What Did You Watch? 2025-01-01 (Wednesday)

As I continue to go through my collection (and constantly rearranging the watch order at the last minute), I decided to watch movies from directors Zhang Yimou and Ang Lee.  Two directors with very good visual styles.
Hero (blu-ray) 2002 martial arts movie directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Let Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, and Donnie Yen. Li plays a warrior who has been invited to meet with the emperor after Li has defeated the emperor's would be assassins.  As the movie unfolds multiple versions of Li's fight with the assassins are told.  The movie is very good and continues to hold up well.  And the thing I like about Zhang Yimou's movies is they are a treat to look at.
House of Flying Daggers (blu-ray) 2004 martial arts movie directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Andy Lau and Zhang Ziyi.  Ziyi plays a blind woman who is part of a rebel group trying to take down a corrupt government.  Lau plays a government agent sent to infiltrate the rebel group, but of course the two develop a romantic interest in each other turning it into a tragic love story.  Not as good as "Hero" but still very good.
Sometimes when I needed to test a surround sound system/speakers and couldn't remember which disc had a surround sound test on it, I'll pop in House of Flying Daggers and play this scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk9tqFd5sGI
Curse of the Golden Flower (blu-ray) 2006 martial arts movie directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Chow Yun-fat as an evil emperor of China and Gon Li as his wife that's he's secretly poisoning.  The wife catches on and enlists one of her sons to overthrow the emperor.  The movie is ridiculously melodramatic with lots of backstabbing and plot twists, but very entertaining.
Sense and Sensibility (4K disc) 1995 movie directed by Ang Lee based on the famous Jane Austen novel.  This is a movie I had zero interest in ever watching, but it was included in a 4K box set I own, and I'm determined to watch all the movies in those box sets.  This one stars Emma Thomson as a woman in England in the 1800s who gets screwed over when her father dies and thanks to old English laws all the money and property goes to her brother.  Her brother promised their father on their father's deathbed he would take care of his mother and sisters, but her brother's wife has other ideas for the money.  Emma Thomson has a mother and three sisters to account for during this movie.  But seeing as how I had almost no interest in this movie, and I had stuff around the house to do...all I know is Hugh Grant shows up then disappeared then reappeared at the end and everyone was happy.  And apparently Alan Rickman's character in this movie was a nice guy.  Hugh Laurie was in it too, but I don't know what his deal was.  I did pay attention for the first or so, but I had stuff to do.
Life of Pi (3D blu-ray) 2012 movie directed by Ang Lee  The movie follows a young man who has to survive on a life boat and eventually shipwrecked on an island with his only companions some animals on the way to a zoo, including a tiger.  This is a great movie and beautiful to look at.  The 3D only makes it better.  It's worth watching alone just for the visuals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knJCf6PYNWA
Abbot Elementary (Hulu) "Light Bulb: - Season 1, episode 2.  Janine (a new teacher who is ridiculously enthusiastic) sees a broken light bulb and decides to fix it herself causing half the school to black out.
"Gifted Program" - Season 1, episode 6.  According to a website I Googled, this is one of the best episodes.  Janine convinces the principal to release funds for a gifted program.  Wackiness ensues.  It wasn't particularly funny, but I did like when the principal demanded the program be shut down because one of the gifted kids realized the principal doesn't actually do anything prompting the principal to declare they're getting too smart.
I've watched various clips of Abbot Elementary over the years and the clips are always very funny.  But taken as a whole, I don't want to sit through 22 minute episodes to get to one or two funny scenes. But I'll probably watch one or two more "best" episodes and see what happens.
What did you watch?