So...what have you been watching lately?, ACDBer lists (and de facto roll-call?)

Recently, a couple of people have e-mailed me to say that the ACDB looks to have been on the slow and quiet side lately. So count this as an attempt to help get more posts on the board for our collective reading pleasure and, also, to share movie information and views...

Without further ado, the five Asian movies I've most recently viewed are (in viewing order):-

- GROUNDWALK (Hong Kong, 2005)
I'm not sure whether this 51 minute long indie offering from Gilittle Leung (who directed, scripted, composed the music for and lensed this effort) ever made it into any cinema. Considering the number of bigger budget Hong Kong movies which haven't made it to DVD (yet), it comes as a surprise that this pretty obviously low-budget effort -- which centers on two young Hong Kongers who decide to explore their home territory as well as the possibility of a friendship (or more) between them -- managed to do so. Still, this is not to say that this offering doesn't deserve to be available to film fans. And, in fact, I know of it having gained at least two fans among us ACDBers. Sadly though, I'm not one of this number. For while I did find the handling of the budding romance to be rather sweet, I also found that the jerky hand-operated camera-work and 'artsy' editing could all get a bit nausea-inducing!
My rating for the film: 5.5 on the brns.com scale

- ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET (Japan, 2005)
If ever a movie was in danger of being over-hyped, it's this critically and popularly acclaimed winner of 13 of Japan's 14 Academy Awards. However, my own experience is that the hype is well deserved. Grady Hendrix promised that this "is a movie that guarantees you'll cry at the end, but you won't feel cheap about it." Well, not only was I crying at the end and not feeling cheap about it, I cried *so* much that my nose got blocked up and I had to use a fair supply of tissues to blow my nose with as well as wipe away my copious amounts of tears!!! A wonderfully humane, warm film (which can be seen as the light and good twin to Yoichi Sai's Category III-rated BLOOD AND BONES since these two works appear to cover similiar time periods as well as be portraits of family/neighborhoods in Japan), viewing it was the movie equivalent of soaking in a warm bubble bath and frankly, I think part of my tears at the end came from not wanting the already 132 minute length movie to ever end!!!
My rating for this film: 9.0

- PERHAPS LOVE (Hong Kong, 2005)
In the same week as I got news of Peter Chan's movie getting 12 Golden Horse nominations to add to its 6 HKFA awards, I got the chance to watch it on the Celestial Movie Channel. So finally went ahead and viewed this star-studded musical and, well...while I can see how it would garner awards and nominations galore in the technical categories (this being a film which, after all, called upon the efforts of not one but two big-name cinematographers (in Peter Pau and Christopher Doyle), and not one but two respected scriptwriters (in Aubrey Lam and Raymond To), etc., etc.), I fail to understand how it could be considered a "Best Picture" category of movie. Alternatively put: The film's disparate parts just don't combine to make all that great a whole. And if I could peg a major wrong, it's that this musical's musical numbers just aren't memorable, lyrical, truly soulful and/or catchy. Not like, you know, Peter Chan's HE'S A WOMAN, SHE'S A MAN (or, even, the Teresa Teng songs prominently featured in his COMRADES, ALMOST A LOVE STORY)... :S
My rating for the film: 6.5

- SILK (Taiwan, 2006)
This big budget -- by Taiwan standards -- offering which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival is a supernatural drama in the vein of DOUBLE VISION. Not all that surprising given that its director and scriptwriter, Su Chao-Bin, was the scriptwriter of DOUBLE VISION. If you found DOUBLE VISION to have had too many illogical elements and "pseudo-scientific" babble, then it won't be for you. However, if you like DOUBLE VISION (despite/irregardless of that fact), chances are that you'll also like SILK -- and find the story (which features a captured child ghost, an anti-gravitational device, a crippled scientist and a cop with incredible eye-sight) involving, as I did. Coupled with some really good acting (notably by Chang Chen) and pretty good production values (e.g., the cinematography comes courtesy of ace Hong Kong cinematographer, Arthur Wong, and the set designer, Yohei Tanada, worked on KILL BILL), SILK is a movie I consider to have been worth my while.
My rating for the film: 7.5

- OPERATION UNDERCOVER (Hong Kong, 2006)
This Wong Jing produced movie's beginning premise is a familiar one*: I.e., it's yet another crime drama which has cops being sent undercover to infiltrate the Triads. However, the film turns out to have several twists and elements -- along with those sudden but effective changes in mood which I tend to associate with the better Hong Kong movies -- which set it apart and makes it an involving watch. For one thing, the police superintendent in charge of the operations (played by Miu Kiu Wai) has undercover experience and a son who gets in trouble at school for trying to beat up a senior Triad's (Francis Ng) violin prodigy son. For another, since the featured undercover operation involves hundreds, if not a thousand, cops being sent to infiltrate the Triads, the Triad heads begin to get suspicious, paranoid and -- despite the injunction of one of them (who Eric Tsang charismatically portrays, especially in scenes that also involve Sonja Kwok) to stay united -- almost inevitably start turning on one another...
My rating for this film: 7.5

*Edit/Addendum: Thinking some more, OPERATION UNDERCOVER can seem like a cross between INFERNAL AFFAIRS and ELECTION (I and II), with a bit of Y&D thrown in courtesy of Jordan Chan's presence. This fact notwithstanding, I will maintain that it's not the kind of cheapo knock off of a movie that one should easily dismiss. So my valuation and rating of the film remains as previously.

This post has been edited by Yvonne Teh on Nov 2 2006, 07:16 PM

Gee, funny you should ask, Yvonne...just as I've been home ill and watching a stack of Hong Kong movies (mostly Shaw Bros.) to try and make up for lost time.

The highlights:

THE 14 AMAZONS - I know people raved about this on the board before, including you, Yvonne, so I finally watched it and it certainly delivers the goods. A real costume spectacle with a bunch of great women led by Ivy Ling Po as I've never seen her (for one thing, she plays a woman!). Very entertaining, if not as intense or dramatic as Chang Cheh's costume epics.

THE KUNG FU INSTRUCTOR - Sun Chung directs Ti Lung in a solid old-school kung fu piece, with lots of training and instruction scenes and lots of all-out weapons fights, with Ti Lung sticking to his pole fighting or "Shaolin Rod" as it's called. A good one.

On to the rest:

I watched a couple of Shih Szu swordplay pieces:
THE YOUNG AVENGER
HEROES OF SUNG
She's good, but they're basically run-of-the-mill Shaw productions, nothing special about them. She has a good swordfight with Fan Mei Sheng at the end of YOUNG AVENGER, but that's really the only highlight.

Also: BASTARD SWORDSMAN and THE HIDDEN POWER OF DRAGON SABRE. They're okay, but, again, run-of-the-mill. Nothing impressive. Maybe I've seen all the good ones in this genre, maybe I'm just tired of them. Maybe Shaw was tired of them by the early '80s.

Finally, two musicals:

In my search for the unsung Hong Kong musical gem, I put in one old and one new:
BECAUSE OF HER (1963), from Cathay, and starring Grace Chang. In color. This was shot in HK around the time that IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE takes place, so it might be instructive to watch the two together. Grace is an engaging performer and a good singer, but...BUT...the songs in this one really stink. There are lots of musical numbers, with colorful sets and dancers, but nothing I'd ever want to sit through again. I've seen high school musical productions that had more polish and entertainment value. The setpiece in the first half is the excruciating "Mu Cha Cha," which does a whole "Around the World in 8 minutes" theme, with different verses set in different countries, including France, Japan, Malaysia, Italy, but the best one is about "the young country America," which "takes the lead in freedom and democracy," and has dancers carrying posters with drawings of John F. Kennedy. (So call me chauvinist!) But Grace warbling "Mu Cha Cha" endlessly at the top of her voice just wears out her welcome. Also, it has a truly horrible cop-out ending that basically ruins the film.

PERHAPS LOVE (2005) - well, like Yvonne, I finally saw this and I was disappointed, too. After watching it, I read Brian Naas' review on his website (brns.com), and I agreed with his assessment of it. I liked the first half well enough, but it really gets ponderous after that and too much weighted down by a lost love theme with two grown men whining like babies--for years!--over a self-centered wisp of a woman who simply doesn't deserve all this pining. Get over it, guys! Grow up! So I felt no sympathy. And, besides, there's no show-stopping musical number. Nothing to perk up the film in that area. It's all so whiny, in the worst Broadway manner.

Interestingly, the love triangle theme is pretty similar in both films.

So I'm still searching for that elusive HK musical.

This post has been edited by Brian Camp on Nov 2 2006, 12:27 PM

Some comments/mini-reviews on Asian cinema seen over the course of the past month

Tange Sazen yowa: Hyakuman ryo no tsubo / The Pot Worth a Million Ryo (Sadao Yamanaka, 1935)

One of the funniest historical comedies ever made. A samurai lord gives away an unprepossessing-looking heirloom pot to a younger brother as a (stingy) wedding present. Shortly afterwards, he discovers the pot actually served as a clue to finding an immense hidden treasure (one million ryo). He sends an emissary to reclaim the pot. only to find his brother's young wife has sold it to junk collectors. Meanwhile, the young man is feeling a bit smothered by his wife's solicitude -- and welcomes the chance to go out and search for the pot. As it turns out, the pot has wound up in the household in which Tange Sazen (a one-eyed, one-armed, and comically lazy samurai sword master) resides. Tanga Sazen lives with a lady friend who runs an archery gallery -- and the two of them acquire an orphaned boy, who uses the sought-for pot as a fishbowl for his gold fish.

No plot summary can do justice to this revisionist comedy (which seems to have a serious core despite its surface frivolity). Not only doies it have a superb script, it is beautifully shot (by Jun Yasumoto -- who would later do great work for Naruse and Inagaki) and directed -- and perfectly performed by Denjirô Ôkôchi (as Tange Sazen) and the rest of the wonderful cast.

Haru no mezame / Spring Awakens (Mikio Naruse, 1947)

I watched this unsubtitled film with a fellow Naruse fanatic -- who knew no Japanese and for whom I tried to provide a running (very loose) translation. Despite several prior viewings, I run onto the rocks (a bit) during a couple of final conversational scenes -- just as the plot had taken a bit of a veer. (I don't feel too bad -- as the few published notes on this film are almost totally wrong in their plot comments). While I felt comfortable that I could mostly follow what happens here, my guest (not so used to the uncharted waters of watching unsubbed cinema) wasn't entirely convinced, I fear.

Regardless of total comprehension, this unheralded film (which didn't make it into even the fullest versions of the traveling centenary retrospective) is almost certainly one of Naruse's greatest films of the 40s -- and a genuine (if small) masterpiece. It is, as far as I can tell, a remarkably innovative film -- in that it seems to present a teenager's eye view of teenage life -- centered around the ordinary activities of a one particular high school girl (future star Yoshiko Kuga -- at the age of 16).

Formally, it displays a lightness and looseness (and love of ellipses) that rivals the best of Shimizu's work. And the teen performances (most seemingly by amateurs or near-amateurs) are remarkably unaffected and natural. This charming and beautiful film deserves to be far better known. Having been ignored even during Naruse's 100th birthday year, will it need to wait another 50 years or so to get re-assessed (and properly appreciated) at last. I hope not.


Shizukanaru ketto / The Quiet Duel (Akira Kurosawa, 1949)

This generally overlooked early Kurosawa film was an unexpected pleasure. Mifune here is a young doctor, working with his father (Takashi Shimura) at a clinic. During the war, he got infected with syphilis, while operating (with an injured hand) on an infected patient. Now, back at home, he cannot marry his long-suffering fiance -- and won't tell her the reason why, for fear she will selflessly decide to wait until he is fully recovered (which may not ever happen). Meanwhile, a young pregnant woman who is serving as a nurse's aide (the wonderful and spunky Noriko Sengoku), initially angry and resentful towards her rescuer (Mifune saved her life her after a suicide attempt following a romantic debacle), gradually learns Mifune's true nature and begins to fall in love with him herself.

Despite a few overwrought patches here and there (not surprising, considering the plot), I absolutely loved this. Like much of Kurosawa's pre-Rashomon work, this has gotten short shrift critically. Ironically, I much prefer many of these films (for example -- this, "No Regrets for Our Youth", "Stray Dog", and "Scandal") to "Rashomon".

Da nao tian gong / Uproar in Heaven (WAI Lai-ming, 1965)

A delightful surprise. One of the most lovely and entertaining animated films I've ever encountered. Made in Shanghai, on the eve of the Cultural Revolution, this tells the story of the Monkey King's difficulties with the Jade Emperor (whose court was in heaven) due to his lack of deference. Colorful and delightful, practically perfect.

Kamigami no Fukaki Yokubo / Profound Desire of the Gods (Shohei Imamura, 1968)

An often raucous and vulgar, seriously weird, and visually stunning film -- this practically killed off Imamura's career. Over-budget, over-long and far too outlandish for audience tastes, this was a massive flop when released. It tells the story of an engineer sent to a small, remote Southern Japanese island to supervise a water project -- due to a long-lasting drought. The drought may (or may not) be due to a curse placed on the superstition-filled islanders by their gods -- due to the misdeeds of a particularly incest-ridden family (which has a problematic status, despite producing shamanesses needed for local rituals). It seems to me to have quite a few interesting links to Teshigahara's Woman of the Dunes, in that the engineer becomes entnagled in island affairs by a young, buxom (if somewhat mentally challenged) island woman.

Kazoku gêmu / The Family Game (Yoshimitsu Morita, 1983)

A much acclaimed satire -- I found it quite disappointing. The concept (showing up the flaws of the typical middle class family -- and the Japanese educational system) seemed more important to the director than the execution. Possibly inspired by Bunuel and Masumura, but not remotely in the same league.

Toki o kakeru shôjo / The Little Girl Who Conquered Time / Girl of Time (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1983)

A disappointment, a passably decent science fiction idea (an ordinary high school girl begins to experience events before they really happen) executed in a generally mediocre fashion. While the acting was okay, the script and direction were mediocre and the special effects were too often simply dreadful. We in the West forget that this sort of ephemeral fluff is the real norm of Japanese cinema -- not the (often not terribly popular) masterpieces we think must be typical.

Tian ruo you qing III feng huo jia ren / Moment of Romance III (Johnnie To, 1996)

A wonderful romance set in WW2 China -- with Andy Lau as a scion of a wealthy family serving as a pilot (somewhat to the chagrin of his wealthy mother) who makes an emergency landing near a rural village and rescued (and nursed back to health) by Jacqueline Wu (an orphan -- who is loved by the son of the village chief). He eventually returns to town -- and turns down a promotion to a desk job (which his mother has engineered -- to keep him safe). Our heroine, meanwhile, decides to go to town to find him -- arriving just as townspeople are being warned of the need to evacuate soon (as the Japanese forces are getting perilously close). As usual with To's films -- one is kept guessing until the last moment whether there will be a happy or sad ending.

Joi gin a long / Where a Good Man Goes (Johnnie To, 1999)

A romance starring Sean LAU Ching Wan and Ruby WONG Cheuk Ling. He is a mobster just out of jail. She is a single mother with a young son, who runs a small (none too prosperous) inn in Macau. They meet when he is involved in an altercation with a taxi cab driver (and his buddies) outside the inn. He decides to stay at the inn for a while -- and proves to be a rather obstreperous and demanding guest at first. Gradually, however, he grows fond of the inn -- and its proprietor (and her son). He begins to contemplate living life honestly -- but runs into various complications, not least of which is a police inspector out to get him (LAM Suet). An entertaining and sweet film -- that keeps you guessing until the very end as to whether this will have a happy or sad ending.

Goo laam gwa lui / Needing You (Johnnie To & WAI Ka Fai, 2000)

An utterly delightful romance starring Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng. Lau is a section chief (and super salesman) for a computer company. Cheng is an employee with romantic problems and an extemely annouying family (for whom she appears to be the chief breadwinner -- as both her parents are seemingly unemployed and her younger siblings are still in school). Initially the two get on each others' nerves, but they soon find that they are growing fond of each other. Of course, the course of true love never runs smooth -- and Lau's "colleagues" (led by regular To "bad guy" LAM Suet) are conniving to bring him down -- to cover up their own screw-ups. Unfortunately our copy of this DVD skips 13 minutes in the middle of the film (though the material is on the disc -- and can be watched if one views the raw files on one's computer). so, while I can recommend the film highly, I would caution you against the Tai Seng DVD on sale in the US.


Su-ki-da / I-Love-You (Hiroshi Ishikawa, 2005)

This film starts with the story of two 17 year-old provincial high school students -- Yu (Aoi Miyazaki) and Yosuke (Eita). He is learning to play guitar. She likes him (and likes to listen to him rehearsing-- under a bridge -- each day), he considers her a friend, but has somewhat of a crush on her older sister, who is still uncovering an unhappy romance. We follow their story until circumstances wrench them apart -- and then move forward another 17 years, when the paths of Yu and Yosuke (now played by Hiromi Nagasaku and Hidetoshi Nishijima) cross again, quite accidentally, in the big city (both are tangentially involved in the music business). Will they re-unite -- or not?

Interestingly, the two stars here are the young Yu (Miyazaki) and older Yosuke (Nishijima) -- but they meet only in the DVD's extras (which includes a joint interview-- in which they talk about the key kiss in each segment). The script seems to have some lapses, but this is well-shot and well acted. Young Aoi Miyazaki seems to be the most camera savvy (and most adept at acting) here -- takes that prominently feature her are far longer than those that don't. The director trusts her to slowly build reactions in real-time, where her older counter-part's comparable scenes are assembled out of rather short shots.

As to "Perhaps Love", I bailed out of this early on -- the music (?) sent me running away. Precisely the kind of music I like least. I'm guessing I will need to break down and get "Always" -- when a cheap subbed edition comes out.

MEK

Just wail until you hear what Peter Chan's next directed film will be (evil laugh). A certain favorite Shaw Brothers movie remade with two big stars.

The movie within the movie aspect of Perhaps Love was really the most interesting part to me.

Mr. Chan likes to work out scenes onset and not work too much out prior... which gives the musical numbers a certain feel that fell a bit flat for me. I saw where they were trying to go but I can only wonder if they were all worked out and choreographed beforehand.

Let's see...LOVE ETERNE/BUTTERFLY LOVERS with Ashton Kutcher and Hillary Swank?

This post has been edited by Brian Camp on Nov 2 2006, 02:48 PM

Luckily the two male leads are both Asian stars and not Hollywoodites.

My recent viewing:

In addition to THE EXTRAS and THE BEASTS, which both made separate posts here to share info and get more from fellow Mobians, some other recent viewing includes:

DRINK, DRANK, DRUNK: Stunk. Actually some nice acting all round, and an especially enjoyable Alex Fong as the neighborhood triad tough, not to mention nice cameos by the other ALIVE boys, but the story never really amounts to much and has an implausible and unsatisfying ending.

MARRIAGE WITH A FOOL: This is utterly terrible dreck from 2006, though Pace Wu is easy on the eyes.

DIAMOND HILL: Finally caught up with this silly low-budget film from Cheang Pou-Soi from 2000. It has a ridiculous premise that I suppose was meant to be at least somewhat touching. It isn't. But Cheung Tat-Ming is hilarious as a guy with bad eyesight who breaks into people's homes and videotapes himself shaving, showering, etc., there.

FERTILITY BANK: A HK comedy from the mid-seventies about a chubby monk who can break boards and lift tables with the power of his penis, helping his cousin run his sperm bank. It's actually never "whipped out", the action is all very PG. Slow pacing makes it less entertaining than it could have been. Stars Meg Lam, still bald from her recent on screen head-shaving in the classic BALD HEADED BETTY.

BLOOD SORCERY: Ku Feng and Kwan Hoi-San at it again in one of their eighties voodoo productions. Ku Feng is the wizard this time around. Lots of BLOOD, lots of SORCERY, not much of anything else, and pretty slow going.

Oh, and about PERHAPS LOVE, here's an earlier Mobius thread:

PERHAPS LOVE is Perhaps Garbage?

Jumping off from some of the arguments in that previous thread, I go back to the point that Peter Chan seems to be creatively bankrupt. Drifting into remake territory does nothing to change my mind on that front. I continue to be horrified that PERHAPS LOVE continues to pick up awards. I guess if you can ape Hollywood production values, that's all anyone needs.

-- Peter

There already is one, the Thai dvd is not bad at all. That is how I saw this film which is a bona fide tear jerker (well it had to be if it can get Yvonne to shed tears ) It is heart warming and cute. But I couldn't help to compare some of it with OHAYO and this comparison didn't help Always in the least.

The other film I have seen was a Turkish one called SINAV (lit.translation EXAM)

It is a comedy melodrama about high school seniors who have to pass the university entrence exam in order to continue their lives because if they can't, that means they'll have to wait for a year to try again. This cruel system is severely and continiously mocked during the film. It may get old for someone who never has to go through it but to us who are avare of the physcology no amount of mocking is enough. All in all it is similar to Korean films of that ilk and Jean Claude Van Damne is making an appearance.


I love Perhaps Love but I guess I'm (once again) the only one around here who does. I felt so much during it and still listen to the soundtrack with my initial enthusiasm. The story especially appealed to me with its similarities to Comrades (a film that is very dear to my heart). I loved the close up shots and carefully staged mise en scene along with the three leads who are perfectly cast.

Here are my last five and a third:

DON (Farhan Akhtar,2006)
DON features two of my favorite BW stars (Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra). It’s slick and glossy enough to rival Hollywood with loads of HK inspired action. Hitmakers Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy crafted a super smooth spin on the classic original soundtrack. So why didn’t I like it more? I’m still trying to figure that one out. For the most part the film was engaging – hey when you’ve got Shahrukh chewing the … “scenery” seems too small a word. And I could spend all day and night looking at Priyanka - there she is sitting, there she is smiling, now she’s doing karate – how can this be bad? I guess for me it always boils down to storytelling, which on the one hand is too slow with plot points being spoonfed to it’s audience, and on the other is too chockfull of miscellaneous incidentals. I do almost want to see it again just to count the insane number of times the name Don is said (even the small child sitting across the row from me felt compelled to repeat the phrase “I am Don” about ten times during intermission).


DON (Chandra Barot, 1978)
So after seeing the new DON I came home and finally unwrapped the original DON. I had meant to see the original first but apparently two years of staring at the box on my shelf and the threat of seeing the remake just wasn’t enough to get me to watch it. I still only managed to get through about a third of it. So far the plot is pretty similar to the remake but all the period flavor and cheesiness of the original make it more memorable so far. Okay Amitabh is somewhat cooler than Shahrukh, particularly in his early years, but Shahrukh really did manage to get his “gangster” on so that’s not really much of an issue. The only other things I can comment on at this point are that Helen’s kooky dance and the opening title sequence have no rival!


THE HOST (Joon-ho Bong, 2006)
Yowza! Best film of the year for me. A standout masala film, with all the right politics, wrapped in a creatively radiant production. Script, acting, editing, direction and FX are all on total point.


CAVE OF THE YELLOW DOG (Byambasuren Davaa, 2005)
There’s something about this kind of movie, (the low-budget-following-a-small-group-of-practically-nonactors-around-in-their-unremarkable-daily-lives kind of movie that China has specialized in for so long), that I never tire of. Like eating potato chips I could just have one after another. What does that say about what I like in a movie? It’s just so fascinating to see the way people conduct the ordinary days in their lives particularly when their lives are so very different from mine and yet primarily the same. It also doesn’t hurt when one of the characters is an absurdly cute baby puppy - awww.


HOLLY (Guy Moshe, 2006)
HOLLY co-writer/producer Guy Jacobson was traveling in Cambodia when he was suddenly accosted by a large group of five year-olds aggressively soliciting prostitution. Jacobson was so shaken by the incident that he quit his job as an attorney investment banker to create three films based on sexual slavery, (HOLLY being the first), and launch a massive global human rights campaign (redlightchildren.org) to help bring awareness to the subject. HOLLY is not a great film but it is fairly effective at getting it’s message across. However I think the second film, the “making of” HOLLY, will be even more effective considering the royal family, the administration, the mafia and the police were so against the filming that the crew had to hire an army of bodyguards to safeguard their lives.


YAJI AND GITA: THE MIDNIGHT PILGRIMS (Kankurô Kudô, 2005)
Man, Japanese film is the best! I laughed so hard I cried at one point. Okay gay, samurai, lovers Yaji and Gita go on a motorcycle pilgrimage to get Gita off his heroin addiction. And that’s just the starting point. Sadly the filmmaker didn’t trust, (or hire), an editor so there’s a bunch of extraneous junk that tarnishes the brilliance of this shining star.


As for PERHAPS LOVE I also agree that the film is “perhaps crap” but then I never even liked COMRADES so I thought it may have been the style of film that was putting me off so much. (No offence Elif.). I also thought the dance choreography was atrocious. I’m already not a fan of Farah Khan’s style but here it seemed she tried to make the style more universal and ended up removing any small flavor she possesses (she should permanently switch to film directing as MAIN HOON NA was terrific). And on top of the choreography the dance sequences were so choppily edited it was impossible to see what was happening. Editing dance on film is as important as choreography – you need to hire a specialist.


And how good does Michael Kerpan’s “Tange Sazen yowa: Hyakuman ryo no tsubo / The Pot Worth a Million Ryo” sound?!! With plot details that labyrinthine you know you’re in for a ride.

This post has been edited by Jennifer Young on Nov 3 2006, 11:11 AM

> And how good does Michael Kerpan’s “Tange Sazen yowa: Hyakuman ryo no
> tsubo / The Pot Worth a Million Ryo” sound?!! With plot details that labyrinthine
> you know you’re in for a ride.

Yamanaka's storytelling in this is so crystal clear my whole family loved this (and we laughed ourselves silly) even watching it initially without subtitles. Now there is a fan-subbed version that has occasionally shown up on eBay -- so this was our first subbed viewing. (While I had previously found a subbed nth generation copy of a TV broadcast -- no one else could bear to watch it, the visual quality was so excruciating).

I'm hoping that Masters of Cinema has sold enough copies of its excellent DVD of Yamanaka's "Humanity and Paper Balloons" to warrant releasing the two remaining Yamanaka films still in existence. (Kochiyama Soshun -- with a 15 yr old Setsuko Hara -- is also quite good -- but is far less easy to follow without subtitles).

Okay, I watched four more since yesterday’s post:

Three more Shaw Bros. and one more Cathay:

THE RESCUE (1971)
More Shih Szu swordplay, but this time she’s partnered with Lo Lieh and they actually work well together. Moderately entertaining, with lots of action and swordfighting with plenty of bloodshed, plus the most ridiculous-looking wire-work I’ve ever seen (and that’s saying a LOT).

LEGEND OF THE FOX (1980)
Chang Cheh directs a script that seems to be two different movies crammed together, one suspiciously close to Ku Lung-type material, with its King of Poison and his female disciple playing major roles. Three Venoms on hand, but one is seen only in flashback. Lesser Chang Cheh and more of it than necessary at 122 min. (Edit: OK, I checked, it's based on a Louis Cha novel. No wonder.)

7-MAN ARMY (1976)
More Chang Cheh. This has a lot of good kung fu and swordplay and an all-star cast. The only problem—it’s a war movie, as in Sino-Japanese war in 1933(!), when the Japanese fought with guns and cannons and tanks, all of which are on display in the expensive production. Yet when the Japanese army attacks the title crew’s position with tanks and artillery and “bombers,” they retreat when our heroes come out waving bayonets. Every fight scene begs the question: “Why don’t the Japanese just shoot them?” They lose hundreds of soldiers in bloody combat to seven guys with swords and bayonets and no one ever stops to think, "Let’s fire our rifles at them and just end it," which they have plenty of opportunity to do. Utterly stupid. On the plus side, it’s got every Shaw Bros. kung fu star of 1976 in it (Ti Lung, David Chiang, Fu Sheng, Chen Kuan Tai, etc.). And they each get their chance to do a lot of kung fu. When the Mongolian mercenaries working for the Japanese show up, be prepared to smile at the sight of Gordon Liu and Wang Lung-Wei in fright wigs.

And the Cathay musical…

IT’S ALWAYS SPRING (1962)
Julie Yeh Feng and Helen Li Mei play rival singers at a Hong Kong nightclub. Nine musical numbers. Every time a song played, I kept count of how many more good songs this one has than BECAUSE OF HER (see earlier post). The first song: "That’s one more good song than BECAUSE OF HER had." The second: "That’s two more good songs than…" You get the idea. I tend to gravitate more toward Julie Yeh Feng than I do toward Grace Chang. She’s got more of a mature Rita Hayworth/Susan Hayward vibe going that’s more my style than the terminally perky Grace with her Jane Powell vibe. Pretty simple story, shot in b&w, mostly on location, mostly sync-sound (Mandarin). Nice snapshot of an era. Not THE Hong Kong musical I’m searching for. But better than the others from the era that I’ve seen.

This post has been edited by Brian Camp on Nov 3 2006, 10:24 PM

Anyone know the real story behind the story behind the event that forms the film 7-Man Army? I thought I had read it was based on a real incident. The premise of a small group banding together and fighting together against impossible odds is very appealing and that is was based on an actual incident even more so. I really like most of the film and the cameos but have the same gripe as Brian. Perhaps playing it more real would make for a shorter film but if they had done so it would have been one hell of a final act along the lines of Glory.

Thanks Yvonne, for waking us up. Personally it's been a very tumultuous autumn, and I am so far behind on film-watching it's very sad. That said.... the most recent film of interest here that I've seen is THE HOST, during a packed-house SF Film Society screening at the Museum of Modern Art on October 12. Designers Corey Rosen and Webster Colcord from San Francisco's visual effects team The Orphanage were on hand to talk about their design of the titular monster, as well as relating amusing tales of karaoke with the Korean filmmakers. (Jennifer Young posted her comments and some links to the event a few weeks ago...). Very Korean (meaning that the filmmakers tossed every imaginable genre into the blender), scary, and totally entertaining.

I have also just finished watching the INFERNAL AFFAIRS trilogy on DVD, in preparation for viewing THE DEPARTED (which I know cannot possibly be as good, but at least I think I am relieved that the remake's two leads will not be singing the closing theme song for this version). The Balboa Theater in San Francisco is trying to arrange some special screenings of IA to accompany their showing of Scorcese's film; worth keeping an eye out if you are in the Bay Area.

Finally, my other excuse for recent absence on Mobius was my fabulous summer trip to China, during which I saw no films (unless you count part of KUNG FU HUSTLE being shown on a screen above a stall in a Dali night market), but became moderately famous while attending a stage play in Shanghai. Here's my travel journal:

2006 China Travel Journal

Hello Blake (and everyone else),

1933 marked the general offensive of the Japanese Imperial Army against the provinces of northeastern China. There's a fascinating monograph on this topic:

Marjorie Dryburgh, _North China and Japanese Expansion, 1933-1937: Regional Power and the National Interest_ (Richmond, England: Curzon, 2000.) Chapters one and two are probably most germane to your enquiry.

For something a little more brief, see:

David M. Gordon, "The China-Japan War, 1931-1945,"_The Journal of Military History_, 70:1 (January 2006), pp. 137-182.

Here's some screen captures from a Chinese site if more people want to see the data on the Celestial disc:

http://photo.163.com/photos/shawbrothers/22420080/#p1

(To everybody): Just to add my two cents to this growing thread, since coming back to the US, I've been slowly working my way through my mother's TV serial collection. Am making my way through the 1983 TVB production _The Bund_ starring Chow Yun-fat, Ray Liu, and Angie Chiu. Ah, the childhood memories... two best friends rise through the ranks of Shanghai's underworld during the Nanking Decade only to become mortal enemies when they fall in love with the same woman, the daughter of one of the city's most powerful men. Although this was re-made in the nineties by Tsui Hark as "Shanghai Grand" with the late Leslie Cheung and Andy Lau in Chow and Lui's roles, respectively, nothing beats old school TVB. I wonder when this program will show up on remastered DVD with English subs for non-Sinophone fans--you're really missing something if you haven't seen it yet.

Oh yeah. Recently re-watching _Trick_ on YouTube in England made we re-watch the series, on disc in America, with Chinese subs. Should probably get around to ordering the 2005 TV special for Christmas....

Watched another musical, which also happened to be another Shaw Bros. film:

BLUE SKIES (1967)
This is actually a little better than the other HK musicals I've been viewing. For one thing, its star, Cheng Pei-Pei, is an actual dancer and a very good one at that. I love her in her action films where she wields swords and whips and rides horses and flies up over walls and such, but it's an even greater pleasure to watch her graceful movements as she dances. And she does get to dance a lot here. Bravo! She also gets to act a number of different emotional stages and she's very, very good.

The film's signature song, "Moonlight Over Lotus Pond," is quite beautiful and I'm curious as to who actually sings for Cheng Pei-Pei, because the voice is very lovely. There's one great scene where she's in a Singapore nightclub, drinking heavily in order to tolerate having to spend the evening with the boorish entrepreneur backing the troupe that she's the star of. When the band plays the melody of the song, written by the boyfriend she left behind in Hong Kong, she starts to sing along with the band and the violinist comes over and plays next to her, prompting her boss to pull her out of the club outside and into the car. She never stops singing the whole time. Beautiful.

The production numbers are a little more carefully and expensively rendered than their counterparts in the other HK musicals I've seen, although they're still not as good as I'd like them to be. Their Beach Party number, for instance, is nowhere near as fun as the songs from the actual Beach Party movies. But they're all watchable, including the "Big-Headed Kids" number where they all wear big masks and have to do to the "bamboo dance" while their vision is impaired by the masks.

So, this may not be THE Hong Kong musical I'm looking for, but I feel I'm getting closer. And if you're a fan of Cheng Pei-Pei, you really owe it to her to watch her dance.

I haven't been watching as many Asian films as I used to, but this thread inspired me to place an order for a few, which I haven't done since before I was a grad student. Time and money are in short supply -- I haven't seen nearly as many movies of any kind in the last year and a half as I used to.

But my last four, in no particular order:

WU YEN (Hong Kong, 2001) -- I wasn't quite in the mood for this, perhaps... Sort of reminded me of Green Snake, which I also couldn't quite get into -- this sort of fantasy and pantomime-like acting is a little difficult for me.

THE LIFE OF OHARU (Japan, 1952) -- This happened to be showing at the Film Forum when I was last in NYC. The only other Mizoguchi I'd seen was SISTERS OF GION, many years ago on a terrible VHS copy, so this was great for a relatively random selection. One of the most moving films I've seen, and I'm not very susceptible to that sort of thing, for better or worse.

OSAMA (Afghanistan, 2003) -- Sort of a mirror image of LIFE OF OHARU. Another story of a woman (or girl, in this case) abused by her society's rules and expectations. My comment to the person who rented it was that it was the kind of film that's most interested in making the viewer feel virtuously awful. (Maybe I'm just cold-hearted.)

NEW POLICE STORY (Hong Kong, 2004) -- I don't know about this one. Jackie Chan seemed to be in a different movie from everyone else, but the action wasn't bad. I don't remember what the reviews/comments about this were when this came out.

Next up: Shinobi, Bichunmoo, and 14 Amazons, whenever they arrive.

Browsing my notes, I'm surprised to see I haven't watched an Asian (first viewing) film for months. Unless you count the brilliant BORAT, which I saw today.

However, I did catch on BBC4 not long ago a documentary THE EMPEROR'S NAKED ARMY MARCHES ON, and I don't believe I have ever been so captivated by such a journal. I was curious as to how HARU KAZUO found his subject, but it turns out the charismatic (completely insane) Okuzaki contacted the director himself. I have looked for a copy, but it never seems to have been released and I have had no luck in hunting down Kazuo's other films either, so any pointers would greatly appreciated.

Read about it in the linked interview. BBC4 often repeats stuff, so Britishers and digitzed Euros, be alert. It left me in a state of shock.

Interview with Haru Kazuo

Cheers,
Alex...

I've been knee-deep in western horror films for the last several months, working on the SHOCK IT TO ME! festival, that I have pretty much been neglecting watching any Japanese films (having pretty much given up on HK a while ago) or any Old School Shaws. But... I recently worked on the SISTER STREET FIGHTER boxset for BCI/Eclipse, and watched the first two films in the set -- you can't go wrong with Etsuko Shiomi cracking skulls; and I also watched the original SUKEBAN DEKA (1986) released by Media Blasters, as well as Discotek's release of THE WAR IN SPACE (1977) to review for Super 7 magazine.

Hopefully, I'll be able to dive back into the Asian Cinema Pool feet first again soon.

I saw THE HOST this past weekend at AFI Fest, and SINKING OF JAPAN and D-WAR at the American Film Market. I recommend the first two.

Before anything else, good to see so many respondents (and a few not so familiar names among the them)! Thank you one and all for writing but also reading and viewing! And do please keep up the good "work"!!!

This sounds excellent (as do many of the movies you are moved to describe/rave about, Michael!). Does it come with English subs??

You probably already have checked out THE EXAM (Takita Yojiro, dir.; 1999). But just in case you haven't, wonder whether you might find this film which also touches on the flaws (along with ties that bind) of a middle class Japanese family and the Japanese educational system, in particular at the pre-primary school level, to make more more satisfying viewing? Personally, I found quite a bit that was of interest, empathy and charm from my viewing of it.

Similarly, upon reading your favorable impressions of the Johnnie To films you've recently viewed, am thinking that you might wish to check out the under-rated -- as is, I feel, WHERE A GOOD MAN GOES and, among segments of the Western sections of Hong Kong movie fandom, NEEDING YOU... -- MY LEFT EYE SEES GHOSTS and LOVE ON A DIET. Also, if you're looking to try something along the lines but from another director: would highly recommend LOST IN TIME (which has a Johnnie To connection in its lead actor being Lau Ching Wan).

I don't want to think that Peter Chan is creatively bankrupt. And not since his last directorial effort before PERHAPS LOVE was the very interesting -- and original -- THREE: GOING HOME. Having said that, perhaps Asian cinema might be better served by Mr. Chan largely sticking to producing -- like he seems keen to do in the wake of his doing such as having established Applause Pictures and, in recent years, having producing credits for such as THE EYE, GOLDEN CHICKEN (1 and 2), THREE, DUMPLINGS and MCDULL: THE ALUMNI.

Wow, Brian, you sure are getting your fill of Asian movies, aren't you?! As for myself, my movie viewing pace seems to have slowed down lately. So I only have one more film to write about since I last posted on this thread:-

STOWAWAY (Hong Kong, 2001) -- looks to be a low budget as well as early foray into Hong Kong movie production by Celestial Pictures. Think Clarence Fok instead of Peter Chan, a cast whose biggest names appear to be Julian Cheung and Athena Chu (who, much as I like her, doesn't carry quite the same critical cache as Zhou Xuan) instead of Zhou Xuan, Jacky Cheung and Takeshi Kaneshiro, a scriptwriter in Lai Man Cheuk instead of Raymond To and Aubrey Lam, etc., etc. The upshot is a film that's not without some modicum of ambition along with serious and (then, if not now) topical themes -- i.e., the chronicling of desperate Chinese attempts at illegal immigration, notably to the promised land exemplified by the U.K. -- whose melodrama, sensationalism and general technical flaws nonetheless resulted in 'missed opportunities' at the box office but, also, in terms of critical respectability.

My rating for the film: 5.5