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Product Detail |
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Audio Format: DD 2.0
Video Format: Letter Box
Languages: Mandarin
Subtitles: English
Region Code: 1
Year Made: 2007
Running Time: 115
Release Date: 10/12/2009
Director Kenneth Bi saw Taiwan's U-Theater performing Sound of the Ocean in Hong Kong in 2000, and was stricken with the profound power of the group's drumming. He began envisioning a film about the reclusive performance troupe. Countless visits to the theater and nearly five years of preparation after, shooting began for the project - a collaboration between filmmakers and actors in Hong Kong, Germany and Taiwan. The end result is a mixture of family drama and Zen Buddhism.
The story follows Sid (played by Jaycee Chan, ), a reckless young rock drummer raised in a Hong Kong family tied to a triad gang. Infuriating a mob boss who vows to revenge the humiliation inflicted upon him, Sid is sent to Taiwan by his father Kwan (played by Tony Leung Ka-fai ) to hide out.
Bored with his dull life in the countryside, the young man is drawn by the sound of drumming from the mountain and discovers a group drummers who live in seclusion, practicing Zen Buddhism.
After joining the group, Sid changes. He comes to realize that drumming is not merely about playing a musical instrument, but a way of meditation, a rigorous training for body and soul.
Meanwhile, Kwan is betrayed by other ring members and murdered in jail. The turn of fate forces Sid to choose between revenge for his father and his newly-found self.
Visually speaking, the film portrays its two main locations differently. The hand-held camera gives Hong Kong a fast-pacing, chaotic look. Tinted with dense, shadowy colors, it paints a world of triad-related violence and betrayal. The mountain range in Taiwan, on the other hand, is represented as a spiritual retreat where birds chirp in the lush woods.
As the first third of the film, reminiscent of Hong Kong gangster flicks, gives way to the spiritual practice of U-Theater, the narration takes a documentary-like turn to detail the daily routine of physical training, meditation and drumming. In so doing, the tension between the dramatic flow and the exposition on U-Theater is awkwardly felt at times.
Special Features :
- Cast/Crew Info
- Short Film : Love and War by Fredrik Emilson
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