a link of souls, crime & partiotism

Fullmetal Alchemist - Murder on the Orient Express - the Great Wall
pop culture dailies 015

I haven't been watching a lot of movies lately so I want to highlight some that I actually did watched just recently:

Fullmetal Alchemist [NETFLIX]

I wasn't as hopeful and optimistic as I would hope so for a live action adaptation of the Fullmetal Alchemist since the local Japanese studios' efforts over the years do not live up to the level of their predecessors as you can count on one hand how many of those projects could be deemed successful. This most recent one in particular actually surprises me in how well they bring the characters and the world to life, as the latter is the result of the fruitful decision to shoot on location in Italy and using the historic buildings with their own charms to give the film an authentic feel to it just like the original mangaka, Hiromu Arakawa, intended. I can't stress enough how beautiful the countryside looks on the screen though! Regarding the former, if you've read the original manga run and probably watch the anime, Brotherhood, you know that these characters are of Caucasian or European descendants as how they appear and the colour of their hair make this visibly apparent. If that's not good enough, their names certainly give it away in Alphonse, Edric and Hughes for examples. As problematic as Hollywood whitewashing Japanese-centric animes or mangas for their adaptations, it is equally so when Japanese production would use European setting but with Japanese cast instead of European cast as intended in the storyline. This would make the effort to Westernize the actors with bad wigs and sprayed hair all that more jarring! Since the Land of the Rising Sun have their own acting style, you might be off-put by that if you can't get used to it right away. If you could look over these unfortunate direction, you will be treated with surprisingly accurate and faithful recreation from the drawn pages to the real life, as some key scenes from the mangas are being adapted to a tee. This is helped by the beautiful cinematography as each shot is being framed cinematically, just how we imagined they would be. It is a slow burn of a storytelling and the world of alchemy is the main character of this narrative instead of Al and Ed themselves, but the brothers and alchemy are intertwined with each other so this gives them much needed depth. I want to highlight how well the alchemy effects are, especially how well Al looks in his steel armour! It's a decent adaptation if compared to the previous efforts before ... but don't get me started on how they massacre Winry!

Murder on the Orient Express

Agatha Christie is a world renowned mystery novelist with a number of bestsellers under her wings but trying to adapt her works from the written medium on to the silver screen with live action adaptation is another matter altogethertrying to visualise what is being described in details in the books is a different kind of narrative comparatively. Some have succeeded in the past but many others have failed so this most recent effort by Kenneth Branagh have quite an obstacle to overcome. A star studded cast is a definite plus and bringing to the project a lot of gravitas and being a global attraction with some established household names but it all depends on how they are used in the movie and in this case, they are used particularly well across the board. Being a period piece, there are beautiful period-appropriate wardrobe and matching it is the gorgeous Orient Express train and how well decorated the inside of it is, being build from scratch (if I'm not mistaken) as a tangible set which adds to the atmosphere even more. Solid cinematography meant that all of these set dressings appear beautiful on the screen, with the CGIs used for the transition between locations add to build the world they are currently travelling through. How the mystery regarding the death of one of its passengers unravel throughout the film is quite engaging at least to me although how well it goes compared to its written counterpart could be up to scrutiny by those who have read and watch both of them. That twist in the end caught me off guard I have to say. Is it the same for you?

the Great Wall

Having been hearing of the premise itself and how they have the main protagonist being Matt Damon leading a movie on the fictional use of the Great Wall of China, it just rubbed me the wrong way how they want to sell it to the masses based on his brand name alone instead of just, you know, showcase the fantastical aspect of this take on the man-made wonder. After coming across it on my local streaming platform and watching it off the DVR, it is definitely more than that superficial sheen on it. It is basically a war film taking place on the Wall itself, being constructed to keep these jade monsters from going over and invade the civilization deep within China. Aside from these CGI creations, the main standout is how well realized the army on the Wall are, how each of them have their own colour-coded roles and their particular skill sets to fend off the enemies from archers, melee soldiers to the diving daredevils, having their own moment of highlight with the choreography and set sequences on and off it. Their ornate body armours are good representative of their impeccable set design with the palace set is a sight to behold. Aside from the excellent camera direction by the director Zhang Yimou with cinematic flourishes and effective build of tension and payoff, the human aspect is intriguing enough as they deal with the threat from the outside and the inside. I enjoyed the experience actually, I hope you guys do too.

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Well, that's all folks! Thank you for your time and please do come back for my future posts! :-)