Recent & Upcoming Asian Film

Cafe Society
1

From Another Board,…

Shots from Seven Swords.

After yesterdays mad enthusiasm, I’m almost afraid to report that while the longer 153-minute version of* Seven Swords *was a far better produced DVD than the 115-version I saw earlier, I am still a bit disappointed in the movie. The transfer was much clean, brighter and more colorful than 115-minute cheapie I got earlier, which looked like a transfer from video, and was over dark. While the sutitles were far better, overall, there were places where I preferred the spotty translations on the 115 minute version. The subtitles on the longer edition took some of the bite out of the dialoge. LInes like “If you and your soldiers don’t clear out, don’t blame me for my cruelty”, became, “If you and your soldiers don’t clear out, I won’t be responsible for the consequences”. Stuff like that…

Shots from The Blade.

I suspect I was hoping for too much. I was hoping either for another genre deconstruction like Tsui Hark’s earlier film, The Blade. or something like Musa the Warrior, a more conventional, equally rousing ensemble adventure punctuated by long scenes of carnage as men hurl themselves at each other with heavy bladed weapons. While Seven Swords features much dramatically lit, beautifully framed shots of men at war, and the actors do what they can with the script, the story lacks depth, and was a bit disjointed (which still, may have been the result of cuts from the four hour original, though it was nowhere near as bad as the 115 minute version).

Set as it was in North West China, the film also has the look of a John Ford western. I kept expecting to see a chinese version of Bonanza’s Cartwrights show up in some scenes. The actor playing the villain, Fire-Wind is clearly having a ball. His performance is great fun, and the martial arts action is fun as ever, though it’s edited in a choppier style than usual for Tsui Hark. It was novel to see Donny Yen play a very Wolverine-ish Korean swordsman (I guess, after Musa, Koreans will now be typecast in Chinese film as alternatively badass, or utterly fatalistic, slaves. Another such character is due to play a major role in the Chinese film, The Promise, due out in December) and an old man, played by Lau kar-Leung, a verteran fight choreographer actually apply a judo-style throw on a horse, tossing it like a lariat across a river.

It’s also hard to believe that the story of this film comprises only the first chapter of the novel, Seven Swords of Mt. Tian upon which it is based, and that this group of swordsmens’ adventures continues on for multiple volumes. This must have originally been a serialized novel like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The story of that film is based on the third or fourth volume of a five volume novel.

I guess for me, the jury is still out on this film, at least until I see the director’s four hour version, which hopefully will fill out the personalities of some of the seemingly neglected characters (like the two younger swordsmen) and the old man’s past when FireWind was his protege.

Oh BTW - for those who are into martial arts films, Tsui Hark is probably best known for his collaborations with Jet Li back in the mid-90’s, notably the first, second, third and sixth films in the Once Upon a Time in China series, wherein Jet Li played the famous Catonese folk hero and traditional chinese medicine doctor and historical figure in the development of Hung Gar Kung Fu, Wong Fei Hung.

Shots from Once Upon a Time in China I and II.

One of the most anticipated martial arts/crime dramas to come out of Hong Kong in some time, is Sha Po Lang, opened to rave reviews at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival where it was hailed as the second coming of 90’s style HK “heroic Bloodshed” cinema, a movement most closely associated to John Woo’s films of that era, most notably A Better Tommorrow I and II, Bullet in the Head, The Killer and Hard Boiled. I saw it when it screened at the AFI Los Angeles Film Festival.

… I left the theatre with very mixed feelings, and as such, felt obliged to pass along a slight warning. SPL’s spare script calls for, in fact, really demands, A-List talents like Leung (either one), Wong, Chow, Tseng, to work. I am sure Yam, Yen, Hung and Wu gave their best as actors, but they really weren’t up to the dramatic demands of the script. As a result, the first half of the film is slow going.

I have a strong suspicion that the script was originally crafted to emulate Andrew Lau’s big hit, Infernal Affairs (with the right cast, it might just have done as well) but that somewhere during pre-production the producers decided to make it a martial arts movie. In that case they didn’t go far enough. The movie needed at least two more fight scenes. (And they would have been relatively inexpensive to add: for instance, Jacky Wu Jing’s victims, both hardass cops, didn’t have to go down so easily.)

As it is, the marriage between actioneur and kung fu film is an uneasy one at best. Still, for the martial arts fan, the chance to see a well shot and edited smack down between Wu and Yen (knife vs. baton), and later between Yen and Hung (including some innovative, for HK film, inclusion of jujitsu techniques), should be worth the price of admission. I would caution anyone to rent it, or watch it in a theatre, and make up their own mind before deciding to buy the DVD however. The fusion between the two genres just isn’t that successful, in my humble opinion.

A quick warning for my fellow martial arts film fans:

Regarding the new HK cop drama/kung fu film Sha Po Lang: if you’re interested in this film, beware, there is a pirate edition out, where the final fight scene between Sammo Hung and Donnie Yen was cut short. This is most likely a sanitized version of the film intended for audiences on the Mainland, Malaysia and Singapore, places where there is still serious censorhip.

Avoid the “Mainland cut” - wait for the official HK release.

A promising looking Korean Wuxia (martial chivalry genre, of which Hero and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon are the best known examples), Shadowless Sword opened in Korea, a month or so ago, and is scheduled for a big US release sometime in 2006. It’s about a Swordswoman who is saddled with protecting a runaway/outcast (not quite sure which) young prince from assassins during the decline of the Pakchae dynasty in ancient Korea. Critical response in Korea was mixed, a lot of people apparently kept comparing it to Chinese Wuxia and castigated it for not being “korean” enough, whatever the hell that means. I’m figuring it would do okay, if not better here, with the same crowd that liked “House of Flying Daggers”.

Interesting enough, Yoon So-Yi, who plays the swordswoman, gave a swordfighting demonstration at a promotional press event for the film.

Available on Region I DVD as part of a series of chinese film classics, He Ping’s 1990 film, Swordsmen in/of Double Flag Town is one of the purest, simplest, swordsman dramas I’ve ever seen.

It’s the story about the young son of a fallen swordsman, who travels to Double Flag Town in NW China to claim his arranged bride, a young girl whose father is the local pub/restaurant keeper, and a former swordsman in his own right. The town however is beset by marauding adult swordsmen who are a dispicable lot in and of themselves, one of whom attempts to rape the innkeepers daughter. The boy manages to kill him, setting in motion an ineveitable showdown with the would be rapists brother, one of the most dangerous swordsmen around.

In style, Swordsmen in/of Double Flag Town a lot like Sergio Leone’s work, and in story, it’s akin to the classic american western, High Noon. There isn’t much here in the way of fight scenes (and what there are, are over quick). Instead He Ping puts the emphasis on slow boil but effective suspense, and a not entirely unsympathetic look at life on the chinese western frontier. It’s def. worth a look: this has to be the cleanest, rawest look at the most basic themes of martial arts films ever made… and with the right frame of mind, can be pretty rewarding.

References:

http://www.prcmovie.com/library/swordsmen.html
http://www.filmbug.com/db/36507
http://www.facets.org/asticat?function=buy…s&catnum=/79774
http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/ppr_release_det…=20041015&ps=03

Information on American Release. There are trailers out there. Google’em.
http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/004170.html#more

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The Weinstein’s new company has acquired the rights to distribute Chen Kiage’s newest film, The Promise (retitled Master of the Crimson Armor for US release, the original Chinese title is Wu Ji) a big budget martial arts fantasy wherein an Imperial concubine gets caught in a romantic triangle with a General and his loyal warrior slave, which somehow “empowers” her to make an extraordinary decision upon which rests the fate of nation.

French and Japanese posters for The Promise.

The film was scheduled to open in the US on December 16th, the same day it opens in China (and most of Asia). I’m sorry to say that once again, the Weinsteins reneged on their promise to join in on the world wide coordinated release of an Asian feature film. I suspect I will see this on region 3 DVD long before we get a chance to see this in theatres.

French and Japanese posters for the Promise

Director Chen Kiage directed Farewell My Concubine & the Emperor & the Assassin. Cecilia Cheung (One Nite in Mongkok, Tokyo Raiders) plays the royal concubine opposite Korean actor Jang Dong-Kun (Tae Guk Gi: Brotherhood of War, 2099: Lost Memories).

More Images from The Promise at - http://www.monkeypeaches.com/wuji.html

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Another film worth keeping an eye out for is The Duelist a kind of cross breed between a martial arts movie and an art film, where the emphasis is on formal/visual experimentation. The simplified plot is based on a popular novel (which also gave rise to the infinitely more complex korean TV series Damo) The filmmakers were the same group that made the experimental crime drama Nowhere to Hide, a film the Wachowski’s cited as among the visual inspirations for scenes in The Matrix). The story concerns an undercover woman government agent caught between her loyalty to her older mentor, and the charismatic leader of an anti-government rebel movement, she is sent to investigate.

A deadlier Damo.;

People estimated it might be on DVD sometime this month, though I haven’t heard anything new about this yet… for those who are curious, here are some reviews, one leaning negative, the other positive.

Twitch.com’s more critical review.
http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/003474.html

A positive blogger review by a Variety columnist.
http://www.kaijushakedown.com/2005/09/the_duelist_rev.html

One thing that I found interesting about the Variety columnist’s review,…

… is how much the characterization of the woman agent in The Duelist sounds like recent writers (Puckett, Horrocks, Gabrych) interpretation of the DC Batbooks character, Cassandra Cain, the current Batgirl (who hopefully won’t disappear after DC deep sixes her title after #73, the end of the “Destructions Daughter” storyarc).

Poor Cassandra,…

… we hardly knew ye…

4

The Chinese Ninja March, from Binchunmoo.

Set about three years before the events of Musa the Warrior, in many ways Bichunmoo is a high tech/high production value throwback to both the kung fu films of the seventies (with it’s twisty, betrayal and reversal laden plot and setting during the transition from Yuan/Mongol to Ming/Han Chinese rule over China, with a Koryo swordsmen caught in the middle, and the predominant style of acting) and Tsui Harks better Wuxia Fantasies from the Nineties (in the style of swordsplay, wire work, colorful cinematography and costuming). I must admit, for a film I didn’t finish the first time I tried to watch it, I was surprised how much I liked the sp. edition version (which is a bit longer) http://www.mediacircus.net/bichunmoo.html .

+++++++++++++

Lately I’ve been enarmored of Yoon So-Yi, the korean action actress (see image links below). These are photos from a press event for her new film, Shadowless Sword, the ads for which made me decide to take a second look at Shadowless Sword director Kim Young-Joon’s earlier wuxia fantasy Bichunmoo (discussed above) as well as Yoon So-Yi’s first action film, director Ryu Seong-Won’s (No Blood No Tears, Crying Fist) previous martial arts action-comedy Arahan. Watching both films a second time made me think I was too much of a hardass in criticizing them the first time out. (I discuss Bichunmoo briefly above.) This weekend, I finally got around to watching Arahan again.

Set in contemporary Seoul, Arahan (2004) details the struggles of an ineffective junior cop Sang Hwan, played by Ryu Seong-Beum, who keeps getting his ass kicked by low level korean yakuza. A chance meeting with a young, irritible taoist superwoman (like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon-style superhuman) Wijin (Yook So-Yi), leads to the discovery by her father, Ja-Woon (Ahn Sung-Ki) an accupunturist (and secretly, one of the most powerful taoist martial arts masters alive), that Ryu has superhuman potential. For his part Sang Hwan just wants to be able to fight effectively, and has to be dragged kicking and screaming into adopting the vegetarian diet and spartan regimen of taoist super-humans in training, a lifestyle utterly divorced from life in contempoary Seoul. (The other taoist superhumans are reduced to telling fortunes to make a living, and only levitate to screw in lightbulbs.)

Arahan.

However when the taoist evil Jesus figure, played by the always welcome martial arts choreographer and action scene specialist director, Jeon Du-Hong (Musa the Warrior, No Blood No Tears, Fighter in the Wind), is freed from his tomb (where the other taoist masters locked him away decades ago), rejuvenates himself, and starts knocking off Ja Woon’s high-level taoist associates looking for a key to even greater taoist power, ready or not, the next generation, Wijin and the hapless Sang Hwan, have to step up and face the ultimate badass, to prevent him from becoming a cross between Superman and Stalin.

I still felt the sequence of scenes were Sang Hwan slowly adapts to his new lifestyle could have been more tightly edited (a montage would have been welcome here), and the scenes where Ja Woon and Wijin bicker get a bit trying (after a while, one wants to ask Yoon So-Yi’s bitchy Wi-Jin to give Ja-Woon a break) but otherwise I must admit I liked Arahan a lot better this time. The actions scenes are fun (I just wish there were a few more of them) but I think the main reason I had trouble with Arahan earlier was that that it came out region three DVD back when the hype over The Matrix films was at it’s height, which made me far more critical of CGI-enhanced martial arts films at the time.

For more details, see the kungfucinema.com review at http://www.kungfucinema.com/reviews/arahan.htm -
at present, region 3 (asia) and Region 2 (UK) editions are available. I expect we’ll hear of a region 1 dvd edition (US) within the next few months.

5

I just saw a great gangster film: Johnnie To’s stylish new film, Election (Hak Sui Wui, “The Black Society”, Hong Kong, 2005), is one of the best movies to come out of Hong Kong in a long time.

Shots from Election.

The 50,000-member strong Woo Shing Society, is a centuries-old and powerful triad organization that operates like a well-established crime “family”. Periodically, respected elders, “the Uncles” led by Teng (Wong Tim Lam) vote on Chairman, who becomes the leader of the Triad for limited periods. The current Chairman, “Whistle” (Wang Chung), is due to step down, and two high ranking capos, the calm collected Lok (Simon Yam) and the firebrand “Big D” (Tony Leung) are vying to become the next Chairman.

The story that follows can be divided into three parts: [ul]Lok and Big D’s political manuevering before the "Uncles’ vote on who will be the new Chairman in Hong Kong;

The ensuing proxy war for possession the symbol of triad leadership, the Dragon Head Baton, in the Mainland, involving underbosses and soldiers from all levels of the organization: Big D’s wife (Maggie Siu), a super-slick capo (Lous Koo), the pathological Jet (Nick Cheung), the hardcore Kun (Lam Ka-Tung) and the loyal, if dim Big Head (Lam Suet);

And once the dust settles, the opening moves of Wo Shing’s campaign to expand their turf, at the cost of other Triad organizations operating in the Tian Man Shui district of Hong Kong.
[/ul]It’s been reported that To’s depiction of rigid rules governing life in a large tradition-bound triad is accurate. If so, it makes fascinating viewing. To manages a great balance between tense, debates and negotiations involving Uncles, under-bosses and even pragmatic high ranking police officers (the Chief is played by seventies kung fu star David Chaing); and shocking outbursts of realistic violent action between lower-level captains and foot soldiers, where knives, sticks, cars and pieces of broken furniture, and not words, are the elements of daily “discourse”. Ironies and absurdities abound, as the conflict between triad “righteousness” and cold-blooded machiavellian maneuveringb keeps coming to the fore. This multi-level, realistic approach to storytelling is both refreshing and, in To’s accomplished hands, stylish and exciting, and the acting is uniformly excellent. In comparison, John Woo’s “Just Heroes” (1987), which mined similar turf, depicting the infighting that accompanies a change in triad leadership, plods in comparison. To’s direction here is only a cut below the commerical slickness of Andrew Lau’s Infernal Affairs II (2003)which comes off as a bit grandious, even romantic, in comparison, to To’s spare, more realistic-looking style. Stylistically, the only recent Hong Kong drama that compares in quality, Derek Yee’s true-life urban drama One Nite in Mongkok (2004). To’s Election is just as uncompromising, and ultimately, even as nihilistic as One Nite in Mongkok. It’s also more entertaining, and in some ways much more satisfying.

Highly recommended.

6

Correction.

And once the dust settles, the opening moves of Wo Shing’s campaign to expand their turf, at the cost of other Triad organizations operating in the Tian Man Shui district of Hong Kong.

… should read…

And once the dust settles, the opening moves of Wo Shing’s campaign to expand their turf, at the cost of other Triad organizations operating in the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Hong Kong.

Opps.

7

Hey Won

No Infernal Affairs? It was good enough to grab both Brad Pitt’s and Martin Scorsese’s attention.

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Hey First! How are you doing? Didn’t know you traveled out this way. Per one of our old friends request, I cut and paste my comics posts here,…

True. There was something on line recently about Matt Damon talking about the ending (they haven’t changed it - white spoiler text follows - Damon is the deep cover cop in the mob, and ends up being the one who takes the bullet in the face in the remake’s finale … but in the case of this thread, I figured I’d start with the more recent stuff, and right now, the most anticipated stuff is the holiday wuxia stuff that’s been showing in Asia, and is due out on Region 3 DVD in the next month or so: The Duelist, Shadowless Sword and The Promise.

Good seeing you First,…

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And nice to see you too outside of Millarworld (and, please, “Dave” sounds much less odd than “First” :slight_smile: ). I wonder how many other old Authority board members are about here…

I’d also suggest seeing Taitai. Its a short film made by a guy called Nicholas Chin, and won an award at the Cannes film festival in 2002. I happened to meet Nicholas Chin when I worked in Hong Kong and became aware of the film through him, rather than him through the film.

10

A number of our old friends congregate at Forums?

Will check into it: I don’t often see shorts on DVD in chinatown, however.

Just saw this:

Last week, I picked up the Hong Kong all-region edition of “Koma 2: Home Sweet Home”. The DVD features two versions of the film, a “horror” and a “drama” version”. Unable to get to sleep last night, I watched the “horror” version of the film.

I’m sorry to say that I found the film pretty frustrating.

Karena Lam and Shu Qi in Koma 2: Home Sweet Home.

Home Sweet Home follows the increasingly desperate pursuit that evolves between a young yuppie wife and mother (Shu Qi). who moves into a large condominium apartment in a new development, and a mentally damaged homeless woman (Karena Lam), who kidnaps her young son. About midway through the film, a police detective (Lam Suet) tells Shu Qi’s frantic mother that, years before, a large shanty town existed on the site of her development. Then hundreds of squatters were evicted when the HK police swept through their community, forcibly driving out the people who lived there and bulldozing their shacks. Many perished in the riots that ensued or died trying to scrape by after the dust settled. Lam’s character lost her husband and son, and loses her mind as a result. Since then, she has eked out a squalid twilight existence, eating out of dumpsters, and moving about the building’s maintenance tunnels, elevator shafts and HVAC ducts, kidnaps her child.

Pretty decent premise for a horror film.

Watching “Home Sweet Home” I couldn’t help but compare it to the Pang Brother’s second Eye film, which also starred Shu Qi, wherein Shu Qi’s home-wrecker breaks off an adulterous relationship, attempts suicide, discovers she’s pregnant, and has the ability to see the shades of the departed . However unintentionally comic Eye 2 became, as Shu Qi’s character was tormented by her visions, I came away impressed with Shu Qi’s acting and thought that she’d really grown as an actress. Watching the nearly identical character (self centered young yuppie) she plays in Home Sweet Home, though I couldn’t help but think, Shu Qi may well have developed as an actress, but you’d never tell from the way she’s shot and the way the footage was assembled here. There are quite a few scenes that could’ve been shot much more effectively, from different angles and at varied focal lengths and more creative lighting. In contrast, in Eye 2, the Pang Brothers did such a great job shooting her, and assembling her scenes in Eye 2 that they effectively complemented Shu Qi’s strengths (or conversely, completely covered for her weaknesses) as an actress. I often wondered if budget limitations limited the amount of coverage they could shoot, and found myself imagining what the Pangs’ might’ve pulled off on a similar budget, and wishing they’d had a hand in this production.

Karena Lam – before the disaster.

Since Karena Lam’s debut in 2001’s July Rhapsody opposite Jacky Cheung (for which she won best new actress at the annual HK film awards), I’ve followed her work with increasing dismay. Like Madeline Stowe in many of her American films, Lam’s performance often ends up the as the only worthwhile element of some pretty mediocre movies. She is pretty damn good in her role here. (Once again, she’s the strongest actor in the film) but the thick make up she wears, though clearly intended to both age her, and show the toll her miserable existence has taken on her character, the make up is also far too distracting. It looks too artificial. Despite Lam’s obvious talent and skill, I couldn’t help but think that the audience would have been better served if the filmmakers had simply opted for an equally skilled, but older actress.

The war between the women is the main event here. The men’s roles are secondary at best. Lam Suet is as decent as ever, but the filmmakers don’t do anything to accent his perfomance. Alex Fong, who plays Shu Qi’s husband is disposed of early in the story (Lucky Alex Fong). Working with child actors is never easy, and you can tell that the child actor who plays Shu Qi’s son is really trying hard here. Unfortunately I could not tell if he lacked range as an actor, or the child was mis-directed but, from the moment Lam’s character kidnaps him, the child maintains a rigid mask of bug-eyed shock on his face. He is supposed to be getting severely traumatized here, but the lack of variety in his expressions often rang false, and reinforced the films uneven amateurish quality.

If anything, Home Sweet Home reminds me of Johnnie To’s Breaking News but with a twist. Both films starts with a great premise and a decent script, but whereas the well shot and edited News suffered from poor casting, actors who didn’t have the ability to really bring their characters to life, in the case of Home it’s the other way around. Shu Qi gamely does her best, and Lam is solid as ever, even with what looks like one full inch of make-up on her face. And the film gets a lot more exciting in it’s third act, when we finally get a full picture of what Karena’ Lam’s deranged homeless woman has endured, and Shu Qi’s housewife throws herself into action against her foe. Unfortunately limited footage, unimaginative cinematography and editing, and utterly un-involving soundtrack effectively doom this movie from the start. from the start.

Other than the presence of Karena Lam, Koma 2: Home Sweet Home bears no connection to Koma which focused on organ theft and co-starred Angelica Lee (who starred in the first Eye film).

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Won, have you seen Hero? What did you think of it?

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Brother Dave, you must be pulling my leg!

This is from the old Millaworld review (itself adapted from one of Anthony Leong’s Mediacircus reviews) , posted back when the first DVD edition from Mainland China came out,…

Comic book based films should look more like this,…

Hero (2003) With: Jet Li (Kiss of the Dragon, Lethal Weapon 4, Fist of Legend, Swordsman II): Maggie Cheung (Heroic Trio, Irma Vep, In the Mood for Love); Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; The Road Home);
Tony Leung (Bullet in the Head, Hard Boiled, In the Mood for Love); Donnie Yen (Blade 2, Shanghai Knights, Iron Monkey)

Director Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, To Live)
Cinematographer Christopher Doyle (Ashes of Time)
Action & Choreography Ching Siu-Tung (Shaolin Soccer)

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foriegn Film. Adapted from a Mediacircus Review.

Two thousand years ago, seven kingdoms vied for control of what is now modern day China. In 221 BC, the Kingdom of Qin, led by Qin Shihuangdi, succeeded in conquering the other six kingdoms and unified the country. As China’s first emperor, Qin centralized the government and launched a series of reforms designed to unify the new nation and protect the country from Mongol invaders. However, Qin also dealt harshly with dissidents, executing those who disagreed with his policies - which led to several attempts on his life while he warred on the six kingdoms & later during his reign.

This guy was real.

Set sometime during Qin’s war with the six kingdoms,… a lowly county sheriff (Jet Li, referred to as Nameless in the film) arrives at Qin’s palace, who claims to have vanquished three of the emperor’s deadliest enemies: Sky (Donnie Yen), Broken Sword (Tony Leung) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung). Granted an audience with Qin, Nameless describes how he exploited the strong feelings the emperor’s foes harbored for each other to divide and destroy them. Sensing something amiss with Nameless’ story, Qin engages Nameless in a dialoge where they match conflicting accounts of Nameless’ encounter’s with the emperor’s foes. Well written high drama ensues: intense, beautifully shot, beautifully choreographed, CGI enhanced action scenes follow:
[ul]
A sword vs spear battle between Nameless and Sky, fought in the mind, resolved in reality, through bursting CGI raindrops.

Qin’s armies assault the Kingdom of Zhao. Flying Snow (looking for all the world the way Storm should move) and Nameless repell wave after waves of arrows so thick they darken the sky.

An unbelievably beautiful battle amidst falling (and once animated, swirling) leaves (tracing thier movements) between Cheung and Zhang Ziyi (Moon, Broken Sword’s apprentice), - I’d love to see PC Russell or Windsor-Smith illustrate a single frame of this scene.

Broken Sword and Flying Snow’s all out assault on the emperor’s palace; cutting thier way through a couple of Battalions of men; and Broken Swords showdown with the Emperor.

[/ul]
… and a heck of a lot more. You have to see these battle scenes: they’re absolutely breathtaking. The film features lavish production design, an army of extras, and the extensive use of CGI. Comparisons with Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are inevitable, however, stylistically, Hero is a lot closer to Wong Kar Wai’s Ashes of Time. Cinematographer Christopher Doyle shot both films: and they share a creative use of color and light to frame intense resonant compositions filled with the billowing of hair and clothing, magnificent sun-drenched vistas, and artfully CGI enhanced battle scenes. Hero is a must see for fans of historical epics like Laurence of Arabia, and well written martial arts genre films, like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

13

You’ve just picked the DVD I’ll be hiring tonight.

14

Went a bit overboard tonight myself… scored a bunch of interesting new DVDs, including Welcome to Dongmakgol (which will likely be S.Korea’s nominee for a Best Foriegn Film Oscar), Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (the third in Chan Wook Park’s trilogy on the subject of revenge, which included Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy among others…

Joy!

15

Happy Places and Lethal Women

Two recent, and highly anticipated, new films from South Korea just came out on region 3 DVD. As expected I jumped on them, and when running home to fire up my trusty all-region DVD player.

It’s the height of the Korean War. A small squad of North Korean soldiers get ambushed. Three survive, only to run into a mildly retarded girl Yeo-il (who reminds me a lot of Neil Gaimen’s Delirium), who leads them to her mountain village, Dongmakgol. There, much to their dismay, they learn that, somehow, the inhabitants are miraculously of the war the rest of the peninsula. In time the villagers also offer sanctuary to two lost South Korean soldiers, a demolitions man and a medic, as well as an American pilot who crash-landed nearby. This leads to a tense, and very comic standoff, and the destruction of the village’s winter stores. Still wary of one another, the soldiers call a truce, and agree to work together until the villagers have enough food stored for the winter. Then all bets are off.

It’s a bloody miracle that the whole thing works. Despite the realistic tension between the two groups of soldiers, “Dongmakgol”, could have ended up as yet another variation on “Lost Horizon”, where the soldiers either (1) learn the meaning of peace by being assimilated into a low rent rural farming community version of Shangri-la, or “Seven Samurai”, where the soldiers (2) trade in their ideological blinders in favor of nationalist brotherhood and save the village from American Imperialists AND the Communist “liberators”, by kicking off an orgy of gory violence. That it never quite veers over the edge to one extreme or another is a credit to the cast and filmmakers. I particularly like the ending, which presents us with an oddly fun spin on heroic sacrifice.

Audiences might recognize the ranking officer among the North Korean soldiers, who is played Jeong Jae-young, as the most pugnacious of the small unit leaders in Silmido or the abusive boxer in No Blood No Tears, and the South Korean demolitions man, who is played by Shin Ha-Kyun, who was memorable as the deaf mute factory worker in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and the crazed alien hunter in Save the Green Planet. While both actors are fine in their roles here, I found myself missing the more expressive style of acting they’ve displayed in earlier roles. Kang Hye-Jeong (Mido in Oldboy) is fun as Yeo-Il, the simple-minded farm girl. Overall, Welcome to Dongmakgol is a decent, light entertainment that reminds me a lot of the TV series MASH** at it’s best.

Available on Region 3 DVD. I expect this to come out in art theatres and region 1 DVD in time for academy award consideration. Welcome to Dongmakgol will likely be the South Korean official entry to the Best Foriegn Film category in next years academy award competion. Whether or not this kind of film stands a chance is another issue entirely. I agree with those who say it’s a bit on the lightweight side.

It took at least two viewings each for me to appreciate Chan Wook Park’s, “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” and “Oldboy”. I had no such problems with his newest film, “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” (South Korea, 2005).

As original as the previous films, and shot with the same “diamond cutters eye” for precise, sharp-edged, striking composition, “Lady Vengeance”, is the story of a woman, Geum-Ja, who is imprisoned for kidnapping and murdering a child. After thirteen years, she emerges from prison an impassive, finely honed instrument of revenge. Though a few surreal shots and quick cuts caught me by surprise, on the whole I found “Lady Vengeance” to be a twisted joy (perhaps my repeat viewings of the earlier films have had an effect: I can apprehend Park’s dark sense of humor). Geum-Ja’s story evolves into a black comedy that celebrates the life-affirming, communal possibilities and therapeutic potential of cold blooded, methodically sought revenge.

Don’t go watch the film expecting it to be quite as jolting as “Oldboy”; while “Lady Vengeance” has it’s share of surprises, visual and otherwise, it’s also far more evenly paced. It’s also brighter (if that is the right word) and much more self-contained and focused than the bleak but funny “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.”

Presently available in Region 3 DVD, I expect Lady Vengeance” to appear on Region 1 DVD by Fall.

In director Hector Carre’s suspenseful, “The Promise” (Spain, 2004), the great Carmen Maura plays a desperate, mentally fragile, terribly superstitious woman, who has visions, and when put-upon, or when she perceives that those she cares for are threatened, turns lethal.

Enjoyably creepy, I can see “The Promise” generating sequels, a la “Death Wish”. Hide the kitchen knives. Now available on Region 1 DVD from TLA Releasing.

16

New from Japan.

An old friend returns,…

Anyone hear anything about this last film?

Well now, this looks promising,… new from Thailand, “Art of the Devil”.

Anyone hear anything about this?

17

I guess Tetsujin/Gigantor will mix CGI with Live Action Actors.

Okay, guess that’ll be DVD soon,…

18

Wow.

They just wrapped on a sequel to Election, … http://yourmomsbasement.com/forums/index.p…ndpost&p=105329 ,… in Hong Kong. From - http://www.kaijushakedown.com/

That WAS FAST.

19

The 2002 Hong Kong cop-triad thriller Infernal Affairs (see review Infernal Affairs (無間道) (2002) ), has been remade by Martin Scorcese.

Titled The Departed, the remake stars Leonardo DiCaprio in Andy Lau’s role (of a triad mole in the police dept) and Matt Damon in Tony Leung’s role of a long term undercover officer in the triads.

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Regarding The Duelist,…

I have to say I disagree with the naysayers, be they reviewers, or just folks posting on message boards, though I will concede that one really has to leave one’s preconceptions and expectations of martial arts films at the door before watching this film. Think of it as a great live-action manga/anime type epic cartoon and you’ll enjoy it just fine.

Like Kamikaze Girls, The Duelist took me utterly by surprise. The Duelist is based on a popular novel about a 17th Century undercover policewoman caught between two men, her superior at work, and a charismatic leader of a revolutionary movement, in a conspiracy involving counterfeiting, and people at the highest level of the Royal Court. The original story has been pared down quite a bit for this film, and it presents a radically different take on the same tale: the filmmaker has reduced it to a star-crossed love story between two people, the utterly tomboyish undercover officer and a charismatic assassin working for the other side.

One thing I never expected (which was dumb of me, given the directors previous feature film, Nowhere to Hide) was that the filmmaker would turn it into an outright comedy - in some ways reminescent of Chinese Odyssey 2002, and balanced with ballet-like dance/battles and (from him, expected) amazing visuals, and an ending that might have suited Romeo and Juliet had one of the protagonists of that story survived. (This might seem like a spoiler. It really isn’t. What matters is “how it’s done” not “what happens”.) Far more tightly paced than the sprawling, but influential Nowhere to Hide (the Wachowski’s for instance, admit to “borrowing” some of this directors visual ideas when they made the first Matrix film), The Duelist is a rare visual treat. You really have to see the images to believe them. There are quite a few shots here that are simply stunning, and a refreshing take on the whole idea of the martial arts film.

The Duelist is wierd however. No Question. It’s also Highly Recommended. Empty your head and watch. If you you let it, it’ll take you away.