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CODA (2021)
perfect counter-balance to the loud and stupid tentpoles
This is a very sweet, but not overly-saccharine, coming of age story about a hearing girl trying to get into Berklee Music school to pursue her passion for singing.
The only catch is her fishing family can't understand her dream because, well, they're entirely deaf except for Ruby herself who acts as their interpreter.
Along with a healthy dose of high-school fish out of water tropes, this is the perfect counterpoint of a Sundance indie to the loud, stupid and obnoxious summer tentpoles.
The original French movie La Famille Bélier that it's based on is also worthy of a look afterwards.
Yappie (2018)
excruciatingly oblivious to its own self-referential "always play it safe"
WongFu has always played it safe and this is no exception. I only started watching it because others were hyping it on the internet.
It's the same old formula and there's no reason to change anything because they know their audience of teenyboppers. The "relationships" are paper thin soap opera tropes and about as melodramatic as some random girl/guy cry at some stupid misunderstanding but then will course correct and all is well.
For all its recognition of playing it safe for Phil's character, it sure isn't aware of its own irony of playing the same thing as all other WongFu projects.
Tangerine (2015)
gimmicky and shallow, but entertaining like a bar brawl
Beyond the basic marketing ploys of "shot on iPhone" and "gritty and raw documentary style film about transgender working girls" there's not much to this Sundance darling in terms of actual story and character development.
It's a "found footage" type of movie using the gimmicks of jump cuts (where continuity doesn't matter) and "shaky cam" - where you shouldn't eat or drink beforehand. But nary any story line and plot development or even interesting character development. What the movie establishes in the first 5 minutes is entirely it for the rest of the movie.
It's basically an hour and half of profanities and schmaltzy sentimentality - yes, it's way too sentimental towards the two main characters and can be off putting at times in terms of being like Spielberg manipulation. But I suppose for mainstream audiences comparing this film to Spielberg is a positive selling point.
I totally get it; for some people who aren't witness to LA's Skid Row this is titillation for observing scenarios in the safety of a movie theater or their living rooms. But what lessons are to be learned or call to action for any of the real poverty in LA and around the world?
But for those of us who actually live in LA we can see this everyday for free on the streets - so what's the titillation and novelty for us?
Tokyo Godfathers did it better and that's animation...
Shelter (2015)
low budget garbage, not even worthy of Asylum
The only reason I watched this turd was because it's on Amazon Prime and was "recommended" after watching 2012's "The Divide" - which is far superior in terms of low budget filmmaking and cuter lead actress. It's similar genres, but the production value is completely lacking on this one and there's no story plot to speak of.
Albeit there's some suspense as you want to know what happens to the survivors, but alas it's a total snoozefest until then and the payoff isn't worth it.
I'm sort of interested in these types of movies because as an aspiring filmmaker these one location projects are the only stories that can be made at the ultra low budget level and still have some sense. But this movie has no point and isn't even entertaining enough to keep your interest as you fast forward just to get to the end.
A total waste of time.
Beasts of No Nation (2015)
feature length version of Kony2012 for war pr0n loving "slacktivists"
Before reading this review, you should search the video "Hollywood stereotypes of African men" that's somewhat viral from a few years back. It exactly highlights Hollywood problems of depictions of Africans, and "BoNN" is another entry into the genre. Seriously, checkout some of the better "Nollywood" productions and see how Nigeria and some other African countries view themselves: modernized and with the same self-indulgent relationship problems as 1st world people.
Now then, I'm not trolling this movie with my review; I pretty much agree with the vast majority of reviewers here that it's an extremely well acted, shot and edited MoVIE created for audience consumption in order to generate more revenue for Netflix. It certainly is a masterfully crafted narrative of a FICTIONALIZED account of child soldiers during war.
However, after reading all the gushing reviews I have to agree with Red_Identity's review that there's just something lacking that other films have done better and with more emotional impact.
For starters, I think my review title sums it up pretty efficiently: this movie is for "slacktivists" who get a feel good moment about empathizing with FICTIONAL characters' harrowing war experiences; but ultimately it does nothing to actually do anything against child soldiers/slavery/sex trafficking, and only fills up Netflix's coffers without any NGOs getting any of that money.
Just like the Kony2012 viral campaign, it's a means for most of the US and UK reviewers to cry crocodile tears about the suffering of fictional characters (Hamlet's "dream of passion") when the current reality in Autumn 2015 is the REAL suffering of Syrian refugees who have no movies right now to show their plight? Yep, I'm just that cynical. And maybe that one reviewer was right: I'm probably part of that "2% potential psychopath population" who needs to get my head checked; but I disagree with another reviewer who wrote that this movie is for thinking people. And I don't like to be taken for a fool, so I'm gonna point out a few things in my friend dissenting from the other reviewers.
It's been like two days since I first saw it with friends on Netflix after falling prey to the media hype and I also saw several other movies in-between, so my brain isn't recollecting all the details; but I'm sure I can find many more "plot holes" if I watch it again some point down the line.
For me the biggest issue I have with the storyline is Agu totally "pulls off a Luke Skywalker in New Hope" with the loss of his family. He's afraid upon first meeting commandant, but very quickly "accepts" the reality of the rebels and doesn't even make any attempts at escaping the group to find his mother. For me, the drug induced sequence later of him missing his mother seems somewhat false because of this. Even when commandant tells Agu to kill the driver to avenge his father is kind of hollow when there aren't enough scenes of Agu longing for his past.
Speaking of the initial "Act of Killing" and loss of innocence of Agu, they totally went Disney with the machetes and hacking the driver. With all the other graphic violence and Netflix's Narcos, I can't but help think they didn't want to really traumatize the kid actor Attah - which is a good decision; but nonetheless the cutting away and upwards angle provided some sentimentality in this movie that's supposed to be "raw and brutal to your emotions." Another scenario comes towards the end where Agu reminisces about how he's a beast and speaks some very poetic lines about God and Satan. I was kind of rolling my eyes on how a kid without much education is speaking such lyrical lines if it's not the script demanding him to say it? Agu hardly has any education from the establishing shots at the beginning, but all of a sudden speaks like he's Wole Soyinka? Not buying it.
And as far Agu's "Imagination TV" goes, it seems like people forget that if the TV wasn't working and he has no exposure to Hollywood movie tropes, then how's Agu and his friends acting out movies? If the poverty is that dire then logically he wouldn't have seen that many movies at all, let alone act it out. That's a hammy moment from the writing and not even "poverty pr0n" level of romanticized poor people with hearts of gold. Seriously, go to some 3rd world countries and I can guarantee that poor people aren't naive innocent saints, but calculating and scheming like the rest of humanity.
I'm sure there are other moments in the movie I can point out with Agu, but these are the scenes that stick out the most for me.
Now as far "commandant" is concerned, the lack of an actual name and an actual conflict takes me out the most. Surely, somebody like "supreme commandant" knows his real name? But the fictionalized account just puts it in a vacuum and reminds me it's a movie for entertainment purposes.
Seriously, the scenes of "buck naked savages" running along with commandant trying to pull off a Col. Kilgore is kinda laughable. I understand Fukunanga is going for a hardened soldier, but running straight into gun fire seems a bit out of left field.
Also, the initial camp sequence is logically impossible because they showed helicopters searching for them so they'd never in real life camp out in the open with fires and not get shot at.
Overall I think Idris Elba gives a wonderful performance, and Abraham Attah is the breakout acting prodigy of the decade. I think a movie like this would work better about some real conflict like "Hotel Rwanda" or even the insanity of "Last King of Scotland." But face it, at the end of the day Nick Nolte's line in "Hotel Rwanda" is spot on about the West's indifference to human suffering in Africa...
Amapola (2014)
more like "Much Ado About Nothing"
The previous reviewer has got to be connected with the production somehow or on their P&A payroll. Because there's no way this movie is a 10/10 for anybody looking for a coherent story.
Basically, it's a fantasy/dream of the main character Amapola and adaptation of "A Mid Summer Night's Dream." But other than the opera central to the set piece, there's no further connection to Shakespeare's play. The ending that tries to allude to the play makes no sense because there's no mixed up lovers.
The poster and logline made it seem like an epic film about the Falklands War, but the only sequence is a minor CGI VFX shot of airplanes. The rest of the movie is an incoherent mess with over-saturated color palettes like the colorist stumbled on Red Giant Colorista 3 or Magic Bullet plugins and is crazy diffused color warm effect.
A waste of time, except for the leading actress is nice eye candy and good production design.
Outpost 37 (2014)
Decent enough low budget action
This movie should've been done as a traditional single camera action film narrative. It made no sense whatsoever as a fake documentary. Indeed there's a serious problem with the camera coverage from several different angles and only establishing two documentary filmmakers.
Other than that, it's very slow going at first, but eventually it builds up to the final show down that's decent enough for a low budget action film or TV action.
The filmmaker has enough skills to pull of an action or war film, but this ain't District 9 and the development concept is all wrong.
I disagree with the other guy, this is much better than Asylum films because they actually take the time to do the VFX instead of just slap on stock footage.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2011)
vapid, confusing, cheap sentimentality
From the get go it shouldn't be surprising what this movie is going to strive for: cheap sentimentality with the schmaltzy music.
Like every other movie that tries to do the same: it just ends up being off putting when characters do nothing but brood and cry at their hardships.
The plot makes no sense except to inject additional melodrama from modern day Shanghai to draw similarities in the lives of women from 200 years ago. I just gagged at the nonsensical "ghost" images of Snow Flower in contemporary Shanghai.
I don't think anyone can actually sit through this clunking piece of time waster in one setting, as the pacing is simply atrocious. It took me about half a dozen tries over several days to get to the marathon ending - which is ironic given the run time isn't that bad.
(And I speak as somebody who can sit through the entirety of Dr.Zhivago in one setting.) In short, this is the worst kind of manipulative charlatan product tie-in that Wayne Wang has tried in awhile. I simply don't understand how he keeps making these brooding glacial book-movies; and why does the Asian-American blogs keep posting about these intellectually vapid books and movies?
Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010)
good teen summer flick, better than similar US Hollywood movies
I just saw the Aussie version "TOMORROW, WHEN THE WAR BEGAN" and have to give it three thumbs up, if I had polydactyly.
The main reason how they did it right down under is that the Asian guy isn't some stock caricature, but (get this) the love interest of the leading lady of the film.
The Australian article ("Unsettling echoes of yesterday, when the yellow peril hysteria began") does mention it's sort of yellow peril on some levels, however it's never brought up in the book nationality nor race were mentioned.
This is hugely offset by the fact Lee not only is competent in the movie with making good decisions, but he's also lusted after by the leading heroine Ellie from the get go: "I want Lee!" lol The problem with most movies is that Asians are always shown as the fodder for Rambos to slaughter. However, in this movie the AM not only gets to kiss the lead actress but also is shown in a good leadership role after the lead female protagonist.
And Ellie is not some stock caricature of a bra burning "femi-nazi" who can't effectively be the leader. Rather, she is shown as a fine example of good leadership. She is not without flaws and can have errors of judgment, yet for the most part she listens and is crucial to keeping unit cohesion and "leading by actions." She is both a strong leader and a sympathetic heroine, which is extremely rare in any US Hollywood production that has the female trying to testostrone out the boys - "SALT" comes to mind.
Some small moments that quickly pass the viewer by if they treated it like an American summer movie: a short sequence where a mural is shown with white settlers taking over the land from aborigines - to show the sort of irony about the new invaders vs the original white settlers.
And paraphrasing the best quote from the movie: books usually are better than movies.
In short, from a simplistic treatment without the jingoism, it's amazing that not only the leading lady a good role model, but the Asian guy's treated with humanity - as most of the other characters are - and he hugely offsets the invading "Mongols" by being a perfectly normal Aussie.
The only plot hole is that the movie doesn't go into how Lee could been helping out with infiltrating the invaders by posing as one of their soldier and even amp up the romance with Ellie. However, from the way the movie is setup it seems likely the AM will be the main romantic interest in the sequel.
A few minor plot holes include: the helos don't have heat IR cameras to see the teens hiding out, they drive a motor vehicle on a desert road and the invaders can't find them on UAVs or other patrol aircraft, and they bomb the house down but leave the barn standing? lol Lastly, the movie calls them "rural inbreds" so do Aussies drive motorcycles without helmets and only a straw hat for protection? lol
The Princess of Nebraska (2007)
narcissistic and overly indulgent
like the other reviewer says: there's no story line and character development to speak of. other than that, the characters are all narcissistic and self-indulgent. there are no motivations for what they do and you find yourself rolling your eyes at the douchebaggery of their self-absorption.
in one scene the pregnant girl was downing booze like water. WTH? nobody around her did anything or said anything to stop it?
the state of Asian-American films is awful simply because people like Wayne Wang gets to make inane projects like this one.
instead of the myriad of interesting immigrant stories, we get this narcissistic tripe about yet another promiscuous Asian woman?
Gui tu lie che (2009)
beautifully understated
Unlike some of the other reviewers here, I think the most beautiful aspect of this documentary is its apolitical and simplistic, understated tone.
This documentary is the most simple story there is, and that's why it's so emotional for any viewer - because it's such a human story that transcends time and place. Everyone can identify with wanting to go home and be with family.
By staying apolitical, Fan's "LAST TRAIN HOME" avoids any inane economics and politics banter that would detract from its muted power to move the audience. No banal intellectual analysis of China's export economy can add to the heart wrenching nakedness of something so simple as parents sacrificing everything in wanting their children to be better off than themselves.
And by following a simple family without any florid words, we can't but help cry along with the mother's tears as she regrets not being able to watch her children grow.
When the daughter murmurs what a sad place their valley is and leaves, the audience can feel the pain and the unavoidable consequences of not having any education and the betrayal of her parents' hopes for her.
This documentary goes above and beyond giving the simple facts; it's like a good piece of literature that shows the very tragic human costs of those who have and those who have not in a rapidly developing society that's in conflict with itself.
Red Doors (2005)
as authentically Asian-American as chop-suey
Other than the problematic portrayals of Asian-Americans in terms of the lack of authenticity, this movie is also problematic in terms of pacing and story content. There's plenty of discussions elsewhere on the internet on what this indie film means to us Asian-Americans in terms of the lack of male representation and false depictions of Asian-American family life. With all that said, this movie is also problematic in terms of pacing and story content.
What this movie desperately needs is a complete revamp of the script even before production began. The story seems very contrived and artificial. For an indie movie like this, the story is the only thing that makes or breaks its acceptance by the targeted demographic. What this movie lacks is focus and clarity. It meanders all over the place without a focus on any character that tells a concrete story. It's loosely constructed to tell a family story, but instead ends up arbitrary characters that are rather cliché and story plotting that seems forced rather than natural character developments. The tacked on "happy ending" didn't seem natural or deserved by the story plot and character motivations.
It's like that bad joke about Chinese food leaving you hungry again after an hour; while this movie seems to have interesting subplots and characters, but at the end you realize what a phoney story it is. It's not simply there are mostly Asian-American females, but as an Asian-American if I can't identify with any of the characters then I think this story isn't really serving any purpose except like chop-suey it fools the mainstream audience to believe what Asian-Americans are about.
The Painted Veil (2006)
plodding and predictable tale of white-savior complex
Pretty much half hour into the movie you'll know what's going to end up happening with the characters. And it's a very tedious half-hour that'll force you to watch the rest of the movie on fast forward (best at 1.5x speed on your DVD player or computer). Honestly, movies like this have been done before over and over again and it's rather mundane how the plot unfolds in possibly several viewing sessions.
Basically, it tells the story of a couple with marriage problems who goes to a foreign country to escape problems at home and to find themselves; in this case it's amidst a cholera outbreak in 1920s rural china. Of course, this being post-colonialism, the British makes every attempt at reclaiming their fading empire with their white-savior complex. The doctor and his wife are good people who are misunderstood by the heathen dark people of China who wants them out or puts up obstacles to their saintly plans to save them. It's a classic imperialist story of the goodly civilized white-man versus the savage natives who doesn't understand modern medicine or how enlightened white people are to help the natives. It's like the anti-Ghandi movie of 2006 or something.
You'd think that at 2 hours running time they'd go into the historical and political background of China at that time and why the Chinese factions are fighting and there's this anti-foreigner nationalism sweeping the nation; but no such luck, instead all there is only shows Norton and Watts staring at each other and staring at the picturesque Chinese landscapes. A slide-show would've evoked more emotions than the deadpan performances hinged on the British acting style of subtexts.
And let's not even get into the historical errors in this film, primarily the usage of Mandarin/Putonghua Chinese in that part of China during the 1920s is nonexistent. Only after the Communist takeover did Mandarin/Putonghua became the standard national Chinese dialect for communication. Specifically, any speakers of Chinese will find themselves laughing at the Edward Norton-ish, Hong Kong and Beijing accents of the Mandarin/Putonghua being spoken by this mishmash of characters.
It gets a 4 out of 10 because the Mandarin/Puntonghua word for 4 is pronounced the same as for death: "si." And it's very appropriate for th
The Motel (2005)
intra-Asian American identity politics
Most reviews out there will gloss over the fact that this movie is first and foremost "an Asian-American movie" that comes with its own terms and conditions which needs to be understood from the Asian-American perspective. As such, the reviews out there treating the ensemble simply as quirky independent film characters or representative of how monolithically oppressive all Asian families are, misses a more revealing underscore of intra-Asian American politics.
The most blatant example is when Ernest goes to Sam to ask for rent money and Sam answers him "Don't go all Chink on me;" meaning Sam's perception of the Chinese as cheapskates indicates the misconceptions even Asian-Americans have towards one another's ethnicities. Asian-Americans are probably the most diverse ethnic minorities out there in terms of appearance, cultural practice and languages spoken. And it's no mistake that Sam is Korean-American while Ernest's family is Chinese-American.
One of the constant media stereotypes of Asian men are either weaklings or overbearing "Engrish" speaking thugs without humanity. In either case, AMs are relegated to the status of eunuchs in the American social hierarchy. It is then with props that I write how revolutionary it is for an Korean-American filmmaker to have the character Sam be a charismatic, successful yuppie who's "getting play" from prostitutes or bar "booty-call" pick-ups. While it is somewhat true that most AM are socially constrained to be docile and Sam breaks this stereotype flat out with his quirky personality, it doesn't negate the fact that his Korean ethnicity emphasizes another issue in the movie with treating the Asian-American characters with other stereotypes.
Both the character Sam and director Michael Kang are Korean-Americans and this fact cannot be ignored when it is Ernest's overbearing Chinese-American family that gets the rude script treatment. All the negative connotations of Asians/Chinese being cheapskates, or immoral motel operators, or meek fat nerds, or forcing their kids to be slave laborers come from the Chinese ethnicity; while Sam represents a suave Korean-American man schooling Ernest the facts of life on living it up as unrestrained Asian men in America (SAM is no doubt a play on the acronym for "Sexy/Successful Asian Male" for AM identity politics).
The reason this is problematic is not because I'm writing from a Chinese-American perspective, but it's because Michale Kang gets it wrong about Chinese-American cultural and behavioral practices that negates his portrayal of what he considers "Asian-American" to the wider audience. There are many subtle moments in the movie like Mandarin speaking news and TV broadcasts when the family is obviously Hong Kong Cantonese, and incongruent decorations or mannerisms that aren't Chinese means Michael Kang misrepresented a lot of what Asian-America is about. Plus, even the Cantonese spoken by Ahma (Jade Wu -- a really bad "orientalized" stage name) isn't even with the right accent; she's obviously an Asian-American who speaks perfect English but plays up the fake stereotypical Asian foreigner accent.
Thus ostensibly what Michael Kang ends up doing is to stereotype another Asian-American ethnicity without really understanding the subtle cultural variations that exist between Asian-Americans, but are important self-identity markers. Tenets like "the first truth of Buddhism is life sucks" simply distorts the fact that Asian-American is not monolithic and there are many different ethnicities and cultural and religious practices. (BTW, Korean-Americans are mostly Christians and not Buddhists.) In his blog, Michael Kang constantly writes on how aspiring filmmakers need to write what they know in order to make effective movies; I couldn't but help highlighting this contradiction of words with the fact how he misrepresents an Asian-American sub-population which he doesn't know anything about. To outsiders, Korean and Chinese might look the same, but for a filmmaker who wants Asian-Americans to acknowledge his work I'm disappointed he didn't do his homework properly. Michael Kang should have just kept all the characters as Korean-Americans.
Or perhaps as some allegations point out online, he's really pandering to mainstream non-Asian (white) audiences on stereotypical Asian families. As the unbearable character Ahma shows, Asians are construed as unfeeling and uncaring people who's only concerned with money. I don't think I'm the only one who finds Ahma stereotypical and two-dimensional as an Asian mom character. As such, whatever little attempt at humanity Michael Kang tries to give her at the end of the movie feels awkward and tacked on; as perhaps from somebody's recommendation at the Sundance institute? To sum up, while this movie is a must see for Asian-Americans and deserves audience support simply because there are so few Asian-American movies out there that deals with Asian-Americans with somewhat humanity, the movie is not without its flaws and shouldn't be viewed as accurate on the Asian-American experience. There are even issues with the movie's story and construction, directing and acting that I won't even go into here but that would detract from this movie being a recommendation to other Asian-Americans if it were not for the ethnic-specific characters and situations. In short, see it because it's about Asian-Americans and deserves not because it's a great movie that tells a story with artistic gusto or originality.
PS. I simply hope that the fact more and more of these movies gets made means there will be better ones about Asian-Americans in the future.