Couple of overlooked points here, methinks

Rating: 9/10 (30 January 2007)

The cinematic musings of the UK's Booth herein are more than relevant and observant, especially the references to Zhang's truly great and universal "Raise the Red Lantern." But, in all the fanfares and appreciations of this gorgeous palate of cinematic primary coloration's, it seems to me two very important points are bypassed: 1: If, indeed, the "hero" was prefigured by a prior hero who had the Ch'in emperor within range of his sword, why is his story relevant? 2: The historical? figure of the Ch'in originating Yellow? King was not simply a tyrant, but a scholar murderer as well as a book-burner. He may well have been the template for der Schicklgruber AND contemporary lead soldiers like Bush and Co.
I have just fast-forwarded a rerun of this DVD, and, as a "Chinese" American, I find Zhang's "mythology" here to be curiously UN"Chinese," as in far too Hollywood and far too "simplistic," especially since all the "cultural" reference points are so "quaint," "picturesque," AND superficial. Ah, "inscrutable" indeed. The ultimate, as in metaphor, appears to lie in the sand, in the "characters," pictograms?, for "Our" "Earth," which, to me, is not quite sufficient rationalization for the likes of the Ch'in emperor of ill repute. Well, according tO the Confucians. An asIde here, to wit: Eisenstein did a similar chore for the Soviets in his "Ivan, the Terrible(s)" but he does so totally within the contexts of his ruler, whereas, here, at least in my perception, the emphasis on the purely visual and the sophomorically obvious, incredible cinematography notwithstanding, seems, almost laughably, Gollywood rather than THE apologia for today's Mainland.