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