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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: What Did You Watch? 2025-01-01 (Wednesday)
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2025 07:20:36 -0800
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As I continue to go through my collection (and constantly rearranging 
the watch order at the last minute), I decided to watch movies from 
directors Zhang Yimou and Ang Lee.  Two directors with very good visual 
styles.


Hero (blu-ray) 2002 martial arts movie directed by Zhang Yimou and 
starring Let Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, and Donnie Yen. 
Li plays a warrior who has been invited to meet with the emperor after 
Li has defeated the emperor's would be assassins.  As the movie unfolds 
multiple versions of Li's fight with the assassins are told.  The movie 
is very good and continues to hold up well.  And the thing I like about 
Zhang Yimou's movies is they are a treat to look at.


House of Flying Daggers (blu-ray) 2004 martial arts movie directed by 
Zhang Yimou and starring Andy Lau and Zhang Ziyi.  Ziyi plays a blind 
woman who is part of a rebel group trying to take down a corrupt 
government.  Lau plays a government agent sent to infiltrate the rebel 
group, but of course the two develop a romantic interest in each other 
turning it into a tragic love story.  Not as good as "Hero" but still 
very good.
Sometimes when I needed to test a surround sound system/speakers and 
couldn't remember which disc had a surround sound test on it, I'll pop 
in House of Flying Daggers and play this scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk9tqFd5sGI


Curse of the Golden Flower (blu-ray) 2006 martial arts movie directed by 
Zhang Yimou and starring Chow Yun-fat as an evil emperor of China and 
Gon Li as his wife that's he's secretly poisoning.  The wife catches on 
and enlists one of her sons to overthrow the emperor.  The movie is 
ridiculously melodramatic with lots of backstabbing and plot twists, but 
very entertaining.


Sense and Sensibility (4K disc) 1995 movie directed by Ang Lee based on 
the famous Jane Austen novel.  This is a movie I had zero interest in 
ever watching, but it was included in a 4K box set I own, and I'm 
determined to watch all the movies in those box sets.  This one stars 
Emma Thomson as a woman in England in the 1800s who gets screwed over 
when her father dies and thanks to old English laws all the money and 
property goes to her brother.  Her brother promised their father on 
their father's deathbed he would take care of his mother and sisters, 
but her brother's wife has other ideas for the money.  Emma Thomson has 
a mother and three sisters to account for during this movie.  But seeing 
as how I had almost no interest in this movie, and I had stuff around 
the house to do...all I know is Hugh Grant shows up then disappeared 
then reappeared at the end and everyone was happy.  And apparently Alan 
Rickman's character in this movie was a nice guy.  Hugh Laurie was in it 
too, but I don't know what his deal was.  I did pay attention for the 
first or so, but I had stuff to do.


Life of Pi (3D blu-ray) 2012 movie directed by Ang Lee  The movie 
follows a young man who has to survive on a life boat and eventually 
shipwrecked on an island with his only companions some animals on the 
way to a zoo, including a tiger.  This is a great movie and beautiful to 
look at.  The 3D only makes it better.  It's worth watching alone just 
for the visuals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knJCf6PYNWA


Abbot Elementary (Hulu) "Light Bulb: - Season 1, episode 2.  Janine (a 
new teacher who is ridiculously enthusiastic) sees a broken light bulb 
and decides to fix it herself causing half the school to black out.

"Gifted Program" - Season 1, episode 6.  According to a website I 
Googled, this is one of the best episodes.  Janine convinces the 
principal to release funds for a gifted program.  Wackiness ensues.  It 
wasn't particularly funny, but I did like when the principal demanded 
the program be shut down because one of the gifted kids realized the 
principal doesn't actually do anything prompting the principal to 
declare they're getting too smart.

I've watched various clips of Abbot Elementary over the years and the 
clips are always very funny.  But taken as a whole, I don't want to sit 
through 22 minute episodes to get to one or two funny scenes. But I'll 
probably watch one or two more "best" episodes and see what happens.


What did you watch?