Night Watch Review
Oct. 8th, 2005 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearJust got back from the cinema, where ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cholten99 and I saw Night Watch, a Russian sci-fi film about the classic struggle between light and dark.
This was the first sub-titled film I've seen where I didn't feel completely detached from the characters, and that's because the subtitles were very much a part of the film. They reflected in various way the emotion or intentions of the speaker and were incorporated into the structure of the scene (in that they were obscured if someone walked in front of them, etc), which was very effective and prevented the usual barrier of the dialogue being in a foreign language.
The film was very atmospheric and also realistic despite the supernatural elements, as it was all very run-down and not in the least flashy. There were no fancy outfits or choreographed kung-fu, but the effects were interesting and added to the story rather than just giving it a glossy finish.
The best thing about it was the ambiguous presentation of the struggle between light and dark. There were no black and white demarcations; everyone had the capacity for amorality and it was clear that the light side weren't exactly pure, neither were the dark side wholly evil.
My favourite line came when someone was explaining why so many people choose the dark path:
"It is far easier for a man to defeat the light within himself than it is for him to defeat the darkness all around him."
Very few of the rules of the premise were laid out, though, which made some parts unclear and gave an overall impression of messiness. To a certain extent, I quite liked that it was confusing, as it added to the atmosphere, but sometimes it would have been nice to have understood a bit more what was going on.
However, there are two more parts to the trilogy to go, and I am very much looking forward to finding out where it goes from the situation at the end of part one.
cholten99 and I saw Night Watch, a Russian sci-fi film about the classic struggle between light and dark.This was the first sub-titled film I've seen where I didn't feel completely detached from the characters, and that's because the subtitles were very much a part of the film. They reflected in various way the emotion or intentions of the speaker and were incorporated into the structure of the scene (in that they were obscured if someone walked in front of them, etc), which was very effective and prevented the usual barrier of the dialogue being in a foreign language.
The film was very atmospheric and also realistic despite the supernatural elements, as it was all very run-down and not in the least flashy. There were no fancy outfits or choreographed kung-fu, but the effects were interesting and added to the story rather than just giving it a glossy finish.
The best thing about it was the ambiguous presentation of the struggle between light and dark. There were no black and white demarcations; everyone had the capacity for amorality and it was clear that the light side weren't exactly pure, neither were the dark side wholly evil.
My favourite line came when someone was explaining why so many people choose the dark path:
"It is far easier for a man to defeat the light within himself than it is for him to defeat the darkness all around him."
Very few of the rules of the premise were laid out, though, which made some parts unclear and gave an overall impression of messiness. To a certain extent, I quite liked that it was confusing, as it added to the atmosphere, but sometimes it would have been nice to have understood a bit more what was going on.
However, there are two more parts to the trilogy to go, and I am very much looking forward to finding out where it goes from the situation at the end of part one.
