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10,000 B.C. 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] 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. |
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Operation Undercover [卧虎] 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. |
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[Humor] Caution: John Terry
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The heart-broken ones who had watched the Champion’s League match on Thursday morning, they will understand… this ‘joke’. In fact, I suppose ManUre should have this at Old Trafford whenever they clean toilets. It was to me, one of the most heart wrenching match to watch, even more heart wrenching than seeing Zidane sent off for his head-butt in the World Cup match against Thank you very much, John Terry, for losing the Champions League cup to ManUre. All you need to do was to score that last penalty and you didn’t. So, whether Avrant Grant will still stay as |
Movie: Fatal Move [夺帅]
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Fatal Move [夺帅] The story is about a triad founded by two brothers (played by Samo Hung and Simon Yam). The triad itself is watched by the HK Organised Crime Division which seeks to arrest the leaders and completely neutralise it. Naturally, there were car chases, pitched gun battles etc. all over the movie. Also challenging the Triad is not the law enforcers but other Triads which are technically competitors. As such, there were several scenes of gory gang fights for the purpose of territorial control. These fights comes complete with digits and limps severed, throats slashed, people stabbed through the belly and lots of blood being splattered all over the place. In one scene, there was even a close up on an arm which is cut off half way, plus another showing how a woman was tortured in a gruesome manner. There were also several scenes of murders which leave people wondering if Hong Kong is completely lawless. Definitely not for the faint hearted and please avoid watching after eating a good meal if you have a weak stomach. |
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Beyond that, there’s an element of ‘Infernal Affairs’ in the show, where there is a Triad plant within the police force itself, attempted betrayal and blackmail by the wife of a member of the Triad, and also internal dissent and infighting within the Triad itself. And in the end the infighting brought the Triad down, and all members were killed – even though who ended up in jail – in the end. So what’s really so bad about it when there’s obviously quite a rich plot? It’s the fact that it is trying to do too many things at one go and it’s trying too hard to impress with all these gory scenes and sub-plots. In the end, none of them were done really well, and most people we left wondering who was behind the plot to kill every single one member of the Triad in the end. If you have a liking for Hong Kong Triad movies, then this might be the one for you. But in general, there are better Triad Movies which is less gory being made. There is nothing really impressive in this movie and it’s best you give it a miss if you intend to get a VCD or DVD. |
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如果你想哭 (If you want to cry…)
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In spite of knowing the phrase ‘a picture says a thousand words’, I learn recently that in communications, 55% of the message is carried in visuals. And indeed visual communication is powerful. There is no greater impact than seeing the suffering, pain or especially, the death of another human being. I was completely overwhelmed and speechless when I saw this picture as I was browsing a few mainland Chinese websites. It took me a while to fight back my tears looking at the image so vividly showing that a young life had been brutally snuffed out…
You can still help the survivors. Remember George Bernard Shaw said this:
The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity. |
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* Words taken from Yahoo.cn – Dedicate to the victims of the disaster and to those fighting to bring them hope. 如果你想哭 – 献给受灾的和救灾的人们 如果你想哭 如果你想哭 如果你想哭 I am sorry there’s no translation. My translation skills really suck. |
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Vesak Day Movie Marathon
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Iron Man I liked this movie as I have always been a fan of powered suits, even though I was never impressed by rich guy superheros like Batman, Ironman or even aliens like Superman. Personally speaking, my opinion is that the capabilities of Ironman’s suit itself was a little far fetched but of course Marvel comic fans would disagree. However, all that being said, the movie itself didn’t disappoint. The story itself was very well rounded up and the CGI was very well done. Though impressive, I would say the CGI is still a class away from Transformers. |
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While I really disliked the after credits, I would recommend this movie to you. I won’t tell you what the after credits is, though in my opinion it hints of a possible part 2 of the movie. *** spoilers alerts *** I have ranted about this before in this post. So, if you haven’t watched the movie and intend to catch it on DVD, please refrain from checking out the post. Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon [三国之见龙卸甲] |
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So, once the download for the documentary was underway, I started looking around the site and found some of the movies I did not manage to watch because I was unable to find someone to watch with me on the big screen. After which, I decided to download the few movies I have missed. If you are a history buff, you will be appalled by the distortion of recorded history. It is of no surprise Cao Cao [曹操] and even his descendants continued to be vilified in spite of the review of history that is going on. However, I don’t really mind the makers trying to fit Maggie Q into the movie by changing the sex of a historical character, Cao Ying [曹婴] into a woman. Of course, you must already have heard about the criticisms regarding the Japanese look of the armor of the troops in the movie, though I would say its dark coloring was a futile imitation of what was done in Lord of the Rings (LoTR for short). And if you haven’t already watch it, you are really not missing a lot. The story surrounds the character of Zhao Zilong [赵子龙 aka 赵云], from how he rose through the ranks from just a conscript to becoming one of the five famous generals [五虎将] of the State of Shu [蜀国] in the Three Kingdoms Era (三国时代). |
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I suspect the makers of the movie tries too hard to make the battle scenes impressive. But after the Battle of Helm’s Deep scene in LoTR, is there even a point trying at all? The entire story also make the life of Zhao tragic – it was as if whatever he has done in his military service, was ultimately meaningless. And that’s not mentioned that in the movie, he never managed to settle down to raise a family. In the end, he still have to fight one last battle as an old man and die a heroic death. (Though why is death glorified, I really do not know. Chinese historical characters almost all died some kind of gruesome death before they are immortalised.) I won’t recommend the movie to you, even though it isn’t really that disappointing. Forbidden Kingdom [功夫之王] |
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Anyway, the entire story was a spin off from the Journey to the West [西游记] and in specific, about the Monkey God [孙悟空]. It was a story about how the American boy travelled through some kind of time gate into a mystic world to rescue the Monkey God who was turned into stone by an evil deity dominating that world. The fact that all the casts of the movies spoke English is a little awkward aside, some of the lines they said were pretty lame. For e.g. after wacking the American boy with a bamboo stick, Jacky Chan said, “You want to learn Kung Fu? This is a strike. I will teach you how to block tomorrow.” It may sound funny and a little Confucius-like to the angmohs, but it gives me the impression of a stereotyping of the Chinese. It is as if we always speak in some kind of riddles or dish out pearls of wisdom. Granted we have 5000 years of history, but that doesn’t mean we speak like sages! The Kung Fu scenes I have no complaints of course. Even though the reasons why they both fought was pretty thin, you finally get to see Jet Li fight Jacky Chan, with no one gaining the upper hand. (Though I suspect that was deliberately done so none of the fans will be offended.) |
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My only complaints was that there wasn’t enough screenings of Liu Yifei (刘亦菲) and Li Bingbing (李冰冰). If there were more screenings of them perhaps the eye candy would ease some of my disappointments with the movie… hiak hiak hiak. |
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