It's been awhile...

it's been awhile since i shared my thoughts on a movie i've watched. Perhaps it's because there hasn't been one worth mentioning (to be fair, there have been quite a few i've yet to get my hands on, so...).

i had a friend over the house and we all sat down to watch this movie which i've only heard of every now and then over MTV when i happened to be channel surfing on ASTRO back in KL. i've seen the main actor in his previous movie but i must admit i didn't remember him very much for his acting.

So i was taking a 'risk' with this one. And truth be told, i like taking these 'risks' and go with my gut feeling cos' more often than not i end up pleasantly surprised at the discovery of a gem instead of what was perhaps previously conceived as a possible mess of a movie.

That's not to say however that i've not had my fair share of 'catastrophes' ;)

Anyway, this movie is a gem.
The first thing that i found very pleasantly surprising indeed was the fact that it had so many 'layers' to it. i mean for a movie titled 'Fighting' which essentially revolves around the underground street-fighting scene, you don't really expect much 'thought'.

But trust me, there's way more going on than meets the eye. And i'm not just talking about twists and turns (of which there are a couple)... but more so about the underlying themes of will, honour, love, friendship, trust, dignity and even good vs evil which permeate and intertwine the plot (and subplots) of the movie.
And tastefully at that.

It's far from your average fight-flick. In fact, it's far from your average movie. There's pretty good character development (something that seems to be a rarity across the board these days) and there's an attention to detail and style so much so that how the scenes are shot themselves speak clearly albeit subtly of the underlying messages the story is trying to put across.

Funny finding a creative gem in the midst of what was seemed like another average action-flick.

*vinod grins with satisfaction and delight at his 'find'*