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Hollywood Stars In JapanPosted on 19 Apr 2013 |
Genre: Crime/Thriller
Director: Nicolas Winding Refnn
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Tom Burke, Yayaying, Vithaya Pansringarm, Gordon Brown, Oak Keerati, Joe Cummings
RunTime: 1 hr 30 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence And Sexual References)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 22 August 2013
Synopsis: Bangkok. Ten years ago Julian killed a cop and went on the run. Now he manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation. Respected in the criminal underworld, deep inside, he feels empty. When Julian's brother murders a prostitute the police call on retired cop Chang - the Angel of Vengeance. Chang allows the father to kill his daughter's murderer, then 'restores order' by chopping off the man's right hand. Julian's mother Jenna - the head of a powerful criminal organization - arrives in Bangkok to collect her son's body. She dispatches Julian to find his killers and 'raise hell'. Increasingly obsessed with the Angel of Vengeance, Julian challenges him to a boxing match, hoping that by defeating him he might find spiritual release... but Chang triumphs. A furious Jenna plots revenge and the stage is set for a bloody journey through betrayal and vengeance towards a final confrontation and the possibility of redemption.
Movie Review:
Only God Forgives unfolds like poetry in motion, each frame like a page out of a Vertigo graphic novel.
A mysterious trail of clues revolving around the killing of a Caucasian man in a foreign land unfolds in an uncanny fashion, trapezing between figments of imagination and reality, through psychological maze-like chambers awashed in red.
The film is a dream-like interpretation of the seedy sidewalks and dingy karaoke bars of Thailand, where corrupt police officers mingle with the low life. Extremely stylised, but fiercely staged, each scene in Only God Forgives is like a meta-statement on the classic storyboard, seemingly capturing its characters in freeze-frame pose before they come alive. Refn's style is heavily mood-driven, and he relies on visual motifs and a meditative, heart-thumping track to choreograph the film. Weave in some complex mother-son dynamics into an intense script, and you’ve got yourself quite a riveting watch.
Nothing normal is to be expected from Nicolas Winding Refn, the director of the cult classic Drive (2011), who unabashedly flaunts his trademark surrealist style in this latest effort. He makes it clear from the outset that he's leading the audience into unfamiliar territory, even using the foreign language (Thai) as the key credits of the film.
Refn’s male muse, Ryan Gosling, again plays a leading role in this film, as Julian, the brother of the murdered man, on the road for vengeance, or is it something quite different? As expected of his character, Gosling continues his sombre, singular expressions that he delivers with some charisma in Drive (2011). But the real star of this film is the locally-cast Vithaya Pansringarm, as the enigmatic Chang. With Chang, adjectives like "heartless” and “cold-blooded” simply do not cut it. He is a singular force of non-negotiable evil in the film; a katana-wielding rogue officer who strikes absolute fear in his victims, playing his hapless pawns--be they good or evil--against each other.
Beyond its heady aesthetic and the hodgepodge of interesting chracters who negotiate a strange web of intrigue, the film is violent and graphic, in a manner that's a little less kitschy than in Tarantino's films. In Only God Forgives, violence takes itself a whole lot more seriously, which makes it a whole lot more terrifying. There is an extended scene in the film which borders on torture porn and can really make Tarantino eat his heart out. And even the literal image of that doesn’t come anywhere near the combined graphic violence in the film.
Despite the squeamish bits, Only God Forgives is ultimately a dead sexy film, and Nicolas Winding Refn again proves that he is the bad boy director all film school students aspire to be. There is a scene where two assassins in flashy gangster wear come onto the scene in slow-motion; the white wispy puffs of cigarette smoke that come out of their mouths strikingly contrast with the neon lights that dot the background. It's the type of scene that sears into your mind because it simply oozes with cinematic appeal--a statement that we don't often get to apply to many films of this day and time. It goes without saying that Refn’s film art is an acquired taste. It’s intoxicating and dangerous, and seductively so.
Movie Rating:
(Only God Forgives is sensuous, visually rich and cinematic; a gripping, intense art film. It may confuse a few, plot-wise, but “neat” does not always inspire)
Review by Tay Huizhen
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HUANG WEN YONG 黄文永 (1952 - 2013)Posted on 20 Apr 2013 |
Genre: Comics/Adventure/Action
Director: Alan Taylor
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo
RunTime: 1 hr 52 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Walt Disney Motion Pictures
Official Website: http://thor.marvel.com
Opening Day: 30 October 2013
Synopsis: Marvel's "Thor: The Dark World" continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the aftermath of Marvel's "Thor" and "Marvel's The Avengers," Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos...but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.
Movie Review:
Like ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘Thor: The Dark World’ finds us reunited with the hammer-wielding Norse demigod in a post-Avengers world, where - for the benefit of those who may not remember - Loki was last seen returned to his home planet of Asgard in manacles after wrecking half of New York following a megalomaniac plot to take over Earth. And so, picking up right after the events of that movie, one of the very early scenes has Loki meeting his stepfather and King, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), expressing absolutely no remorse for his actions before being committed to a glass-walled whited-out cell in the dungeon.
It’s a huge pity we say, keeping Loki locked up for pretty much the first hour of the movie; indeed, the best moments of ‘Thor: The Dark World’ are when Thor and his vengeful adopted brother Loki share the same screen, forging a shaky alliance to take down a common enemy that has united them (surprisingly) in grief. Thanks to their combined charisma, this sequel defies the second-act doldrums of most movies, truly coming to life at the halfway mark - beginning with Thor’s treacherous plan to spring Loki out of prison (with the help of his pals of course) and continuing on to the black dunes of Svartalfheim where the squabbling siblings confront their foe.
Yet, not to get ahead of ourselves, there is of course a fair bit of scene-setting that needed to have taken place in order for our favourite hero and anti-hero to be brought together under those circumstances. Working from a story from Don Payne and Robert Rodat, screenwriters Christopher L. Yost, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely spin a Tolkiensque plot where the leader of an antagonistic alien race, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), returns to plot the destruction of the Nine Realms using an all-powerful source of dark matter known as the Aether.
Long story short, a once-in-5000-years cosmic occurrence is about to converge the realms across time and space, which inadvertently causes Thor’s Earthly love interest Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) to fall into a different realm when investigating the phenomenon and be infected with the Aether. Malekith wants her, so Thor jumps to her rescue to bring her back to Asgard - though the price of his half-valiant and half-selfish (after all, he does want to be close to her) act is laid bare when Malekith arrives at the kingdom and launches a deadly assault on Odin’s palace.
Switching back and forth between Asgard and Earth, the trio of Yost, Markus and McFeely clearly struggle to find a consistent tone especially at the start. While the threat facing Asgard is treated with the utmost seriousness and solemnity, the proceedings back on Earth unfold with strained humour - whether the awkwardness between Jane’s understudy Darcy (Kat Dennings) and her new intern Ian (Jonathan Howard), or even the odd behaviour of Jane’s old mentor, Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), who goes butt naked in public at the Stonehenge. Between the two, we are much better off at Asgard, where veteran ‘Game of Thrones’ director Alan Taylor is on more familiar territory.
It is also at Asgard that Taylor will stage the film’s first stunning setpiece, which culminates in the turning point that sees Thor and Loki form that unlikely partnership. Malekith’s assault on Asgard is staged with impressive clarity, starting from their stealth crossing at the Bi-frost bridge to their aerial attack of Asgard’s defences to their storming of Odin’s palace. There is little doubt Taylor’s experience on the HBO series has placed him in good stead here, and more than previous director Kenneth Branagh, he demonstrates a boldness and imagination to stage the action on a much larger canvas.
That is also a nice segue into the reunion of Thor and Loki, which proves rewarding not just in the witty energetic banter that follows but also in yet another wowing setpiece that has the pair teaming up to outsmart Malekith. There is also crackling tension between them, especially since one knows better from the events of ‘Thor’ and ‘The Avengers’ than to trust the scheming Loki to have abandoned his insatiable thirst for power and position. Unfortunately, Loki doesn’t quite have a place in the nonetheless outstandingly conceived finale set in Greenwich, London; that said, what adrenaline Loki’s return brings to the film is still very much intact by the final showdown rolls around.
Kudos to Taylor for putting up not just a thrilling, but also an extremely fun exercise in physical displacement at the climax, as Thor pursues Malekith across multiple dimensions in the midst of the convergence. Rather than just visual spectacle, there is good tongue-in-cheek fun to be had as the characters appear and disappear from one realm to another without forewarning - and we especially like that one which ends up with Thor taking the Tube three stations from Charing Cross to Greenwich. Unlike Christopher Nolan’s superhero screen incarnations ‘The Dark Knight’ and even ‘Man of Steel’, Marvel has never failed to find humour in the midst of spectacle, and this enormously entertaining finale is a great example of that.
And yet compared to Branagh’s origin story, there is still something lacking in this sequel. For one, the narrative isn’t quite as compelling this time round - especially as Malekith proves quite the underwhelming villain. For another, it lacks the humanity that made its predecessor something more - and by this we mean not just the bond between Thor and Loki, but also that between Thor and Jane. Still, you cannot fault the assuredness of the performances by Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, nor for that matter the action, otherworldly grandiosity and occasionally well-placed humour that makes it an overall crowdpleaser - if anything, it proves the Marvel juggernaut continues to be very much in shape, no less evident from a mid-credit and a post-credit scene that will have its fans in rapture.
Movie Rating:
(Not quite as compelling nor emotionally engaging as its predecessor, this post-Avengers sequel still packs plenty of jaw-dropping action and some well-placed humour to make an entertaining crowd-pleaser)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun
Cast: Mario Maurer, Davika Hoorne, Nuttapong Chartpong, Pongsatorn Jongwilas, Attharut Kongrasri, Kantapat Permpoonpatcharasuk
RunTime: 1 hr 52 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: GV
Official Website:
Opening Day: 13 June 2013
Synopsis: PEE MAK, which is a spin-off from the well-known Thai movie NANG NAK, tells a legendary story of Pee Mak and his ghost wife Nak. During beginning of Rattanakosin Dynasty, many Thai men were drafted to serve war. Mak was no exception and had to leave his pregnant wife Nak to join the fight. When war was over, Mak invited his four best friends who he bonded during war to visit his home town and introduced his beautiful wife to them. However there was a rumor that Mak’s wife Nak had died giving birth to her stillborn baby. Is Nak really dead or was it just a rumor? How will Mak choose in the end between reality and love?
Movie Review:
You’ve probably heard of or seen one of the many adaptations of the classic Thai ghost story “Mae Nak Phra Khanong” about a soldier who returns home from war to his wife and baby not knowing that both are in fact already dead. What then makes this version by co-writer/ director Banjong Pisunthanakun (of “Shutter” and “Alone” fame) so special for it to become no less than the highest grossing movie ever in Thai cinema history?
Well for starters, it isn’t a horror movie in the traditional sense of the genre. Whereas Nonzee Nimibutr’s 1999 film “Nang Nak” stuck to the roots of the story, Pisunthanakun approaches the familiar folk tale with the same tongue-in-cheek attitude as his shorts in “4Bia” and “Phobia 2”. Yes, it’s a comedy-horror more than a straight-out horror, and the fact that we have labelled it a comedy first and a horror second should give you an idea which the film is more of.
Indeed, Pisunthanakun lets you know right from the start that he intends to entertain you, more than scare you. After a brief glance of the pregnant Nak (played by Thai-Belgian actress Davika Hoorne) doubling over in pain as blood trickles down her legs, the scene switches quickly to the inside of a tentage where a soldier is giving an impassioned speech lamenting about the cost of war – except that he seems to be speaking in Shakespearean in an attempt to add gravitas.
Just as quickly, his buddy Puak (Pongsatorn Jongwilak), whose hair is styled like a pair of wings above his head, chastises him for speaking in an accentuated manner. As the camera pans around to reveal the rest of the people in the room, you know better than to take the entire scene seriously. Besides Puak, there is Ter (Nattapong Chartpong), Aye (Kantapat Permpoonpatcharasuk), and Shin (Wiwat Kongrasri), all of whom form the quartet who brought the laughs in Pisunthanakun’s earlier “4Bia” and “Phobia 2” shorts.
And then there is Pee Mak (Mario Mauer), who is brought into the room screaming in pain but who has really merely sprained his ankle. One deliberately overdramatic battle scene later, Pee Mak and his buddies are headed back to the former’s home village of Phra Khanong for him to be reunited with his family. There, entranced by Nak’s beauty, Puak convinces the rest of them to accept Pee Mak’s hospitality and stay in the empty house across the river from theirs.
Shin is the first to suspect something is amiss when the entire village avoids Pee Mak like the plague when he goes to the market the next morning. Only the lady owner of the liquor store gives some hint why – Nak has been dead for some time and her spirit has been haunting the village since. Though the rest of his buddies dismiss his suspicions initially, Ter begins to realise that there might be some truth to Shin’s accusations when he chances upon a body buried in the forest with Nak’s wedding ring around its finger while taking a dump.
Pisunthanakun and his fellow screenwriters, Chantavit Dhanasevi and Nontra Kumwong, have great fun in the first half of the movie with Shin and Ter’s attempts to convince Aye and Puak of Nak’s ghostly nature and then with their combined efforts to let Pee Mak see the truth. In particular, their game of charades as well as their subsequent decision to kidnap Pee Mak when he and Nak are inside a “haunted house” at the village fair is utterly hilarious, qualifying as two of the most inspired comedic sequences we’ve seen this year.
Just as deftly, the second half of the movie further plays with audience expectations of just how dead or alive the rest of the characters are – we all know Nak is probably a ghost, but what about Pee Mak or for that matter the rest of his friends? Equally memorable as the two aforementioned scenes is that of the six of them on a long-tail boat in the middle of the river, the urgency of keeping the boat afloat due to excess weight and determining just who among them is or are ghosts combining for a hysterical but also a hysterically funny time.
Though purists might object to the creative liberties that Pisunthanakun has taken with the tale, he returns to its touching core during the climax set inside a Buddhist temple. Yes, if it isn’t yet apparent, the tale of Mae Nak is also meant to be a moving fable about undying love, and Pisunthanakun goes for a melodramatic but still heartfelt conclusion that reiterates the message at the heart of every retelling. Oh but of course, he does reject its tragic overtones, ending off with a postscript that is guaranteed to leave you with a big smile.
Such a revisionist take requires that his cast be absolutely clear about what each scene is meant to accomplish, no small feat considering how Pisunthanakun alternates from comedy to horror to romance within the very same scene. Thankfully, he has four actors with such great timing that you won’t sense any jarring change in tone; instead, you’ll probably be so enraptured by their seemingly effortless chemistry. Yes, Mauer and Hoorne might play the titular characters, but it is these four goofballs that make the proceedings such an unbridled delight.
There’s little wonder, when watching ‘Pee Mak’, why the movie has surpassed even the most modest of expectations to become the top-grossing hit in its home country. Rather than yet another straight-up telling of the tale, this is a surprisingly lively and inspired interpretation that makes no apologies for being deliberately anachronistic and downright irreverent, with pop-culture references from David Blaine to Ang Lee to Spiderman and even 300. Like we said, this is not your run-of-the-mill Thai horror, but a laugh-out-loud crowdpleaser that is surely one of the most entertaining Thai movies we’ve seen in a long time.
Movie Rating:
(Deliberately anachronistic and hilariously irreverent, this tongue-in-cheek retelling of the classic folk story is comedy-horror at its best)
Review by Gabriel Chong
SYNOPSIS: The first in a trilogy of films based on the enduring masterpiece THE HOBBIT by J.R.R. Tolkein, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED ADVENTURE follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who along with the Wizard Gandalf and 13 Dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands inhabited by Goblins, Orcs and deadly Wargs as well as a mysterious and sinister figure known only as the Necromancer. Along the path, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of ingenuity and courage that surprise even himself, he also gains possession of a "precious" ring tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways he cannot begin to imagine.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Everything you expect from Peter Jackson’s ultra-successful Lord of the Rings trilogy is repeated wholesale to “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”. Once again, no expenses are spared in bringing the Tolkien’s children novel to the big screen but the glaring mistake Jackson and his usual collaborators, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens made is transforming the original short material to a three-part movie adaptation.
Obviously for commercial reason, consider “The Hobbit” already made US$1 billion worldwide, the 170 minutes picture sagged a little with a rather tedious introduction before the adventure in Middle Earth begins. As a prequel to the “Lord of the Rings”, the story in a nutshell touches on a young hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) who is persuade by Gandalf the Grey (a returning Ian McKellen) to accompany a bunch of 13 dwarves led by Thorin (Richard Armitage) to reclaim their Kingdom, the Lonely Mountain from Smaug the Dragon.
Given that it’s Sir Peter Jackson at the helm, the missing of a good story is override quickly by the giddy display of action spectacle and epic adventure. Marking the first major sequence in the movie is the battle between the stone giants at Misty Mountain followed by the dwarves encounter with the goblins. There’s simply no lack of battle scenes be it the angry goblins or orcs and Jackson’s wicked sense of humour comes in the form of hungry trolls waiting to cook Bilbo and the dwarves alive. However, Jackson’s embracement of shooting the movie in high frame rate result in the credibility of the visual effects displayed on the big screen on the whole. Certainly, it is an idea that is far more risky than satisfying.
As the story unfolds, you can’t help feeling Jackson and his writers are obligated to include a few references to the Lord of the Rings trilogy starting with everyone’s favourite Gollum (An excellent Andy Serkis doing motion-capture for the famed character again) and his encounter with Bilbo in a cave which is beautifully executed, the high and mighty Elrond (Hugo Weaving), Saruman the White (Christopher Lee), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Frodo (Elijah Wood) though a huge pity that the newer characters especially the company of dwarves hardly ring much of a bell after three hours. If there’s one, its Radagast the Brown (played by Sylvester McCoy), the wacky, eccentric wizard that lives with animals in the forest while English actor Martin Freeman known more as Watson in the BBC series, “Sherlock” makes a perfect younger Bilbo with his charismatic performance.
Despite a rather bloated running time with a couple of filler moments, Peter Jackson still manages to pull off a magnificent piece of enthralling entertainment. If the visual is too dazzling for your eyes, close your eyes for a minute and indulged in the rich score by composer Howard Shore and since there’s never too much in Jackson’s cinematic world, he even throws us a haunting dwarf’s song just to complete the experience. So what’s going to happen to Smaug the dragon? We just have to wait for “The Desolation of Smaug” due this December.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
New Zealand: Home of Middle-Earth is a 7 minutes NZ tourism promo reel.
If you have been an avid follower of Jackson’s production blog then this 10 Production Videos merely port over what’s already been on the web a while. With a total running time of over 2 hours, it covers various aspects of filmmaking including on location shooting, costumes, weaponry and editing etc. unfortunately most of the discussed are shrouded in secrecy. Nevertheless, it’s an engaging look behind the extensive, exhausting shoot.
The rest of the extras include several Theatrical and Teaser Trailers and three Game Trailers.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The DVD delivers a stunning display of Middle Earth with stylized clean images and extraordinary detailed textures on every scene. The Dolby Digital 5.1 promises dynamic and deep sound effects while the dialogue from the numerous characters and creatures remain audible and crystal clear.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
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THEME SONG & MV for ICEMAN 3DPosted on 14 Apr 2014 |
Genre: Comedy/Action
Director: Wang Zi Ming
Cast: Jet Li, Wen Zhang, Michelle Chen, Wu Jing, Colin Chou, Cecilia Liu, Leung Kar Yan, Stephy Tang, Alex Fong, Raymond Lam, Stephen Fung, Kevin Cheng, Leung Siu Lung, Michael Tse
RunTime: 1 hr 38 mins
Rating: PG (Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 27 June 2013
Synopsis: When a spate of eerie murders erupts across Hong Kong two troublemaking cops are assigned to the case. Young maverick WANG and grizzled vet HUANG who is fed up with his reckless younger partner always landing them in hot water. Reaching a dead end after discovering all the victims were former boyfriends of aspiring starlet LIU, the detectives must play a deadly game. One of them must go undercover as Liu's lover to lure the killer out.
Movie Review:
Jet Li may receive top billing in the action-comedy ‘Badges of Fury’, but it is his Mainland co-star Zhang Wen who gets the most screen time as the titular detective Wang Bu-er. Impulsive and often disobedient to orders on the ground from his team leader Angela (‘You Are the Apple of My Eye’s’ Michelle Chen), he is paired with Li’s laidback veteran Huang Feihong as a check against his brash behaviour - though that consideration explained at the beginning becomes less than even an afterthought once it is said.
Indeed, there is little coherence to screenwriter Carbon Cheung’s haphazardly plotted crime mystery, which pits Wang and Huang against a killer who leaves his victims with a smile on their face. Thus dubbed the ‘Smile Murders’, the killer has claimed no less than a TV star (Kevin Cheng), a ballroom dancer (Michael Tse), a diver (real-life Olympic diver Tian Liang) and a real-estate manager (Tong Dawei), the only connection among them the fact that they had once dated film actress Liu Jinshui (Cecilia Liu).
Out of sheer narrative contrivance, Liu’s jealous elder sister Dai Liyi (Ada Liu) - whose cleavage-baring dresses have Bu-er transfixed at her buxom - is bandied as the obvious suspect until she is predictably revealed as the red herring. Who is the real killer then? Well, truth be told, it doesn’t really matter - the bare-bones plot serves merely as an excuse to string together a whole bunch of madcap gags, as well as a couple of action sequences that turn out surprisingly lacklustre.
Intended as a throwback to the old-school bumbling cop comedies that were a dime a dozen of the Hong Kong film industry, Mainland director Wong Tsz Ming does a competent enough job of stitching together a hodgepodge of - for the lack of a better description - ‘mo lei tau’ jokes - beginning quite apparently from the name of Jet Li’s character in the movie. If you can’t get that, then we urge you not to bother with the rest of the movie; but if you do, and happen to dig such (erm) ‘digs’, you’ll probably be tickled by the references to ‘Infernal Affairs’, ‘Young and Dangerous’, ‘Police Story’ and even ‘Men in Black’.
Besides these self-aware gags, a fair bit of humour also comes from Bu-er’s numerous pratfalls. A running one about playing ‘good cop bad cop’ threatens to outstay its welcome, but Bu’er’s comic tensions with his boss Angela manages to be pleasantly amusing almost all the time. What about Jet Li’s Feihong? Like we said, he appears less often than one would like him to, popping up now and then to trade some inane banter with Bu-er and then disappearing for yet another inordinate length of time.
The only reason Li seems to be hanging around is to lend the action sequences some actual measure of excitement, as he gets to spar with Collin Chou and Wong Jing. These are no doubt the highlight of action director Corey Yuen’s pastiche of kungfu-heavy sequences, the rest of which are largely disappointing in their blatant overuse of CGI and wirework. Perhaps to compensate for Zhang Wen’s lack of martial arts flair, most of these scenes are designed for comic effect, but their sheer incredulity pretty much removes any genuine thrill one might get.
Never for a second does the movie demand that you take it seriously, and if you’re going to enjoy it, you can only do so by accepting it on its terms. Instead of being Jet Li’s return to contemporary action, this is a goofy action comedy vehicle built around Zhang Wen first and Li second. There are still some mildly entertaining diversions to be had with the tongue-in-cheek humour and numerous cameos (including Huang Xiaoming, Alex Fong, Stephy Tang, Lam Suet and Stephen Fung), but otherwise this old-school cop spoof is as formulaic and middling as it gets.
Movie Rating:
(Good only for the occasional chuckle at its numerous references to Hong Kong cinema, this action comedy that has Zhang Wen as lead and Jet Li in supporting is largely devoid of thrills)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Action
Director: Law Wing Cheong
Cast: Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Eva Huang, Wang Baoqiang, Yu Kang, Hoi-Pang Lo, Mark Wu, Gregory Wong, Yang Jian-ping, Jacqueline Chong, Sukie Shek, Ava Liu
RunTime: 1 hr 45 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 17 April 2014
Synopsis: In 2013, funded by a mysterious financier, Squire Tang digs up three ancient icemen from the outskirt of China. They are Ying(Donnie Yen), Niehu(Yu Kang) & Sao(Wang Baoqiang). He transports the icemen to Hong Kong for further study but the vehicle involves in a traffic accident which unexpectedly defrosts Ying. Travelling 400 years in time to modern Hong Kong, Ying meets wasted May(Eva Huang) on Halloween by chance, who gives him shelter. With intelligence & hard work, Ying soon grasps the idea of modern society with the help of the internet. Living under the same roof, Ying & May gradually fall for each other. At the same time, he never forgets the injustice that frames him and seeks to correct history using the Golden Wheel Of Time…
Movie Review:
Let us begin by setting the record straight. We are big Donnie Yen fans. Even before he became a household name with ‘Ip Man’, we admired the kung fu star for his uniquely thrilling moves in ‘SPL’. Still, even his most loyal fans will probably be wondering just why he has appeared in one bad movie after another in recent times. Indeed, his last good one was Peter Chan’s ‘Wu Xia’ back in 2012; since then, ‘Together’, ‘Special ID’ and ‘The Monkey King’ have not only been bad movies, at least the first two have approached the point of being unwatchable, which is something we’d thought we’d never say about a Donnie Yen film.
‘Iceman’ could very well have been that turning point in Yen’s string of duds. Its source material was Clarence Fok’s 1989 martial arts fantasy ‘The Iceman Cometh’, an entertaining blend of action, comedy, romance and period drama starring Yuen Biao, Maggie Cheung and Yuen Wah. Its budget is an eye-popping HK$200 million dollars. And even before its release, there has been much hype about a climactic sequence set on Hong Kong’s iconic Tsing Ma Bridge which cost an additional HK$50 million dollars to film because the authorities wouldn’t give the filmmakers permission to do so on location. In essence, this Captain America of the East was supposed to be big-budget action blockbuster spectacle, weighty enough to warrant a two-parter release not unlike ‘Red Cliff’.
Yet after all that hype, ‘Iceman’ is worse than ‘The Monkey King’ and almost as bad as ‘Special ID’. Much of that has to do with the tonally incoherent plot by Lam Fung which manages to be overplotted and dramatically undernourished at the same time. Working upon the original’s concept of a Ming Dynasty warrior who awakens 400 years later to find himself in modern-day Hong Kong and continue a feud that began as far back, Lam throws in multiple subplots criss-crossing present and past. There is Yen’s search for a time-travelling Golden Wheel of Time that is operated by a key called the Linga (which is really the “enormous penis” of the Indian deity Shiva). There is a corrupt Police Commissioner (Simon Yam) bent on recovering Yen and his fellow frozen guards to apparently sell them to the North Koreans. And last but not least, there is Yen’s budding romance with a nightclub hostess (Eva Huang), who is caring for her sickly mother in an expensive old folks’ home.
The combination of so many disparate parts makes for an extremely disjointed whole, and it doesn’t help that director Law Wing Cheong seems entirely overwhelmed at maintaining some semblance of coherence. His storytelling lurches backwards and forwards across time with little narrative flow or momentum - and what makes it worse is just how tonally jarring the shifts are, from comedy to romance to period fantasy and then to surprisingly graphic action. Law also seems to have gone way out of his league from the Johnnie To-like rom-coms (‘2 Become 1’ and ‘Hooked on You’) and crime dramas (‘Punished’) to large-scale blockbuster territory - notwithstanding his little-seen ‘The Wrath of Vajra’ last year - and simply lost his footing even on the very basic level of staging a compelling enough sequence.
The same could be said of lead star and action director Donnie Yen. Even when everything else was a letdown, the very marquee name of Yen promised that at least the action would not disappoint; alas not even in that regard does ‘Iceman’ count for anything. Save for the much touted finale on the Tsing Ma bridge, the rest of the action sequences here seem almost like an afterthought, too reliant on the kind of unrealistic wirework that B-grade properties oft relied on. And when we finally end up on the bridge, Yen becomes too obsessed with making this a 3D movie by hurling all sorts of weaponry towards his audience that it just becomes too gimmicky to take seriously. It is scant compensation for the seemingly interminable one half hour wait, and ultimately disappointing because neither Wang Baoqiang nor Kang Yu as his nemeses are anywhere near close to being Yen’s worthy onscreen opponents.
There are occasional pleasures though, and these often occur at times when the movie simply refuses to take itself seriously. We’re not denying that these slapstick moments will be utterly cringe-worthy to many, but hey we take what we can get. For instance, we laughed when Yen first bursts out of his cryogenic tomb and shoots his piss like a water cannon. Ditto for his favourite catchphrase literally translated as ‘your mother’s breasts’ in Chinese. Same goes when he blows up a toilet bowl and the cops on whom the manure is splattered on mutters ‘Holy shit!’. Or how about when Wang and Yu start learning words like ‘chicken curry spaghetti’ from a gang of Indian grifters after saving them from the cops? There are also other fish-out-of-water comedic moments that border or belong in cheese, but that’s the only kind of entertainment you’re going to get out of ‘Iceman’.
If you’re going to try to enjoy ‘Iceman’ therefore, it’s important to set your expectations just right. Don’t go in expecting the kind of popcorn blockbuster that ‘Captain America’ ever was, for Chinese cinema has yet to produce a modern-day superhero movie that didn’t suck (think Benny Chan’s ‘City Under Siege’). Don’t go in expecting the kind of good old-fashioned martial arts action Donnie Yen presented in ‘Ip Man’ or the kind of gritty MMA fighting in ‘SPL’ or ‘Special ID’, for there is nothing but a gimmicky 3D sequence right at the end that matters at all. And don’t go in expecting this to be any better than Yen’s recent batch of movies, for this is just one more in a bad streak that we hope will be frozen forever in time.
Movie Rating:
(Unless you think a key to a time-traveling device made up of a deity’s enormous penis or Donnie Yen’s ability to piss like a water cannon is your idea of entertainment, this ‘Iceman’ will freeze you right over)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Erotic/Thriller
Director: Sion Sono
Cast: Miki Mizumo, Makoto Togashi, Megumi Kagurazaka
RunTime: 1 hr 54 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual Content)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: http://www.koi-tumi.com/index.html
Opening Day: 16 May 2013
Synopsis: The new crime noir from the award-winning director Sion Sono (Love Exposure, Cold Fish) — tells the tale of three women entangled in a mystery...a mystery that is the gate to a hell-bound love like no other!
Movie Review:
“Guilty of Romance” is a 2011 film from internationally acclaimed director-writer Sion Sono. His movies are known to challenge deep seated issues in society, which are often neglected or conveniently swept under the carpet. One of the first few films that brought him such reputation was Suicide Club (2001). It was also one of the key films that won him a significant cult follow, both in Japan and internationally.
Akin to many of Sion’s films, “Guilty of Romance” adopts a dark tone. To set the background right, the movie is loosely based on a high profile murder case in 1997 of Yasuka Watanabe, who held a respectable position at TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), but moonlights as a prostitute at the love hotel district in Shibuya, Tokyo. Although the synopsis says that it tells the tale of three women, the bulk of it concentrates on the relationship between two women: Izumi (Megumi Kagurazakan), the ideal wife that takes good care of the home while the husband is away, and Mitsuko (Makoto Togashi), an associate professor in Literature of a reputable university.
The movie began with showing the work of a brutal murder case of a female victim found in an abandoned apartment in the love hotel district in Shibuya. Then it wastes no slack to introduce Izumi, delving into her mundane, routine and lonely life of being the stay-home wife. She represents someone whose life is mainly ordered around others, and for her case, the husband. Love and sex wise, she is also pretty much deprived; with many wild and sassy thoughts running through her mind, but nothing happening in actuality. Ironically, the husband is an erotic novelist.
One day, Izumi decided that she needs to break out of this cycle, to do something for her own sake before she turns 30. However, serendipity led her to engage in a line of business that she had never thought of doing. She unknowingly discovered her vice, and continued on to feed her lust and to beef up her confidence. It also led Izumi and Mitsuko to cross path. Since, Izumi devoted her trust and dedication to Mitsuko, following and picking up ‘the way of life’ from her.
This movie was really engaging and captivating in many ways. From the point when Mistuko entered Izumi’s life, the story became a lot more packed, with the development of Izumi’s character, and Mistuko’s dark past haunting back at her. Their relationship and exchanges were particularly intriguing to watch. As the story progresses, leading to the turn of events to unveil the truth behind the murder, it peaked at a point where the two women let loose of their emotions, going into flux between extreme exasperation and desperation. It simply leads people to wonder, “How wrecked can one go?”, “Just who are you trusting?”
The reviewer wishes she can go on at length to explain the brilliance of the movie, but she shall leave that for you to find out. All in all, the movie takes no wimpy approach to deal and explore the ‘real issues’. The success is also held together by the actresses’ who truly devoted themselves to the role and the well worked angles that give the extra thrill. And perhaps because this movie was set in a busy and modern city like Shibuya, it bears eerily similar characteristics to our Orchard Road, which certainly makes it even more resonating. In closing, here is a section of the poem, On my way home by Ryuichi Tamura, which was cited in the movie several times. May it stir you up as much as it did for me:
I should never have learned words
Simply because I know Japanese and bits of a foreign tongue
I stand still in your tears
I come back alone into your blood
Movie Rating:
(Sion Sono has scored once again. A true work of excellence! Alluring and insane at the same time)
Review by Tho Shu Ling
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