With this entry I am participating in the contest organized by #CineTV about the foreign cinema of our preference.
If you want to participate in it I invite you to visit this page where all the requirements to participate are listed. I recommend you to read them carefully.
Having made this introduction, I will now move on to the subject of the contest.
I would like to make a couple of clarifications:
a) Because of my continuous wandering I have lived in different countries (I have just spent a couple of years in the USA) where I was surprised by the coronavirus pandemic, but I have also lived many times in Europe.
b) For this reason I speak and understand without problems several languages, among them -apart from Spanish- Italian and partially French and English.
c) Because of this I watch some movies in their original language which allows me to enjoy the real character.
Having made these clarifications I am going to share with all the users of this splendid community a fantastic movie from the point of view of scenography and special effects, but also with the culture of Asian cinema: I am talking about House of Flying Daggers (in Chinese its original language is called 十面埋伏 I saw it in Italian because at that time I lived in that country and the title in Italian is La Foresta dei Pugnali Volanti).
It is a film that can be framed in the so-called "wuxia" film genre, which is a broad genre of Chinese literary type that has its origins in the early twentieth century and brings together the adventures of martial heroes of the Chinese tradition, something comparable to the classic titles of "cloak and dagger" that delighted us so much when we were children.
Being of Hispanic origin (Argentinian) I have always struggled with the feeling of not being able to understand the dubbing of movies. Either because they have a slightly Puerto Rican accent (at one time all dubbing for Latin America was done in that country or with professionals and/or actors from that country. Or because they have an absolutely neutral accent like nowadays. Or because they have a strong Spanish accent as it happened for years.
That is to say, very few times I saw films dubbed in Spanish-Argentine with the characteristic accents of my country of origin.
Living many years in Italy I discovered something: the quality of Italian dubbing and book translators is simply exceptional.
Not only because Italian is a unique language with no particular inflections (except for dialects) but also because the dubbing of movies in this case is done by real actors and professionals, giving not only the tonality but also the emphasis to each dubbed action.
To put it in other words: you can't tell the difference between the dubbed action and the original action.
I have tried to make the experience between the original and the Italian translation and truly the emphasis is exactly the same, the interjections, exclamations, anguish, anxiety, joy, terror, action or suspense do not present variations from the interpretative point of view.
I think that is the main difference. The neutrality of the Spanish language that is adopted to standardize all Spanish-speaking countries takes away the spontaneity that the examples mentioned above have.
I have chosen House of Flying Daggers as my favorite foreign film.
Let's see why.
Zhang Yimou gives a master touch to a typical scenography of wuxia films: the bamboo jungles.
The warriors crossing this jungle that can serve as cages or real deadly weapons, in absolute silence is one of the best images of the film.
The dichotomy between action and romanticism gives us unforgettable moments of pain and humanity that impose, many times, the sacrifice of the personal aspirations of each character.
The impressive dance scenes with which the film opens are dazzlingly beautiful.
The fields of grain or the plains transformed into majestic snowy landscapes in their incredible and natural beauty also serve as a backdrop to the moral changes, highlighting the emotionality in some key scenes.
The visual delicacy of the scenes in general is extraordinary as well as the silence that surrounds them.
There is a notable improvement with respect to Hero, Zhang Yimou's other film, perhaps the one that gave him the greatest fame.
In this aspect the work of Tony Ching Siu-Tung, the choreographer to whom he entrusted the scenography of the film is fundamental.
Martial art stylizations, real combat techniques from the live with a lot of stunts and an extraordinary photography candidate for an Oscar only increase the interest for this great film.
To close the praise Zhang Ziyi, a veteran actress in this type of film is exhibited in a warrior dance for which there are not enough adjectives in quality to catalog it.
