Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Vincent Kok
Cast: Teresa Mo, Raymond Lam, Ronald Cheng, Lynn Xiong, Raymond Wong, Karena Ng, Hai Qing, Alfred Cheung
Runtime: 1 hr 28 mins
Rating: PG (Some Sexual References)
Released By: Scorpio East Pictures & Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 25 October 2012
Synopsis: Spring (Teresa Mo) and her daughter, Autumn (Karena Ng), work in a multinational enterprise of Men’s underwear run by Hugo (Raymond Wong). To win the affections of his ex-girlfriend, Miao (Hai Qing), a world class fashion designer, Hugo pretends that his business is on the brink of bankruptcy and recruits her. Miao seizes the opportunity to take revenge on Hugo and demands that he establishes a new fashion line to achieve positive results before she accepts the job offer. Hugo employs top model Jojo (Lynn Xiong) who is competition for Spring, as it is yet to be determined who will take charge of this new line. Autumn runs into part time actor, Fei (Ronald Cheng), who offers his job experience as an inspiration to Spring. Fei brings his friend, Owen (Raymond Lam), an ex-top model to help as well. Unknown to all, Owen and Jojo used to date but broke up because of a misunderstanding.
Movie Review:
Riffing on the old Chinese saying that (by a literal translation) regards men as brothers and women as laundry, this latest fluffy rom-com tries to be smart by taking on the gender stereotype and turning it on its head. In fact, it’s even gone so far as to proclaim itself as ‘the most entertaining comedy of the year for women’, but let’s just say that we can’t quite imagine how any person – male or female – would find the humour in Vincent Kok’s latest film any bit amusing.
A total of three writers - E.W.Y. Tang, Anselm Chan and Kok himself – are credited for the movie, but the way we see it, they must have gotten some mental block all at the same time. How else would you explain why none of them realised that this would turn out as unfunny as it is? And really, we’re not just talking unfunny – we’re talking boring, dreary, and downright lazy writing that qualifies this as one of the most listless and uninspired films we’ve seen this year.
Fashioned as a workplace comedy not unlike the Chan Hing-Ka pair of comedies ‘La Brassiere’ (2001) and ‘Mighty Baby’ (2002), it pits the down-to-earth mother-daughter team of Yu (Teresa Mo) and Karena (Karena Ng) against the high-powered single female Jojo (Lynn Xiong) to design a line of women’s-wear that would fit the titular theme. The genesis for it? The owner of the company, Hugo (Raymond Wong), has to make it right with a former romantic flame, Muse (Hai Qing), whom he is courting for both personal and professional reasons, after shooting off the chauvinistic remark a few years ago.
Even if we can get past the awkward premise, there is too little that proves redeeming. The central rivalry at the heart of the story is portrayed too stiltedly and genially to reflect the kind of competition that takes place at today’s workplace; and the comedic scenarios – involving a temporary actor named Fai (Ronald Cheng) whom Karena meets one night at a bar and Fai’s cousin Lucky Owen (Raymond Lam) who is supposedly popular, well-connected and highly sought-after – are surprisingly dull and humourless. When only one, where Fai conspires with Yu to steal Owen’s contacts off his phone while he is in a sauna, raises a chuckle, you know the filmmakers are seriously scraping the bottom of the barrel.
As with such slick packages, there needs to be some romance and melodrama thrown in. So in addition to Hugo’s bid to win back Muse, Owen and Jojo try to rekindle an old spark and Fai and Karena fall in love with each other. None are handled with any deftness, and their inclusion seems merely so the writers can take them off a checklist. There’s also an even odder melodramatic arc thrown in for good measure towards the end when Yu suddenly objects to Fai and Karena’s relationship due to the former’s employment status.
It’s no wonder then with so many elements haphazardly thrown together that the pacing is just lethargic. Though not the most outstanding director around, Kok has shown himself at least competent enough to direct an entertaining rom-com (think ‘Super Model’ (2004) or ‘Mr and Mrs Incredible’ (2011)), but ‘Love Is… Pyjamas’ sees Kok at his professional worst, joining the ranks of his duds like ‘Marry A Rich Man’ (2002) and ‘My Lucky Star’ (2003).
So interminable it is that even his frequent collaborator Ronald Cheng can’t even save the show. If the novelty of seeing Ronald with a black face to play a Beyonce-lookalike doesn’t seem at all exciting, then nothing else about his role here will interest you. Lam is essentially a sideshow that could have been written out of the movie, and Karena Ng is just too bland to make an impression. The one saving grace is veteran actress Teresa Mo, who ‘Zumbas’ impressively just to give the movie some semblance of a life.
The only reason we can think of that cast and crew would sign up for this movie is the chance to get a free tour of Hangzhou, where some of the co-production money came from and thus where the movie heads to in its last third. It’s easy to blame this tedium on the sanitisation required of Mainland- Hong Kong co-productions to pass the censors of the former, but really this is a classic case of filmmakers getting too complacent for their own good, thinking that a catchy premise and some recognisable casting can make up for unimaginative writing and bad execution. Indeed, there is male-oriented humour and there is female-oriented humour, but something like ‘Love Is…Pyjamas’ is just gender-blind bad humour.
Movie Rating:
(About one of the most unfunny comedies we’ve seen this year, this uninspired tedium will put you to sleep)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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LES MISERABLES OWN IT ON Blu-ray AND LIMITED EDITION DVD IN FOUR DIFFERENT BACK COVER DESIGNS EXCLUSIVELY IN SINGAPORE ONLYPosted on 15 May 2013 |
Genre: Thriller
Director: Kimble Rendall
Cast: Phoebe Tonkin, Julian McMahon, Sharni Vinson, Alex Russell, Lincoln Lewis, Xavier Samuel, Qi Yi Wu, Adrian Pang
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Gore & Violence)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 25 October 2012
Synopsis: A freak tsunami traps shoppers at a coastal Australian supermarket inside the building ... along with a pack of tiger sharks.
Movie Review:
At some point in cinematic history, shark thrillers became fodder for B-movie material, and not even the recent revival of the third dimension could rescue the subgenre from its fate (as the recent addition of ‘Shark Night 3D’ will ably demonstrate). So it’s a sad fact that a movie like this Australian- Singapore co-production ‘Bait 3D’ – whose premise can be essentially summed up as ‘sharks in a supermarket’ – will no doubt be regarded as one right from the get-go, and would have to work doubly hard in order to swim its way out of B-movie waters.
Unfortunately, neither director Kimble Rendall nor his screenwriters Russell Mulcahy and John Kim manage to restore much lustre to the ‘shark movie’ with their earnest attempt at crossing a creature thriller with a disaster flick - trapping a ragtag group of strangers in a partially submerged supermarket store with two hungry Great Whites following a tsunami. Not only are the character types which they fill the movie with forgettable, you can almost tell in which sequence they will become fish food, which pretty much takes away a large part of the suspense to be had.
Key to the plot – and therefore the hero that won’t die - is Josh (Xavier Samuel), whom we learn from the pre-titles sequence loses his buddy Rory (Richard Brancatisano) to a Great White, just after his bachelor party meant to celebrate his engagement with Rory’s sister Tina (Sharni Vinson). Picking up one year after the tragedy, Josh is still wracked by guilt and grief, passing his days as a shelf-stacker at a local supermarket. As narrative necessities dictate, he runs into Tina on that fateful day, the latter in tow with her Singaporean boyfriend Steven (Qi Yuwu).
Meanwhile, other supporting characters – also known as the ones who will die at some point or another – pop up, including the uptight store manager Jessup (Adrian Pang), the store clerk Ryan (Alex Russell) he fires after catching the former’s girlfriend Jaime (Phoebe Tonkin) shoplifting, the local sheriff Todd (Martin Sacks) who also happens to be Jaime’s exasperated dad, and a pair of thugs Kirby (Dan Wyllie) and Doyle (Julian McMahon) about to rob the store. When the wave hits, everyone else, except Ryan and a pair of horny teens about to make out in their vehicle (Lincoln Lewis and Cariba Heine) in the underground carpark, are stranded in the half-submerged mart.
Conveniently, one shark circles the supermarket floor while the other the carpark, allowing two locations from which the action unfolds. In terms of thrills, the former wins hands down, as Rendall stages the obligatory kills with sufficient creativity so each one does not appear a repetition of the last. In addition, he builds the tension aptly before every chomp and utilises just enough gore in each sequence to convey fear (but not too much that it ends up too cheesy) – so even if the extra dimension doesn’t exactly add another layer of terror, there’s already more than enough happening to keep you hooked.
Even though much of the excitement unfolds above, what happens under proves unexpectedly entertaining thanks to some low-key humour from the teenage couple Kyle (Lewis) and Heather (Heine). Most amusing is a sequence where the pair attempt to swim to safety and rescue Heather’s poodle at the same time, which ends in said pooch being thrown to the sharks – only to make an unexpected return later on. In a movie that threatens to take itself too seriously, some levity is always welcome – and the seemingly unnecessary addition of two blond airheads proves inspired.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Adrian Pang and Qi Yuwu’s participation in this movie. The two most visible bearers of Singapore’s participation in an otherwise Aussie production, both are relegated to largely forgettable supporting roles. At least Pang’s character gets a memorable sendoff (which the trailer has so unabashedly revealed), Yuwu is on the other hand given an even shorter end of the stick by being forced to utter some cringeworthy lines in his barely-can-make-it English – and when even we have difficulty understanding him, we can’t quite help but wonder how the filmmakers believe that we will buy into his relationship with Tina.
Aside from Pang and Yuwu, the rest of the Aussie cast are just as mediocre. Samuels is just about as bland a leading actor as you can get, and shares little chemistry with Vinson in their few intimate scenes together. Even McMahon’s bad-guy-turned-good character is too tame to make much of an impression, and we need not say more about the other supporting members. Humans aside, the sharks are quite visibly animatronic, and show too little signs of life to convince that they move anything like the real creatures.
With its flaws, it’s no wonder that ‘Bait 3D’ doesn’t manage to extricate itself – let alone its genre – from B-movie territory. Even with trashy expectations, you’d likely find yourself wanting more visceral gore and thrills like in ‘Piranha 3D’. No doubt the film’s intentions of making a respectable shark movie won’t be lost on the audience, but one suspects that with the plethora of such flicks out there, just being mediocre is hardly enough. And that’s exactly what ‘Bait 3D’ is – an all-too average creature thriller that fails to distinguish itself from the pack.
Movie Rating:
(A standard issue creature thriller that quickly wears out the novelty of seeing Adrian Pang and Qi Yuwu in a movie with international profile)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Action/Thriller
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Mark Strong, Edgar Ramirez, Chris Pratt, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Ehle, Nash Edgerton, Harold Perrineau, Frank Grillo, Mark Duplass
Runtime: 2 hrs 37 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language And Violence)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: http://www.zerodarkthirty-movie.com/
Opening Day: 24 January 2013
Synopsis: For a decade, an elite team of intelligence and military operatives, working in secret across the globe, devoted themselves to a single goal: to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden. Zero Dark Thirty reunites the Oscar winning team of director-producer Kathryn Bigelow and writer-producer Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) for the story of history's greatest manhunt for the world's most dangerous man.
Movie Review:
For a thriller in which you already know the ending, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ is impossibly riveting. Kathryn Bigelow’s followup after her Academy-Award winning ‘The Hurt Locker’ sees her reuniting with writer Mark Boal to tell the story of the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, beginning after the tragedy of September 11, 2001 to his eventual death in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. That’s ten years in between, but you can’t even begin to imagine the long, twisted road the CIA intelligence community had to take in order to achieve that victory.
Boal isn’t simply concerned about the top-secret raid itself, code named ‘Geronimo’ – that will have to wait till the last half hour of the movie. Instead, the bulk of the movie details with precision how a particular dogged female CIA analyst, Maya (Jessica Chastain) followed the clues for eight years straight to eventually confound the prevailing wisdom that bin Laden was hiding in a cave in the tribal areas of Pakistan surrounded by his loyal fighters. It is a tribute to the perseverance of the ‘little people’ behind the scenes we often don’t give enough credit to, as well as a good hard look at perhaps the most controversial element of the United States’ ‘war on terror’.
Following a brilliant scene-setter of an opening where we hear the anguished voices of those trapped in the World Trade Centre towers, Bigelow plunges into the deep end by cutting immediately to a “black site” in Pakistan two years later. As a new kid on the block, Maya is caught off-guard by the ferocity of the methods as she watches her veteran colleague Dan (Jason Clarke) torture an Arab man, Ammar (Reda Kateb), for information. “There's no shame if you want to watch through the monitor,” he tells her. She declines, standing by as Ammar is waterboarded, put on a collar, walked around like a dog or thrown into a tight wooden box.
There is no attempt to play up these scenes; yet in the stark, detached manner in which they are presented, it is still ugly and harrowing. A fair amount of controversy has already been swirling over the suggestion that such inhumane methods were responsible for extracting information critical to fighting the war on terror; nonetheless, while she isn’t afraid to portray the unpleasant aspects of the history she is chronicling, Bigelow doesn’t take sides, aiming to present a journalistic account of the truth – and yes, given the amount of evidence that has emerged thus far, it is almost certain that such tough means were indeed used for information gathering at least in the early years.
Perhaps equally significantly, it is only later in much more humane circumstances that Ammar offers Maya a lead in the form of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (Tushaar Mehra), a trusted courier for bin Laden. Other detainee statements – some of them obtained in the way that Ammar’s was – would strengthen Maya’s confidence in the courier’s existence, before at another “black site” in Gdansk, Poland, another detainee identifies Abu Ahmed as the trusted go-between for bin Laden and Abu Faraj al-Libbi (Yoav Levi), better known as al-Qaeda’s third in command. And so, Abu Ahmed will become the lead Maya eventually pursues tenaciously over the next eight years, who will also eventually lead her to where she believes bin Laden is hiding.
Bigelow uses two important markers of the passage of time. The first is the significant terrorist attacks which took place around the world after September 11, such as the Khobar massacre in Saudi Arabia in 2004, the London bus and subway bombings in 2005, and the Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing in 2008. In particular, the last serves as a reminder of how Maya and her colleagues, working behind their desks, were just as exposed to the dangers of terrorism, as the bomb goes off right when she meets fellow CIA operative Jessica (Jennifer Ehle) for dinner at that very location. Still, the most impactful statement of that is a tense and effective sequence staged against the backdrop of the Khost CIA-base bombing in Afghanistan in 2009 that killed seven CIA agents.
There is also real-world chronological relevance to be found in the shifting political winds. As early as 2005, Dan warns Maya, “You don’t want to be the last one caught holding a dog collar when your oversight committee comes” – and later on, Maya would watch impassively as the soon-to-be-elected Barack Obama says to a correspondent on ‘60 Minutes’, “I have said repeatedly – America doesn’t torture.” Bigelow knows better than to get caught in the middle of this debate – even if that’s exactly what the movie has found itself in now – but gives enough to let you ruminate on whether expediency was justification enough.
Because the movie is so rooted in reality, you’ll find yourself questioning how much of what you see is fact and how much of it is fiction. Bigelow casts the hunt in the form of a procedural, where details and more details matter as the analysts sieve and weave through red herrings, endless hours of surveillance, and even more months of political wrangling with the highest echelons of the CIA – namely, Leon Panetta (James Gandolfini). And then with just the same, if not even more, verisimilitude, the raid unfolds, told mostly from the point of view of the SEALs on the ground. It is damn gripping stuff to say the least, with cinematographer Grieg Fraser switching between standard and night-vision views to make it even more vicariously and viscerally thrilling.
Amidst the procedural, the film finds an unlikely emotional centre in Jessica Chastain’s masterful portrayal of Maya. There is no back story to her – what we learn about her is solely from the investigative work she does. And what we do learn too doesn’t paint her as a traditional heroine; yet we come slowly to respect her for her wisdom and determination as she perseveres against the odds to remain resolute on chasing down one single lead she believes will lead to bin Laden. Chastain neither underplays nor overplays the role; rather, she plays her character with conviction, feral yet controlled, and always magnetic to watch.
The same could be said of the entire film, which through its handheld camerawork, chapter headings and naturalistic lighting achieves a new pinnacle in cinematic realism. Bigelow doesn’t try to push a political point or for that matter advance any sort of agenda; instead, she shows it as it is, leaving her audience to draw their own conclusions about the impact that America’s war on terror had not only to the people directly involved but also to the entire nation.
Just before the credits roll, we see Maya staring out across an open tarmac with tears coming down her cheeks; yet it isn’t joy we see in them, but a mournful ambivalence. Like her, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ suggests that in looking back at the ten years between September 11 and the assassination of bin Laden, we will realise that it has been a bittersweet victory despite what might be a happy ending, with its cost and implications to be realised much later on. And even if you’re not all that familiar with American politics, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ is still a spellbinding thriller and a sobering reminder that the world will probably never be the same after September 11.
Movie Rating:
(Seamlessly blending fact and fiction, this dramatization of the hunt for the world’s most wanted terrorist is edge-of-your-seat gripping, and just about one of the most thrilling and important films to see this year)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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Smell Like BRAD PITTPosted on 15 Oct 2012 |
Genre: Martial-Arts
Director: Stephen Fung
Cast: Jayden Yuan Xiao-Chao, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Eddie Peng, Angelababy, Feng Shaofeng, Nikkie Shie, Stanley Fung, Xiong Xin Xin, Yuen Biao, Daniel Wu, Peter Stormare
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 25 October 2012
Synopsis: During Yang Luchan's wedding to Yuniang, her brother Zaiyang returns from self-imposed exile with his new bride. He has mastered an elaborate form of martial arts that amazes the awestruck villagers. Only Master Chen can sense something astray, and refuses to welcome his curiously dressed son.
Zaiyang reminds the villagers of a local superstition. 300 years ago, an unruly monk arrived, claiming that one of their former students was a rapist and thief whose rampage across the countryside was only made possible by their martial arts teaching. The monk presented them with a giant bronze bell, claiming that disaster will befall the village if it ever rings.
The villagers begin to treat Yang differently, with many arguing that he should leave. That night, the 300-year-old bell rings for the very first time, and the villagers turn on Yang. Master Chen defends his son-in-law, but Yang is forced to fight Zaiyang. Yang wins, revealing that the exiled son is a fraud with a suit constructed of tiny robots. Another remote-controlled machine caused the bell to ring on demand.
Zaiyang flees the village with his wife, but soon finds himself in debt and despair when the government forecloses his factory. Fang Zijing proposes a deal: he will pay off Zaiyang's debts but only if he joins forces to control Chen Village. Feng, with an army and a battalion of giant cannons, begins the long march to the village to avenge the death of his lover Claire.
In the meantime, Yang has been studying tai chi from Yuniang every day and every night. The horn upon his head has shrunk and disappeared, leaving him as smart as any man. When Feng and his army arrive outside the village gates, Yang, Yuniang and Master Chen fight them like a whirlwind for the survival of the village, until they are trapped in a valley with no escape.
Master Chen insists that Yang and Yuniang flee to the capital to secure justice while he fights off the forces. Just then Zaiyang appears above them in an extraordinary flying machine, bombing the army's cannons and permitting the newlyweds escape. When they arrive in the capital, they set out to seek the help of a legendary Baguazhang master who is the chef of Royal Prince Chun.
But first Yang must prove his worth, beating eight martial arts masters one-on-one before a meeting is arranged in the royal kitchens. Prince Chun appears and declares that he will only join force against the foreign army and bring justice to the village if Yang can defeat his chef in combat. However, if Yang were to lose, he would instead be cruelly punished...
Movie Review:
The ‘wink wink, nudge nudge’ tone is still there, but ‘Tai Chi Hero’ – intended to be viewed with ‘Tai Chi Zero’ as two parts of a complete movie – is thankfully so much better than its predecessor. To be fair, it couldn’t be what it was without ‘Tai Chi Zero’, which had the unenviable task of setting up multiple plot threads involving many different characters, but what makes this second-parter stand out is a considerably more assured and consistent tenor, a surprising amount of heart and some breathtaking action sequences.
Not to worry if you haven’t caught the first instalment, director Stephen Fung does neophytes a favour at the beginning with a brief recap of the key events in ‘Tai Chi Zero’ as the opening credits roll. And from where we left off, Yuniang (Angelababy) has just wedded Yang Luchan (Yuan Xiaochao), whose mental faculties were unfortunately damaged in battle the last time round. Though indebted to Luchan, Yuniang nonetheless is unsettled by her marriage of necessity – and her insecurities are not helped by the return of her eldest brother Zaiyang (Feng Shaofeng).
Regarded as the black sheep of the Chen family, Zaiyang returns from his self-imposed exile with a beautiful but mute wife (Nikkie Shie) in tow in an attempt to make things right with his father and Grandmaster of the village (Tony Leung Kar-Fai). The latter isn’t at all convinced – and for good reason, revealed only in a sepia-toned flashback much later in the movie – so Zaiyang resorts to rehashing an old legend to divide the rest of the superstitious villagers against Luchan.
You can pretty much guess that Zaiyang and his father will make up at some point in the movie, but Fung and his screenwriters Cheng Hsiao-tse and Zhang Jialu turn what could easily have been clichéd into something genuinely affecting. Not only do they tie the reason for the familial discord to the pervasive steampunk influences evident throughout the film, they also parlay the reconciliation between father and son into a poignant lesson on parental expectations and ultimately acceptance.
Even more surprisingly, the rift that Zaiyang tries to create between the villagers and Luchan serves as a prescient reflection of today’s increasingly xenophobic society, where more and more lines are drawn between ‘us’ and ‘them’. The reference might not have been intended, but one certainly could draw similarities to the rift in Hong Kong between native Hongkongers and Mainland Chinese, or even that between locals and foreigners right here in Singapore, and draw lessons on the importance of open-mindedness.
While Luchan fends off the resentment from his fellow villagers, Fung puts into place the pieces leading up to the climactic showdown. Defeated and disgraced, Zijing (Eddie Peng) is given a new lease of life by Duke Fleming (Peter Stormare) from the East India Company. Using the riches of the EIC, Zijing buys the position of Deputy Governor, and exploits that sham authority to launch a full-scale attack on the Chen village – though with Troy No 1 decimated, Zijing only has the more commonplace guns and cannons to boast of.
That’s not to say that there isn’t some fancy contraception in the elaborately staged and exhilaratingly executed sequence that pits the numbers and firepower of Zijing’s troops against Master Chen, Yuniang and Luchan. We’ll not spoil the surprise here – suffice to say that the screenplay cleverly reverses the technological advantage that Zijing once had against the Chens. To Fung’s credit, that sequence demonstrates his ability to conjure big-budget spectacle and easily puts him in the league of Tsui Hark – not of course without some generous help from his team of cinematographers (Ngor Chi-kwan, Lai Yiu-fai and Du Jie) and editors (Cheng Hsiao-tse, Matthew Hui, Zhang Jialu and Zhang Weili).
Fung also impresses with a more intimate but no less exciting climax staged between Luchan and Master Lin, whom Master Chen implores Luchan to seek help from. In case you’re wondering, the latter is a new character played by no less than Yuan Biao himself – and the veteran kungfu actor clearly relishes the opportunity to return to his heydays playing the formidable martial arts exponent. While not as awe-inspiring as Sammo Hung’s tabletop duel with Donnie Yen in ‘Ip Man 2’ (which Tony Leung made a comparison to during the press tour earlier this month), it is nonetheless one of the best martial arts sequences in a while.
Credit here must go to action director Sammo Hung, who stages this climatic bout with style, energy and creativity. Especially beautiful in this sequence is how each of the moves reference something happening in the background (note – we have been suitably brief in our description here to avoid any spoilers) and echoes the very spirit of ‘tai chi’ that the movie espouses. Hung’s achievement of course is more than this sequence alone, and his work here on each and every one of the action scenes is consistently impressive – which is a lot more than we can say of his fellow peers in their more recent works (e.g. Corey Yuen’s in ‘Wudang’).
The same compliments also extend to the cast, who are considerably more comfortable with their roles the second time round. Xiaochao doesn’t look perpetually perplexed anymore, and even manages to ace some of the more nuanced scenes. No longer just a pretty face, Angelababy surprises with her mastery of the martial arts, and holds her own against the athletically-trained Xiaochao. But the real standout here is Tony Leung, who not only handles the wirework convincingly, but also brings dramatic heft to his turn as a father heartbroken by the perceived incompetence of his child.
And with Fung intending for ‘Tai Chi’ to be a trilogy rather than a duo-logy, this movie sets up another – and what promises to be an even more spectacular – showdown between the East India Company and the Chen village. Though it isn’t as open-ended as how ‘Tai Chi Zero’ left off, the wait for that resolution will definitely be longer – since Fung has mentioned that part three is yet to be scripted. Nonetheless, Fung can rest easy – ‘Tai Chi Hero’ gives real weight to his genre-defying franchise by being thrilling, humourous and affecting.
So pleasantly surprised at the results of ‘Tai Chi Hero’ that we’d also like to urge all those who happened to be less than impressed with ‘Tai Chi Zero’ to give Stephen Fung’s bold experiment another try. It might have taken two movies for him to do it, but ‘Tai Chi Hero’ finally shows him successfully combining the elements of the traditional kungfu movie with new-age East-West elements of steampunk, punk rock and video game stylistics. Coupled with gorgeous production design from Yip Tin-Nam and a lush and lively score from Japanese composer Katsunori Ishida, ‘Tai Chi Hero’ turns what could have been a zero-sum game into a winning shot at creating one of the most definitive franchises in modern Chinese cinema.
Movie Rating:
(Rebounding from ‘Zero’, this ‘Tai Chi Hero’ is a winning genre-bending combination of thrilling kungfu, tongue-in-cheek humour and poignant father-son bonding)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Nigel Cole
Cast: Reece Ritchie, Amara Khan, Harish Patel, Meera Syal, Arsher Ali, Neet Mohan, Hassani Shapi, Meera Syal
RunTime: 1 hr 33 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Sexual References)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 8 November 2012
Synopsis: Centred around a close knit, larger-than-life British Asian family living in present day Bolton, ALL IN GOOD TIME stars REECE RITCHIE and AMARA KARAN as Atul Dutt and his young bride Vina, for whom the first taste of married life is proving far from straightforward.
Movie Review:
With the prices of housing rising so incessantly over the years, many newly wed couples in Singapore have opted to stay in with their parents until they can afford a home of their own. With this backdrop in mind, it makes All in Good Time an even more relevant movie that Singaporeans can relate to. From the issues big and small, it leads to many tensions between the relationships with the family. How should a young couple handle the bigger family issue when they have the problem of their own? Will ‘blood is thicker than water’ eventually take prevalence and conclude the story with a ‘happily ever after’ ending?
All in Good Time is based on an award-winning play, Rafta Rafta. It explores the realities that surround new couples in the 21st century, with a specific focus on Indian families living in UK. It accurately highlights the problems that new couples have with their family, having to balance between trying to create a space of their own, and integrating into the bigger family. The movie opens with a fun and vibrant Indian wedding, with lots of dance and custom specific procession to celebrate the happy occasion. It is undoubtedly a colorful and luscious affair that sets it apart from the typical Westernized weddings that we commonly sight in movies.
Subsequently as you get acquainted with the different characters in the movie, it makes the movie more fun to watch. The cast, although not that star-struck and may not even have any actors/actresses that we are particularly familiar with, made the movie worked. In particular, much credit goes to veteran actor Harish Patel, the father of the young groom. Just like how most fathers are the head of the household that holds the family together, Harish Patel plays the anchoring character in the story that gels the plot.
As mentioned earlier, this movie is based on a play. Hence, the story has something more substantial to offer, taking a melodramatic twist towards the end. Many happenings in between could be a little exaggerated to have the comedic effect, but still an undoubtedly true portrayal of the generation gap between parents and their children. As highlighted in the movie, differences in values, priorities, goals and attitudes are the key causes of communication break down between the generations. Also, although many sexual references were kind of redundant, we cannot deny the cleverness in treating a rather sensitive subject. It was a not subject of joke (but ironically it did stir up some jokes between the families) and was treated with much maturity. This is a refreshingly fresh angle since it is a topic that is often downplayed and trivialized these days.
All in all, All in Good Time unexpectedly delivers a poignant and relevant modern tale. Some may say that it is clichéd, but clichés do work well when executed properly. It might not have the kind of sensational appeal as a similar Indian-based film like Slumdog Millionaire, but it definitely has its own thing to offer.
Movie Rating:
(Peculiar and appropriate movie that has a charm of its own)
Review by Tho Shu Ling
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: Jackie Chan
Cast: Jackie Chan, Kwan Sang-Woo, Liao Fan, Zhang Lanxin, Yao Xingtong, Laura Weissbecker, Yoo Sung-Joo, Amedeo Rosario, Alaa Safi, Vincent Sze, Caitlin Dechelle, Chen Bo Lin, Jonathan Lee, Ken Lo, Oliver Platt
Runtime: 2 hrs 3 mins
Rating: PG (Some Violence)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures, Clover Films & InnoForm Media
Official Website:
Opening Day: 20 December 2012
Synopsis: Globe-trotting soldier-of-fortune JC is hired by shady antiques dealers to track down six missing bronze animal-heads by any means necessary. The six bronzes originally formed part of a set of twelve, representing the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, forming part of a fountain in the old Summer Palace outside Beijing; they were looted and dispersed when Anglo-French armies sacked the Summer Palace in 1860.
JC and his crack team of assistants first head to France, where two of the bronzes are believed to be held in a private collection. The operation to ‘liberate’ the bronzes from a heavily guarded Chateau brings JC into an uneasy alliance with Coco, a Chinese student in Paris, who is active in a global movement which campaigns for stolen cultural treasures to be returned to their homelands. Along the way, JC makes an enemy-for-life of Pierre, the chief of staff at the Chateau Marceau, and an unexpected friend of Katherine, a bankrupted aristocrat whose home contains another of the missing bronzes.
The trail next leads JC and his team, now including Coco and Katherine, to a forgotten tropical island in the South Seas, where two missing animal heads are found in a beached wreck. A multi-national band of pirates moves to block the team’s getaway, but JC’s skill and resourcefulness wins the day. Back home, JC is stunned to learn that his employers already had the sixth missing bronze all along, and he sets out to teach them a lesson for tricking him.
Meanwhile the protest movement has persuaded buyers to shun auctions of stolen national treasures, and the shady dealers are threatening to destroy the sixth bronze in public. Will JC’s conscience – and his sense of Chinese national pride – kick in to push him to save the last bronze from destruction? The answer is played out on the slopes of an active volcano ….
Movie Review:
Can you blame any Jackie Chan fan for being enormously excited about ‘Chinese Zodiac’? Notwithstanding the fact that the man himself has proclaimed it his last big action film, the movie is also supposed to complete the trilogy that he started back in 1986 with ‘Armour of God’ and continued in the sequel ‘Operation Condor’ five years later. And perhaps the most significant of all, Jackie has promised that it will be a return to the brand of action comedy he perfected in the late 1980s and 1990s – before his banal detour to Hollywood and his subsequent half-hearted crossing back into Chinese cinema.
But you know what they say about high hopes, and indeed this ardent Jackie Chan fan – who rewatched his ‘Operation Condor’ to get ready for this movie – cannot mask his disappointment at what is ultimately a mediocre attempt at trying to recreate his unique brand of cinematic magic. Indeed, even though the trademark characteristics of the franchise (remember how Jackie pops two pieces of gum into his mouth at one go?) are still intact and our beloved Jackie is still his goofy self, the stunts have become a pale shadow of what Jackie used to do – and we’re not just talking about Jackie getting on of age.
As with ‘Operation Condor’, things start off on a high note with Jackie in his much-touted rollerblade suit evading capture from a whole cavalry of Russian soldiers after breaking into a top-secret facility for reasons unknown. Decked out in the robotic-looking suit, Jackie street-luges under a line of army trucks, takes down two soldiers on motorbikes, skates along the ledge of a vertiginous mountain road barrier and barrels down a wide drain turning three hundred and sixty degrees in the process. Sounds exciting no? Unfortunately, it reads more awesome than it looks on screen, and for what was supposed to be the highlight of Jackie’s stunts, comes off slightly underwhelming.
It’s still an invigorating opening, and one that introduces the audience to Jackie’s team – his right hand man Simon (Kwone Sang Woo); his obligatory sexy female assistant Bonnie (Zhang Lanxin); and his tech wiz David (Liao Fan). Wait – did JC become a fan of ‘Mission: Impossible” in the time since “Operation Condor”? It sure looks like it, for what was once a one-man treasure hunting operation has since become a team effort. Not that the additional team members count for much though – as co-scripter and director, Jackie has still placed almost the entire movie’s focus on himself, rendering the rest quite redundant most of the time.
Instead, the movie gets its momentum from the globe-trotting plot, beginning from the chateaus of France to a tropical island in the South Seas to an active volcano in some nondescript part of the world. Employed by a shady corporation in the business of high-value antiques, Jackie and his crew are looking for six of the twelve missing bronze animal heads that form the set of twelve looted from the Summer Palace during the Anglo-French invasion of China in the 1800s. As if four were not enough for the task, Jackie is further joined by a passionate Chinese activist named Coco (Yao Xingtong) leading a movement for the return of looted cultural treasures back to their country of origin and the French aristocrat Katherine (Laura Weissbecker) whose grandfather was one of the men who looted the bronze heads.
It’s almost a carnival by the time Jackie reaches that island in the South Seas where some of the treasure is to be found, and true enough that sequence plays like something right out of ‘Treasure Island’ when a band of pirates led by Captain Jack Sparrow – or rather, someone made up obviously to look like him – turns up unexpectedly to try to snatch the gold. The result is boisterous and colourful fun, but more like something you’d expect to see in a children’s adventure movie than a respectable Jackie Chan film – and let’s just say while we appreciated the chuckles, we had hoped for more finesse.
And before you accuse us of being too finicky, we’d like to say that of all the big action set-pieces of the movie, the one we found most enjoyable was in fact the one which was most low-key. Stripped of his fancy contraptions and all the other unnecessary embellishments – including sets and supporting cast – that sequence just had Jackie taking on a bunch of guys at different locations in an underground laboratory. One truly standout scene had him in a photography studio using the equipment around to take out his opponents as the camera went on flashing – simple, classy, hilarious and more entertaining than seeing him in some rollerblading suit or, for that matter, skydiving in midair atop an active volcano.
The latter is supposed to end the movie with a bang (and erm we do mean this literally), but given that it is a CG-ed sequence (as one can see in the making of and in the end credits), it is more akin to a whimper - not to mention that it feels tacked on merely to please the Chinese authorities. That brings us to our next gripe, which is the overt nationalistic messages that Jackie now finds it imperative to help the Chinese authorities bring across. No longer just content to be Asia’s ‘Indiana Jones’, Jackie now has to reiterate at several points during the movie the “great injustice and disrespect” the Western countries have shown to the Chinese in the past.
Not only does it make the movie more heavy-handed than it ever needs to be, it also exposes his anachronisms as hypocrisy – especially when Katherine is no more than the dumb Western blonde that is a recurrent archetype in many of Jackie’s films. Sure it does contribute to the old-school charm of the movie, but Jackie trying to trumpet the discrimination of his race while relegating the other to a bad stereotype severely tests the goodwill and patience of his audience.
If we’ve seemed to paint a negative picture of ‘Chinese Zodiac’, that’s because we had great expectations of Jackie Chan’s swan song of big action movies. Age has certainly caught up with the star, who in the NG takes, seems to wince a little more and take a little longer to get back on his feet. There’s probably no one else at age 58 who can do what he does in ‘Zodiac’, but we’re disappointed because the movie could have been so much more – at the very least, more amusing and more exciting. It means little to say this is his best action movie in years considering his recent output, but compared to the Jackie Chan of old, this is at best a passably entertaining affair that’s almost instantly forgettable once the credits start rolling. As the capper to his illustrious action movie career, it is nothing less than a downer.
Movie Rating:
(Like a "condor without wings" as one character puts it to Jackie, this is a middling effort at trying to capture the Jackie Chan glory from of old - only half as funny and nowhere nearly as exciting)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama
Director: Wong Jing
Cast: Chow Yun-fat, Huang Xiaoming, Sammo Hung, Francis Ng, Yuan Li, Yuan Quan, Monica Mok, Feng Wenjuan, Gao Hu, Xin Baiqing
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Violence)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 3 January 2013
Synopsis: It was 1917, China. CHENG (Chow Yun-fat) was an innocent young man who worked in a grocery store and had no ambition, other than to be with his lovely neighbor, the Peking Opera student QIU.
But a fateful night had changed Cheng’s life forever, as he literally walked right in the affair between his lady boss and the chief of police. To hide this secret, the chief decided to throw Cheng into prison, accusing him of raping his lady boss. Desolated, Cheng met a cellmate MAO, who happened to have an escape plan. The duo broke out, and Cheng had no choice but to leave his life, and his dream girl behind.
Cheng found a job as a bouncer in the casino owned by the powerful inspector JIN (Sammo Hung). As Jin indulged himself in debauchery all day long, Cheng began to climb up the underworld ladder step by step…
Movie Review:
Just when you thought that Wong Jing’s heydays are over, the (in)famous veteran filmmaker returns with his best film in recent years. Not just that, Wong Jing’s latest also boasts veteran actor Chow Yun Fat’s best performance of late, harking back to the days when the boyishly handsome actor was the heartthrob of many with his classic gangland action thrillers ‘A Better Tomorrow’ and ‘The Killer’.
‘The Last Tycoon’ sees Wong Jing directing Fat-gor as Cheng Daqi, an ambitious man from a humble background who aspires to be a person of wealth, power and status. Co-scripted by Wong Jing, Manfred Wong and Lui Koon Nam, it tracks the rise of Daqi from his days as a lowly fruit seller to his ascent as one of the most powerful mob bosses in Shanghai to his instrumental role as a member of the resistance against the Japanese occupation circa 1937.
It is a bold undertaking no doubt, not least for the fact that Wong Jing needed to create a character that would be at least as comparable to the one that Fat-gor had once played in the iconic 1980s TVB series ‘The Bund’. Thankfully, Jing approaches the material with more ambition than he has shown in all of his recent films combined. Indeed, ‘The Last Tycoon’ is at once a love story, an espionage thriller and a gangland drama – and the combination of all these genres makes for a riveting package that is solid blockbuster entertainment.
In that process, Wong Jing adopts a character-driven approach to his leading character Daqi – and if you’ve followed any of his numerous films, you’ll agree that the statement in itself is already a compliment. Among the various facets of Daqi, Wong Jing pays most attention to two – one, Daqi as a man devoted to the women he loves; and two, Daqi as a person of loyalty.
The former gets prominent play especially in the first half of the film, when a young Daqi (played by Huang Xiaoming) is separated by circumstance from the girl he loves Ye Zhiqiu (newcomer Joyce Feng) but does not give up in finding some way that they can get back together again. After successfully reconnecting with Zhiqiu in a church, the two are set upon by an unknown group of gunmen who are presumably Daqi’s enemies – and that perilous encounter leaves Zhiqiu shaken and determined not to see Daqi again.
But of course, their lives become intertwined yet again when Daqi rises to become the powerful tycoon of Shanghai’s most prestigious nightclub ‘The Grand Shanghai’ – though Daqi is now married to Ah Bao (Monica Mok), while Zhiqiu (her older self played by Monica Mok) is married to a leading member of the underground resistance Cheng Zaimei (Xie Baoqing). Their love triangle unfolds against the backdrop of the Japanese invasion in 1937, and even if the ensuing scenes are played up for melodramatic effect, Fat and his two beautiful actresses bring conviction and poignancy to their star-crossed relationships.
Parallel to their tragic wartime romance is the tale of Daqi’s loyalty, first to his master and sworn brother Hong Shouting (Sammo Hung) and then later on to his country. Instrumental to that part of the story is Mao Zai (Francis Ng), an influential leader from the armed forces that Daqi first meets when he is wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of his buddy and then when he climbs to power in Shanghai. The intertwining fates of Daqi, Shouting and Mao Zai are told grippingly with tight scripting and assured direction from Wong Jing, culminating in a tense half-hour finale that tests the allegiances of each one of these characters.
It is no overstatement to say that the powerhouse combination of Chow Yun-Fat, Sammo Hung and Francis Ng pretty much ensure that this dramatic story angle is worth the price of admission. Clearly relishing the opportunity to share the screen together, their interplay is crackling – and even a simple scene with three of them seated together at dinner with Mao Zai attempting to persuade both Daqi and Shouting to contribute to the anti-Japanese effort pulses with tension, energy and charisma thanks to the ensemble acting.
Further to Wong Jing’s credit, it isn’t just to the characters played by the topline cast that he has given due attention to. Supporting roles like Daqi’s knife-wielding bodyguard Lin Huai (Gao Hu) and Shouting’s quiet but firm wife (Yuan Li) are also surprisingly well fleshed out. Kudos to Wong Jing for carefully delineating the bevy of lead and supporting characters and their relationships with one another, so that none end up lost amidst the intricate plot developments.
Yet this review cannot be complete without a mention of the film’s flaws, of which there are two major ones. The first is Wong Jing’s propensity for slo-mo shots, deployed too frequently either in some action scene to make the characters look ‘cooler’ (in particular, Chow Yun-Fat’s gun-wielding posture) or in some emotional scene to accentuate the histrionics. The other is his over-indulgence for onscreen explosions – especially an almost ten-minute long sequence which shows the Japanese’s aerial bombing of Shanghai that goes on for at least five minutes too long. Anyone who’s seen a Wong Jing movie knows that he is not a man of subtleties, and ‘The Last Tycoon’ is no different.
But for all his excesses, Wong Jing has as his ace none other than Chow Yun-Fat himself. Fat-gor must have known the pressures of stepping into a role and a movie that will immediately invite comparisons with one of his most iconic, but that gamble has paid off handsomely here. His commanding yet nuanced performance carries the movie throughout, and even though the years have caught up with him, his acting has matured like fine wine, so much so that we’d proclaim it pure cinematic enchantment.
Certainly, we had little doubts that Chow Yun-Fat as a gangland boss would be dazzling, but as we said earlier, the real surprise is how this big-budget drama sees Wong Jing at his best. Not only has he written a compelling story, his direction is also at his most confident, navigating the complex plot with fluidity and flair. Those who have followed Wong Jing’s prolific filmography will know that he has had numerous ups and downs, but ‘The Last Tycoon’ sees him achieve yet another creative zenith. It also marks a high note for Hong Kong-China collaborations, counting surely as one of the best fusings of talent from both ends. Grand and gripping, it is a perfect example of the blockbuster entertainment that Chinese cinema has to offer.
Movie Rating:
(Chow Yun-Fat’s return to ‘The Bund’ is grand and gripping blockbuster entertainment, as well as Wong Jing’s best movie in a long while)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Cast: Mark Strong, Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto, Tahar Rahim, Riz Ahmed, Corey Johnson, Liya Kebede
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Scene of Intimacy and Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: http://blackgold-themovie.com
Opening Day: 15 November 2012
Synopsis: Acclaimed filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Black Gold” promises to sweep audiences directly into the Arabian desert in a way not seen since the Golden Age of cinema. At the heart of its story is a young prince (TAHAR RAHIM) caught between two fathers, two loves, two choices and one destiny as oil is discovered in the Arabian Peninsula in the early 20th century. The unassuming librarian will, by the film’s end, grow to become a king, a unifier of tribes and the leader of his people. Along the way, audiences will be thrilled by stunning landscapes, spectacular battles involving hundreds of extras, horses, camels, planes and tanks as well as a timeless love story..
Movie Review:
Had ‘Black Gold’ been made about 50 years earlier, it would most certainly have been hailed as an epic – but as it is, audiences these days are looking for their dramas to be made up of more than just sweeping vistas and grand battle scenes in exotic locations, which is in fact the only selling points of this Jean-Jacques Annaud movie. Of course, it must be said too that the French director hails from a different era, he of similar epics like ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ and ‘Enemy at the Gates’ obviously belonging to an older breed of filmmakers who still subscribe to big scenic adventures.
No wonder then that Annaud was chosen for this first major international co-production by the Doha Film Institute, which had intended for the movie to kickstart big-budget filmmaking in Qatar. Certainly you can see why writer Hans Ruesch’s 1957 novel ‘South of the Heart’ was chosen as the source material – his fictional tale of an Arab world in the early 20th century divided by the arrival of Texan prospectors looking for oil has parallels in the conflicting ideologies in today’s Muslim world and could very well enlighten its prevailing ambivalence towards the West.
Pity then that what relevance this story might have is lost in Annaud’s staid storytelling – which fails to build up any sort of tension between the conflicting minds and egos of the progressive but unscrupulous Emir Nesib (Antonio Banderas) and the devout traditionalist Sultan Amar (Mark Strong) – as well as in the contrived dialogue he has co-scripted with Menno Meyjes. Yes, it’s hard to take anything seriously when all you’re thinking that what the characters say could only have come from the deluded mind of a Hollywood script doctor.
And what makes it worse is that it doesn’t seem as if that doctor had much of a story to tell in the first place – as befitting the dialogue, the characterisations and the narrative are too simplistic. From start to finish, both Amar and Nesib simply remain the anchors at two ends of a continuum, with nothing to suggest why the former is so traditional and the latter so modernist.
Slightly more interesting is Amar’s youngest son, a bookish Islamic scholar named Auda (Tahar Rahim) who becomes the focus of the movie in its second half – sent by Nesib to try to plead peace with Amar, he instead finds himself hand-twisted to lead one of Amar’s contingents in an impending war against Nesib. To make matters worse, he has also recently been married to Nesib’s daughter Leyla (Freida Pinto), so technically he belongs to both families. Nonetheless, his transformation is no more than standard Hollywood trite, as he realises that neither father’s belief is entirely right, and the best solution lies somewhere in the middle – i.e. to be a moderate.
To distract you from the clunky storytelling, Annaud enlists the help of his cinematographer Jean-Marie Dreujou to wow you with some stunning sun-drenched visuals of the shimmering desert – thanks in no small part as well to the on location shooting in Tunisia and Qatar. It’s easy to get swept up in the Orientalism, paired with Fabio Perrone’s colourfully lavish (though definitely not historically accurate) costumes and James Horner’s soaring score. Not forgetting of course the occasional grand battle sequence featuring scores of camels, old-fashioned tanks and many many more extras - coming after almost one half hours into the movie, their arrival is nonetheless too little and too late.
Given the limited scope of their roles, it’s no wonder that the international cast don’t quite know how to play their respective characters. Even character actor Mark Strong seems hemmed in by a script that gives his character little development – ditto for Antonio Banderas, whose hammy performance and Spanish accent is especially out of place in a movie that already pays little respect for authenticities. Rahim also proves a weak lead for the second half, never fully convincing as the naïve one learning the realities of his world the hard way.
So it is that even with a scale that recalls the handsome Hollywood epics of the 1950s, ‘Black Gold’ does itself no favours with a less than compelling storyline that thoroughly fails to exploit the relevance of the narrative for a similarly divided Muslim world today. If you haven’t yet caught ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, well then this just might be your introduction to that bygone era of filmmaking; but its effect is akin to being in the desert - once the shimmer wears off, you’ll find yourself left high and dry and thirsting for more.
Movie Rating:
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(Beautiful visuals and the occasional grand battle sequence aside, this epic of warring Arabian tribes proves by its clunky storytelling that all that glitters isn’t always gold)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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