Erin Stapleton'Bend it like Beckham' got brutal
August 8th 2008 14:28
"Fighter" Natasha Arthy (2007)
By now I really really needed my fix of martial arts, having been largely deprived ALL festival. So I saw this on the program, and on a whim, booked myself to go along. So it's a Danish film about a girl who wants to do Kung fu, but her dad won't let her. And this will somehow upset her brother's engagement. And so the story unfolds with what Bill Bailey might term "a tedious inevitability". This film has taken so much from 'Bend it like Beckham' that it actually borders on plagiarism.
*spoiler alert*
The film is not nearly as good, or as charismatic as 'Bend it like Beckham', but it does have its charms. For a start, the girl who plays the main character, Aicha (Semra Turan) is hypnotic. And it's worth sitting through the rather turgid aspects for some of the fight scenes toward the end (all the martial arts scenes were choreographed by Xian Gao, of 'Crouching Tiger..." fame, who also played her Sifu). And there's this cool bit when she realises the repeat dream she has about facing a masked figher is actually herself. (Yes, I thought it would have to be corny and ridiculous too, but it wasn't.)
I do have a couple of other major complaints though, first being that I don't know what it's like in Denmark, but here, I have been to heaps of martial arts competitions with lots Muslim girls competing. The more devout girls even go so far as to wear their hijabs under their competition helmets. So I don't think it's really that big a deal. And I note that the director is not Muslim, so it all rings a little false to me, but hey, feel free to correct me. The second, is that large Danish red-heads (ie. the love interest) are really unattractive and should stay away from kung fu.
6.5/10
And in other news, I got a little tipsy at bloody st jeromes last night and missed 'Diary of the Dead' (the new George Romero) that I was supposed to go to. Whooops... My decision was influenced by the fact that everyone I talk to says it's shit. Not to panic, I'll source it some other way
By now I really really needed my fix of martial arts, having been largely deprived ALL festival. So I saw this on the program, and on a whim, booked myself to go along. So it's a Danish film about a girl who wants to do Kung fu, but her dad won't let her. And this will somehow upset her brother's engagement. And so the story unfolds with what Bill Bailey might term "a tedious inevitability". This film has taken so much from 'Bend it like Beckham' that it actually borders on plagiarism.
aicha (semra turan) in 'fighter'
*spoiler alert*
The film is not nearly as good, or as charismatic as 'Bend it like Beckham', but it does have its charms. For a start, the girl who plays the main character, Aicha (Semra Turan) is hypnotic. And it's worth sitting through the rather turgid aspects for some of the fight scenes toward the end (all the martial arts scenes were choreographed by Xian Gao, of 'Crouching Tiger..." fame, who also played her Sifu). And there's this cool bit when she realises the repeat dream she has about facing a masked figher is actually herself. (Yes, I thought it would have to be corny and ridiculous too, but it wasn't.)
I do have a couple of other major complaints though, first being that I don't know what it's like in Denmark, but here, I have been to heaps of martial arts competitions with lots Muslim girls competing. The more devout girls even go so far as to wear their hijabs under their competition helmets. So I don't think it's really that big a deal. And I note that the director is not Muslim, so it all rings a little false to me, but hey, feel free to correct me. The second, is that large Danish red-heads (ie. the love interest) are really unattractive and should stay away from kung fu.
6.5/10
And in other news, I got a little tipsy at bloody st jeromes last night and missed 'Diary of the Dead' (the new George Romero) that I was supposed to go to. Whooops... My decision was influenced by the fact that everyone I talk to says it's shit. Not to panic, I'll source it some other way
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