What Asian Films have you been watching 2007, 2008

[Mike T]

Per our very own grandmaster of kung fu, Flash Legs Jane's suggestion, the time has come to cut the original thread loose and start up a new one for the New Year! Thus, without any further ado...

Shiri (1999, South Korea, 126m)
After what seems like forever, I have finally caught up with the South Korean action blockbuster that was pretty much instrumental in converting a lot of Western folk towards the joys of a Seoul-based film industry. And really, it's not hard to see why this one won so much praise abroad, as it combines the Hollywood and Hong Kong action aesthetic and then gives it a uniquely South Korean spin. What amazed me, coming to it so late, was how well it holds up and how prescient its terrorist theme still remains. Leads Han Seok-Gyu, Choi Min-Sik, Song Kang-Ho and Kim Yun-Jin are all quite superb; the action sequences are heavy on both the tension and ballistic excess (gory, too!); and the whole thematic of starting a war for the sole sake of the ideals of a literal minority seems maybe more relevant now than ever. I was most impressed by this, and I'm sure over time it's a film I'll revisit again and again.

[Christoffer S]

John Woos once a thief, the only Woo I had never previously seen. Mediocre I would have to say, but still watchable. I then watched Ringo Lams Full contact to make myself happier.

[Paul A J Lewis]

Originally Posted by Christoffer S

John Woos once a thief, the only Woo I had never previously seen. Mediocre I would have to say, but still watchable. I then watched Ringo Lams Full contact to make myself happier.

I actually really like ONCE A THIEF, although I know a number of people who think it one of Woo's weaker movies. I think it's a charming movie.

I watched absolutely stacks of stuff over the Christmas break, including
WHEELS ON MEALS, via the HKL DVD, which I only recently acquired. This was my first time viewing the movie since it was shown on UK television in about 1991/1992. I loved the film then, and it's just as good now. Marvellous stuff!

PRISON ON FIRE and PRISON ON FIRE II. Over the break, I bought the CHOW YUN-FAT ON FIRE collection for myself, and having watched CITY ON FIRE numerous times over the past decade, I decided to watch PRISON ON FIRE and PRISON ON FIRE II first. The last time I watched PRISON ON FIRE was probably about ten years ago, and being a callow youth I found it overly ponderous and lacking in action. Rewatching it last week, I discovered how wrong I was: the movie is a fascinating drama with some great performances. PRISON ON FIRE II is a movie I've never seen before, and I found it a definite step down from the first movie.

ROBOTRIX. I ordered the new Fortune Star DVD and revisited this movie, having only seen it via the cut UK VHS release. This is a cracking little film, successfully melding ideas from all over the shop. The DVD release is pretty good too.

BULLET IN THE HEAD. I watched the extended cut contained on the new DVD release. The new disc is superb in every way; but I much prefer the boardroom ending, which I had never before seen integrated into the movie. (IIRC my first exposure to this film was via a broadcast on Sky television in the mid-1990s, which a friend recorded for me.)

THE LAST BLOOD. Again, I bought the new DVD release of this movie, which I hadn't seen since the early/mid-1990s. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

EXILED. I still haven't made up my mind about this movie; I liked it, but there are elements that failed to impress me. For example, whilst on its own I think the music score is rather good, the way it is used within the film left me a little cold. I liked the performances, and the film had a wonderful aesthetic; but at the same time, the action setpieces felt a little too balletic to me.

HEROES SHED NO TEARS. I picked up the HKL DVD for a fiver. Nice transfer. I've lent it to my father, who'll absolutely love this film; I'm surprised he's never seen it before.

ENCOUNTERS OF THE SPOOKY KIND. Enough has been said about this picture before, but I often forget just how creepy some of the imagery is.

WILD SEARCH. I'd managed to avoid this movie for a long time, but watching it at the tail end of last year I discovered that it was rather good.

THE STREETFIGHTER. This is another movie that I hadn't seen for quite a while, although the Optimum disc has been sitting on my shelf for maybe a year. Good stuff!

RETURN OF THE STREETFIGHTER. I remember watching this as a teenager and loving it. However, revisiting it last night the excessive flashbacks to the first movie pulled me out of the narrative and I found it a bit of a slog to sit through.

Cheers,
Paul

[Zack Armstrong]

i finally got around to watching SAVE THE GREEN PLANET after meaning to for over a year... wow. blew me away. can anyone else comment on it? it had my complete attention for two hours. i think i like it more now after thinking about it for a day, but i definitely enjoyed it while it was playing. very dark comedy, and at times (well for a moment) i wasn't even sure who to root for (which i always love in a movie). it kind of had Barking Dogs Never Bite's social critique folded in there amongst the layers of madness too. funny, frenetic, a little moving.. couldn't have asked for more.

[Zack Armstrong]

i also rewatched masaaki yuasa's MINDGAME with a couple friends that i wanted to show it to. definitely one of the best animated works i've ever seen. it does drag a bit toward the end, but it just seemed like the animators were having so much fun with it they didn't want to stop, and frankly i didn't want them to either. if you haven't seen it i highly recommend checking it out. it's beyond simple words (i can gush a lot about movies, but this one deserves it).

[Mike T]

Originally Posted by Paul A J Lewis

I actually really like ONCE A THIEF, although I know a number of people who think it one of Woo's weaker movies. I think it's a charming movie.

Truth be known, one of my favourite of all of Woo's films! Just a nice balance of gushy drama, light comedy, and Woo's patented brand of action. On top of that, I couldn't ask for better leads than Chow, Cherie Chung and Leslie Cheung (God bless his soul).

Anyway...time to think about what to watch this arvo: Takeshis' or Invisible Waves? Decisions, decisions...

[John White]

Unborn but forgotten
Alright if more than a little incomprehensible. I didn't know if it wanted to be a psycho thriller, a detective thriller or a ghost story and it crashed somewhere between all of them....

[Mikko Koivisto]

I think Once a Thief is a really charming little movie. When I first bought the dvd, I watched it three times in two days. First alone, then with a friend, then with two friends (one of them being the same one who saw the film with me the day before)

Exiled (HK, 2006, dvd/Mega Star)
Saw this again. I think I was being a bit too hard on the films soundtrack last time. It works wonderfully at times, but action scenes would benefit from better music. Those scenes are still good, it’s just that they could’ve been near perfect with more fitting music.

HUGE Spoiler
think the film is all about 5 men on their journey to death. Wo knows his fate right from the beginning, and once he’s dead, the rest of the guys realize they’ve got no way out alive either. Even if they manged to escape, they’re not sure if they’d rather die than live the rest of their lives hiding. The gold stealing scene is a good example. They didn’t steal it because they though it was their way out. They did it for fun. Because they could. They even threw coin about it. That shows how little they cared about their lives at that point. That’s why the movie gets so wonderfully off-track after Wo’s death. That part of the film is definitely my favourite.
HUGE Spoiler

There’s still some parts I don’t like (many scene’s involving Wo’s wife for example). But overall I think this is a fine piece of cinema

[Mike T]

Out Of Justice (aka: This Is Law; 2001, South Korea, 115m)
Hmmm, a not bad (read: modest) action comedy-cum-thriller from a few years back. A vigilante who goes by the name Dr. Q is offing various miscreants who the legal system were unable to bring to justice, inclusive of a particularly nasty rapist, and then posting footage of their murders on the internet. Detectives Bong (Im Won-Hee, Guns & Talks) and Na (Jang Hang-Seon, Tell Me Something) are paired with special operatives Pyo (Kim Min-Jong, Holiday In Seoul) and Kang (Shin Eun-Gyeong, My Wife Is A Gangster) to crack the case. As things progress, rumblings of a secret assassination organisation known as The Ilsim Ring are bandied about, and clues point towards a mole in the team. Of course, everything eventually wraps up...in the rain! Nice unexpected climactic twist, some really dodgy CGI (that completely undoes the scenes it's used in), a smattering of dumb comedy relief, as well as surprisingly strong violence (the aforementioned rape and a really gruesome stabbing) help things tinker along. Extra points for the most inappropriate use of various Korean metal, pop-metal and industrial chug during a number of inopportune scenes. But all up, a decent middle of the road thriller.

[Frank R]

Originally Posted by Zack Armstrong

i finally got around to watching SAVE THE GREEN PLANET after meaning to for over a year... wow. blew me away. can anyone else comment on it? it had my complete attention for two hours. i think i like it more now after thinking about it for a day, but i definitely enjoyed it while it was playing. very dark comedy, and at times (well for a moment) i wasn't even sure who to root for (which i always love in a movie). it kind of had Barking Dogs Never Bite's social critique folded in there amongst the layers of madness too. funny, frenetic, a little moving.. couldn't have asked for more.

This is one of my favorite Korean flicks.Its such a great genre bending film.I remember towards the end feeling like OK so this is like a comedy then that final shot when the credits roll comes and its just heartbreaking.

[Steve Barr]

EXILED - It was fun to watch, but I would have enjoyed it more if the character's actions seemed more natural and less contrived.

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ONCE A THIEF - I really want to like this movie more than I do, but I think the comedy just wasn't good enough to win me over.

[Paul A J Lewis]

DOG BITE DOG.

I thought the film had some lovely cinematography: the greens, browns and yellows really reinforced the bleakness of the narrative. However, whilst I liked the first half of the movie it soon seemed to descend into nihilism for nihilism's sake, and I gradually began to lose interest. The ending was (mostly) dreadful too.

[Mike T]

To Do Or Not To Do* (aka: Rules Of Dating; 2005, South Korea, 120m)
I had wanted to see this one for a while, and now that I have I am most undecided about it; but I am sure it's one of those films I'll still be thinking about in days to come. Choi Hong (Kang Hye-Jeong, Old Boy) is one of the new student teacher interns at a Seoul high school, and just attractive enough for slightly younger supervisory teacher Lee Yoo-Rim (Park Hae-Il, Memories Of Murder) to want to get into her pants. Choi is engaged to be married, Lee has a long-standing girlfriend of six years; one thing leads to another on a school excursion and both find themselves in a rather sticky situation. Lee, Mr. Casual Sex advocate, finds himself developing feelings he didn't expect, whilst Choi comes off rather cool towards him while she explores her own feelings as well as the direction of her impending marriage...yet she harbours a secret that may just be their undoing. I say unsure of how I feel over this one as it runs the gamut of an eclectic mix of genres: light comedy, adult-tinged soft-core sex, heartfelt romance, and eventually tragedy-laced drama -- ending up right where I least expected. I think I'll have to give this one another sitting in the near future, as it's definitely something quite unique; but the initial impression is: quite liked.

* though the film is known largely as Rules Of Dating, this is the onscreen title in the English subtitles on the Korean DVD.

[Mike T]

Exiled (2006, Hong Kong, 109m)
Johnnie To's latest is a return to some of his earlier flamboyant and hyper-stylised crime dramas that are uniformly adored by his international fan-base. Four men (Anthony Wong, Lam Suet, Francis Ng and Roy Cheung) cross paths when HK mob-boss Fei (Simon Yam) orders a hit on one of his former underlings, Wo (Nick Cheung), whose assassination attempt on him failed. Forming an uneasy alliance, the Macau-based quintent, decide on one last combined job before settling differences and going their separate ways. Purportedly a follow-up piece to To's The Mission (1999) (which I still haven't seen), this falls somewhere in execution between A Hero Never Dies and the more aesthetically-obsessed Election films. Gorgeous 'scope cinematography and a delightful Spanish-flavoured score (per the film's Portuguese/Chinese setting) compliment an impressive character study that is augmented by scenes tightly choreographed ballistic excess. Taiwanese popstar-cum-actor Richie Ren evens shows up in an extended cameo come the film's final act. Not amongst To's best work, but a marked step-up from the arty-drudge that was the Election series.

R-Point (2004, South Korea, 107m)
Wonderfully creepy Vietnam-set horror film that dares to root itself in South Korea's suppressed covert military dossier. During 1973, a team of nine soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant Choi Tae-In (Gam Woo-Sung, Spider Forest), are sent deep cover into a military location known as "R-Point" to search for a platoon of fellow Korean soldiers who disappeared in the region six months prior. Murmurs that they have been sent into a "haunted zone" as well as all attempts to leave the area proving fruitless builds paranoia and distrust amongst the squadron. When one of their rank turns up beheaded, only to actually turn out to be a member of the missing platoon, events turn markedly grisly. Yes, there are ghosts afoot, but there isn't just one antagonist, there are many and what surprised me most was how well debuting director Gong Su-Chang generated the majority of the film's tension and sense of dread...in broad daylight! The setting of the abandoned French hotel, located in the centre of R-Point's black heart, is also suitably eerie. A fine war-time horror film whose greatest asset is its ability to get under one's skin to create its horrors, rather than resort to soundtrack tricks and "boo" scares to achieve its desired effect.

[Mike T]

Rain Dogs (2006, Malaysia, 93m)

Produced as part of the Focus First Cuts HD project , iniated as a joint-venture between popstar-cum-actor Andy Lau's (not to be confused with cinematographer-cum-director Andrew Lau) Focus Film group and Star Chinese Movie Network, this film represents the first Malaysian HD feature. Tung (Kuan Choon Wai), a youth who lives in a rural region of the Malaysian peninsula, heads to the big city (Kuala Lumpur) to track down his elder brother in hope towards talking him into returning home to live with him and their ailing mother. Initially, Tung is robbed, then later his brother sustains fatal injuries in a pool-hall scuffle with local petty gangsters. Throughout, Tung tries to find his own place in the world as well as care for his widowed mother. Definitely one for the arthouse crowd, this is slow, artful and deliberate filmmaking ala Apichatpong Weerasethsul (Tropical Malady) from Thailand (and like that director's Blissfully Yours here director Ho Yuhang borrows a structural device by offering up a title card at the 38 minute mark). Here is a film that relies on its viewer to piece together its many disparate narrative arcs, almost like a broken puzzle it is up to the audience to fill in the blanks. As well as capturing the beauty of the Malaysian countryside, it also excels in hinting at the dark underbelly of unspoken-but-ackowledged petty crime and highlighting the simplicity of life amongst the lower classes. Though the characters are never textured well enough to gain much involvement in their lives, it curiously remains involving against the weight of its sluggish pace. Good of its kind, but most certainly not a film that will appeal to everyone.