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annhellan
Reviews
Ren yue li hun hou (2011)
Silly... silly movie
After watching some really bad Hong Kong films recently I kinda given up on them. But my girl friends raved about this film so I finally convinced by boy friend to take me to see it. Wow, what a bad idea that was! I now feel like I owe him big time for taking me out and suffering through it. Plot holes the size of China aside, if you're going to make a character driven movie (I really DO hope that that was what the director was trying for cause there was no plot) you really need to give the characters character!!! Why does Fong Lik-Sun's character have to speak like a 10 year old whining boy... ALL THE TIME? I'm not into macho men, but I couldn't see a single thread of evidence why this character could possibly be in any way attractive to any woman...no matter how much of a loser she could be - and Charmaine Sheh's character certainly turned out to be one. Character driven films are great when complex characters do surprising things which are consistent to their character. What Patrick Kong did instead was to create 2D characters and have them do things that are totally out of character (and not understandable to any sane person in the audience). The whole swingers party seems totally implausible. I did notice the audience smirking at some of the dialogue (which both me and by boyfriend rolled our eyes at). I got a brief giggle about 3 times in the whole film, but wanted to fall asleep during most of it. I think my boy friend got a better deal cause there were some good looking girls and cleavage to keep him interested, but I noticed him nodding off too for a fair amount of the film. But in the end, this film got good press, and I DID mention that I watched it cause my girl friends like it. So there must be something there. When I asked them about it though, they pointed out that they liked the cute dialogue. When I mentioned the plot holes and flat characters they said that I shouldn't be so serious cause it was only a silly movie... that, I totally agree with.
Ip Man (2008)
enjoyable
There are so many martial arts films out there with Donnie Yen in it I never know if I've seen a film with him in it or not. But Ip Man does stand out from the others. I enjoyed the character's relationship with his wife, which I thought gave an interesting side to him. And most of the fights were cool. The whole film had a classy look to it that seemed real. I'm a little sick of the Chinese beating up on Japanese storyline, but I guess it's true to the era which the film is set in. And I thought the final fight was really disappointing. The Japanese general was built up to be such a fantastic fighter but in the end he just seemed lame. But all in all it was an enjoyable film. Gonna watch Ip Man 2 now. :)
Little Gobie (2010)
Hongkong drops the animation ball
The first Toy Story type animation to come out of Hongkong was Dragon Blade which was a terrific movie, really using the talent Hongkong has in martial arts to tell a solid family story. This was continued with the success of TMNT, again having great action in it. Now Astro Boy might not have been as successful as TMNT, but it was certainly great entertainment. I loved that movie!!! So when Little Gobie came out as the next Hongkong made computer animated film I was more than eager to see it. But it was really really REALLY REALLY R E A L L Y bad. OMG, didn't the director see any of the other animated films made by his fellow countrymen??? What was on the mind of the people who paid to make this movie??? Do ANY of them watch any moves at all??? All I can say is, thank GOD I went alone to watch this (and the theater was pretty empty too). I guess people can sense a stinker. Well, from now on I'm gonna be a little more careful before choosing to watch an animated movie made in Hongkong!
Lung do kei yuen (2005)
Go girl power
I really wasn't hot on seeing this film. I'm not into cartoons, and even less into fighting movies. But my friends wanted to see it and so in I went. I have to say that going to watch the film with not expecting anything much might have helped, but I actually really liked it. I'm amazed that this was made in Hong Kong. The last thing I saw like this was Shrek which was very funny - but this is actually a lot more cooler. Even with me not being into fight stuff I was really tensed up for the fighting bits. I actually left nail marks on my bf's arm :p Also, what I really liked was that they didn't make the girl part (Ying Ying) in the film too girly. I mean, she was actually even cooler than the lead guy. I really had to laugh at the way she controlled Lang - go girl power go! I'm going to get the DVD and learn some of her moves ;)