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Reviews
H Project (2013)
Messy and Uneven
As a fan of the horror genre, I've been looking for good horror flicks and decided to try this Thai film.
Two hours is quite long for what little actually happens in this movie. The pacing is uneven: Nothing happens for a long time, and then suddenly everything changes in 20 minutes. The final plot twist is so crazy is a totally WTF moment because it makes no sense.
It's kind of difficult to understand what exactly is happening because given the plot of the story, the timing and location(s) of the ghost doesn't jive with the tale told to the teens. I.e., she appears way earlier than she "should" and really had nothing to do with them setting foot on the island.
Overall, the movie just feels like the director's trying to throw a bunch of horror clichés at the wall and see what sticks. What results is a subpar film, period. Horror or no horror.
Huang feihong zhi yingxiong you meng (2014)
A good looking effort, but no new ground broken
The movie is about the early days of Wong Fei Hung, a real person in late-19th century/early 20th-century China whose deeds have been greatly embellished and made into dozens of films and TV series. He is the same character portrayed by Jet Li in the Once Upon a Time series.
However, the film itself has almost nothing to do with the real person. The main character uses the WFH name and his father conjures up familiar memories of a umbrella-wielding kung fu master popularized by the Iron Monkey film. Also, in the real-life tales of WFH's heroic deeds, it is said that he took on a dock gang in his early days, which this movie loosely portrays.
Other than that, this movie could have simply been a standalone film. But the WFH name is famous throughout China and no doubt was used to sell more tickets.
Although the use of CGI and wire is very noticeable at times, the overall look and choreography of the film is very good. Unfortunately, as is common with Chinese films, too much attention is paid to the look, but not enough to the substance.
Ultimately the movie does not break any new ground. As is common in Chinese action films, characters again do inexplicably idiotic things for the sake of creating "drama" or "emotion" and to create convenient scenarios to push the plot along without any serious attempt to explain WHY.
Overall, it's not a bad movie but it's also little more than another typical Chinese flick that looks good but doesn't do anything beyond that.
Tong Pak Foo dim Chau Heung (1993)
A Classic Stephen Chow Master Piece
To be honest, I am not a big fan of Stephen Chow's earlier works. Not that they were bad, but they were not as good as the classics such as God of Cookery, King of Comedy, Shaolin Soccer, and of course, this film. I found the early films with Stephen talking in a cartoonish "comedic" voice annoying.
The ones where he has more creative control tend to have him speaking in a more natural, and more deadpan voice and those films tend to carry deeper messages than just a mindless comedy. Seriously, some scenes are moving.
Now back to this movie, there's really not much to criticize here. The acting, the dialogue, the typical Stephen Chow style of humor, all fantastic. There aren't many ROFL moments, but there are endless classic funny moments that the film will make you grin from ear to ear pretty much from start to finish. And I know that I personally still quote some lines from the movie in my everyday life... :)
The one knock I do have is Gong Li, whose talents seem wasted in the film. No doubt she looks great in the film, but she's not given much to do and seems rather wooden as if she did not enjoy herself in the movie. Knowing Gong's talent, it felt strange to see her character just be a "vase" love interest and nothing more.
I guess you don't want to have anyone upstage Stephen but in that case why not cast a starlet with a less impressive resume than Gong?
However, overall, this is a great film and I highly recommend it.
Yang jia jiang (2013)
Typical Asian Idol Movie
First of all, please do not believe people who tell you this is based on a "true" story. While there is a historical Yang Ye and his son Yang Yanchao, the events of this movie is extremely fictionalized. In fact, the only thing that can be verified to be true is that both Yang Ye and Yang Yanchao existed.
Second, this is the kind of "idol" movie that plagues Chinese cinema nowadays. Yes, the dudes are good looking movie stars and the style looks good. But, substance-wise, there's not much here. There's no distinguishable personality difference about these guys. The common thread is that hey these are handsome and awesome heroes who are all willing to sacrifice themselves (as well as their unfortunate followers) to save their dad.
Anyhow, there's a lot of melodramatic shots of heroism and sacrifice, and the end is an ironic twist to the prediction made by the old mystic man who says "seven sons will go, six will return."
The cinematography and choreography is very well done. Unfortunately, like which many big-budget Asian films, it's more about style than substance. The characters do inexplicably stupid things in the name of honor (and looking cool), and at the end, this little more than a typical brainless waste of 100 minutes.
I gave this a 5 because the fight scenes are very nice, and at least not a mess of CGI. There have been far worse Asian movies out there in recent years, so while I would not recommend this movie, at least it's not an utter disaster.
Huo Yuan Jia (2001)
Watch this series for the fight scenes, not the drama
Vincent Zhao and Wu Yue are excellent in their fight scenes and both do act pretty well, especially Wu as Chen Zhen. This was Wu's debut and he shows very good acting skills for a new comer.
Unfortunately, there isn't much else to like about the series. The show drags on and on with repetitious scenes and little self-awareness - scenes seem to contradict one another sometimes. Characters get shot and stabbed in one scene, but they are fine in the next, or the wound is in a totally different place. I understand that scenes usually aren't shot in sequence chronologically, but it's just sloppy work when lines in one scene clearly contradict what happened in the previous scene. Characters also do incredibly stupid things and plot holes are plenty.
Foreigners are stereotyped as villains yet again. Not a single foreigner can be loosely classified as a good person. There's even an homage scene to Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury, where Chinese and dogs aren't permitted in a park. Done at least twice, in fact.
I would recommend the follow up series which stars Wu Yue as Chen Zhen over this one.
Wo hu (2006)
Film with potential, but the movie went nowhere
This film has a strong ensemble cast including silver screen veterans like Eric Tsang and Francis Ng. The premise of the movie is that HK police sent hundreds of undercover cops to infiltrate the various gangs in HK. However, that plot element is relegated to a very minor role as the film is more about focusing on the lives and internal struggles of the gang leaders as they cope with internal conflict among gang factions and the gang's survival is threatened. There are funny moments in this film and a few moving scenes as well, but there's no consistent pacing and the plot never had coherent progression. If the film makers were going for realism, they ruined it with a ridiculous and lame romance subplot involving a gang leader and a beautiful young woman who apparently loves to chat up weird looking middle aged men wandering alone late at night. (And no, the character is not a hooker) That subplot does lead to a hilariously unrealistic death scene so perhaps there is a small payoff.