SYNOPSIS: On her way back from New York to Paris, where she’s soon to be married, Julie finds herself sitting next to Antoine, an attractive cad whom she dated 3 years earlier. She’ll do everything she can to avoid him, whereas he’s counting on the 7-hour flight to win her back! It’s an opportunity for us to travel back in time and witness their encounter, their love affair, their break-up… So many incredible, romantic, and caustic scenes that will make this journey the most moving one of their lives.
MOVIE REVIEW:
With it’s snazzy opening set in New York, Love is in the Air might be mistaken for a romantic comedy starring a young Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
Done in a typical American rom-com format but with a distinctive French coating, the American looking, French actress Ludivine Sagnier (Swimming Pool) plays Julie who on a six hours flight from New York to Paris finds herself sitting next to her ex, Antoine (Nicolas Bedos from The Players). As awkward as it seems at first, Julie and Antoine recount their relationship (to the delight of their surrounding passengers) and find themselves still madly in love with each other when the plane lands.
The above is not exactly spoiler; I mean you wouldn’t expect this to be arthouse material don’t you? Director Alexandre Castagnetti with Bedos credited as one of the writers present a romance that is not entirely clichés-free but contains enough laughs and charm along the way to engage the audience. The flawless transition from the airplane to the flashbacks is just one of the magical touches including some pretty well-done spilt-screen effects.
Bedos and Sagnier makes a believable quirky couple and their chemistry is more than likeable. Adding to the fun is the various supporting cast including Clementine Celarie as Julie’s controlling mother and Jonathan Cohen as Antoine’s goofy, nurse best friend Hugo. The movie touches frequently of Antoine’s womanizing ways and Julie’s jealousy and insecurity however all these issues are quickly dismissed when the movie’s ultimate message is rather be sorry than safe in your relationship.
Love is in the Air for the most part is predictable, fluffy and of course with a conveniently staged ending throws in. Just like the Eiffel Tower has been featured umpteen times in movies; you still can’t help gawking at it whenever it appears onscreen.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Visual is clear and detailed and the audio French track is serviceable.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Comedy
Director: Tim Garrick
Cast: Nat Wolff, Selena Gomez, Mary-Louise Parker, Elisabeth Shue, Dylan McDermott, Jason Lee, Heather Graham
RunTime: 1 hr 37 mins
Rating: M18 (Coarse Language and Sexual References)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/behavingbadlyfilm
Opening Day: 10 July 2014
Synopsis: In this outrageous comedy, Rick is willing to do whatever it takes to try and win the heart of Nina. Even if this means having to go to a Josh Groban concert. But Josh isn't the only thing standing in his way. He'll also have to deal with strippers, his best friend's horny mother, the local mob, his drug abusing boss, a perverted principal, a priest with a really big secret, and his own suicidal mother if he ever hopes of landing the girl of his dreams. No one ever said love was easy!
Movie Review:
Every once in a while, a new film comes along that tries to be the touchstone of American teen sex comedies, a la ‘American Pie’. Many though have come and gone without so much as leaving a blip on the cultural radar, and this adaptation of Ric Browde novel ‘While I’m Dead…Feed the Dog’ looks set to join the pile in that graveyard. Painfully unfunny and terribly leaden, first-time director Tim Garrick throws every spanner into the works to try to cobble something that resembles humour, but it is clear right from the get-go that something (and indeed everything) feels off.
Told mostly in flashback from the point of view of our lead protagonist Rick Stevens (who also provides the occasional voiceover), it is at its heart a story of a shy awkward kid who tries to get it on with a girl at school who is clearly out of his league – in this case, that girl happens also to be the smartest whiz kid in class, Nina Pennington. As fools often do, Rick accepts a bet from a creepy looking dude in school to get a date with Nina within two weeks; and because the dude is the son of a Lithuanian mobster, Rick has no choice but to follow through with it.
We know it takes a fair suspension of disbelief to think that a Lithuanian mobster could actually be among one of the families living in suburban Los Angeles, but that’s not the (only) reason why this film plainly sucks. Besides said mobster by the surname of Malinauskas, we also get to meet Nina’s jealous ex who happens (stereotypically) to be a jock, a nymphomaniac MILF who is also mother to Rick’s best friend Billy Bender, a sister who is a stripper but somehow manages to get a place at Stanford, a brother who is a gym rat and turns out to be gay, and the local Catholic church who is somehow caught up in mob business.
With such a hodgepodge of plotlines, Garrick practically throws all semblance and logic out of the window, flitting from one story strand to another without so much as bothering about conventional elements of tone and pacing. We get that it is meant to be outrageous and raunchy, but there is a difference between trying too hard to be funny and actually being funny; in this case, there’s hardly any doubt that Garrick falls squarely on the former. To make matters worse, there isn’t a single redeeming factor to any of the characters – where at least we knew most of them in ‘American Pie’ to be sweet and good-natured, those here are simply weird, obnoxious, socially maladjusted, and pretentious.
More unforgiveable is how Garrick – who also adapted the movie with Scott Russell – singlehandedly squanders the talents of notable Hollywood stars like Elisabeth Shue, Heather Graham, Jason Lee, Dylan McDermott and Mary Louise-Parker. It is unclear in the first place what compelled these actors to sign up, but none of them get anything more than a thankless supporting part that rises above the point of embarrassment – most prominently, Shue, who we think takes the cake for humiliation by being made to get turned on with an eggbeater on a kitchen floor.
It’s also safe to say that none of the teen stars will get a career boost from this mess. If Nat Wolff looks familiar, that’s because you’ve probably noticed him as Augustus Waters’ best friend in this summer’s breakout hit ‘The Fault in Our Stars’; unfortunately, his turn as lead is probably more alienating than his supporting part in the latter film. Selena Gomez plays the same goody-two-shoes as she always does in her role as Nina, and manages to retain her Disney princess largely unscathed save for the occasional F-word. The less said about the rest of the supporting teen cast the better, who should probably not include this movie on their resume.
Even as a chronicle of teenage shenanigans, ‘Behaving Badly’ flounders with a collection of lame gags and even duller characters. As such comedies often do, it tries to up the raunch factor with one display of masturbation and several other sight gags involving pole dancing and MILF seduction; but this one goes even further to try to throw in a mini-Godfather like tale into the mix. It’s an atrocious mess to say the least – this much, we can say, it’s no ‘American Pie’ and never will be.
Movie Rating:
(Bad is the perfect descriptor for this collection of lame and unfunny gags that try too hard to be raunchy)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama/Romance
Director: Paul Haggis
Cast: Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde, Mila Kunis, James Franco, Adrien Brody, Maria Bello, Moran Atias, Kim Basinger
RunTime: 2 hrs 17 mins
Rating: M18 (Mature Theme)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 24 July 2014
Synopsis: MICHAEL (Liam Neeson) is a Pulitzer Prize winning author who has holed himself up in a hotel suite in Paris to finish his latest book. He recently left his wife, ELAINE (Kim Basinger), and is having a tempestuous affair with an ambitious young writer, ANNA (Olivia Wilde) who has her own agenda. At the same time, SCOTT (Adrien Brody), a shady American businessman, is in Italy to steal designs from fashion houses. Hating everything Italian, Scott is in search of something decent to eat when he meets MONIKA (Moran Atias), a breathtakingly beautiful gypsy, who is about to be reunited with her young daughter. When the money she has saved to pay her daughter’s smuggler is stolen, Scott feels compelled to help. They take off together for a dangerous town in Southern Italy, where Scott starts to suspect that he is the patsy in an elaborate con game. JULIA (Mila Kunis), an ex-soap opera actress, is caught in a custody battle for her 6 year-old son with her ex-husband RICK (James Franco), a famous New York artist. With her support cut off and her legal costs ruinous, Julia is reduced to working as a maid in the same upscale boutique hotel where she was once a frequent guest. Julia’s lawyer THERESA (Maria Bello) has secured Julia one final chance to change the court’s mind and be reunited with the child she loves. THIRD PERSON tells three stories of love, passion, trust and betrayal, reminiscent of Paul Haggis’s earlier Oscar winning film “Crash”. The tales play out in New York, Paris and Rome - three couples who appear to have nothing in common and only tangential connections. But there is always a third person in any relationship -- perhaps not romantically, perhaps you aren't even aware of their existence, but they are there. At its heart, Third Person is much more than a collection of love stories -- it is a mystery; a puzzle in which truth is revealed in glimpses, and clues are caught by the corner of your eye -- and nothing is truly what it seems.
Movie Review:
Not everyone was impressed when Canadian filmmaker’s Crash (2004) took home the biggest prize of the 78th Academy Awards. The Best Picture winner wasn’t as well regarded as Ang Lee’s BrokebackMountain. But hey, back in 2006, were you expecting a movie about gay cowboys to win? Haggis is also the screenwriter of the film. In fact, he is better known for his writing credits which include Million Dollar Baby (2004), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima(2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008). He takes on the director role in his latest work, and has a stellar cast at his disposal.
The movie interweaves three love stories which take place in Paris, New Yorkand Rome. In Paris, a writer leaves his wife, receives a visit from his lover and explores some terrible secrets between the three people. In New York, a woman is charged with attempting to kill her son. The boy is in the custody of his father who tries to take the boy from his mother – to which we ask: who’s the innocent party in this drama? In Rome, an American businessman falls in love with a Romanian woman and gets involved in a kidnapping case. Is this a setup, or a genuine case of a dangerous romantic relationship?
This trio of stories definitely echoes his style in Crash, but it is much less compelling this time round.: much more stylish, yes, but style and interlocking stories do not make these tales worth telling. Utilising surprisingly intimate dialogue and bizarre coincidences, Haggis (who is the screenwriter) twists and turns these seemingly disconnected stories until they eventually intersect, but the banal payoff simply isn’t worth the wait. And some of the details don’t ever make sense. One supposes that the connective thematic element is how a “third person” is often interjected into a love relationship, requiring the pivotal condition of trust, but Haggis’ execution of this concept is confusing.
The exceptional cast, all of it likely drawn to the project by the opportunity to work with Haggis, does impressive work. Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde, Mila Kunis, James Franc, Adrien Brody, Mario Bello, Moran Atias and Kim Basinger are familiar names who have delivered exceptional performances, and the fact that they share a substantial number of Oscar nominations and wins amongst them is a testimonial to the acting chops of this capable cast.
However, with so many characters moving through three stories, things can get complicated: Who’s who? Who’s doing what to whom? And why? Everyone in the film is struggling with guilt, a difficult quest or both. As the 137 minute film struggles to find a three pronged ending, accelerating ambiguity and hazy magical realism further obscure the already opaque stories.
We’ve heard some unkind things about this movie, saying how it is a waste of time and the actors’ talents, dissing it for a gimmicky premise and a contrived attempt at repeating Crash’s success. But as most films go, it’s more constructive to approach the movie with an open mind. You may not like it after walking out of the theatre, but is definitely warrants a lively discussion.
Movie Rating:
(Whether you’d be impressed by the complicated storyline is one thing, the movie’s competent performances from its stellar cast is worth your buck)
Review by John Li
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OBSESSED Singapore Meet-and-Greet SessionPosted on 17 Jul 2014 |
Genre: Drama
Director: Liza Johnson
Cast: Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Hailee Steinfeld, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sami Gayle, Christine Lahti, Nick Nolte
RunTime: 1 hr 44 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes and Drug Use)
Released By: GV
Official Website: http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/hateship-loveship
Opening Day: 24 July 2014
Synopsis: Johanna Parry, a quiet caregiver, starts a new job working for an elderly Mr. McCauley and his teenage granddaughter Sabitha. A cruel trick by Sabitha lands Johanna in an awkward one-way relationship with Ken, Sabitha's estranged father but her newfound ambition and desire gives her courage to transform her awkward doom into real contentment..
Movie Review:
Kristen Wiig isn’t quite yet known for her dramatic abilities as an actress, but we’re sure that will change after ‘Hateship Loveship’. Adapted by Liza Johnson from the Alice Munro short story “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage.”, it sees the ‘Saturday Night Live’ comedian play a dowdy housekeeper named Johanna who finds herself the target of a cruel prank by two teenagers who lead her to believe that a man she gradually develops affections for is head over heels with her.
Yes, at the core of Johnson’s story is an individual looking to find some kind of love in her life, but this isn’t that kind of tale which makes that yearning into some kind of melodrama or fairytale romance. Rather, Johnson finds a quiet repressed protagonist in Johanna the way you would expect to find such an individual in real-life, and Wiig plays the role with elegant understatement. There are no grand gestures or overt proclamations; instead, through Wiig’s nicely tuned performance, she conveys the awkward and socially painful journey which her character undergoes during the course of the film.
Right from the start, change is part of the nature of Johanna’s character. The elderly woman she has been aide to for most of her life has just passed, and the single caregiver moves to a new town and starts a new job keeping house for a rich elderly man named Bill (Nick Nolte) and his teenage granddaughter Sabitha (Hailee Steinfield) - “a new everything” as she describes it. On her first day at work, Johanna also meets Sabitha’s father, Ken (Guy Pearce), who’s estranged from the family because Bill holds him responsible for causing the death of Sabitha’s mother in an auto accident.
If it isn’t yet apparent, Ken is the person whom Sabitha and her friend Edith (Sami Gayle) impersonates, following a single real exchange between Johanna and Ken initiated by the latter who politely thanks the former for taking care of Sabitha. And so Sabitha and Edith begin a cruel trick of correspondence, pretending to be Ken over email, proclaiming his love for her and in the process making her fall for him. Johnson approaches Johanna’s transformation as if a character study, portraying with intimate detail how her belief of Ken’s love changes her as a woman from makeup to dress-up.
Wiig’s restrained acting means that she never calls out for empathy nor sympathy, not even when Johanna hops onto a bus to Chicago and finds the truth crashing down on her together with her dream of starting a new life with Ken. It isn’t just the fact that he isn’t been writing those letters; it’s also the state of Ken’s life that proves depressing - besides being hooked on drugs, he also has an on-off girlfriend in Jennifer Jason Leigh’s fellow junkie Chloe. Like she does with a house, Johanna proceeds to quietly take charge of things, and it is gratifying to see how she slowly picks up the pieces to make the best out of a horrible situation.
The same however cannot be said of two subplots thrown in with little reason except to pad out the runtime - the first of Bill’s budding romance with a bank teller (Christine Lahti), and the second of Sabitha and Edith’s friction after the latter gets jealous of Sabitha’s family wealth; indeed, neither gain much traction, leaving of course the heavylifting to Johanna to carry the narrative weight of the movie on her shoulders. Thankfully, Johnson makes her a fully formed character, in no small measure due to Wiig’s stellar turn that lets us feel her loneliness, steeliness and subsequent happiness.
Yes, this is Wiig’s show, and as good a calling card as any for Hollywood to give her a shot at the dramatic opportunities she has not gotten much of thus far. Johnson’s handling of the material is delicate and sensitive, her pacing deliberate but assured, though her writing could do with some trimming, especially with regard to finding closure for the other supporting characters. ‘Hateship Loveship’ is a charming little film, and if it seems we’ve neglected to talk about Guy Pearce and Nick Nolte at all, well let’s in closing say that they are - as always - uniformly excellent, but this ship belongs unequivocally to Wiig.
Movie Rating:
(A quietly absorbing character study of finding love and making the best out of one’s circumstances, bolstered by an elegantly understated performance by Kristen Wiig)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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MARVEL'S GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Southeast Asia Press ConferencePosted on 06 Aug 2014 |
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mike Tiddes
Cast: Marlon Wayans, Essence Atkins, Gabriel Iglesias, Jaime Pressly, Ashley Rickards, Cedric the Entertainer, Affion Crockett, Dave Sheridan
RunTime: 1 hr 26 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual scenes and Nudity)
Released By: GV
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/AHauntedHouse
Opening Day: 17 July 2014
Synopsis: Crossing new lines and breaking old barriers, A Haunted House 2 is the sequel to the hilarious box-office hit starring Marlon Wayans as Malcolm who, after exorcising the demons of his ex, is starting fresh with his new girlfriend and her two children. After moving into their dream home, Malcolm is once again plagued by bizarre paranormal events. With spine-tingling tension and hilarious punch-lines A Haunted House 2 is inspired by the latest supernatural horror movie franchises and shows that this time... it's not just the house that's haunted!
Movie Review:
You may not have heard of the name Marlon Wayans, but you certainly would have heard of the ‘Scary Movie’ franchise. The two should be synonymous; after all, it was Marlon who, with his brothers Shawn and Kennen Ivory, had come up with the idea of spoofing them horror movies by way of lowbrow humour and were at the helm of the first two instalments. Unfortunately, the studio had other plans for the third, fourth and fifth chapters, and that did not include Marlon or any of his brothers for that matter. What does a comedian like Marlon do then?
Start a new horror spoof franchise, of course. That was exactly what Marlon did with ‘A Haunted House’, which parodied the ‘Paranormal Activity’ series to the tune of a mediocre US$40 million, enough for another sequel apparently. Marlon has here reteamed with his ‘A Haunted House’ director Michael Tiddes and co-writer Rick Alvarez to poke fun at (what else) the ‘Paranormal Activity’ movies yet again - though this time, for the sake of currency, they have also thrown in a little ‘Sinister’ and ‘The Conjuring’.
With just the barest link to its predecessor, ‘A Haunted House 2’ has Marlon’s Malcolm moving to a new house after his ex, Kisha (Essence Atkins), is summarily dispatched. Jaime Pressly plays his new ‘white’ girlfriend Megan, the racial dissimilarities providing much fodder for Wayans to riff on race. Mexicans too are not spared, as Wayans ends up trading a whole lot of racist barbs with his neighbour (e.g. all Mexicans are landscapers). If you’re looking for politically correct, well let’s just say right from the outset that this isn’t the place to be.
Instead, those looking for humour of the lowest common denominator will definitely not be disappointed. An early scene in the movie has Malcolm beginning an intimate relationship with a creepy-looking doll Megan finds in an old wardrobe inside the house - and if that sounds right out of the playbook of ‘The Conjuring’, you can be reassured that there is no coincidence here. That’s not all Malcolm has to contend with - Megan’s daughter Becky (Ashley Rickards) becomes obsessed with a large box she found in her closet, while her younger son Wyatt (Steele Stebbins) picks up an imaginary friend named Tony. Meanwhile, Malcolm himself stumbles upon an old film reel of a demon who had apparently killed off the previous occupants of the house.
Considering how ripped the plot is from ‘The Conjuring’, it is any wonder what sort of scriptwriting Wayans and Alvarez did in the first place, which makes the distinct lack of any kind of humour here even more appalling. A cock-fight between Wayans and a rooster his Mexican neighbour suggests to sacrifice in order to purge the house of its demons is probably the funniest scene in the entire movie; and the great news about that is you don’t even have to sit through the whole film to see it - after all, the best bits are already found in the trailer.
Wayans also calls on some familiar hands to support his sham of a comedy enterprise. Cedric the Entertainer returns as his gun-toting demon exterminator Father Williams, and Kisha makes a return at the most inopportune time to add to the madness. Hayes MacArthur and Missi Pyle are a new supporting pair, meant to represent the Warrens who had taken the lead to investigate the paranormal activities in ‘The Conjuring’, but besides the racist jokes, scat jokes, and paedophilic-priest jokes, prison-rape is also supposed to qualify as amusing.
Yes, that’s how desperate the filmmakers are at trying to find something to make their audience laugh; unfortunately, no amount of gesticulating, gyrating, mugging or screaming can distract from the fact that ‘A Haunted House 2’ is sloppily written, poorly directed and irredeemably dreadful. We feel sorry that Wayans lost his stake on the ‘Scary Movie’ property, but once you see what he does with this new spoof, you’ll be glad that they took away the reins of that from him a long time ago.
Movie Rating:
(A frontrunner for the worst movie of the year, this dreadfully unfunny horror comedy spoof does no favours for everyone involved, in particular its star/ writer/ producer Marlon Wayans)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Romance/Drama
Director: Kim Dae-Woo
Cast: Song Seung Heon, Lim Ji-Yeon, Jo Yeo-jeong, On Joo-wan, Yoo Hae-jin, Park Hyeok-kwon
RunTime: 2 hrs 12 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual Scenes)
Released By: GV and Clover Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 31 July 2014
Synopsis: A war hero falls into a forbidden but irresistible love affair risking everything that he has accomplished so far which can only end in tragedy. From his commander father-in-law to a beautiful wife, decorated war hero Colonel Kim Jin-pyong is the subject of envy and jealousy, and about to be promoted to general. But in truth, his affection for his ambitious wife had subsided a long ago, and he suffers from post-traumatic disorder after Vietnam War. One day, Captain Kyung Woo-jin is transferred to Jin-pyongs army and moves in next door with his wife Ga-heun who is unlike all the other officers wives. Jin-pyong falls in love with her at first sight, confused with a feeling he never felt before. And when Jin-pyong saves Ga-heun from a life-threatening incident, she also opens up to him. And while her career driven husband has always been more like a brother to her since she was adopted by his family and raised together after she lost her own, Jin-pyong is the first man that she ever let in her heart. The two meet in complete secrecy and indulge themselves in their desire, but the secret is eventually revealed which can only bring tragedy to everyone involved.
Movie Review:
It’s rare to find a top-billed South Korean actor like Song Seung Hoon in an erotic romance, which probably explains why ‘Obsessed’ shot up to the top of the box-office charts when it opened in its home territory earlier this year. But lest you think this is some softcore porn masquerading as artsy drama, let us caution you that it isn’t quite as lurid as you think it is, notwithstanding the fact that much of the early buzz has been of the explicit lovemaking scenes between Song and his newcomer co-star Im Ji-Yeon.
In case you need a number, we counted a grand total of three such intimate sequences, each of which is depicted with just the right amount of passion to convey the intensity of the love between Song and Im’s characters, but doesn’t go on too long to veer into exploitation. But though we recognise why they are the movie’s selling point, there is much more to this tale of forbidden love than just these three sequences; indeed, we can safely say that those looking only for such lurid pleasures will probably go away quite disappointed, which says a lot about what the movie is not about.
Co-written and directed by Kim Dae-woo, the sumptuously mounted period drama sees Song play the decorated Vietnam War Colonel Kim Jin-pyeong, who spends his restless days in charge of training at an army camp in the countryside. Still reeling from the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder following his Vietnam stint, he is also caught in a loveless marriage with Suk-jin (Jo Yeo-jeong), the latter of which wants nothing more than to be pregnant with his child. Jin-pyeong of course has no such ambition, so their sex is more obligatory than anything else.
That changes with the arrival of Jong Ga-heun (Im), the wife of Captain Gyeong U-jin (On Ju-wan), whom had recently sought a transfer to Jin-pyeong’s unit just so he can be closer to his idol. Jin-pyeong’s encounter with Ga-heun begins when he springs to her rescue after she is held hostage by a mentally unsound soldier while visiting the camp hospital with the rest of the wives’ club. The chemistry between them is mutual - both are equally taken at first sight by the other and through subsequent gatherings between their families find their attraction growing for each other - but the titular obsession unfortunately is his alone.
Throwing caution to the wind, Jin-pyeong stops not only at learning the waltz to impress her but goes as far as to arrange assignments for her husband and his wife just so they can spend more alone time together. Needless to say, it all goes downhill for Jin-pyeong very quickly, especially when in a drunken stupor, he loses control and flies into a rage at both Ga-heun and her husband U-jin in front of all the other men and women - including his wife Suk-jin - in his very own home. It is as much of a climax as you’re going to get, as if the restraint of the rest of the movie were ultimately building up to that moment of his outburst.
And yet even though it is a slow burn, you’ll find the romance surprisingly engaging from start to finish. Kim is no stranger to such tales of love that defies social boundaries - he was the scriptwriter of a similarly racy period romance ‘Untold Scandal’ in 2003, and wrote and directed ‘Forbidden Quest’ in 2006 and ‘The Servant’ in 2010 - and with sensitivity and nuance observes how a carefully controlled character like Jin-pyeong would unravel by the mere act of falling in love with a woman that he loves but cannot own. Right from the start, one recognises how his attraction for Ga-heun would ultimately end in tragedy, no matter of course the moral implications of their extra-marital affair.
The fact that their love story is so engrossing is also a testament to the chemistry between Song and Im. There is hardly any doubt at any point that their attraction is mutual, or that the sex between them is really an act of love on both their parts - as opposed to just being borne out of lust. Kim carefully details every glance, stare and smile that passes between the two actors, and his astute choice of close-ups at every turn brings his audience closer to his two lead characters.
What is also worthy to note is how Kim fleshes out the artificial world in which his characters play out their dalliance. In particular, the strict social hierarchy that exists as an unspoken rule among the army wives (what with Suk-jin being the camp commandant’s daughter) and their subsequent disdain towards Ga-heun who is not just prettier but refuses to stoop to their level of engaging in gossip is especially engrossing - and on that same note, it is admirable that Kim doesn’t make Suk-jin out to be some spiteful lady but rather the only one among the rest of the ladies to actually behave friendly towards Ga-heun.
Yes, ‘Obsessed’ may have caught your attention for being the rare Korean drama that has a major star engage in explicit sex scenes onscreen, but that should remain an inadvertent selling point rather than its only one. It’s not often that you get a classy period romance from Korea, especially one that chooses as its setting the Vietnam War of the late 1960s and 1970s, and ‘Obsessed’ will have you in its rapture about how love can both consume and destroy at the same time.
Movie Rating:
(A career-defining performance for Song Seung Hoon, this drama packs romance and passion in equal measure for a thoroughly engrossing watch)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Chiang Chin-lin
Cast: Vivian Chow, Megan Lai, Vivian Sung, Bruce, Marcus Chang, Pauline Lan, Li Luo
RunTime: 2 hrs
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/cafewaitinglove
Opening Day: 4 September 2014
Synopsis: College freshman Si-ying gets a part-time job at “Café. Waiting. Love” coffee shop, where she befriends Abusi, a tomboyish barista who can make any coffee the customers request, the beautiful and mysterious café owner, and Zeyu, the boy who always sits in the same spot in the café who seems to be very popular with girls and on whom Si-ying develops an instant crush. A-Tuo, a college senior with legendary tales, comes to “Café. Waiting. Love”. One day where he runs into Abusi, who was the reason for his breakup with his ex-girlfriend. A-Tuo is teased by his friends, and Si-ying stands up for him and the two become good friends. A-Tuo is a passionate and sincere young man who takes on multiple part-time jobs in his effort to save for his traveling dreams, but his busy schedule also keeps him from graduating, turning him into a campus legend. At his jobs he finds friendship in Brother Bao, the gangster-like owner of a seafood joint who used to be a movie director, and laundromat owner Auntie Jin-dao, who also happens to be an amazing cook. Deeply attracted to Si-ying’s sense of right and wrong, A-Tuo introduces these friends to Si-ying, whose life becomes more enriched and colorful as a result. However Si-ying only sees A-Tuo as a good friend because of her crush on Zeyu, until A-Tuo decides to leave Taiwan to embark on his travels. Si-ying finally realizes where her heart belongs...
Movie Review:
Café. Waiting. Love. is the second part of novelist Giddens Ko’s trilogy of love stories – the first part being the popular You Are The Apple Of My Eye (2011) and the last, Achoo, is slated for release next year. The three movies, though, does not seem to be a continuation of the same storyline, as for this film, the focus shifts to Li Siying (Vivian Sung), a college freshman, and A-Tuo (Bruce), a college student who has delayed graduation for seven years.
Despite not directing this film, Giddens Ko’s pervasive influence extends throughout Café. Waiting. Love – he is not only the author of the original novel, but also credited as the Producer and Screenwriter of this movie. It is then somewhat inevitable that Café. Waiting. Love. bears similarities to You Are The Apple Of My Eye, in terms of the ridiculous events in the storyline (skating around in a bikini, and producing food from one’s head). That said, Café. Waiting. Love. holds its own against its predecessor, in part thanks to director Chiang Chin-lin.
The film is Chiang’s first full-length feature film, after working as the executive director on You Are The Apple Of My Eye. With Chiang at the helm, the film avoids being self-indulgent and overly sentimental, traps that You Are The Apple Of My Eye might have fallen into. This is not to say that Café. Waiting. Love. pays less attention to detail or is harder to relate to. Chiang does a good job in adapting the novel to film, making it interesting enough to sustain the viewer’s attention for the two hours, with unexpected twists and turns and introductions to new characters. The storytelling also makes the film enjoyable to one unfamiliar with the novel, when other adapted films might have assumed that the viewer had prior knowledge of the storyline.
Like the director, the film is the two main leads’ – Sung and Bruce – movie debut. The two newcomers play their characters reasonably well, holding their own against the older, more experienced actors like Pauline Lan and Li Luo, who play Golden Knife Auntie and Brother Bao respectively. Back to the main couple – Sung’s character, Siying, is the primary narrator of the story, who somehow gets employed in the café central to the story, while A-Tuo (Bruce) is her college senior and a college legend. After a series of coincidences, Siying and A-Tuo become good friends, and, as in all romantic comedies, A-Tuo inevitably falls for Siying. Siying, however, pines for the classic Prince Charming – Zeyu – who might not be who she thinks he is. Unlike typical rom-coms, A-Tuo urges Siying to chase after Zeyu while chasing her at the same time.
In comparison, Bruce stands out more than Sung by virtue of his character in the movie. The viewer is first introduced to A-Tuo as a bikini-wearing, roller-skating college senior, while beneath his happy-go-lucky exterior is someone hugely sentimental… just barely. Bruce does a good job in acting as the underdog for Siying’s affections, and is convincingly innocent, making the viewer root for A-Tuo as he woos Siying.
Another standout character is Abusi (or Albus, played by Megan Lai), the barista of the café, which Siying is employed in. Lai, who cut her hair for the film, is handsome and mysterious as Abusi, and manages to leave a strong impression in the viewer despite her short screen time and even shorter script. Coupled with the ethereal Vivian Zhou as the owner of the café, the café exudes an air of otherworldly-ness, which might be more apt than expected.
The film has also been said to be an exploration of the act of waiting for love, and it can be said that everyone in the film was waiting for someone else. With this theme, one would expect the film to be draggy and filled with passive, uninspiring characters. This was not the case, as although there was a lot of waiting, this was not the central defining characteristic of the characters. In fact, while waiting is necessary, the film shows that doing something about it would probably vastly improve your chances.
The film’s twists and turns, and occasional sweat drop moments, do bear the stamp of a Giddens Ko novel and his ability to think out of the box. Viewers should not catch the movie expecting it to be a copy of You Are The Apple Of My Eye, but instead appreciate it as it is – a funny, heart-warming and endearingly-ridiculous film.
Movie Rating:
(Despite coming after the wildly popular You Are The Apple Of My Eye, Café. Waiting. Love. does not disappoint, and, in my opinion, is more enjoyable than the former)
Review by Goh Yan Hui
Oh no, this reviewer is certified middle-aged. He found himself mouthing the lyrics and tapping his feet to all 14 tracks on this soundtrack album to the Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini directed musical movie. The romantic comedy features covers of hit songs from the 1980s. And this can only mean one thing – anyone who can sing along to all the songs on this CD is, must we say it again: middle-aged.
Kicking off the 49 minute album is Hannah Arterton’s (the fresh faced female lead from the movie) rendition of Madonna’s “Holiday”. This sets the fun mood for things to come, before Annanel Scholey belts out Bananarama’s “Venus” in the sultriest mode you can imagine. We love how the ensemble cast brings Huey Lewis and the News’ “The Power of Love” to life, but are slightly unimpressed with Greg Wise’s jarring vocals in The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me”. Guess not everyone’s born a singer, right?
The always uplifting “Walking on Sunshine” (originally performed by Katrina and the Waves) is a welcome tune anytime, while The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame” is a reason for Arterton to turn emotional. You’ll hear her sing her heart out with covers of Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love” and Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time”. Elsewhere, fun comes in the form of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” (Cyndi Lauper), “The Wild Boys” (Duran Duran) and “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” (Wham!).
While Arterton does a decent job, standout vocals come from Scholey, Leona Lewis (expect nothing less from the British singer songwriter who won the third series of The X Factor in 2006) and Danny Kirrane (the chubby dude in the movie). The movie’s leading man Giulio Berruti may be eye candy, but when it comes to singing, there is much room for improvement.
This soundtrack is a jukebox of nostalgic tunes which will please anyone who grew up in the 1980s. It will make you want to organise a KTV outing with your kakis to relive those good ol’ days. And yes, this would probably mean you are middle-aged like this writer.
ALBUM RATING:
Recommended Track: (14) Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
Review by John Li
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