Nobody does it better
The all-important, 10-minute opening of Casino Royale reveals to James Bond fans the new take on their beloved hero.
There is no signature theme music to resonate nostalgia. What leaps on the screen are black-and-white images of the blond-haired British secret agent wearing a Hawaii shirt and chasing his prey on foot.
The new Band has not just a license to kill — he has a license to fall in love. File photos |
This re-invented Bond has grabbed nearly $500 million all over the world, surpassing any previous 007 movie.
Although Daniel Craig who plays the role kept silent at the premiere ceremony in China on January 29, his Chinese fans have volumes to say about the new invention of their old icon.
God or human
Like the movie or not, most Chinese fans agree this is totally a new Bond, who is dragged into the real world from the cartoon-like world of his predecessors.
"This 007 is more real," said Zhang Yi, a 28-year-old fan. "You beat others and you get beaten, that's what happens to everybody."
The previous Bonds in Zhang's eyes were too perfect to be credible. "Bond never feared nor flinched," he said. "After a fierce fighting scene, his hair always remained perfectly neat and his clothes elegant. The new Bond seems a bit slow, he makes mistakes, but he is close to what we know about a normal person."
Unlike Pierce Brosnan, who is easily connected to Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton, all of whom are textbook-perfect men with superb power over villains and fatal attraction to beauties, Daniel Craig's 007 is more of a regular guy, with a license to kill and license to fall in love with the new Bond girl Vesper. The romance has surely won many female audiences.
Action and adventure movies, such as the 007 series, is a never-ending cup of tea for 25-year editor Yang Yang, but the new Bond has give her fresh ideas about the genre. Yang saw the first 007 film screened in China purely out of curiosity.
"The love story is woven in a refined way," she said. "I used to think Bond as an all-action guy, but I find a man willing to lose his own life for his true love, which is more three-dimensional."
But film critic Zhou Liming disagrees with Zhang and Yang. For him, people watch movies to see someone they can never be. "Bond falling in love? That's too disappointing!" he said.
In Zhou's opinion, although most 007 audiences are adult males, they become teenagers when watching the Bond in action.
"He is in this place today, but soon he is on another side of the globe, and his high-tech gadgets, the superb cars, things like these are just fascinating! But in Casino, these elements disappear and certainly many will get disappointed."
Girl or Bond
The scene of Craig walking out of the sea wearing tight-fitting blue swimming trunks not only successfully pays homage to Ursula Andress in the first Bond movie Dr. No, but impresses viewers with the new buffed Bond, especially the feminine audience.
Vesper (played by Eva Green), the British Treasury official accompanying Bond to the casino and fronting the millions of pounds of taxpayer's cash is hardly the Bond girl we know. The focus is on brains, not just beauty
"The focus of the Bond girl is no longer just her sex appeal," noted Chen Shihao, who works for a joint venture.
"But she is dead smart, untrusting and cool. I have never seen a Bond movie giving so much room for the girl's personality."
Zhou Liming says the producers shifted the sex appeal from the Bond girls to 007.
"When people see too many beauty shows of ladies, they like to see some men's beauty contest," he said. "Just like after three years' Super Girls show in China, we now have My Hero."
Will the shift from hot girls to handsome guys possibly lose Bond's female fans.
In a survey conducted by sina.com.cn, one of the largest portals in China, most voters applauded the Bond girls when asked about the most appealing element of 007 movies.
"For them, the fact that the Bond girl does not even appear in a swimming suit may be a little cruel," said Zhang Yi.
Gadgets or hands
In the same survey by sina, the British spy's dazzling array of high-tech gadgets, including his glamorous cars, are the second most attractive feature of James Bond movies.
In Casino, however, fans obsessed with the cartoonish weapons, each one more over-the-top than their predecessors, do not have many toys to admire. There are no gadgets, in fact the Q character, who supplied the high-tech goods, fails to appear.
Even the over-the-top motorcycle and speedboat chases are replaced by a foot race.
"The new Bond is like Jackie Chan and Bruce Willis in Die Hard, who cannot handle the deal until getting themselves in a total mess," said Bai Ying, a veteran movie reporter.
Bond fan Zhang Yi says the director gives what today's audience wants to see. "If the mobiles, watches, and cars are still acceptable, the invisible car in Die Another Day has already crossed the line a bit."
He believes the director is inspired by the success of recent action movies focusing on more plain but intensive fighting instead of stunning stunts, like Batman Begins.
(China Daily 02/02/2007 page18)
