the siege of Taiwan, which makes the English title misleading. The movie might have more overseas success if they called it something more interesting than "Sino-Dutch War 1661" which sounds like a boring lecture one might attend in college.
The Buddhist Fist (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure The one thing I couldn't stop thinking while watching this movie was "This needs to be made into a fighting game." There are a lot of distinct and memorable characters with very clearly different fighting styles. Yuen Wo Ping's choreography doesn't disappoint, although the story is fairly one dimensional. I would consider this to be something of an action comedy similar to "The Prodigal Son", and some of the scenes are really quite amusing.
Red Sorghum (product link) Drama / War Too politically communist for me to stomach well. Everything's in there, from villifying land owners to praising equality among workers to violent proletarian revolution/resistance. Bleh. This wasn't so much a movie as Zhang Yimou's paying the requisite party dues so that he could make real movies later.
Do yourself a favor and move on to Zhang Yimou's worthwhile later works.
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