The Cat Returns, Summer Palace, & Come Drink with Me

The Cat Returns is the second to last of the full length Studio Ghibli films that I haven't seen yet (My Neighbors the Yamadas is the last). As such, it was the one that I actually took out of my Netflix queue at least once, and didn't re-add for quite some time, due to my belief that it wasn't going to be all that good, not being directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and a sequel to the excellent Whisper of the Heart. Why I took it out? I didn't want to ruin my feelings for Whipser, maybe? Anyway, it was pretty good, but not nearly as strong as the better ones, as this wasn't as meaningful as the best, or as beautiful as them either. If you like cats, that helps. The voice cast for the English version (including Anne Hathaway, Cary Elwes, Kristen Bell, Andy Richter, Peter Boyle, Elliott Gould, Tim Curry, Rene Auberjonois, and Kristine "Joyce Summers" Southerland) were alternately too distracting ("Hey that's Andy Richter!" or "Who is that... Oh, it's Elliott Gould") and pretty on target. Basically, it's not a must-watch by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still good.

Summer Palace is a film that got the director banned from making films in China for five years. He also directed Purple Butterfly and Suzhou River, both of which are about the same quality as this one, although this one has many more nude scenes. Surprisingly, it wasn't the nudity that bothered the Chinese censors, it was the use of brief bits of Tiananmen Square footage, and probably the use of characters involved in the protest as heroes. And we can't have that. Back to the movie. Once the characters left the university, the movie strated to drag slightly and become less interesting. It could also have been the length of the film. I liked it, but could have stood some cutting near the end.

Come Drink with Me is King Hu's last film from Hong Kong, before he moved to Taiwan. It's about a brother who is kidnapped by bandits, so his sister (who is maybe disguised as a man for the first part? It's hard to tell) has to fight the bandits, with the help of a drunk. It's a seminal first wuxia film, clearly important to the genre, with some good fight scenes and impressive indoor sets. Of course, it strains credulity many times, but pretty much is notable for the use of a female protagonist (Cheng Pei-pei) who kicks ass (although her needing to be rescued by a drunk multiple times is less awesome). So good for that mostly feminist character.