Change Your Image
scholmt
Reviews
Smoke (1995)
One Of Wayne Wangs Best Films
The story revolves around 5 main characters whos lives meet at a tobacco store in Brooklyn and for a few days there lives criss cross leaving them all the better for it. The film is split into 5 chapters each titled after a main character and focusing mainly on them for the remainder of it. Some of the characters consist of William Hurt who plays a novelist who hasnt been the same since his wife died and Forest Whitaker who plays the failed absent father to Harold Perrineau the mixed up kid who decides to go looking for him after a tip off from his aunt.
People looking for a fast paced film should look else where as Smoke is a slow drama based on people and dialogue but once you get involved in the film you get hooked. The performances given from Hurt and Keitel in the film are excellent but for me Harold Perrineau stole the show in one of his earliest movie roles. Also special mention should got to the end credits which was nice to go out on.
Chuen zik saat sau (2001)
Great Asian Action Cinema
Takashi Sorimachi plays asias top assassin O hes quiet and regretful of his lifestyle but always gets the job done and is effecient. Andy Lau is the rival assassin Tok who is coming up through the ranks and challenging O for the title of number 1 assassin. Tok is the reverse of O hungry for attention and enjoys his job smiling, laughing and referencing movies through out the film. Caught between the two is Os house cleaner Chin (Kelly Lin) and interpol agent Lee (Simon Yam). Chin and O are attracted to each other but all the time theyve known each other they have done nothing about it. Then Tok meets Chin in the video store she works in at night and they develop a relationship of there own creating a love triangle.
Johnny To has created a great entertaining film in the John Woo, Ringo Lam heroic bloodshed style. The performances are all good especially the two main leads who are great in there roles bringing coolness to the screen whenever there present but i feel Simon Yam and Kelly Lins characters werent developed as much as i would of liked. The ending was also slighlty disapointing taking the attention of the film away from the assassins to Simon yam. As far as realism is concerned dont expect much but you shouldnt with a film like this. Overall the film is really entertaining featuring some great action shootouts.