SYNOPSIS: Can one beat fate at its own game? When a madcap fortune teller named The Master (Gordon Lam) crosses path with “born psychopath” Siu-tong (Lokman Yeung), he foresees the young man is destined to murder. Using every feng shui trick in the book to change fate itself, the unlikely duo begins a peculiar song and dance, engulfing themselves in a world of omens, signs, portents and visions teetering on the edge of complete psychic annihilation at every turn. Meanwhile, a veteran detective is on their trail, convinced to pin a murder, while The Killer is still on the loose — leaving a gruesome trail of bodies for all to get tangled into… a cosmic game of chess pulled by the messy strings of a mad, mad, mad fate.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Some people believe our fate is sealed since the day we were born while some believe there is a way to alter our fate perhaps through “feng shui” or through some bizarre religious rituals.
Mad Fate, the latest thriller from Milkyway’s regular writer You Nai-hoi (Running on Karma, My Left Eye Sees Ghost) and director Soi Cheang (Accident, Limbo) deals on the topic of fate through the eyes of fortune teller (Gordon Lam) and Siu-tung (Lokman Yeung from HK Cantopop group, Mirror).
From the gripping opening, we see the Master or fortune-teller conducting a ritual in a graveyard for his client who is a prostitute by the way. We learned that he is trying to cheat the fate of his client whom he declared will “die” very soon if she did not complete the ritual. As fate would have it, the client left before the ritual is done and she ended up being murdered by a serial killer (Peter Chan) the very night.
Soi and You quickly build things up by introducing a food delivery man, Siu-tung into the mix. Siu-tung is no ordinary guy, he is a man with a tendency for violence, a man that has no remorse or conscience. And with our main characters being introduced, the Master, the serial killer and the destined killer yet we are still wondering if this is a supernatural thriller, a psychological thriller or simply, a mystery crime thriller.
The serial killer story is set aside after the prologue with the narrative focusing on the Master trying his best to alter the fate of Siu-tung. Part mad-cap energy, part comedy, Lam is a hoot as the enthusiastic master on the journey to cure Siu-tung of his desire to commit a murder. Yeung on the other hand is unmistakingly creepy as the cat killer and the one responsible for the disfiguring of his sister. Their outbursts and exchanges are compelling but at times, it’s hard to distinguish who is actually the mad one. The master or Siu-tung?
Needless to say, Mad Fate is very philosophical even metaphorical to an extent. Say what you want, there’s frequent shots of an ant drowning in a puddle of water. The absurdity of fate where the Master believes he will go mad one day given both his parents suffered from mental illness. In other words, there are fates that can be changed and of course, there are those that are already sealed by fate.
Milkyway regulars David Richardson and Cheung Siu-keung returns to the editing room and cinematography department respectively to lend their talents to this Made-In-HK production. All in all, Mad Fate is a mesmerising watch with exceptional strong performances from Lam and Yeung, unfortunately its not everyone’s cup of tea given it’s complex ideology.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: BOTTOMS, a refreshingly unique raunchy comedy, focuses on two girls, PJ and Josie, who start a fight club as a way to lose their virginities to cheerleaders. Their bizarre plan works. The fight club gains traction and soon the most popular girls in school are beating each other up in the name of self-defense. But PJ and Josie find themselves in over their heads and in need of a way out before their plan is exposed.
MOVIE REVIEW:
After the success of American Pie, raunchy teen comedies regularly ruled the big screens until superheroes and stuff make things impossible.
Not all is lost however. With the increased demand for streaming titles, here comes Amazon Prime, an outlet that is perfect for low-brow, queer comedies liked Bottoms.
Openly lesbian high school friends, PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are students at their local high school. Unpopular and weird, both developed crushes on cheerleaders, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber) and vows to lose their virginities before college.
In order to avoid expulsion after an argument with the school’s so-called hottest, masculine football player, Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), PJ and Josie lies to their principal that they are actually forming an all-girls self-defense club with the help of another friend, Hazel (Ruby Cruz). Secretly, their aim is to attract pretty girls to the club and seduce them into having sex with the duo.
Bottoms is the answer to a queer Fight Club if anyone cares for it. Writer/director Emma Seligman and co-writer Rachel Sennott furiously piles on the jokes and violence in this twisted comedy. At times, it’s a satire on all the hot-blooded manly action movies and sometimes it’s just a loud, brash celebration on feminist.
Obviously, there’s some precious life lessons to be learn when the real intentions of PJ and Josie are unearthed by a zealous football player. Yet the comedy doesn’t stop there when the girls found out that the longtime rivals of the school’s football team are planning to poison Jeff which leads to a haphazard, ridiculous finale.
Comparing Bottoms to another popular LGBT+ comedy, Booksmart, the former is too loose and unhinged to be a defining memorable effort despite the good pairing of Sennott and Edebiri (which reminds us of Jonah Hill and Michael Cera in Superbad) and some laugh-out-loud moments. Still, it makes the mark for an enjoyable, raunchy teen comedy if you prefer something different from the usual serving.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: After a deadly earthquake turns Seoul into a lawless badland, a fearless huntsman springs into action to rescue a teenager abducted by a mad doctor.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee (The Roundup, Eternals) replaces Lee Byun-hun as the lead in this supposedly follow up to the acclaimed Concrete Utopia. Other than the finale which took place at the same intact apartment building, nothing else connects to the events that happened prior.
In the post-apocalyptic world formerly known as Seoul, survivors gather in various camps surviving on minimal clean water and food. And in one such camp, there’s Nam-san (Lee), Ji-wan (Lee Jun-young), Su-na (Ron Jeong-eui) and her grandma.
One day, a group of mysterious survivors from the last standing apartment promises food, clean water and medical facility to Su-na and her grandmother, they took up the offer not knowing an evil doctor, Yang Gi-su (Lee Hee-soon) and his soldiers are kidnapping teenagers for horrifying experiments.
Together with an ex-soldier, Eun-ho (Ahn Ji-hye), the reluctant Nam-san has to spring into action to rescue Su-na in this action-oriented adventure known as Badland Hunters.
From a story perspective, Badland Hunters lacks the depth and social commentary of Concrete Utopia to make much of an impression. In fact, it’s best to leave the latter out of the picture if you want to enjoy the former.
The entire setup is basically a cut-and-paste exercise from other better similar-theme Korean and Hollywood movies. In a noble attempt to save mankind and his only daughter, the doctor becomes a modern-day Victor Frankenstein and turns people into mutated beings and zombies.
And with that, martial-arts director turned director Heo Myeong-haeng has to rely on the always watchable Don Lee and Ahn Ji-hye to keep the movie going. The action is insane and presented often in a bloody, violent manner and definitely not for the squeamish. Lee continues to smash his way through like a human bulldozer knocking out thugs, more thugs, soldiers and a zombified commander.
There’s little originality throughout with the exception of Lee’s character chopping off the head of a crocodile in the prologue. Perhaps it’s a better movie with Nam-san being a Korean version of Crocodile Dundee. Too bad, what you have in the end is a generic, zombie fighting actioner. Entertaining for sure but largely as empty as the vast wasteland.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Comedy
Director: Matt Lai
Cast: Jack Lim, Philip Keung, Namewee, Wang Lei, Yumi Wong, Yuan Teng, Xiao Yu, Wayne Thong, Jovi Heng
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: PG13 (Gambling Content and Some Sexual References)
Released By: mm2 Entertainment
Official Website:
Opening Day: 8 February 2024
Synopsis: Cheng Jialang (starring Jack Lim) and Wei Yifu (starring Philip Keung), two poker stars in their prime, are about to have their first face-to-face confrontation. However, just before the match, Cheng Jialang was involved in an accident and his poker talent was “transferred” to a naïve and happy-go-lucky café assistant named Huang Xiaoqi (starring Namewee), who has no experience in poker. Both of them were determined to find a way to join forces and challenge Wei Yifu.
Movie Review:
This writer doesn’t exactly know what to do with the deck of poker cards given to guests at the preview screening of this comedy, but he is pretty sure the Malaysian movie directed by Matt Lai is going to appeal to fans of gambling comedies. Remember Wong Jing’s God of Gamblers (1989) starring Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau? The commercial hit spawned countless sequels, spinoffs and parodies, and we won’t be surprised that this one featuring stars from Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore is inspired by the genre that was immensely popular during the 1990s.
Malaysian actor and DJ Jack Lim plays Cheng Jialang, a poker gambler can easily defeat his foes with a superpower – the man can tell whether a person is telling the truth or lying through his or her teeth just by looking over the opponent’s head. If there is a blue light, the person is telling the truth. If a red light hovers above the head, a lie is being told.
What happens if there is a black cloud above a person’s head? Jialang gets a shock when he comes face to face with Wei Yifu (the very hardworking Philip Keung who is starring in almost every Hong Kong movie you’ve seen in the past year), an antagonist you can tell is up to no good just by looking at his smirk. The poor guy is also the butt of a handful of homophobic jokes thrown in by the writer. While they aren’t the tastiest gags, it may milk a few laughs from the viewers.
The other main character in the mix is Huang Xiaoqi (Malaysian rapper Namewee, an idealistic man who works in a café owned by his father (Singaporean comedian Wang Lei). The father and son bicker in a good natured manner, and it is nice to see the two actors’ on screen chemistry.
When a freak accident happens, Jialang’s superpower is transferred to Xiaoqi, and this creates even more sight gags that make this 103 minute movie easy to enjoy if you are into this kind of humour. On one hand, we have Jialang trying desperately to train Xiaoqi to play poker and hoping that he can regain his superpowers. Elsewhere, Xiaoqi is smitten and falling head over heels in love with an online influencer (played convincingly by actress model Yumi Wong, who is also known as Malaysia’s Angelababy) who – get this – also having a full time job as a nurse.
As the movie progresses, you wonder whether a finale is happening. Will it be a big showdown with death defying card stunts and out of the world CGI? Unfortunately, this is not that kind of movie and what we are getting is a series of predictable plot developments that ultimately end with the stars wishing you happy new year and gong xi fa cai. It is a Chinese New Year movie after all, and you are okay with spending money to chuckle and laugh in the cinema, this isn’t a bad way to pass time after visiting your relatives.
Movie Rating:
(This Chinese New Year offering is an easily enjoyable gambling comedy that delivers chuckles and laughs)
Review by John Li
Genre: Action/Crime
Director: Heo Myeong-haeng
Cast: Don Lee, Kim Moo-yul, Lee Dong-hwi, Park Ji-hwan
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: NC16 (Violence)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 1 May 2024
Synopsis: “Monster Cop” Ma Seok-do (Don LEE) investigates an illegal online gambling business led by a former STS - Baek (KIM Moo-yul) and an IT genius CEO - Chang (LEE Dong-hwi), Ma proposes an unexpected alliance to Jang (PARK Ji-hwan) and begins hunting down the criminals.
Movie Review:
No one will bat an eyelid if you rename The Roundup series to Detective Ma and His Amazing Fists. Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee returns as the boorish, kind-hearted cop Ma Seok-do in the fourth entry (The Roundup: Punishment) and this time he is taking his flying fists to the Philippines. Well sort of anyway.
Detective Ma has promised the mother of a Korean tech kid who was supposedly kidnapped and brutally killed in the Philippines that he will solved the mystery of his death. It turned out that the deceased was part of a tech team that worked for an online casino site co-owned by a ruthless ex-military man, Baek (Kim Mu-yeol) and shady tech entrepreneur Jang (Lee Dong-hwi).
With Ma being a tech illiterate digital dinosaur, he has to rope in colleagues from the IT police team and a small-time hoodlum (Park Ji-hwan) to help him break into the world of illegal online gambling and cryptocurrency.
The story which took place both in the Korean Peninsula and the Philippines is yet another masterpiece when it comes to combining both action and crime. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the actual running of the syndicate and the eventual double-crossing of the baddies. At the same time, there’s enough humour factored throughout the investigative process that it’s almost guarantee there won’t be a need to constantly check your watch for the time.
Talking about the humour, there’s constant hilarious jabs on Ma’s inability to tell apart the various tech jargons. Cloud source or crowd source? How to sync from your old phone to the new one? It doesn’t bother Ma much, he just wants to get the job done but the audiences in the end get a good laugh out of it. Once again, Ma exploits the Gucci-loving Jang I-soo, this time to help in setting up a fake casino site in the Philippines to lure out the bad guys. And this is of course one team up that is constantly silly and amusing.
Stunt coordinator turned director Heo Myeong-haeng, behind Punishment, Badlands Hunters and also Lee’s regular collaborator brought the usual sense of visceral violence to the movie’s various well-staged action pieces. With his help, Lee delivers one solid punch after another onto his opponents with all the sequences competently lensed and edited. There’s even a bathroom brawl that reminds one of Mission: Impossible Fallout.
Taking on the role of the baddie is Kim Mu-yeo (last seen in Sweet Home 2) portraying a knife-toting villain that apparently shows no mercy to no one. His tactic is swift and gory and he gives Lee a run for his money especially in the finale which took place of all places in the business suite of an airplane.
Lee who is also a producer of the series promises four more sequels to come, all based on true crime events. With this fourth instalment, Lee has established a beloved IP based solely on his charisma as a hard-hitting cop capable of blood spills and crime solving. If you are a familiar fan of The Roundup, you will find the latest outing is yet another terrific entry.
Movie Rating:
(His ways might be unorthodox at times but Detective Ma is here to stay)
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: From legendary director John Woo and the producer of John Wick comes this gritty revenge tale of a tormented father (Joel Kinnaman) who witnesses his young son die when caught in a gang’s crossfire on Christmas Eve. While recovering from a wound that costs him his voice, he makes vengeance his life’s mission and embarks on a punishing training regimen in order to avenge his son’s death. Full of Woo’s signature style, Silent Night redefines the action genre with visceral, thrill-a-minute storytelling.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Before John Wick, there’s John Woo, the legendary HK filmmaker behind A Better Tomorrow, Bullet to the Head and Hardboiled. Woo of course is known for his stylistic “bullet ballet” action movies and his frequent usage of slow-mo, white doves has over the decades become his well-known trademarks.
After an absence of two decades, Woo returns to Hollywood with Silent Night, a revenge action thriller led by Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman (Suicide Squad, the remake of Robocop) and features almost zero dialogue.
Kinnaman plays Brian Godluck, a working class electrician whose life is turned upside down after his young son is killed in a gang crossfire on Christmas Eve. His marriage is ruined and he also lost his voice after suffering a near fatal gun wound. After his recovery, he trains in secret via YouTube, fighting with a dummy and practices in a shooting range vowing to kill all the gang members the following Christmas Eve.
Silent Night has the potential of being the next mindless, entertaining John Woo actioner, just check out his Hard Target and Broken Arrow. However majority of the movie is ruined by the “silent movie” gimmick making the entire affair utterly pointless and boring. Employing loud sound and background effects aren’t a great way to sustain your attention.
A police detective played by rapper Kid Cudi is not shown to be investigating the gang but he is somewhat determined to assist Brian in the killing spree in the end. Catalina Sandino Moreno plays Brian’s suffering wife and they simply communicate via sms. Unbelievably so. The leader of the gang (Harold Torres) is expectedly a Latino with scary tattoos and he basically has zilch characterisation and development to be a truly memorable villain.
If you are here in the capacity of a long-time John Woo fan, there’s zilch gun-toting scenes that stood out in the 104 minutes movie. The pacing is horribly slow and it’s not even that engaging watching Brian's training montage. And even when the carnage starts, there’s none of the creative elements which Woo has showcased in his previous action spectacles. There’s plenty of bloodshed no doubt but it’s simply just teams of hardworking stuntmen going through the motions of falling down and getting shot at.
While Kinnaman turns in a decent performance as a grieving father mourning the loss of his son and his hatred and desire to rid the criminals, this tale of vengeance helmed by the great John Woo never seems to hit the mark. The kindest thing we can think of is at least the 77 year old auteur is making a minor not silent comeback.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: A boy with an active imagination faces his fears on an unforgettable journey through the night with his new friend: a giant, smiling creature named Dark.
MOVIE REVIEW:
A little background on Orion and the Dark before we start the review proper. The animation is based on a children’s book by Emma Yarlett while Charlie Kaufman known for his offbeat movies liked Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind wrote the screenplay.
You can’t expect it to be on the level of a typical Charlie Kaufman movie, it’s after all a title made for the younger audiences. Yet it’s arguably challenging and a bit convoluted at times.
Orion (Jacob Tremblay) is a boy who is scared of many things, in short he is crippled by daily anxieties, struggles to fit into school and life and is most afraid of the dark. One night, a smiling big entity named Dark (Paul Walter Hauser) visited him and whisked him away on a globe-trotting adventure and Orion also gets to meet Dark’s friends such as Sweet Dreams (Angela Bassett), Insomnia (Nat Faxon), Sleep (Natasia Demetriou) and cute little Quiet. They also encounter Dark’s nemesis, Light (Ike Barinholtz).
To a certain degree, Orion and the Dark fares like an unofficial sequel to Inside Out. While the latter focused on human emotions, the former explored on childhood fears. Kaufman uses comedy to sort of “explain” the complexities behind every fear and terror out there. In a way, the animation is telling youngsters that problems can be overcome and solutions are simply residing in your head.
There is a story within a story element that is pretty confusing at first as the animation sometimes cut to a grown-up Orion (Colin Hanks) telling a bedtime story of his adventure with him and Dark to his young daughter, Hypatia. You wonder if it’s indeed a fictional story invented by Orion or there’s more to the layered storytelling.
Although it’s a DreamWorks branded production, the animation is outsourced to Mikros Animation (Paw Patrol The Movie) which is generally passable though lacking the spirits and sparks of Pixar productions. Tremblay sounds a bit too old to be playing an 11-year-old with his voice cracking intermittently, the rest of the voice actors apparently didn’t make much of an impression either except Hauser giving Jack Black a run for his money.
While Orion and the Dark has it’s good intentions and messages to help children overcome their fears, the lack of laughs and over complicated story might deter viewers from reaching its finishing point. Even at 90 minutes, the twisty tale seems like an eternity.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
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CARL WEATHERS (1948 - 2024)Posted on 03 Feb 2024 |
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WISHING ALL OUR READERS A HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR & 龙年大å‰!Posted on 09 Feb 2024 |
SYNOPSIS: Middle-aged widow Mei Heung has gone through countless sleepless nights since the death of her husband, Bill. One day, she finds a key among the items that Bill left behind, leading her to his secret neon workshop and meet the young apprentice, Leo. She learns from Leo that Bill had an unfulfilled last wish: to recreate a demolished legendary neon sign. With Leo’s help, Mei-heung tries to uncover the story behind the sign and learns the craft of blowing neon lights in hopes of fulfilling her deceased husband’s last wish with her own hands. As clues of the legendary neon sign gradually emerge, the secrets that Mei-heung couldn’t face are about to be revealed.
MOVIE REVIEW:
The Hong Kong film industry has reached an awkward stage whereby their biggest selling stars such as Andy Lau, Jackie Chan and even Louis Koo are mostly for a lack of a better word, in their twilight years. Notably, their current crop of blockbusters are co-produced, partly financed by their more powerful counterparts in Mainland China.
So what’s left in the former British colony are more localised theme movies such as this one, A Light Never Goes Out.
Anastasia Tsang’s feature debut delves into the life of a widow, Mei-heung (Sylvia Chang). Despite her daughter’s (Cecilia Choi) pleas to migrate with her to Australia, Mei-heung insists on holding on to her late hubby’s (Simon Yam) neon sign workshop with his one and only apprentice, Leo (Henick Chou).
According to Leo, his late master’s last wish was to see one of his old iconic signs being rebuilt. Together with Mei-heung, Leo turns to crowdfund to keep the workshop afloat. But with the lack of proper skills and support, will the duo be able to realise Biu’s last wish?
In an unhurried, moving manner, Tsang slowly welcomes viewers into the fascinating world of Hong Kong’s iconic neon signs. With the government shutting down the remaining neon signs since the start of 2015 and everyone turning into cheaper alternative like LED, the remaining neon signs craftsmen are facing a hard time preserving their skill and craft.
A Light Never Goes Out works better in translating the suffering of the ailing industry to the big screen. No doubt the theme itself is a fulfilling watch especially for those who has been to HK or watches HK movies and television dramas. The numerous neon signs on the streets alone is a marvel to behold.
Unfortunately, there is a need to dramatise the events to make it into a proper movie rather than a documentary thus the narrative suffers whenever family dramatics start to play in especially with Rainbow’s interference with her mother’s decision and her distrust in Leo.
Chang holds the fort well with her genuinely touching performance as the grieving widow and her interactions with her distanced onscreen daughter is downright depressing. Yam is delightful as the stubborn Biu though he has expectedly limited screen time.
For a movie that talks about dying heritage and culture, A Light Never Goes Out succeeds in showcasing the plight of the artisans involved in the craft. As for the rest of the narrative, there isn’t much to relish on except Chang’s mesmerising performance (she won the Best Leading Actress in the 59th Golden Horse awards).
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
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