Saving Face by Alice Wu (2004, USA)

I understand that the Chinese really hate to 'lose face', so this movie is all about the battle between following one's own dreams and desires vs keeping the honor of your familly and cultural expectations. In a fast-changing society, these things often clash but this movie ended on a bright note. The mix of drama and light-hearted comedy is good and I like the jazzy soundtrack with some spots of bossa nova and strings. The three lead women gave solid performances but I feel the script needs more work. Lynn Chen is gorgeous, and if there's ever one thing I don't get sick of, it's asian lesbians making out.

3.5/5 stars
IMDB

The Foul King by Ji-woon Kim (2000, South Korea)

Haha, what a sensational comedy by Kim Ji-woon. This movie is just another reason to love Song Kang-ho. In what appears to be his breakout movie, he plays an underdog wrestler that specialises in cheating to win. This movie was just funny from the get go. What's impressive is he does all the stunts himeself, apparently also the backflips off the top rope.

3.5/5 stars
IMDB

This Charming Girl by Yoon-ki Lee (2004, South Korea)

I'm not gonna lie, this movie was pretty fucking boring at first, but I decided to stick with it, and was duly rewarded. The ending climax was intense and I loved every moment of it. When I looked back I realise how smart the plot and screenplay is. From the minimal editing and dialog to the cuts and the camera shots that linger around, everything all seems thought out perfectly. Wonderful acting by Kim Ji-soo, she displayed a wide range of emotion so effortlessly, and is the sole reason I stayed watching the entire time (she charmed me). This is a brilliant character study piece, with a rewarding finish.

4/5 stars
IMDB

The 40 Year Old Virgin by Judd Apatow (2005, USA)

I love Steve Carell as much as the next goon, but I bought a little too much into the hype surrounding this film. It just didn't seem that inventive or original to me, which is fine since I wasn't really expecting much more than a "laugh-out-loud" sex romp, but it seems they wanted to go a little more than low-brow here, which ruined it for me. The cast was good but the jokes just doesn't seem to be that funny. I'm willing to give this film another chance though, since I found out that the waxing scene is actually real and the blood on Carell's shirt afterwards is actually his. Ouch.

3/5 stars
IMDB

A Wacky Switch by Yeon-won Jeong (2004, South Korea)

Oh man, I love the soundtrack of this movie. It had everything, from 80's disco hits to slow rock tunes and shit. A few great scenes here and there, and I like the flow of the movie overall, even though I feel the whole gangster falling in love thing doesn't really work well for this comedy.

3/5 stars
IMDB

Mad Monk by Siu-Tung Ching / Johnny To (1993, Hong Kong)

Pretty funny Stephen Chow throwaway comedy. Anthony Wong, Ng Man Tat and Maggie Cheung spices everything up, and a cast of familiar faces helped made this movie enjoyable. There was a few funny scenes, particularly the ones between Anthony and Maggie.

The cheap effects really defined a lot of Chow's early comedies. In fact I think it was an integral part of it, especially for the the two-parter 'A Chinese Odyssey' which is probably my favorite Chow comedy ever. It just adds an element of laid-backness, which combined with his slapstick performance and the unique tone of his comedies just add up to something really really wonderful.

3.5/5 stars
IMDB

Gozu by Takashi Miike (2003, Japan)

Excellent film by Miike. I'm not sure whether he makes controversial stuff for the sake of being controversial, or that he truly believes in self-parody. He makes so many films a year it seems some of his films are parodies of each other.
Anyway, this was a great what-the-fuck movie you can watch for countless times, especially if you have friends over. It makes no sense but I think the adult birth ending means something, I just need to figure it out first.

4/5 stars
IMDB

A Tale of Two Sisters by Ji-woon Kim (2003, South Korea)

Kim Ji-woon, a man with such talent and versatility. All of his films possess a certain charm and display of technical ability such that I feel the Korean film industry owes a lot of their success to this man. Of course he's just one of the more out of the others, but I don't feel like name-dropping here.

This was a mindfuck thriller. Comparisons can be drawn to M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, but I felt this had an edge over Shyamalan's, especially since the twist was revealed halfway through. A second viewing will help tremendously to clear the doubts and many confusions in this movie, as well as help appreciate some of the subtle hints dropped throughout. Great acting, great plot, great direction and cinematography, not to mention the top-notch production values. Perhaps one the best Korean horror movies produced ever.

4/5 stars
IMDB

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance by Chan-wook Park (2002, South Korea)

This film just begs to be seen. It's so wonderfully-crafted by Park that you feel exactly what he wants you to feel. The acting is great all around, and Bae-Du Na was unbearably cute, so much so that the way her character died was a horrifying tragedy. I think Park achieved exactly what he wanted here. I actually find this more appealing than Oldboy, which seems to be more directed towards the masses despite the controversial theme.

4/5 stars
IMDB

Seven Swords by Hark Tsui (2005, Hong Kong)

I was expecting a lot from this movie, since I heard from the local papers that it could be Tsui Hark's return to form ever since his less than glorifying career following his stint in Hollywood. Well I guess I was expecting a bit too much, because this movie was a huge letdown. Other than the first act, which had incredible pace, the rest of the story falls flat with no real sense of direction or character development. I felt no sense of pity or loss when one of them dies, even though I know the director was trying hard to make me feel otherwise. A few camera tricks and a bunch of high-profile actors can't save this from flopping.

2/5 stars
IMDB

Failan by Hae-sung Song (2001, South Korea)

A heart-wrenching story. Choi Min-sik proves that he's a great actor even before Oldboy here, and Cecilia Cheung simply shines as the poor Chinese girl lost in a foreign country. The ending was painful, effective I would say. Korean melodramas don't get much better than this.

4/5 stars
IMDB

The Wig by Shin-yeon Won (2005, South Korea)

Pretty average Korean horror stuff. The leading actress is really cute though. The plot gets a little too contrived towards the end, especially with the twists, but overall this movie has a few cool shots and some good scares.

3/5 stars
IMDB

Oil Storm by James Erskine (2005, UK/USA)

This made-for-TV movie had portrayed some surprisingly similar chain of events that happened with the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. However I didn't really bought into too much of the story, which is the chain of events that occured following the aftermath of the Hurricane Rita in this movie. It does stirs some legitimate thought in my head though and it's worth a watch in my eyes, especially in all the gloriousness of the HDTV version.

3.5/5 stars
IMDB

The Longest Yard by Peter Segal (2005, USA)

Trite, Hollywood garbage. My 5 bucks wasted are dearly missed.

1/5 stars
IMDB

Last Life in the Universe by Pen-ek Ratanaruang (2003, Thailand)

There are so many superlatives I can use to describe this film, but I'll only use one - Breathtaking. Simply breathtaking. Every shot, every scene is so full of subtle details that sometimes I get afraid to blink because I was afraid I would miss something. The imagery and cinematography is excellent beyond words - Christopher Doyle at his best.
The on-screen chemistry between Asano Tadanobu and Sinitta Boonyasak is amazing. The moments of silence are powerful, and the emotional impact this film had on me when I first watched it was tremendous. I've since watched it about 2 or 3 times more, once in a theater. And each time it's still as breathtaking as the first time I watched it. Also this happens to be the first movie I watched which starred Asano Tadanobu.

4.5/5 stars
IMDB

Blood Brothers by Wong Ching-Po (Hong Kong)

Very stylish, artsy, from a technical standpoint. The editing was superb. However the film suffers from an amateurish scriptwork. The twist doesn't have quite of the intended impact on me, and most of the film seems to drift along with no real direction. Also, the young actors couldn't seem to appear 'tough' enough; they looked too much like pretty boys to me.

I guess this is part of the Hong Kong 'new wave' of cinema where style matters more over substance, made popular by the Infernal Affairs Trilogy. It seems to appeal to the younger, less-focused crowd, and judging from the box office turnout, is turning more profitable lately. Another similar recent movie part of this 'new wave' is Divergence. I've been more doubtful towards anything from HK in general now, other than the 'classic' stuff like Ringo Lam/John Woo/Tsui Hark/Kar-Wai stuff. I think the industry there seems to be increasingly catering too much to mainstream appeal. The 'Twins' movies are an example of this.

3/5 stars
IMDB

The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan by Phil Grabsky (UK)

Beautifully-shot documentary, with lots of poignant imagery, and superbly edited. Phil Grabsky did a great job of maintaning the impartial tone of this film. I'm glad I don't have to live in a cave, ever.

IMDB

S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine by Rithy Panh (Cambodia / France)

Slow, haunting documentary. The re-enactments were the best part, as the former S21 guards almost flawlessly acted out what they routinely did 30 years back. Watching a grown-up man cry from from recollections of the atrocities committed during a genocide wasn't easy either.

IMDB

Bungee Jumping of Their Own by Kim Dae-sung (South Korea)

Another movie with Lee Eun-ju. Her character dies too. The melodramatic third act got me though. The intro was pretty normal stuff, but once the 'bungee jumping' of storyline goes, and the homosexual undertones set in, it was all smooth-sailing. Pretty good concept story on true love. Great sappy movie for couples.

3.5/5 stars
IMDB

Garden of Heaven by Lee Dong-hyeon (South Korea)

Boring, predictable. What is it with Korean cinema and the melodramatic third act? It just didn't work for me this time. Nice soundtrack and cinematography otherwise. Lee Eun-ju's character died in this movie, a depressing reminder of her own suicide in the real world.

3/5 stars
IMDB

Perth: The Geylang Massacre by Djinn Ong (Singapore)

Originality is an uncommon virtue these days, it seems. I couldn't understand the point of this movie, other than to rip-off Kubrick. The similarities were too common. It was like the director suddenly blacked out while writing the script and decided he had to do a remake of 'Taxi Driver' for Singapore, and a much sub-par one at that. The dialog wasn't bad, but Lim Kay Tong was the only credible actor here. The ending violence was almost worth the price of admission though. Oh man, nothing like seeing a theater full off annoying geriatrics silenced by copious amounts of blood.

3/5 stars
IMDB

The Maid by Kelvin Tong (Singapore)

I was suckered into watching this movie by the somewhat large marketing drive behind it. It wasn't bad if the ghosts actually looked like, well, ghosts. Instead we have some cheap CGI makeup. The first scare was good though, which involves a hand that came out of fucking nowhere. After that, it was back to the good old audio cues. The acting was decent at best, but the cinematography was good at some parts. The script sucked. I saw the twist from miles away.

I saw it on opening night so of course it was packed, and of course some assholes had to ruin it. Loud, pointless laughing by ignorant schoolgirls, bastards who had their phones ringing forever, AND actually answered it and made conversation for MINUTES. Hey, guess what fuckers? I didn't pay 10 bucks to listen to you assholes blabbering on the phone. Goddamnit.

3/5 stars
IMDB

Land of the Dead by George A. Romero (USA)

I thought I should wait until I've watched a proper version before blogging this, but fuck it. I was quite pissed off when I watched this at the theater since they cut out or cut short all the good stuff, that is, the gore. Argh, censorship. I only realised about it after paying for the ticket.

Being a Romero movie, the camp was certainly there, and it is appreciated. The mood and cinematography was excellent. I'm not going into the subtext/social commentary since I'm not such a great fan of Romero and don't think I really understand most of that stuff anyway. Anthony Hopkins was awesome, and so was that guy who was in Spun, Leguizamo. Needs more brain-eating action.

3.5/5 stars
IMDB

The Tai-Chi Master by Yuen Woo-ping (Hong Kong)

Awesome fights. Yuen Woo-ping. Jet Li. Shaolin monks. Michelle Yeoh. Awesome fights. Michelle Yeoh.
It's been a while since I watched this, but that's what I remembered.

3.5/5 stars
IMDB

Forever Fever by Glenn Goei (Singapore)

I have to admit, I never was a fan of disco, but this film almost managed to convince me disco was cool. Wait, who am I kidding? Disco sucks. John Travolta will always be cool though.

Aside from the low budget restraints and the weak love triangle element, it's amazing what a good screenplay, a bunch of old costumes and some transvestites could do to a film. The climax is almost as good as the one in Napoleon Dynamite. Adrian Pang delivers, with style.

3.5/5 stars
IMDB

Purple Butterfly by Ye Lou (China / France)

I rented this thinking it was an action blockbuster starring Zhang Ziyi. I couldn't have been further away from the truth. What we have here is an artsy, exquisitely beautiful movie set in 30s Shanghai, with an almost cryptic plot. It portrays the political conflict of China and Japan back then from the personal lives of a handful of people that were actively involved from both sides. I've always been interested in China's history, (especially about Sino-Japanese stuff) and this movie gave a rather interesting perspective and some insight into it. The cinematography and technical camerawork is absolutely charming, matching the relatively slow pace very well. It's a real moody and depressing film, accented by the ubiquitous violet tinge on the picture. The big band music also compliments the film rather nicely at some parts. I was so immersed in the movie, it really felt I was in the time period.

There were a lot of great scenes, most without or have very little dialog. The acting was impressive since you can really feel what the characters were feeling or thinking. Their insecurities, fears, hopelessness of the situation. There was a really long scene where the camera was just panned up close on an actor's face, and at the end a tear streamed down his cheek. Even though it was just a simple scene, his face just screamed of tragic melancholy. The ending dance scene was just superb. An excellent work of art, this is what film is all about to me.

4/5 stars
IMDB

12 Storeys by Eric Khoo (Singapore)

Truly a Singaporean film. A nice little movie full of socio-political commentary, focusing on the emotions and insecurities of residents of our island state. The low budget and lack of quality cinematography is compensated for by a great script. The main characters were all impressive in their performances. Chuan Yi Fong was the most outstanding of the lot though, playing the loud China bride with a dark background. Koh Boon Pin seems rather overdramatic at times, leading me to think that he's more suitable for theater work. That's just nitpicking though.

There were a lot of good scenes, where it's just nothing but still shots of long dialog. The music is simple yet haunting. Some parts did feel a little disjointed at times though, as if some stuff had been cut out or didn't get fully realised in the film. Watching the old commercials on TV from 1997 brought back moments of nostalgia, and that adds a bit of depth to the film. This is a remarkable film by Eric Khoo that remains relevant in current times.

3.5/5 stars
IMDB

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion by Shunya Ito (Japan)

I've always had a soft spot for exploitation cinema. This 70's women-in-prison flick starring Meiko Kaji is nothing less than a gorgeous treat by Shunya Ito. Such great direction and cinematography. It's flashy and equally trashy. Watching it just further deepens my love for Meiko Kaji among other things. It's her eyes, dammit.

4/5 stars
IMDB

Chungking Express by Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong)

Simply perfect. I adore this movie. I'm pretty sure I'll love it more with each new viewing.

5/5 stars
IMDB

Old School by Todd Phillips (USA)

This shit was pretty awesome. My only regret is not seeing it way earlier, since Will Ferrell went absolutely nuts in it. Now I know where some of the ubiquitous quotes that were thrown around before came from.

4/5 stars
IMDB

Beijing Rocks by Mabel Cheung (Hong Kong)

I read about this movie in FiRST magazine, and thought it was pretty cool. After checking it out, it's ok I guess. A nice effort by Mabel Cheung, I think it captures the rebellious and angsty nature of the underground music scene rather well at times, though I can only imagine what that's like. This movie lends a good insight into the lives of these poor rockers, even though some of the plot elements used were cliched and the screenwriting is just horrible at times. I think it's worth a watch though. Daniel Wu is such a pretty boy in this one, haha.

3/5 stars
IMDB

Crash by Paul Haggis (USA)

An ambitious plot, but mediocre in execution, and almost everything else. It went searingly OTT in the melodrama department at times and although it's a bold and compelling tale on racism, it really doesn't break new grounds or carry itself well enough the entire way. The whole connection between the different characters were abstract at best, and 'Traffic' did it better anyway, granted there were only three different storylines there to follow.

I found this movie 2 hours of tiresomely perpetuating every single racial stereotype available mixed with some preaching. It's obviously designed to win awards and be a crowd-pleaser I guess, what with the top #100 rating in IMDB.

3/5 stars
IMDB

Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi by Shemi Zarhin (Israel)

This film was such a treat to watch. It's really sweet, thoughtful and funny. A first Israeli film for me, and a great one at that. Watching this, I've almost forgotten what a good comedy feels like. Great cast all around, great script, great direction. It's so poetic, visually and in dialog. It's easily worth every cent of the 22 bucks I shelled out for the DVD by Lighthouse Pictures, even though there were no extras, sadly.

4/5 stars
IMDB

War of the Worlds by Steven Spielberg (USA)

I was so goddamned tired when I watched this at the theater. Having only 2 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours, I was dozing off at most of the middle dialogues. Anyway this was ok for a Spielberg movie. The alien introduction was superbly handled. The camerawork is fantastic, always close and never straying far from the protaganist at all times, creating a sense of personal attachment, as if it's you who's experiencing what's happening on the big screen itself.

The sound was great, other than Dakota Fanning's annoying shrieking, that is. She was seriously annoying. Yeah sure, she's a child star, and having 18 movies to her name at only 11, I can't deny that. But most people have commented that she doesn't act her age at all, probably because she doesn't have the necessary childhood experience to fall back on, being immersed in movie productions all the time. A child who can act mature is little more than a novelty, and it still remains to be seen whether she'll be an established actress in the future. You know, after she hits puberty and hopefully doesn't fall off the limelight.

Tom Cruise appears normal as the running man turned hero. It's hard to like him though now after having to hear all his dumb talk on being a Scientologist and his apparent disinclination towards anti-depressants. What a jerk.

3/5 stars
IMDB

Love Song For Rapper by Sho Fujiwara (Japan)

This obscure little gem from Japan is hilariously bad, though not in the traditional sense, or the cheesy one. It's just weird and felt intentionally bad. Entirely made up of quick cuts that were cleverly edited and shot, even though most of them were out-of-focus, it's a refresher in the genre of weird films for me. After wasting 93 minutes on seeing stuff like guts being pulled out from the rectum and laughing at a rape scene, it's really hard for me to say what this movie aims to be, or tell. All the characters are retarded and horribly-acted and the show is a cross between family drama and dark comedy. The music was nice though. Now I can finally brag about seeing an obscure Japanese movie that wasn't made by Takashi Miike!

2/5 stars
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Café Lumière by Hou Hsiao-hsien (Japan / Taiwan)

Deliberately slow and boring, I couldn't resist feeling sleepily calm while watching this. Asano Tadanobu plays a guy who records and listens to train sounds. I like how the classical tracks were randomly placed. The extremely long takes, oh god, the extremely long takes. This borders on dangerously boring. Guess I need to watch more Yasujiro Ozu movies.

3/5 stars
IMDB

Focus by Satoshi Isaka (Japan)

This film was shot in a TV documentary fashion. It's a satirical drama on the Japanese media, which were shown to be incompassionate and uncaring for anyone but themselves, willing to do anything for a 'great show'. I don't think that's not atypical of any media corporations anywhere in the world, actually. TV programmes seems to be all about good ratings these days, spinning content that caters to the lowest common denominator, and that's one of the many reasons I practically never turn on the TV set or watch TV shows anymore. It's also particularly disheartening to watch shows you like turn to shit once the third or fourth season rolls around.

Anyway Asano Tadanobu was the main reason I watched this for, and he doesn't disappoint. The show is paced fairly well, and it's incredible once the suspense builds up. The long takes are admirable, especially the rape scene which went on for so fucking (pardon the pun) long. Overall, a great directorial debut for Satoshi Isaka.

4/5 stars
IMDB

Batman Begins by Christopher Nolan (USA)

Watched it in the theater. I love the score, it was intense and suited the mood immensely, but I was rather disappointed by the movie. Mostly because of the shaky cam during the action scenes. It was just too much, and considering there was so much action this really detracted from my enjoyment of the movie. There were quite a few cheesy one-liners too, but that is to be expected with comic action movies. Also, the chase sequence involving the 'Tumbler' was way too long. Yeah it's a cool car and all, but that whole part was really draggy.

Christian Bale was good, and so was Michael Caine. Gary Oldman was ok, actually I was disappointed I didn't recognise him at first. Katie Holmes was bad and Morgan Freeman was excellent as usual. I like the 'Office Space' reference too. In my opinion, I don't think this movie can ever beat 'Batman Returns'. Admittedly though, I'm not really a big fan of Batman.

6.5/10 stars
IMDB

Divergence by Benny Chan (Hong Kong)

This was a heavily-stylized cop melodrama. There were a lot of nice shots with a great accompanying score. Unfortunately the plot was flawed and boring. Nice acting by Aarok Kwok, but it's too over-the-top with all the melodrama.

6/10 stars
IMDB

The Twilight Samurai by Yoji Yamada (Japan)

Amazing chambara movie by Yoji Yamada. Its deliberate slow pace, beautiful character development and thoughtful script has left quite a profound effect on me. The main character, dubbed 'Twilight' by his compatriots, is a poor samurai whose wife died and left him alone to fend for his two small kids and a senile mother. It was during the late Edo period, where the ways of the samurai were slowly giving way to the ways of the West. Swords were losing their significance to guns, and the samurais were beginning to lose their status in the country.

Twilight works as a clerk for his clan, keeping accounts of food stocks or something. Fate brought him to a childhood friend, Tomoe (played by the amazingly hot Rie Miyazawa), who has just been set free from an unhappy marriage to an abusive drunkard. As luck would have it, Twilight's poverty has led him to refuse marrying Tomoe, given his low income and all, even though they seem the perfect for each other.

We've come a long, long way from the days where status and caste means everything. Looking back though, nothing much has changed. Capitalism and democracy has only managed to constantly divide the rich from the poor, the majority from the minority.

8.5/10 stars
IMDB

15 by Royston Tan (Singapore)

This was the feature film, an expansion of an infamous local short by a similar name by Royston Tan. '15', or better known as that 'ah beng movie' among some circles here, is choke-full of fast cuts and oversaturated colors. It takes balls to produce something like this, especially when the government labels your film a 'threat to national security'. It was originally banned in Singapore, to my understanding, and was screened only once in its entirety during one of the Singapore International Film Festivals.

I didn't watch the short before this and I was really anxious to see this movie, but after watching it, I think the feature was a little lacking. There just wasn't enough of a storyline to keep it going. Being a film on troubled teens, it really delves into issues of abandonment, suicide, drugs, camaraderie or 'Brotherhood' as they call it, but since the actors were just street kids, sometimes you're not really sure what they were actually feeling or thinking since they didn't show it well enough. The soundtrack could have been better in some places too. It was visually entertaining though. There was a bit of violence with a few comedic touches and bits of gang-related chants being sung, but mostly it seems like just another movie editing exercise with some clever subtext. Royston Tan is obviously talented here, and I wouldn't mind him making more films, but that's probably hard when the government and local censorship boards don't like you.

6.5/10 stars
IMDB

Cure by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Japan)

This was a confusing one, perhaps fitting for a film about hypnotism. It doesn't help that I was watching it at 4 in the morning either. I think repeated viewings are needed in order to pick up on some of the subtle hints that I'm definitely sure I missed. I can see similarities between American thrillers and these, but with Hollywood flicks, things usually seems clear at the end, like the movie Se7en. However the ending here confused the hell out of me.

The subtext seems to imply on identity crisis being prevalent in today's society. By doing things according to your primal instinct, you're freeing yourself. You're not defined by society; under the surface, who are you really? Anyway this film was really creepy and the soundtrack really helped to substantiate that fact. Sometimes I wasn't sure what I heard and it just adds to the overall mindfuck.

7.5/10
IMDB

My Wife is a Gangster by Cho Jin-gyu (Korea)

Decent gangster comedy with some genuinely funny moments. Worth watching for the laughs, but it offers little else. A good thing is that it tried to keep the humor intact and going at all times, even during sad scenes. However the plot wasn't really interesting and most of the characters were one-dimensional. I guess that's what separate top comedies from the rest - solid, interesting characters. Watch out for the Hollywood remake that's rumored to star Queen Latifah.

6/10
IMDB

Judgement by Park Chan-wook (Korea)

A nice short by Park, very stylishly done in b&w. This was a story about greed and retribution, I guess. The dead body of an unidentified girl was found, and a group of people were arguing over whose kid it was. Each one had an agenda of their own. Tragedy strucks in the form of an earthquake which helped triggered a mass electrocution in the whole room, but this time only one survived. I guess he's the only one who wasn't hoping to gain something from out of the whole deal.

The score was a little reminiscent of Oldboy, to me. Anyway I love the work and quality here. It's Park first film, and it's a testament to his talent. I'm not quite sure why random stock news footage of the after-effects of an earthquake were sporadically inserted during the whole thing. Maybe it's a sign of the impending doom that was to occur, but it's probably something more.

7/10 stars
IMDB

Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha by Takashi Miike (Japan)

The very first thing I noticed about Dead or Alive is that the first 10 minutes of this movie is quite possibly one of the best intro sequence in the history of film. It was very experimental, almost surreal (snorting literal meters of coke?), but definitely genius. It sucked me in right away. So we got a brilliant intro sequence, which is followed by a 'cop vs yakuza' melodrama with quite a few eye-openers such as the bestiality scene and the one where the chick drowned in a pool of her own feces, followed by a spectacular restaraunt massacre, and then it ended on a literal joke.

I'm curious about the ending; why did he create such an intentionally crazy ending, knowing a lot of viewers would hate him for that. Any other ending where one of the side loses would probably suck, I guess. This is Takashi Miike after all, and after that mind-blowing intro, surely the movie should have an equally, if not over-the-top explosive ending. Or it could have been a surreal metaphor maybe? Inquiring mind needs to know.

7/10 stars
IMDB

Memories of Murder by Bong Joon-ho (Korea)

This was a masterpiece, or very close to one. Bong Joon-ho has made something quite marvellous with his internationally acclaimed film, based on a true investigation of a serial murder case. Set in the late 80s in rural Korea, the cinematography here was excellent, beautiful and gritty at the same time. It sets the mood rather well. The camera wasn't shy at all. There were lots of long, unflinching shots of dialog and sequences intermingled with action, and backed by a solid soundtrack.

The casting was definitely top-notch. I have always been fond of Song Kang-ho and his acting abilities, and he didn't disappoint here as the detective who prefers 'thinking with his feet' as opposed to the city cop (played brilliantly by Kim Sang-kyung) that relies too much on intellect and his methodical approach. There was enough screen time to flesh out each character, and we were treated to some great displays of violence by the detectives themselves. Also, there were a lot of dropkicks in this film. It seems the preferred method to start a fight back then was a good ol' dropkick to the face. Song Kang-ho even dropkicked someone in the face while on a slope. (how cool is that?)

One of the main things that was so great about this film was the mood. It manages to stay on a constantly dark, brewing tone, growing tense during the actual crime parts and then shifting back to the sombre mood, all while keeping the audience in suspense and managing a few chuckles here and there. This film was a cinematic feat in itself, and is certainly one of the better thrillers of our time.

4.5/5 stars
IMDB

Rewind by Kim Hak-sun (Korea)

I'm not big on romantic movies, especially when it's about middle-aged guys trying to cope with loneliness. However this film has a certain charm that makes it engaging in a way. Perhaps it's the way the main actor portrayed his life; a video shop owner living a carefree life with no higher-ups to contend with and no long-term relationship to commit to. Or perhaps it was those mysterious love letters and wanting to find out which woman was responsible for it. Maybe it was just the warm soundtrack and the alluring cinematography that leaves you wanting more.

Well as the ending tells us, fate plays quite a big role in love and affairs, and some things just don't come no matter how long you wait for them. This was a pitiful journey into the life of a lonely man who's just trying to find meaning in his life while wallowing in self-denial.

3/5 stars
IMDB

Iron Monkey by Yuen Woo-ping (Hong Kong)

Donnie Yen is such a fine actor and martial artist, it's really such a pleasure to watch him act and do stunts on film. This story is about the 'Iron Monkey', sort of a Chinese Robin Hood who steals from the rich to help the poor. Since he is highly wanted by the corrupted officials, they had to forceably hire the help of Wong Kei Ying (one of the Ten Tigers of Canton), played by Donnie Yen, by taking away his child, Wong Fei Hung, who was portrayed as a child in this movie. He too had his fair share of stunts and was amazingly acted by a girl. (woah) Somewhere in between, the two men realized they shouldn't be fighting each other and teamed up to take out a strong evil monk who has defected from Shaolin.

The fights and stunts in this film were amazingly choreographed by master choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, notably the intro fight with 'Iron Monkey' fighting the officials and the final fight where they jumped around on burning poles. It's incredibly memorable with a few moral themes and such. I regret watching this classic only now.
Note to self: Watch more classic kung-fu flicks from now on.

4.5/5 stars
IMDB

Birdcage Inn by Kim Ki-duk (Korea)

Kim Ki-duk uses silence well in this movie, from the opening shot right to the last few scenes. The movie was about a prostitute, living with a family in their 'Birdcage Inn', where their visitors are usually men looking for a one night stand. Lee Ji-eun stands out in this movie as the beautiful whore with a heart, Jin-A. Demure and fragile, and too easily manipulated. I can't help but feel sad for her as the film progresses and shows how she gets manipulated by everyone. Her own brother used her for money and sex, and the family's father and son took advantage of her.

The plot is easy to follow, with the daughter hating the whore right from the start, but gradually finding similarity in their lives, and eventually learning to understand her feelings. Ultimately this film was about female bonding, and the main reason I was engrossed with it is because the role of Jin-a was superbly acted.

3.5/5 stars
IMDB