dandan's blog

the tree of life

2011-07-14T21:55:00.003Z

think about it...

on the anniversary of his brother's death, jack o'brien (sean penn) begins to think about his childhood; specifically the time he spent with his overbearing father (brad pitt), down-trodden mother (jessica chastain) and his two brothers in a suburban neighbourhood in texas.

'the tree of life' is the fifth feature film that terrence malick has directed in the last forty years. prolific, he is not. still, it cannot be denied that malick does, indeed, have an artistic vision and, thanks to the money and sway of brad pitt, he has brought his vision to the big screen. eventually.

the film is quite beautiful to watch. emmanuel lubezki's cinematography, predominantly hand-held, and the quality of light, which makes its way into each scene through the almost ever-present shroud of trees, combine to achieve a really beautiful aesthetic. the production design inject into this sequences that douglas trumbull contributed, showing the origins of life and you certainly have something which is quite beautiful to watch, except for the extremely poor cgi dinosaur scene...

the performances are, on the whole, pretty strong. penn is fine for the five minutes he appears on screen and pitt puts in the kind of assured performance that he always seems to pull out of the bag when he's required to. still, the real stars of the film are jessica chastain, who is quite wonderful to watch, and hunter mccraken, who plays the young jack and is the film's central character. the boy done good.

now, much has been made of malick's choices when it comes to narrative structure and editing: projecting the adult jack's memories as a meandering stream of consciousness, interspersed with the origin of life departures and you certainly have something which is quite interesting in a cinematic sense. the stylisation is all well and good, although the final result makes the film feel as it it were a two hour and twenty minute advert for a bank or investment house. some might say it is masturbation over meditation, and i'd probably say that it certainly ends up being closer to the former, rather than the latter, as i'm sure malick intended. and, ultimately, i found the whole affair vacuous.

for me, the biggest problem with the film is trite, hackneyed americana conceit of the over-bearing father ("don't call me dad"), the pushover mother and the kid growing up confused, oedipal and unable to express emotion. regardless of the analogous nature of the film, the result is, for me, greatly flawed. so much so that it drew chuckles from me at numerous points of the film, which i found unintentionally amusing in their cack-handedness. "think about it"; being one such moment.

i also found the detached sound bites of prayer quite irksome and i wasn't a huge fan of alexandre desplat's score. i usually do quite like his work too.

in summary, i'd say that malick creates the packaging, at times stunning and interesting packaging, but still it is packaging that contains little more than a few very basic, very base ideas, which are given over with only the most surface level of exploration and perfunctory meditation.

not good.

the film is currently on general release.

i saw the devil

2011-06-29T19:07:00.002Z

who broke your balls?

soo-hyeon (lee byung-hun) works for the national intelligence service, but he's taking two weeks off work. two weeks to pursue the killer of his fiance, whose butchered remains were found dumped in a river. his fiance's father (jeon gook-hwan) is the chief of police and is able to supply him with the police records of the four main suspects in the case. soo-hyeon sets out to find out who is guilty, with kyung-chul (choi min-sik) quickly being outed as the murderer. and so soo-hyeon's revenge begins...

kim jee-woon is, perhaps, my favourite korean director, who has been responsible for some absolutely cracking films over the past decade and a bit. he is a director who seems to effortlessly slide from film to film and genre to genre, creating something rather special as he goes. unquestionably, all of kim's films are technically and aesthetically exemplary, whilst being filled with great performances from solid casts. 'i saw the devil' is, like his other work, a technical and aesthetic triumph.

one of the characteristics of kim's films, in my opinion, is the feeling of just how well crafted they are. lighting design, sets, props, costume and locations almost always look amazing when captured with a fine cinematographic sensibility. this is another film which is very, very beautiful to look at. the two leads are also, expectedly, strong. lee byung-hun is fantastically glacial but, perhaps, at his best when he shows the little cracks that are there. choi min-sik, on the other hand, is one big crack: thankfully, however, he is talented enough to communicate the character's real lunacy with a calmness that makes him all the more unsettling. the film is also populated with a fun and interesting selection of small roles, almost all of whom seem to make an impression, no matter how fleeting their appearances may be.

and, kim, as director and adapter of the screenplay, has to take credit for a lot of the good in the film. however, i guess that must mean that he has to take credit for the bad too...

at its most basic level, 'i saw the devil' is a meditation on revenge, its futility and how he who hunts the monster becomes monstrous. to be honest, i'm struggling to see anything beyond this most basic level. i also think that another korean director made a trilogy of films which covered the same ground with equal aesthetic brilliance, but with a lot more depth. actually, i think 'depth' is the wrong word; how about composure and... err... shit, i'm totally struggling here.

let me put it like this: there's a scene at the beginning of the film where, following on from the discovery of a carrier bag filled with body parts, the police descend on a stretch of river underneath a bridge. they're there, in the hours of darkness, with the press buzzing around in a ghoulish frenzy: it is like a circus. then, the victim's father turns up, her fiance too, they hear the police shouting about how they've found the head, it gets boxed, a state of delirium is reached, there's panic, people run, people fall, the head rolls out of the box and the music is loud and brash, it's telling you exactly what you should be experiencing at this moment in time. it is an extremely crass piece of cinema.

unfortunately, the film is littered with these moments. part of me wants to believe that kim is playing with his audience; milking the melodrama and throwing logic, logistics and likelihood out of the window. i don't think this is the case, though. what kim wants is to give you the awful experience of what these feelings of revenge, acts of extreme violence and the emotional turmoil associated with his subject matter. and, i'd be lying if i said that he didn't accomplish this with some frequency; there's some incredibly crafted scenes in the film and also moments which are purely awful and you are left in no doubt about how you should be responding. however, the narrative tools which kim uses to take you along this arc, like the hunt for the head, are executed in a way which jars you, they're at odds with their surrounds - they seem crass and, dare i say, stupid.

i'm not saying that 'i saw the devil' is rubbish, but there's a lot of rubbish in there. some scenes are done so badly, i really lent serious thought to whether or not he was attempting to parody brainless examples of such genre films. maybe i'm just saying that i thought it was poor and i expected something much better. i watched the 'theatrical' version on sunday and i managed an hour of the 'international' version this evening, before i got so bored with it that i had to stop. actually, i think i am saying that it is shit: perhaps kim has lost it and, the fact that his performers and stylisation are so amazing, that no one seems to have realised?

balls...

the dvd is £8.41 from play.com, unless you want the more expensive korean version, which is $34.99 from k2dvd.com

attack the block

2011-06-28T12:56:00.002Z

these things is out to get me, get me?

south london. after being mugged on her way home, sam (jodie whittaker) unexpectedly finds herself teaming up with the kids who robbed her, when aliens attack.

easiest intro ever.

this is a very enjoyable film indeed. i'd pretty much heard it was going to be made, then forgotten all about it, until i heard that it was getting some negative press and mixed reviews. personally, i thought it was a very enjoyable film...

the cast are all good: ms whittaker puts in a fine turn, as does john boyega, who plays the ring-leader of the kids. the rest of the yoofs also do a good job, as does the increasingly expanding nick frost and posh chops luke treadaway. as for the aliens, i like them too; nice big lolloping black furry things with big glowy teeth - what's not to like? as for the script, it is pretty damn funny and there's some very amusing dialogue indeed, it moves along at a cracking pace and entertains all the way. i did lots of laughing and thoroughly enjoyed it. well done, joe cornish.

good stuff.

the dvd is available for pre-order for £11.99 from play.com

happy flight

2011-06-28T12:43:00.002Z

come fly with me...

i'd forgotten that i watched this, but i did. it's the last film from writer / director shinobu yaguchi; the man who brought us 'waterboys' and 'swing girls'. as you may guess, there's a large ensemble cast who play a wide range of fun characters, triumphing in the face of adversity. so, he has a formula, but it works so very well...

here we have the coming together of a group at an airport and on board a long haul flight; things start to go a little awry and all the stops must be pulled out to make sure the flight is both happy and safe. like other works from yaguchi, the cast is brilliantly compiled, whilst the script is funny and feel-good.

good stuff...

the dvd is hk$37 from buyoyo.com

the green hornet

2011-06-28T11:46:00.002Z

unless anyone prefers 'green bee'?

britt reid (seth rogan) is a hard partying, layabout waster and the son of james reid (tom wilkinson), a respected newspaper magnate. the two do not get on. when james dies, as a result of an allergic reaction to a bee sting, britt is left in charge of the newspaper; this is a duty he happily hands over to mike axford (edward james olmos), who has been his father's right hand man for years. this leaves britt free to track down kato (jay chou), a former employee of his father, who used to make a great coffee.

britt discovers that kato is capable of a lot more than making coffee and it isn't long before the pair of them are hatching schemes, running around town and having fun. then, when the pair kick some ass (well, it's mainly kato, but hey...) and stop a serious assault taking place, britt decides that they should team up and fight crime!

well, i like jay chou, so i was quite interested to see this. i don't mind seth rogan, although the only films i think i know him from are the two 'kung fu panda' movies. and, what i didn't realise until i was watching the opening credits, was that this was directed by michel gondry, who i like a lot. as for it being 'the green hornet', i wasn't arsed: never had any exposure to the character, barring the reference in 'dragon : the bruce lee story'.

any how, i thought jay chou did well in this; he did kinda have all the best lines, was a pretty cool cat and had the crazy martial arts skills, which did help. rogan does well as a big brash ball of brashness and, i guess, cameron diaz did okay in her role, which was little more than an excuse to have a pretty face in the film. and, thank heavens that nicholas cage was ditched in favour of christoph waltz, to play the film's baddie: chudnofsky. he is good.

over all, i found this to be a fun watch. it is a silly film, but one that embraces this and just enjoys going about its business. there's some entertaining action, fun things and clutch of chuckles along the way. it isn't going to change your life, but it will keep you entertained for two hours of it.

a bit of fun.

the dvd is £9.99 from hmv.com

shaolin

2011-06-06T19:07:00.002Z

temper temple...

general hou (andy lau) is an powerful warlord, tearing his way through china, with the younger, cao (nicholas tse) riding at his side. after a display of arrogance and disrespect which involved cao pursuing one of hou's rival into the shaolin temple, where hou killed him, hou begins plotting against general song (shi xiao-hong). song meets with hou, intent on trying to marry off his daughter to hou's son, thus creating a bond between the two families and consolidating power. whilst song is unaware of hou's scheming, hou is equally unaware that cao is plotting against him, hungry for power himself.

as hou's world begins to collapse around him, he takes shelter in the shaolin temple, renouncing his past and embracing life as a monk. still, even if he is accepted by the other monks, there's trouble on the horizon for everyone...

so, yeah, i've just been saying how much i enjoy benny chan films when they're done well and now i watch two in a row which just aren't very good. and, yes, this isn't very good. this is a story which has been told many times, by many people; not this story in particular, but the story of karma catching up to a man and driving him into the arms of those who he has wronged, where he can repent and atone. you know this is going to happen here. you know it is going to happen and you wait for it to happen, you watch it happen and you don't care. you don't care because it's all so laboured and flat, that simply watching the film becomes an effort.

i like andy lau, but this and 'detective dee' were both films i did not enjoy. i won't blame the non-ageing one though, the blame probably lies at benny's door; maybe not for his directorial work, but maybe because in his role as producer he allowed his four (less than reputable) writers to churn out a crappy script. who knows? not me. and, to be honest, i seem to have pushed almost all of this film from my mind and find myself remembering very little.

what i do remember thinking is that lau was fine, nicholas tse was okay, but hardly in it and the same can be said of fan bing-bing: even with her loveliness, i can recall very little about her role as hou's wife. wu jing, again, i feel was underused in his role as the head trainer of monks. then there's jackie chan who was fine in his supporting role.

i suppose the most telling thing is that i can only remember one fight sequence and that was one featuring a supporting character and a bunch of kids. it certainly says a lot to me, that in a film about the shaolin temple, only one action sequence sticks in my mind enough for me to remember. any how, reading this is probably getting to be as dull as actually sitting through the movie: i shall still hold out for benny chan's next movie being a cracker. anyone else for 'invisible target 2: invisibler target'?

pretty bad.

the dvd is hk$105 from buyoyo.com

heroic duo

2011-06-06T10:49:00.002Z

the first of my own duo of benny chan films...

ken li (ekin cheng) is a senior police inspector with a no nonsense approach to his job, which does little to endear him to colleagues. when a fellow policeman is caught, having just broken in to a police safe and burned the contents, ken finds his patience being tested when the man claims no memory of committed the crime. hypnosis!!! yep, there's an evil hypnotist on the loose, so ken goes and visits professor jack lai (leon lai): a man incarcerated for a crime he is thought to have committed under the influence of hypnosis!!!

that's about as much as i can remember about the plot and probably all you need know. if you want to get really confused, try reading the synopsis of the film on imdb - it would appear that the person who wrote it has confused this and another film, as well as having a writing style that seems to be an attempt to induce a headache...

any how, this is a pretty high concept thriller from benny chan. now, i like benny chan and that's despite the fact that he's made a couple of films which i would class as stone cold stinkers. for every 'new police story', he's churned out an 'invisible target', for every 'city under siege', there's a 'connected': sure, there's an often slightly silly, popcorn quality to his movies but, when he gets it right, it really works. this one sits somewhere in the middle ground.

it's a very nicely produced film, it's got a pretty good pacing and, despite some silliness, it is a relatively engaging affair. ekin cheng, leon lai, along with supporting players like karena lam and the ever dependable francis ng all put in acceptable performances but, when it boils down to it, the narrative just isn't quite strong enough to elevate the sparkly sets and high concepts this above its reasonably valiant attempt to be a big blockbuster of a film. it aims high, but only manages average. still, a pretty entertaining watch on a rainy afternoon, if you have nothing better to do...

decidedly average.

the dvd is hk$39 from buyoyo.com

kung fu hip-hop

2011-06-02T10:32:00.002Z

school for chivalry...

synopsis stolen from buyoyo.com;

"street hawker and mechanic chu dong (jordan chan) may look like just another poor joe living day to day in the big city, but he's got some mean dancing and kung fu skills to back him up. when his blind sister (wang yue) gets into an accident, chu dong needs to come up with money fast to pay for her operation. at the urging of dj tina (fan bingbing) who saw him dance before, chu dong rounds up his mechanic buddies to form a dance group to compete in an upcoming competition that offers a hefty cash prize to the winner. starting from scratch, chu dong and co. find their tempo and blaze their way through the early rounds by combining kung-fu and breakdancing. but can chu dong beat cocky dancing sensation shaoxiong (poppin hyun joon) and his well-placed connections?"

after his role as chicken in the 'young and dangerous' films and as cheung in 'men suddenly in black', it would take a lot for me to turn against jordan chan. you've probably already worked this out by the fact that i have even chosen to watch this hong kong amalgamation of 'honey' and 'step up' and probably a half dozen other street dance films which i am completely unaware of. and, beyond a couple of relatively amusing moments (some intentional, some otherwise. in fact, mainly otherwise), there's very little i can say about this film which is positive, apart from the fact that the lovely fan bing-bing is just as lovely as she always is.

being a fan of dance (yeah, i did say that) and breakdance and kung fu, i reckon there was the potential to knock out some pretty impressive or, at the very least, fun choreographed sequences here. in reality, what you get is some pretty bland stuff, with only a couple of moments that could be described as interesting. i guess it's a shame, but i didn't really expect to be surprised by this and i wasn't.

err... a bit rubbish...

the dvd is hk59 from buyoyo.com

youth in revolt

2011-06-02T10:15:00.002Z

i'm not going anywhere until you sink your filthy dick in this tomato...

nick twisp (micheal cera) is a teenage boy who, like most teenage boys, is developing an obsession with losing his virginity. whilst on a camping trip he meets sheeni (portia doubleday): his dream girl. unfortunately for nick, he must leave her and return to his mundane home existence; this is, however, only until his alter ego manifests itself as francois dillinger, in order to attempt to cause the kind of trouble that could see him relocated to be nearer sheeni. although, situations like this do tend to spiral a little out of control...

so, a totally fun film, with two equally amusing manifestations of cera, which made me chuckle. there's lots and lots to enjoy here and people should watch this. it's fun. even if it's not exactly inspiring me to write anything about it...

good stuff, though...

the dvd is £4.99 from

love and other drugs

2011-05-29T18:07:00.003Z

you meet thousands of people and none of them really touch you...

jaime (jake gyllenhaal) is a cocksure drug salesman, with a penchant for having lots of sex. maggie (anne hathaway) is a kooky, drugged up suffer of parkinson's disease. when they met it was all quips and sex, until they fell in love...

so, yeah, i've made it sound shit. still, it's pretty hard to try and describe the narrative of the film without making it sound shit. it isn't shit, though. in fact, there's a lot to like about the film and i would say that i enjoyed watching it.

also, i haven't seen the trailer, but i would imagine it has been promoted as a slightly quirky, fun, rom-com: it is absolutely not this and i can well imagine some people getting quite upset with the path the film takes. still, i guess that made me enjoy it more.

err... i was very tired when i watched this and can't think of any good points to make.

okay.

the dvd is £9.99 from hmv.com

the princess of montpensier

2011-05-29T17:17:00.002Z

la princesse...

france, the sixteenth century, war between catholics and protestants rages. away from the war, marie de mezieres (melanie thierry) finds herself betrothed to her cousin, but it his brother, henri de guise (gaspard ulliel), who has stolen her heart. however, in the sixteenth century marie has little say or control over whom she is to be betrothed and she soon finds that one potentially arranged marriage is usurped by another as her father decides that having philippe de montpensier (gregoire leprince-ringuet) as his son-in-law would be much more beneficial to him, despite marie having never met him.

despite her protestations. marie finds herself we to philippe, who is almost instantaneously is called away to war; leaving his wife in the company and protection of count chabannes (lambert wilson). chabannes is an aging nobleman with no love of war, who takes marie under his wing, schooling her as he prepares her for life in court. still, the undisputed charms of marie, the princess of montpensier, are set to cause her trouble...

adapted by veteran french director bertrand tavernier (and long-time collaborator jean cosmos), from madame de la fayette's short story, this is a fun and sumptuous affair; beautifully presented and performed. the narrative isn't filled with many surprises, but weaves its way along its path, with sexual tension and intrigue aplenty.

i guess i should say that melanie thierry, who has to carry the burden of being a much treasured and sought after object of desire, carries said burden with no small amount of charm and beauty. and, she has the task of trying to weave her way through a selection of well groomed and coiffured gentlemen. what's a girl to do?

any how, style and substance make this a very enjoyable watch indeed. i think i might like to see it again when it hits the cinema, considering i watched it on a tiny screen aboard an aeroplane...

out on general release in july...

say anything

2011-05-19T17:25:00.002Z

there's no food in your food...

lloyd (john cusack) is a genuinely nice guy, but a solid underachiever with it. despite his lack of career aspirations and drive for academic achievement, there's one thing that lloyd is sure of; he wants to ask diane (ione skye) out on a date before she heads off to college, after graduating from high school as she has done; an exceptionally high achiever. lloyd isn't deterred by this and, worried that she is missing out on her life because she's too busy focussing on the future, diane agrees to a date. it isn't long before she finds herself falling for lloyd; surely it can't be this simple?

of course, it isn't and, as we all know, there's a peter gabriel track and john cusack holding a stereo above his head...

it had been a very, very long time since i watched 'say anything'; i'm pretty sure it was a new release at the time and i'm pretty sure i enjoyed it. although, i did never watch it again and i'd forgotten the whole thing. so, i decided to give it a watch, as it wasn't what i expected to find on the 'classics' menu of finnair's in-flight entertainment. any how, it was a thoroughly enjoyable watch and, apart from a couple of moments, it had dated remarkably well and was full of late eighties charm.

good stuff.

the dvd is £3.49 from play.com

killer constable

2011-05-19T12:37:00.003Z

the graceless executor...

leng tian-ying (chen kuan-tai), the 'killer constable' of the film's title, is charged with assembling a team to locate the two million taels of gold which have been stolen from the empress's treasury. it is an unenviable job, to be completed in a very short time-frame and one which failure will come couple with a death sentence. never the less, the constable with a reputation for getting things done, more often through foul means than fair, assembles his team and they head out to recoup the gold, unaware of what awaits them...

now, this is one of those films which starts and you soon start thinking that it might not be up to much. you now, there's something about the set-up and its execution which is rubbing you up the wrong way and then you slowly start to find enjoyment in it, before you start to realise that you're enjoying each scene of the film more than the last and, by the end, you're loving it? well, if you don't know that feeling, then you'll think i'm nuts, but this was a film that started off and i instantly though, this is going to be an ordeal to sit through. ninety minutes later i was hoping that this was one of the shaw titles which celestial reissued, as i'd like to pick up a copy of it.

so, this ended up being a really nicely done, twisting and turning narrative, filled with some enjoyable action sequences, which made for a very exciting watch.

cracking stuff...

the dvd is hk$85 from buyoyo.com

dragon tiger gate

2011-05-19T12:12:00.002Z

ever think about changing your name to leopard?

i can't be arsed writing a synopsis for this, so i'll steal the one from imdb - "three young martial arts masters emerge from the back streets of hong kong to help the powerless fight injustice" - well, it's a rubbish synopsis, but then again, it is a rubbish film, so who cares?

attempting to bring this 1970s manga, of the same name, to the big screen must have seemed like a good idea but, in reality (or should that be, with the benefit of hindsight?), it clearly wasn't. luckily 'flashpoint', which was jolly good fun and a highly enjoyable little movie was just around the corner, as this film had started to sully the good name that 'spl' - the previous effort from director wilson yip and star / choreographer donnie yen - had garnered.

nicholas tse, who i usually like, unless he's been cast as a genuine adult, with a sense of responsibility - something he just can't carry off - is not performing at his best. i blame the weight of his ridiculous fringe. shawn yue who, with a shaved head, is pretty great in 'invisible target', alongside the youthfully irresponsible and hell-bent on revenge nicholas tse, is also weighed down with bleached blonde locks of an even more outlandish crop of hair. still, both of these two must be thankful that they're not donnie yen, who has not only the worst hair of the trio, but has to also attempt to be a character who is half his age. he fails...

so, having to deal with three leads who have been stylised within an inch of their lives, stumbling through a script which mixes trite kung-fu philosophy with a pretty lame narrative about an accidentally stolen marker, which allows various gangland characters the ability to conduct their business, we end up with a pretty poor film.

what makes it worse, is that the action which the yip / yen partnership spewed fourth in 'spl' is watered down and made wishy-washy here, with over stylised and sillified feats of cgi enhanced crappery. bah...

pants.

the dvd is hk$60 from buyoyo.com

exit through the gift shop

2011-05-19T11:53:00.002Z

i used to encourage everyone i knew to make art; i don't do that so much anymore...

after starting to film anything and everything in an obsessive manner, thierry guetta finally found a focus when he met up with his cousin and started to film him at work. thierry's cousin is 'space invader', a french street artist of no small reputation. and, using this as a gateway, thierry began filming more and more street artists at work, documenting every detail of a thriving, underground subculture. still, despite finding focus and direction, thierry wanted a cherry on his cake: he wanted to meet and film banksy, who was starting to garner a reputation and seemed untraceable. it was only after meeting, befriending and filming banksy for quite a while, that the question of what was going to be done with all of theirry's footage came up: the answer was to change a lot...

so, banksy. on the whole, i really don't like a lot of his work; there's some nice design to a lot of it, but it's usually filled with trite political sentiment, which kinda makes my skin crawl a little. still, fair play to the chap, he comes across very well on this documentary (which i shalln't suggest is because he directed it) and i will say that i warmed to him, if not his art.

as a film which looks at the world of street art, the world of art and the relationship between these entities, the media and the general public, it's a great little movie and a lot of fun to watch.

good stuff.

the dvd is £4.29 from hmv.com

fantastic four

2011-05-19T11:31:00.002Z

sensual blind chick seeks three-ton, rock-hard he-man for deep spiritual relationship...

after travelling into space to observe an energy cloud, things go wrong for a group of scientists and the cloud breaches the shields of their ship, fundamentally changing their dna; reed richards (ioan gruffudd) becomes super stretchy, sue storm (jessica alba) gains the power of invisibility, johnny storm (chris evans) is able to set himself on fire and benn grimm (michael chiklis) turns into a big walking pile of bricks. oh, and doctor victor von doom (julian mcmahon) gains some kind of metal manipulation and electricity controlling powers. needless to say, dr doom goes awol and is hell-bent on world domination, whist the fantastic four set out to kick his ass...

i'll be honest and say that my attention lapsed more than once or twice during my watching of this. from what i did see, there is very, very little reason for me to suspect that i missed anything of consequence. this is a very, very poorly executed film, that i'd say people are probably better off not watching.

i used to enjoy the cartoon of the 'fantastic four': anyone know if that's still entertaining?

poop.

the dvd is £3.89 from play.com

collateral damage

2011-05-05T02:09:00.002Z

i'll show you collateral damage...

when his wife and child are murdered by claudio (cliff curtis), a colombian terrorist, and those pencil pushing government types aren't going to do squat, gordy brewer (arnold schwarzenegger) sets off to colombia to take revenge...

if i was being kind, i would suggest that the fact this film was originally scheduled to come out in early october 2001, but the events of september 11th meant that some big changes were deemed necessary by the producers, might have had some impact on its quality. i'm not too sure though: i think this was always going to be a shit film.

i guess there is almost a 'so bad, it's good' vibe going on; what with arnold really showing that he has really lost it and manages to show almost no talent for acting at all and just looks like a big lug. then there's the fact that the two main colombians are played by mauri and italian actors, which doesn't really sit too well. then there's the small roles for johns leguizamo and turturro; oh, how low one stoops from time to time. oh, and the action scenes aren't even exciting.

this film is bad, bad, bad, bad bad.

the dvd is £5.99 from hmv.com

the lost bladesman

2011-05-01T15:16:00.004Z

it is not enough to simply live, one must live well...

it is the latter days of the han dynasty. the warring states period. cao cao (jiang wen) is the head of emperor xian's (wang bo-chieh) court; essentially he is wielding power as the young emperor enjoys his protection. amongst other enemy generals in his capture, cao cao has guan yu (donnie yen); a man with no small reputation, who is as fierce a fighter as he is loyal to his sworn brother liu bei (alex fong).now, liu bei is an enemy of cao cao but, such is personality of guan yu, he agrees to fight for cao cao, in order to bring to an end, the bloody fighting that is going on around him, thanks to an attack from the warlord dong cheng (?).

and so begins cao cao's pursuit of guan yu, whom he would love to have as a loyal tool at his disposal. however, guan yu is a man of principle, who doesn't trust the political manoeuvrings of cao cao and just wants to get back to the side of liu bei, taking qi lan (betty sun), liu bei's latest wife, with him. cao cao and his generals are not going to make this an easy task...

so, having not read any promotion for this, but just having seen the posters as i arrived in hong kong a couple of weeks back, i thought that jiang wen and donnie yen in a bit of a historical epic would be a good watch, especially for the acting talents of the former and the martial arts talents of the latter. i was right. although, it wasn't until about halfway through the film that i suddenly realised 'oh, it's that general guan'. i can be quite slow sometimes...

so, yes, it's tale of guan yu crossing five passes, from luo guanzhong's novel 'romance of the three kingdoms' and, from what i read, some people seem to be giving poor donnie a hard time about his portrayal of general guan. well, apart from a little too much beard stroking and the fact that he doesn't really look like any depiction of guan yu that i'm familiar with, i thought he did a pretty good job. donnie has never been someone with a great range of acting ability and, even though he has always had physical presence and undeniable ability when it comes to screen fighting, he has never simply relied on this and he really does seem to have made an effort to better his acting over the years and this probably marks another step up the ladder for him. this is a good thing, especially as he's opposite jiang wen for a lot of the film, who most people would agree is probably one of the best talents working in china today. it should go without saying that jiang wen is brilliant as cao cao, which is a very good role for someone of his talents.

the rest of the cast should be complimented too, but i shall single out wang zuebing for bringing an extra little something to the small role of wang zhi. alex man and felix chong do well to take what is a rather large story and work it into a well paced couple of hours, where the drama and scale of the world the story is taking place in, never overshadows the drama of the characters and the flow from battles and confrontations, to some quite lengthy scenes of one to one dialogue is handled very well.

what also helps is that the film is almost always quite beautiful to look at, with a really nice look and feel to the cinematography, lighting, production and costume design. oh, and there's also some action... in fact, there's rather a lot of action... and, it's rather bloody good.

from a large scale battle, one on ones, donnie taking on all comers, a stunning battle with andy on, a fight with very low lighting, which still manages to come across well and more; there's some very watchable, very well executed going on and, even if he doesn't look like general guan, donnies levels of ass-kickery are pretty sodding brilliant.

i really enjoyed this.

out at the pictures in hong kong, i'm sure it'll only be a month or two before the dvd is available.

dream house

2011-04-29T16:33:00.004Z

mind your step...

it is late at night when sheung (josie ho) sneaks in to the apartment block, kills the night watchman, takes the cctv hard-drives and then heads up in the elevator. she heads to an apartment, where she breaks down the door and kills the maid by ramming a chisel through the side of her head, which inadvertently pops one of her eyeballs on to the floor, before she goes after the pregnant female occupant of the flat...

yep, the opening scene of 'dream home' is most certainly a bloody affair, which sets the tone for a large part of the film; i.e. the killing rampage of josie ho. between these sequences, are sandwiched the stories of the young sheung (vivian leung), growing up in a hong kong where developers are beginning to wield power, corruption is rife and yet the seed is planted in her mind, to own an apartment with a sea view. then we have the adult sheung, working two jobs, frantically saving, being the other woman to her childhood friend, siu to (eason chan), caring for her sick father (norman chu) and still dreaming of her dream home. is she really teetering on the edge of a descent into violence?

so, pang ho-cheung probably comes up with his most darkly comic offering to date: for some it will, quite simply, be too dark, too violent and too bloody. the cut-throat nature of the housing market and the behaviour of developers is explored and abstracted in (producer and star) josie ho's bit of the old ultraviolence, which might leave alex and his droogs staring on open mouthed.

still, it had me chuckling, both at the humour and levels of gore which hong kong hasn't really offered up, at this level, since 'the story of ricky', which ho sights as an influence on the production. the gore is of a pretty high standard, with only a couple of moments which don't look great in the execution and it's rare they fail to elicit a response.

all in all, i really enjoyed this but, for some viewers, this will definitely not be the case. the bittersweet tale of sheung's childhood, set against the depiction of her adult life and her obsessive struggle to buy an apartment in hong kong's ruthless and ludicrous housing market, interspersed with scenes of brutality, will not be to everyone's tastes, especially if you have gotten used to the softening of the shifting tones which was once so commonplace in hong kong movies.

good, but not for everyone.

the dvd is hk$109 from buyoyo.com

connected

2011-04-25T15:15:00.004Z

gonna get myself, gonna get myself, gonna get myself...

bob (louis koo) is on his way to the airport, to see off his young son who he consistently lets down, when he answers his phone. on the other end of the line is grace (barbie hsu); she's been kidnapped, but managed to piece together a broken phone, dial a random number and now she's speaking to bob. bob is just about to hang up when the kidnappers, led by fok (liu ye), burst in and he hears them threaten and then kill a friend of grace's brother, who seems to be their real target. looks like bob is in this for the long haul now...

well, i'd heard of 'cellular'; the american film, of which this is a remake, but i didn't know anything about it and i didn't actually know this was a remake until the end, as somehow i missed that in the opening credits. any how, i guess that's inconsequential, having watched the trailer for 'cellular' and deciding against watching it.

this, however, is benny chan on a good day. and, when benny chan is having a good day, you can forgive the spots of silliness that so often creep into his work and just go along for a very entertaining ride. 'connected' is a pretty unrelentingly paced, thriller, which happily manages to mix action and drama as the plot unfolds.

i like louis koo, especially when he is all nerded up and barbie hsu does a fine job as her character does her best to hold herself together in the predicament she finds herself in. liu le is a suitably evil baddie: putting on a good turn under the veil of hat, sunglasses and white hair. oh, and nick cheung, in a big cardigan, is also a welcome sight, as the (once disgraced) cop who starts to take an interest in the case.

all in all it's a fun watch, with laughs, tension, drama and some pretty exciting set pieces, including a rather fantastically executed car chase along one of the many concrete river beds / storm channels, which run through various spots in hong kong: i was actually surprised that i'd never seen such use of them being made before. well, not that i can remember...

a lot of fun.

the dvd is hk$60 from buyoyo.com

a chinese ghost story

2011-04-24T02:36:00.002Z

don't speak like me...

whilst training as a demon hunter, yin chik-ha (louis koo) was tested by his master and asked to kill siu sin (liu yi-fei). siu sin is a beautiful demon, who seduces and kills men to feed the evil tree demon (kara hui), but she and yin fall in love. however, yin and siu sin realise that human and demon do not make compatible lovers and yin realises he has failed in his quest. when siu sin offers her life to him, he uses a magical weapon to only take her memories of him away and he retreats from society, to fight other demons, trying to forget about her as he does so...

years later, villagers at the bottom of the black mountain are delighted at the arrival of ning choi sin (yu shaoqun), a government official, who is responding to their request for government help. the water supply of the village has dried up and they're too scared to venture up the black mountain to find a new supply, as it is where the demons live. of course, they don't tell ning this and he's happily dispatched up the mountain, with a chain gang and the village idiot for company. surprisingly, it isn't too long before they find water, but a strange turn in the weather soon drives the group to take shelter for the night in an abandoned temple. they will soon find out that they are not along...

right, i suppose that right off the bat i should say that i am a pretty big fan of the tsui hark produced, ching siu-tung directed, 1987 film of the same name. like many uk based fans of hong kong cinema, watching a late night screening of this on tv many years ago (along with a slightly ropey vhs release of 'the killer') was something which would change the cinematic path i would spend my life walking along. between them, the two films introduced wu xia, heroic bloodshed, triads, demons, swordplay, two gun action, the aforementioned hark and ching, john woo, chow yun-fat, leslie cheung and so much more. oh, and it also meant that i would always have a crush on joey wong...

needless to say, when i heard that this was being remade, i was very sceptical and had doubts over its quality. still, i like louis koo and wilson yip seems to be on a good run, so i thought i'd give it a go. then, yesterday afternoon, as i found myself mooching past the newport theatre in mong kok - you know, the corner where anthony wong, sam lee and michael wong, hang out in 'beast cops' - i though i'd pop in as it looked like rain. firstly, i was highly amused that people were getting a pack of 'sex and zen' branded tissues, if they were buying a ticket for that; secondly, i was amazed and delighted to find that there were no adverts or trailers before the film. it just started. it's a bit mad in this day and age and, thinking about it, i'm not even sure the cinema sold soft-drinks or popcorn; you just buy your ticket, go in, sit down and the film starts; to me, that's exactly what i want.

any how, after the pre-credit sequence consisted of the first paragraph of my introductory synopsis, i was a little worried as the sloppiness of the storytelling was verging on the painful. still, it did settle down very quickly and what followed was very entertaining indeed. i'll agree with wilson yip when he says that he is borrowing heavily from the 1987 movie, but not remaking it. just. the characters, location and some of the narrative is there, but there's enough new material and a different take on the love story, to make it something different. it is a film with a little bit of everything; drama, comedy, romance, a couple of jumps, some action, special effects and fantasy.

now, for those of you who are hoping that wilson yip will have put the cgi on hold and gone for a ore grounded approach to the action sequences, then i'm afraid you will be very disappointed. this film is cgi heavy but, to be honest, it didn't really offend me. there, i said it and i can't take it back. yep, there's a couple of moments where there's some down to earth swordplay and there isn't as much flying and wire-work during the action sequences as i remember in the original, but there's cgi exploding demon ladies, and fights which have been enhanced. but, they have been "enhanced" and it all fits within the atmosphere and the spectacle of the production and the quality of such effects, like the rest of the production design, is high, so i wasn't bothered.

cast wise, louis koo does well, even with a mildly questionable beard, as did wu ma in the original: surely fake beard technology must've advanced more in the last 24 years? yu shaoqun is perfectly acceptable and makes a good ning. then, whilst being no joey wong, liu yi-fei is an undeniably enchanting ghost...

for me, this was an enjoyable couple of hour in the cinema; i jumped and laughed, was drawn into the narrative and left with a smile on my face. it was nothing close to the experience which contributed to my love of hong kong cinema that occurred when i saw that screening twenty years ago (or whenever it was), but i reckon i'd have been stupid to expect as much. if you think the very idea of this film sullies some precious memories, then you should probably avoid it. if you think it looks like a bit of fun, then embrace it.

an enjoyable flick...

on general release in hong kong, out on dvd in the none too distant future...

he's on duty

2011-04-23T04:22:00.003Z

banga banga

banga (kim im-kwon), an illegal bhutanese, hasn't had much luck on the employment front, but has just started working at a chair factory. after initially being shunned by the illegal immigrants who also work there, because he's so inept, banga gradually becomes accepted by the group, including rose (bin shin-hyon), but starts to worry that they're soon going to find out his secret: he's actually a korean, but this was the only way he could get work...

having been a fan of 'she's on duty', i thought i'd give this a watch, thinking it maight be in some way related. well, it is a mildly similar concept, but this is nowhere near as good a film or as much fun. thankfully, it's not 'driving miss wealthy' on the 'is this actually rather racist?' front, drawing most of its humour from human oddity and ineptness, but i'm sure there's still a couple of mildly questionable moments. still, it kept me relatively entertained on a long flight, so every cloud...

okay, at best...

the will probably be a korean dvd some time in the future, probably nothing more.

tiger on the beat

2011-04-16T13:15:00.002Z

i'm the sergeant, take off your pants!

sergeant francis li (chow yun-fat) is a cop with a pretty half-assed approach to his job but, when he has to team up with an up and coming rookie, michael cho (conan lee), and try to crack a drug smuggling ring, it's time for him to perk up his ideas. a little, at least. the only lead they have in the case is the involvement of marydonna (nina li), who is reluctant to help as both she and her brother, poison snake ping (phillip ko), are involved in ripping off the gangsters who are running the drugs...

one of chow yun-fat's must popular roles, as far as hong kong audiences are concerned. there's less of his suave dramatics, which give way to goofball antics and, err, beating up nina li. still, glossing over the beating, if i can, chow does put in a highly entertaining performance and, even if he is playing against type, as far as heroic bloodshed loving western audiences are concerned, there are still some amazingly cool moments; in particular the rope triggered shotgun and the knife spin.

alongside chow is conan lee, who does well as the straight guy to compliment his partner's antics. action wise, he definitely has the drop when it comes to the martial arts, even if he is put in place by a ti lung cameo. it's not a film for everyone, but if you like hong kong humour as well as action and you're willing to forgive a couple of unsavoury moments then it's a good fun watch.

the dvd is hk$39 from buyoyo.com

yes, madam!

2011-04-08T11:39:00.002Z

no diclofenac...

three hapless crooks - strepsil (john shum), aspirin (mang hoi) and panadol (tsui hark) - accidentally find themselves in possession of a forged contract, which could land the corrupt property developer, henry tin (james tin), in a lot of trouble. his henchman, dick (dick wei), is hot on their trail, along with senior inspectors ng (michelle yeoh) and morris (cynthia rothrock) of the hong kong police and scotland yard, respectively, who want to bring down tin.

after making a strong debut with 'ninja in the dragon's den', it was three years before corey yuen returned to the director's chair in hong kong, having spent time away, directing 'no retreat, no surrender'. with 'yes madam!' he produced a film which is a classic example of mid-eighties hong kong cinema and set off on a path that would see him responsible for some of my favourite movies.

what you get here is a contemporary action-comedy-drama, which features a selection of hairstyles and clothing which has dated gloriously. besides the fashions, you have a narrative which nicely weaves together the good guys (sorry, girls), the good-bad guys and the straight up bad guys. And, in that trademark hong kong style, this means that some pretty violent action sequences are going to sit next to scenes of exposition, delivered by over the top villains, followed by a selection of goofball antics, before injecting some melodrama and, you just know, that the transition of tone isn't always going to be handled in a way that doesn't jar the audience.

so, what you have is michelle yeoh and cynthia rothrock doing battle with the likes of dick wei and chung faat (with his ludicrous fake 'tache), james tin roaring through a scene, sammo hung, richard ng and david chiang popping up with a comedy cameo, all weaving in and out of the scenes between john shum, mang hoi and tsui hark. it is the scenes featuring this triumvirate which account for most of the film and, being someone who has warmed to hong kong comedy, i'm more than happy watching their antics; with it being a treat, in particular (for me, at least), to see tsui hark in front of the camera.

still, if goofy humour and silliness isn't your thing, there's still plenty to enjoy. the opening scene is a cracker; more violent than i remember and michelle yeoh being shown off, with her martial arts skills, gunplay and stuntwork all being employed in frenetic style. cynthia gets a similar opportunity when eddie maher makes the mistake of taking her hostage at the airport. there's a smattering of other action scenes throughout the film, including a really fun sequence in tsui hark's apartment, and it all builds up to a tremendously watchable, bone-crunching final showdown, which is a real treat.

great stuff...

the dvd is hk$79 from buyoyo.com

a fishy story

2011-04-04T19:24:00.002Z

on tuesdays i take a cup of tea...

it is hong kong in the late sixties and a time of some social unrest, with anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism riots springing up. for kung (kenny bee), this isn't an issue; he's more focused on driving his unlicensed car, dreaming of owning an official taxi and finding himself at odds with a situation which has arisen with one of his wealthy regulars, mrs ku (josephine koo). however, when huang (maggie cheung), an aspirational stalet, moves into the apartment beneath his, kung's life might just get a little more complicated...

i miss maggie cheung. there seemed to be good decade or more where she was a regular fixture in my (cinematic) life; now, i only get to see her in old movies and it seems to be more infrequently that i watch one of those which i haven't already seen. any how, for fans of miss cheung, this film is a bit of a treat as it is lit and filmed rather beautifully, whilst she is dressed up in a wardrobe which must've made a significant dent in the budget, especially when coupled with the numerous hair styles she seems to sport. but, besides her looks, one can also enjoy her effortless transitions between the comedic, dramatic, melancholic and romantic elements of the film.

opposite maggie is kenny bee, who despite not having as fancy clothes to wear, does an equally good job. he has a good rapport with maggie and their scenes and the development of their characters are really the highlight of the film, almost making you forget the dreadful scenes of exposition which are thrown in every now and again to advance the narrative. sure, there's a couple of good scenes which don't involve conversations between maggie and kenny, or kenny and josephine koo (who is also great in this small supporting role), but there's some stinkers, which i'm happy to push from my mind.

enjoyable, with some really good scenes, but a couple of minor flaws to keep it from being a bona fide classic.

the dvd is hk$35 from buyoyo.com

the nomi song

2011-04-04T06:38:00.003Z

it is very delicious...

born as klaus sperber in germany, in 1944, he moved from essen to berlin in the '60s and to new york in 1972. after some dalliances in the arts and new wave scenes, klaus performed at the 'new wave vaudeville' in 1978: heavily made up, dressed in suit with a plastic cape, he sang an aria from the opera 'samson et dalila'. from this moment on he was klaus nomi.

andrew horn's excellent documentary collects together live footage, talking heads, home movies and tv appearances, piecing together the rise of klaus from the curious looking, pasty cooking german who would be spotted around the east village, to a darling of the new wave, a backing singer for bowie on 'saturday night live' and his time with rca in europe and, ultimately, his death in 1983.

a delightfully and wonderfully freakish character, it is hard not to watch the documentary and feel great affection for klaus. his strange combination of new wave pop sensibilities, baroque operatics, heavy make-up, signature haircut and exaggerated fashionings, not forgetting his pastry related talents, all added up to make him a rather fascinating character, which andrew horn duly celebrates in 'the nomi song'.

aces...

the dvd is £5.99 from hmv.com

forest of bliss

2011-03-29T14:10:00.003Z

i'll just borrow a quote from the film-maker, rather than attempt to provide an intro / synopsis.

"in late 1984 and early 1985 i was back in benares making forest of bliss, a film about which i had pondered at length since my first unsettling visit ten years earlier. i have shaped the film so that it occupies the time between two sunrises. it stands as an exclusively visual statement resorting neither to voiced commentary nor subtitles. it is about people being and also dying.

of the multitude at work, at play and at prayer, three individuals are seen in somewhat greater detail than others. they are: a healer of extraordinary geniality who attends pained and troubled people both in his modest home above manikarnika, the main cremation ground, and the durga temple late at night; the baleful and untouchable king of the cremation grounds, who vigorously exercises his hereditary rights to sell sacred fire and grass to mourners; and an unusually conscientious priest who performs sacred rites at a small shrine he maintains near the ganges.

seeing forest of bliss completed, i am quite certain that the animals, especially the dogs, have an importance i merely glimpsed as i was shooting. the dogs and, of course, the river." - robert gardner

it's kinda strange, i had just finished watching the section on varanasi (as benares is now known) in an episode of 'dan cruickshank's adventures in architecture' (a series i would recommend), when i was informed about this screening. hence, i had already received a good introduction to this strange city and, to be honest, i'm quite glad i had, as one must question the documentary value of 'forest of bliss'.

a couple of months of filming, presented as if it is a couple of days, no commentary, no translation of dialogue, just an observance of people, customs, animals, buildings, the river and the city. and, in truth, an unreliable observance at that. this, however, does not matter.

as an exercise in cinematography and editing, both of which robert gardner has the credit for, this film is simply stunning. gardner has such a beautiful cinematic turn of phrase that one doesn't care if he's not striving to create a geo-ethnic document of the city and its traditions. all one should care for is the skill that he employs in capturing what he chooses and how he does so with such poise.

very good.

the dvd is $49.95 from documentary educational resources

on the waterfront

2011-03-22T09:55:00.002Z

a girl needs a gun these days, hey, on account of all the rattlesnakes...

terry malloy (marlon brando) is a bum. having once been a prize fighter, he is now a longshoreman, barely educated, eking out an existence. now, however, he is racked with guilt, having unwittingly participated in luring a man to his death on the behest of johnny friendly (lee j cobb): the local mob boss, whose right-hand man, charley (rod steiger), is terry's older brother.terry becomes even more conflicted when he strikes up a friend ship with edie (eva marie saint), the sister of the murdered man, who is asking questions about his death. still, in this neighbourhood, having a conscience is one thing, but speaking out is another...

another one of my mum's favourites and one of the reasons she fell in love with marlon brando. brando is pretty damn great here and, despite the numerous times it has been lampooned, spoofed and referenced, the scene with rod steiger in the back of a cab, where he gives his "i coulda been a contender" speech is just magnificent. steiger also deserves a rich amount of credit for his contribution.

the film, as a whole, stands up surprisingly well and, writer, budd schulberg's passion and interest in the subject is clear. the world which the film takes place has a depth to it which is matched by the performances and the direction. i have other thoughts, but they would be so spoiler filled, that i shalln't share them.

great stuff.

the dvd is £3.39 from play.com

swing girls

2011-03-21T15:09:00.002Z

it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that suwingu...

after inadvertently poisoning the school band, tomoko (juri ueno), yoshie (shihori kanjiya), kaori (yuika motokariya), naomi (yukari toyoshima) and the rest of the girls who have been forced into maths summer school, join up with takuo (yuta hiraoka) - the only non-poisoned band member - and they start a big band to cover the duties of the school band. just as they start to make inroads disaster strikes and the school band return, taking the instruments and rehearsal space from the 'swing girls', but not quashing their new found appreciation of jazz. it's up to tomoko and takuo to see if they can make something of this rag-tag bunch...

from shinobu yaguchi, who brought us the wonderfully enjoyable film 'waterboys', comes almost the same film, but with girls and a swing band, instead of boys and a synchronised swimming team. it isn't quite as good as 'waterboys', but it is so much fun that you don't really care. the cast are excellent, there are lots of laughs and it is a film to fill you with joy.

great stuff...

the dvd is hk$54 from buyoyo.com

good hair

2011-03-21T14:04:00.002Z

i would say that hair is a woman's glory...

after his five year old daughter asked "daddy, how come I don't have good hair?", chris rock set out to look at exactly what is meant by the term "good hair". rock looks at the $9billion dollar industry, chatting with the manufacturers of hair products, hairdressers and a host of prominent figures about the word of relaxer, weaves and the struggle to achieve "good hair".

this is a fascinating and fun look at an industry that i guess a lot of people outside the black community are, largely, unaware of. the talking heads, in particular maya angelou, ice-t, salt-n-pepa, the reverend al sharpton, tracie thoms and andre harrell, do a grand job and provide a mixture of information and amusement. oh and the hairdressing competition which ends the film is a thing of much hilarity.

still, beyond the giggles, there's some seriously mental views which result in crazy amounts of pressure put on people (mainly women) to attain good hair. i don't think there's anything wrong with people spending thousands of dollars on weaves (providing they have the cash), but suggesting that someone shouldn't be taken seriously for allowing their hair to grow naturally is straight up insanity.

any hoo, good stuff...

the dvd is £3.99 from amazon.co.uk

faster

2011-03-21T13:47:00.002Z

our guy's a shooter not a stabber...

driver (dwayne "the rock" johnson) gets out of prison, gets in a car and sets out killing those who wronged him. in the meantime, the heroin addled cop (billy bob thornton) and his partner, cicero (carla gugino), are in pursuit. oh, and so is killer (oliver jackson-cohen), but he seems to be preoccupied with having an emo-like meltdown on the telephone to lily (maggie grace)...

george tillman jr's homage to seventies action films; kinda like a 'grindhouse', but without the unnecessary song and dance to tell you how clever and ironic it's being. this is a straight up, fun watch. the narrative is far from stunning, but it's a pretty neat production, the pacing is slick, there's some entertaining ass-kickery and the cast do a good job with what they have to work with.

the cast is, however, probably the icing on the cake; the rock does a good job as the big, silent, killer, thornton and gugino make a good pair, maggie grace is always likeable, plus tom berenger pops up for a minute, as jennifer carpenter.

a bit of fluff, but fun with it...

out on general release this week.

the housemaid

2011-03-15T21:09:00.002Z

you made her wash your underwear?

with hae-ra (woo seo) expecting twins, eun-yi (jeon do-yeon) is employed as a housemaid and nanny; assisting the housekeeper, mrs cho (yun yeo-jong), and taking care of nami (ahn seo-hyeon), hae-ra's first child. eun-yi settles in to the role quickly, enjoying the quirks of formality and bonding with nami in their opulent surroundings. however, when hoon (lee jung-jae) decides to wander from his heavily pregnat wife's bed, to eun-yi's, life in the house might not be as simple...

kim ki-young's 1960 film 'the housemaid' is hailed as a classic of korean cinema and has been a film i have been meaning to watch for years. i haven't gotten round to it yet, but it's available to stream (legally) online, so i shall. in the meantime, i managed to get round watching this; im sang-soo's remake. i have seen a couple of im's other films, 'a good lawyer's wife' and 'the president's last bang'; both of which i enjoyed, so i was looking forward to seeing what he did when treading on such hallowed cinematic turf.

the first thing i guess i should say is that, from what i have read, the term "remake" should only be applied very loosely, which seems to be backed up by the director's comments. i don't really want to discuss characterisation, as i think that it's nicer not to know or have ideas about what unfolds, beyond having a very basic idea of the set up.

what i will say is that i enjoyed this rather a lot, save for a moment in the climactic scene of the film which didn't really scan. i shall say no more, barring the fact that it was post-scripted with, what i must say is, one of my favourite closing scenes i've ever seen. so, i have forgiven it for now and will watch it again sometime in the future and see how that moment sits again.

as a piece of cinema, it is a bit of a treat. the pacing, narrative development and script all draw you nicely in to the household. speaking of which, i don't think i've ever seen a korean film spend so much time indoors; instead the focus is definitely on what happens indoors, in rooms with adjoining doors and behind closed doors. the house is amazing - a real house or a set? i'm not sure, but it plays its part very well.

jeon do-yeon does a great job, but she is quite an amazing performer, so this is no surprise. it was nice to see woo seo again, having loved her in 'crush'n'blush' and she looks like she's continuing to develop nicely and yun yeo-jong also put in an assured performance. however, the unexpected highlight of the film just has to be ahn seo-hyeon: just brilliant and an amazing screen presence.

good stuff, i think.

the dvd is hk$104 from buyoyo.com

gorgeous

2011-03-15T20:16:00.002Z

who's a pretty boy then?

bu (shu qi) is a sweet, young taiwanese girl, with romance and dreams in her heart. unfortunately for bu, living and working at her parent's tiny coastal bar isn't fulfilling any of her dreams, however that's about to change. after finding a message in a bottle; "i'm waiting for you, albert", with a hong kong address attached, bu sets off to track down the author.

and, track him down, she does. unfortunately for bu, albert (tony leung) is gay and not interested. still, bu decides to stick around and see what hong kong has to offer. it isn't long before she ends up meeting c.n. (jackie chan), a rich playboy, with a reputation as a womaniser. still, maybe he just hasn't me the right woman yet...

so, yes, jackie chan in romantic lead shocker, but let's come back to that...

first things first: this is a shu qi film and, quite frankly, she is adorable. she is a great screen presence and a joy to watch. it's been five years since i watched this and i sat, thoroughly enjoying this and wondering why it didn't have a much better reputation than it does. it is a very sweet film, there's a nice magical realism element to it, the cast is pretty amazing and charms you from start to end. any hoo, i shall say that this is a film that i really, really like.

beyond the charms of miss qi, jackie puts in a good turn in unusual territory. although, as he admits, there's a good deal of the real jackie in this role: more the workaholic perfectionist, as opposed to the drunken stage invader. tony leung is also good in his small supporting role, doing well with the a role that you may not expect to be handled well. emil chow puts in a good turn as jackie's business rival and, like most of the cast, he seems to be having an absolute blast - in fact, this sense of fun comes across from everyone and it's infectious.

oh, there's also a million cameos: sandra ng, lam suet, daniel wu, stephen fung, sam lee and stephen chow being highlights.

so, as well as being a fun, romantic comedy, there are a couple of fight scenes. two are gentle, slap-stick affairs, which are just fun, whilst jackie's two one on ones with pint-sized powerhouse bradley allen are hyper-kinetic, very tightly choreographed, and really rather impressive affairs.

so, a bit of romance, some laughs, a great cast and even some action: all boxes ticked.

great stuff!

the hong kong dvd is currently out of print, which is a shame as it has an extra 22 minutes that were removed for the west. boo...

kings of pastry

2011-03-07T19:53:00.002Z

icing on the cake...

in france, every four years, around fifteen pastry chefs are given the chance to be awarded with the title 'un des meilleurs ouvrier de france' or 'mof', which translates as; 'one of the best craftsmen in france'. mofs are awarded in many areas and specialities, but the focus here is on the mof for pasty and candy making. we are introduced to the mof by jacquy pfeiffer, who runs the french pastry school in chicago and is returning to his native france, having been selected to compete.

now, i really enjoyed this, not so much because of my love of patisserie, but because it was fascinating to see the dynamic involved in this event. it is not a competition; instead it is a celebration of artistry, a rewarding of those who can keep their cool on the day (well, three days) and produce something amazing. i think the attitude can be summed up by the shock and devastation which the judges feel, when one competitor's sugar sculpture cracks and collapses. that reaction, in itself, is a thing of beauty.

good stuff.

the region one dvd is £10.56 from amazon.co.uk

i'm still here

2011-03-07T19:35:00.002Z

i don't belong in this valley

during rehearsals for a charity event, joaquin phoenix announces to his brother-in-law, casey affleck, that he is retiring from acting, this is the last thing he'll do and he is going to pursue his dreams of becoming a hip-hop star.

so, yeah, they basically announced this was a hoax after a shit week at the box office, in an attempt to generate some kind of interest for the film. if people had been interested in whether, or not, this was real and not a hoax, they'd probably lost interest and guessed that it was from day one. still, affleck and phoenix do a pretty good job of making themselves look like douche bags for just under a couple of hours.

any how, despite this, the film is not rubbish; but it's almost like it wants you to think it is. considering that almost nothing in the film is real, apart from the clips of tv appearances, they've done a pretty good job. the thing is, watching joaquin behave like a dick, doesn't really make for great viewing, although there are several scenes of hilarity, which make watching it worth while once you've started, but i'd find it very hard to recommend that anyone watch this.

don't bother

the dvd is £6.99 from hmv.com

law of desire

2011-03-04T19:02:00.002Z

are you into that?

pablo quintero (eusebio poncela) is a director whose lover, juan (miguel molina), is leaving him and heading back to his home town from madrid. one night, after attending the stage show he has directed, which stars his transsexual sister, tina (carmen maura), and niece, ada (manuela velasco), antonio (antonio banderas) stops him for a chat. antonio, in essence, throws himself wildly at pablo, who embraces the chance to keep his mind off juan, by climbing on to him; unaware that this means a lot more to antonio than one might think...

a deliriously fun film to watch. after enticing you in, it grabs hold and doesn't let go until the end. i'm tempted to say that the plot is almost an unnecessary feature and that it is simply watching how almodovar crafts each scene, each character and each line of dialogue which makes this so wonderful. still, having a narrative which slowly reveals itself to you is a good thing as well.

err... not really much more to say, except that the three leads were excellent and it's a really good film.

tip-top...

the dvd is £4.93 from amazon.co.uk

one nite in mongkok

2011-03-03T19:12:00.002Z

brought together by sin...

tim (suen lik-man) and carl (fong ping) are friends and gangsters. when tiger (eddie pang), tim's son, is killed after a run in with franky (sam lee), one of carl's underlings, their relationship sours. so much so, that tim gives liu (lam suet) a call, hiring someone to kill carl. liu puts in a call to the village he grew up in, back in the mainland, and it isn't long before lai fu (daniel wu) steps off the boat and arrives in hong kong, heading for mong kok.

it is christmas eve and things are not going to go smoothly. officer milo (alex fong) and his team are looking for tiger's killer and seem to be making very little progress. however, when a tip about a hired gun comes their way, a change in tact sees their efforts directed towards finding him and they're not pulling their punches. and so, lai fu finds his job becoming more difficult and, somehow, he seems to have gained a side-kick, dan dan (cecelia cheung); a prostitute he saved from a beating, who happens to be from a village near to his...

i remember being really impressed with this when it came out and i'm happy to say that it has dated very well, losing little of what makes it such a good film. for me, derek yee is a bit of an enigma: i find some of his films, or parts of them, to veer between being great and being dreadful. with 'one nite in mongkok', of all his films which i've watched, this is the one which hits its marks with the greatest consistency and misses very rarely.

the film is a really engaging affair, pulling you in and keeping you hooked with its swift pacing, which is more frequently punctuated by scenes of violence, than laboured exposition. sure there's moments where liberties are taken, both with characters and the narrative, but there's a really nice sense of plausibility to everything, for which yee and his ensemble cast all have to be given credit for.

daniel wu puts in a strong performance that adds depth, making lai fu more rounded and not just a thoughtful country bumpkin. cecilia cheung is also very good, with a role which could've easily been another "happy hooker": she's perky, but quite regularly just playing "perky", only revealing her character's depth as she grows to trust lai fu. alongside these two, are strong performances from alex fong, lam suet and paul che, who plays milo's junkie informant.

any how, not much more to say apart from that i also really quite like peter kam's score; the main incidental theme is really rather good. kinda has a bit of a angelo badalamenti quality to it...

a really good film.

the dvd is hk$37 from buyoyo.com

police story 3

2011-03-03T18:52:00.002Z

supercop...

fresh from one adventure and into the next, this time ka kui (jackie chan) is enlisted by interpol, who want a "supercop" to help crack a drug smuggling ring, led by khun (kenneth tsang). ka kui heads to the mainland, hooks up with a captain yang (michelle yeoh) of the people's army and sets out to free panther (yuen wah); one of khun's men who is currently incarcerated and could be the key to cracking the operation...

so, jackie steps out of the director's chair and in steps stanley tong. and, in terms of creating an entertaining film, which doesn't bring the 'police story' name into disrepute and manages to do a good job of showing off both jackie and michelle; he does a pretty good job.

in fact, this is pretty much solid entertainment. there's some good jokes (okay, a few not so good ones too), plenty of action, stunts, lots of gun-play, explosions and some pretty nifty fight sequences.

good stuff.

the dvd is $13.11 from dvdpacific.com

love in a puff

2011-03-03T18:28:00.002Z

it's not the cough that carries you off...

with hong kong introducing anti-smoking laws, smokers are driven outside; congregating in alleyways to have a smoke. cherie (miriam yeung) and jimmy (shawn yu) are two such smokers, who meet, smoke and find themselves falling for each other...

a new film from pang ho-cheung is always well received in my house and this one is no exception. i'll state immediately that it is by no means his strongest work, but he is still one of my favourite film-makers who is currently working in hong kong. 'love in a puff' sits firmly in the rom-com-drama category and is, for hong kong, an extremely understated affair. although, i guess one should expect this from pang, who tones down the melodramatics and goof-ball antics one might expect to find in such a tale. instead he goes for something altogether more real, even if that means his use of lewd dialogue garners the film a cat III rating.

any how, it isn't a classic, but neither is it a dud. it plays out nicely, there's some laughs and some very nicely done scenes, with the cast, especially shawn and miriam (who make a good pair) doing well.

pretty good, but only pretty good.

the dvd is hk$92 from buyoyo.com

city hunter

2011-02-28T20:04:00.003Z

he's so handsome...

somehow ryu saeba (jackie chan), aka 'city hunter', ends up on board a luxury cruise liner, having been employed to find the daughter or a wealthy japanese businessman, kiyoko (gotoh kumiko). luckily she's on board, although ryu saeba was actually looking for the sister of his dead partner, kaori (joey wong), who he works with. there's also a couple of ultra--glamorous lady cops, saeko (chingmy yau) and her friend (carol wan), on board. this is no bad thing as a group of hijackers (including richard norton and gary daniels) are also on the ship...

so, a half-assed set up from wong jing, a lot of very cartoonish stylisation, lots of the four female leads in various outfits, some very goofy jokes and jackie chan. on one hand this is a recipe for disaster: there are some really bad jokes, soft and hard crop up, there's a little too much face-pulling from jackie, a touch of misogyny here, some homophobia there, a half thought through idea and things which just don't make sense. on the other hand, half of that actually works quite well, at times, and there are some funny moments.

plus, there's some pretty enjoyable action. from the skateboarding chase, through various encounters on the ship, including the 'street fighter 2' sequence, leading up to the final showdown between jackie and richard norton, there's some more impressive work than one would expect. there's a good mix of stunts, gymnastics, hand to hand and weapon heavy fights. jackie, norton and gary daniels are looking pretty good.

any how, it is an uneven film and by no means one of jackie's best outings. probably best watched when you've already seen all the classics and you're ready to start trawling through the rest of his output.

okay.

the dvd is hk$79 from buyoyo.com

detective dee and the mystery of the phantom flame

2011-02-28T13:46:00.003Z

di renjie

china, 690: wu zetian (carina lau) is about to be installed as the first female emperor and there are rumblings of discontent afoot. when the man who is supervising the construction of colossus sized buddha bursts into flames, soon followed by one of wu's soldiers, the empress-to-be decides that the cause of these deaths needs investigating. deciding that this matter needs resolving swiftly, she calls upon detective dee (andy lau), who is currently in prison for supporting those who opposed her reign after her husband's death. still, there's no reason to bear a grudge and detective dee, flanked by wu's right-hand woman, jing'er (li bing bing), and a military investigator, donglai (deng chao), sets out to solve this mystery...

well, it's been five years since tsui hark's return to the wu xi genre, which treated him so well (and vice versa) in the past. now, despite its flaws, i did quite enjoy large swathes of 'seven swords' and i could certainly see the potential, had the time and money been afforded to hark to complete it the way he wanted to. with 'detective dee and the mystery of the phantom flame' it seems as if no such constraints had been placed upon him. this is a lavish, opulent production, with the huge sets, some pretty high quality cgi, lots of locations and a pretty huge scale. my mind is currently thinking how i'd like to watch 'seven swords' again, which means that you can probably pre-empt my overall opinion of 'detective dee...'

this is a film which is okay. okay, at best. sure, i enjoyed the scale and execution of the film: it is, without a doubt, well made. i enjoyed andy lau, who was working his slightly smug persona very well, carina lau had some amazing eyebrows, li bing bing was a treasure (she always is) and deng chou really impressed me. oh, almost forgot; teddy robin kwan and richard ng were the highlights of the film as far as i was concerned.

however, it all seemed a little vacuous and i found that i was only mildly engaged by the narrative, which didn't ask too many questions of its viewer. the majority of the set-pieces were only just passable but, for something with this epic scale, shouldn't we be demanding something a little more than passable?

all in all, a little underwhelming...

the dvd is hk$99 from buyoyo.com

perfect blue

2011-02-27T11:06:00.002Z

i'm really sorry...

mima wants a change of career and has decided to leave 'cham'; the j-pop group she has been with for the past couple of years, and she has a part lined up in a gritty, crime series. mima wants to leave behind her pop idol image and establish a new identity as an actress. however, mima soon finds that it is a harder transition than she imagined; not only does she find herself struggling to accept the change but, more worryingly, there's hate mail, a fake website and more dramatic actions taken by fans who feel she is betraying the image she created in cham.

i have been spending some time working my way through satoshi kon's output over the last few months and this, his directorial debut, has completed my viewing of his work. with each film, i have enjoyed his craft more and more: he has an amazing artistry to his work and his continued exploration of the blurred lines between art, fantasy and reality make for engaging features.

'perfect blue' is a really fantastic film. as a psychological thriller, it is intense and you are drawn into the world which kon creates. as a piece of animation, it is an amazingly beautiful creation, which is just visually stunning. great sound design too.

about a third of the way through, i remembered that darren aronofsky had purchased the rights to this; apparently so he could use some of the visual cues within his own work. i just read a response from a q&a where he was asked if 'black swan' was influenced by 'perfect blue'? his response was pretty much a denial that there was any influence, beyond a couple of similarities. i call bullshit: i'd say 'black swan' is a really lame adaptation of 'perfect blue', which has borrowed heavily, both in visual and thematic terms. they are both films about a young female character who takes on a new, more involved and darker role, which results in her starting to find the boundaries between her art and life blurring, becoming confused and effecting her mental health as she wrestles with the the challenge.

if only aronofsky wasn't such a hack, he could probably have made a brilliant film, instead of the piece of shit he ended up with. any how, at least we can still watch 'perfect blue', which is just brilliant.

the dvd is au$24.97 from ezydvd.com.au

infernal affairs 2

2011-02-24T19:06:00.002Z

only the good die young...

with lau (edison chen) joining the police and starting his rise through the ranks and chan (shawn yu) being turfed out of the police, to begin his life as a mole in the triads, the world they are entering in to is given some flesh. on one hand we have sp wong (anthony wong) and sp luk (hu jun) fighting the triads, with dirty tricks. on the other hand we have ngai (francis ng), sam's (eric tsang) boss and chan's half brother, attempting to maintain power after his father is murdered...

so, yep, a sequel that's a prequel. now, i have quite fond memories of this film, having seen it a while after the first one and being quite happy that it focussed on wong, ng and tsang. that's no bad thing and it keeps the spotlight off shawn yu, who does a reasonable job and glorified coat hanger, edison chen, who is hardly present. unfortunately, watching this with the first film fresh in my mind has probably ruined it for me.

basically, the attempts to build up the characters, who we were introduced to in the first film, backfires in a spectacular fashion and they manufacture a set of people who bear very little relation to those who feature in the first film. sam is set up as someone who would never let chan get close to him, then there's the chan / wong dynamic, which is almost stretched to breaking point and is left looking like it would never evolve into what we know it does. the only character who maintains any kind of consistency is lau and this is only due to the fact that he's in it so little that he doesn't get the chance to.

any hoo, disregarding what a stupid attempt at a prequel this is and looking at it as a standalone piece, what you have is a pretty solid, entertaining film. it's less polished than the first film, in terms of narrative, and it seems to be trying to make itself seem more epic than it is, with some unnecessary cinematographic masturbation, but it is still a well played out, very watchable affair.

so, a dreadful prequel, but good as an entity in its own right.

the dvd is hk$72 from buyoyo.com

invincible

2011-02-24T18:29:00.002Z

he is my toe!

fire (danny lee) is betrayed by two triad bosses, ??? (leung kar-yan) and kwong (jimmy lung fong), after carrying out a hit for them. fire ends up in prison, but asks kit (dave wong) to get his money and take his sister, mandy (sharla cheung), to europe. unfortunately, kwong has other plans for mandy, but kit manages to rescue her, killing him in the process. the pair flee to paris, but find life very hard, with triads on their tail and no money; kit decides to join the foreign legion, so he can get citizenship, but this means things are going to get harder before they get better...

this is an odd, blacky ko directed effort, in which he takes a major supporting role, as kit's only chinese buddy in the foreign legion. it's a pretty straight affair (apart from the man-on-man sexual assault), which is riddled with bouts of over-acting and some unusual character development, as we see the weedy kit transformed into an invincible killing machine.

to be fair, i'm glad it degenerated into some legionnaire lunacy, as i think it would've struggled to maintain interest, if it had continued along the 'on the run in paris' route. so, as long as you're in the mood for some men, in the desert, running around, fighting, shooting and blowing stuff up, with military drill sergeants who have insane levels of discipline, then this might just be for you.

kinda daft, but kinda fun...

the dvd is hk$35 from buyoyo.com

golden chicken

2011-02-19T10:29:00.003Z

remember... work hard and you'll eat tart...

when kum (sandra ng) gets trapped in an atm booth with james (eric tsang), a desperate man who is wielding a knife, she decides to diffuse the situation by telling him the story of how she became the "golden chicken". in hong kong, "chicken" is a slang term for 'prostitute'; kum tells james the story of her life as a chicken, going through life in hong kong from the late 1970s up to the late '90s...

this was the film that made me really love sandra ng as an actress. she's often a figure of fun or derision in the minds of a lot of hong kong film fans, many people despising her work. still, i'll happily declare that sandra is probably my favourite hong kong actress and this is a real showcase for her. sure, samson chiu could be criticised for giving kum's life too much of a happy-go-lucky quality and glossing over the negatives of both her occupation and events which are only very briefly touched upon in the film, but one would really have to make an effort to dislike the film.

oh, and as well as ng and tsang, there's small roles for andy lau, big tony leung, eason chan, chapman to, hu jun, alfred cheung and crystal tin, which is a pretty high cameo count.

any how, i re-watched this after not having seen it for a few years and enjoyed it as much as i did the first time i saw it. in fact, i was amazed at just how quickly the 106 minutes flew by. so, a sweet little film, with a great central performance, from one of hong kong's best.

great stuff.

the dvd is hk$39 from buyoyo.com

getting any

2011-02-18T19:47:00.002Z

the cigarette lighter doesn't work...

asao (dankan) is middle-aged, depressed and want sex. after fantasizing about "car sex" he buys a car, this doesn't work out too well and so he continues on his path, looking to be an actor, yakuza, bank robber, invisible and fly man, all in an attempt to get some...

this is a funny film. a very silly, scatological, disjointed ramble through japanese pop culture. basically, kitano having a bit of a giggle and trying to make people laugh with the brand of humour which originally saw him rise to stardom. nothing like any of his other films, but enjoyable for what it is. just don't expect 'sonatine'...

fun.

the dvd is £13.99 from play.com

catfish

2011-02-18T14:24:00.003Z

you have really beautiful teeth...

nev schulman is a photographer who lives and works in new york. one day he receives a painting of a photograph he took, from an eight year old who lives in michingan; abby pierce. the two strike up an unlikely friendship, via facebook and find themselves exchanging messages frequently, with nev becoming friends with abby's mother, angela, and older sister, megan. nev's brother, ariel, and henry joost, film-makers who share nev's office, start to document the blossoming of nev's relationship with the pierce family.

now, apparently you're not meant to tell anyone what it is, and so i shall stop, although you've probably already guessed. and, i think that's a pretty bollocks statement, as not knowing isn't really important and, if anything, makes you believe that maybe more is going to happen than does.

any how, i guess i should throw in my two penneth and say that i'd like to think most of it is real, and i'll probably forgive the film-makers for maybe adding a bit of embroidery. regardless, it's still a fun little documentary / movie to watch and i enjoyed it a lot.

good stuff.

the dvd is £9.99 from play.com

127 hours

2011-02-18T11:31:00.002Z

i do still have the tiniest bit of water left...

aron ralston (james franco) went to explore some utah's canyons, biking, swimming and climbing. unfortunately for him, he fell into a crevice, where a large rock pinned his right hand to the wall of said canyon. this is the story of the time he spent trapped, thinking about his life...

well, i guess there wasn't one moment during this film, where i wouldn't rather be watching the videos which aron shot of himself during his time with the rock. however, these tapes are under lock and key and i doubt they'll ever see the light of day. so, this will have to do. and, i guess it does 'do', but only just. i didn't warm to the ralston that was presented here; although i do admire the staying power and conviction of the real ralston. i don't really get that adrenaline junkie, extreme sports, "yeah, come on!" mentality.

any how, as a film, it was okay, i guess. which is, from me, high praise for a danny boyle film. it was kinda watchable, without causing offence, although maybe i was more interested in the event than his portrayal of it and i'm glossing over my dislike of the soundtrack and editing. any how, it filled some time and was relatively distracting, but i have no desire to ever watch it again.

okay. ish.

black swan

2011-02-15T22:15:00.002Z

that was me, seducing you...

nina (natalie portman) is awarded the principle role in 'swan lake', but finds her grasp on reality slipping, as she struggles with the two sides of the role: the fragile, innocent white swan and its sister the evil black swan...

when i saw the trailer for this, many moons ago, i was thinking that it might have some potential. that was until two words flashed on to the screen: darren aronofsky. having suffered through the gigantic piece of shit, that was his masturbatory after-school-special - 'requiem for a dream' - and through his uber-pretentious take on the sporting underdog movie - 'the wrestler' - i decided that i would give this one a wide berth. unfortunately, so it would appear, i am a glutton for punishment and decided to give it a watch, to see if it does indeed deserve any of the praise which has been shovelled in its general direction.

now, if you think i'm deliberately misleading you into thinking that actually it was a masterpiece and aronofsky has finally made a film worth watching, then you're wrong. i thought this was awful. 'black swan' is a trite, humourless exercise. a film where i found it very difficult to find a shred of truth or depth in any of its characters, most of whom came across as awful caricatures. i can't really say anything nice about it, so i shall stop saying anything.

very poor. very poor, indeed...

currently on general release.

a better tomorrow II

2011-02-13T20:09:00.003Z

why is it so hard to be a good person?

with mark dead and ho (ti lung) in prison, kit (leslie cheung) starts working undercover: schmoozing with lung's (dean shek) daughter, peggy (regina kent). the police ask ho to get involved and, after discovering kit's involvement, he reluctantly agrees, but soon discovers that lung - the man who gave ho his start in the underworld - has gone straight, but is under threat from those who want to take his business from him. lung is forced to flee to america where he takes refuge with ken (chow yun-fat), mark's twin, before returning to hong kong to sort things out...

so, you've created a classic, but killed off the most charismatic character: no problemo, he had a twin, so all is well. and, after helping to launch leslie cheung's film career and revitalising the careers of ti lung, chow yun-fat and john woo's, it's rumoured that this sequel was thought, by tsui hark, to be an ideal opportunity to help out his friend dean shek, who was apparently in deep trouble at the time. then there's the alleged arguments between john woo and tsui hark about the running time and the focus of the film, which led to it being edited in house by cinema city's editing team, with no involvement from either of them. this doesn't bode too well for the quality of the film.

still, despite john woo say it's his worst work and disowning all but the finale; i'd say that's bullshit. john woo must have started believing his own hype after the success of the first film, drawn a mental blank and forgotten some of the stinkers that bear his name. then, there's talk about his demanding that the film be released in its original three hour form; i struggle to foresee how that would've been anything but a disaster.

so, is it a disaster? nope, not in my house, at least. glossing over the mild clunkiness of the initial set up and the existence of mark's twin, oh, and not forgetting the mild lunacy of the 'rice' scene, this works out pretty well. and, for this you have to thank cinema city for editing it down to 105 minutes, dean shek for putting in a good turn (although i will admit to having enjoyed a lot of his work which people seem to hate), ti lung, chow yun-fat and leslie cheung picking up where they left off in the first film and the decision to employ ching sui-tung as action choreographer.

although i'd forgotten just how much of this takes place in new york, i must say that i do quite like dean shek's narrative arc and, to be fair, he never outdoes chow yun-fat, when it comes to being a touch melodramatic. and, when it comes down to it, the film has one of the greatest finales ever committed to film, with our protagonists descending on their rivals in a three on to dozens gun battle, which is an absolute treat. plus, lung ming-yan's performance as the silent gun for hire, is one of my favourite supporting roles ever.

so, by no means the classic that followed, but well worth watching and very entertaining.

the dvd is available as part of the 'a better tomorrow trilogy dvd collection' for hk$227 from buyoyo.com

true grit

2011-02-13T12:52:00.002Z

you give out very little sugar with your pronouncements...

mattie ross (hailee steinfeld) is a determined young lady. aged fourteen she travels to fort smith to collect the body of her murdered father, killed by a drunken drifter, tom chaney (josh brolin), whom he had been trying to help. once this has been taken care of she concludes that the only chance of getting justice for her father is to employ a us marshall to pursue and capture chaney, so he may hang for his crime. mattie chooses rooster cogburn (jeff bridges): a hardened, gun happy, one-eyed, mildly alcoholic loner, as the man she hears has the true grit she feels it will take to complete the task. joining the pair is leboeuf (matt damon); a texas ranger who has been unsuccessfully pursuing chaney for crimes committed prior to the murder of mattie's father...

just solid. a stunning central performance from hailee steinfeld, who is quite simply fantastic at delivering the amazing dialogue which she is given and portraying the knowing, stoic mattie. alongside her, jeff bridges also shines very brightly, mumbling and staggering his way through the role, with the foil of a moustachioed matt damon putting in a good turn as well. as do brolin and barry pepper in their limited screen time.

basically, this is just a road movie, with steinfeld, bridges and damon, heading out into unknown country and seeing what it throws at them. i'm unfamiliar with the source material, although i did watch the john wayne version many years ago. still, i hear that this is a much more faithful adaptation and it's certainly a better film. the coens, as you'd expect, don't fuck around when it comes to making films and they craft something that's really rather good. like i said, it's just solid. a solid narrative and script, great performances from a well rounded selection of great characters, a beautifully designed production, captured on film to the high standard one expects from mr deakins.

my only issue with the film is that coen mainstay carter burwell, has created a score where the main theme sounds like it's going to break into 'waltzing matilda' at any point and this probably makes it sound more intrusive than it actually is.

any how, very good.

the film is currently on general release.

a better tomorrow

2011-02-12T12:59:00.002Z

it's easy to become a gangster, but it's hard to get out...

ho (ti lung) and mark (chow yun-fat) are prominent members of a triad organisation, who are currently involved in a huge counterfeiting operation. when a deal in taiwan goes wrong, ho finds himself incarcerated and questioning his lifestyle, whilst mark is left isolated. meanwhile, ho's ambitious understudy, shing (waise lee), takes full advantage of his absence, whilst kit (leslie cheung), ho's younger brother, finds that ho's former lifestyle is impacting on his prospects in the police force. with ho being released from prison, his return to hong kong is going to cause some friction...

having spent around fifteen years in the hong kong film industry, writing and directing a slew of old school martial arts flicks, cantonese opera adaptations and very silly / horror comedies. the film began as an idea of tsui hark, who wanted to rework a film from the sixties - 'story of a discharged prisoner' - but his schedule proved too prohibitive and he passed the reigns on to woo. basically, this decision made woo's career, which was stagnating. turning his back on the comedies he'd been churning out and developing a narrative akin to martial arts films where he's cut his directorial teeth, but populating it with gangsters and guns, rather than kung fu. the film came out with little fanfare, but was incredibly popular and soon broke many box office records, which it would hold for a number of years and, more importantly, was a major film in the development of of the modern hong kong action film, ushering in the concepts of heroic bloodshed and bullet ballet.

not only was 'a better tomorrow' a new page in the story of john woo and hong kong cinema, but also for its stars. ti lung, a hero of many martial arts films had found his career flagging since leaving shaw brothers and there was talk of him being a little washed up. still, his portrayal of ho; the older brother, attempting to escape his triad past and become a better himself, was so strong that it reinvented him as a performer and ensured that he would deservedly continue in hong kong film. similarly, chow yun-fat, having cut his chops as a soap opera star and romantic lead had fallen into a career rut, from which escape seemed a long shot. however, a couple of solid dramatic turns attracted woo to him; thinking that he would be ideal for the part of mark, as he didn't look like an action star. for leslie cheung, as well, this film provided the breakthrough role for him; some solid drama, rather than the fluffier projects that the young cantopop star had been cast in previously.

'a better tomorrow' is a a classic. not only because of its wider importance, as stated above, but because it's just a bloody good film. widely rejecting the goofier side of hong kong comedy, which had been a cinematic staple, he film takes itself very seriously (on the whole) and concentrates on the relationship between four men and what drives and motivates them. the film is ti lung's and his performance is a real treat, conveying the sense that he is both a man with a background that means he is someone to be taken very seriously, but with a contemplative, world-weary quality which is making him re-examine who he is. meanwhile, chow yun-fat is a man for whom loyalty, friendship and the moral code of the gangster is all: he also gets to wear a duster, shades, chews on a matchstick and fill his enemies with bullets from the guns he holds in each hand. a look which has defined him ever since.

and, it is the scene in taiwan, where chow's mark waltzes in to a restaurant, hiding guns in flower pots, before bursting in on a bunch of taiwanese triads and, in slow motion glory, begins to redefine the style of gun-play filled action sequences. great stuff. and, as well as a director and a cast who are all hitting stride together, i haven't even mentioned the film's iconic theme tune - which did give me a little rush when it makes its first appearance - and leslie cheung's theme song, which became an instant mega hit.

an important film and a classic.

the dvd is available as part of the 'a better tomorrow trilogy dvd collection' for hk$227 from buyoyo.com

police story 2

2011-02-10T13:26:00.002Z

the taxpayers know police work doesn't come cheaply...

after destroying a shanty town and a shopping mall in the first film, ka-hui (jackie chan) has been put back in uniform and undertaking some less thrilling police work. but, with mr chu (chor yuen) already out of prison and his side-kick, koo (charlie cho), threatening may (maggie cheung), ka-kui is considering dropping out of the police force altogether. still, when a gang of bombing blackmailers start to cause a little bit of terror, he's back on the case and all action!

nice. 'police story 2' is one of my favourite jackie chan films and it contains what is one of my favourite pieces of fight choreography: the showdown between jackie and a selection of goons in the playground. quite frankly, it is a simply stunning display of choreographed movement, athleticism and flair. the fact that it also contains a rather amazing fight sequence in a restaurant, an explosive finale and a couple of scenes which feature benny lai illustrating just how amazing he is at kicking people. there's some cracking action on offer, but that should hardly be a surprise...

what might be more of a surprise is the more mature narrative and presentation, especially when compared to the first film. the bravado and melodrama of the first film is only ever reflected as a point of humour; my favourite example of this being the repetition of jackie's big speech about dealing with the bombers, by bill tung and then lam gwok-hung, which is really beautifully done. we also have the character of may in a much more developed form, being integral to both narrative strands and causing ruminations on the very nature of police work and the effects it can have on members of the force and those who they are close to. beyond this it is a technically better film, in terms of cinematography, pacing and editing, showing a maturing in jackie's role as director.

great stuff.

the dvd is £20 from amazon.co.uk

pirates of silicon valley

2011-02-07T20:12:00.002Z

what on earth would ordinary people want with computers?

it's the early seventies and college buddies steve jobs (noah wyle) and steve wozniak (joey slotnick) are engaging in revolutionary behaviour of a different variety to to their peers. they building computers for personal use, as tools for everyone, not just corporations and big business. after some initial success, they start a company: apple computers. meanwhile, bill gates (anthony michael hall) is working with a classmate and a school friend, steve ballmer (john di maggio) and paul allen (josh hopkins), developing a computer language that will allow what are currently just boxes of microchips, to function. after some initial success, they start a company: microsoft.

well, this was a fun watch. as an antidote to 'the social network', i decided to watch martyn burke's tv movie adaptation of freiberger and swaine's 'fire in the valley: the making of the personal computer' book. whilst facebook is all very well and good, remove it from the world and we'd all be fine; would the same be true if we remove the work accomplished by apple and microsoft? i doubt it...

now, whilst 'the social network' sits two hearings next to each other to tell the story of zuckerberg's chair stealing, 'pirates of silicon valley' juxtaposes the characters of jobs and gates against each other. jobs, is played rather fantastically by the super likeable noah wyle as someone who one can't help but despise: an awful, pretentious, ex-hippy, turned slave driving egomaniac. luckily for him, he has the fluffy and friendly wozniak as a foil. wozniak has claimed that all the depictions of the personalities in the film (if not all the facts) are accurate. hell, if i'd been portrayed in the same light, i'd say the same...

gates, is amazingly portrayed by anthony michael hall with a touch of 'gary wallace all grown up', mixed in with ambition and cunning. yep, basically, his dorkiness and drive actually make gates likeable - at least when he is put up against jobs, who you kinda want bad things to happen to.

"all cars have steering wheels, but no one tries to claim that the steering wheel was their invention."

so, yeah, a much more enjoyable watch and a narrative that is actually historically significant and interesting. not just some flavour of the month bullshit, with a fine young actor fooling audiences into thinking that they are watching a great film, as opposed to a great performance. this isn't a great film, but it is good and it's certainly better than chair that fincher gave us to sit on. or, should that be steering wheel?

good stuff.

the dvd is $13.67 from dvdpacific.com

police story

2011-02-07T11:43:00.002Z

story of a hero...

after a sting operation goes awry, chan ka kui (jackie chan) is given the task of protecting salina fong (brigitte lin), an associate of mr chu (chor yuen), the man they want to bust. now kai kui has to somehow keep his girlfriend may (maggie cheung), happy, manage an unwilling witness and watch his back as mr chu is a ruthless character...

i guess the story of how jackie was so pissed at his experience making 'the protector' in america, that it drove him to return to hong kong and make his own police film, is quite well known. any how, thank heavens that he did such a thing. mixing the police procedural, with touches of humour and jackie's combination of stunt and martial arts based action was a huge, huge success.

spending yesterday afternoon watching the film again was an absolute treat. sure there's a couple of moments of o.t.t. melodrama thrown in to move the narrative along, but on the whole it's a great mixture of the comic and the action packed. you get the feeling that jackie is channelling all of his anger at 'the protector' into his and showing how much fun you can have with this combination.

and, in terms of action, we are spoiled: there's the insanity of the cars crashing through the shanty town, followed straight away by jackie swinging around on the outside of a bus, the slickly choreographed sequences outside salina's flat, the fight in chu's house and, finally, the showdown at the mall. all mix hard hitting, tightly choreographed hand to hand action, with stunts a plenty and jackie's talent for the aerobic. all superb. there's also some great, if slightly goofy comedy; the sequence with the telephones and jackie's overheard conversation in the shower being the highlights.

so, just brilliant. i may have to watch part two tonight.

the dvd is £7.89 from play.com

matador

2011-02-05T18:45:00.002Z

close your eyes... play dead...

after failing in his attempt to rape his neighbour, eva (eva cobo), and fainting at the sight of blood when she stumbles and cuts herself, angel (antonio banderas) confesses to this and four murders. he is defended by maria (assumpta serna); a woman who seems to be obsessing over diego (nacho martínez), a former matador, who was training angel to be a bullfighter, is the boyfriend of eva and has a penchant for masturbating to gore movies. the detective (eusebio poncela) seems to have a suitable tangled web to investigate...

apparently almodovar considers this to be one of his weakest films. i was rather fond of it. sure, it's a touch crackers at times and one could say that getting there was much more enjoyable than arriving, but it is quite a thing to watch. the film meditates on the lives of two people for whom sex and death are almost inseparable and the people who are caught up in their lives. there's an aesthetic and atmosphere which nods gently in the direction of the giallo, whilst the film is his most beautiful looking to date, ushering a new visual flair that would be present in his costumes, sets and cinematography from this point onwards...

a very enjoyable affair.

the dvd is £5.93 from amazon.co.uk

infernal affairs

2011-02-05T14:03:00.002Z

this is ideal for listening to oldies...

it is almost ten years since chan wing-yan (tony leung) was turfed out of the police force as a cadet, tasked with embedding himself deep into the triads. at the same time, lau kin-ming (andy lau) was one of a group of junior triad members who was entered into the police cadets. now, yan is a very close associate of a triad boss, sam (eric tsang), whilst lau is working closely with wong (anthony wong), who is trying to break sam's operations. when yan and lau participate in an attempted sting, both sam and wong realise there are moles in both camps...

after drifting away from his 'young and dangerous' days, into the world of cgi heavy wu xia, andrew lau teamed up with alan mak and returned to the world of cops and crims, but with a much more mature and stylised approach. this, the result of this collaboration, is probably the finest film he has been attached to as director.

'infernal affairs' is a beautifully styled, extremely well executed tale of two moles, brilliantly brought to life by tony leung and any lau. leung has previous, with his role in 'hard boiled' being almost identical, thematically speaking. meanwhile, who wouldn't believe that the inherently perfect any lau is actually working for the devil? it would certainly explain the lack of ageing. oh, and eric tsang and anthony wong provide outstanding support.

great stuff.

the dvd is hk$72 from buyoyo.com

a personal journey with martin scorsese through american movies

2011-02-04T10:59:00.003Z

the director as storyteller...

martin scorsese sits and talks about his life with movies. he talks about early, silent cinema, the studio system, westerns, gangster films, musicals; directors as storytellers, smugglers and iconoclasts. there's lots of clips and lots of talking heads and archive interviews from the likes of billy wilder, clint eastwood, fritz lang, gregory peck and frank capra. of, and it's two hundred and twenty minutes long.

sitting down last night, i thought that we might plough through one of the film's three parts but, listening to mr scorsese talk so passionately and in such an informed, knowledgeable way, is hypnotic and his enthusiasm is infectious. once again, having watched this a couple of times in the past, i am left ruing the fact that i wasn't watching it with a pen and paper, noting down a list of films i need to get round to watching.

still, the fact that i can see myself sitting down and watching this documentary again - despite it's running time clocking in at almost four hours - speaks volumes about the quality of it and how great it is to hear scorsese talk about his specialist subject.

great stuff.

the dvd is £7.99 from play.com

big river man

2011-02-03T14:02:00.002Z

i can almost grab it...

martin strel is a heavy drinking, overweight, slovenian in his early fifties. over the last few years he has swum the length of the danube, mississippi and yangtze rivers: now he's going to swim the amazon.

the film, from director john maringouin, is an interesting, if slightly troubling affair. the film spends its first third building up the mythology of martin, with his son / publicist, borut, spilling the beans on all the activities that martin undertakes, and his life as a former professional gambler, eating horse-burgers, drinking, drink-driving, swimming, motivational speaking and being a media whore. the rest of the film is dedicated to martin's swim, accompanied by the crew of the decrepit boat which provides their night-time lodgings, a couple of doctors and matthew mohlke: an professional poker player who acts as a navigator on martin's swims and, for me, is the film's secret star.

as martin's four swims have been ratified by guiness world records, one can't really question if he did or didn't undertake them - guiness are pretty tight when it comes to such things. still, beyond the fact that he achieved these amazing feats, what is or isn't real in the film is very hard to fathom. i'd like to think most of it is true, but i'm pretty sure it's not. certain events seem to be staged, the finale of the swim and the events surrounding it certainly seem very questionable indeed. still, it certainly makes for an entertaining and bizarre watch.

good stuff...

the dvd is £3.49 from play.com

howl's moving castle

2011-02-01T20:47:00.002Z

don't be alarmed but i'm being followed...

sophie lacks confidence and leads a pretty dull life, running the hat shop which her father once ran. after a brief flirtation with adventure, when a mysterious stranger helps her escape the unwanted attention of a couple of soldiers and from the beings which were pursuing him, sophie clashes with the witch of waste. the witch puts a spell on her; transforming her into a ninety year old woman, whilst removing the ability for her to tell anyone that such a spell has been cast.

never one to revel in self pity, sophie, feeling almost liberated by this transformation, sets out to the folding valley, where witches and wizards live, leaving her old life behind her. after getting some help from a scarecrow, sophie finds herself taking shelter in howl's moving castle. a moving castle, belonging to the infamous wizard howl. still, before meeting howl, sophie decides she'll stay and clean the place up, after meeting the fire demon who powers the castle, calcifer, and howl's young apprentice, markl.

people seem to be quite hard on 'howl's moving castle' and it does get a bit of a slating as being miyazaki's worst film. still, even if this is true, miyazaki's worst is still pretty special. personally, for the first ninety minutes, i was utterly captivated and really, really loving the film, almost as much as i love other miyazaki films. taking inspiration from the novel of the same name (it can hardly be classed as an adaptation), a wonderful world is created, packed with endearing characters, who one warms to and engages with almost instantly. i hardly even need say that it is beautifully animated, which it most certainly is...

any how, after weaving a narrative, which is layered and levelled, the final ten minutes of the film arrive and, to be blunt, it just appears as if they ran out of steam and couldn't quite wrap things up and just tied everything up a little too simplistically and suddenly. a definite lack of the grace which one expects from ghibli. and, i would suggest, that this handling of the final ten minutes is what leaves a sour taste in people's mouths. i have found that i have mentally glossed over it and i'm focussing on what came before it.

good stuff, but a final ten minutes, which means that it eludes greatness...

the dvd is £6.89 from play.com

chungking express

2011-01-30T18:50:00.003Z

chungking mansions and midnight express...

two cops, he qiwu (takeshi kaneshiro) and badge 633 (tony leung), are reeling from the breakdown of their relationships; they also both frequent the 'midnight express' kebab shop and chat with the owner (piggy chan) about their lovelorn lives. qiwu dwells on his loss, buying a tin of pineapple slices each day. all with the expiry date of may 1st 1994. the day when he will have been apart from may (his ex) for one month. when april 30th arrives, he decides he will fall in love with the next woman he sees; this happens to be a chain-smoking woman in a blonde wig, sunglasses and raincoat (brigitte lin). for her, may 1st has a different meaning - it is a deadline for her to complete a drug smuggling operation, which seems to be spiralling out of her control.

badge 633 is cut up about being dumped by the air stewardess (valerie chow) and, when not on patrol, he spends his life moping around his apartment, berating household objects for not dealing well with the split. meanwhile, faye (faye wong), the cousin of the kebab shop owner, who has started working there whilst she saves up money to go travelling, takes an interest in 633. still, he seems too distracted by his own loss to notice, so she decides to start sneaking in to his apartment and playing around with it.

i'm a little shocked to think that it's well over a decade since i last watched this all the way through. it's a great little film and one which shows everyone involved at their best. the cast are great; brigitte lin is glacial, takeshi kaneshiro is like some kind of man-puppy, tony leung exudes some kind of effortless charisma and faye wong is just adorable.

for wong kar-wai and christopher doyle; a somewhat cathartic exercise in film-making, have gone through a protracted shoot and editing (this was actually filmed entirely during a two month break in the editing process) for 'ashes of time'. so, instead of something epic, ancient and filled with fantasy, they went for something, short, modern and daydream-like. wong wrote the script, expanding on a trio of ideas for the film - only two were used here and the third became 'fallen angels' - and it was shot within twenty-three days in tsi sha tsui and central.

any how, a really good fun film to watch, especially as i get to laugh at my brother walking down lan kwai fong (the street the kebab shop is on) as he mooches past tony leung and has a stare at what he said was an unusually relaxed looking cop...

great stuff...

the dvd is £6.99 from hmv.com

city under siege

2011-01-29T19:40:00.002Z

not a remake of 'police academy 6'...

sunny (aaron kwok) is a clown. a clown in a renowned circus, on tour in malaysia, but he isn't a star. sunny is a simple man, the butt of jokes, a victim of bullying and is kept on, only because of a promise that was made to his father; himself a famous knife thrower. when some of the other performers, led by zhang (collin chou), overhear some attendees at the circus talking about their search for gold, left behind by the japanese in world war II, they head out to see if they can get their hands on it. sunny follows...

making their way through a series of mountain caves, the group not only finds gold but also, whilst attempting to bump sunny off, a stash of japanese biochemicals. in the resultant chaos which ensues, as a cloud of toxic gas engulfs the group, sunny manages to escape. in poor shape, he makes his way to hong kong, only to discover that he has mutated as a result of his exposure and he's not the only one...

woo! benny chan directing a hong kong based, battling mutant blockbuster!

so, if you've seen the trailer, you've laughed your ass off at aaron kwok in a fat suit and wondered what the hell you're watching. i had a good giggle when i watched the trailer and thought this looked like it was going to be crazily bad, but that it could potentially be an insanely entertaining romp as well.

the first thing to say is that there's more story than you'd expect and, whilst some of it works pretty well, some of it doesn't and there's a few moments where you should be scratching your head as to why people are behaving as they are. although, to be fair, if you've chosen to watch this film of your own accord and have reached these moments, then you probably don't care. you're probably more bothered about the fact that there's a break in the mutant action.

after the narrative set-up, the fatness and some entertaining forays into action, there's the shoe-horning of wu jing and zhang jing-chu; a couple of mainland mutant hunters who decide to hang around with aaron and a former news anchor who discovered him, angel (shu qi), as the latter exploits the former's new found fame as a media darling. oh, and they're destined to be married, so you know how that goes. any how, this doesn't last too long and we're soon back to mutants throwing knives...

i suppose, the first thing to say is that the hokiness of the script is not matched by the special effects and action. by now, we should all have realised that benny chan is pretty good at putting on a set piece and, despite some mildly hokey prosthetics, the special effects are rather good, wu jing and collin chou rarely let you down, zhang jing-chu knows how to move and aaron is no slough either. i guess the fact that i wasn't sitting there thinking about bad cgi, probably tells a story in itself: it's surprisingly good.

well, i guess my writing is now starting to become as uneven as the film. hell, maybe as uneven as benny chan's career, which seems to flitter between the goof-ball and the melodramatic, the action-packed and well constructed, the silly and the messy. which, i guess kinda sums up this film. it's not dreadful, it's not good, but there's something watchable about almost every scene; be that for good reasons or bad. i'll stop now.

kinda daft fun, i guess...

the dvd is hk$103 from buyoyo.com

turtles are surprisingly fast swimmers

2011-01-29T11:07:00.000Z

for a plumber, you're pretty good at fixing doors...

suzume (juri ueno) enjoys a mundane existence. she lives a quiet life, mainly staying at home, whilst her husband works overseas. the only thing which disturb this tranquillity are the telephone calls from her husband; simple enquiries as to if she has fed their pet turtle. as suzume tries to inject some excitement into her life, by seeing if she can make it up one hundred steps in less than thirty seconds, she stumbles upon an advert - 'spies wanted' - and decides that this might be a way for her to inject some real excitement into her life...

from director satoshi miki, comes a quirky, off-kilter comedy. a low budget affair and one which had me worried that it was going to be an awful exercise if forced, trite, 'ooh, look at me being all quirky' stylisation. luckily, it soon settled down into a genuinely funny and nicely absurdist slice of silliness. some very funny lines, nice characters and situations, with some good comedic performances from juri ueno (who i hadn't actually recognised as the lead from 'swing girls', which i now want to watch again) and from ryo iwamatsu and eri fuse, who play the husband and wife spy team which suzume hooks up with.

a fun little watch.

the dvd is £4.49 from amazon.co.uk

pom poko

2011-01-26T19:58:00.002Z

why did the raccoon fall out of the tree?

with their habitat being ever intruded into by human developments, the raccoons find themselves squabbling over land and fighting against each other. until, that is, oroku - a wise matriarchal figure - points out that the raccoons should not be fighting each other, but working together to stop the humans from destroying the tama hils where they live. when work begins on 'new tama' - a giant residential development - which threatens to all but wipe out their habitat, the raccoons turn to the ancient art of shape-shifting and begin to take action...

directed by studio ghibli co-founder, isao takahata, 'pom poko' is an enjoyable, fun watch, although one which i would find hard to fully discuss without spoiling for people who haven't seen it. as one would expect from ghibli, it is filled with a host of interesting, well formed characters, a narrative which never talks down to its audience and a host of great ideas which are beautifully animated.

if anything, it deserves attention for, in essence, being a film about a terrorist struggle against the advances of humans into the habitats of wild creatures. not your average fare and, to be honest, a film with a narrative arc that i'm sure would sit uncomfortably with some people, but it's a good watch all the same.

odd, but a good odd. i think...

the dvd is £6.99 from hmv.com

anne of a thousand days

2011-01-25T07:23:00.004Z

the seat of power does not lie between a woman's legs...

henry VIII (richard burton) sits, agonising over the signing of a death warrant. it is a warrant which has been presented to him by thomas cromwell (john colicos), the warrant sentencing queen anne (genevieve bujold) to death. as henry thrashes out this decision, he begins to reminisce about the first time he saw the young anne boleyn in his court...

i'm pretty sure most people will know how the story ends, but getting there is a very entertaining affair.

'anne of a thousand days' is my mum's favourite film and, to be honest, it is a cracker. it garnered a whopping ten oscar nominations in 1970, but only walked away with one - best costume - although, if you look at who did win in the nominated categories, you'll see competition was very stiff indeed. despite not winning more awards, the film is a real treat for the eyes and ears; the performances of burton, bujold, colicos and anthony quayle (who seems born to play cardinal wolsey) are all top notch, the use of location, set and costume design are all great and the script is engaging and filled with some great dialogue.

good stuff, indeed...

the dvd is £5.49 from hmv.com

the red chapel

2011-01-22T17:11:00.002Z

kim jong-il's comedy club...

originally a four part series, 'the red chapel' was re-edited into a ninety minute documentary and then into a sixty minute episode of 'storyville' for the bbc.

mads brugger wanted to make a film which exposed what he refers to as the evils of north korea. he attempts to do this by posing as the manager of two koreans, who were adopted as babies and have subsequently lived in denmark; they are to perform a comedy show in pyongyang, as a cultural exchange. at the beginning of the film, mads explains how all of the material they filmed each day was vetted by the north korean authorities and, as a result, only jacob could speak his mind. jacob, one of the two comedians is handicapped and, it is claimed that even if the north koreans could translate danish, they would find it impossible to interpret through his speech impediment.

this was a very uncomfortable watch. very uncomfortable indeed. at one point during the film, mads starts to question whether or not they are being used as something of a propaganda tool; something which they clearly seem to be. however, he also asks himself if he is using jacob as a tool in his own propaganda against the north koreans; a regime which is alleged to kill the handicapped at birth or soon after. there are times when jacob is clearly unhappy with what is being asked of him, by both the koreans and mads.

however, this is only part of what i found uncomfortable viewing. mads is very keen on pointing out every negative aspect of north korean society, as he interprets it, which is one of the problems: he is looking at the country as an outsider and is swift to mention concentration camps, human rights abuses, the fear of the citizens and the veil of happiness which they all wear so as to not get themselves into trouble. for me, this is a huge over-simplification of the situation and the country. he also seems to misinterpret some of the behaviour of his hosts and starts attributing reasons for it, based on what he believes.

then, there's mrs pak. mrs pak is the group's "guide". a guide is attached to every visiting party upon their arrival; they are there to answer questions, advise on etiquette and show their wards what the authorities want them to see. essentially, they are minders. guides are very accommodating, friendly and helpful; it may seem amusing to mads to push his luck with the guide, but surely he must know that it won't be him who suffers the repercussions for his misadventure, whilst he is a visitor in the country, but his guide when he leaves.

in the end, simon and jacob get to perform next to nothing which they had originally intended of mads' grotesquely constructed show. instead they participate in something which has been almost entirely constructed by a theatre director who has been given the responsibility of advising them and simon is given a few collaborative statements to end their performance with. and, having wanted to show up the regime and have it participate in a pranksterish farce, they instead find their ill-conceived plans brushed to one side as, in fear, they find themselves doing exactly what is asked of them, with mads' occasional narrative voice-overs being their only comeback.

as an experiment and a documentary i'd say that this film achieves very little of worth. if you are interested in seeing documentaries which provide more of an insight into north korea, then daniel gordon's trilogy of documentaries provide a fascinating look at the country, whist 'kimjongilia' provides a terrifying look behind what the authorities want you to see, being a film that consists of interviews with people who have escaped the country. 'welcome to north korea', a film about a group of czech tourists visiting on an organised tour is also fascinating and does more to expose the fragile veil which hangs over the north.

no dvd as yet, but the 'storyville' broadcast, with the title 'kim jong-il's comedy club' is likely to get bbc repeats.

election 2

2011-01-22T09:54:00.000Z

i can be a patriot...

it is almost two years since the end of the first film: lok's (simon yam) time as chairman has been peaceful and prosperous for the wo shing society, although talk of who should be a candidate in the next election is starting to cause a little tension. kun (gordon lam) wants the position, lok suggests jet (nich cheung) and jimmy (louis koo) is also mooted. kun seems like a bit of a hothead, jet seems merely to be a puppet of lok, unknown to most society members, whilst jimmy, whose power and reputation has grown thanks to his shrewd business sense and huge financial clout, seems like an extremely popular choice.

jimmy doesn't want the position. jimmy wants to be a legitimate businessman, he wants to make a lot of money and have a family. kun and jet don't seem like viable alternatives and, with his tenure drawing to an end, lok decides that maybe he doesn't want to give up power after all, despite the fact that this goes against the traditions of the family. however, when jimmy discovers that his business being effected by his lack of power, the idea of being chairman seems like one he can't refuse: it looks like there's going to be trouble on the horizon...

a more straight-forward triad movie than the first film in this series, and slightly weaker as a result, but still a very good film. again, the fact that honour and righteousness go out of the window when it comes to getting one's hands on money and power is explored. and here, we have a battle between someone who is reluctant to give up the seat of power and someone who is just as reluctant to take it up, with the focus of the film most definitely switching to louis koo's jimmy and his campaign.

i think what i find most interesting about the film is the perception of the good guys and the bad guys, and how this is played with. in the first film, there was definitely a sense that the audience was to adopt the calm, almost boring figure of lok, as he struggled to overcome the underhanded, brashness of tony leung's, cartoon-like, big d. here, lok appears corrupt and manipulative, hungry to hold on to power and has lost his appeal.

jimmy, being the younger, more handsome man, a man who wants simply to do business and is using his relationship with the society to do this, rather than being a fully fledged gangster, seems to be who johnnie to is pushing both into the limelight and into the role that should be gaining the audience's support in this conflict. however, as the film progresses, it becomes very difficult to find anyone with any real sense of a moral code, whose life is not simply ruled by the desire to grasp hold of as much money and power as they can. in a way, the film is a tragic meditation on what a reluctant gangster puts himself through in order to strike a business deal...

as you'd expect from everyone involved, this is a very watchable film (despite the unwatchable nature of some of its scenes), with a very high quality of production, extremely well performed and slickly executed by the milkyway team, be they in front of or behind the cameras.

very good.

the dvd is hk$43 from buyoyo

sea wolves

2011-01-21T19:00:00.004Z

are you big stupid head?

after fleeing vietnam, john (simon yam) joins his brother on board his ship, running illicit goods into hong kong. the rest of the ship's crew are under the command of keung (norman chu) and they have a sideline in pirating, targeting vietnamese refugee boats in particular. on one such boat, they come across gary (garry chow) and his sister, who is promptly killed, along with the rest of the crew: gary only being saved, thanks to john throwing him into the sips hold, where he hides, struck with amnesia, until they arrive in hong kong. once in hong kong, gary manages to flee the ship, but soon finds himself wanted by both the pirates and the police, namely inspector yeung (cynthia khan), with john stuck in between his brother and his friend...

the seventh film in the 'in the line of duty' series, the fifth for miss khan and the second from cheng siu-keung, who also made the rather disappointing 'forbidden arsenal'. this, despite joy sales attempts to ruin it by providing the lowest common denominator subtitling, is a much better entry in the series. in khan, yam and chu, you have three very, very watchable leads; yam and chu having been favourites of mine for a long time. then you have garry chow, who is almost perfect as the lennie, to simon yam's george. (a little 'of mice and men' reference there...)

garry chow is a big, gormless and confused looking piece of meat; perfect for the role of a slightly dazed, unstoppable, amnesiac, revenge machine. yam does a good job as the good brother and friend, torn between how he can do the right thing, protect his friend and not sell his brother out. norman chu is perfectly evil as solid as always. cynthia khan, as ever, shows bundles of energy, tons of enthusiasm and seem to revel in being thrown around and giving as good as she gets.

despite a couple of flatter patches, the narrative is an improvement on 'forbidden arsenal', with the climax in particular being an exciting string of action. and, as is demanded from the 'in the line of duty' series, there is plenty of action: there's a good mixture of stunt work and fighting. the standard is pretty high and, when technical levels drop a little, the increase in brutality seems to make up for it. so, despite never reaching the levels achieved in earlier instalments of the series, this is a bit of a return to form.

pretty good.

the dvd is hk$35 from buyoyo

millennium actress

2011-01-21T12:00:00.002Z

chasing earthquakes...

with the demolition of ginei studios in progress, genya sets out with kyoji, his cameraman, to get an interview with chiyoko fujiwara: the now reclusive female star who was the figurehead of the once great studio. upon meeting chiyoko, genya presents her with a small box that contains a key, an item which chiyoko is delighted to have back in her possession. when genya enquires about the key, the trio are taken on a whirlwind journey, through the life and movies of chiyoko, as she attempts to explain its significance...

another beautiful offering from satoshi kon, making me even more sorry that he passed away last year. 'millennium actress' explores not only the life and career of its central character, but also the recurrence of themes from her personal life and how they manifest themselves in her cinematic output, referencing one hundred years of japanese cinema which, in itself, covers one thousand years of japanese history.

kon's directorial style has such a playful quality to it and seems effortless, despite the frantic pace which consumes certain sections of the film. it is a film rich in emotion, filled with character and rendered beautifully on screen. a real cinematic treat.

great stuff...

the dvd is £3.59 from amazon

crossing the line

2011-01-21T09:21:00.003Z

fortune's favourites...

the third documentary film from daniel gordon, looking at north korea. following on from the excellent 'the game of their lives' and 'a state of mind', gordon turns his gaze on to james joseph dresnok aka comrade joe aka mister arthur.

in 1962, dresnok, a private in the american army, left his post on the south korean side of the 38th parallel (or the dmz - demilitarised zone) and he walked across to north, where he has been ever since. the film tells the story of desnok's life in the north, along with the three other american soldiers who also defected.

it is almost impossible to know exactly how reliable an interviewee dresnok is, having been resident in north korea for 45 years. still, the interviews with him and others, as with gordon's other documentaries, seem surprisingly candid and insightful. dresnok talks very openly about his childhood, his military training, his service, the breakdown of his marriage, his time in the south and his life in the north.

this really was a quite fascinating watch: i seem to be more surprised with each documentary i see coming out of the north, as the veil of mystery and secrecy seems to lift ever so slightly. gordon, too, seems to be granted a little bit more access with each film he makes, although i think this might be his last foray up north...

good stuff...

the dvd is $18.78 from dvd pacific

red

2011-01-19T07:22:00.004Z

you're all hard on the outside, but inside you're gooey... gooey...

frank moses (bruce willis) has retired. he lives by himself in suburbia, collecting his pension cheques, which he tears up, just so he can call the company in kansas city who posts them out. well, more specifically, he calls to speak with sarah (mary-louise parker), with whom he has been establishing a rapport with and is rather sweet on. as luck would have it, frank is off to kansas city and it looks like the two might meet up for coffee.

however, things are never that simple. frank is highly decorated ex-c.i.a. operative and it seems like someone is after him: well, the three guys who turn up in his house with machine-guns are quite a give away, as are the team outside who have some heavier artillery too. still, frank still has 'it', leaving a ruined house and a collection of corpses behind him as flees to get sarah, knowing that whoever is trying to kill him is more than likely to have been monitoring his calls and will see her as a route to him. needless to say, sarah wasn't quite expecting her first meeting with frank to be inside her apartment, with him having packed a bag for her, before bundling her into a car and heading off to see if they can find out who the hell is trying to kill them and why...

and so begins a couple of hours of fun: i really, really enjoyed this. 'red' is a very nice combination of thriller, action movie and comedy, which continues to hit its marks throughout. to be honest, having heard some pretty lacklustre comments about it, i was constantly expecting it to let me down in some way and ruin what it had created at any minute; thankfully that didn't happen. instead, i got a narrative that was engaging, characters who were all extremely likeable, a stellar cast, some really nicely executed set-pieces and action scenes, plus plenty of thrills, spills and giggles along the way.

beyond willis, who is in very good form, and parker, who is an absolute sweetheart, the pair hook up with a couple of other familiar faces along their way and bump into a few more as well. morgan freeman is at his least annoying ever, whilst john malkovick is having lots of fun being an uber-paranoid ex-agent and helen mirren is probably wondering why she's never been in any other films where she gets to swan around with big guns. then there's karl urban, who i always like, as the c.i.a. operative who is leading the charge against willis et al, brian cox as an ex-k.g.b. adversary, ernest borgnine (!!!!!!) and even richard dreyfuss crops up as an arms dealer. all good. and, it certainly appears, as if everyone involved seems to be having as much fun being in the film as i did watching it.

really good fun...

the dvd is available for pre-order, for £10.99 from hmv.com

handsome siblings

2011-01-18T19:33:00.002Z

horseplay...

the ten untouchable villains live in villain valley: a place set aside for those who have wronged society to live and make up for what they have done. the ten used to be regarded as heroes until two former members stole money which was intended to help flood victims. when master eva (sharla cheung), the current holder of the warrants of justice, arrives to slay the ten, her husband, yin nam tin (michael miu), steps in to defend them and the two square off and fight. the fight ends and eva retreats, but swears to raise a child to return and finish what she started in eighteen years time - the date that the next tournament to decide who holds the warrants of justice is scheduled to take place.

what she leaves behind is her husband, now in a vegetative state, and her baby son, who the ten (i should really start saying eight, as they did kick out the villainous twins who stole the money) decide to raise and teach everything they know about martial arts to. any how, it's eighteen years later and fishy (andy lau) has now grown up and sets off to the tournament, with sissy to (deannie yip) and big mouth lee (ng man-tat) guiding him along the way. a path with more obstacles than just the tournament...

goodness, and that synopsis covers about the first five minutes of the film only. i dread to think what else was contained in the long, untranslated bit of narration which opened the film. any how, this is an eric tsang directed, light-hearted wu xia tale; there's some action, but not a great amount, some drama, some romance, some treachery and quite a lot of humour, which is more hit than miss.

beyond the cast who i have already mentioned, the main draw is brigette lin, who plays 'mr' more: the orphan raised by eva as a fighting machine who secretly longs, or so it seems, to just be a normal young lady and, maybe, to fall for andy lau. then there's francis ng, who plays the son of master kong (chang kuo-chu), the head of martial city, who also wants to win the tournament. there's also small roles for anita yuen, richard ng, fung hak-on and josephine koo.

so, in the end, with this cast, script and pretty high production values, you get a very watchable little movie. there's probably not enough to appeal to those who aren't already fans of the genre and those involved, but if you're quite happy with a bit of light, humorous wu xia, then you'll probably quite enjoy this.

a nice little watch.

the dvd is hk$35 from buyoyo.com

following

2011-01-17T09:34:00.002Z

the violating, the voyeurism... it's definitely you...

bill (jeremy theobald) is unemployed, but aspires to be a writer. in an attempt to fill his days and build up ideas for characters, he wanders the streets, following random people and observing what they do and where they go. however, when one of the people he follows, cobb (alex haw), confronts him, bill finds himself getting drawn into a different world. instead of learning by following, he'll now be learning by breaking and entering...

coming a couple of years before 'memento', this is christopher nolan's debut feature; shot in black and white, on a micro-budget, it took over a year to complete as the cast were all in fulltime work and they could only film on saturdays. watching it now, when nolan seems to be one of the kings of the film-making castle, it's quite a charming little affair and there's a clear foreshadowing quite a few of nolan's stylistic tendencies.

perhaps the most striking decision nolan takes, is to use a non-linear narrative structure, playing out three distinct periods in the progression (or should that be descent?) of bill's character. unlike 'memento', where the decision to do this is integral to the narrative, here it is almost purely stylistic and just enhances the telling of the story. and, as critics of nolan might say, it's all very well when you watch his films unfold and they let you know that they're a little bit clever, but when you revisit them later, they do seem to be flawed. the same is true for 'following', but it is still pretty good fun to watch. although, when i say fun, i mean tense. yup, it is a film which kinda has an unsettling atmosphere, which is probably it's strongest element.

oh, and it was funny that one of the main characters was 'cobb' and i also had a little chuckle that bill had a batman logo on his front door...

any how, it's an interesting watch; it isn't brilliant, but it's nice to see that the seeds of what nolan does were already beginning to sprout when he made the move from shorts to his first feature.

the dvd is £2.99 from play.com

le cercle rouge

2011-01-14T19:31:00.002Z

and, despite appearances, i'm no professional...

corey (alain delon) leaves prison, the morning after a guard tells him about a possible job, which might see him back inside if it goes wrong. after settling some business in marseilles, he sets off on the road to paris. meanwhile vogel (gian maria volonte) is being escorted cross-country by mattei (andre bourvil), from whom he manages to escape and, in an attempt to slip through the police dragnet which forms swiftly, he climbs into the boot of a car at a roadside restaurant. it just so happens that the car belongs to corey and, when two such characters get together, it isn't long before they're planning a job. the job...

and so it begins... well, actually, that's probably the first thirty minutes of this underplayed, minimalistic heist movie. it's a slightly odd film, which just kinda flows along, it is smooth, relaxed and seems to glide through its two and a bit hours. delon is his blue eyed, handsome, cool self, whilst volonte is his only slightly more rugged foil. on the flipside, to these two swarthy, smouldering types, is bourvil's, almost clinically, uncool detective: who, seemingly being mocked by melville, wears a very similar long, beige overcoat, ala delon, but his, prim, buckled exterior just looks silly when compared with his adversary...

still, without being overblown or flashy, melville creates a glorious, engaging and tense affair. i suppose the epitome of melville's restraint is illustrated by the heist itself, which lasts almost thirty minutes and, dialogue free, is executed in almost total silence, yet draws the viewer in completely.

cracking stuff.

the dvd is £5.79 from play.com

possession

2011-01-14T09:12:00.004Z

there is nothing in common among women except menstruation...

mark (sam neill) returns to berlin, having finished a work assignment, only to find that his marriage to anna (isabelle adjani) is breaking down. anna has taken a lover and, although the mark is trying to salvage the relationship for the sake of their son, anna's behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic. when anna disappears, claiming that she's visiting a friend, mark discovers that she isn't, nor, as she subsequently claims, was she with her lover, heinrich (heinz bennent), who has been in touch with mark. where is anna going?

yowser...

'possession' is an allegorical tale of the breakdown of a marriage, based partly on director, andrzej zulawski's personal life, presented under the mask of a horror film. rich in the exploration of psychological torments, the film is manic and stylised: the performances are intense and unsettling, the music is restrained to the point of appearing absent, barring a couple of intrusions and the cinematography is quite amazing. shot almost entirely through wide-angle lenses, either utilising dolly tracks or hand-held camera work, there are very few occasions where the camera is not moving in to or around the characters. when this cinematography is of such a high standard, the performers are firing on all cylinders and zulawski has been so meticulous in his selection of colour schemes, locations and production design, the result is truly a joy to watch...

the result is, at times, like watching dance, where the choreographer has the ultimate luxury of deciding the exact angle from which their audience sees each movement of each performer. in perhaps what is the film's most infamous scene - in the subway - this choreographic direction is coupled with an incredible performance from adjani, producing something breath-taking.

any how, despite some flaws and a mildly spoilerific dvd cover / opening credits, 'possession' is a pretty fantastic viewing experience: it's the kind of film that you watch, then you watch the hour long documentary which accompanies it, then you watch it with the director's commentary, go to bed and then find yourself thinking about watching it again the next day.

great stuff.

i got the special edition from germany, but i think that the newly released uk dvd, which is £7.99 from hmv.com will probably be the same cut and, although it may lack the commentary track, it does appear to have extra interviews...

soldier girls

2011-01-11T14:24:00.002Z

wipe that smile off your face...

'soldier girls' is an early nick broomfield documentary, which i remember watching half of when it was on tv, many moons ago. well, i remembered the guy biting the head of a chicken, but that was about it. the film basically follows a group of girls during their basic training, in the american army, about thirty years ago and, in particular, it focusses on a couple of them who are not really enjoying themselves and want out.

i suppose i could say the conclusion i drew from this documentary is this: if you are in the army, you are either stupid or an arsehole. maybe that is just the impression it gives. are the people who want out stupid? even if they claimed they were tricked into joining up by recruiters, they still joined up: surely, one can't be fooled that much. it's not like they were press ganged. are the people who give them no end of grief arseholes? well, on one hand, not wanting someone to kill themselves or endanger someone else, because they weren't paying attention or engaging in training is fair enough, but the delight that these officers take and their attempts to be inventive and funny, when they are dishing out awful hazings to want-away-recruits, makes them look like wankers.

i guess i have a very different idea of how one should attempt to inspire, motivate and engage with someone...

any how, this is an interesting watch; staff sergeant abing has some interesting / outlandish views, there's lots of talk of russians and communists (which now just seems hilarious) and there's also some very questionable lyrics in a couple of the drill chants, mainly about wanting to go to iran and kill and arabian (less hilarious)...

any how, a restrained, early broomfield doc and one where it would've been nice if they'd at least attempted to remaster the sound on the dvd. more interesting as a slice of life look at the views of the us army thirty years ago: i wonder how different it would be now...

good.

the dvd is can be picked up for a couple of quid from amazon.co.uk

the social network

2011-01-05T20:13:00.002Z

you don't get to make 500 million omelettes without breaking some eggs...

mark zuckerberg (jesse eisenberg) was a pretty obnoxious computer geek, who was making more progress up the aspergers scale than climbing any social ladders, until he was noticed for making a website which allowed harvard students to rate female undergraduates against each other. this got him into trouble, but brought him to the attention of a couple of other students, who wanted him to build a website which would blah blah blah... who cares... really, who cares?

it would be easy for me to say that i've always thought fincher was a hack who couldn't direct a good film if he was given a script by aaron sorkin and... oh... he was, was he?

any how, i couldn't give a shit about how zuckerberg did or didn't rip-off / fuck over people in order to create facebook, especially when fincher uses two cross-table legal discussions to advance the narrative in the clumsiest, most trite fashion one can imagine. or, should i be blaming sorkin for that? i don't want to do that though, as the dialogue he wrote, which is subsequently delivered by jesse eisenberg (or, 'young zombieland', as i know him affectionately...) is the only reason to watch the film.

yup, watching young zombieland be quick tongued, yet obnoxious prick, is quite a delight. sorkin has some really cracking dialogue and eisenberg's delivery and performance is utterly captivating and magnificent. everything else in the film, apart from a reasonable turn by timberlake, is of absolutely no consequence and could easily be ignored.

i'd even go as far to say i liked this, just because of eisenberg.

the dvd can be pre-ordered for £12.99 from hmv.com

scott pilgrim vs. the world

2011-01-05T19:59:00.002Z

hyperbole...

scott pigrim (micheal cera) plays bass in some band with his mates, he's kinda dating a high school girl, knives chau (ellen wong), but soon finds himself falling for ramona flowers (mary elizabeth winstead). any how, this falling results in challenges from ramona's seven evil exes, whom scott must defeat in order to win her heart...

i really had no desire to watch this, but i caved in as it was december and everything is available for download, if there's even the remote chance it could be in line for some kind of oscar nomination. to be honest, i kinda wish i hadn't bothered. as much as i enjoyed 'spaced', with each return, mr wright's light appears to be diminishing, which is rather sad. i tried to pay attention, but it wasn't too long before i found myself picking up a sudoku book and giving that half of my attention.

anyway, it kinda just rubbed me up the wrong way a little and, although cera was fine, schwartzman was present and there were a couple of good laughs early on, this is a very forgettable film and one which i shall devote no more time to.

okay, i guess...

the dvd can be pre-ordered for £9.99 from hmv.com

redline

2011-01-05T19:36:00.002Z

vroom...

directed by takeshi koike, based on a story by katsuhito ishii, 'redline' tells the story of a group of racers who, despite living in a technologically advanced future, choose to race auto-mobiles. the scene is set, as jp sets out to win the yellow line race, attempting to avoid sabotage, race fixing, the violent tactics of machine head and not forgetting the inhabitants of the cyborg planet who have not given them permission to race. oh, and he actually wouldn't mind succumbing to the charms of sonoshee...

i'll admit that my expectations were reasonably high for this and that i did feel a little let down by it. the film itself is only a wheel-spin away from being a pretty standard underdog racing movie, but there's some nice touches which just manage to elevate it a little. whilst never blowing you away visually, the film does look good and there's some nice character design, the soundtrack is pretty full on, but fun with it and there is excitement to be had. still, given the involvement of katsushito ishii, maybe i expected too much.

pretty good, maybe i need to watch it again though...

no dvd yet.

evangelion: 2.0 you can (not) advance

2011-01-05T13:25:00.003Z

what no neon genesis?

a group of teenagers act a little bit emo. an angel appears near the city. one or two evangelion units are piloted by said teenagers. they fight the angel, but all seems lost. "wow, i didn't realise an evangelion could do that!!!" an evangelion does something and the angel gets killed.

repeat.

there you go, the narrative from both the first and the second films.

still, it's quite good fun, if you want to watch giant robots fighting weird giant beings in a city.

a bit of fun, but not that great...

no dvd yet.

the secret of kells

2011-01-05T13:08:00.002Z

you can't find out everything from books, you know...

obsessed with thoughts of vikings attacking their small town, the abbot cellach has built a huge wall surrounding it: a wall and a task which he expects his nephew, brendan, to engage with and complete. brendan is, however, more interested in working on manuscripts than walls and, when aiden of iona arrives with the already legendary 'book of iona', brendan is lost to the work of ink and paper. still, testing times lie ahead and the vikings will come, but brendan has berries to collect, ink to make and a new friend in the form of the wood nymp, aisling...

a sweet, beautiful looking animation, with a story and characters i found i had very little time to care for. still, it is really nicely designed and is a very pretty watch, even if it's mixture of fantasy, celtic and christian hokum is tiresome.

okay... ish.

the dvd is £6.99 from play.com

high on hope

2011-01-05T12:51:00.004Z

half naked girls in acid house sex party...

h-h-h-hardcore uproar...

a really nice little film about the hardcore uproar warehouse parties which took place in the late 1980's and early '90's in blackburn and the surrounding areas. a small group tell how they, some empty warehouses, a sound system, some *ahem* chemicals and, of course, acid house changed lives and kick started a shift in club culture, youth culture and, well, culture in general...

great fun to watch and listen to, some moments of hilarity and a couple of scary ones too. well worth tracking down...

no dvds or release dates yet, although there's a little bit of info at highonhope.com and a nice interview with the director, piers sanderson, at expletive undeleted

facing the wall

2011-01-05T12:40:00.002Z

when the revolution goes...

a documentary about people who attempted to cross into west berlin from east germany and suffered the consequences of failing. apart from some minor details, pretty much everyone involved has a very similar tale to tell and, if you've heard such stories before, there isn't really anything new added. i guess it was a relatively diverting eighty minutes, but not as interesting as chatting to my friend who was given permission to leave the east, along with her mother, when she was a little girl.

okay.

there isn't a dvd with english subs.

mardock scramble

2011-01-05T10:51:00.002Z

the first compression...

the first part of the anime, adapted from tow ubakata's 'mardock scramble' manga, directed by susumu kudo.

balot, a teenage prostitute, wakes in the laboratory of dr easter; a man who is working a little off the radar. balot was murdered by shell; a powerful and influential gambler, but she has been brought back to life, albeit as a cyborg, by easter. now, with the help of oeufcocque; a genetically enhanced, yellow, super mouse, balot is to set about bringing shell and his associates to justice.

less silly than it sounds. in fact, a lot less silly. not silly, at all...

this was a really stunning bit of anime: it looks and sounds fantastic, is beautifully designed and has a great atmosphere to it. the plot begins to grow and unravel then, just at the moment where the tension is ratcheted up, it ends. bah... a very swift sixty minutes and the first of three parts. i have pre-ordered the manga, as i want to see where this goes and don't want to wait for two more parts to be produced, although i will certainly watch them when they do...

really good.

a dvd doesn't appear to have materialised yet, but the manga (complete) is available to pre-order for a bargain price of £6.92 from amazon.co.uk

one piece film: strong world

2010-12-21T12:51:00.002Z

reindeer | bazooka | anime | pirate | straw hat

the tenth film based on eiichiro oda's pirate manga, 'one piece', and the first one which he has personally supervised the production of and attached his name as director.

the film tells the story of the crew of the 'thousand sunny' being taken by the evil pirate shiki and being scattered across a string of floating islands. it's quite a spectacle, a lot of fun to watch and just very entertaining indeed.

again, another series i may have to investigate further...

good stuff.

the dvd is ¥3,152 (£24) from hmv.co.jp so you may wish to wait for a different release...

gintama : the movie

2010-12-21T12:38:00.002Z

shin'yaku benizakura hen...

as one who isn't familiar with the 'gintama' manga or anime series, the film probably only suffered very slightly with what i imagine were a couple of in-jokes and not knowing the characters as much as a japanese audience would've done. still, thee wee plenty of other references to other anime which i was happy to have got. the film seems to focus on three characters who live in a shop and their investigating of the murder of a friend, with a sword that is scarily powerful...

basically, a lot of fun to watch, some very funny moments, some very nice set-pieces and the promise of more to come. and, the way they play with the opening and ending of the film was very good. i may have to investigate the other manifestations 'gintama', even if there appears to be a never ending series of anime...

good stuff...

the dvd is ¥3,152 (£24) from hmv.co.jp so you may wish to wait for a different release...

the art of negative thinking

2010-12-21T12:15:00.003Z

i ♥ your mom

geirr (fridtjov saheim) is confined to a wheelchair after an accident and he now spends his time smoking pot, drinking, listening to music and watching films. pretty much wallowing in self-pity. as a result, his marriage to ingvild (kirsti eline torhaug) is suffering, to say the least. and, it is ingvild, in an attempt to rescue their relationship, who invites round a local support group. little does the smiley happy group realise what they have let themselves in for...

now, this isn't a good film: it is, undeniably, very funny indeed. a nice slice of darkly comic norwegian fun: the plot itself is immaterial, it merely serves to bring together a group of characters and pushes them into situations which allows for humour.

okay.

it might be a little tricky to find a dvd with english subs...

vital signs

2010-12-21T11:38:00.002Z

life... or lack thereof...

simone (marie-helene bellavance) returns to her home town, having been in away studying. her mother has just passed away in a palliative care ward and, as well as finding herself dabbling with her ex, boris (francis ducharme), she begins to spend more and more time as a volunteer, working with others on the ward where her mother and others spend their last days...

not a happy film or a film that i remember having any heavy handed points to make, just an exploration of simone's time spent, being drawn into the world of the dying. still, a very watchable and interesting film, with a great central performance from bellavance. i also think i shall have to investigate sophie deraspe's (writer, director and cinematographer) other film, and look out for what she does next as i like her style.

good stuff.

hopefully a dvd will arrive.

elling

2010-12-11T13:37:00.003Z

there are more ways?

elling (per christian ellefsen) is moved into a state institution after his mother, who he had lived with in near isolation for forty years, dies: there he meets and shares a room with the good hearted, but oafish, kjell bjarne (sven nordin). it isn't too long before the pair strike up a friendship and then find themselves being moved out of the safety and security of the institute, into a flat in oslo, where they must learn to cope with life by themselves...

a thoroughly enjoyable and utterly charming little movie, which bubbles along very nicely. great performances from the two leads and a solid script too, adapted from the novel and since adapted for the stage. another fine example of slightly off-kilter, comic norwegian cinema. oh, and there's a special appearance by the cafe which would later crop up in bent hamer's 'o horten'...

really good.

the dvd is $8.55 from dvdpacific.com

zonad

2010-12-11T13:10:00.002Z

in your face...

liam (simon delaney) and francis (david pearse) are middle-aged alcoholics who have just escaped from a rehab programme. whilst francis falls and sprains his ankle, liam manages to escape to the safety of a small village; oh, i should say that liam is in a fancy dress outfit and arrives, claiming to be a visitor from space. impressed by this, and his alleged heroism, the village adopts 'zonad' as their own spaceman, something which laim is more than happy to exploit, until francis catches up with him...

i did expect this to be awful, but it is actually a rather enjoyable watch, as long as you don't focus on the fact it's actually a film about alcoholic, middle-aged men, dressing as aliens in order to get free booze and sleep with under-age girls. there's nothing new here, but there's a few very funny moments and some very nicely executed comic performances.

a bit of fun...

err... a dvd will probably materialise, not sure if it'll hit the cinemas.

the robber

2010-11-18T15:11:00.002Z

you gotta run, run, run, run, run, take a drag or two...

johann (andreas lust) was imprisoned for robbing banks. still, despite this, he was allowed a running machine in his prison cell and encouraged to keep training while incarcerated as he was such a promising talent. freed from prison, he continues to run and finds success, but still he continues to rob banks. something's got to give...

an enjoyable, understated film, simply telling this story in a very straight fashion: based on a true story, it simply plays out, following johan from the moment he leaves prison. there's no commentary, just a telling of the story. for this reason i like it. a nice, simple bit of film making, which just kinda works. it really made me want to do some hardcore exercise after having spent most of the past two weeks sitting in cinemas...

pretty good.

limited release and a dvd probably.

i will not be your friend / i am not your friend

2010-11-18T14:56:00.002Z

blow your nose...

'i will not be your friend' is a fifteen minute documentary focussing on a bunch of four year old children and how they interact with each other in a kindergarten.

'i am not your friend' is, according to the director "a film of improvisations - not only from the part of the nine amateur actors, but from the d.o.p., the director and the scriptwriters as well. the story unfolded itself instantly by the reactions and ideas of actors during the 20 days of shooting and developed into what is presented to the audience. but the story perhaps is less important than the world which opens up in front of us, a taste of budapest in january 2008."

the narrative result is a series of meetings between characters who are, in some way, connected together; a shoplifting teenager with kidney trouble, the shop manager and his sales assistant who he's having sex with, his partner who has phone sex with his accountant, whose partner knocks over the teenager... and so on...

this is a really enjoyable film to watch; and, like gyorgy palfi says, 'the story perhaps is less important than the world which opens up in front of us'. watching interconnected vignettes certainly makes the film seem extremely fast paced, the short scenes drift from one character to the next and then to another character, there is a cut to an unrelated scene, which suddenly becomes related, whether situations are resolved is not important: life goes on.

the cast a crew do a great job and i can only imagine how satisfying it was to see it all come together at the final edit. a nice little experiment, made all the more enjoyable, by being very watchable even if you are unaware of the process.

good stuff.

not sure if there will be a dvd or a limited release...

moloch tropical

2010-11-18T14:37:00.002Z

i bet your little pussy is just as refreshing...

the tale of jean de dieu theogene (zinedine soualem), a fictional president of haiti; once the champion of the people, elected into office and then corrupted absolutely by it, as the country crumbles around him...

yup, i really liked this. an extremely dark comedy, full of satire and some biting commentary: "'downfall' meets 'the thick of it'", is what i would stick on the poster, if i was attempting to market it. directed by raoul peck, himself a former minister for culture of haiti, the film presents a man who has simply gone insane with the power he has; isolated in his hilltop citadel, torturing the man who once championed him, but now recognises that that man no longer exists, ignorant to all sense and determined to hold on to what he has no matter what he has to do in order to do so...

the beautiful location, sharp script, interesting (if, at times, slightly cliched) characters and strong performances make this a great watch. an especially fantastic performance from zinedine soualem.

great stuff...

essentially a tv movie, i'm hoping a dvd will crop up, especially is it does seem to be doing the festival rounds...

erratum

2010-11-18T14:01:00.002Z

you're a weird man...

michal (tomasz kot) is forced to return to his home town when his boss requests that he collects his new car. after bumping into a friend he'd lost touch with, zbyszek (tomasz radawiec), and having an equally awkward meeting with his father (ryszard kotys) who he never sees, michal leaves town but, getting distracted by his telephone, he hits and kills a drunken vagrant who walks out into the road.

and so, waiting for his bosses car to get repaired, michal finds himself stuck in a town he desperately wants to leave. still, after some aimless wandering, his own sense of distance between him and his father, draws him to search for relatives and friends of the old man he ran over, whilst he attempts to re-connect with his father and zbyszek...

this is a film which i was initially quite indifferent to, but found myself liking more and more as it progressed. there's a nice mixture of comedy and drama, nothing too light or too heavy, just a pretty solid little film, that's nicely put together and plays out well. oh, and there's a repeated shot of water at the bottom of a weir, which is absolutely glorious. could've watched that for quite a while...

good stuff...

maybe a limited release and a dvd, but who knows...

the invisible eye

2010-11-18T13:06:00.002Z

watch and learn...

buenos aires, 1982, people are starting to challenge the military dictatorship which governs the country. marita (julieta zylberberg) is a junior member of staff at a strict and decidedly formal school; it's thick walls creating an enclave away from such disturbances. wanting to make a career for herself, marita tries to get herself into the good books of mr biasutto (omar nunez), the over bearing head of non-academic staff at the school. however, biasutto seems to want something a little different from marita and the misguided approach which marita adopts in order to try and garner favour - hiding in the boy's toilets to attempt to catch secret smokers - soon becomes corrupted by her getting distracted by one of the male students...

despite it being an awful print - it looked like a vhs or telecine transfer - it was a very watchable film. a comedic drama, focussing on marita's life in the humourless environment of the school and at home with her mother and grandmother, which is a complete contrast in terms of atmosphere. there's great central performance from zylberberg, who is rather wonderful: she seems to effortlessly and convincingly drift between a doe like innocence and naivety, whilst one can see the stirring of her sexual awakening manifesting. and, it is the film's almost light hearted approach, which guarantees that when moments of tension arise in the film, they are all the more jarring and shocking as a result.

good stuff...

hopefully a limited release and a dvd to follow...

hiroshima

2010-11-18T12:50:00.002Z

a silent musical...

a day in the life of juan (juan stoll), from finishing work n the early hours of the morning, to singing with his band at the end of the night. the film, directed by jan's brother, pablo stoll, contains no audible dialogue; inter-titles replace what we hear from the mouths of characters, whilst the ambient sounds and what juan listens to on his portable cd player provide a backdrop to his day.

err... much less pretentious than it sounds. and, even though i'm pretty sure the pablo is trying to use this stylisation to illustrate juan's seeming reluctance to express himself vocally, apart from saying "yeah" or "sure", and how his life primarily revolves around music; getting this point is by no means integral to one's enjoyment of the film...

a nice thing to watch.

not sure if this'll get a dvd, although it might...

the woman who dreamed of a man

2010-11-17T13:49:00.005Z

stalky, stalky, catchy monkey...

karen (sonja richter) is a successful danish fashion photographer who travels frequently and spends a lot of time in paris. one morning, when having breakfast in her hotel, she spots a man who she then follows; he confronts her and she runs off. later, when having dinner, then man comes to join her: he is maciek (marcin dorocinski), an economic lecturer from poland, visiting paris to teach.

karen reveals that the reason she followed him, is that he is the man who she sees in a recurring dream she has been having: she sees him upset, naked and throwing himself from a hotel balcony. after this meeting, the dream changes: karen and maciek are now together in the hotel. it isn't long before the dream becomes reality...

hmmm... hmmm, indeed... what starts off as a relatively intriguing narrative, degenerates into a case of melodramatic obsession and a film which seems to take a delight in thinking it is being awfully clever, when it really isn't and, in fact, it is quite poor in the end. it's a shame, as it is quite nicely put together and starts well enough, but it really does feel like you've wasted your time by the end.

poor.

not sure it this will get any kind of further release...

bad family

2010-11-17T13:24:00.002Z

and are you abnormal?

mikael (ville virtanen) has a great life; a powerful member of the finnish judicial system, he has a beautiful home and a great family. well, kind of. he lives with his eldest son, daniel (lauri tilkanen), who he seems intent on pushing into a career in law and competition fencing, as well as his second wife/partner, laura (vera kiiskinen) and their young son, .

when mikael's ex-wife dies, the body is brought to finland from denmark to be buried, accompanied by tilda (pihla viitala), his estranged daughter. in an attempt to make things less awkward for himself, mikael puts laura and their son up in a hotel, whilst tilda is invited to stay for a couple of days. however, tilda takes mikael up on his offer of staying and becomes very close with daniel, too close for mikael's comfort and soon things tart to get very awkward indeed...

written and directed by aleksi salmenpera, who brought us the rather entertaining 'a man's job', comes an extremely black comedy. 'bad family' is as dark as the long finnish winter, but a whole lot funnier. the increasingly unhinged mikael is portrayed excellently by well-weathered chops of ville virtanen, whose physical and mental breakdown is a bleak joy to behold. essentially, the film rests on his shoulders and they are happily wide enough to carry this burden with aplomb.

oh, and the production designers have filled mikael's house with a selection of simply beautiful items; lots of nice designer furniture, glasses, cutlery etc...

very good.

maybe a limited release and dvd, but who knows...

animal kingdom

2010-11-16T11:08:00.002Z

turn around...

j (james frecheville), upon the death of his mother from a heroin overdose, moves in with his grandmother, janice (jacki weaver), and joins the world in which her four sons live. pope (ben mendelsohn), barry (joel edgerton), craig (sullivan stapleton) and darren (luke ford) are, to some extent, involved in robberies and drugs. all of this is well known to the melbourne police and they're out to get the cody brothers, one way or another. after the police take action, j finds himself becoming entangled in something big and it seems like his only way out might be via the help of a cop, leckie (guy pearce)...

a suitably entertaining tale, nothing ground breaking or outstanding, just a pretty solid film, well paced, well scripted and well performed. frecheville does well as the boy getting out of his depth with a group of men, whilst ben mendleson is fantastically horrible and unsettling. still, i think that it's probably jacki weaver who steals the show as the matriarch of this bunch.

pretty good.

i'd expect a limited release and a dvd...

uncle boonmee who can recall his past lives

2010-11-16T10:08:00.002Z

more malady, less bliss...

uncle boonmee (thanapat saisaymar) is dying of a kidney ailment. as he approaches death, he spends time on his farm and sits with his sister in law, where they are visited both by friends from the real world, the spirit of his dead wife and the monkey spirit who was once his son...

apichatpong weerasethakul is a film-maker who clearly divides audiences and people seem to love him or hate him; although it can be quite easy to both love and hate him at the same time. i've seen a selection of his films and shorts: some have been really enjoyable, some have been painful. sometimes his work appears rich, beautiful, allegorical and charming, at others, it is laboured, hollow and amongst the most pretentious of the (already hyper-pretentious) bangkok art-house scene. and, it is only in bangkok where weerasethakul finds favour in his native land; it is in europe where his work seems to be best received, as indicated by the pan-european list of investors which opened this film. outside of the capital, the thai art-house cinema is not especially popular, although 'boonmee' performed well, in the same was as populist thai cinema is sneered at by those in the capital's scene.

perhaps the reason weerasethakul has enjoyed such success has been down to his recognition from cannes. 'blissfully yours', 'tropical malady' and 'boonmee' have all been winners there and, whilst i thoroughly enjoyed the languid, allegorical 'tropical malady', i found 'blissfully yours' and extremely difficult film to watch. the pacing is beyond slow, the content uninspiring to a huge degree and, if i'd watched it before 'topical malady', i'd probably have written off weerasethakul and not watched any more of his films. i think the fact that the film's finale is a twenty minute static shot of the main female character as she sleeps in the sun, accompanied only by ambient sound, gives an indication of the pacing.

so, when i heard voices of dissent from people who had been to watch an earlier screening of 'boonmee', claiming that nothing happened, how boring, dull and uninspiring it was, you can imagine that i was expecting another 'blissfully yours'. i can only be thankful that it was much more akin to 'tropical malady' and moved at a practically break-neck pace, when compared to the likes of 'blissfully yours' or, even, 'mundane history' - another thai art-houser which made an appearance at this year's liff.

'uncle boonmee who can recall his past lives' moves gently, but with purpose, it is surreal, absurd, allegorical and metaphorical: it is puzzling, moving, funny and, at times, a little magical. as a meditation on life and death, not only of human beings, but of themes, concepts and philosophies, the film works well. i appreciate that this won't be to everyone's tastes, but i liked it...

good stuff...

a general release and dvd are expected.