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August 9th, 2009
 | 08:51 pm - Shorter movie review: _Shamo_
OH MY GOD THAT WAS DEPRESSING
DEPRESSINGLY AWESOME
?
At times.
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May 29th, 2009
 | 10:48 pm - How long do you think you'd last?
Above is a promotional video for the Norwegian DVD release of Dead Snow.
Dead Snow, for those of you not in the know, is a Norwegian zombie movie. In which the zombies are also Nazis. Fuck yeah. I had the delightful pleasure of seeing it at SIFF last week and give it the highest possible recommendation to anyone interested in the phrase "Norwegian nazi zombie movie."
The promotional video, btw, is NSFW. Especially if your workplace frowns on hot scantily clad Norwegians buffing each other.
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May 28th, 2009
 | 09:10 pm - 30 second movie review: The Midnight Meat Train
* Directed by Ryohei Kitamura (US film debut), based on a short story by Clive Barker
* Contains none of the things that appeal about Ryohei Kitamura's films (hyperkinetic action & editing, camera spins, actors hamming it up to the next level, &c)
* Contains all of the things that leave me uninterested in Clive Barker projects
* Generally well shot and good set design, but in ways that I would normally attribute to the cinematographer & DP
* Surprise guest appearances by Quintin "Rampage" Jackson & Ted Raimi are a plus
* First two acts full of good atmospherics
* Last act one extended wank gesture, accelerating through the, ahem, "climax"
Two stars, two thumbs down. Movie probably better than that as a whole, but the end leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth. Will I care about this movie six months from now? I'll probably have forgotten I saw it and be incapable of providing any plot details whatsoever.
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May 21st, 2009
| 07:23 pm - I think I don't need to buy a crappy pirate of Red Cliff 2
Magnolia just announced they've acquired the acquisition rights to the Red Cliff movies and Warlords. This pleases me immensely, as they've done right by their imports pretty well as far as I can recall. Red Cliff was released as a pair of films, and John Woo's made no attempt to hide the intent to edit them down into a single film for US theatrical release. This is still the plan (this fall, I think?), but Magnolia being what it is, there will be an accompanying release of the individual movies on DVD. Yay!
Warlords is pretty kick-ass, too.
Sorry for no link, but KFCcinema doesn't have individual post links.
I heart Mark Cuban sometimes.
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December 14th, 2008
 | 11:21 pm - Quick Movie Review: _One Night in Mongkok_
One Night in Mongkok
Directed by Derek Yee, 2004
Don't get me wrong, One Night in Mongkok is a good film. A great one, even. I can almost even see why I've seen it called a classic. It's delightfully atmospheric, unrepentantly nihilistic, shot incredibly well and is willing to define its own pace. With all that said...
I keep coming back to the first half hour, forty minutes or so. Daniel Wu is a hitman from the mainland. You see, Lam Suet has this bizarre setup with his family and friends back home: when he needs a hitman, he calls them, and they send him one. Daniel Wu gets picked this time, and quickly; just sitting around the fire with a rifle and his friends when someone runs up and yells that he's got a job, and he gets driven out of time with the rest of his village running behind and wishing him well. (That's not the only part of this movie that feels a bit like the Johnnie To touch.) But Lam Suet gets ratted out by an informant and busted, and Wu quickly figures it out and goes on the run. Unfortunately, Daniel Wu is a bit of a country bumpkin who's never been to the big city before and doesn't speak the language very well. Fortunately, he runs into a woman from a neighboring province, working as a hooker in the seedy hotel he's staying in. Which is good, because he needs a guide as he's really in town to find his fiancee (who it turns out may be working as a hooker herself) and take her grandmother back to the village...
...and this is starting to look like a really interesting movie. A bit of a Wong Kar Wai touch, maybe. A love triangle between a real woman (who may just be trying to steal the $150K HKD in his bag) and a woman who can't be found, and a pair of fish out of water trying to stay one way ahead of the cops. I could've watched this set-up for a whole movie, but the real plot just had to get in the way. And then it all goes to hell..
Like I said, don't get me wrong. It is a great movie. Daniel Wu excels and looks fantastic in glasses. Lam Suet does a great job, appearing because the Milky Way treaty of 1998 declares that he must appear in every movie Anthony Wong can't make it to. Cecilia Cheung, unfortunately, plays the same character she does in every movie (which is admittedly somewhat impressive on its own, given her plethora of genre flexibility) because of course what HK cinema really needs is more women defined by their ability to cry out loud distinctively.
Le sigh. It IS so good, but I mourn for what could've been.
Four stars out of five. It probably should be four and a half, but I'm unfairly penalizing it for not giving me what I wanted.
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November 29th, 2008
| 10:46 pm - Watching Burst City again
When I get laid, I gotta keep banging all night long
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November 28th, 2008
 | 09:01 pm - Lost and Found
Tonight I watched Lost and Found, almost entirely due to its placement on Kozo of LoveHKFilm's list of his top picks and a bit due to the fact that it's one of the few that A: I hadn't seen, and B: were available on Netflix.
I've been meaning to write up more of the movies I watch, partially for my own enjoyment and partially to assist my memories in the future and partially because it would be nice to be better at expressing what I love about films and practice makes perfect. And I loved this movie so much that it seems worth being a first stab. I've never heard of director Lee Chi-Ngai before, but I've just added Dr. Mack, Sleepless Town, and He's a Woman, She's a Man into my Netflix queue primarily due to his involvement.
( Read more... )
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