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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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September 10th, 2009
 | 04:52 pm - New Black Dynamite Viral Video
Because Black Dynamite is the best movie since Mirror Universe Black Moses made The Black Ten Commandments.
...did I mention it won best of show at the Seattle International Film Festival? It's THAT AWESOME.
EDIT: YARRRGGGHH Buzz Cuts embed code isn't working and I can't find it on GooTube. Click on THE LINK!
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September 2nd, 2009
| 12:02 am - Behold, the Sky King!
I am amazed that Yahoo! gossip blogs know that I want news about Andy Lau. Even silly, pointless, gossipy news.
Huzzah!
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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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August 8th, 2009
| 12:13 am - Filmdrunk is required reading
Case in point #1:
Collider recently got the chance to talk to Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, the guy behind the idea to make movies out of boardgames. Put on your helmets, because it’s about to get stupid. (*record scratch*)
Case in point #2:
Paramount’s decision to only screen G.I. Joe for critics handpicked by the studio and their phoney-baloney empty gestures at patriotism (they won’t actually put the US military in their movie but they’ll bend over backwards to use them for marketing - you’re not fooling anyone, you pieces of sh*t) were looking good as of a few days ago when the film was tracking 91% on rottentomatoes. Now that a few people have actually seen it… not so much. It’s down to 41% as of this writing, and the only point of contention seems to be whether it’s just really stupid, or so stupid that it’s kind of fascinating...
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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 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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May 20th, 2009
 | 11:54 pm - Movies that need to be available on DVD...
The Keep, 1983
Directed by Michael Mann
Starring Jurgen Prochnow, Ian McKellen, and Gabriel Byrne
Creature designs by Enki-motherfucking-Bilal
I don't care if it's notoriously awful! I want!
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May 14th, 2009
 | 11:22 pm
I would stop watching movies where Hollywood casting just goes, "Eh--Asian! Close enough!" But then I would no longer be able to watch movies made in Hollywood that feature Asian people.
This may not necessarily be a bad thing.
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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 11th, 2009
| 08:54 pm - SIFF, again
I've gone over the SIFF schedule in a bit more detail; and altho I haven't added a lot more films that I want to see (only one or two), I figured I could just throw out some opinions on why I want to watch films (you have to come up with your own reasons). All links are to the SIFF page for a movie, many of them feature trailers for the film if you are interested (I apologize that their trailers appear to have been run through a decreased production quality filter). I've placed the movies I'm most interested in at the top, and I've tried to label my own must-sees in bold.
Please please PLEASE let me know if you are interested in going out to movies with us in general, or in seeing any movies with us in specific. I will do my best to make group arrangements, problem involving an email list of something facebook-y, and will probably be putting movies up on my google calendar as I decide to commit to showings. If you will be in Seattle during part of SIFF (Doc!) and want to force us to commit to seeing something with you, go ahead and let us know.
Any questions? Let me know.
Anyways, here we go:
The Beast Stalker
Hong Kong, directed by Dante Lam
Reasons to watch
* It's an HK cop actioner: SLAM DUNK!
* It's directed by Dante Lam, of Beast Cops, Hit Team, and, um... The Twins Effect fame.
* It stars Nic Tse (who has gone from being surprisingly good at acting & action to being one of HK's top action stars) & Nick Cheung (who I think got the HK film award for best actor for this performance).
* Listed on lovehkfilm.com's top 10 of 2008. And you know I listen to Kozo!
* Must-see.
Showings: 4 PM, Friday 22 May @ Neptune; 7 PM, Wednesday 27 May @ Harvard Exit; 11 AM, Saturday 30 May @ Uptown Cinema
Black Dynamite
USA, directed by Scott Sanders
For some reason, they don't have the trailer up on the SIFF website. Watch it here. Having seen that, if you don't feel a burning need to see this movie you not only have no soul, you are also dedicated to helping The Man keep your brother man down. Must-see!
Showings: 9:30 PM, Friday 5 June @ Egyptian; Midnight, Saturday 6 June @ Egyptian (my preferred showing time).
The Clone Returns Home
Japan, directed by Kanji Nakajima
I hadn't heard of this before, but the description is intriguing and the trailer is enthralling. You should watch it. Not a must-see, but definitely a film I'm very very interested in seeing.
Showings: 9:30 PM, Thursday 4 June @ Uptown Cinema; 4 PM Tuesday 10 June @ Admiral; 9:30 PM, Saturday 13 June @ Egyptian.
Daytime Drinking
South Korea, directed by Noh Young-seok
Click on the link. Read the description, watch the trailer, then come back here. So: which showing would you like to aim for?
Showings: 4 PM, Tuesday 26 May @ Egyptian; 9:45 PM, Monday 1 June @ SIFF Cinema.
Dead Snow
Norway, directed by Tommy Wirkola
Nazi zombies? Nazi zombies! NAZI ZOMBIES! NAZI ZOMBIES!!! Must-see.
Showings: Midnight, Saturday 23 May @ Egyptian (would be my preferred showing, except I hope to be holding a birthday party somewhere that night); 9:30 PM, Wednesday 27 May @ Pacific Place Cinema.
I Sell the Dead
USA, directed by Glenn McQuaid
It's got a catchy title, it features a hobbit AND Ron Perlman, the description sounds cool, and the trailer looks awesome. Also, midnight showing at Egyptian might work out. Grave robbers + undead = Must-see.
Showings: Midnight, Friday 22 May @ Egyptian; 9:30 PM, Monday 25 May @ Neptune.
Sniper
As I said in my previous post, this movie got a last-minute re-write in the editing room last year after CameraGate (or PenisGate, or EdisonChenGate, or whatever they call it) hit the big time in HK. Regardless, it's an HK cop actioner so it's a must-see.
Showings: 9:30 PM, Monday 1 June @ Egyptian; 9:30 PM, Wednesday 3 June @ Egyptian.
Warlords
Hong Kong, directed by Peter Chan
Another movie so must-seeable that it requires a list:
* Directed by Peter Chan, of Perhaps Love, Comrades: Almost a Love Story, and Who's the Woman, Who's the Man fame.
* Starring Jet Li, Andy Lau, and Takeshi Kaneshiro
* An epic historical war & brotherhood film from Hong Kong
* It's totally AWESOME!
* I own a pirated DVD I accidentally bought in Chinatown last Christmas, so I would be morally obliged to give them my money even if I didn't want to see it again in the theater of my own volition.
Showings: 9:45 PM, Saturday 23 May @ Neptune; 9:30 PM, Monday 25 May @ Egyptian.
Yes, I Can See Dead People
Hong Kong, directed by David Lee
Okay, you've got me, it's only on the list because A: it's from Hong Kong, and B: it's an excuse for a midnight movie. I would like to point out that midnight Hong Kong movies is probably my favorite thing in the entire universe. Hence, must-see. I do hear it's eminently watchable (the beginning of the lovehkfilm review is "You probably expect nothing from this movie...surprise, you get more than nothing!")
Showings: Midnight, Saturday 30 May @ Egyptian; 9:30 PM, Tuesday 2 June @ Uptown Cinema; 9:45 PM, Friday 5 June @ Admiral
Less interested, but still interested:
Breathless
South Korea, directed by Yang Ik-june
I don't have a lot to say about this: the pitch sounds interesting, the trailer looks interesting. It's a low-probability of attendance for me, but if someone else were particularly interested or it fit into a schedule around a couple other films I would give it a shot.
Showings: 9:15 PM, Thursday 11 June @ SIFF Cinema; 9:30 PM, Saturday 13 June @ SIFF Cinema
Bronson
United Kingdom, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
I haven't heard of this before, but the description sounds pretty interesting. Another one I'll watch if karma lines up and won't cry if it doesn't.
Showings: 9:30 PM Saturday 23 May @ Uptown Cinema; 9:30 PM Tuesday 26 May @ Neptune
Forever Enthralled
China, directed by Chen Kaige
You mostly have me at "Chinese movie" alone. "Movie about a Peking Opera star" and I'm completely sold. "Directed by Chen Kaige" would pique my interest. Of course, we have all three, and I'm pretty certain I want to see this. Why only "pretty certain"? From what I've read, the second half drags a little, and that might have something to do with the fact that this is the half carried by Leon Lai and Zhang Ziyi. Throw in the facts that it's over two hours long and Chinese Censors = no Leon Lai/Zhang Ziyi sex scene, and I'm more ambivalent then I might be otherwise. Still: definitely interested, and desire on the part of others to see this movie would go a long way. Watch the trailer, let me know what you think.
Showings: 9:15 PM, Sunday 7 June @ Uptown Cinema; 9:15 PM, Wednesday 10 June @ Admiral; 3 PM, Saturday 13 June @ Cinerama
Hansel and Gretel
South Korea, directed by Yim Phil-sung
I've heard good things about it on the tubes, and the trailer looks pretty kick-ass.
Showings: 9:15 PM, Wednesday 27 May @ Neptune; 3:30 PM, Friday 29 May @ Egyptian; 9:30 PM, Sunday 7 June @ Admiral.
Inju, the Beast in the Shadow
France, directed by Barbet Schroeder
Based on a novel by Edogawa Rampo? I'm halfway there. Sounds okay from the description, and the trailer takes me another ~25% of the way there. Unlike the trailer, I hope the actual film has subtitles. That's another 10% right there, right?
Showings: 6:30 PM, Thursday 4 June @ Egyptian; 1:15 PM, Saturday 6 June @ Uptown Cinema; 4:15 PM, Friday 12 June @ Cinerama
Miao Miao
Hong Kong (but really Taiwan, I think), directed by Hsiao-Tse Cheng
Apparently this was made by a bunch of people who've worked with Wong Kar-Wai; but the list doesn't include WKW himself, Christopher Doyle, or the stellar casts he surrounds himself with, which are a lot of the reasons to go see WKW films. Based on the trailer, this doesn't look like it brings a lot new to the table, but I could see the ladies or those who like consuming teen-oriented fare being quite interested in this. And it looks pretty damned gorgeous. Not something I'll push hard for, but certainly something I'd love to get dragged along to.
Showings: 4:30 PM, Friday 29 May @ SIFF Cinema; 7 PM, Tuesday 2 June @ Egyptian Theater.
Moon
UK, directed by Duncan Jones
Starring Sam Rockwell, this sounds pretty awesome and I've heard consistently awesome things about it. The only thing that keeps this from being at the top of the list is the certainty that I'll have the option to catch this in the theater later this summer. But if you want to catch it NOW, I'm certainly persuadable.
Showings: 7 PM, Tuesday 26 May @ Egyptian; 4:15 PM, Wednesday 27 May @ SIFF Cinema.
My Dear Enemy
South Korea, directed by Lee Yoon-ki
It looks a bit slight and a bit romcommy, but it's definitely got potential. Give the trailer a spin and see what you think.
Showings: 6:30 PM, Sunday 24 May @ Harvard Exit; 1:30 PM, Monday 25 May @ Harvard Exit
Once Upon a Time in the West
USA, directed by Sergio Leone
Based on a script by Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento, this is the Greatest Western Ever Made. Every chance offered by fate to see this in the theater should be taken quite seriously.
Showing: 1:30 PM, Friday 6 June @ Harvard Exit
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
France, directed by Michel Hazanavicius (the first name I've had to just copy and paste!)
This spy comedy has gotten a lot of really really good press, and this is an outdoor showing. That has a lot of potential. Also, they're showing the sequel, but only at the closing night gala, which is expensive. Curses!
Showing: 9 PM, Friday 6 June @ Juanita Beach Park
Wild Rose
An early Chinese silent film? SOLD!
Showings: 1:30 PM, Monday 25 May @ Egyptian (okay, that's probably not going to happen)
ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction
Okay, this movie is solely on here because of the title. It does sound pretty cool, tho.
Showings: 9:15 PM, Tuesday 2 June @ SIFF Cinema; 10:00 PM, Thursday 4 June @ Kirkland Performance Center
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May 7th, 2009
| 11:53 pm - SIFF's coming up
It's that time of year again...
The SIFF schedule was released to day, and I've been meaning to go through it ALL DAY, but have been too busy. So I'm just quick skimming through the online calendar to see what there is to see. I'll put up a more comprehensive list with explanations of why I want to see things later, hopefully.
Friday, 22 May:
4 PM: Beast Stalker, directed by Dante Lam @ Neptune
Midnight: I Sell the Dead @ Egyptian
Saturday, 23 May:
9:30 PM: Bronson @ Uptown Cinema
9:45 PM: Warlords @ Neptune
Midnight: Dead Snow (The Nazi zombie movie) @ Egyptian
Sunday, 24 May:
11:00 AM: The Third Man @ Harvard Exit
Monday, 25 May:
1:30 PM: Wild Rose @ Egyptian
9:30 PM: Warlords @ Egyptian
9:30 PM: I Sell the Dead @ Neptune
Tuesday, 26 May:
4 PM: Daytime Drinking @ Egyptian
7 PM: Moon @ Egyptian
9:30 PM: Bronson @ Neptune
Wednesday, 27 May:
4:15 PM: Moon @ SIFF Cinema
7 PM: Beast Stalker @ Harvard Exit
9:30 PM: Dead Snow @ Pacific Place Cinema
9:15 PM: Hansel and Gretel @ Neptune
Thursday, 28 May:
Nuthin'
Friday, 29 May:
3:30 PM: Hansel and Gretel @ Egyptian
4:30 PM: Miao Miao @ SIFF Cinema
Saturday, 30 May:
11 AM: Beast Stalker @ Uptown Cinema
Midnight: Yes, I Can See Dead People @ Egyptian
Sunday, 31 May:
Nuthin'
Monday, 1 June:
9:30 PM: The Sniper @ Egyptian (This movie was supposed to come out ~last summer, but it co-starred Edison Chen before his penis became world-famous, so it went in for a drastic re-edit and premiered at the HK International Film Festival a couple weeks ago. So, pseudo-coup, I guess?)
9:45 PM: Daytime Drinking @ SIFF Cinema
Tuesday, 2 June:
9:15 PM: ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction @ SIFF Cinema
9:30 PM: Yes, I Can See Dead People @ Uptown Cinema
Wednesday, 3 June:
9:30 PM: The Sniper @ Egyptian
Thursday, 4 June:
10 PM: ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction @ Kirkland Performance Center
9:30 PM: The Clone Returns Home @ Uptown Cinema
Friday, 5 June:
9:45 PM: Yes, I Can See Dead People @ Admiral Theater
9:30 PM: Black Dynamite @ Egyptian
Saturday, 6 June:
1:15 PM: Inju, the Beast in the Shadow @ Uptown Cinema
9 PM: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies @ Juanita Beach Park
Midnight: Black Dynamite @ Egyptian
Sunday, 7 June:
9:30 PM: Hansel and Gretel @ Admiral Theater
9:15 PM: Forever Enthralled @ Uptown Cinema
Monday, 8 June:
Nuthin
Tuesday, 9 June:
Nuthin
Wednesday, 10 June:
4:00 PM: The Clone Returns Home @ Admiral Theater
9:15 PM: Forever Enthralled @ Admiral Theater
Thursday, 11 June:
Nuthin
Friday, 12 June:
4:15 PM: Inju, the Beast in Shadow @ Cinerama
Saturday, 13 June:
1:30 PM: Once Upon a Time in the West @ Harvard Exit
3 PM: Forever Enthralled @ Cinerama
9:30 PM: The Clone Returns Home @ Egyptian
Sunday, 14 June:
Nuthin
***
This is just a cursory overview. If you see anything you think I missed or should know about, feel free to throw a shout-out. Ditto if you have opinions about what movies I should/shouldn't see from my list or if you are a Seattlite and might be interested in tagging along. In the next week or so, I'll grab the SIFF flier and go through it and the website a bit more comprehensively.
Gut reaction: The only real "must-sees" in terms of things I had prior interest in are Beast Stalker, Dead Snow, and Black Dynamite. I'm interested in Moon, but I'm also confident it will do get at least a couple weeks to a month at a Landmark theatre in the area at some point over the summer; I already have Warlords on DVD, but I would TOTALLY love to see it on the big screen. I had some milder prior interest in Forever Enthralled, altho I don't remember why (I didn't that Chen Kaige directed, I don't know if that alters my interest levels at all), and I'll almost definitely go see Sniper just for kicksplosions. I feel sort of let down that most of the HK and South Korean fare are things that even I haven't heard of, and especially in the latter regard that most of the fare seem to be marginally interesting & romcommish. I'll have to track down more info, tho, to see if I'm wrong.
It's also worth noting that my devotion to twitchfilms over the last year has been at a nadir, so there may be things that I've missed from the list but should be excited about without realizing it.
Movies that I want to see based on the title alone: I Sell the Dead, Yes, I Can See Dead People, ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction, and The Clone Returns Home.
A couple films that I was really sort of hoping they'd have:
* Red Cliff 1 & 2 (I already have 1 on DVD, but it would be awesome just to see it on the big screen or to get to see BOTH before the US re-edit comes out)
* The Good, the Bad, and the Weird (I've had a stiffy for this movie for a year or two now... it's getting pretty sore.)
* Ip Man
* The Way We Are
* Kung Fu Hip Hop or Kung Fu Dunk or Shaolin Girl (yes, by all accounts, they were awful. SHUT. UP.)
* Achilles and the Tortoise
* Or any of a billion other Asian movies that came out last year.
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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 25th, 2009
 | 03:01 am - Just for the record?
...Robert Rodriguez says he's actually making Machete?
SOLD.
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April 20th, 2009
| 08:10 pm - yay
The only real good news to come out of this year's Hong Kong Film Awards seems to be that Josephine Siao Fong Fong won the lifetime achievement award.
Faithful followers will recall that she played the mother in The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk, one of the awesomest movies of all time.
Hooray.
Current Music: Sun Ra - Nuclear War
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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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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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November 12th, 2008
| 09:50 pm - Line of the night
"Chocolate covered yellow peril"
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September 21st, 2008
| 10:42 pm - Movie Night
Cris, Chase & I all went to see Red Heroine tonight at SIFF. The short version: Red Heroine is--so they claim, at least--the oldest surviving wuxia pian, an entry from a 13-part series. Live music was provided by the Devil Music Ensemble, a group that is touring with the film.
It was pretty fantastic: although it isn't obviously amazing in and of itself as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is, or as clearly influential in a single viewing as Metropolis (sorry: these are the silent films I'm fluent in); unlike those it actually feels like a movie in and of itself. In retrospect, the narrative seemed surprisingly clear for a film of its time. Although the presence of the live music may have something to do with that: I'm fairly sure that all of my previous viewings of silent film have been of actually silent copies. Also, the music was really good.
It was interesting to discover how much better subtitles in Chinese films have gotten over the years, and how differently wrong they were. This may somehow have something to do with translating from Mandarin (as I assume they were doing) rather than Cantonese: I don't think I've ever seen a movie filmed in Mandarin that wasn't translated professionally and thus bereft of Level Two humor. The errors seemed to be more focused on gross errors of grammar, whereas the actually words used were usually accurate (although many were misspelled, replaced with homophones, or slightly bizarre while technically accurate, like using "Generalissimo" for the leader of the army). (Although honestly, with High Risk running in the background because we couldn't remember that people in HK movies use the word "despise" to replace underestimate & I knew an example occurred in the first scene; I may have overestimated the grammar competence of more modern HK films.) My two favorite examples from the movie got written down:
* No one could bear for her deep lamentation.
* "Are you not care to revenge?"
The other interesting thing about the movie is the different structuring of the narrative than I anticipated. So the first arc of the movie is "heroine attempts to escape invading army with grandmother, gets kidnapped while her grandmother is killed; she is then rescued from rape by the White Monkey who then offers to train her in the 'military arts" so she can gain revenge." The last arc of the movie is, unsurprisingly, "heroine gets revenge while saving her neighbors from death & worse." So what would you guess happens in the second act? My guess would have been "heroine goes to the White Monkey's mountain lair and trains in the military arts." I'd be wrong. In fact, she doesn't appear in the second act at all, which is actually the meat of the movie. Instead, the film focuses on her next-door neighbors and their travails as the generalissimo of the occupying army conspires to charge the father with treason so as to force the daughter to marry him. There are lots of possible reasons for this to be the case: budgetary, as it would involve additional sets; practical, as it would be too difficult to film the additional fighting scenes for training, &c. But I've been thinking of it as artistic in nature: that the filmmakers thought that the second act was more interesting as presented than some boring montage sequence would have been.
On a side note, the film was introduced by Richard Meyer--author of Ruan Ling-Yu: The Goddess of Shanghai--who I just established was not Ric Meyers (whom I've never seen a photo of). The main interesting note from his talk was a bit of introduction to the period in which the movie was made: apparently at the time, the Nationalist Government (and in looking up their name, discovered that Chiang Kai-shek was known as "the Generalissimo," explaining that bit) had started censoring wuxia films because the narratives have always traditionally been anti-government. As a result, the movie makers started casting female leads on the theory that they'd be allowed to get away with more. They were right, and it stuck. I don't know if this explains why women were still the traditional stars of wuxia pian into the mid-60s. But it's pretty interesting regardless.
Anyways, the group is touring with it so if you get a chance to see it at a theater near you, you should totally check it out. It's totally worth the $15.
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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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August 26th, 2008
| 12:37 am - KFG Tonite
Kung Fu Grindhouse was tonight, I discovered at the last minute. Almost didn't go because the first movie was Fist of Legend and I knew that A:) since a real US release that's unedited and with a Cantonese language track (and probably a little remastering) is about to come out, I'd be watching that soon, and B:) since that version is not out yet, they'd probably be showing the Miramax (I think) dub. But I decided to give Chase a call and head out anyway, on the theory that I needed the socialization.
I was right.
We caught the tail end of FoL, and the dubbing is less irritating when you're just watching the final fight scene. The second movie was Evil Aliens, which is A: totally fucked up, and B: something Phil needs to first watch and then show to other people after plying them with alcohol. Discussing with Chase on the way home, we both agreed that we spent the entire movie wavering between "awful movie with some awesome moments" and "awesome movie with some awful moments." There's also a fair amount of sheer WTFness and a healthy dose of gore. Ultimately, two thumbs up because there's too much awesome not to.
After the second movie, I went outside and met Tom Peyer of Hourman fame. That was pretty random.
The final movie was Amazons and Supermen, a 1974 Shaw Bros. / Cine Italia production. It's... pretty much pure WTF. Our hero is Dharma, an immortal guardian who lives in a mountain and protects the people of the valley in return for offerings of food, but only the right food ("Remember: no peppers, no protection!"). Except, he's actually just the latest in a 400-year long train of random perfectly normal guys who have been trained to pretend to be immortal to protect the people of the valley (and get free food). Except that--as far as I could tell--he does have the ability to jump off a cliff and survive... and also jump up cliffs and survive. Anyways, the amazons start raiding the local villages to try and force Dharma to explain to them the secrets of the eternal flame that granted his immortality, so he has to recruit some assistance from a black guy and an asian dude.
Somewhere along the way, he invents flame throwers and mortars. This movie is pretty effed up, but it also has its moments of manic genius. It totally should have been in the 50 martial arts movies box, and it would have been awesome in that context.
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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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May 30th, 2008
| 10:55 am - Seattle International Film Festival
So I think I've discovered the best part of moving to Seattle: SIFF is way better than the MSP IFF. I'll be editing in some links and commentary later, but I've been carrying these clippings I tore out of the free SIFF paper for a week now and I want to get them up so A: the couple other Seattlites on lj can see them, and B: I don't forget about any more:
MUST SEE:
!! * Mad Detective, directed by Johnnie To (the 10th anniversary Milkway Film) (4 PM on Monday, June 2 (hey! THIS Monday!), 7 PM on Tuesday, June 3; both at the Egyptian)
!! * Sparrow, directed by Johnnie To (the US premiere) (9 PM on Monday, June 2 (hey! ALSO this Monday!) at SIFF Cinema (or maybe 9:30 at Pacific Place, claims differ), and 9:30 PM on Wednesday, 4 June at the Uptown)
!! * Sukiyaki Western Django, directed by Takashi Miike (Midnight on Saturday, June 7? at the Egyptian, 9:45 PM on Monday, June 9 at the Uptown)
* Triangle directed by Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and Johnnie To (4 PM on Friday, June 13, 9 PM on Sunday June 15; both at the Cinerama)
* The Young Master directed by Jackie Chan & presented by Howard Patterson, an original member of the Flying Karamazov Brothers (6:30 PM on Sunday, 8 June at the Harvard Exit)
REALLY WANT TO SEE:
* Blood Brothers directed by Alexi Tan (Fuck! I missed both of the showings!)
* Mirageman directed by Ernesto Diaz Espinoza (brought to us by the people that brought us Kiltro!) (Midnight tonight, and 9:15 PM on June 3 at the Egyption)
Vaguely interested in:
* The Drummer directed by Kenneth Bi (7 PM on Thursday June 5, 11 AM on Saturday June 7; both at Pacific Place)
* Fighter directed by Natasha Arthy (claims to be "Denmark's first foray into martial-arts wirework") (1:30 PM on Sunday June 1 at Uptown, 7 PM on Tuesday June 3 at Pacific Place)
* Heavy Metal in Baghdad directed by Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi (Damn! Missed both of the showings for this, too; and I bet Doc & Jay would've both LOVED this!)
* Idiots and Angels directed by Bill Plympton (9:30 PM tonight and 4PM tomorrow, both at Harvard Exit)
* Love and Honor directed by Yoji Yamada (missed both)
* Mongol directed by Sergei Bodrov (missed both)
MISSED THE FIRST TIME AROUND:
! * ADDED @ Dr. X's request: Chrysalis directed by Julien Leclercq (who will be attending) (11:55 PM on Friday June 13 at the Egyptian, 10 PM on Saturday June 14 at Cinerama)
* Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone directed by Hideaki Anno (11:55 pm Saturday May 31 at the Egyptian, 9:30 PM Wednesday June 4 at Harvard Exit)
* The Third Mother by Dario Argento>?!?!?!?! I MISSED IT! DAMMIT!
EDIT:
! = Tickets I have already purchased for a showing using the student reel deal ($35 for 5 showings instead of ~$11 each). One "!" = 1 ticket. If you're interested in using one of my extras to tag along, let me know. I'll try to make it clear when a ticket is called dibs on, but I make no promises.
Bold faced movie titles are ones I have now seen.
EDIT: Okay, I just found out how the student discount works and it's officially retarded. Rates for tickets:
--Normal movie = $11
--Normal person multiple movie pass = $57 for 6 (can be used for any showings, but can only use one per showing)
--Student multiple movie pass = $35 for 5. But you have to give them a list of the specific showings that you intend to see at the time and the "pass" is actually just tickets for those 5 different showings at a discounted rate. And I think it's pretty retarded to schedule something at the end of the school year and tell students that they can get a discounted rate provided they can schedule five movies over two weeks with 100% confidence in advance.
( More info on the movies I want to see )
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