Category: Foreign

Categories
Drama Foreign Movie Reviews

Pleasure Factory – Geylang Unleashed?

Let me be upfront and tell you what “Pleasure Factory” is not. It is not a documentary film about Geylang. Far from it as I think some of the facts are flawed given my limited knowledge of what Geylang is like. It is not a romantic erotica either. Face it, the working girls are not necessarily the prettiest things on earth and definitely not the paying customers. And it is definitely not a movie to watch with your date. You will have better luck with … I don’t know … “Basic Instinct”?

And let me also be upfront about the audience reaction during the screening of the movie. When the gay scene was shown, one old man left the theatre and never came back. Before the show has ended, the couple beside me left the theatre and never came back. When the show has ended, there was a mad rush to the exit. My take is, not many people actually appreciate the film.

“Pleasure Factory” does have its charm. It was selected for the Un Certain Regard competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. The Thai director does come with certain credential and the movie has got actors and actresses from outside Singapore such as Taiwan and Thailand. According to the filmmaker, this movie is inspired by true story and real life characters. “Pleasure Factory” has little dialogues. And it is a mixture of three different stories: a virgin army boy and his prostitute, an old prostitute and her daughter with her client, and a red dressed prostitute with her client in fast car and someone who plays guitar. There are parts that I think it is a bit slow. And I feel that some of the editing can be improved as the time dimension seems a bit off to me as an audience.

What I particularly like about this movie is that some of the scenes are just so memorable. The bedroom scene of the army boy and the prostitute is probably the highlight of the movie. The emotional scene between an old prostitute and her daughter at the hawker center is my next favorite scene. And I love the ending scene as it is so symbolic – the fish tank, the girl on the bed, and the wallet.

Having said all that, I think majority of the movie is a bit too slow and I wish it has gone the direction of either a documentary or a romantic erotica. However, it has certainly achieved what the director has set out for: a film to have a vivid sense of realism and honesty.

Is it a film for everybody? I think not. Only for those who has the patience to watch an art movie as well as having an open mind.

PS. One question I have: Is Er Xu, the prostitute in the movie, a prostitute in real life? That interview she had surely seemed like a casting selection process.

Official Site: Pleasure Factory.

Categories
Action & Thriller Animation Foreign Movie Reviews

Ratatouille and Blood Brothers

It is one of those weeks that watching one movie is just not enough. Having read so many ravishing reviews on “Ratatouille” and since Cynthia so wanted to watch it, Ratatouille it was. An animated feature film produced by Pixar and when you hear the word “Pixar”, it just can’t go wrong. This film is not short either. A close to 2 hours entertainment with a short (bonus) film called “Lifted” at the beginning of the movie. “Ratatouille” has a simple storyline of a rat wanting to become a chef in Paris. It does have quite a “believable” plot from beginning to end (think “Happy Feet” for a hard-to-believe ending). The animation is top notch. I have been to Paris before and some of the scenes I would say are faithful replica of the real thing. No doubt Remy – our chef – is cute. But when you see the horde of rats running everywhere, Cynthia and I found it a bit … gross. Rats are rats and I don’t think people will fall in love with rats after the movie. Nevertheless, the takeaway point from this movie is not about rats per se but rather the insignificant – however usual it can be – can make a difference.

“Ratatouille” was the day before. Today (or rather yesterday), since Cynthia has a business function to attend, I wanted to take this wonderful opportunity to watch an … Indonesian horror film … alone. Cynthia being Indonesian boldly told me that she wouldn’t want to watch an Indonesian film, set aside an Indonesian horror film. That put doubts into my mind. I did some research and decided against watching that horror movie.

Since Cynthia doesn’t fancy Chinese film either, time to watch one while she was not around! Fortunate to me, my buddy KF the consultant could join me for a 6.45pm movie watching “Blood Brothers” at Vivocity. I don’t fancy Vivocity but Cathay does not have the time slot I want. As usual … *ahem* … KF got stuck in the office. I drove like a mad man from Beach Road to Vivocity in 20 minutes during rush hour. Phew … barely made it.

KF asked why I chose “Blood Brothers”. Duh … I am a big fan of Shu Qi so it is really no brainer right? Again, I read the reviews and they are mostly lukewarm. I can certainly understand why. The storyline is a typical Chinese mafia type set in the old days. I have to say I do like the backdrop of the movie, the costume, and the acting of some of the actors … including Shu Qi of course!

What’s the storyline like? Very linear (and no spoiler as always). There is this pair of friends and one elder brother and they left the village wanting to make some money in Shanghai. This trio turns out working with a mafia boss who has a pretty girlfriend (Shu Qi … duh!) … and this pretty girlfriend likes this mafia boss’s brother. Lots of drama, lots of acting opportunities … and lots of gaps. By that I mean if you are not into Chinese movies, you will certainly ponder upon all the illogical moments that appear from time to time. KF and I talked about these gaps over our dinner and without fail, we arrived at the same conclusion that the plot doesn’t have to explicitly talk about it … if you are a seasoned Chinese film viewer, you should be able to figure that out.

I wouldn’t say “Blood Brothers” is a must-watch, nor a film that is worth checking out. Definitely I think Shu Qui is more cut out for action movies like My Wife Is A Gangster 3. For me, the decision of watching “Blood Brother” is Shu Qi and Shu Qi only.

Categories
Animation Foreign Movie Reviews Romance

Paprika and Who Slept With Her – A Mixed Review From Us

After a rather disappointing outing to watch the Korean sex comedy “Who Slept With Her” last week, I tried to make amend and choose a better movie this time for the Movie Review Squad – the Japanese anime “Paprika”. Turns out that three of us have different opinions on these two movies. TK actually enjoyed the B-list movie “Who Slept With Her” with the expectation of a mindless laugher. I was mildly entertained by it while Cynthia found the jokes crude. In short, “Who Slept With Her” is definitely the male’s version of a chick movie (a dude movie?!). As for “Paprika”, I thoroughly enjoyed watching that and it has exceeded TK’s expectation (I suspect it was not that high to start with) while Cynthia found the story confusing.

I like “Paprika” a lot because the story is interestingly original and the artwork is beautiful. In some scenes, I was actually paying attention to all the background objects marveled at the amount of details on the screen rather than the main attractions. Color contrast plays a part to make some of the scenes dramatically beautiful. Although the characters are in 2-dimension, the way the postures are presented as well as the small movements look real enough. And these 2D characters are often set in backgrounds that are rendered with realistic 3D shading. Because the storyline of “Paprika” intertwines the reality with the dream world, the contortion of the surfaces, the morphing of characters and objects, and the flashbacks of scenarios – making it perhaps one of the most artistic Japanese anime I have seen.

What is the story of “Paprika” about? Without giving too much spoilers (you know I won’t!), a device that enables therapists to enter patients’ dreams has been fallen into the wrong hands. Now, people are losing their minds doing things against their will. It is up to the young and beautiful doctor Atsuko Chiba and her team together with her alt-ego that exists in the dream world “Paprika” to save the world. The story has its tense moments, moments of violence, and brief moments of (artistic) nudity. I guess that is why “Paprika” is rated NC-16 in Singapore.

I can understand why Cynthia finds the story confusing. Quite a number of times, the dialogues happen faster than the rate we can digest the subtitles. Perhaps the animation itself is too captivating. I at time find it hard to fully follow the plot. Some of the translation can be hard to gasp at first read. Maybe the concepts are foreign to non-Japanese or maybe the plot can be so unexpected at times. Either way, there is lots of speed reading to do while watching “Paprika”, at least to me.

I can also understand why Cynthia find “Who Slept with her” too crude to her liking. I did not know that it is a B-list movie (TK?! Why didn’t you …) and the last Korea sex comedy I watched with TK (as gently reminded by the man himself) was “The Art of Seduction”. Now, that was a good one. Funny and tastefully done. “Who Slept with her” starts with a Vice Principal suspects that a trainee teacher is having sex with someone inside the school library at night and the story then rewinds to the point when that trainee teacher just joined the school. The three usual suspects are a handsome student, a wrinkled face student (acted by an old man obviously) who has an enormous “tool”, and a student with nothing but sex in mind. The trainee teacher (played by “Kim Sa-rang) is really hot though – Miss Korea back in year 2000. Still I wish that she plays a much larger role other than merely some men’s object of desire. However, if you are in for a mindless laughter, “Who Slept with her” may be your cup of tea.

I don’t think it is a matter of watching either one of the show or both. There are quite a number of good movies are now showing. If you enjoy watching Japanese anime, you really should check out “Paprika”.

Categories
Drama Foreign Movie Reviews

My Wife Is A Gangster 3 – I Nearly Cried & I Laughed Till My Stomach Cramped

Once in a while, a man has to go solo putting behind the power of 3 (of our Movie Review Squad). Here is my story.

After 7 years of living with Cynthia, I surrender. I just am not a good shopping partner when it comes to office-wear. Most of the time, I am not excited. And when I am, we both gasp at the price tag. I love fashion but fashion comes with a price. One evening I looked at a sea of shoes for ladies, I had an idea. I suggested to Cynthia to go out shopping with her lady colleagues (in order to liberate me of that role) and she did just that. Cynthia and MW (a very pleasant young lady from Malaysia) went shopping together today (Sunday) and she has spent a rather astonishing amount of money. On the same night, Cynthia lined up a parade of trophies that were enough to cover the entire bed and beyond. What a way to celebrate commemorate the 1st day of the 2% GST hike.

Knowing that I would probably have nothing much to do from the moment I dropped Cynthia off at Orchard to meeting Cynthia and her friend MW for dinner, I thought catching a movie would be a great idea. As I have not met my buddy KF since his return from Mount K, what better way to catch up with him and then four of us have dinner together?

Unfortunately I could not contact KF in time (he did join us for the dinner in the end), I have to pick a movie to watch alone. I chose the sneak preview of “My Wife Is A Gangster 3” that was shown in the odd timing of 3pm. I have no issue watching movies alone as I often do that whenever I cannot find a movie partner at the spur of a moment.

I walked into the theater with no expectation especially after watching “Death Proof” recently (a great movie by the way and what else can possibly thrill me after that?). I think I may have watched the 1st episode of “My Wife Is A Gangster” and from what I read, this 3rd episode does not quite gel with the previous two episode. In “My Wife Is A Gangster 3”, the beautiful Shu Qi is the main actress of this Korean movie franchise that has nothing to do with the previous installments. Those who love the franchise may not like this discontinuity.

To give you a quick overview of this Chinese-Korean movie and to illustrate how diverse this movie is, from the language perspective:

70% Korean, 20% Mandarin, 10% Cantonese

And from the movie genre perspective:

50% Comedy, 20% Drama, 20% Action, 10% Romance

As the story goes, A-ryong (played by “Shu Qi”), the daughter of one of the gangster bosses in Hong Kong, caught in the middle of a gang conflict and upon the request of her father, she left Hong Kong and into a country of her choice – Korea. There, she was under the protection of a Korean gang that is in a different kind of conflict with other gangs. Gi-chul (played by “Lee Beom-soo”) together with his 2 subordinates were put in charge as a guide to protect A-ryong. And the story pretty much zigzags between Hong Kong and Korea from then on.

There are many things I love about this movie. When filmed in Hong Kong, it has the typical intense gang drama and action and the moment the location is switched to Korea, I just could not stop laughing at the comedy. The contrast of the gangsters from these two locations (fearful and deadly feel versus comical acting) makes this movie one notch above the Asia movies I have watched.

I often get put off by actors and actresses trying to speak a foreign language throughout the movies that require them so (with some exceptions). I was prepared to see Shu Qi speaks in Korean or the Koreans speak in Chinese. But no, each speaks in his or her native language. To bridge the language barrier, the film-maker has thrown in a translator. And because the translator at times does more than translating the original message, that makes the movie such a joy to watch. With my limited exposure to Asian films, I have not seen films that exploit this translator’s role into great comedy materials.

Talking about originality, besides having a translator that takes on his or her personality, there are quite a few scenes that are original. I am not going to post the spoilers here and you will have to watch it to find out yourself. I love the car chasing scene and I bet you one popcorn set (if you buy me the ticket) that you have never seen anything like that before.

Yes, there are moments when I was so touched by the drama that I nearly shed a tear. There are moments when I laughed till my stomach cramped. And the action scene are beautifully filmed. Almost remind me of Uma Thurman in “Kill Bill” when I saw Shu Qi in action. I have always been a big fan of Shu Qi. In this movie, you will see her coldness, her coolness, her sweetness, a bit of her sexiness as well as her vulnerability. She can be so adorable when she smiles. As icing on the cake, the soundtrack does the job well to blend in with some of the action scenes.

I love “My Wife Is A Gangster 3” and I will certainly get the DVD when it is out. Do I recommend this movie to everybody? Only for those who enjoy Chinese action-drama and Korean comedy-romance and are open to the idea of the combination of these two unique cultures.

Categories
Diary Foreign Movie Reviews

Undon + Our Mission KJ + Nambantei

While Agent C is on overseas secret assignment (I honestly do not know of the nature of her trip except “business” and “take care of some family affairs”), Agent T has handed me a new assignment: go and find us a Korean or Japanese movie to watch this weekend. Roger that!

Agent T and I both wish to watch “Blades of Glory”. Since Agent C vows not to watch it with us, what better way to spend our weekend than to watch “Blades of Glory”? 3am on a Saturday morning I gave it some thoughts but hey, two guys enter into a theatre laughing over a show with two gay-ish looking guys ice skating as a pair with hands touch each other’s bodies? A little bit gross eh? So I have decided to stick with my original mission and suggested a Japanese movie “Udon” instead. The last show was at 8.15pm and knowing Agent T has a secret military training in the late afternoon (he has, I swear), I texted him at 3am with the minimum number of characters (something I have learned from him) – 2015 can? I switched on my phone in the late morning and got the reply: MC today, can. Excellent! “Udon” it is (by the way, udon is a type of Japanese noodle).

1815 – I exited the highway and faced a traffic jam.
1830 – Agent T called me. I told him that I would be there in 10 minutes (I was wrong).
1845 – Agent T called me again. I asked him to head to that restaurant he wished to go and order for me.
1900 – Running on my feet from Taka to Far East Plaza.
1905 – Received a multimedia message from Agent T with a picture of the restaurant and address (ya, that’s how agents work … receiving the next bit of information as we proceed).

To give myself some credit, I arrived just minutes after Agent T was seated. The Japanese restaurant – Nambantei – is on the 5th floor at Far East Plaza and it is cosy. They serve mainly Teriyaki food – meat grilled over fire. The chef I believe is a Japanese. He remembers what each table has ordered and his assistance is responsible in retrieving the food from the refrigerator and making markings on what seems like a colorful spreadsheet on paper. Tracking inventory perhaps?

Service was excellent. I think they have one waitress for every 2 or 3 tables. When the food is cooked, the chef will hand it out onto the counter right in front of customer’s face. The waitress will then moves the dish that is inches away from the customer to customer’s table. Customer takes the food from the dish and the waitress will then clear the dish. Kind of complex eh? At times I just grabbed the sticks from the dish in front of me – if I managed to beat the waitress that is.

Food was good and I will definitely return one day. We were in a hurry so Agent T took a short cut route. We entered into Hyatt Hotel, infiltrated the service area and took the service lift to the 3rd floor. The interior was dark and I saw beer machines along the corridor. A lot of tables and furniture and beds at the service area and when we exited the hotel, there were a bunch of drivers apparently waiting for their clients’ call. Not too far a distance I saw a sign: Do not trespass – private property. Too late.

I chose “Udon” because it is a different kind of Japanese movie. The hero of the story left his home town chasing his dream to be a stand-up comedian in New York only to return after years of fruitless attempts. It was then when he developed a passion for udon making his hometown a place for “Udon Pilgrimage”. The movie is so real to me that for a moment, I thought this “Udon City” does exist in Japan. If you are looking for something different from the typical Japanese tear jerking romance productions, you may wish to check out “Udon”. My only reservation is that the movie does seem a bit too long. The actress Manami Konishi is quite an eye candy though (see picture on left). Oh, another thing is … try not to watch “Udon” with an empty stomach. You will regret it.

On a final note, both Agent T and I do enjoy the movie.

Categories
Foreign Movie Reviews

Priceless – Fans Of Audrey Tautou Rejoice!

I am a huge fan of the French actress Audrey Tautou, ain’t no shame in it. Captivated by her award-winning French film “Amélie”, I try to follow her career in as much as I can. Like “The Spanish Apartment” and its follow-up “The Russian Dolls” as one of the characters in a romance drama between a group of friends with different nationalities, like “Pretty Dirty Things” as a lowly paid Turkish Muslim girl who works under a sexually predatory boss – one of the characters that portray what some of these immigrants have to live through, and like “A Very Long Engagement” – a romance drama that is dated back to World War I where imagination can become reality, worldwide viewers are mesmerized by not only her characteristic big eyes but also her fine acting. If you still don’t know who I am talking about, perhaps you may wish to recall the main actress played in “Da Vinci Code”. Yes, it was her – one of the French iconic figures known to the world.

I like “Priceless” because it is good to see Audrey Tautou finally took up a more “normal” role and have showed the world how mature, sexy, and seductive she can be – a side that I don’t recall seeing often on screen. “Priceless” is a romance comedy of a girl who preys on rich men for their money and a man who pretends to be one only to find out that this plan of his is not sustainable. You may call this a chick-flick but I have not seen one with so much acting in it. I am not sure how the female audience reacts but it is certainly a feast to my eyes to see Audrey Tautou dressed in top French branded fashion – from head to toe.

You may wish to watch the trailer from the film website though I feel that they have given out too much of the plot. Only take a look if you don’t mind the spoilers. Click here to access the film website.

Categories
Foreign Movie Reviews

Love And Honor – The 3rd Installment of Yoji Yamada’s Samurai Trilogy

I shed half a tear at the ending scene, which is rare as I have an enormous resistance to tear jerking moments in movies – and “Love And Honor” is not even a sappy love story. See for yourself if this is some sort of coincidence. Cynthia is not in town so what should my good friend Tong Kiat and I do? Eat durian and watch a Japanese movie! Without even planning for this (I had no idea that the only Japanese movie showing in Singapore at the moment is this one) or even before, every time a Yoji Yamada’s samurai movie is released, I have always ended up watching it with Tong Kiat while Cynthia has an overseas business trip in all three counts. Tsk, tsk, tsk … little things in life that tickles.

When I first told Tong Kiat that Cynthia would be out-of-town, both of us arrived at the same single word … Durian! And when thinking of durians, the word “Geylang” suddenly lights up in my head. Now, seasoned readers of this site certainly remember the last trip to Geylang (erm … the red light district of Singapore) with my friend Tong Kiat (see previous blog and you’ve been warned!). This time, Tong Kiat suggested taking me to another place for durians … one of the last few Opposition Strongholds in Singapore. Over dinner, it was hard for me not to crack some silly jokes on Singapore politics that I am used to. What is a joke to me may not be that funny as we were surrounded by majorities (and minorities in a national scale of course) who do not vote for the government. Overall, the food was good, parking was horrible (and I nearly joked that had the people in this region love the ruling party more, a multi-storey car park should be on its way), durian was so-so. Hey Tong Kiat, let’s go back to Geylang next time for durians!

Since “Love And Honor” is showing exclusively at Golden Village, we have no choice but to watch it at VivoCity. I personally enjoy watching movies at Cathay cinemas. Who in the right mind would want to pay more for a movie and to be forced to watch 15 minutes of advertisements before the show? Movies at Cathay cinemas always start on time with no or very little advertisements. The booking fee at Cathay is half of GV some more.

Parking at VivoCity was horrible. To avoid jamming up the entire street outside VivoCity – the biggest mall in Singapore – that certainly inconveniences the traffic going into Sentosa, the island resort, the car park attendants kept letting cars in even though the car park was full. Nearly all the slots that can be illegally parked were taken out. Being the law abiding citizen, I spent 45 mins inside the car park looking for a space. My friend Tong Kiat has decided to go the illegal way. In this case, being law abiding did not pay off.

Now, why am I talking so much on food and shopping mall without going directly into business – a movie review? I hesitated in revealing the plot of “Love And Honor”. When Tong Kiat asked me over dinner on what the plot was about, I simply said: bring some tissue papers. Simply put, it is a movie about samurai and it is a movie about love and honor. The duel scene got me intensely excited (I was more like … oh no, oh no, don’t let that happen!), the honor scenes made my blood boiling, and the love scenes made me shed half a tear. I am not sure if you have heard of the other two installments: Twilight Samurai (2002) and The Hidden Blade (2004). “Twilight Samurai” is a classic. Both Tong Kiat and I had no difficulties in remembering what it was about. We did have difficulties in remembering what the 2nd installment was about. Tong Kiat remember the title while I remember the fighting of the clans. I have to say, “Love And Honor” is my personal favorite amongst the trilogy. It is movies like these that let us the foreigners to have a quick look at what the culture and tradition was like during the old days of Japan. These little details can be fascinating to the curious minds.

Categories
Foreign Movie Reviews

Once In A Summer – A Sad, Sad Korean Movie

The excerpt of the movie’s synopsis says “A beautifully-shot, heart-warming love story … as the summer drew to a close, the couple faced a challenge to their willpower.” I picked “Once In A Summer” because of the words “heart-warming love story”. Over our quick dinner, Cynthia asked what we were watching. You see, the “penalty” of rejecting my call due to a business meeting is that you will have no idea what you get yourself into. Korean, I answered. Oh no, she responded. Don’t worry, it’s not a tear jerking movie, I reassured her. How wrong I was. The words “heart-warming love story” should have been replaced by “heart-wrenching love story”. I kid you not. At the end of the movie, I gave my Movie Review Squad a how-would-I-know expression. “It’s a Korean movie! What do you expect?!”, both Cynthia and Tong Kiat chuckled at my apparent ignorance.

“Once In A Summer” has prompted me to read up a little bit on the history of South Korea. Apparently after World War II, American and Soviet troops had occupied the southern and northern halves of Korea. In 1960, a student uprising in South Korea led to the resignation of president Syngman Rhee, whose government had become autocratic and corrupt. I suspect the movie is set before this historical event when the students were gathering their forces from various parts of the country. (See footnote on amendment.)

Suk-young (Lee Byung-hun), one of the students who found refuge in a remote village where he met the beautiful Jung-in (Su-Ae). Without giving out any spoiler, “Once In A Summer” is less on Suk-young’s journey in finding out what happened to his first love years after (again, from synopsis) and more on how these two people fell in love and faced the political challenges of that time.

It is a beautifully filmed movie and I am especially impressed with the set and costumes that the actors wore that give you a convincing movie that happened in the old days. Acting-wise, oh well, Cynthia must have poured out 1 litre of tear until she has missed out some of the plots because she was too busy crying (direct quote). Lee Byung-hun is not new to me (who can forget his performance in JSA – Joint Security Area?) but Su-Ae is. All I can say is that she can really act out a sad, sad movie.

Overall a good movie for those who love this genre of movie. Below is the official trailer. I have also found a soundtrack of the movie. However, if you plan to watch the movie, you may wish to watch it later as it probably gives out too much spoiler (click here to view).

Edit: Now I do recall that the movie does make a reference to Moon Landing and hence, the story is set in the year of 1969 when Armstrong first landed the moon. The 1960 uprising as above-mentioned refers to the installation of the Second Republic of South Korea. Hence, if the movie does follow the history, it is the Third Republic era when the government sought to reduce political activism by the college students through several educational reforms.

Related Site: Official Movie Site for Once In A Summer.

Categories
Foreign Movie Reviews

Eye Wide Opened for Curse of the Golden Flower

Days ago, I asked one of my friends to recommend a movie to watch over Live Messenger and her immediate response was Curse of the Golden Flower and have myself a “boobs treat”. Well, I have forgotten the exact phrase but it was something to that extend. Last weekend, I suggested this movie to my buddy TK and after I made the booking, he suggested to meet half an hour earlier than usual. I asked why and his reply was: we don’t want to miss Gong Li’s boobs, do we? Gasp! I was actually intrigued by the storyline as it seems to contain the trademarks of Chinese movies. When I told that to Cynthia while she was wearing a cosmetic mask, she tried very hard not to laugh (and she did burst out laughing). I know, you readers are probably laughing in disbelief too but I wanted to watch this movies because of the storyline and not the … erm … boobs.

I immediately understood people’s reaction to the movie at the opening scene. Imagine yourself in one of the biggest Cathay theaters with a huge screen and all you see is a sea of palace maids bearing almost half of their boobs. Have I seen that many boobs in my life before? Probably not.

Boobs aside, this movie has it highs and lows. The setting is extravagant and the entire movie is so colourful, especially the colour gold. Be it as hundreds of actors on the screen or just a few of them serving tea or following the royal family, all the actions were sychronised. Not a sense of disorder. You can easily sit back, enjoy this majestic movie, and walk out of the theater feeling satisfied by this 45 million dollars production – most expensive Chinese film to date.

But I can’t. The plot is too simplistic and at times, flawed. I wish I have read the synopsis carefully and some of the Chinese write-ups from the Internet before watching this movie. That way, at least I wouldn’t feel that confused. Perhaps it is because I relied on the subtitles to understand the movie and the white subtitles set against a background that was mostly gold in colour just didn’t work out for me.

Gong Li and Chow Yun Fat’s acting was great. They played out their characters well. It was Jay Chow’s acting that is in question. A few scene, Jay Chow has to act side by side with Gong Li and it was most obvious that he just didn’t cut it at all. I sense that the cameraman tried very hard to minimise his exposure and in the theater, the audience laughed whenever Jay Chow acted those emotional dramatic scenes. His battle scene was watchable but that is not exactly acting, is it?

The historical inaccuracies may not go well with some of you though I can easily look pass that. Perhaps my imagination tends to go wild. At one point, when I watched Prince Jai (Jay Chow) in full silver armor practicing sword with the Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) in golden armor, I swear I felt like watching a sci-fi movie.

Categories
Foreign Movie Reviews

YUI – A Young Japanese Artist To Look Out For

I know I have been a movie-craze/Japanese-craze lately but this is a great blog entry full of [virtual] goodies. I have even linked up two great video clips from YouTube. Just stay with me for a minute or two.

Last weekend, running out of shows to watch, I have decided to catch an Asian movie. So I gave Cynthia a choice of either a horror movie or a tears-jerking one. Need not to say, though she likes neither, she picked “Midnight Sun” as she can’t take horror movie at all (evil me, I know).

“Midnight Sun”’s plot has the typical Japanese/Korean template with Kaoru Amane (played by Yui) having a rare disease (called XP) – an example of how pop-culture raises awareness – that forced her to stay away from the sun. Not able to live a normal life, Kaoru spent the night time playing her music on the street. The story began with her having a crush with a boy who stopped by the bus-stop opposite her house every morning on the way to his surfing by the beach. Well, I am sure by now you know where the story goes from here.

This movie is actually pretty artistic. There were many moments with no dialog, just acting or filming of scenery. The overall acting was good (especially Kaoru’s boyfriend and her father). Now, back to the subject of this blog, from the moment Kaoru opened her guitar case, to the moment she performed, I was pleasantly surprised by her acting. And when she was trying out different chords humming the melody, I was like: Wow! That is how I write my songs! You are probably waiting for the punch line right? When the end credit was shown, all the three songs featured in the movie are written – both music and lyrics – by Yui herself. When I returned home and did some research, she was from the Indie music background and does have an album. No wonder the acting was so convincing.

I have found the music video of the titled song from YouTube. Not only do you get to appreciate what her music is like, but also get to see the highlights of the movie. For those who are frustrated with the Japanese lyrics, there is an English translation here.

You want more, ya? I have found a live performance of Yui. I tried to get her album from HMV Singapore but it is out-of-stock and the order processing time will be 4 to 6 weeks. Worst of all, it costs S$72. When I typed in HMV.com.sg, I was actually directed to its Hong Kong website and it’s much cheaper to buy her CD there.