Brain Fertilizer

Even better than SW:ESB???

Starring the mighty-mighty John Ratzenberger?

Actually, I could swear I saw him standing off in a corner of the fight in the inn/bar...

But if not, yeah, his absence does mar the film some infintestimal amount.

I do love SW:ESB, but I have to admit that what Mr. Lucas has done to the franchise does somewhat damage my appreciation. I can't even buy the original theater version on DVD. For instance, don't you think it went a little far when George Lucas changed Darth Vader's line from "Together, we will rule the universe!" to "Together, we will go to the theater and watch the prequels, which have the really cool Jar-Jar Binks and totally superior CGI special effects!" ??? [grin]

One of my all-time faves.

Interestingly, I first saw it subtitled. It was so incredible, I was stunned.

Then I saw it with dubbed English...it had lost a ton of its impact that way, for some reason. Anyone who hasn't seen it should DEFINITELY avoid the English version. It ruins it.

I have never seen the English-dubbed version. Hopefully, I never will.

Of course, I can understand about 80% of the actual Chinese, so that helps me quite a bit, maybe even enhances my enjoyment slightly.

I recently saw "Hero", I liked it better than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

It had the same appeal in the fight sequences, but the story held my attenion far more than Tiger did.

If you havn't seen "Hero" yet, rent it.

Hm.
I saw "Hero" after it came out in China, and actually purchased the DVD there.
I didn't like it as much as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" for some of the reasons John Derbyshire outlined in his article for NRO.
...but mainly because it seemed like a grudge-fulfillment movie. Li Ang got a lot of notice for "CT, HD", and Zhang Yimou seemed like he wanted to prove he could do a lush-visualed martial arts movie, too.
As such, it was derivative. The story was a little simplistic, and it was ultimately a director's movie.
Whereas "CT, HD" was a story.
I enjoyed "Hero", and it's worth watching and owning, but I still put "CT, HD" way ahead.

To tell the truth, even though he hasn't done many of them, I think Zhang Yimou may actually be best at comedies. "Happy Times" (Xingfu Shiguan) is wonderful...but I don't know if you can get it in the US.