Entertainment
‘Beauty and the Beast’ – a Children’s Day treat ( Movie Review)
Film: “Beauty and the Beast”; Cast: Lea Seydoux, Vincent Cassel, Andre Dussollier, Eduardo Noriega, Myriam Charleins; Director: Christophe Gans; Rating: ***
With elements of fantasy such as a castle in the forest, a curse, a prince charming and a damsel in distress, fairy tales have always been fascinating and “Beauty and the Beast”, is no different.
First written as “Belle et la Bete” by French novelist Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756, there have been many variants of the original in literature, television, stage and films.
Ironically, Director Christophe Gans’ “Beauty and the Beast” is the second major French film adaptation of the classic fairy tale after 68 years. The previous film with the same name was directed by Jean Cocteau in 1946.
Well this latest edition, with a bit of digression in the narration, offers nothing out of the ordinary in terms of plot, acting or presentation.
But nevertheless, it is still mesmerising. It is so magically beautiful with its phenomenal music, exquisite visual style and enchanting craftsmanship, that it would enthrall kids of every age group.
Narrated as a layered story within a story mode, the film begins with the opening of a book as Seydoux’s voice reads a bedtime story, “Belle et la Bete” to two adorable kids. She tells them the tale of a rich merchant who has three sons – Maxim, Tristan and Luis and three daughters Anne, Clotilde and Belle.
Belle the youngest, is known for her beauty and the film is her journey of how she meets the beast and falls in love with it.
On the performance front, most of the cast are perfunctory. Lea Seydoux as Belle is ravishingly endearing. Vincent Cassel as the Beast is adorable too. But unfortunately the chemistry between the two is lacking and the fault lies not with the actors but with the sketchy script that wrapped up the exposition with seemingly unintentional hurry.
Also, this classic romantic fairy tale feels more contrived than it ought to as the scriptwriters underplay the true depths of the romance and emotion amidst its majestic plot-graph.
Technically, with excellent production values and elaborate costumes, the visuals by cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne are vibrantly brought to life by his meticulous framing. Unfortunately, the computer generated images of the Beast done by motion-capture are of poor quality and jarring at times.
But as mentioned earlier, this film, its minor flaws notwithstanding, is sure to captivate kids and leave them engrossed in this fantasy tale.
A treat for kids, the release of the film couldn’t have been more well timed, with this being a “Children’s Day” weekend.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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