The Adjustment Bureau was up first. It's a 2011 film by screenwriter, and first time director, George Nolfi. It's based on a Philip K Dick short story called Adjustment Team. Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and Terrance Stamp star in this romantic science fiction thriller. Matt's a young congressman who's running for senate. He looses when his bare ass appears in the papers. Emily is a gal he meets, falls for, and then discovers he's not meant to be with. Apparently there are some people in control of our lives and they tell him it's not in the plan for Emily and him to be together. He's not buyin' that and he bucks the plan. There's a lot of yakkin' and some runnin' about. Hats are worn, tears are shed, doors are opened. There are a lot of cool places and great New York City scenery. Much less stressful than actually going there. Worth a look.
Joe picked up the BluRay of The Lost Bladesman. It's not been released here in the USA yet but you can get it from all sorts of sources out on the internet, including Amazon. Donnie Yen stars as General Guan Yu. That's Donnie on the poster there with his giant sword on a stick. The red rock is also General Guan Yu though I have a feeling he wasn't that wide. I've only seen this character in the John Woo Red Cliff movie and Bruce Campbell's My Name Is Bruce. In the latter the General is an evil spirit and Bruce has got to save the town. It's pretty silly but TLB sure isn't. The story is based on part of the 15th century Chinese novel Romance Of The Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. You can download a nicely illustrated version here and read the annotated version here.
General Guan's head is delivered to General Cao Cao at the beginning of the movie and Cao Cao's memory takes us back to a time 20 years ago when Guan served him briefly. Cao Cao is the man behind the weak Han Dynasty Emperor. Guan was a general for Liu Bei when we was captured by Cao Cao. Bei had started as a simple man and through time and circumstances came to be a great warlord. He was the founding Emperor of the state of Shu Han. He was one of several warlords Cao Cao wanted to corral and get under the Emperor's rule. It goes badly for everyone and lots and lots of people die. Chinese history is filled with battles and slaughter of one sort or another. The movie is rather slow at times with breaks for some action. I still enjoyed it but wouldn't recommend it to everyone. Reading up on the period might make the movie more interesting. There's lots of info to be had on-line and that period of Chinese history is pretty interesting.
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