What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 09 May 2008, 16:11

Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon (HK - 2008 - By Daniel Lee with Andy Lau and Sammo Hung): 2 / 5

Below average.

After Jacob Cheung and Peter Chan, it's now Daniel Lee's turn to go epic.
Too bad he doesn't have the script, the budget or even the talent to make it work.

The story is fairly easy to follow and the actors are doing a good job (even though most of them, including Andy Lau and Sammo Hung, are badly dubbed).
The battle scenes are a complete failure, though. They're all shot in close-ups, making it impossible to understand what's going on

Then, there's the running time (way too short for an epic film) and there's Maggie Q. Whoever put her name in the cast list needs to be tortured and eaten alive. If Daniel Lee had used a better actress as the main baddie, it might have been a different story.

Watching this film isn't a bad way to spend an evening, but I wouldn't recommend it.
I'm going back to Battle of Wits and Warlords.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 09 May 2008, 16:26

I've never even heard of this or Battle of Wits, which I see at least has a thread:

https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... php?t=2547

I cannot keep up with all these period epics coming out at the moment.

Tom could you summarise them please? Are any generally considered by most to be excellent? For example most consider Musa to be very good but all these recent ones seem to be forgotten.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 09 May 2008, 17:12

What film did Jacob Cheung do Tom?

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 09 May 2008, 17:17

grim_tales wrote:What film did Jacob Cheung do Tom?

He did your mum.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 09 May 2008, 17:35

That was an intelligent comment

.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 09 May 2008, 17:38

Jeez Eva there was no need for that

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 09 May 2008, 18:12

@Bradavon:
There aren't that many epic period films to be fair.
Let's see...
Epic, asian, fairly recent... here goes:

You've got Battle of Wits, directed by Jacob Cheung and starring Andy Lau, Fan Bing-Bing and korean superstar Ahn Sung-Ki.
+Adapted from a japanese manga called Bokkou (if memory serves).
+Solid plot, acting and realistic battle scenes.
-The film shows its manga roots at times (anachronisms and other weird stuff) and the Kenji Kawai score is a bit irritating (similar to Seven Swords).
-Crappy CGI.

You've got The Warlords, by Peter Chan Ho-Sun.
Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro.
+Remake of Chang Cheh's Blood Brothers.
+Great film, well shot, with a very good performance by Jet Li and Ching Siu-Tung in top form.

You've got An Empress and the Warriors, by Ching Siu-Tung.
A melodrama starring Kelly Chen, Leon Lai and Donnie Yen.
-Some of the stunts are good, but this film is just pretending to be an epic. Don't be fooled by the trailer.

You've got Three Kingdoms, which I've just reviewed, Warriors of Heaven and Earth and Curse of The Golden Flower.

There are two chinese war flicks worth checking out as well: The Assembly by Feng Xiao-Gang and On the Mountain of Tai Hang, with Tony Leung Kar-Fai.

And this summer we'll be getting Red Cliff, by John Woo.

If you only want to watch one of them, I'd recommend Warlords.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 09 May 2008, 22:10

Thanks Tom. That's very useful. I thought there was more than that.

Curse of The Golden Flower is excellent but I hear Warriors of Heaven and Earth is only okay. Then again many dislike Curse of The Golden Flower (and House of Flying Daggers) so I'm never sure if I should take too much note when it comes to "Asian Epics".

I've been meaning to pick up Warlords but will wait for the BD now. It's the only one which is getting the HD treatment in Asia. Warlords seems to have had more talk than the others on this forum, which may account for something.

Beat TG · Post by **Beat TG** » 09 May 2008, 22:22

Battle of Wits was very good I thought (gave it a 7/10), Curse the same. But all in all, The Warlords is the one that takes the cake though (outta all ancient war movies I've seen so far).

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 10 May 2008, 02:34

Battle of Wits and The Warlords are both worth seeing.

Andy Lau is the new king of the costume martial arts epic.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 10 May 2008, 02:46

What would you give them out of 10 Mark? No offence to Tom but his tastes differ so wildly from mine

.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 10 May 2008, 18:22

Hmm... never usually mark out of ten... but especially for you...

A Battle of Wits 7/10

The Warlords 8/10

Probably...

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 10 May 2008, 18:49

Thank you. I would've accepted out of 5 but you know I prefer out of 10

Those are good marks.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 11 May 2008, 08:07

hey,

I really think Mark should trademark a turd, shite, balls or donkey-scale when it comes to grading films.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 11 May 2008, 23:35

Rapeman (Japan, 1993) – 3/5
Here’s a rare treat; a superhero movie with interesting storyline. Takao Nagaishi proves that even in this genre good scrip and likable characters are easily more important than big budget. Hiroyuki Okita, who unfortunately made himself a rope extension in 1999, plays reipuman. A sweet and clumsy high school teacher at day, a fearless crime fighter at night. ”Righting wrongs through penetration”, is his motto (although, considering how many of his targets end up enjoying the punishment, his method may not be the most effective). Visually Rapeman looks what it is – a straight to video flick – but the camerawork isn’t that bad, and there’s a good balance between comedy and lightweight d(o)rama.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 12 May 2008, 18:40

”Righting wrongs through penetration”

A superhero as rapist? WTF??

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 12 May 2008, 18:53

I would not watch that if you paid me, the name alone is insulting.

Godzooki · Post by **Godzooki** » 12 May 2008, 19:07

tom2681 wrote:Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon (HK - 2008 - By Daniel Lee with Andy Lau and Sammo Hung): 2 / 5

Below average.

After Jacob Cheung and Peter Chan, it's now Daniel Lee's turn to go epic.
Too bad he doesn't have the script, the budget or even the talent to make it work.

The story is fairly easy to follow and the actors are doing a good job (even though most of them, including Andy Lau and Sammo Hung, are badly dubbed).
The battle scenes are a complete failure, though. They're all shot in close-ups, making it impossible to understand what's going on

Then, there's the running time (way too short for an epic film) and there's Maggie Q. Whoever put her name in the cast list needs to be tortured and eaten alive. If Daniel Lee had used a better actress as the main baddie, it might have been a different story.

Watching this film isn't a bad way to spend an evening, but I wouldn't recommend it.
I'm going back to Battle of Wits and Warlords.

We must watch movies from the same source as you also get these early.

An empress and the warriors pisses all over this. This is a total stinking turd of a film and a waste of talent and my time, Playboy cops was even better than this.

1/5

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 May 2008, 19:08

romerojpg wrote:I would not watch that if you paid me, the name alone is insulting.

Funny, I always thought you watched films on their merit, not any other criteria

Tigercage wrote:We must watch movies from the same source as you also get these early.

Is that a polite way of saying you're a thief too?

. Before "you" read too much into that comment I download (on occasion) also

It sounds like:

Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon
An Empress and the Warriors

Are turds, and:

Battle of Wits
The Warlords

Are decent. It's a good job The Warlords is getting a BD release then.

p.s - What's the consensus on "Warriors of Heaven and Earth"? Good or Bad? Rating out of 10? I've searched on Bullets but no one has commented on it period.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 12 May 2008, 19:11

bradavon wrote:
romerojpg wrote:I would not watch that if you paid me, the name alone is insulting.
Funny, I always thought you watched films on their merit, not any other criteria

Nope your just making stuff up now.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 May 2008, 19:20

You've regularly lambaste me for relying on trailers, reviews and others comments. In my book a films "title" of all things is as bad, if not worse a criteria to base a film on

.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 12 May 2008, 19:52

Nothing strange about that. I have a "friend" who reviewed the first Lord of the Rings film without seeing it, and another one who bashed The Two Towers because he had heard 80% of the running time consists of war/fight scenes. Sensitive people are like that.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 12 May 2008, 19:56

hey,

I tried to watch Warriors Of Heaven And Earth but got seriously bored after 40 minutes or so. And I'm a big fan of the director He Ping who has made slow, talky films before (Sun Valley, Red Firecracker Green Firecracker). Kind of doesn't help that the period epic nowadays doesn't arise any interest with me... even if it's from a director a like (Jacob Cheung for instance).

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 12 May 2008, 19:58

@Knete:
You lasted longer than I did.
I gave up on Warriors after 35 minutes.