49
165
10
The Butterfly
This review may contain spoilers
Coming Home is a nuanced tale of love, forgiveness, guilt, and devotion. Gong Li and Chen Dao Ming give subtly emotional performances as the husband who returns home after being "re-educated" in a camp during the Cultural Revolution and the wife so traumatized by events that she no longer recognizes the man she has been waiting on for years.The film focuses on the three characters of this tragic family. Gong Li gives a heartbreaking portrayal of a woman with uneven mental and emotional capabilities, trapped in the past, and hiding a jarring sacrifice. Once, a school teacher, Yu now can barely function in her small gray world. Zhang Hui Wen takes daughter Dan Dan's emotional journey from self-centered teenager with no memory of her father to a mature young woman in a believable manner. Anchoring the acting and this family, is Chen Dao Ming's father Lu. Burdened with the guilt of having been torn from his family and seeing the wreckage upon his return, he resolutely and gently works to reunite the fragile relationships. Dao Ming's performance is free from over-sentimentality slowly drawing us in with the strength of his craft.
The settings are bleak and gray, focusing all the energy and attention on the actors. The music while adequate, once again, does nothing to distract from the performances and the telling of this sad story.
There are no easy answers for the problems the characters face. Often the best they can hope for is bittersweet acceptance in their resounding displays of love and loyalty.
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This is the kind of world where you need dreams the most, without them, it'd be too painful
One Wonderful Sunday was a combination of hope and despair, dreams and nightmares. The story followed two impoverished lovers in post-war Japan trying to stay together even though their financial situations were dire. Moments of happiness were quickly followed by the crushing blow of a sad reality.Yuzo and Masako meet up on Sundays, their one free day of the week. One Sunday, between the two of them they had only 35 yen, a tiny amount even in 1947. Depressed Yuzo was ready to give up on their date day, but bubbly Masako refused to lose out on their time together and pushed him into a happier mood. There were moments of levity as Yuzo played baseball with street children, as the lovers tried to buy tickets to Schubert's "'Unfinished Symphony", and finally a cup of coffee on a rainy night. All ended in disaster. And yet each time they would bolster each other into a better mood, refusing to give up on their seemingly unattainable dreams.
Masako's effervescent mood could quickly turn into nearly hysterical tears. Yuzo could go from sounding suicidal to leaping into an imaginary world as a symphony conductor. Yuzo's poverty left him feeling emasculated as he often declared his inability to provide for and protect Masako made him feel less like a man. Numasaki Isao and Nakakita Chieko gave solid performances covering a wealth of human emotions.
Post war Tokyo with ruined buildings in the background, street children, rampant black market scams, and many English signs hinted at the drastic change and upheaval the citizens were living through.
The movie alternated between a desperate realism and sweet optimism. This 'day in a life movie' focused almost entirely on the two main characters and the actors carried the story forward with strong performances. The two characters, who were often one mishap away from disaster, fought to cling to each other and their dreams.
Ultimately, for me, One Wonderful Sunday's story felt like Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony", romantic and unfinished. The audience is left wondering what will become of Yuzo and Masako, and like the young lovers, hoping for their happy ending.
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Go Go Gojira!
Go Go Gojira! As fast and as far away as you can from this ridiculous cut and paste movie!All Monsters Attack is actually about a young boy who is bullied at school and daydreams very vividly about Monster Island and his "friend" Minilla/Minya, quite possibly my least favorite character in the Godzillaverse and definitely the creepiest looking.
Robbers are on the loose and no one bothers to lock their doors, even when a child is by himself at night because the parents are working. What's the worst that can happen? Yeah, doesn't matter that it was 1969. These robbers are slightly more tame and inept than those in Home Alone, but it was still disturbing.
The little boy takes what he learns from Minilla/Minya from his daydreams to deal with the robbers and later the bullies. Unfortunately, the ending scene undoes all the anti-bullying rhetoric.
The monsters are all in the little boy's imagination and are just cut and pasted from previous movies. Hondo took a bunch of scenes like Godzilla batting a boulder around with Ebirah (the giant lobster) and added the little boy watching. Most of the chopped up scenes were from Son of Godzilla, Ebirah of the Deep, and a little from Destroy All Monsters. There was one new monster, Gabara, in short scenes to show that Minilla needed to stand up to the bully, just as the young boy needed to stand up to his bullies and the robbers. It pains me that this director from Godzilla 1954 had to stoop so low for either commercialism or to cheaply appeal to the little boy crowd. Rumored to have been scheduled to be the last Godzilla movie it made enough money that they would continue to milk that cow for a few more years targeting the younger audience before rebooting the big guy in 1984 leading into the Hesei era.
If you have children around the age of 8 and they are extremely sheltered, they might enjoy this movie. For adults, probably just for completionists.
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The story was simple. Dr. Yang and his trusty sidekick Miss Orchard tended to the sick during the day and at night robbed from the rich and gave to the poor and downtrodden. Dr. Yang was a cross between Robin Hood and Batman. In walked one of the Ten Tigers of Canton, Wong Kei Ying, and his teenage son Wong Fei Hung (played by Angie Tsang!). Initially at odds, it didn't take long for the two honorable men to recognize what was going on and what needed to be done. Along for the ride was Commissioner Gordon, I mean Master Fox, played by Yuen Shun Yee, who also provided a little comic relief. Team Iron Monkey was ready with fists, kicks, and righteous anger to take on any evil doers! They had to make a grandstand against a corrupt governor, disgraced, evil Shaolin monks, and the governor's boss who was a super powerful ex-monk. There was a little more to it, but that was the gist of the story.
The fights were fast, creative, and fun to watch. All of the good guys had time showing their kung fu stuff. When Yuen Woo Ping is in charge you know you are in for a treat. Donnie Yen has amazing footwork and it was highlighted in several scenes. The majority of this short movie involved fight scenes which would usually be a detriment for me, I enjoy at least some character development, but everyone on Team Iron Monkey was so quick, likeable, and graceful it didn't matter to me in this movie.
There were hints of romance, brief heartwarming moments and cringeless humor (for the most part). The story moved forward at the speed of Donnie's punches.
I scored this movie simply on the sheer joy I received from watching it. People who don't enjoy kung fu movies and wire fu might not enjoy it, but for those who do, this is definitely one to give a try.
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This review may contain spoilers
There are some movies that are so bad they are good. This wasn't one of them. As much as it pains me to say it, because I love Angela Mao, this movie was awful.The story involved a secret list of rebels (who keeps making these troublesome lists!) and more crisscross double crosses than you could shake a stick at. Few people were as they appeared to be. The most disappointing character was Angela's. No subterfuge with her character, she was just a spiteful jealous woman who jumped to conclusions about her friends and trusted the wrong guy when he was the one she should have been the most suspicious of. Rule #1, never, ever trust the guy in sparkly silver lamé in a kung fu movie.
It didn't help that John Liu's character came across as arrogant and uninteresting. Not a good sign when the male lead was boringly irritating. Chen Sing's Big Bad was really bad, complete with blue hands that could poison people and a great evil laugh. He was actually one of the few highlights of the film.
If the story is weak and convoluted, the fighting better be great. The fight scenes were atrocious in this movie. Stunt men whipped their heads back or fell back before a hit or kick was supposed to connect and the sound effects were completely off at times. Most egregiously John and Angela did this weird kicking pose that in real life would serve no purpose except to leave you horribly exposed. Though John Liu was known for being a super kicker, in this movie he did a lot of kick posing.
One positive was that, as in many Taiwanese movies, they took advantage of filming outdoors with the mountains and trees in the shots. It might well have been because they didn't have the budget for interior sets, but at least the scenery was pretty. I can only imagine how beautiful it would have been in the original cut at the theaters. That's it, that's all I have when it comes to saying something positive about this film.
The story was thread bare, the fights were poorly choreographed, and the sound effects were awful. Sorry kung fu fans, this one did not go in the win column for me.
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What I loved about it was the cast. It was fun to see the incognito martial arts masters come out of their humdrum lives and reveal what they were capable of. Any time I see Yuen Wah featured, I'm a happy camper.
The Roadrunner and Coyote special effects were over the top and fun for the most part. Although the funniest gag in the whole movie didn't involve any CGI. The closer they kept it to reality, the better I liked it.
The martial arts scenes were entertaining, I enjoyed the early trio's more believable fighting the most. The latter fights which relied more heavily on CGI were comic book style and entertaining in their own way, if less satisfying.
Visually it was a stunning movie, the sets, costumes, and cinematography were well above kung fu movie standards.
I wasn't as fond of the first half of the movie with the death and dismemberment scenes. The landlady's schtick wore thin pretty quickly with me although she redeemed herself in the end. Bruce Leung made for a creepy supernatural kung fu madman. I found Stephen Chow's hustler more annoying than funny for most of the film. When he finally picked a side and came out of his cocoon I could get on board with his character even if his character growth and kung fu skills weren't properly explained. This movie cried out for a hero, not a Chosen One who did nothing to earn his greatness.
Perhaps the biggest problem I had with this movie is that I didn't care about most of the kung fu misfits and the ones I did care about didn't last long. Even in a comedy I need some thread of the story to be emotionally compelling and the only one they really offered was lollipop girl and the hustler which didn't touch me at all. The juxtaposition of slapstick over-the-top humor and brutal over-the-top killings failed to resonate with me as well.
While there were parts of Kung Fu Hustle I found amusing, more often I found it borderline cruel and repetitive with flashes of humor. The trio's fights and the final fight saved this movie for me. Oh, and Yuen Wah getting to strut his badass kung fu self helped a lot, too.
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There wasn’t much plot. Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse played two brothers from two mothers. The father’s relationship with the women was not explained. The mother of Dragon, took the oldest brother from the Gate when he was a child. Dragon soon became an orphan when his mother died. A triad leader, Kun, took him in and became a surrogate father to him. The biological father and mother of the younger brother, Tiger, disappeared and an “uncle” raised the youngest at the Gate. The uncle was played by an actor well known to kung fu fans, Yuen Wah.
Here is where I give props to this movie. The brothers, though in rival positions, did not become mortal enemies. A girl was involved with both brothers but no triangle developed. A typical kung fu story unfolded when Shibumi, the Big Bad, decided to take out Dragon’s boss/surrogate father, played by kung fu star Chen Kuan Tai. The bodies started stacking up at this point and the road back to brotherhood was opened up. The brothers were joined along the way by a nunchaku fighter, Turbo.
A liberal use of CGI and wire-work was used but not to the film’s detriment. DTG was like a super hero movie only using kung fu. I found the action scenes, designed by Donnie Yen, to be exciting and entertaining, certainly not realistic, but I grew up on Batman and Superman so this wasn’t much of a leap.
The sets and CGI sets were well done in this unknown time period with advanced phones and bell bottom jeans where cavernous criminal hideouts were buried deep beneath Hong Kong. The costumes were laughably bad. The hairdos were even worse. Poor Donnie had to go through the movie like a sheepdog with his hair down over his eyes most of the time. It did help obscure the fact he’s twenty years older in real life than the actor playing his slightly younger brother.
Donnie had a strong screen presence even with a thinly drawn character. Nicholas’ character seemed less well defined as the “good” brother, but he made the most with what he had to work with. Turbo (Shawn Yue) was largely extraneous and didn’t add a lot to the movie. It really felt like they should have concentrated on the brothers more. Though they didn’t share the screen much, Donnie and Nicholas had nice brotherly chemistry.
There were two female characters as love interests who were largely indistinguishable, one “good”, one “bad”. It was great to see old kung fu guys, Yuen Wah and Chen Guan Tai being used. It made my geeky kung fu heart happy.
If you can check your brain at the door and accept this movie for the comic book come to life that it is, you might find this movie entertaining, I know I did.
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Amanda/Fream and TJ/Fuffy are the perfect married couple, just without the sex, living together, and marriage license part. They are tactile and completely supportive of each other. The film follows the romantic rollercoasters in their respective lives, especially Amanda's. At the beginning of the movie TJ says he will write her 1001 letters and his narration of them throughout the movie hint he may have had deeper feelings for her, something that is left up to the audience to decide.
Both Amanda and TJ have ups and down in their romantic relationships but the constant source of love and support is their friendship and almost constant banter. Fuffy was handsome, strong, with an unknown source of income, and always there for Fream, he would have tempted any other female lead into succumbing but time and again they stated there was no physical attraction between them, much to the chagrin of Amanda's grandmother.
Secondary characters were barely more than out of focus movement in the background. Fream and Fuffy were the nucleus, without the actors' powerful performances, this movie would have floundered. De Rossi could be manic and comedic in one moment and tearful and vulnerable the next, her performance was the heart of this movie. If she was the energy, Piolo Pascual was the sturdy foundation, given the more difficult role of appearing to be the 2ML in his own movie.
The Philippines setting felt like a character in and of itself. The film used many lush and beautiful locales for the friends' conversations and interactions.
My Amanda isn't a perfect film, and at times it was hard to be sympathetic with Amanda's poor life decisions. Though the story dragged in places the journey to the end was worthwhile. It's a film which doesn't seem to go anywhere, and maybe that was the goal, to show the anchor of love between two friends when storms and change raged around them and whether the anchor could hold and whether it should hold.
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The angel of this movie, Dr. Sanada, is an ill-tempered alcoholic, as scruffy as he is cantankerous. Shimura Takashi gives a wonderful and unsympathetic performance as a doctor with little patience and even less tact. Though disheveled and always with a level of alcohol in his system he is a compassionate and skilled doctor. As he informs Matsunaga, the local gangster who comes to him for help, angels don’t look like beautiful dance hall girls, they look like him. Sanada not only tries to save Matsunaga’s life, but also his soul from being completely stamped out by the violent life he leads.
Matsunaga is torn between doing what must be done to live and the immorally squalid life where he is a big fish in a typhoid infested pond. Like Sanada, he has a terrible temper as well. Mifune Toshiro brings out all of the fear and frustration built up in this brutish character.
Unlike many yakuza or gangster movies, the criminals are not glamourized. Doctor Sanada speaks for those who live under the yakuza’s rule when he tells Matsunaga, the yakuza code of honor is a façade and merely self-serving. He compares it to the feudal system and declares it obsolete.
Sad guitar music often plays in the background setting the mood. Further setting the mood is the pool of filth where children play, foretelling their future in the crime ridden part of town.
The two damaged alpha males are fascinating to watch as they butt heads. A powder keg of fear and violence is set off when the deadly and treacherous Okada is let out of prison and has his sights set on Matsunaga’s job and girlfriend and Sanada’s female assistant.
This is a powerful movie about two opposing forces at work for the souls of the people, the hedonistic and violent yakuza on one side and the life ruled by reason and compassion on the doctor’s side of the disease infested swamp. It would take a “dirty, drunken angel” to reside in such a place and an angel tough enough to fight for the hard-won wins and suffer the heartbreaking losses. Drunken Angel is an emotional ride, but one worth seeking out and trying.
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Sonny Chiba plays the perfect Big Bad. He has the evil laugh down to an art form. Ekin Cheng as the kindhearted Wind and Aaron Kwok as the unpredictable Cloud make for an interesting pair of men raised as brothers by the man who killed their fathers. Kristy Yeung and Shu Qi are there more for adornments and a little lusty conflict and humor respectively, but not particularly integral to the story. Of course, the movie hits its stride when Cloud and Wind must combine forces into a storm to try and take down Lord Conqueror and avenge their families while also freeing themselves and the world from his tyranny.
There's a fiery monster, a fighting monk, destiny, magical glowing red fruit and an arm seeking it's master. The movie rarely slows down to let the viewer catch their breath. The special effects were very good, but at times over-powered the fight scenes. I would liked to have seen a few more actual martial arts moves during the fights.
I tend to struggle with movies based on comics as often the movie makers assume the viewer is completely familiar with the story and they tend to skip about or not flesh out the main characters, but this story was told in a comprehensible straight forward manner and granted the main characters enough story development for me to care about them. The Storm Riders was a fun, entertaining movie.
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Despite his unkempt appearance, Mifune Toshiro saunters into town with a posture like an old-time gunfighter ready for a fight. In this town gambling, lying, cheating, and murder reign supreme. Prostitutes and townsfolk peer out of windows watching the play unfolding before them. The people are dirty and you can practically smell them in the desolate landscape. Western heroes before this were squeaky clean, but this ronin is roughly dressed and seems to scratch at fleas in his hair. I kept expecting to see a tumbleweed skitter across the dirt road in front of him.
Mifune Toshiro’s subtle and fluid body language and ever-changing facial expressions conveyed more than 10 pages of dialogue could about his character. He is the coolest ronin ever. Masterless, broke, and hungry he strolls into town taking inventory. While he has compassion on the townsfolk oppressed by two vicious rival gangs vying for control, he also needs to make some money. He has no problem doing what needs to be done to turn the gangs against each other and pocketing a few coins. This is not the cowboy with a white hat who adheres to an unbudging ethical code, this ronin toys with his prey before ultimately killing it. Sanjuro (the name the character chooses at random) is a classic anti-hero and fascinating to watch.
There is humor interspersed among the mayhem. One of my favorite scenes is after Sanjuro had stirred up trouble between the gangs, he climbed to a high point to gleefully watch the confrontation.
I’m no film student, but my amateur eye can pick up on the skill that went into the cinematography of this film. Every shot and frame felt filmed with care and an eye toward what was necessary for the story to be told.
The music varied from ominous to playful with some kooky 1960’s horns and cymbals thrown in for good measure.
Yojimbo is not a non-stop action film, though there are a few good action scenes in it. Sanjuro is as deft with his strategy as he is with his sword which is fun to watch as he pits people against each other. Yojimbo is a classic for a reason and well worth trying. I found it highly entertaining.
29 June 2021
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When Aryoung has to lay low in Korea with a bunch of goofball gangsters, the gangster farce begins. I actually enjoyed most of the comedy, especially the translator's liberal and less than literal translations. The five disparate characters bonded quickly into their own familial gang.
Shu Qi's deadly, fearless, and taciturn character played well off the three stooges of crime. I'm always pleased when the female lead isn't a damsel in distress. In this case, she played the rescuing or avenging hero more often than not and she was glorious when she was fighting.
This is one of those strange mash-ups of straightforward crime story and ridiculous crime comedy. For the most part it worked for me. Shu Qi can conjure up chemistry with just about anyone but I never bought the romance between her and the mullet-headed and not too bright leader of the Stooges, and would have been happy if they had not introduced a romance between them. Other than the forced romance and some of the over the top slap stick comedy I enjoyed this strange amalgam of Hong Kong and Korean movie.
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A Time for Love, is set in 1966. Shu Qi plays a young woman who works in a pool/snooker hall where she meets Chang Chen's character who is about to join the military. The Platters' Smoke Gets In Your Eyes plays in the background. The colors are warm and gauzy with a strong use of green. And these two are young, green and tentative as they give each other shy glances across the table. There is very little dialogue in this vignette, the tale told through actions, and body language. They write to each other after he leaves for the military and we see her smile as she reads his letter. Innocent and full of hope, this was easily my favorite story. "They asked me how I knew, My true love was true, I of course replied, Something here inside, cannot be denied." (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes)
A Time for Freedom is set in 1911 during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. Shu Qi works in an upscale brothel and Chang Chen is her long time customer who comes and lives there when he is in town. Here the lighting is as subdued as the acting. The restraint is only broken when Shu Qi's character sings her sad songs. There are no spoken words in this vignette, though it is obvious much dialogue is being spoken, only a few words are shown on placards for the audience to read like in the old silent movies. I felt for Shu Qi's character, trapped in what amounted to indentured servitude with her only hope of someone making her his concubine. Chang Chen's character didn't approve of taking a concubine, but apparently staying at a brothel with girls as young as ten wasn't a problem with his ethics. Here again, there isn't much spoken conversation with some letters providing the rest. This story was sad and filled with longing as the couple and their world suffered. "Although this place has torn my heart, it is wrenching to leave it." (Liang)
A Time for Youth is set in 2005. The colors are harsh-cold grays and icy blues. Life is chaotic, fast, and real communication even with cell phones, email, and blogs is shown as being more difficult than in the past. Shu Qi plays a woman in a lesbian relationship having an affair with Chang Chen's character. He has a girlfriend who knows something is going on, just as Shu Qi's lover does. The two border on obsession as they meet in secret, creating tumult in their wake. "No past, no future, just a greedy present." (Jing)
The characters are molded by the times they live in, each one feeling authentic. Shu Qi gave brilliant performances. Her characters required a greater emotional breadth than Chang Chen's did and she absolutely nailed them. It's no wonder she won a Golden Horse for Best Actress for her work in this film.
This movie is not for everyone. It is slow and subtle, the endings not clearly written out, the characters not always likeable. If you don't mind the aforementioned you might be in for a quiet, gem of a movie.
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This review may contain spoilers
This is one of the Millennium films and it's not bad. The film did start off on the wrong foot with me by declaring Mothra a bad guy. If they got on the bad side of Mothra they had to have either been messing with her tiny twin besties or trampling the environment, but I digress.I was impressed with the FL, Yashiro Akane. Women are often prominently featured in Godzilla movies, this time they got it right. Even though the failure of not defeating a new Godzilla with her weapon and being unable to control her vehicle leading to another vehicle getting crushed under Big G's feet were laid squarely at hers she was able to redeem herself. She was strong, smart and no damsel in distress or screamer as is usually required of women in monster movies. A welcome relief. Ultimately, she was put in charge of controlling Mechagodzilla in the fight when Godzilla returned.
Kiryu, the mechanized Godzilla, built on the 1954 Godzilla's skeleton unfortunately had some DNA memory of the destroyer unknowingly coded within it. I wasn't sure or not if this was a deliberate message that building bigger weapons of mass destruction can be as dangerous as the foe before you.
The humans in this movie were the best of any I've watched. However, the training sessions went on too long for me. I watch Godzilla movies for the monsters, not the people. The star of the show was missing for huge chunks of time as if they'd forgotten about him. Long, loving shots of the mechanized Godzilla and the soldiers' training sessions could not replace him. When he finally showed up the fights were good, but lacking in energy and urgency. It's a perfectly fine way to spend 90 minutes on a lazy Saturday afternoon, but it could have been so much better.
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The acting in this film was natural if a bit stiff at times, but the actors were able to convey their characters' discomfort of adjusting to each other, accepting each other, and then revealing their truths. The music fit the emotions, though at times it felt unpolished. The cinematography was appropriate for the small, almost play-like atmosphere, no beautiful grand shots.
The chestnut in it spiny bur becomes a metaphor for the protections we put around the most sensitive parts of ourselves. Each of the three characters work to peel those layers back to confront the precious secret inside of themselves.
A short, spare, film big on heart.
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