What Have You Just Seen... Marks Out of 5
- grim_tales
- Bruce Lee's Fist
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- BiscLimpkit
- Bruce Lee's Fist
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- BiscLimpkit
- Bruce Lee's Fist
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- thelostdragon
- Bruce Lee's Fist
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- dragonhero005
- Flirting Scholar
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After watching City Hunter (3/5) and Shaolin Soccer, finally in its full glory (uncut; 4,5/5), I watched :
Chunking Express
I think Grim once wrote that this is Wong Kar-wai´s most accessible film.
I agree! It´s the best WKW I´ve seen so far.
I really liked the way he portrayed the hecticness of HK and how people live there as well as the music he used, although I have to say that I won´t be able to listen to "California dreaming" anymore...
4.5/5
Chunking Express
I think Grim once wrote that this is Wong Kar-wai´s most accessible film.
I agree! It´s the best WKW I´ve seen so far.
I really liked the way he portrayed the hecticness of HK and how people live there as well as the music he used, although I have to say that I won´t be able to listen to "California dreaming" anymore...
4.5/5
- grim_tales
- Bruce Lee's Fist
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- grim_tales
- Bruce Lee's Fist
- Posts: 22162
- Joined: 25 Oct 2004, 18:34
- Location: St. Albans, UK
Along Come The Tiger - 2.5/5
Interesting to see what must be quite a rare film on DVD but I found this a bit boring TBH, a guy called Sacred Cloud is bumping of members of a gang called Black Dragon, Cloud teams up with an annoying kid and teaches him kung-fu. Supposed to be a kung-fu version of Once Upon A Time In the West, maybe I shouldn't have seen the Leone classic beforehand...
Its good the original Mandarin track is included, the subtitles are rubbish though with really bad grammar.
Interesting to see what must be quite a rare film on DVD but I found this a bit boring TBH, a guy called Sacred Cloud is bumping of members of a gang called Black Dragon, Cloud teams up with an annoying kid and teaches him kung-fu. Supposed to be a kung-fu version of Once Upon A Time In the West, maybe I shouldn't have seen the Leone classic beforehand...
Its good the original Mandarin track is included, the subtitles are rubbish though with really bad grammar.
- Knetan
- Hail the Judge!
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- Knetan
- Hail the Judge!
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ReconFive
- King of Beggars
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- Joined: 26 Dec 2004, 05:56
- Location: Bangkok, Thailand
The Scarlet Letter (Korea, 2004) - 3.5/5
This is one of the strangest films i've seen in a while. It starts out as the average South Korean cop film and then goes completly out into left field in the 3rd act. This would normally be a good thing, but the way its done in this case is so absurd that it almost detracts from the rest of the film. Its hard to explain exactly why unless you've seen it.
Acting is very good, especially from Han Suk-Kyu and the late Lee Eun-ju . The film looks beautiful, and direction from Daniel H. Byun is top notch, even if he was on crack when he wrote the script.
This is one of the strangest films i've seen in a while. It starts out as the average South Korean cop film and then goes completly out into left field in the 3rd act. This would normally be a good thing, but the way its done in this case is so absurd that it almost detracts from the rest of the film. Its hard to explain exactly why unless you've seen it.
Acting is very good, especially from Han Suk-Kyu and the late Lee Eun-ju . The film looks beautiful, and direction from Daniel H. Byun is top notch, even if he was on crack when he wrote the script.
- BiscLimpkit
- Bruce Lee's Fist
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ReconFive
- King of Beggars
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Interview - 2.5/5
Well after the entertaining and almost hilariously absurd 'Scarlet Letter' last night, i decided to watch Byun's first feature 'Interview'. This is a very unique approach to a romance film, about a young filmmaker working on a documentery project about people and their relationships. The film uses actual interviews with people and inserts them into the fictional story..involving the filmmaker and one of his interview subjects. The script jumps around to different points in time and you often hear the same dialog multiple times, sometimes making it hard to tell exactly when something is happening in the story.
Although i appreciate this very unique "dogme 95" style being used here, something about the film doesn't work for me. It is overlong, has many unnessasary scenes that add nothing to the core of the film...and some scenes feel like Byun was on the same drugs as when he wrote the 'trunk scene' in Scarlet Letter. (well, maybe a slightly smaller dosage)
Well after the entertaining and almost hilariously absurd 'Scarlet Letter' last night, i decided to watch Byun's first feature 'Interview'. This is a very unique approach to a romance film, about a young filmmaker working on a documentery project about people and their relationships. The film uses actual interviews with people and inserts them into the fictional story..involving the filmmaker and one of his interview subjects. The script jumps around to different points in time and you often hear the same dialog multiple times, sometimes making it hard to tell exactly when something is happening in the story.
Although i appreciate this very unique "dogme 95" style being used here, something about the film doesn't work for me. It is overlong, has many unnessasary scenes that add nothing to the core of the film...and some scenes feel like Byun was on the same drugs as when he wrote the 'trunk scene' in Scarlet Letter. (well, maybe a slightly smaller dosage)
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Lourdes
- Royal Tramp
- Posts: 1994
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3-Iron - 3/5
Second viewing and it didn't live up to the first, some beauty fails to disguise a rather weak film and I lost interest towards the end.
Genshiken - 2/5
Otaku type anime that I've been watching to pass the time. It's weak stuff but for some reason I fancy finishing it. Seems to be a bit on an Otaku no video wannabe but falls flat on it's face. The anime within an anime Kujibiki Unbalance gets a 1/5.
Love Letter - 5/5
Simply wonderful. I've not watched an Iwai film for a long time, not since last year in fact. I'm reminded anew of why I rate him so highly, what a good film.
Second viewing and it didn't live up to the first, some beauty fails to disguise a rather weak film and I lost interest towards the end.
Genshiken - 2/5
Otaku type anime that I've been watching to pass the time. It's weak stuff but for some reason I fancy finishing it. Seems to be a bit on an Otaku no video wannabe but falls flat on it's face. The anime within an anime Kujibiki Unbalance gets a 1/5.
Love Letter - 5/5
Simply wonderful. I've not watched an Iwai film for a long time, not since last year in fact. I'm reminded anew of why I rate him so highly, what a good film.
- BiscLimpkit
- Bruce Lee's Fist
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Monster House 4.5/5
Warning: This film is not for wussy punk-asses and little kids. Despite its PG rating, it's actually scarier than Ringu.
It breaks my heart to say this but I found this to be better than Cars (and I'm usually unfairly biased towards Pixar). The 'camerawork' was superb, as was the animation quality, voice acting, character expressions, storyline etc. Good to see a real mature effort in the CGI animation genre. Hope to see more in the future from Amblin.
(note: alright so it's not quite scarier than Ringu but there were plenty of little kids in the audience who were shittin themselves - and thankfully kept quiet).
Warning: This film is not for wussy punk-asses and little kids. Despite its PG rating, it's actually scarier than Ringu.
It breaks my heart to say this but I found this to be better than Cars (and I'm usually unfairly biased towards Pixar). The 'camerawork' was superb, as was the animation quality, voice acting, character expressions, storyline etc. Good to see a real mature effort in the CGI animation genre. Hope to see more in the future from Amblin.
(note: alright so it's not quite scarier than Ringu but there were plenty of little kids in the audience who were shittin themselves - and thankfully kept quiet).

- BiscLimpkit
- Bruce Lee's Fist
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bradavon
- Bruce Lee's Fist
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Gladiator: Extended Cut
Spoilers
9 out of 10
That rating applies to both cuts as the new footage doesn't hurt the film but yet it doesn't add much either.
It's a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. The 4 minute scene (one of the longest new editions of the 17 minutes) Lucilla secretly talks to the council about what to do and admits she must kill her brother adds great depth to her character, shame it was cut.
However the scene where Proximo (Oliver Reed) argues with the coliseum runner about sending his men to be slaughtered (so we think) for the reenactment of the Battle of Carthedge adds nothing and just tells us "exactly" what we're about to find out anyway in a few minutes. This is padding.
Overall the good outweighs the bad mind you so I'd say the Extended cut is the better version (it is only 17 minutes longer after all!).
I'm going to see if I can track down the R1 version (despite being a rip off) as I do want to own both cuts. The Original DVD is off to eBay, the DTS is good but then so is the DD5.1.
Spoilers
9 out of 10
That rating applies to both cuts as the new footage doesn't hurt the film but yet it doesn't add much either.
It's a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. The 4 minute scene (one of the longest new editions of the 17 minutes) Lucilla secretly talks to the council about what to do and admits she must kill her brother adds great depth to her character, shame it was cut.
However the scene where Proximo (Oliver Reed) argues with the coliseum runner about sending his men to be slaughtered (so we think) for the reenactment of the Battle of Carthedge adds nothing and just tells us "exactly" what we're about to find out anyway in a few minutes. This is padding.
Overall the good outweighs the bad mind you so I'd say the Extended cut is the better version (it is only 17 minutes longer after all!).
I'm going to see if I can track down the R1 version (despite being a rip off) as I do want to own both cuts. The Original DVD is off to eBay, the DTS is good but then so is the DD5.1.
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Lourdes
- Royal Tramp
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- BiscLimpkit
- Bruce Lee's Fist
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