Tuesday 21 January 2014

What I learnt from 47 Ronin

Short answer, not very much.

But as that's not much of a blog post, here goes:

1. You can get away with bad dialogue in a foreign language and subtitles. If your dialogue is making the audience unintentionally laugh, and half the cast is Japanese, chuck in some subtitles and we'll all be accepting of the 'translation'.

2. Hiroyuki Sanada is fast become one of my favourite actors - and I haven't even seen The Railway Man yet.

3. I apparently have a memory problem. Why do I recognise Tadanobu Asano from Mongol, which was made in 2007 but not in either of the Thor movies, one of which I saw 2 months ago? I have no recollection of his character at all, even with the name. (Can anyone help on that? Who he was, not why my memory is so bad)

(source: Wikipedia Commons (Mingle MediaTV) Asano at the premiere of Thor.)

4. Shape shifters are the crowd pleasers of the witch world.

5. When making movies to appeal to Western audiences, there is a good chance you'll ruin all the good things in the film. The movie is meant to be about the Keanu character when it is clearly about Sanada's character.

For those that don't know about Edo and Bushido, the film over explains things (for the Western audience). It looks pretty and is entertaining enough. If you look at Rotten Tomatoes, you have a 60% chance of liking it. As I said on exiting the cinema "Well, that was better than I was expecting". Take that to mean whatever you like.


Linking up with some Grace for FYBF - enjoy the long weekend everyone! Put down your phones and have fun!

11 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review - saves me going to see it !!!!! Wasn't sure I wanted to - now I know I don't.
    Have the best day !
    Me

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  2. It's actually not that bad, and I kind of liked it - it just sort of misses the mark a little. I wouldn't rule it out entirely, and for prettiness, the big screen is better. You won't hate it...

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  3. I did write a proper review, which I guess means I liked it, as I don't bother with things I don't like. http://www.weekendnotes.com/47-ronin-film-review/ I just think if they'd made it in Japanese, without the western elements, it would be so much better.

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  4. The first sentence has had me in stitches. You managed to maintain the humour. What a great way to start the day :)

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  5. Great review. Wish I was a movie lover :)

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    1. What is your blog? I can't link back to see if I've been there??

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  6. My mother in law was just raving about the Railway man. I am hoping to see it. Have a great long weekend too!

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  7. I haven't seen 47 Ronin, the Railway Man, or Thor. Bah what am I doing with my time? I think I'll give Ronin a miss, but thanks for the review.

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  8. Ronin 47 doesn't really look like my kind of movie - I'm more the Saving Mr Banks kinda girl :) But with three men in my life I suspect there will be many Ronin type movies heading my way for family movie nights - have a great weekend lovely lady xx

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  9. I do plan to put my phone down this weekend, I also intend to get some posts written ahead of time so I cane enjoy family time. I LOVE shape shifters, but the concept is best displayed in the Fringe series I reckon!

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  10. Ooh, John's been trying to talk me into this one, and I think you have just given me all the info I need not to go. Thanks Lydia :)

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