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November 16th, 2009
 | 08:42 pm - Reasons to get work done
Cris just started watching Lilo & Stitch. All of the humans have excessively large and rather oddly positioned noses. I find this quite off-putting.
Also, the main character is apparently a psychopath.
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October 11th, 2009
| 11:44 pm - By the way...
What's with all these HK dramas the last couple years taking place before the handover for no readily apparent reason? Especially when all the characters either use super-thin laptops or have tiny flip-top cell phones?
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 | 11:29 pm - Oh, thank you Wacko, it all makes sense now...
Discovery of the night: it turns out that my big recent director discovery--Pang Ho-Cheung (You Shoot, I Shoot (probably in my top 10 of the year), Exodus, Isabella (which I just watched & is fantastic), Men Suddenly in Black (which is still indefinitely unavailable on Netflix))--was also the author of the novel Fulltime Killer, which the same-titled Johnnie To film is an adaptation of. Which is one of my favorite Johnnie To films.
So anyway, it makes a lot of sense, because his own films--especially Exodus, and a little bit the other two--have a pretty similar vibe, especially a similar black humor and a similar (but less explicit) meta undertone to them.
As for Isabella?
I thought it was very good. Definitely something to watch if you are in the mood for something a little more on the slow/arty side, with a strong emphasis on character & little emphasis on plot. Those who are actually seeking such may find it a bit insubstantial, but I thought it was excellent. It kept me rapt throughout, which is a pretty decent accomplishment.
Oh, yeah. It bears pointing out that Isabella Leong & Chapman To are both really good in it and the latter, at least, seems like quite an accomplishment as I wouldn't have believed he could pull off such a subtle role.
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July 11th, 2009
| 03:56 pm
Watching Heroes Against Heroes while folding laundry.
It's like a martial arts after-school special starring Wong Fei-Hung and Beggar So about the dangers of smoking opium in 19th century China.
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May 13th, 2009
 | 10:36 pm - Randomness in Reading
Finally finished Candace Pert's memoir, Molecules of Emotion, a few weeks ago. It was definitely very good, and very thought-provoking. My main real complaint is that, by the end, it was clear that the part of the story that she thought was interesting was her hippie-flake new-age ideas (receptor activity is all vibrational, so maybe matter is just a vibrational expansion of consciousness! No, seriously, she discovered Jesus, started going to a chiropracter, met Deepak Chopra and started doing TM in the space of four pages. I had whiplash of my skeptical crazy-detector. It's still sore!) whereas the part of the story that I thought was interesting was her career in the sciences and the progression of her actual research... and our ability to compromise on this was drifting further and further apart.
So yeah, I ended up skipping most of the last 20-30 pages anymore because I just didn't care about her 10 rules to happiness (which weren't actually "10 rules of happiness", the phrase is merely a placeholder) and wanted to get to the end of her Peptide T story... which didn't actually end in the book. Doh.
Anyways, I started reading The Scarlet Pimpernel as my new bus book--just to make ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) da_wyf jealous, I think--and it's been going pretty well although I just barely started. I'm really quite wishing I hadn't left it in the lab this afternoon, actually. I'm not in the mood for How to make sex marvellous tonight, so I've been alternating between Bruce Lee's The Art of Expressing the Human Body, Pharmako/Poeia (which I still don't know how to pronounce!), and my college Chem textbook. None of them are really doing it for me, though--I'm in the mood for some fiction!, but I hate starting a novel while I'm in the middle of another one. That way madness lies, I swear!
On an alternate media note, recent movie watchings:
* We watched Wing Chun and Iron Monkey last weekend at our weekly movie night (showing the Dead or Alive trilogy this weekend, I think) to much acclaim. I'm just realizing now that it's been at least a decade since I saw Wing Chun, and I've been looking for a cheap copy on DVD ever since... which I just finally picked up on the honeymoon.
* The watching-all-of-Doctor Who-available-on-DVD project is nearing completion (bet you didn't know about that!): I just finished Trial of a Time Lord so I'm about to start Sylvester McCoy, who doesn't seem to have a lot on DVD.
I am deriving a lot of amusement from the bizarrely specific subgenres that Netflix has been pitching on their front page as of late: "Mind-bending Foreign Crime Movies!" "Quirky Independent Sci-Fi & Fantasy!" It's actually pretty tame at the moment, in comparison to much of what I've been getting.
I think that's all for now.
Current Music: HYDE - Evergreen ~English Ensemble~ | Powered by Last.fm
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May 6th, 2009
| 06:03 pm
The Netflix synopsis of last year's Benny Chan thriller Connected (emphasis mine):
In the first Chinese remake of an American blockbuster, helmer Benny Chan updates the 2004 thriller Cellular, with Louis Koo starring as a single dad debt collector who becomes embroiled in intrigue when he responds to a stranger's plea for help. An out-of-the-blue phone call from a woman claiming to be held by kidnappers sets off a chain of events that will terrify and test the beleaguered man in this action-packed adventure.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?!!?
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April 12th, 2009
 | 10:53 pm - Five second movie reviews
I just saw The World Sinks Except Japan.
It was awesome, even with some confidence that I'm not getting 80% of the humor.
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February 16th, 2009
| 09:32 pm - Two second movie review
Finally got around to watching Brotherhood of the Wolf. Although I agree that it is pretty awesome--mostly because the secret plot twist/revelation gets the Mal Seal of Approval (TM)--I must also point out that seriously, folks, just how many cliches do you think you can throw at us?
I'm fairly confident that the movie was written by a European whose only knowledge of Native Americans was watching bad--and incredibly racist--American films. And I would say this even if this movie was in New York accented English.
RANDOM NOTE: Holy crap! I just checked imdb and how did nobody ever tell me that Christophe Gans' previous film was a French adaptation of Crying Freeman starring Mark Dacascos!!! MUST TRACK DOWN!
Further evidence uncovers the existence of an HK adaptation starring Simon Yam which... actually looks pretty crappy. But who knows? These things must be uncovered! And then sent to me!
Current Music: Skunk Anansie - Little Baby Swastikkka | Powered by Last.fm
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January 30th, 2009
| 08:54 pm
Currently watching the copy of Warlords I picked up in SF.
A: It is obviously a pirate. This makes me sad.
B: The subtitles on this may be the worst I've ever seen. Jet Li just gave a huge dramatic speech about, um, something, that totally didn't make sense on the first time through. And I say this as a fluent speaker of badly translated HK English!
"Throw up the sponge?"
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September 5th, 2008
| 06:56 pm - A couple months worth of quick movie reviews for no particular reason
...based on a combination of my Netflix rental list and the ratings list on my Netflix friends page, since the latter seems to be non-comprehensive and the former doesn't include movies I've watched in other venues:
* Blood Brothers dir. by Alexi Tan, 2007. On the one hand, it's not as good as I'd hoped given the hype while it was in production and the phenomenal trailer; on the other, it's nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be based on the reviews it got when it came out. It's as gorgeous as the trailer promised and is--as was made clear during production--clearly inspired by John Woo's (who produced) Bullet in the Head. But that film offered a clear, forceful narrative about well-defined characters who were backed into a corner and forced to make decisions with unfortunate consequences. This one... didn't. Expanding the first hour of the movie into a two hour narrative and forcing the extra space to be spent on better building of characters would have made a better movie, but it's difficult for me to begrudge it the last half hour, even if it did end up in the obvious place. Also, it's probably better in reality than it was for me because I realized a half hour in that I had difficulty distinguishing two of the main actors (Chen Chang and... Ye Liu, maybe?) just because I wasn't previously acquainted with them and there were enough scenes in which their character was not clear enough to carry it out, so their roles--which were pretty critical--got a bit muddled for me.
Recommended, with reservations.
* Lawyer Lawyer starring Stephen Chow, 1997. I gave it three stars on Netflix, which for an HK movie starring Stephen Chow is pretty much the kiss of death. There's nothing wrong with it, it's just more-or-less indistinguishable from a bunch of other Stephen Chow movies from the same era (King of Beggars, the Royal Tramp movies, Forbidden City Cop...) whose primary advantage is that they came out first. If you want to watch a Stephen Chow movie, it's good enough. If you've already seen the previously listed movies, the best I can say is that it's not a waste of your time.
Not recommended, except for people (like me) who want to see every Stephen Chow movie.
* The Tiger Blade dir. Theeratorn Siriphunvaraporn, 2005. I only returned this a month ago? Wow, this movie was apparently pretty forgettable. Um, I remember it being somewhat vague and vapid. I also recall liking the feel that it wasn't a fantasy movie so much as a cop movie from a universe where Buddhist magic worked, and this was blasely but not extensively incorporated into crime and police work.
Recommended for people who want to watch every Thai action movie or every new martial arts movie.
* Heroes of the East dir. Lau-Kar Leung, 1979. This movie was great. Really really sweet. It's got a great one-sentence pitch, which becomes even better when you discover it to be a action romcom in the tradition only HK can bring to the table. Also, it's great as a product of the times insomuch as it's clearly a movie whose twin themes are cultural tolerance/understanding and the inherent superiority of Chinese culture (as demonstrated by its martial traditions), and the movie gives you enough nudges and winks to make it clear that they're in on the joke without making the contradiction the focus of the film.
Recommended for everyone.
* Forbidden City Cop dir. Stephen Chow, 1996. Not quite as good as I remember it, but still pretty sweet. I would say that From Beijing With Love is plainly superior. I was really shocked looking back to go, "Oh hey! Carina Lau is in this!"
Recommended for Stephen Chow fans.
* King of Beggars dir. Gordon Chan, 1992. My memory is definitely a bit fuzzy at this point, but it was definitely pretty good. I will always be grateful to it for the realization that Beggar So aka So Hat Yi is some sort of actual mythical/legendary figure, not just a generic name given to beggars in every other historical martial arts movie (Drunken Master, Heroes of the East, Fist of the Red Dragon aka Heroes Among Heroes, &c...).
Recommended for Stephen Chow fans.
* The Girl Who Knew Too Much dir. Mario Bava, 1963. Definitely Bava's Hitchcock film, for better or worse. Very much one of those movies I spend the whole time talking over, mocking it for inconsequentialities, then realize at the end that it was actually pretty decent.
Recommended only for Bava die-hards. If you haven't bought the boxed set, you probably shouldn't bother.
Gotta run. To be continued...?
EDIT (continued):
Evil Aliens dir. Jake West, 2005. We were constantly going back on forth on whether this movie was awesome with some awful moments or awful with some awesome moments. I don't know if people ever still drink beer and watch movies at Phlabra's place after Cahoots on Saturdays, but if they do Phil should rent this and show it to them. Abra will have to close her eyes a couple times, and everyone will say "I can't believe they did that!" a dozen times or so, and hopefully the majority of them will be with glee.
You will weep with joy the first time you see an alien get run over by a combine.
Amazons vs. Superheroes dir. Alfonso Brescia, 1975. This movie is just fucked up. Seriously, totally off the wall.
Mildly recommended for people who want to watch a movie just because it's a bad idea.
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 | 04:19 pm - Quick call for submissions
Best Lovecraft movie. In the Mouth of Madness is removed from consideration: if that's your pick, give me your second best. Note from the previous sentence that it doesn't have to be a Lovecraft adaptation, just a great Lovecraftian film. Dark horse candidates are accepted; and if you would rather recommend a specific movie as must-see (but not necessarily the greatest ever) you should feel free..
If you have the chance, please make your case.
Also note that Re-Animator is also excluded from consideration because it is crap.
Thanks to all who assist.
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July 1st, 2008
| 12:31 am - Two unrelated things
From this AP article:
The Televen channel yanked the animated hit from its lineup in April after regulators said its 11 a.m. showing violated broadcast rules intended to protect young viewers. "The Simpsons" returned to the air at night, and was replaced in the morning with "Baywatch Hawaii."
In other news, tonight I watched Boarding Gate, an Olivier Assayas film starring Asia Argento, Michael Madsen, and Kelly Lin. Also, Carl Ng, but I don't care about him. Anyways, it was a weird little movie, not at all what I was expecting (I'd just seen the Asia Argento + Michael Madsen and assumed that = bad actioner starring Asia & Madsen without looking at the director or the rest of the cast list). It very much felt like the first half was a French film and the second half was a Hong Kong film. Which, in a way, makes it sort of like the ultimate HK film. So of course, I loved it far more than it deserved.
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June 1st, 2008
| 04:08 pm - Very short movie reviews:
Bill Plympton's Idiots and Angels: Fantastic. Five stars.
Ernesto Diaz Espinoza & Marko Zaror's Mirageman: Fucking sweet. Five stars.
Takashi Miike's Zebraman: Totally awesome. Four and a half stars.
***
I'd make a pretty crappy movie reviewer, wouldn't I?
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