Dose of X: YOU OFFERED ME A TOAST, HOW CAN I REFUSE?

Life can be ecstatic, exciting and extraordinary... if you make it to be.

YOU OFFERED ME A TOAST, HOW CAN I REFUSE?

Published Saturday, October 21, 2006 by XY | E-mail this post

Watched The Banquet last night at MoA with my bro. I got intrigued by its theme, but the promise of lavish costumes and imagery just pulled me into the theatre.

The movie appealed to my love of artsy, forlorn pieces, best epitomized by the monologue at the end , with Ziyi's haunting face capturing the essense of the movie.

This is about the complexity of human emotions - specially love & desire, and how it affects our lives and the lives of the people around us. It is best said in a dialogue between The Crown prince and a street vendor selling poison (repeated with the Empress and the same vendor).

Wu Luan (after buying poison from the vendor): Is there anything stronger than this?
Vendor: Yes. The human heart.

Indeed. We can only see too well in the movie's climax.

There is so much to love about this movie - the well choreographed scenes (from the opening performance, to the fight scene to Ziyi/Wu Luan's swordplay - and I don't mean that metaphorically, hahaha, to the banquet's theatrical exchanges), the scenery, the costume/make-up, the acting (Ziyi portrays innocence/manipulative/vulnerable/evil and a lot more in this movie and she is definitely one of the best actresses around). That it was loosely based on Shakespeare's tragedy - Hamlet, may not appeal to some (to drama queens like me, it's a gem. hehe!).

For a 2hr plus movie, it did pretty alright, though it could definitely have been edited even better. Somewhere along the way, I got dizzy by all the fight scenes, and it didn't help that we felt an earthquake in the middle of the movie (for a while all I could think about was, are we near the fire exit? We felt the tremor again when we got back at home around 2AM).

4 out of 5 stars for this film :)

_______________________

"You think that by using a mask, you elevate your (theatrical) performance? You are wrong. Use your face. And make it your mask." - The Empress

"When have I stopped becoming 'Little Wan'? I have forgotten who I am.... Perhaps it was the day your father married me... and you left" - The Empress

"You are in my heart, but you do not see me..." -- (from the song in the beginning of the film)