MovieChat Forums > Fa yeung nin wah (2001) Discussion > Did anyone else fall asleep during this ...

Did anyone else fall asleep during this film?

posted 16 years ago by owen_t_robinson
79 replies | jump to latest

For me, this film started really well and I was drawn in. However it let itself down badly in the last 40 minutes or so. It became painfully and unwatchably slow. So much so that I fell asleep in parts.

Towards the end I just wanted it to be over. I know someone may reply to this and say something along the lines of "you just don't appreciate art house cinema" but there are slow-moving, engaging films and there are films that are just boring. This was the latter.

[–] n1l2jee3 16 years ago

I fell asleep five times and had to keep rewinding, but then I found that I didn't miss anything at all...

[–] dragmio 16 years ago

I also didn't like it the first time I saw it. I thought it was all style and no substance. And all that hips swaying in slow motion really got on my nerves.
But after seeing 2046, a far superior film in my opinion, I watched ITMFL again, and quite liked it. I believe WKW himself said one should watch 2046 before ITMFL (someone mentioned it here, on these boards).

[–] paraluman 16 years ago

The beauty of this film is in the subtle details. I wasn't that impressed at first, either, but when I watched it two more times, there I began to appreciate everything. You really have to pay attention to their expressions, their gestures---I really admire Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung for being able to project such complex emotions without words. Now that's brilliant acting. How this managed to get away with subtlety so well despite the obvious sexual tension between the two characters is almost unreal.

[–] chael38 16 years ago

i love falling asleep to this movie!
i mean, it's a soporific in a good sense ;)

best movie eva

[–] jorgddh 15 years ago

It's a slow-moving film, yes. Not everything must have MTV editing style. In fact, nothing should!

[–] ewdot2480 15 years ago

Good God, I don't think anyone on this board means that slow/boring = MTV crowd.

I consider 'The English Patient' to be a looonggg, slowww, but beautiful, full-bodied motion picture.

THIS film, was just slow & pretty. Nice cinematography, nice music. I 'got' the subtle, underplayed acting. But after 45-50 minutes (where I was really into it), the story really doesn't go anywhere and I was extremely disappointed by the end.

And again, that's not because of any glib comment about MTV viewing style.

[–] Star_blazer_9000 15 years ago

I agree with you there. The 3rd act was kinda painful. I fell in love with the rest of the movie and its nostalgic atmosphere but the last part where they don't see eachother and they change location and time goes by I got so out of the story. I tried to get into it again but I just couldn't. Leung and Chueng were wonderful though and it is no surprise that they are big names in Hong Kong.

[–] fireyhope 15 years ago

really people? You don't Watch ITMFL for story, you watch it for the atmosphere and the cinematography, all the story in the movie are just small metaphors and not only that the story isn't meant to deep with character it's suppose to be deep with atmosphere and the themes of love.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] plattawabbe 15 years ago

I didn't like it either..
The start was alright, had high hopes since it was so highly rated, at first it was pretty good just because I'm sort of a white-washed Cantonese guy so the film kind of reminds me of when I was a kid who wasn't so whitewashed.

But the ending was really slow and I felt like nothing really happened throughout the entire movie. Towards the end I stopped understanding what was going on, like what was with that little military clip with the 200,000 people on the side of the road..

I guess I'm biased against this flick since I have to rely fully on the subtitles which I hate; I can only understand some phrases so it's impossible to ever look away from the screen if I want to fully understand it. Without the subtitles I would probably understand 20% of the words and have no idea what was happening.
I really liked My Blueberry Nights but I've seen this and Chungking Express and didn't really like either of them, but chunking was a lot better than this I think.

[–] Gloede_The_Saint 15 years ago

Is this art house?

Anyways nah. I thought it was great. Far from boring!

Somebody here has been drinking and I'm sad to say it ain't me - Allan Francis Doyle

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] mariorcg 15 years ago

Nop!!! Didn't sleep... sorry. I'm a human being!

[–] nov1 15 years ago

No! To the contrary.
The film stayed in my mind for some time after I left the theatre.
The ending of the movie was especially effective.

[–] Kiwifalling 15 years ago

I also became restless during the last half hour, but I thought the last five minutes were heartbreaking.