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CLOVER FILMS unveils impressive slate of movies for the second half of 2012 - PART IPosted on 26 Jun 2012 |
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CLOVER FILMS UNVEILS IMPRESSIVE SLATE OF MOVIES FOR THE SECOND HALF OF 2012 - PART IIPosted on 26 Jun 2012 |
Genre: Romance/Drama
Director: Hur Jin-ho
Cast: Ziyi Zhang, Jang Dong-gun, Cecilia Cheung, Shawn Dou, Lisa Lu
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Scenes of Intimacy and Nudity)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 11 October 2012
Synopsis: Shanghai, the 1930s. At a charity ball for refugees from the Japanese-occupied Northeast, the glamorous entrepreneur and libertine MO JIEYU (Cecilia Cheung) strikes a deal with her ex-lover, the devastatingly handsome playboy XIE YIFAN (Jang Don-gun). Mo’s most recent lover, a tycoon, has dropped her for a young virginal schoolgirl. If Xie takes the girl’s virginity, he'll make a laughingstock out of of the tycoon as Miss Mo will give herself to Xie. But Xie has his eyes on a different prize: the virtuous widow DU FENYU (Ziyi Zhang). As the stakes are raised higher and higher, the game becomes increasingly dangerous for everyone involved, particularly when Xie, despite himself, falls in love with Du.
This epic story unfolds against the dramatic backdrop of the Japanese invasion of China. The war looming over the glamorous, tumultuous “Paris of the East” heightens the drama in this powerful and mesmerizing adaptation of the French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Jaclos, on which Dangerous Liaisons (1988), which starred Glenn Close and John Malkovich, was also based.
Movie Review:
Some characters are just so vile, so devious, so dumb or so benevolent that the notion of them being real people is simply unthinkable. But you want these people in a movie, often desperately, because the very combination of their characteristics is just the right recipe for a drama fraught with lost love, lies, betrayals and startling revelations. Like scandal-laden Taiwanese soap operas, or magic tricks, there’s nothing good that comes out of showing you the whole thing before you watch them unfold. The less said about Dangerous Liaisons, the better. I hope you experience its ideas fresh and I hope the plot surprises work for you as much as they did for me.
Cecilia Chung plays Mo Jieyu, a jealous and cunning ex-lover locked in horns with former partner and millionaire playboy Xie Yifan (Jang Don-gun). They make a bet that the one-track minded Yifan couldn’t resist: If he beds new-in-town widow Du Fenyu (Zhang Ziyi), Jieyu will give herself to Yifan again, but if he fails to achieve the goal, he must give her a piece of land. Talking about Dangerous Liaisons then leads to a more complex problem because this premise that it’s being sold on barely scratches the surface of what the whole movie has to offer. Yes, the movie concerns these three characters, but in many ways, they are just catalysts, with most of the major events unravelling around their actions.
Telling you how it all exactly plays out and why would definitely sell you on this movie, but it’s hard to do so without spoiling the show, so I’ll stick to the other noteworthy bit: the setting. Director Hur Jin-ho’s 1930s Shanghai is at once glittering and ramshackle, with opulent, brightly lit buildings and polished cars flanking timeworn shophouses and beat up trishaws. The rich hold firm their social mores while the poor prove less restrained, yet they co-exist in undisturbed harmony. It’s one of the most carefully curated, detailed and beautiful looks at a lost world, delivering a reality that feels consistently believable even though it’s only vaguely familiar.
If that sounds like the setting plays a big part in the movie, that’s because it does. So much of the plot is predicated on the traditional customs of the period that you suspect the movie would have been less smart and less tense had it been staged at another city in another era. Keeping a couple apart by telling the audience that a relationship isn’t valid if the people involved don’t share similar social statuses or breaking a marriage because the virgin that a rich and famous man is going to marry suddenly becomes a non-virgin isn’t new, to be sure, but it’s interesting to see a movie hit on these concepts to propel its story into richer complexity.
Into this complexity is where you find the characters switching roles. This is the sort of movie that spends enough time in the headspace of its character for you to claim that you can fully interpret what each character is thinking by the time Dangerous Liaisons nears the end. And you could have easily imagined the movie simmering down to a more predictable conclusion of having each of its characters get his or her reward or comeuppance. Which the characters do. But there’s a greater note to that end, and I find myself forced to question whether the good person is actually the bad person, and whether the bad person is actually the good person. Or whether there’s always a good side to a bad person.
Movie Rating:
(Using its setting effectively to enrich its story and leaving you on a thought-provoking conclusion, this scandal-laden soap opera stands out from the rest)
Review by Loh Yong Jian
Genre: War/Thriller
Director: Felix Chong, Alan Mak
Cast: Tony Leung, Zhou Xun, Mavis Fan, Dong Yong, Wang Xuebin, Pal Sinn, Carrie Ng, Lam Wai, Fong Ping, Jacob Cheung
Runtime: 2 hrs
Rating: PG (Some Violence)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: -
Opening Day: 16 August 2012
Synopsis: Things don’t always go as your eyes see while truth’s always hidden underneath.
In 1950s, the China Republic Government is newly established. Revolutionists in different parts of China seek chances to revolt. Everywhere is restless and chaotic. 701 Headquarter, consists of Inspection, Interpretation and Operation, is set up to spy conspiracy through telegraph. But one day in October, all of a sudden, the enemy shut down 126 military channels for 30 hours. After these long hours, when they tune back the channels, only daily news is being broadcasted. Without concrete information, operators at the frontline are at risk.
Chang Xue-ning is of Operation’s. She is sent back to the Headquarter as her identity has been disclosed in Hong Kong. Reporting in 701, she is astonished by her supervisor, Guo Zhong-xing, who used to woo her. Their relation is still a mystery. Xue-ning’s new mission is to seek for worthy who gets superb aural comprehension. She targets Luo San-er, the piano tuner of Song Qing Ling but it turns out she brings Luo’s personal assistant, He Bing to report duty. Bing is uncivilized and blind but his hearing is splendid - can even hear the wind. Is he strong enough to be the saviour in this silent war?
Movie Review:
War, in any number of forms, is a frantic activity. War movies, in juxtaposition, are inherently an entertainment business, made by people who measure with near perfect precision the amount of drama and tension that best represents the specific war being discussed. Unfortunately, The Silent War is a miscalculation of the worst sort, mildly interesting in the least parts and wholly numb in the most parts. It takes too long to arrive at any kind of tension and buries its exhausting journey there in an uncomfortable direction and bald sentimentality. I don’t hate The Silent War, but it’s often more trouble than it’s worth.
The movie takes place in 1950s China where revolutionists run rampant. The government responds with the 701 agency, a secret department that spies on conspirators through telegraphs, intercepts their messages and intervenes before they hit. After the enemy cripples the transmissions, secret service agent Zhang Xue-Ning (Zhou Xun) is forced to recruit blind piano tuner He Bing (Tony Leung). He Bing eventually retrieves the transmissions with his heightened sense of hearing but not before he falls into a romantic gridlock with Xue-Ning and colleague Shen Jing (Mavis Fan). With the revolutionists quickly closing in on the government, the agency must stop them at all costs.
Married to the direction of Infernal Affairs veterans Alan Mak and Felix Chong, The Silent War explodes into a cunning game of deceit between the good and the bad during the last half hour, culminating in a gripping finale that sees our heroes barely save theday. It’s a finely performed conclusion that manages to feel like the worst type of indulgence, one that is only justified because the rest of the film is so terrible. Alan and Felix are uncharacteristically conservative here, almost too timid to explore the massive scale of the war and merely satisfied to lock the majority of the movie within the dark hallways of the agency’s building.
The result is a largely one-sided and stiff movie that doesn’t quite earn the narrative trust it’s supposed to have. Tony Leung tries to save the film by applying the most ridiculous dose of concentration in turning radio knobs and conveying a face perpetually taut with distress as he leans in on encrypted messages from the revolutionists while his colleagues caress morse code-printed paper incessantly. It’s all done so that you can pretend that there’re field agents on the frontlines receiving this intelligence and doing all the exciting stuff like chasing and shooting bad guys. Of course, this never materialises and you’re trapped with seeing Tony Leung wearing sunglasses and turning radio knobs for almost 1.5 hours.
At this point, I feel that it’s both fairly accurate and patently unfair to label Tony Leung’s character boring. While the film restricts him to a largely pretentious role, he has a thankless task of quickly switching to a jocular, if somewhat abrasive demeanour that lends reasonable credibility to the romantic portions of the film. This still doesn’t excuse the poorly handled romantic threads that seemingly tear you out of the experience at random intervals, bearable at best and jarring at worst. Fortunately, the love story arcs survive the questionable introduction to work effectively into the denouement.
The biggest problem with The Silent War is that it requires you to invest your interest in a hefty 1.5 hours before rewarding you the big prize in the last half hour. This would be fine if the first 1.5 hours didn’t struggle while attempting to come up with anything remotely interesting. By the time it gets to the really good stuff in the last half hour, the movie’s nearly over and it tries to establish elements that it never spent enough time considering. The Silent War is a movie that could be great, should be great, but isn’t great.
Movie Rating:
(Only the last half hour is worth watching)
Review by Loh Yong Jian
SYNOPSIS: Inspired by true events, this tense thriller follows Detective Souder (Sam Worthington) a homicide detective in a small Texan town, and his partner, transplanted New York City cop Detective Heigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)as they track a sadistic serial killer dumping his victims’ mutilated bodies in a nearby marsh locals call "The Killing Fields." Though the swampland crime scenes are outside their jurisdiction, Detective Heigh is unable to turn his back on solving the gruesome murders. Despite his partner’s warnings, he sets out to investigate the crimes. Before long, the killer changes the game and begins hunting the detectives, teasing them with possible clues at the crime scenes while always remaining one step ahead. When familiar local girl Anne (Chloë Grace Moretz Hugo, Let Me In) goes missing, the detectives find themselves racing against time to catch the killer and save the young girl’s life.
MOVIE REVIEW:
The biggest name to note here is not Sam Worthington but the director Ami Canaan Mann, daughter of Michael Mann who gave the world “Heat” and “Collateral”. Like his father who generally prefers telling gritty hard crime stories, the younger Mann chooses a crime genre for her second full-length feature. While supposedly inspired by true events, the end result is nothing more than a standard serial-killer, police drama that is hardly memorable.
The plotting opens with two homicide detectives, Souder (Sam Worthington) and Heigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) investigating a local murder case involving a runaway teenager. Souder’s ex-wife, Pam (Jessica Chastain) also a detective in a nearby town requested help from the duo regarding a serial killer who has been dumping bodies in a marsh dubbed “The Killing Fields”. As the trio investigates, they realized the killer might be the same person they are looking for.
“Texas Killing Fields” for all it matters setup a really spooky atmosphere and location; you can even feel a sense of dread lingering. The place is filled with so many roughnecks that this reviewer probably won’t be able to survive 5 minutes without being beaten. However, the oh-so-boring, standard police investigating procedures, the lackluster pacing and the biggest sin of all, an incoherent plotting kills whatever mood the director has created. Essential characters and development goes nowhere say for examples, Heigh seems to have a terrible experience back in New York though never explained further and why did Souder has such a grudge with a suspecting character? There are plenty of interesting nuggets which writer Don Ferrarone has planted and conveniently left out for whatsoever reason.
Nearly two decades later, mentioned serial-killer and everyone can recall vividly David Fincher’s “Seven” and till now, no one has managed to topple his feat. “Texas Killing Fields” offers the same rainy drench mood, a car chase and a disturbing attack on an innocent woman with a baby. Fairly exciting on paper but everything comes loosely and unnecessary to the crucial plot point.
Worthington who is usually wooden as an action leading man actually delivers quite a sterling performance opposite the equally amazing Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen). Morgan is awesome as the religiously-inclined warm officer and Jessica Chastain’s (“The Tree of Life, “The Debt”) second screen appearance opposite Worthington as a feisty lady officer is worth a look. Chloe Grace Moretz from “Kick-Ass” sealed her place in Hollywood with yet another worthy performance as a troubled young girl from a dysfunctional family.
It’s unfair to compare Ami Canaan Mann with the senior Mann. Indeed, she has her father’s eye for visual, unfortunately lacks a proper script to showcase her talents.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The DVD only comes with a Trailer.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Somewhat shot digitally, the DVD transfer is solid for its intended grainy, murky feel. Dialogue is crisp and the soundtrack only pick up dynamically for a chase scene and a few gunshots.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen are the perfect comedy duo as they embark on one mother of a road trip! The plan for a quick stop at Mom's takes a sudden turn when an impulse compels Andy (Seth Rogen) to invite his mother, Joyce (Barbra Streisand), on an 8-day, 3,000 mile, journey across the country. But the farther they go, the closer they get and Andy may realize that they have more in common than he ever imagined.
MOVIE REVIEW:
The occasional slim, occasional chubby comedian Seth Rogen might not project the impression of an ideal son given he is known for playing potty mouthed, weed-smoking laidback bums on the big screen.
In “The Guilt Trip” however, he plays a nerdy young scientist, Andy who has just invented an environmental friendly cleaning solution. On a road trip across various states to sell his product, he invited his widowed mother, Joyce (Barbra Streisand) along with him. In actual fact, he is just trying to reunite Joyce with his old-lover in San Francisco.
Inspired by screenwriter Dan Fogelman’s (“Crazy Stupid Love”) own road trip with his mom, this Streisand-Rogen vehicle doesn’t break any new ground or particularly side-splitting even it’s a pair up of two comedians from different generations. Rogen started his trade in raunchy Apatow comedies while Streisand for the uninitiated is one of the State’s most talented women entertainers. The former makes a 360 degrees turn as a mild-mannered man and playing against Streisand’s overbearing mother, the two has incredible chemistry together even though the script feels almost like an indie flick at times.
Streisand is absolutely adorable as Joyce. She collects frogs, she puts tap water into bottles and calls it bottled water and she can eat a 72 ounce steak and she is always worrying about her son’s lack of clean pants and underwear. It’s so typical of a mother and Streisand nails it perfectly. Rogen’s character has a big fight with his mom in the middle of the movie which allows the comedian to shine and his selling of his product to a shopping network towards the end showcases his trademark humour though heavily subdued of course.
Rather than spicing up the material, Anne Fletcher who also did the box-office hit, “The Proposal” instead relegate the unfolding of the story to the two actors. Some of the gags have the potential to develop further liked the strip joint sequence which see mother and son trapped in by the snow and subsequently seeking refuge at the house of Andy’s ex and now married girlfriend. But the scene shortly spiral to mere awkwardness and nothing more.
Yet, you got to give “The Guilt Trip” some credit for giving audience a journey of a sweet, charming bliss of a mother and son relationship. This is Fogelman’s love letter to his late mom and I can’t say I’m not touched. Those little things do matter after all.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
This is a clean, unexceptional DVD transfer and for a talky movie, the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is more than sufficient.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
SYNOPSIS: The story is set in 986 A.D., during another Khitan invasion when Yang's army is surrounded by much larger forces and abandoned by political rivals. His loyal seven sons, each a skilled warrior, set out to rescue him and bring him back home with vengeful Liao General Yelu Yuan in pursuit.
MOVIE REVIEW:
If you know how to direct a movie even a hackneyed topic can become an interesting viewing experience.
Under the watchful eyes of helmer/writer Ronny Yu (The Bride with White Hair, Fearless), Saving General Yang which is based on the heroic tale of the Yang family has an ensemble cast that includes evergreen idol Adam Cheng, Ekin Cheng, TVB leading star Raymond Lam, Taiwanese idol Vic Chou and Wu Chun.
The exploits of the Yang family has been widely transcribed to television serials and movies, you can argue that this is not an entirely fresh idea to begin with. Now this is the part where the skill of a capable writer and a competent director comes in and veteran Ronny Yu fits the bill perfectly as he delivers an affecting 102 minutes movie filled with intricately staged war sequences despite the obvious fact that most Chinese audience already knew the outcome of the seven brothers.
Due to political backstabbing by his rival, old General Yang Ye (Adam Cheng) is surrounded by his enemies, the Khitans after an attack gone wrong. With a vengeful enemy, Yelu Yuan (Shao Bing) hot on his heels, his seven sons decide to set out to rescue his age old father not knowing the vicious Yelu is bent on killing Ye’s family members to avenge his deceased parents.
After a somewhat fleeting introduction that roughly tells us about the traits of the various brothers (Ekin plays the eldest who pledged to protect his brothers, Raymond is the doctor of the family while Vic is the quiet archer), Yu wastes no time in unleashing generous doses of mayhem. Yet Yu manages to balance the drama and action beautifully without being too complex or shallow. The constant emphasis of filial piety, brotherhood and the capability of Old General Yang’s wife (the amazing Xu Fan from Aftershock who deserved more screentime) play up the sentimentality of the show.
Despite Yu’s good intentions to tell an old-fashioned tale of family, courage and loyalty, it’s the action sequences that will glue you to your seats. With the minimal use of CG (a wise choice for a Chinese language movie) and the clever action choreography by Tung Wei, the fights are brutal and equally swift. The character of Vic Chou who utilises a bow and arrow left a deep impression while Ekin Cheng has to contend with wielding a guan dao for the most part.
It took Ronny Yu more than three years to bring Saving General Yang to the big screen. While I can’t say it’s the best interpretation of the renowned Yang family, it’s definitely one of the best star-studded, epic war movies in recent times.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
An approximately 9 minutes of Making of which has the director and cast talking about the theme of the story, some behind-the-scenes footages and cast interviews.
Cast Interviews has veteran host/actor Lawrence Cheng interviewing the main cast members and director.
A Theatrical Trailer is also included.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Even though it never takes away the vivid details and skin tones, there’s always a certain level of intended saturation when it comes to a war movie and “Saving General Yang” is no exception. Swords clash, arrows zip and the score by Kenji Kawai is pounding unfortunately there isn’t a proper 5.1 soundtrack supplied to give it an immersive listening experience.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Crime/Comedy
Director: David Palmer, Dax Shepard
Cast: Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell, Bradley Cooper, Tom Arnold, Kristin Chenoweth, Beau Bridges, David Koechner, Joy Bryant, Ryan Hansen
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: M18 (Nudity and Coarse Language)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: http://www.facebook.com/hitandrunmovie
Opening Day: 18 October 2012
Synopsis: HIT & RUN is the story of Charlie Bronson (Dax Shepard), a former getaway driver who busts out of the Witness Protection Program to drive his girlfriend (Kristen Bell) to Los Angeles so she can land on her dream job. Their road trip grows awkwardly complicated, when they are chased by the feds (led by Tom Arnold), and increasingly dangerous, when Charlie’s former gang of criminals (led by Bradley Cooper) enter the fray.
Movie Review:
For a movie that purports to be a more urgent take on the usual chase comedy, most notably by setting up its lead as an ex bank robber hunted by his former accomplices after he testified against them to escape prison, Hit & Run never really threatens any of its characters with danger. It’s worried more about shaping its characters into sitcom stereotypes and slapping them into one funny situation after another than it is about creating a logical and compelling story around its premise. Which isn’t necessarily bad because Hit & Run actually manages to be really entertaining with this format, though its near obsessive focus on comedy certainly prevents it from being fulfilling.
Yul Perkins (Dax Shepard) is forced to take up the pseudonym of Charlie Bronson and hide out in a remote town as part of a witness protection programme. When girlfriend (Kristen Bell) gets a lucrative job offer from Los Angeles, Yul decides to break the rules of the programme so that he can drive his girlfriend to her interview. But this leads to its own set of problems: The people he helped put away in prison have just been released and he risks putting himself into the path of revenge. His girlfriend’s jealous ex and Yul’s buffoonish caretaker cop (Tom Arnold), both eager to keep the couple within stalking distance, join the chase, pushing the already stressful road trip into the realm of absurdity.
Reality intrudes, like it so often does, and soon Yul finds himself entangled in all manners of trouble. But given that each character is blessed with generous amounts of silliness, Hit & Run becomes less about reality and more about cartoon logic later on. Here is an ex criminal who constantly complains about having to blow his cover, now suddenly tearing across the country at breakneck speed and in a very noticeable car with an expired license plate. And while he’s at it, why not register a Facebook page with his real name? Because that’s what someone under a witness protection programme does, right? Yul’s caretaker cop is equally inept, charged with a hilarious tendency to get het up over the slightest things.
There’s a very obvious pattern to Hit & Run’s design: events happen and characters behave the way they do not because any of them fit into the narrative, but because the script wants them to. These events are funny and these characters are dumb only when it’s convenient for them to be, resulting in very awkward shifts in tones as the movie tries to clumsily stitch together just-for-laughs parts and move-the-story-forward parts. In many ways, Hit & Run resembles a sitcom, populated with events that have limited relevance to anything outside the specific scenes and characters who have broad, humour-based appeal.
Make no bones about it, this is a movie that embraces whole-heartedly the idea of a comedy, sometimes in very captivating ways and sometimes in every unfortunate ways. The general lack of tension means more time is spent just enjoying the flow of the movie than investing in the intricacies of the premise. But it’s a little too lazy to think that anything bad would ever happen to these characters, and you end up wistfully wishing that Hit & Run had been created with more ambition, striking a balance between capturing the liveliness of a comedy and achieving the potential of the promising set-up. Some of the best moments involve a four-way car chase on an airfield, but the movie never gets around to anything more than that.
To say that Hit & Run is bad would be cruel. Depending on what you value in your movie, Hit & Run could either be one the funniest movies this year or one of the most carelessly planned movies. Like Rian Johnson’s Looper, Hit & Run chooses one aspect of itself to focus on, runs riot over the concept and rides roughshod over other ideas. It’s not an approach to filmmaking that appeals to everyone, but if humour (and only humour!) is what you’re looking for here, Hit & Run may be one of the most entertaining shows you’ll ever watch this year.
Movie Rating:
(Hit & Run is good for one thing and only one thing: humour. It’s drastically less appealing if you’re looking for anything more than that)
Review by Loh Yong Jian
Genre: Documentary
Director: Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz
Cast: Katy Perry
RunTime: 1 hr 37 mins
Rating: PG13
Released By: UIP
Official Website: http://www.katyperrypartofme.com/
Opening Day: 23 August 2012
Synopsis: A motion picture event movie, Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D is a backstage pass, front row seat and intimate look at the fun, glamorous, heartbreaking, inspiring, crazy, magical, passionate, and honest mad diary of Katy.
Movie Review:
Katy Perry: Part of Me is a film on Katy Perry’s rise to stardom. It features some of her past, as well as support from her fans, and concert footages from Katy Perry’s 2011 California Dreams World Tour. As much as one wants to think of this as just another film intended for entertainment, it is hard to dismiss that this is quite a blatant effort for PR.
The film started off with many young fans sending their tributes to their idol, Katy Perry, about how she has inspired them and how she taught them that it’s ‘okay to be weird’. Like the tagline of the movie goes, ‘be yourself and you can be anything’; possibly, she’s a living statement of what she had claimed.
The movie is documentary styled, having cuts and recollection of past happenings. It is like a timeline of Katy Perry put into a movie. Honestly, the entertainment value is not very high, since there is no storyline to follow. The whole movie is very Katy Perry centered, and you would need to be a fan to be able to thoroughly enjoy the movie. Yes, it gives you a glimpse to the celebrity lifestyle, but that too is limited and not enough an appeal for the majority.
From what is portrayed in the movie, she has certainly worked her way up, deserving the glitz and glamour she has today. She has had a rough start, and was profoundly bounded by family beliefs. On the surface it seems like she was just an outright deviant, but if she had not taken the step of faith, she would not be where she is today. And certainly, there is some appeal for such a ‘good girl gone bad’, especially since there is a significant crowd that are pretty hung up on voyeurism.
Throughout the movie, there is a strong Katy Perry presence, communicating her perseverance and tenacity, a girl who chose to pursue her passion which was conceived when she was just a typical California girl. It was sincere and heartfelt, and her bubbly character did make the otherwise boring movie a little more fun. The concert footages were pretty interesting too, as they not only feature her and special segments from concert, but also reaction from fans from different parts of the world.
However, it did start to get a little tiresome when testimonies from fans and celebrity alike are cramped in one after another. It’s as though the movie is not Katy Perry enough. Arguably, the climax is her emotional wreck after her relationship with English comedian Russell Brand fell out. She did rise up from the shackles eventually, proving that she is indeed that same tough girl that fought for her own dream and career.
Overall, it’s a great peek into the wacky, witty and saucy Katy Perry’s personal life with a stroke of humour. Unfortunately, the appeal is still quite limited, as there is no epic plot or awesome take-aways.
Movie Rating:
("This is a part of me that you’re never gonna ever take away from me" ~ feel like a fan of hers already!)
Review by Tho Shu Ling
SYNOPSIS: Bee used to be a motorcycle racing champion. Due to an accident, he has lost his fame and fortune. Bee was devastated by his wife who ran away from home and was addicted to alcohol and gambling. His neighbor, Maniu who has a crush on Bee, has empathy and sympathy for Bee’s suffering. She looks forward to the day Bee can pull himself together. One day, unexpectedly, Bee’s missing wife, Jiawei returns home with Binbin, after disappearing for six years. Jiawei claimed that Binbin is Bee’s child, hoping that Bee might be able to help take care of him. Binbin, with sweet and considerate personality, warms his dad’s frozen heart. Being a new dad, in the beginning, Bee’s world has been turned upside down but gradually the two has formed a bond between father and son…
MOVIE REVIEW:
The release of “New Perfect Two” reaffirms three things. One, Xiao Xiao Bin aka Benny Wen indeed inherited the acting ability of his father, ex-child actor Xiao Bin Bin. Two, Vic Chou can actually act even with hideously grown facial stubble and lastly, Kevin Chu isn’t going to get a directing award anytime soon.
The plotting of this Taiwanese drama sounds like a rehash of the Johnnie To’s “All About Ah-Long” starring Chow Yun Fat and Sylvia Chang except without the touching and thrilling aspect of it. Never mind if you are too young to remember this classic. Anyway former F4 idol, Vic Chou plays an ex-motorcycle racing champion, Ah Bee who lost all motivation in his life after his wife left him abruptly six years ago. He spent his days gambling, drinking and pasting posters on wall, railway station, lampposts hoping someone can tell him about his wife’s whereabouts. One day, his wife, Jiawei (Yang Mi from “Painted Skin 2”) turned up with a kid, Binbin (Xiao Xiao Bin) and claim he is the son of Bee. She entrusted Binbin to Bee, hoping that the latter will look after Binbin for a while. Will Bee be convinced? Will he finally change his ways?
Just when you think this is a straightforward tearjerker dramedy, Chu throws in bits and pieces of humour in the form of Ding Sha-sha, the latest internet sensation in China to distract the mood. The little girl is cute but her gag doesn’t really fit into the whole story. It’s perfectly all right to showcase Binbin’s cuteness on the other hand, he is a kid after all and he is a central character opposite Bee. What’s lacking is for the audience to feel for this pair of estranged father-and-son and obviously Chu is out of his depth. And with SHE member, Ella Chen as a tomboyish neighbour who is carrying a torch for Bee, the movie becomes a mismatch comedy drama that fails to succeed on both ends.
I can’t imagine this whole cumbersome affair require three credited scriptwriters to churn it out as there isn’t a single meaty bit that we can chew on. There’s a faint subplot about Bee’s feud with his adoptive father which is quickly summed up and forgotten and also an incredible cheesy unfunny sequence surrounding Bee’s debtors to fill up the running time though there’s one scene set in a mall between Bee and Binbin that obviously will set some craving for Kleenex.
Xiao Xiao Bin is one talented kid and not everyone can cry on cue, you got to definitely give it to the boy. Vic Chou demonstrated he did possess some acting chops; sadly he is wasted in Chu’s hands and he sure needs a better script next time. Lacking a strong direction, “New Perfect Two” is too generic and messy to warm the hearts of viewers, what’s perhaps more impressive is HK cinematographer, Anthony Pun’s lensing of the breath-taking location and picturesque shots.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The DVD contains a Photo Gallery and Trailer.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Dialogue is clear and the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is sufficient for a movie that doesn’t have much fancy audio effects to speak of. Images look murky at times but some aerial views look impressive enough.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
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