What Have You Just Seen... Marks Out of 5

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 11 Jun 2007, 13:38

Whatever.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 11 Jun 2007, 19:10

hey,

yea, high class debate I see.

But now, when HK cinemas best and brightest whore themselves out to just about anyone in exchange for exposure, more the truth in the case of:

Holy Weapon 1/5

Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh, Sharla Cheung, Carol Cheng, Sandra Ng, Simon Yam, Damian Lau....Ng Man-Tat and Dicky Cheung. The latter meaning trouble. Wuxia that scores major points during its high flying opening reel that goes gory on us with exhilirating results. Then Wong Jing starts to direct and the film takes on commercial sensbilitities that in the case of Wong Jing's mind means stupidiest stupidity possible, with little to none inspiring results. Considering the madness on display, it should've been fun. While not as unbearable as FUTURE COPS (possibly the most irritating movie ever made), you've lost patience and interest even when the action directors take over again.

Then we have...

The Eagle Shooting Heroes 2/5

A lot more high paced madness with all the stars, including the two Tony Leung's, Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong and Brigitte Lin flashes before us courtesy of Jeff Lau, a much better filmmaker in that regard. It's nigh on impossible to figure out what goes on, despite it being partly a parody on ASHES OF TIME. More in tune with the source novel perhaps but I doubt it was this insane. Amusing tangents includes Leung Chiu-Wai's inability to kill Jacky Cheung's character, Leung convincing some cave gorillas and dinosaurs (of sorts) that he's a duck, Leung's toad techique and Brigitte Lin's stances failing miserably most of the time wins us over. Oh, and Leung Ka-Fai's floating head is quite something too.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 11 Jun 2007, 21:22

Knetan wrote:The Eagle Shooting Heroes 2/5

A lot more high paced madness with all the stars, including the two Tony Leung's, Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong and Brigitte Lin flashes before us courtesy of Jeff Lau, a much better filmmaker in that regard. It's nigh on impossible to figure out what goes on, despite it being partly a parody on ASHES OF TIME. More in tune with the source novel perhaps but I doubt it was this insane. Amusing tangents includes Leung Chiu-Wai's inability to kill Jacky Cheung's character, Leung convincing some cave gorillas and dinosaurs (of sorts) that he's a duck, Leung's toad techique and Brigitte Lin's stances failing miserably most of the time wins us over. Oh, and Leung Ka-Fai's floating head is quite something too.

Wow, that sounds awesome.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 12 Jun 2007, 00:16

I hated The Eagle Shooting Heroes.

How Jeff Lau gets away with these movies is beyond me.

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 12 Jun 2007, 19:24

King of Beggar - 5/5
Awesome comic take on Beggar Su

. Never watched this, but got the HKL DVD and its great movie, good fight scenes and really funny.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 12 Jun 2007, 20:58

hey,

shame no one took the time to release King Of Beggars with its original Dolby track.

A Tale From The East 2/5

Ideas are present but Manfred Wong's fantasy/modern day combo of elements found in THE REINCARNATION OF GOLDEN LOTUS, AN ETERNAL COMBAT AND THE ICEMAN COMETH never comes off as anything but standard. Joey Wong has been better utilized elsewhere.

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 13 Jun 2007, 12:11

Hey Knetan

shame no one took the time to release King Of Beggars with its original Dolby track.

The HKL version has the mono audio, I was listening to that, rather than the 5.1. It's really good.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 13 Jun 2007, 15:39

Film was originally stereo.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 13 Jun 2007, 15:49

Still, better than a 5.1 upmix.

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 13 Jun 2007, 15:58

EvaUnit02 wrote:Still, better than a 5.1 upmix.

Indeed!

2046 - Err Undecided!!
Just got around to watch the r4 special edition of this, great packaging, as for the film... err hard to classify this movie. Its a surreal movie, which I enjoyed some aspect of the movie, I think I need to rewatch this movie. Quite a depressing movie, especially the end, Tony Leung character nevers finds love, as he is still heartbroken or pining after Maggie Cheng?. Tony Leung is really good in this, but Zhang Ziyi can act!!. The scene was Zhang and Tony first spend the night together then when he goes to his room, he hands her the money, that look on her is just soo memorable, and when he leaves, she crys.. Ahh

So 2046 is nothing ever changes, Tony will only be heartbroken, never finding another girl, even though he let one girl who loved him alot slip through

Special mentions got to go with Faye Wong, she is just lovely in this, Loved that bit of the story..

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 13 Jun 2007, 18:19

PTU 3/5

2nd time round for this one. Maybe appreciated it a bit more this time, but still think it is just a decent but not overly great film. Nice acting, visually stylish.

Also my first ever complete freebie as was sent a check disc from Third Window Films. Review of disc to appear on my site soon, but the disc looked really good. Picture was great IMO, sound was decent, subs were decent, although a little different in exact wording to original subs.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 13 Jun 2007, 20:44

The Pleasure of Your Company aka Wedding Daze 2/5

Pretty rubbish but Isla Fisher is hooottttttt!!!!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 13 Jun 2007, 21:38

@ Slasher: You've seen In the Mood for Love right? 2046 is surreal but bloody excellent. It's not Lynch surreal though

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 13 Jun 2007, 22:37

bradavon wrote:@ Slasher: You've seen In the Mood for Love right? 2046 is surreal but bloody excellent. It's not Lynch surreal though

Hey Brad, Yup sure have, got the French 2 disk which I am happy with, if I didn't watch that, I would have been really confused by 2046. It is a good movie, I think I have to watch it again, I do feel sorry for Zhang Ziyi character, really felt for her, Tony character is a git in this, but when you watch In the Mood for love, you kinda understand why, he simply doesn't want to get his heart broken and rejects everyone and simply uses them,

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 14 Jun 2007, 03:10

2046 isn't a patch on In the Mood For Love.

It's half good/half pretentious waffle.

Not worth spending too much time dissecting as the script was made up as they went along and desn't really mean anything deep.

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 14 Jun 2007, 08:04

Markgway wrote:2046 isn't a patch on In the Mood For Love.

Agreed with this.

Not worth spending too much time dissecting as the script was made up as they went along and desn't really mean anything deep.

Really? Doh!, Wells some bits are pretty good

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 14 Jun 2007, 14:53

slasher13 wrote:
Markgway wrote:2046 isn't a patch on In the Mood For Love.
Agreed with this.

Not worth spending too much time dissecting as the script was made up as they went along and desn't really mean anything deep.
Really? Doh!

You care? Doh!

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 14 Jun 2007, 18:23

hey,

on the subject of Wong Kar-Wai...

Chase A Fortune 3/5

One of Wong's scripts pre-directing fame and lead Liu Wai-Hung's only film as director. A fairly wacky look at greed, insurance fraud and boxing characters called Tiger Dog Bruce Lee. Pleasing, totally predictable stuff.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 14 Jun 2007, 19:11

I too much prefer ITMFL but I wouldn't say it's remotely pretentious or go as far as it being half as good, just different. Both are very good.

It probably doesn't help that 2046 was years late, dragged on for way more than it should've and by the end Maggie Cheung was so fed up with it. Which is odd as she's barely in it.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 14 Jun 2007, 23:40

I thought 2046 was excellent. I do feel ITMFL is better, BUT, that's also because I've seen ITMFL a lot more times (only seen 2046 once now), and you really need to watch WKW's movies multiple times to really 'get' it. They really grow on you each time you watch them. They're studies about the characters, and about emotions, etc.

I agree Tony is less likeable in 2046, and the moustache doesnt help, but indeed, you do understand why he acts the way he does, and underneath it there's a guy affraid to get hurt again. (which is also a bit simular to Yuddi in Days of being Wild, who is a depressed guy who has lost faith in relationships, and as soon as he understands he isnt 'perfect' to a girl anymore, he dumps them in order to avoid being dumped and hurt)

And yeah, Zhang Ziyi is a great actress. I know some people cant stand her, but I love her. Faye Wong is great as well btw. So cute. DEFINATELY a MILF

Nic Tse is such a moron for dropping Faye in favour of Cecilia!

DangerousLeeHandsome · Post by **DangerousLeeHandsome** » 15 Jun 2007, 01:26

Paycheck - 2.5/5
Not very good but better than I expected. Very predictable.

Die Hard - 4.5/5
Classic! Amazing how the 20 yrs later, it still holds up to the modern $100 million Hollywood blockbuster. Great film. Liked the sequel even more!

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 15 Jun 2007, 02:02

Stray Dog - 4.5/5

Man, great flick. Watched the Criterion version online. I had already read a bit about the movie, so I new it was going to be pretty good, but yeah... it totally was.

The performances are awesome, pacing is pretty damn good (although in the very beginning where Mifune strolls the backstreets could have been a bit shorter*).

It's too bad they didnt have/use color back then, cause I would have LOVED to have seen this movie in lush colors. Especially that ending where Mifune gets the bad guy.

So yeah, basically all that's keeping this froma perfect 5 outta 5 is just age. It's black and white, which CAN add to a movie (La Haine for instance), but here I kinda missed color cause it seemed like such a rich palette would have been used. Plus obviously the 4:3 screen ratio isnt great. So basically I'm just complaining that either color movies and widescreen should have been invented and used sooner, or that Kurosawa should have made this movie a few decades later

(* = I know complaining about the pacing in a Kurosawa movie is like complaining that Da Vinci really should have made the Mona Lisa's nostrils a bit different, but still

)

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 15 Jun 2007, 03:52

Yi-Long wrote:Nic Tse is such a moron for dropping Faye in favour of Cecilia!

I can't agree with that. Cecilia is beautiful and probably my favourite current HK actress. She has a remarkable range and charisma. The Brigitte Lin of her generation.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 15 Jun 2007, 03:58

Markgway wrote:
Yi-Long wrote:Nic Tse is such a moron for dropping Faye in favour of Cecilia!
I can't agree with that. Cecilia is beautiful and probably my favourite current HK actress. She has a remarkable range and charisma. The Brigitte Lin of her generation.

Probably not a hard thing to do at all, considering the state of the current younger generation HK movie stars and the films in which they star in. House of Fury, Initial D, etc.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 15 Jun 2007, 03:59

True. But she really is a terrific actress in her own right. She captivates a camera in a way few actresses can.