Source: LoveHKFilm
Review of some movies shown over the holiday season and a classic.
All's Well End's Well 2009 (HK)
Passable fluff for undemanding audiences who thought the 1992 All's Well End's Well was the height of cinematic hilarity AND don't mind that Stephen Chow isn't in it. If the above doesn't describe you, then you should probably skip this film. No, the Donnie Yen cameo does not help.
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Forever Enthralled (China)
A better introduction to history than a biography, Forever Enthralled can't match the emotions or power of Chan Kaige's earlier Farewell My Concubine. As Mei Lanfang, Leon Lai is upstaged by the actor playing the younger self.
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After School (Japan)
Kenji Uchida's follow-up to the impressive A Stranger of Mine is more of the same clever plotting and surprising twists the writer/director excels at. However, like his debut film, it's also slightly dramatically underwhelming.
Youtube Link
Zatoichi Meets the One Armed Swordsman (HK/Japan)
A blind Japanese masseuse and a Chinese guy with one arm go mano-a-mano in this rousing crossover flick featuring the two iconic film characters. Shintaro Katsu and Jimmy Wang Yu shine in this engaging tale of swordplay, mistaken identity, and cross-cultural (mis)understanding.
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3 comments:
Thank goodness that Devon Aoki isn't in ANY of these movies.
Moviegoers just don't understand that Forever Enthralled is a real life biography which cannot be dramatized, thus the bland and stiff performance some is talking about in Leon Lai's performance.
On the contrary, 'Farewell my concubine' is a fiction which characters can be exaggerated. Doesn't anyone understand the difference between fiction and real life character? Do people in real life need to be dramatized or exaggerate their expression?
Director Chen Kaige had explained time and again that he did not want to dramatized or exaggerated this well-respected real life character, just wanted to tell his life story.
I find the problem with moviegoers these days are everything they expect to see is so exaggerated to the extend that it becomes unreal!!!
But Forever Enthalled is not a documentary. Chen Kaige wants to just tell a life story but puts in into the context of a feature drama. Can't have it both ways. If people are paying good money to see a movie and not a documentary on tv, then they expect a better story and better acting. Movie goers expect alot because they compare it to what they have seen other movies that feature real life stories (such as the recent Ip Man) that entertained them more and got their money's worth. They are there to see an adaptation of a real life story, not the story itself.
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