brainfertilizer

Power Rangers was originally a karate (gongfu/kungfu) based series. The actors were clearly drawn from either gymnasts or martial arts disciplines. Over time, however, they've depended less and less on martial arts and phyiscal stunt choreography more and more on special effects. This series looks like the next step in this wrong direction. Maybe things will get better, as it was only the first, introductory episode. But I don't have much hope, as they seem to be using actors with little or no martial arts skill at all. In fact, at least 3 of the actors seem to be dancers. That provides flexibility and body control to do some martial arts-like moves, I guess, but they don't seem to give them the chance. And the morphing sequence is ridiculously long. It takes nearly 30 seconds per Ranger. What are the bad guys gonna do while 2.5 minutes pass? Just sit there and play gin rummy?

Maybe it's a little early to know for sure, but it seems like the worst Power Rangers group ever.

Great movie. It changed my fiancée's life, gave her a goal in life that we will fulfill together: to move to an impoverished village and teach, hopefully helping reinforce the importance of education.

Teacher Xia comes from Beijing to help teach kids in an impoverished village. She is befriended by a local (Teacher Zhang) who had endeavored to teach the children earlier, but had run up against the limits of her own lack of education. There is a good amount of "City Mouse - Country Mouse" culture shock as Teacher Xia gets accustomed to life in a literally dry county. This movie shows the nobility and strength of human spirit when people are faced with nearly nothing. It celebrates the sacrifice of those who give of themselves to help, and reminds us that we all get more when we willingly give up material comfort for the benefit of someone else.

If you are a Chinese language student, the speech is pretty easy to understand, not much problem with the accent.