Battle Royale

Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku

                      Produced by: Kenta Fukasaku
                    Kimio Kataoka
                     Chie Kobayashi
                          Toshio Nabeshima

Written by: Kenta Fukasaku

                      Koushun Takami

Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara
Aki Maeda
Taro Yamamoto
Takeshi Kitano
Masanobu Ando

This is a horror movie, not only about violence, bloodiness and betrayal, but also about faith.

A high school class which has forty students are selected government and shipped to a deserted island where they get random weapons and forced to fight to the death. There only one survivor can get back his or her freedom and leave the island.

This is a heart-stopping action film which teaches us a worthy lesson of teamwork and determination, but wrapping them up in a provocative, shockingly violent package. It’s surprise to watch the high school students form alliances and turn on each other and drop off one by one for surviving. The reality is cruel for everyone.

As usual, Fukasaku directs Battle Royale with force and conviction, it shouldn't be easily ignored, and also will not be easy to forget. The faces of those kids will linger long in your mind after the movie ends.



Curse of the Golden.Flower

Directed by: Yimou Zhang

Produced by: William Kong

                         Weiping Zhang

                      Yimou Zhang

Written by: Yimou Zhang

Starring: Chou Yun-fat

       Li Gong

       Jay Chou

       Junjie Qin

In this movie, the image is fantastic. Your eyes can get a great visual enjoy during the whole movie. The gorgeous golden color can’t be erased in your mind after the movie done for a while. Compare to the sense of sight, the story and theme become very weak. The external and internal conflict is not strong enough for each character. It is just like a beautiful melodrama and can’t touch the heart of audience at all. 

The simple story is about a general steals the throne and has taken the princess of a neighboring province as wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest during China's Tang dynasty. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family. But he lost everything except the high kingship at the end.

The emperor looks endowed with civil and martial virtues, but actually he is avaricious and relentless. That’s why he can get the throne. And the sad ending is directed by him. The empress is the victim of political marriage. She never gets any love from her husband. Because of loneliness, she falls love with her stepson. By the affair being found out, she becomes the target that the emperor wants to kill. One of her son is good kung fu and valued by the emperor. For protecting his mother, he decides to break with his father and plans an uprising. But his plan is failed and he is killed by the emperor.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Directed by: Ang Lee

Produced by: Li-Kong Hsu

                          William Kong

                Ang Lee

Starring: Chou Yun-fat

                   Michelle Yeoh

            Ziyi Zhang

                Chen Chang

This movie is beautiful and elegant; great shot and directed; touching and humorous. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the movie of 2000.

This is the story of two women during the Ching Dynasty. One of them tries to find justice and honor in her whole life, but it’s too late to discover the unfulfilled love. Another woman tries passionately to break free from the constraint society; even if it means giving up her privileges for a life of crime and passion. There’s an ethereal dramatic effect here that transcends a primary function of imagination and storytelling. Successfully applies its fantastical elements to develop story, character, and a kind of poetic license that captures the beauty of its own spirit.

It’s an action movie that doesn't try to blow you out of your seat, but rather it captures you in suspended awe for prolonged periods of time. Going into the film, I was prepared to be awed by the spectacular martial-arts sequences. But what caught me by surprise was how emotionally invested I became in the characters.

Shaolin Soccer

Directed by: Stephen Chow

Produced by: Yeung Kwok-Fai

Written by: Stephen Chow

                            Tsang Kan-Cheung

Starring: Stephen Chow

        Wei Zhao

           Ng Man Tat

          Patrick Tse

                                   Danny Chan Kwok Kwan

It seems none of Stephen Chou’s movie meant to be taken seriously, when Kung Fu and sports collide in his devilishly entertaining, so just turn off your brain and enjoy the silliness.

A soccer player gets unfair injured by his nemesis during a match. When he gets near bottom, he meet the people who are also unlucky in the life, so he puts together an unlikely group of players headed by kung fu. Their kung fu soccer beat a lot of teams, and they plan to use Shao Lin kung fu to be champion and win 1 million at a local soccer tournament.

The story for this movie is a little ridiculous, but that's what makes this film so entertaining. There are a ton of other movies with ridiculous stories that just sucks, but Stephen Chow doesn't let that happen in his movie. He has a good skill for directing and telling story. And he is a scarce great comedy actor in Asian too. In the movie, the quick pace keeps you from falling asleep. It takes a while for the soccer to become key point, but everything leading up to it makes sense and it is well worth the watch.

The whole film is played with such an infectious sense of fun and at such a snappy pace that you can't help being swept along by it.If you have a chance to see this, take it. Don't hesitate.



Kung Fu Hustle

Directed by: Stephen Chou

  Written by: Stephen Chow
Huo Xin
Chan Man-keung
Tsang Kan-cheung

      Starring: Stephen ChowYuen Wah
Yuen Qiu
Danny Chan
Bruce Leung

The story happens in Shanghai in the ‘30s. A gangster aspires to join the notorious "Axe Gang" while residents of a housing complex exhibit extraordinary powers in defending their turf.

This movie pokes fun at the earnestness of recent films in the genre, like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Hero," and "House of Flying Daggers." Nothing is taken seriously here. It attempts to bring a different style to the forefront of popular cinema but fails to be more than a shoddy mischaracterization of the Asian culture. And it is made with such infectious humor visuals it's easy to simply surrender all over again to Chow's brand of lunacy. Stephen Chow gives himself a fun hero to play, and he's also written a very clever screenplay. You’d better pay careful attention to the early scenes, because clues that you might be tempted to shrug off as just being silly bits of embellishment actually become quite important later on.

Few directors in world cinema are working so competently and consistently in any mode as Chow is in this one.



Hot Commercial movie in April

I read this post from Film Asia. <Don't Go Breaking My Heart> has just been on theater on 31st March. Recently, I heard a lot of people talk about this movie. It already become the most popular movie in China in April.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart (單身男女) [Hong Kong] - 2011

Country: Hong Kong
Production Company: China Film Media Asia Audio Video Distribution Co./ Media Asia Films/ Milky Way Image Company
Genre: Romance/ Comedy
Director: Johnnie To/ Wai Ka Fai
Starring: Gao Yuan Yuan, Louis Koo, Daniel Wu, J.J. Jia, Lam Suet, Terence Yin, Selena Li
Length: 120 mins
Date of release: 31st March, 2011Synopsis

Cheng Zhi En (Gao Yuan Yuan) comes from mainland China and works as an investment analyst in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong her personal love life and career are not running smoothly. His ex-boyfriend is married and the investment market suffers from financial crisis.

Her work is always stressful and her best consolation is a male executive working opposite her office called Zhang Shen Ran (Louis Koo), who is handsome and always advises her during the times of need.

One day while she is taking a tram she accidentally meets up with her ex-boyfriend (Terence Yin) and his pregnant wife (Selena Li), and leaves them immediately. During that incident she almost get knocked down by a car. She got saved her life by Fang Qi Hong (Daniel Wu) who dresses like a beggar.

And in order to thank him she gives all the things given by her ex-boyfriend to him so that he could sell them away. Actually Qi Hong is a frustrated architect and always get drunk. Zhi En encourages him to quit drinking, start from scratch once again and leaves him a horned frog.

Zhi En has plan to date Shen Ran but he already have an appointment with another lady. She feels sad like a broken hearted woman after knowing this. She also has an appointment with Qi Hong at the park but she herself fails to show up.

Three years later Shen Ran becomes Zhi En's boss. She feels his boss is very low class due of his 'playboy' character and Shen Ran has intention to marry Zhi En. At the same time Qi Hong quits drinking and becomes the country's renowned architect.

Qi Hong moves to the office building opposite Zhi En's and the two get back together once again. He also has love interest with Zhi En. Both men are after her at the same time. Who will Zhi En choose in the end?

the recipe for success of this movie is the two hero. They chose two most popular actors in China. These two men are dream lovers to almost all girls.