On my way back home from work one late afternoon last week, I passed by a newly-opened Used-Book and Multimedia shop to look at what’s new. Apart from having seen ‘Mission: Impossible III’ I asked a salewoman about the Da Vinci Code movie. Quickly she handed it to me. I thought it is unbelievable since the film, during the week, was presented at the Cannes film festival in France. But after previewing the clip for a couple of minutes I decided not to buy. Actually the video playback quality is not jerky, but it is not DVD-quality that I expected. Probably that is how the pirate DVD came to the market so quickly.
From Philipine to Malaysia to Indonesia to Thailand, countries in the same regional Southeast Asia, reaction to the movie is diverse. “As the movie “Da Vinci Code” starts its run across South East Asia, there have been protests and calls by Christian groups asking the governments to ban the movie. In Philippines, the capital City of Manila went ahead with the ban.”
Rod Kov, a Cambodian-American living in the United States of America, gave some thoughts the movie after watching it. One of the most outstanding remarks is that “don’t go watch it, read the book instead! At least that’s what you should do before watching the movie.” And the other comment he made that I seem to agree is the clarity between book and the movie. In the best-seller book by Dan Brown, you have all the actions and the plots. And they are so vivid.
I agree that the movie does not do justice to the Dan Brown book. However I think it’s true with most movies. Jurassic park on film pales to Michael Criton’s written version. The Harry Potter series are so full of details that the movies would find hard to capture. The trilogy of Lord of the Rings probably is the best attempt but one would find hard to understand it without reading the books. Just my opinion.
That said. Also ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ in book by Jules Verne and the 2004 released movie is an interesting example. Steve Coogan of Phileas Fogg really is an English gentleman. But it is funny to see Jackie Chan acted as Passepartout. When book is our traditional food, we also have fast food: movie.