A feral, aggressive film rooted in polemics and agitation. Has a revolutionary spirit but sadly doesn't earn any type of thematic resolve related to class consciousness, social oppression, etc. This is not really a good film when viewed through an orthodoxical lens. The central characterization isn't an anti-hero in positioning but frankly that would have probably been the better move. The story seems to really want to make this character empathetic to the audience and it simply isn't all that effective. He's not a victim of a vicious system given the inciting incident of this story, so it's hard to find this film effective when Cheang levies critique towards the hyper-commercialization and commodification of tradition - the spiritual ethos of Martial Arts decaying and being consumed by the only motive that matters, profit. I guess what I'm saying is this is a film that feels in contention with itself. There are a lot of thematic touchstones in here but nothing quite gels, and given this is based off a popular Magna it makes me wonder if this is the classic case of an artist doing his best with under-cooked source material and financiers that cinema to be a secondary medium ;). With all that in mind, I kinda loved this? lol. Shamo is a highly visceral experience, one in which Cheang and company deploy cinematic artistry in the form of editing, cinematography, art design, etc. to craft a hyper-engaging treat of transgressive pleasures. Has a lot of that "burn it all down" energy, and despite that there are far better films that achieve this across, story, theme, and technical mastery, I respect the hell out of this film's underlying spirit of revolt in which it delivers a panoply of stunning imagery and a heterodoxical perspective on the state of marital arts/competitive fighting.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
|