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angel_starfine
Reviews
2002 (2001)
Perfect couple cinema-- a bit of Kung-fu, a bit of romance
One of my favourite movies of all time. It's a lovely bitter-sweet story surrounded by an edgy plot and plenty of action and bits of humour.
The story tells of the ancient partnership of a ghost and a human teaming together to solve cases concerning unhappy ghosts.
But with this ancient partnership, comes a burden.
This movie does carry on a tiny bit but it's all for the sake of emotional suspense.
The plot twists and turns and just when you think you can predict it... I haven't met a single person that hasn't enjoyed it (and I've played this film to a lot of friends)
Perfect for a night in, maybe with your other half, it's neither overly violence nor over-mushy.
I can't hyper about this movie enough!
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Go instead: Legend of Speed
This was the least entertaining film I've seen recently. Don't get me wrong, I am a girl AND I enjoyed The Fast and The Furious, as it was a "piece of fun". But this film is exhibit A when people speak of the "no plot, all action" movies that come out of America these days.
I had two main problems with this movie: 1) This film was set in Tokyo, yet the main character didn't speak Japanese, he was placed in a school where classes were taught in Japanese. Also, I have never seen so many American-speaking Japanese actors in one movie, this film pays no respect to the culture, showing viewers a false world that Japan is truly accessible to non-Japanese speakers (which is not the case), that the Japanese people are most willing to sideline their own language to benefit one ignorant American person.
2) The great holes in plot was what makes the viewer feel dislocated from the characters, events. It is a rule in film that you have a "build" then a "climax", (meaning that the tension within a story is built, holding the viewer's attention then at the "climax", the viewer feels the desired emotion of the event eg. death, birth, shock) This film does not use this: the plot goes along steadily, then hits "climax"-like points without "build" or even explanation! I sat there often thinking "who's that?", "what just happened?"
Even with the death of the main character's friend, which was supposed to make the viewer feel sad at that moment, missed target because of no "build". The events went as follows: car business is alerted to money being taken from accounts, car business owner threatens and tries to kill said friend, main character and others escape in a car, friend is getting away as well in another car, friend's car crashes and he burns to death.
The death leaves viewers confused as to what they have just seen. We are told hurriedly about the company's accounts, which we really should have been alerted to before, this is truly poor scripting.
Overall, I find this movie to be too loose in the story-telling, not enough research was done about the location. I wasn't even too fond of the "drifting". The final race between the main character and his nemesis was too close to being reminiscent of the Speed Racer series, for my liking.
If you want a movie in a similar vein, try "The Legend of Speed". It did what the filmmakers were trying to achieve here.
Mou gaan dou (2002)
Andy Lau= great bad guy
As a big fan of Andy Lau, this film is one of my favs. I love how he excels in his role of a police officer, with a dark side. Playing against Tony Leung was a great casting choice. The suspense is drawn out and holds the viewer to the very end. As a standard HK crime-drama, a lot of the story techniques may be lost on the usual westerner, unused to movies of this genre.
Many might say this movie is average, has an overused plot, but it must be seen to be believed.
The plot is unpredictable, and the end was easily left open for the viewer to fill in the gaps as not every question is answered and the movie is all better for it. No predictable, easy, shut-off ending.
Andy Lau plays his role with such cool character (it can be seen in the Western cliché 'the bad boy') He spins this role so well you can be scared that he is on the streets.