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Legend of the Black Scorpion

	Our Price: $8.49 List Price: $19.95 Your Save: $ 11.46 ( 57% ) Sales Rank: #4144 (lower is better) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: Dragon Dynasty Starring: Ziyi Zhang, You Ge, Daniel Wu, Xun Zhou, Jingwu Ma Directed By: Xiaogang Feng Avg. Customer Rating:
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: Unrated Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS EAN: 0796019809917 Format: Color Manufacturer: Dragon Dynasty Release Date: 2008-02-26 Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Legend of the Black Scorpion Description (Action) A cross between Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Tarantino’s Kill Bill, scheming royals and other officials attempt to consolidate power in a empire in chaos. Packed with deadly plots, sweeping camerawork, and elaborate fight choreography.
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Legend of the Black Scorpion customer reviews: legend of the black scorpion I bought Legend of The Black Scorpion and to my surprise I found out that its the same film of Banquet.Please dont advertise them as different dvd becuase they are the same. I bought Banquet a month ago.now I have two copies of the same film. The posters and title are diffrent but the films the same.Many thanks Black Heart It usually takes a couple times b4 I fully understand the intricate plots of films in this genre (Crouching Tiger, Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower etc....) Ironically Ziyi Zhang is in all of these! She is everywhere but I love her as an actress, no complaints. I love these type of films for the cinematography mainly and the martial arts. I no nothing about Hamlet, I'm not a fan of Shakespeare at all, and I found the plot of this film very complicated. I need to see it again a few more times. So mainly I just read the subtitles, look at the the beautiful cinematography and listen to the score. I really didn't understand the ending, it was so abrubt and confusing. I'm sure it will all make sense with later viewings. I hope they continue to make amazing Chinese films like this, I own all of them. These are almost the best movies around right now. I think I own almost every movie Ziyi Zhang is in at this point, including Memoirs of A Geisha. What will she do next???? A DRAMA OF COURT INTRIGUE, AND THE LUST FOR POWER The version I bought doesn't have the same cover art as this one does, but is a beautifully packaged Chinese Collector's Edition with a portrait of the fabulously beautiful actress and heroine of this story, Zhang Ziyi, as she stars in her first adult role, that of the Dowager Empress. Some observers have suggested that this movie (La Legende de la Scorpion Noir, in my French voice-over) or BANQUET, on the cover, is based on Shakespeare's HAMLET. That may ultimately be true. However, though there are similarities, it need not become a distraction. If BANQUET were a Shakespeare adaptation, it might remind one of THRONE OF BLOOD, the Japanese take on MACBETH, or RAN, Kurosawa's thrilling take on KING LEAR. However, in that case one views the HAMLET story, through the eyes of the Prince, who detests the marriage of his mother, Queen Gertrude, to her brother-in-law and his uncle, King Claudius. In that case, the problem is what to do with her son, the heir to the throne? In this re-writing, before the story even begins, she Zhang Ziyi was not the prince's young mother, but his young fiancee. No incest problem. The death of the Emperor and the resultant confusion at court is only intensified when she agrees to marry the new Emperor (her brother-in-law) and the Prince goes into hiding in a kind of Monastary/Theatre School, specializing in poetry and dance. The film begins, actually, as a messenger of the Court arrives to invite the prince to return to Court, only minutes before a squad of assassins sent by the Emperor arrives, to kill him. He escapes, and makes his way back to Court and lives there under the protection of the new Empress, his former fiancee, who loves him at least as much as she loves the prestiege and power of her new position. In this story, all the problems of the situation are hers, not the Prince's. Eventually we learn that the former Emperor was murdered (by his brother, it seems) by means of a powdered compound made in part from the essence of a black scorpion which is blown into the victim's ear, through a feather. That's a detail very like the murder of Hamlet's father, by a poison in liquid form poured into his ear. Another similarity to the Hamlet story is the adoration of a young woman of the Court for the Prince. As with Ophelia, his feelings about this innocent and loving girl are sexual, but ambiguous, and cannot be resolved. The most striking difference between the two stories of Court intrigue is that here, there are no ghosts, and the Prince does not ever hallucinate his father. But all these details are superficial distractions. My advice is to abandon if you can, every reference you've heard between this film and the Shakespeare play, and simply sit back, relex and enjoy an historical drama of psychological complexity, produced with exceptional beauty and style, and played skillfully by some of the best film actors you'll ever see, in a specifically Chinese historical context, but with universal appeal. The music is good, the sets and costumes are georgeous, and often spectacular, and if you follow the characters and their relations with one another, you will grasp and enjoy the story in its entirety. The cultural differences between this production and any European story of similar type, are unavoidable; however the human emotions that motivate the characters are universal. The behaviors of the characters may puzzle children and adolescents, they will not trouble adults at all. BANQUET, or CURSE (or venom, actually) OF THE BLACK SCORPION is a piece of adult entertainment in the grand style. Simply Hamlet Who says Hamlet has to be hard? This is a great movie for kids struggling with Shakespeare's Hamlet,if they are reading it in High School. This very lushly visual, action-packed "Hamlet-in-a-nut-shell" will give them the basic plot and story line. There are certain departures like the rivalry between the two female leads but watching this may spark an interest in actually reading the play itself. Anything is worth a try when today's students have so little patience and such small vocabularies. Kung Fu and Hamlet? Wondering why I ask the question Kung Fu and mention Hamlet in one sentence? Forget about the Hamlet part, (thought it is actually the story of Shakespeare's Hamlet and have a high adventure full of glorious props and elaborate clothing. I love this DVD! I must have watched this 3 times and I only just received it!
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