*dances*
The story behind my five-weeks-delayed inaugural viewing of The Hunger Games is, in short, simply that China, which last November had agreed to let The Hunger Games play in Chinese cinemas as one of only 20 films allowed into China this year, rescinded their offer, or something like that, so that it's no longer being released in China. The government probably realized the series' plot revolves around the people rising up to topple an overly controlling government. Heh, heh. (Ugh.)
Anyway, this weekend I was on a business trip to Shenzhen, which is literally one metro ride away from Hong Kong. I thought, with all the free time I have on this trip, why not go into Hong Kong for an afternoon and an evening, and take advantage of the fact that Hong Kong is, in many ways, a scion of Western culture on the Asian continent.
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| The view from Avenue of Stars (venere.com) |
So, who wants to talk about the movie with me now?
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| It's hard for me to pick a favorite part of the movie, but this was definitely one of the most powerful scenes. (panempropaganda.com) |
I was SO impressed by Jennifer Lawrence, I think she was the best part of the movie. I'm so glad you liked it, I was worried it'd end up with a Twilight-esque feel too but I'm glad with how much it stayed true to the storyline (plus I thought whichever additions they added, I really really liked, for example, the end with Seneca).
ReplyDeleteit turned out to be so good! i think Cinna was my fav in it. he was played so well in the movie.
ReplyDeletei love that view btw, it is beautiful :)
glad that you enjoyed it too, steph :)
I totally agree. Loved the movie. Loved Jennifer Lawrence. She really speaks volumes as Katniss. You can tell that she understood her. The sound was also great - an effective use of silence in some scenes, too. A very noticeable silence. I thought Peeta turned out fine, but Gale was meh. Gale's not really in the first book anyway, but still. I did enjoy Effie and Cinna - those two are always fun, and Haymitch was portrayed pretty well, too. I do still enjoy the Twilight movies, but they aren't very well done. The Hunger Games, however, got the quality treatment.
ReplyDeleteI just saw it recently, as well, my grandmother's funeral was the day it released- we have only just gotten re-adjusted to life well enough to watch it.
ReplyDeleteDo they have subtitles running across the screen of foreign language films in Hong Kong, too? They always did in Japan when I saw a Western movie!
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that you got to see the movie! I enjoyed it a lot. I loved how they delved into the games itself. Almost like watching a behind the scenes! I can't really comment on Gale, because he really wasn't figured prominently in it. Josh Hutcherson was perfectly fine as Peeta. I thought the other tributes were fantastic. The cornucopia was brilliantly realized. All in all, it was very well done.
ReplyDeleteYay for finally seeing the movie! Glad you liked it! I liked it but still have mixed feelings. Not going to get into all that because I already wrote 2 really, really long blog posts detailing what I liked and didn't like and what my issues were. Haha. It was a pretty good adaptation though. I also totally agree - Jennifer Lawrence was amazing. She was probably the very best thing about it!
ReplyDeleteWow, you went to Hong Kong just to watch The Hunger Games! You, jetsetter, you. I'm going there next month (first time to go to HK). Anyway, I watched the movie with two friends who haven't read the books and one of them borrowed my copies of the trilogy because she's interested in them after seeing the film. :) I didn't love the movie as much as I was expecting but I still thought it was good (thought Jennifer Lawrence was excellent) and of course, I'm still planning to watch the sequels.
ReplyDeleteWOW! Being in HK just for a movie sounds very adventurous, haha. I watched the movie in Singapore and I love it very much. I also love the scene of which you posted a screenshot. The scene was very sentimental and aching (I heard people weeping behind me). BTW, the theme song by Taylor Swift is also very good.
ReplyDeleteYAY!!!!!!! So glad you got to watch it! I loved the movie too. It's one of the best book to movie adaptions in my opinion. They captured everything so well and the few problems I had with it were minor at best. Jennifer Lawrence was of course EXCELLENT (when is she not?) and I just loved Josh Hutcherson as Peeta. Of course that could just be because I love Josh Hutcherson... I'm not a Peeta fan really but he sold me on the character. Now I feel a lot more sympathy for him. :P Plus the stuff they added in with Seneca and President Snow was absolutely BRILLIANT. I can hardly wait for Catching Fire! I just hope they do it as much justice as they did this one. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree, Jennifer did an amazing job... she sealed the deal and is Katniss in my mind. I didn't care for the shaky camera work at the beginning but I know that was part of the effect.... it just made me feel sick. But other than that I absolutely adored it. Knowing the story already helped me enjoy it more... if I hadn't have read it, I would've had a lot of questions about the plot/story in general based on the film alone.
ReplyDeleteYay, glad you liked it! I only watched it last week but I'm heading back to see it again tomorrow. Like you, I was a little nervous afrer the Twilight debacle but I thought it was great, they did brilliantly with the time available and there are very, very few things I would have changed. I thought Lenny Kravitz and Wes Bentley were awesome!x
ReplyDeleteJust done reading the first book; the story is awesome, can't wait for the DVD copy. =P
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