sakharovaav Reviews

Hamlet (1996)

Branagh is a good actor but bad director

[7/10 · 25 February 2021]

I like that this version trusts Shakespeare, I mean: it is full. For example, such character as Fortinbras is not deleted as in many other adaptations - the guy who, after everyone in Elsinore killed each other, is going to be elected as the Danish king. Because among other things, Hamlet is a story of the power change.

The viewer who survives all the 4 hours of monologues and dialogues can feel how it was in the Shakespeare's theatre.

However, my impression is that Branagh as a director does not know what to do with some lines (and some characters like Horatio). While the other showrunners cut away many fragments to make Hamlet a trite romantic boy, he merely saturates the movie with sex, violence, noise, hysteria, etc.

Sometimes it works well when it doesn't contradict the plot. Really, Shakespeare's tragedy is not a 12+ fairy tail. To Be or not to Be is clever here: he speaks about the bodkin and frightens eavesdroppers with it. Bingo.

Sometimes this kaboom looks amusing but senseless, as in the very first scene when one guardian shouting madly falls on the other. Why using fireworks in the scene with the ghost? Why making Ofelia a woman of easy virtue from the very beginning? And so on.

So, for me the movie looks like a combination of better and worse scenes.

The Legend (2007)

Asian sword-and-sorcery

[9/10 · 22 October 2019]

Frankly speaking I've binge-watched this strange fairy tail like a guilty pleasure and I was really impressed. It has beautiful visuals and unforgettable OST, clever plotting, interesting combination of power struggle, magic and exotic mythology, romance etc. It could have been a real masterpiece.

But the show has some problems. The lead actor broke his leg when making stunts and that's why (and because of other problems) they had to shorten the drama with a litle bit strange galoping ending looking like a trailer.

Another problem is miscast: as for me I can't watch mature actors playing young characters. All this looks like a 1950s' movie. Particulary the actress playing Kiha is bad with her overweight and bags under eyes. The lead did a very good job, his smile is magnetic, it is a hard task to play a goodie and not to make him dull but he is also old. A younger actor may have coped with all these stunts without injuries.

Also the mythological pathetic flashback in the 1st episode is too long, some viewers loose patience and skip it. Don't do it, it merely explains why the characters receive thier karmic payback later. From the 3rd episode the pacing gets thrilling, from there up to 22nd episode the story arc is very good.

Borgia (2011–2014)

Among the best period dramas

[10/10 · 6 November 2018]

I started watching it with zero expectations, at first I found it gloomy and dragged but in the end of the first season I found myself absolutely stuck to the screen.

English is not my first language, I saw the dubbed version, so the problem of accents (that's why English-speakers write that the drama is badly directed or badly acted) doesn't disturb me. If you are irritated by the accents you'd learn that the real Renaissance Rome had a mix of various Italian dialects and all Europe's accents.

I think that the first 3 or 4 episodes are slow, cause it is only the introduction into the whole great story with many subplots. But then the pace grows and the next episodes are quite suspenseful. Second season with its Italian locations looks more beautiful and expensive then the first one (which was shoot in the Czech Republic instead of Italy).

Like many other historic shows it is a fusion of real facts and fiction but a very clever fusion. Tom Fontana (unlike of most of scriptwriters) really read everything on the Borgia topic, he doesn't oversimplify the politics and doesn't import all the 21st century interpretations into the medieval world. But the issue is not only that this drama is quite historically accurate (where Rodrigo is an experienced and capable politician, Cesare is full of political ambition and cruel, Lucrezia is known as the virtuous duchess and patroness of art etc.). I like that the characters look like real developing people, multi-layered and believable, neither white nor black but in fact grey. Many twists are unexpected, even for those who is aware of the Renaissance history, no one plotline is forgotten in the end.

Well, if you a shipper, want an incest story with luxurious costumes and if you hate politics - this show is not for you, try other Borgia show. This one demands some knowledge of history or at least attention to the plot when watching. But if you want a period drama with clever and enthralling story, give it a chance.

Love Me If You Dare (2015–2016)

Great disappointment

[6/10 · 24 September 2018]

This drama was very weird.

In the beginning it is mind-blowing. The romance is cute and hilarious, the crime stories are logic, and dialogues are witty. You are waiting that the scriptwriter (the one of the brilliant Nirvana in Fire) is going to explain all the mysteries and combine every plot-line (crimes, love, mental twists of the hero) in a very clever and dramatic way.

But THEN from ep. 15 or 16 everything changes.

The show now looks like a cheap action movie, full of clichés and predictable. The characters lose their individualities, the crazy hero becomes a usual person, the girl disintegrates into a stupid damsel in distress. The pace is totally off. Now it is just a clumsy story about the gang of maniacs haunting the hero. Some mysteries of the first half are merely forgotten.

Of course, Wallace is gorgeous actor, I like his big black eyes, he steals the show but the best actor couldn't rescue this stuff.

Many TV dramas have problems with the plot in the final part but here this problem is particular.

Looks like somebody (TV producers? Chinese censorship?) intervened the shooting and quickly converted the show into a low-grade action movie. Maybe they ran out of money? Some traces of the original plot (more dramatic or even tragic and less soapy one), some Chekhov's guns remained in the first half but they don't shoot.

9 for the beginning, 3 for the ending, 6 as the average.