Nov
29
2008
The Longest Night in Shanghai
Posted by luna6 | 1 Comment
Movie: The Longest Night in Shanghai | Yoru no shanghai | Ye. shanghai
Release Date: June 26, 2007
Country: China / Japan
Director: Yibai Zhang
Starring: Vicki Zhao, Masahiro Motoki
Runtime: 110 Min
Editor Rating: 7.0
Users Rating: 7.1 
(10 votes)
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After watching “The Longest Night in Shanghai” one may wonder why there aren’t more Pan-Asian films like this made. The movie is unabashedly romantic, has all of the pure gloss found in Asian commercial films, and wins you over with an ultra-impressive performance by Vicki Zhao, the luscious Shanghai backdrop and competent helming by Yibai Zhang. The movie itself is a co-production involving Japanese Movie-Eye Entertainment and Chinese Shanghai Film Studios. The cast is a near 50/50 split with Chinese actors (Vicki Zhao, Sam Lee, Dylan Kuo, Xinyi Zhang) and Japanese actors (Masahiro Motoki, Naomi Nishida, Naoto Takenaka, Shinobu Otsuka). Yet the film is distinctly placed in the illustrious city of Shanghai and exudes all of the charm that city has to offer without resorting to travel bochure like tackiness.
Japanese Naoki Mizushima (Masahiro Motoki) is one of the most sought after make-up artists in the world and travels to China to work the Shanghai Music Awards. He’s reached the pinnacle of his work career, but hitting bottom in a dry 7 year long personal relationship.
After finishing his work at the Shanghai Music Awards, Naoki impulsively takes a night time stroll out into the Pudong area of Shanghai. Eventually he makes his way past the Bund and into an adjoining neighborhood with outdoor muscians. While listening to one street performer, Naoki suddenly gets hit by a taxi cab.
The taxi cab driver is the tomboyish Xi Lin (Vicki Zhao). Xi Lin has a knack of getting into minor accidents (often purposefully to see the mechanic she is in love with) and this time she finds herself in quite a bit of scare. Fortunately, Naoki slowly regains consciousness to Xi Lin’s relief.
Xin Li then conjectures that Naoki is a tourist and offers to give Naoki a tour of Shanghai. She doesn’t know that Naoki is without his wallet and Naoki mistakenly agrees to go for the tour ride. Although they can’t speak the same language, they gradually learn the true meaning of love over the course of one long night in Shanghai.
The appreciation that movie helmer Yiabi Zhang has for the city of Shanghai is all so apparent in the lensing of the film’s backdrop. Basically staying in the Pudong/Bund area of Shanghai and venturing out occasionally to the French Concession area, the movie hits all the right notes to give viewers a taste of what that wonderful city has to offer. Interesting enough, Yibai Zhang previously directed the Shanghai segment of the Chinese/Japanese omnibus film “About Love.” Meanwhile Yuji Yamamura, one of the screen writers in “The Longest Night in Shanghai,” was the co-writer for the 2004 Chinese/Japanese film “Last Love First Love” also set in Shanghai. So yeah there’s a lotta love for that city in this movie.
Meanwhile, Vicki Zhao gives one of her most charming performances ever. She plays the love-struck tomboy, having a quintessential Asian “one-sided” crush with a mechanic and she’ll just steal your heart. From the flashes of playfulness (playing the keyboards with her neighbor yelling to stop) to the somber moments when she realizes her love is getting married with someone else, to the charming broken English banter she has with Masahiro Motoki she shines as much as the city of Shanghai does in this film. Co-star Masahiro Motoki’s performance was noticeably weaker, never approaching the likableness of Zhao’s performance. Usually, saddled with a stoic (some would say “wooden”) demeanor, he gave more of the stereotypical Japanese male businessman performance, rather than a flamboyant make-up artist.
Some will probably say that “Lost in Translation” has had an appreciable influence upon “The Longest Night in Shanghai.” One of the weakest moments in “Night in Shanghai,” (the scene with Kayama (Toshihiro Wada) chatting it up with a night-club singer), seemed inspired by the hotel lounge scene in “Lost in Translation.” Both movies also employed frequent use of Western Music, (Lost in Translation being way more successful in this regard with their shoegazey soundtrack blending into the film perfectly). But, ultimately, the heart of these two films resides on different sides of the “alienation” spectrum. “Lost in Translation” featured two characters that connected more so because of their alienation from the city of Tokyo, while the two main characters in “The Longest Night in Shanghai” connected strictly because of their alienation from personal relationships.
“The Longest Night in Shanghai” doesn’t do everything well. The movie’s many sub-plots all lacked the polish of the main storyline, Masahiro Motoki’s performance was a few magnitudes less appealing than Vicki Zhao’s performance, and the movie’s super appealing set-up made you expect more from the movie’s finale. Yet, you have Vicki Zhao giving one of her finest performances ever (so charming in this film!), the contagious feeling of love blossoming right before your eyes, the heartfelt downsides of “one-sided” romances, and an obvious (at least for myself) love affair with the city itself. If I was Siskel or Ebert this is just about the time where I would give the big “two thumbs up!”
Buy The Longest Night in Shanghai from YesAsia
Cast:
Masahiro Motoki - Naoki Mizushima (make-up director)
Wei Zhao - Xi Lin (cab driver)
Naomi Nishida - Miho (assistant)
Naoto Takenaka - Chihiro Yamaoka (agent)
Shinobu Otsuka - Rie Hara
Toshihiro Wada - Kayama (hairstylist)
Sam Lee - (Chinese-Japanese translator)
Li Feng - Jia Bao Lin (Xi Lin’s brother)
Dylan Kuo - Tong Tong (car mechanic)
Ben Niu - (older car mechanic)
Takashi Tsukamoto - Miho’s friend
Kitty Zhang Yuqi - Chinese hairstylist
Xinyi Zhang - Female Cop
Yibai Zhang - (taxi cab passenger @ 1st accident)
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2007 Movie Reviews, Chinese Movies, Japanese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Nov
26
2008
Breeze of July
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
Movie: Breeze of July
Release Date: May 16, 2008
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Stanley Tam
Starring: Monie Tung, Sammy Leung
Runtime: 95 min
Editor Rating: 5.5
Users Rating: 7 (1 votes)
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You don’t come across all that many independent Hong Kong films, so that’s one solid reason right there to check out first time director Stanley Tam’s “Breeze of July.” The indie film, based on a short story by Chan Wai, delicately weaves its story concerning a young woman with skeletons in her closet and her attempts to re-connect with her roots. Previously, Stanly Tam worked on the production team for one of the best films of 2007, Ho-Cheung Pang’s “Exodus.”
Lan-Xin (Monie Tung) returns to Hong Kong from Vancouver to attend her mother’s funeral. At the funeral she asks Aunt Lan (Kam-wah Koo) if she would like a new roommate (Aunt Lan and Lan-Xin’s mother shared a Hong Kong apartment for many years). Aunt Lan is ecstatic and whole heartedly welcomes Lan-Xin into her apartment. There Lan-Xi relives her childhood memories. She even comes across childhood best friend Big Head (Sammy Leung) in the neighborhood.
At first Lan-Xin doesn’t recognize Big Head, but Big Head has no problems recognizing her. A crush that has lasted all these years seems to take new life after their chance encounter. But just as their relationship seems to be blossoming into something more, Lan-Xin’s Vancouver troubles start to affect her in Hong Kong and she decides to take a trip with Aunt Lan to Shanghai, the city where her mother grew up in. Meanwhile, Big Head is left alone wondering where their relationship stands.
The source material for “Breeze of July” comes from a short story and in retrospect “Breeze of July” could have been more effective if made into a music video or short film format. Stretching its premise for 90 minutes on the other hand, dilutes the film’s impact significantly. The core of the film revolves around unsaid feelings, hidden thoughts, and unstated actions from the past. These types of introspective moments work great in music videos or in print, but not as much in feature length films. “Breeze of July” tries to remedy this situation with the use of an acoustic guitar soundtrack, adding a music video feel to the movie, that works initially, but becomes more overbearing (like a faucet dripping water) as the film progresses.
On the positive side, the film offers gorgeous HD shot cinematography and a female lead, Monie Tung, able to give a strong performance in spite of the introspective nature of the script. On a sidenote, when Monie Tung pulls her hair back and wraps a wool scarf around her head for her trip to Shanghai, she looks like Juri Ueno’s twin. Another positive with “Breeze of July” is the respectful portrayal of Shanghai itself. From the Bund to the French Concession the film does a great job to recreate the heartbeat of that city. At one moment when the movie did a close up shot of the “W. Central Huaihai Rd. E” street sign, I remembered myself looking into my digital camera to snap that very same picture.
You have to respect the effort put forth in “Breeze of July.” On a relatively shoe string budget and only 10 days to shoot the film (5 days in Hong Kong and 5 days in Shanghai), the film offers a lot for the eyes to absorb. But, by the end of the film, you’re left with the feeling that there should have been more there. More drama and more interplay between Lan-Xin and Big Head was needed. The movie’s constant attempts to recreate the introspective nature of those quiet moments when you think back to earlier times was a double edged sword. Many times it gave the move a feeling of warmth, like a cherished old blanket, but just as often it held back the film from ascending to higher heights.
buy Breeze of July from YesAsia
Cast:
Monie Tung - Lan-Xin
Sammy Leung - Big Head
Kam-wah Koo - Auntie Lan
Dean Fujioka - Michito
2008 Movie Reviews, Chinese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Nov
23
2008
The Glorious Team Batista
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
Movie: The Glorious Team Batista / The Glory of Team Batista
Release Date: February 9, 2008
Country: Japan
Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura
Starring: Yuko Takeuchi, Hiroshi Abe
Runtime: 120 min.
Editor Rating: 7.0
Users Rating: 5.67 
(3 votes)
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“The Glorious Team Batista” is a film set in a Tokyo hospital and covers a group of elite surgeons. But, rather than being a straight medical film, “The Glorious Team Batista”, is more of a classic murder mystery, spliced with family friendly humor. The humor has the feel of something that you might see on Japanese television and there’s a good reason why. The movie was produced by television station “TBS” (nope not the one started by Ted Turner, but the one also known as “Tokyo Broadcasting Station”) and that’s not to take anything away from the film. After all, such impressive films as “Memories of Matsuko,” “Kamikaze Girls,” and “Stranger of Mine” were all produced by TBS’ movie shingle. Although “Team Batista” is a few notches below those prior films mentioned, it’s still a very entertaining movie, highlighted by appealing performances by Yuko Takeuchi and Hiroshi Abe.
Tojo University Hospital’s pride and joy is “Team Batista”. This top notch group of doctors and nurses has mastered the Batista procedure - an alternative to heart transplants. The normal success rate for the Batista procedure is 60%, but Team Batista has pulled off 26 consecutive successful operations. Unfortunately, things don’t always stay peachy in bento boxed land, as the next three procedures all result in the patients’ death.
Because of the sudden failures, Hospital chief Gonta Takashina (Jun Kunimura) launches an internal investigation. Hospital therapist Kohei Taguchi (Yuko Takeuchi) is assigned the task of uncovering the truth and she’s up for a lot more than she bargained for.
Naive going into the investigation, Kohei Taguchi interviews all of the Batista members and eventually chalks up the failures to unexplainable accidents. But, the investigation isn’t quite finished yet. Keisuke Shiratori (Hiroshi Abe) from the Ministry of Health & Labor arrives at the scene and re-launches the investigation with fervor. He suspects nothing less than murder occurred during those failed operations and is willing to use any means necessary to prove it.
The squeamish should be aware, “The Glorious Team Batista” features a healthy dose of realistic incisions and extractions when depicting the Batista procedure. This is done to good effect and succeeds in giving the film an air of credibility. Somewhere along the 35-45 minute mark, Hiroshi Abe comes into the picture and the movie evokes more comedic flair, reducing the realistic tone of the early portions of the film. Throughout this shift, Yuko Takeuchi provides a constant, always having a warm, bumbling persona that made me fall for her performance.
While the film works the “who done it” angle with reasonable success, the answers when given come completely out of left field. Real clues on the actual murderer are never given until the curtains are drawn. This obviously lessons the impact of the mystery angle, but it’s not quite a deal breaker. Half of the appeal of the movie is watching the investigation itself and, in particular, the interaction between Yuko Takeuchi and Hiroshi Abe. Hiroshi Abe, by now, portrays a character we have seen many times before, but this doesn’t lesson the charisma he is able to portray on screen. With Yuko Takeuchi, like I said before, I just wanted to take her home and introduce her to my parents.
When its all said and done, there’s a fine build up in “The Glorious Team Batista,” but the pay-off doesn’t quite live up to expectations. Even with the less than overwhelming ending, Team Batista is still a lot of fun to watch. If you’re at all curious about hospital life, Team Batista gives a decent introduction into that world and even if you could care less about that angle, there’s still a genuinely interesting human story involving Kohei Taguchi’s development from a naive therapist to a more well-rounded and knowledgeable person in life. “The Glorious Team Batista” provides a lot of popcorn fun, especially so if you are a fan of popular Japanese cinema.
Buy The Glorious Team Batista from YesAsia or CDJapan
Cast:
Yuko Takeuchi - Kohei Taguchi
Hiroshi Abe - Keisuke Shiratori
Koji Kikkawa - Kyoichi Kiryu
Hiroyuki Ikeuchi - Ryo Narumi
Tetsuji Tamayama - Toshiki Sakai
Haruka Igawa - Naomi Ohtomo
Hiromasa Taguchi - Takayuki Haba
Naoki Tanaka - Koichiro Himuro
Shiro Sano - Yuji Kakiya
Yoko Nogiwa - Nurse Fujiwara
Sei Hiraizumi - Seiichiro Kurosaki
Jun Kunimura - Gonta Takashina
2008 Movie Reviews, Japanese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Nov
22
2008
Nowhere to Turn
Posted by luna6 | Leave a Comment
Movie: Nowhere to Turn
Release Date: August 21, 2008
Country: South Korea
Director: Seung-yeong Lee
Starring: Su-yeon Cha, Ha-jun Yu
Runtime: 106 Min
Editor Rating: 7.0
Users Rating: 7 (2 votes)
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Love ‘em or Hate ‘em, Korean indie films on their good days do provide a fresh of breath air from all the glossy, but ultimately hollow, commercial films piped out of Chungmuro vis a vis Kangnam. Such recent indie gems like “Boys of Tomorrow” and “Ad Lib Night” is confirmation enough that you don’t need big bucks to make compelling films. Now there’s another film, “Nowhere to Turn,” that you can place into that group.
In “Nowhere to Turn,” possibly bi-polar Su-yeon (Su-yeon Cha), dreams of studying music abroad. Unfortunately, her family lacks the financial means to fulfill her wishes and, as a matter of fact, Su-yeon may lack the talent needed to make her dreams come true. Yet having a dream is nearly as important as the dream itself and Su-yeon never veers from attaining those dreams.
Su-yeon then picks up a job teaching piano to little kids, but she doesn’t have the concentration to stay there for very long. After she’s fired from her job, she stays over at Dong-ho’s apartment. Dong-ho is like a puppy to Su-yeon, she knows he’s in love with her and has been so for awhile. Su-yeon then meets an intriguing musician whose only interested in her for sex. Before he can act out his desires with Su-yeon, his live-in girlfriend quickly puts an end to their relationship.
Now Su-yeon is back with Dong-ho. She encounters a girl that seems to take interest in Dong-ho and Su-yeon has no problems telling her a white lie (that Dong-ho has AIDS), just to keep her away. Now Su-yeon and Dong-ho have only each other. They decided to form a duo and enter an upcoming musical competition. Will they finally achieve their dreams?
Let’s get the drawbacks out of the way first since the positives far outweigh the negatives. Su-yeon Cha admirably tries to play a quirky character that someone like Du-na Bae can pull off in her sleep, but Su-yeon seems to lack the comical touch to really make Su-yeon come to life (this is the type of character that should jump out and take your heart away). If Su-yeon could have pulled this off than “Nowhere to Turn” would have been off the charts, but alas her performance is just serviceable. The other drawback to “Nowhere to Turn” is the lack of freshness in critical areas of the movie. The dreamy youth smitten with airports (seen this with Du-na Bae in Take Care of My Cats), the girl stealing her brother’s electronic device to support her musical dreams (Swing Girls), and the girl having a puppy dog like male friend that she forsakes for others (gazillions of other films) were all angles that you’ve seen many times before and probably done more effectively.
Where “Nowhere to Turn” does stand out is in two distinct areas. First, the movie does a wonderful job of capturing the spirit of the “Hongdae” area of Seoul. Although the movie never states where the movie is filmed, if you have set foot around the Hongdae area (an area filled with hip art students & music crazed fans) you’ll have sweet memories come flashing through your mind. This is especially appropriate with “Nowhere to Turn,” because it relies so heavily on indie music, which itself is a hallmark of the Hongdae area.
The other aspect of “Nowhere to Turn” that is likely to grab your attention is the theme of the movie itself. Sure you’ve seen plenty of films with ultra-talented geniuses or films with “natural born losers” with nowhere to go, but how often do you see films with folks that have talent, but may not have enough of it to get them where they want to go? Where’s reality for these folks? A dead end 9-5 job or continue to pursue their dreams no matter how long the odds? From that question, you can better understand the movie’s title “Nowhere to Turn.”
Buy Nowhere to Turn from YesAsia
Cast:
Su-yeon Cha - Su-yeon
Ha-jun Yu - Dong Ho
Jun-seok Bang - Hyeon
Eol Lee
Won-sang Park - Music Store Owner
Byeong-ok Kim - Dean of University
Kwang-rok Oh - Cameo
Eun-jin Bang - Cameo
2008 Movie Reviews, Korean Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Nov
17
2008
La Lingerie
Posted by luna6 | 1 Comment
Movie: La Lingerie
Release Date: August 8, 2008
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Hing-Ka Chan, Janet Chun
Starring: Stephy Tang, Janice Man, J.J. Jia, Yee Tong
Runtime: 119 Min
Editor Rating: 7.0
Users Rating: 4.8 (10 votes)
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La Lingerie is simply a Romantic-Comedy done right. Yes there’s cheeseball moments, the characters can get excessively superficial and the film itself screams out blatant commercialism, but on the flip-side you have four bright actresses that are incredibly delightful and male actors that run the gamut from model-esque to pure dweebiness. With this you also have the running theme of “lingerie” and what it means to women, but fear not if you cringe at the thought of a philosophical Hong Kong commercial film. The lingerie theme is simply a prop to show Hong Kong city life filtered through a “Sex and the City” like viewpoint. However scary that sounds the girls and gals in La Lingerie will win you over by its run time.
The four girls in “La Lingerie” are Miu (Stephy Tang), Donut (Janice Man), CC (J.J. Jia), and Celine (Yee Tong). The girls are connected by their patronage of a hip Hong Kong lingerie shop.
Miu’s spinster aunt recently passes away and leaves Miu with her fully furnished apartment. She moves in with best friend Donut. These two friends are surprised to find the deceased aunt was an avid collector of lingerie.
Meanwhile, Miu is a wanna-be fashion designer and applies for a position at a top notch Hong Kong lingerie company. Unfortunately, before she can work as a designer, her boss assigns her the position of “lingerie researcher” - to better understand what lingerie means to the modern day women. A male co-worker named Lucas, notorious for hitting on younger employees, takes interest in Miu, even more so when he discovers that she is a virgin.
Donut works at the trendy lingerie shop the girls all frequent and also has a fetish for older men. She then finds herself smitten with a married pharmacist who enters her shop.
Meanwhile, Miu & Donut’s neighbor Celine is an airline stewardess. Her goal is to marry a wealthy man, but finds that she is attracted to a part time police officer.
Finally, CC works as bar hostess and encounters a naive Harvard grad who acts like none of her other customers.
With all of these parallel storylines, “La Lingerie” supplies a constant stream of cute moments that allows each of the main actresses to shine in their respective roles. Stephy Tang delivers her most engaging performance ever, while Janice Man simply makes men drool. J.J. Jia plays the character with the most depth and she does so with aplomb. She’s also the only one of the four main actresses to actually appear in lingerie. Yee Tong’s airline stewardess character was the weakest of the bunch, but her romantic interest (Tien You Chui) was able to portray his character with enough charm that you easily looked over the weakness of Yee Tong’s character.
Storywise, Janice Man’s romance with the older pharmacist offered the most amusing moments, none more so than when she hitched up with the pharmacist’s son for revenge. You could easily argue that this sub-plot needed more screen time, as it delivered the funniest moments, but as they say sometimes in show business “leave em wanting more.”
There’s nothing deep about “La Lingerie” which is A-OK with me when it involves such a delightfully fluffy storyline. Sure you can fault the movie for running 10-15 minutes too long or the materialistic nature of all its character, but at the end of the day, you’re left with all smiles from general likability of all the characters and the amusing moments they find themselves in. Furthermore, it felt like a breeze of fresh air to watch an Asian flick not switch gears 50% into the film and morph into an entirely different type of film. “La Lingerie” knows its origins is classic Romantic-Comedy material and thankfully it stays there.
Buy La Lingerie from YesAsia
Cast:
Stephy Tang - Miu Ho
Janice Man - Donut
J.J. Jia - CC
Yee Tong - Celine (Airline Stewardess)
Ronald Cheng - Lucas
Tien You Chui - James Shum (police officer)
Man-kwan Lee
Gigi Leung - Lena
Andy On - Eugene
Cho-lam Wong - Antonio
You-Nam Wong
Kate Tsui
Fai-hung Chan
2008 Movie Reviews, Chinese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Nov
16
2008
Sunny
Posted by luna6 | 3 Comments
Movie: Sunny / 님은 먼곳에
Release Date: July 23, 2008
Country: South Korea
Director: Jun-ik Lee
Starring: Su-Ae, Jin-yeong Jeong
Runtime: 126 Min
Editor Rating: 3.0
Users Rating: 5.5 (2 votes)
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From director Jun-ik Lee, (The King and the Clown), comes his epic 60’s war / rock pic “Sunny”. This isn’t the first time music has played an important part in his films. Lee’s two prior films, “Radio Star” and “The Happy Life,” both incorporated music heavily into its story line. With “Sunny,” the music is probably the strongest aspect about the film, but everything else about the film is absolutely abysmal.
“Sunny” starts off in a rural area of South Korea in the 1960’s. Soon-yi enters into a loveless arranged marriage with Sang-gil (Tae-woon Eom). Soon after, Sang-gil enlists in the army, leaving Soon-yi to live alone with his demanding mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law then pushes Soon-yi to visit her son monthly in hopes that those visits will produce a son. One day, Sang-gil fights with a fellow soldier and is given the choice between detention or fight in the Vietnam War.
On Soon-yi’s next visit she’s informed that Sang-gil has been transferred to Vietnam. When she returns home, her mother-in-law goes in despair. Sang-gil is her only son and her husband died in the Korean war. Her mother-in-law then sets off to Vietnam without even knowing where the country is. Soon-yi quickly volunteers to go instead and find her husband.
Soon-yi quickly learns its a lot more difficult than expected. Civilians are not permitted to travel to Vietnam but she learns the consolatory entertainers can travel to Vietnam. She then hooks up with a debt-laden rock band, in need of a singer, who are soon set to travel to Vietnam.
It’s pretty rare to find decent Western actors in Asian films and “Sunny” is no exception. The Western performers are nearly all unwatchable, while the Asian performers portraying the Viet Cong are nearly as a bad. During their time in Vietnam (these scenes were actually filmed in Thailand) you’re inundated with every cliche shown in every other war film. The worst moment being when their Viet Cong captor suddenly offers the poignant question “What is peace?” (Hunh? Where did that come from?).
Jun-ik Lee’s first use of a female protagonist comes out equally as bad. Granted, Lee was attempting to portray the conservative Confucius values of the time, yet Soon-yi’s constant subservient depiction rubbed this viewer the wrong way. The only way for Soon-yi to attain anything of significance was through her sexuality. Singing in front of the military troops was one thing, but when she had to go out into the audience and dance with the soldiers or parade herself in front of the military commanders to make the concerts a success…well it seemed like nothing more than a women forced to whore herself out. This culminates in the end of the film where she literally whores herself out to find out her husband’s whereabouts.
This also raises another important question about Soon-yi’s quest to find her husband. The movie depicts Soon-yi and Sang-gil’s marriage as an arranged marriage without love. Then why is Soon-yi so desperate to find her husband in Vietnam? The answer could be “love” (which seemed absent in the movie) or more likely, fulfilling her filial duties to her mother-in-law. If the answer is the latter then Soon-yi’s actions seem even more pathetic. You get the feeling from watching Soon-yi’s docile mannerisms and conservative wardrobe that the filmmakers adapted her character from the title character in “Failan,” but unlike the title character in “Failan,” who indeed elicited empathy and heroism, Soon-yi and the rest of the film come across as surprisingly cheap.
Buy Sunny from YesAsia
Cast:
Su-Ae - Soon-yi / Sunny
Jin-yeong Jeong - Jeong-man (band manager / saxophonist)
Tae-woong Eom - Sang-gil (husband)
Kyeong-ho Jeong - Yong-deuk (bass player)
Jin-mo Ju - Seong-chan (guitarist/Jenny’s brother)
Hyeon-tak Shin - Cheol-sik (drummer)
Mi-lyeong Jo - Jenny (pregnant singer)
Ju-sil Lee - mother-in-law
2008 Movie Reviews, Korean Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Nov
15
2008
Shaolin Girl
Posted by luna6 | 1 Comment
Movie: Shaolin Girl
Release Date: April 26, 2008
Country: Japan
Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro
Starring: Kou Shibasaki, Yosuke Eguchi, Toru Nakamura
Runtime: 107 Min
Editor Rating: 5.0
Users Rating: 3.57 (7 votes)
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“Shaolin Girl” is a loose sequel to the brilliant 2001 Hong Kong comedy, “Shaolin Soccer.” Like a lot of Asian sequels in general, “Shaolin Girl” shares a common theme (fusion of martial arts & sports) with the original, but contains a completely different story line and with all new characters. This time around, Stephen Chow takes producer credit, while the rest of the film has a distinct Japanese flavor. The movie is helmed by Katsuyuki Motohiro, known for his “Bayside Shakedown” films and the hilarious “Summer Time Machines Blues” comedy. Unfortunately, quality wise, Motohiro’s “Shaolin Girl” is more on par with his disappointing 2006 film “Udon,” rather than “Summer Time Machine Blues.”
In “Shaolin Girl” Kou Shibasaki plays Rin Sakurazawa, a Japanese girl that traveled to China’s Shaolin Temple to learn Kung-fu. After completing her training, she returns to Japan to spread Shaolin style Kung-fu, but finds few interested parties.
A fellow classmate, Kenji Iwai (Yosuke Eguchi), from her Japanese training days now runs a small restaurant somewhere in Japan. Rin pays Kenji a visit to gauge his interest in Shaolin Kung-fu. Kenji quickly tells Rin that his days of martial arts is over, but Rin finds an interested party in Minmin (Kitty Zhang Yuqi), a waitress at Kenji’s restaurant. When Minmin notices Rin’s incredible talents she asks Rin to join her college Lacrosse team. Rin hoping to find a useful avenue for her Shaolin Kung-fu talents joins the team.
Besides supporting role appearances by Chi Chung Lam & Kai Man Tin from “Shaolin Soccer,” you won’t find many similarities with the original. Perhaps due to Katsuyuki Motohiro’s pedigree from the Fuji TV world, you’ll notice the movie has more of colorful Fuji TV series feel, albeit with a souped up budget. The first half of “Shaolin Girl” is definitely the movie’s stronger half, running with the “Martial Arts meets Lacrosse” theme laid out in the movie’s promotional endeavors. Early on, you get the feeling that this movie won’t be on the level of “Ping Pong” or “Shaolin Soccer,” but there’s still the promise of an entertaining sports film. Kou Shibasaki does her part, bringing charm to her Kung-Fu babe role, but she won’t make you forget Vicki Zhou or Cecilia Cheung from “Shaolin Soccer” anytime soon.
Once Shibasaki’s Rin character joins the collegiate lacrosse team, the movie hits its high point with amusing training scenes between Rin and her teammates. The movie then introduces the Japanese-centric theme of team vs. individualistic sports play. But no sooner than a blink of an eye, the movie forgets about this theme entirely (as well as the Lacrosse team) and heads straight into the world of watered down martial arts films. By this time you realize “Shaolin Girl” has a lot more in common with the recent Korean film “My Might Princess” than Stephen Chow’s “Shaolin Soccer.” And like “My Might Princess,” once the movie shifts gear into straight martial arts territory the movie loses whatever luster it had before hand.
Visually, the movie then provides well done eye candy with its wire action fight scenes, but its something we have seen more than enough times in much better action films. Inversely, the uniqueness of its “Lacrosse meets Kung-Fu” story becomes completely wasted and what you ultimately get is very hum-drum action film. Nice special f/x and a handful of amusing lacrosse scenes can’t save this movie from complete mediocrity.
buy Shaolin Girl from YesAsia
Cast:
Kou Shibasaki - Rin Sakurazawa
Yosuke Eguchi - Kenji Iwai
Toru Nakamura - Yuichiro Ohba
Kitty Zhang Yuqi - Minmin
Chi Chung Lam - Ram
Takashi Okamura - Ryuji Tamura
Kai Man Tin - Tin
Kana Harada
Mami Yamasaki
Daijiro Kawaoka
Masahiro Komoto
Nana Yanagisawa
2008 Movie Reviews, Japanese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Nov
11
2008
Baby & Me
Posted by luna6 | 4 Comments
Movie: Baby & Me
Release Date: August 13, 2008
Country: South Korea
Director: Jin-yeong Kim
Starring: Geun-seok Jang, Byeol Kim
Runtime: 96 Min
Editor Rating: 4.5