Thursday 2 June 2011

Big screen small (1) - Zen, dragon and daggers

No breakthrough here, but I'm sure skirmish wargamers and combat-oriented roleplayers will see something of value in it, as will cinema lovers and martial arts fans not aware of the links, and likely also creators of all kinds pondering the perennial issue of originality.



6 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

To me it's the main hero who is such a killing machine that his stats are off the wall but still never high enough that you can't kill them eventually through numbers or luck or an evil GM.

Dr. Willett's Workshop said...

I'm going to try to get hold of "A touch of zen"...I see what you mean by issues of originality.

Paul´s Bods said...

They knock down enough bamboo forests in these films that would be needed to feed the worlds population of pandas a 100 times over..
and I still find these films strangely attractive
Cheers
paul

Porky said...

@ The Angry Lurker - To get that guy you need some nifty tricks, but there are nifty tricks enough to go round in those clips. The unspoken coordination stood out for me. That could come in handy in real life.

@ Dr. Willett's Workshop - I'm still undecided on that originality. We're dealing with shifts in thinking maybe, something that moves things forward bodily.

@ Paul's Bods - Yep, dendrocide. How many must die to satisfy our strange attractions? Serious question. Attractive they are though.

thekelvingreen said...

I remember when Crouching Tiger came out, and I liked it just fine, but I was baffled by how surprised everyone was by it. Had these people not seen A Touch of Zen, or Zu, Warriors From the Magic Mountain, or Fong Sai Yuk?

Porky said...

I think we can forget just how far down the line of human history we are, and how hard won even small qualitative changes can be. That sliver of the truly innovative is a rare thing and potentially very precious.