Temptation of a Monk

Rating:
Summary: Yet again disappointed!
Review: First let me say that I like this film. It's beautiful with a intriguing story.

With that out of the way let me again point out that Fox/Lorber has again put out a poor DVD edition of another film. The subtitles are on the film and very big. I guess I shouldn't complain as you can read them, unlike most of Fox/Lorber films.

This is in Full Screen. I wish someone could explain to me how Fox/Lorber can call their movies widescreen with they are full frame? Someone should call them on this fact as they repeatedly call their movies widescreen that are obviously full screen.

The video is decent as is the audio. All I can say is that it's watchable and doesn't take too much away from the original. But again it's just a poor transfer.

Oh well...if you are like me and really want to see this film it is probably the only version that will come out. But if not...there are plenty of Criterion and Anchor Bay DVDs to mention a couple.

Rating:
Summary: Yet again disappointed!
Review: First let me say that I like this film. It's beautiful with a intriguing story.

With that out of the way let me again point out that Fox/Lorber has again put out a poor DVD edition of another film. The subtitles are on the film and very big. I guess I shouldn't complain as you can read them, unlike most of Fox/Lorber films.

This is in Full Screen. I wish someone could explain to me how Fox/Lorber can call their movies widescreen with they are full frame? Someone should call them on this fact as they repeatedly call their movies widescreen that are obviously full screen.

The video is decent as is the audio. All I can say is that it's watchable and doesn't take too much away from the original. But again it's just a poor transfer.

Oh well...if you are like me and really want to see this film it is probably the only version that will come out. But if not...there are plenty of Criterion and Anchor Bay DVDs to mention a couple.

Rating:
Summary: temptation can be a passive response
Review: Hong Kong director Clara Law's film is based on a novel by Lillian Lee, who also wrote Farewell My Concubine. Set in China's Tang dynasty, it concerns the antagonism between two generals, Shi (Wu Hsin-Kuo) and Huo Da (Zhang Fengyi) who plot to overthrow the Emperor. Shi retreats from the fight when the ascendant heir is killed and seeks refuge in a Buddhist monastery. Law lacks the narrative skill to elucidate the story, relying instead on random set pieces, which occasionally redeem her painfully slow pace. The stylised use of colour and choreography in the opening ceremony and in an extended brothel sequence are very lovely, and she out-Peckinpah's Peckinpah in savage slow-motion massacres. Law has a good eye for composition, favouring the use of wind and smoke in her exteriors, and the burning of a house near the end is very beautiful. The brothel sequence features a transvestite, and the sex scene between Shi and a nun is all the more erotic because their shaved heads give it a particular subtext. Of the actors, Joan Chen manages to connect with the audience, though her screen time is limited, and the abbott monk raises a few laughs.

Rating:
Summary: Another beautiful movie from Sara Law
Review: I really loved this movie. Perhaps it does owe a debt to Kurosawa's 'Ran', but is it a crime for a developing director to emulate the master? Sara Law is a superb director in her own right - she has a faultless eye, a deft wit and produces sensational erotic scenes. I am thankful we can count her as an Aussie and look forward to a great many more beautiful movies from her like 'Temptation of a Monk'.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: Joan Chen is marvelous in this feature. A delight for both the eyes and the heart. This movie is filled with beautiful sights and sounds, a wonderful script, and superb acting. END

Rating:
Summary: PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Review: Set in the T'ang Dynasty, TOAM is a story of fratricidal politicts in which the emperors chief bodyguard Shi (Wu Hsin-kuo) becomes a willing, albiet passive, accomplice in a palace coup initiated by the emperors brother. Despite promises to Shi prior to the coup, the emperor and all his family are killed, and out of shame and guilt he flees, taking anonymous shelter in a Buddhist monastary. Not wanting to give the rest of the film away, be it enough to say while often a very slow moving film, Temptation of a Monk is still a fairly good one, with Shi's unintentional spiritual evolution and some very good visual panoramas. Joan Chen plays a dual role and the monk that becomes Shi's mentor is an enjoyable character.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing Story
Review: Temptations starts off well, but it gets confusing when Joan Chen's character Scarlet is killed. Then, later on, when our hero takes refuge in a Buddhist monastary, Joan Chen shows up again as Violet. Was she supposed to be Scarlet's twin sister, or what? The sex scene in the monastery, in which Chen and the protagonist are bald from having shaved their heads, is pretty erotic, but apart from that, there is no reason to see this movie at all.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing Story
Review: Temptations starts off well, but it gets confusing when Joan Chen's character Scarlet is killed. Then, later on, when our hero takes refuge in a Buddhist monastary, Joan Chen shows up again as Violet. Was she supposed to be Scarlet's twin sister, or what? The sex scene in the monastery, in which Chen and the protagonist are bald from having shaved their heads, is pretty erotic, but apart from that, there is no reason to see this movie at all.

Rating:
Summary: temptation and restraint
Review: this movie has got to be one of the greatest stories of all times, if you can understand it. you need to understand the asian culture in order to truly grasp what's going on as joan chen acts two roles. it has no relevance on the story, it's just this woman trying to kill the hero-the 19th princess is already dead. it is the monk being tempted which is obviously the core of the movie-where our hero has forsaken revenge for introspection. it is only after he is pushed to the furthest point of endurance where he fights back, and even then unwillingly. it is this self-control that most US viewers have a hard time comprehending, but one sees that the hero's opponent's lack of self-control is what makes him lose in the end, a modern fable this is

Rating:
Summary: Another beautiful movie from Sara Law
Review: Why am I so harsh on this film? This 1993 effort is virtually a rip-off of the kind of highly stylized epics that characterized Akira Kurosawa's films of the 1980's. Specifically it is too similar to the 1985 Ran in terms of script, style, and even the costumes and sets.

Other than being a totally inferior and embarrassing attempt to emulate the master, it is also guilty of historical inaccuracy (if it's a fantasy that why not go all the way - why the pretentious tone of a historical epic which it is not?!), exoticism (*all* the women in the film and even the men in the brothel), glorification of violence (whose sensual beauty tries to gloss over the very poor script) and terrible acting by all the performers.

The dialogue, to my native Chinese-speaking ears, are nothing short of uncreative and hurriedly thrown-together hodge podge of ancient maxims and trite cliches any film trying to be original and substantial should avoid. Sure, Joan Chen is a beautiful actress but even her star power or any artistic integrity she isn't going to help the script or the general execution of this pathetic rip-off at all. Obviously a Chinese-Australian production aimed at the international market, in the guise of a historical Asian epic....ARRRRRRGH! Do yourself a favor and AVOID!