This is not an easy movie to watch. I mean technically, not morally. It is slow at first. Not ponderous, but unsure. Stick with it. Audio is horrible, and there are no subtitles; too much internal monologue for this. Turn it up and pay attention. It is not cropped right. Zoom your DVD player or TV.
It is clear that it was a lost project, barely released. The beginning is the worst. There's much complaint that it changes tone and shifts to action at the end, but the beginning is more of a problem to me. It is easy to dismiss the first 30-40 minutes because forget Chee, the FILM is unsure of itself. I suspect this isn't just a first act editing issue, but an overall editing issue. It's almost two hours, and probably would have worked fine at more like 90 minutes.
Forget just fixing the booms in shot; as mentioned elsewhere, when you watch it fullscreen, it's not even MOTW quality. Crop it 16:9 (which isn't perfect, but close) and it's a miracle. The whole tone of the film changes, and it's much more edgy, even a bit worrying.
And most of all, once you get past the rest of this, the story totally works. How Chee develops over time is almost a film class worthy case study. He doesn't keep being an unsure greenhorn, or magically go kung fu fighting at the end, but slowly gets his bearings, gets the information, and gets the nerve. Organically, and as part of his culture.
This needs a directors cut, badly. Just come back, re-edit, remaster the sound, and color grade it for a bit more consistency and drama. Most night scenes are just a tiny bit too flat (especially the FX lightning) and could be much improved.
It is clear that it was a lost project, barely released. The beginning is the worst. There's much complaint that it changes tone and shifts to action at the end, but the beginning is more of a problem to me. It is easy to dismiss the first 30-40 minutes because forget Chee, the FILM is unsure of itself. I suspect this isn't just a first act editing issue, but an overall editing issue. It's almost two hours, and probably would have worked fine at more like 90 minutes.
Forget just fixing the booms in shot; as mentioned elsewhere, when you watch it fullscreen, it's not even MOTW quality. Crop it 16:9 (which isn't perfect, but close) and it's a miracle. The whole tone of the film changes, and it's much more edgy, even a bit worrying.
And most of all, once you get past the rest of this, the story totally works. How Chee develops over time is almost a film class worthy case study. He doesn't keep being an unsure greenhorn, or magically go kung fu fighting at the end, but slowly gets his bearings, gets the information, and gets the nerve. Organically, and as part of his culture.
This needs a directors cut, badly. Just come back, re-edit, remaster the sound, and color grade it for a bit more consistency and drama. Most night scenes are just a tiny bit too flat (especially the FX lightning) and could be much improved.