10,000 B.C.
No regrets or disappointments watching this since I wasn’t expecting much from it anyway. Downloaded it to test if SingNet was blocking WebThunder as it didn’t seem to connect the whole evening. Left the computer running and when I woke up and download has completed so what the heck…

Nothing spectacular in this movie either: Prophecy & mysticism, raiders that goes far and wide to raid and capture slaves, velociraptors that looks like berserk ostriches, unlikely hero against impossible odds, allies and friends from unexpected places, stigma the son bears of a father’s unexplained departure, pyramids and slaves that requires freeing (Moses!), deformed men living behind veils claiming to be Gods, and the hero in the movie winning the beauty at the end after all his trials. The same old plot we see all too often. The only thing missing was T-Rex or Godzilla rampaging around at the end of the movie, but in their place were rampaging mammoths… and many of them.

The story ended with a large scale rebellion or uprising and a good spear throw. You are not missing anything if you had given this a miss.

The Empress and Her Warriors [江山美人]
There used to be another movie going by the same name a long time ago, a tragic story about an Emperor taking a vacation from his palace to Jiangnan [江南] and discovering a beauty. After some flirting in songs, the beauty and the Emperor fell in love. Unfortunately, upon bringing her back to his palace, she was rejected by the Dowager for her commoner status and she ultimately died of loneliness, sickness and sadness.

This is not that story. Instead this was the story of an outcast (黎明 Leon Lai), an orphan whose parents are unknown (甄子丹 Donnie Yan) and a princess (陈慧琳 Kelly Chen), who became the successor upon the murder of her own injured father, and the support of the orphan who became a general in the kingdom’s army. The ending was quite tragic as well, though I’ll prefer not to reveal more details on that.

Of course, in a setting like this, there is palace intrigue and conspiracies, leading to an attempted assassination of the Empress-to-be, and her fated meeting with the outcast. Near the end of the movie, the Empress-to-be finally discovering who the murderer is and avenged her father. So ultimately, the good guys did win, but at a tremendously high cost in lives.

As to the costume, the armor is outlandish even though it appears to be set in some medieval age in China. I do not really like the movie, because some parts of the plot was unrealistic. If it was the intention of the script writers and directors of the movie to encourage the people to see beyond their petty international squabbles and put aside their hatred, that isn’t going to happen at all. You aren’t losing much, if you give this movie a miss.

Operation Undercover [卧虎]
This was Wang Jing’s [王晶] attempt around 2006 at a undercover story riding on the coattails of The Infernal Affairs [无间道] Trilogy, allegedly based on real undercover stories and an operation by the HK Police’s Organised Crime and Triads Bureau [aka O 记].

In fact, it is of no surprise that in the movie, several of the actors were from the cast of Infernal Affairs II [无间道 II]. While I normally write off movies directed by Wang, this movie was atypical. In fact, I would say it is quite well done in some places where the agony of the undercover policemen and the hazards they faced are vividly portrayed. Some of these involved the killing of fellow policemen in the course of undercover work, getting killed in the course of duty, and finding it hard to return to normal life after long periods as a triad member.

Meantime, it also portrays the power struggles within the Triads, of members vying to be the next leader and their plots to oust and discredit their fellow rivals. Of course, you also see the ‘good’ guys within the Triad itself, one who honors his vows of brotherhood to his fellow members, and did everything for the unity of the Triad itself.

While it was nothing as dramatic as The Infernal Affairs [无间道] itself, I would say it is a pretty good movie. I didn’t regret watching it.