The Blue Kite vs. Kite
I'm not one of those people who find it difficult to compare/contrast wildly different types of movies. I picked this match-up because they both had the word "Kite" in the title and I figured that would be the only thing they would share.
And boy was I right.
Kite is a trashy, uber-violent action movie with all of the disturbing sexual context that was wisely cut from Leon. It's so uninspired in it's plotting that it plays like those Bollywood films that steal whole plots and scenes from big Hollywood films. At one point our underage assassin is sent after a big movie star who looks exactly like Bruce Willis. I wish there was more imagination in the plotting.
However, the movie does have its share of sleazy fun. For one thing, the bullets here don't just shoot. They lodge inside a person and then explode. (Oh, yeah!) A lot of the action is wildly over the top and I bet a DVD copy sits on Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer's shelf. (They probably brag over who showed it to who first.) There are moments of visual flair and a sort of Paul Verhoeven "how much can we get away with" attitude to it all. But the moments between the set-pieces are very dull - bad for a film that only runs 60min - and it left me feeling a smidge dirty.
I'm not the right person to be watching The Blue Kite. If you were to meet my friends they would tell you I have a strange aversion to political films. I just don't care for politics in my movies. However, I really liked how this film focused on the people. It's basically a "family (and a village) trying to get through life" kind of drama, but the shifting political sands keep bringing setbacks and tragedy to their doorstep. The film is heavily political and I had trouble staying connected, but that's me... not the film. The film is visually flat and neo-realistic in style, but it has something to say. You can feel the filmmakers need to tell this story. And the final shot is really powerful.
This is an interesting one for me to decide, because I had a lot more fun with Kite, and it's certainly the film I'd be more likely to rewatch. But I'm also smart enough to step back from my personal tastes and realize that The Blue Kite is definitely the one that deserves to go forth.