westendboy Posted June 6, 2019 Author Posted June 6, 2019 The story of Little Forest is very simple - A young woman grows tired of life in the city and returns to her hometown in the countryside. Little Forest doesn’t rush. It moves with a painterly crawl and the tick tock of a biological clock. It has a way with things as we follow Kim Tae-ri (The Handmaiden) takes a journey through her childhood home and also an internal journey. I didn’t find it slow and marvel with all the halcyon aspects of country living. This is an ode to simpler living, cooking, the love for nature and living off the earth. The movie may seem simple but if you are willing to take a deeper dive you will find it inspirational and meditative. It has a beautiful final shot that I will file it in my book of “movies with the best final shot”. My last advice is not to watch this on an empty stomach. I had the luxury of watching this while gormandising on my wifey’s fabulous curry baked rice. I hope you are as lucky as me (4 / 5) With this French movie we laughed the hardest this year. It’s about a bunch of has-beens who got into synchronised swimming and found their second youth. It fleets easily from character to character and goes through the usual paces of the typical underdog stories. But they are winsome and you will root for them. Good use of popular 80s music and that last swimming sequence is awesome. This is a feel-gooder and it will definitely put a wide smile on your face. There are hundreds of movies about female friendships, but not many on male bonding. I also like how an undertone of social stigma-ism runs through it. Sink or Swim feels like “Pool” Monty. (3.5 / 5) We started watching this sci-fi called High Life one night. Highly lauded by movie critics and Robert Pattinson will be the new Batman. It’s about this man and his baby who are drifting in space. It has one of the most disturbing one-man sex scene ever. But this is not really what I want to say. After 30min the missus yawned thrice. I can take a hint so I popped the question - “do you want to finish this?” She said no faster than the speed of light. On another day, I finished it. OMG! If there were a gun next to me, I would have put it in my mouth. The movie just goes nowhere. There is no story or plot. And the ending is like slap-in-face abrupt. This is 2 hours gone forever! My respect for my wife just went up a few notches. She can smell-see-know BS within 10min. Me, I am too hopeful. Those critics must have been paid to write good stuff about it. (1 / 5) This is a sordid but damn entertaining movie about a literary forger. It’s based on a true story. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) made her living in the 1970's and 80's profiling the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estee Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. When Lee is no longer able to get published because she has fallen out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception, abetted by her loyal friend Jack (Richard E. Grant). An adaptation of the memoir "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" relays the true story of the best-selling celebrity biographer (and friend to cats). I never thought comedienne Melissa McCarthy had it in her with a straight role. She is amazing! Any actor can do down-and-out, but not many actors can do that so compellingly and without patronising the viewer. She commands every scene she is in and she is in all the scenes. She exhibits a mien that embodies so many emotions - guardedness, vulnerability, cynicism - sometimes all at the same time. McCarthy totally deserved her Oscar nomination. Playing opposite her is Richard E. Grant who is also her equal. Their scenes together is fabulous. From their first encounter in a bar you will know and feel the pure chemistry, and you will have no idea how their relationship will transpire. Their spark is the real deal. That last scene in the bar (see how the movie lovingly bookended their relationship) is just lovely. The movie does a meticulous job of showing the why and how she had to do what she did. The irony hits you like Thor’s Mjolnir. This is one of those movies that will make you ponder whether the cruel society had a part to play in her dire predicament. (4 / 5) height=500 width=350http://a66.tinypic.com/245zhg7.jpg[/img] With a title like Killing for the Prosecution, a killer soundtrack and a broody Takuya Kimura, how could it go wrong? Everything goes to shite by the time the 20th character appears in the first 20min. I am not exaggerating... the movie has myriad characters with none of their motivations painted with any clarity. This is Bad Movie Making 101. One of its biggest problems is that it has too many sub-plots vying for your attention. None of the scenes breathe. The director doesn’t even want to give you time to ponder what you have just seen because the next scene with a separate plot thread will just drop like a cartoon anvil. The editing is clunky and downright sudden. I think the director ran out of ideas on how to wrap up the story, so a character was parachuted in just to tie up things in a neat bow. That’s called a cheat. With characters this vaguely and lazily drawn, you can forget about suspense. There is a sex scene and when it drop I looked at my wifey and went WTF and HTF did it happen. The movie, no, the torture ended in a cathartic manner - Kazunari Ninomiya, the actor looks off-screen and he wails one long frustrated scream. I think he screamed for me and I somehow felt a little better. It’s a shame because underneath all the bad storytelling is a very compelling story. (2 / 5) When Michael Kingley, a successful retired businessman starts to see images from his past that he can't explain, he's forced to remember his childhood and how, as a boy, he rescued and raised an extraordinary orphaned pelican, Mr Percival. I like watching movies made by other countries other than America. Hollywood has a way of telling stories that treat us as lobotomised audiences, thinking we need to walk out of the cinema feeling happy. Granted, made in Australia Storm Boy has a kinda happy ending, but it isn’t pretentious and it invites you to ponder what will eventually happen. If it’s Hollywood I am pretty sure they will do a coda and not leave it opened. Every country’s way of making their films is unique. I like the aesthetics of Storm Boy. It is well-shot, has stunning sights and superb performances, even from the pelicans. One of my joys of watching movies is to be astounded by “how did they do that” scenes. Storm Boy has a motherlode of these wondrous scenes. I mean come on those must be CGI pelicans but they look too real to be fake and their actions and behaviour touch a nerve in me. A quick check on IMDb trivia on the movie confirmed my suspicion. Those are real pelicans and my admiration for the filmmakers’ craft soared. Go read how they actually shot all those scenes with the lovely birds. This is a movie I wanted to hug. I love its narrative structure and its big beating heart. It is a movie that is easy to love and will restore your faith in mankind. It is the perfect family film. Forget about taking your kids to ballet, art, dance and tuition classes. You need to teach them to love animals. That will put them in great stead for their future. (3.5 / 5) Some others we have seen include Good Bye Lenin!, Terms of Endearment, Ghost World, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, The Lego Movie 2, Boy Erased, Trading Places, Miss Baek, Welcome to Marwen, The Children Act, Destroyer and Overlord - the movie is so-so but the Atmos sound design is a killer.
westendboy Posted June 21, 2019 Author Posted June 21, 2019 What’s sadder than watching a movie alone? Watching a romantic tearjerker by me-self. The missus doesn’t want to see Be With You because she has already seen the 2004 Japanese original. Woo Jin takes care of his son Ji Ho alone after his wife Soo A passed away. Before she passed away, she promised she would be back on a rainy day one year later. One year later, Soo A appears again, but she does not remember anything. That’s the story and it’s the same as the Japanese film, but trust the Koreans to milk all the melodrama with two very appealing stars. This Korean version brings on the feels and hits all the emotional beats with gusto. The mental illness that stricken Woo Jin is not as visible as the Japanese, but it’s no less crippling. The opening animated sequence is really cute and it anchors the Twilight Zone-ish premise well. There are many aspects that I love and enjoy more than the Japanese original. Most of all it is the tender charms that does it for me. It starts off as romantic love but segues into familial love thereafter. And that final act when the perspective changes holds empathetic storytelling power - there are always two sides to a story. For me, the movie is a good reminder that life is all about the moments. We go about our life accumulating stuff, wealth, status and so on, but the narrative here proffers that it is about creating moments with your loved one that both of you will remember till the end of days which is more important. Don’t let the first time you hold someone’s hand, kiss someone be forgettable. Creating these moments that will be cemented into each other’s memories doesn’t take a lot. Just perhaps some thinking cap and effort. I better stop before I become an emotional nutcase. If you want a good cry, I recommend this on a rainy day with someone you love. Don’t do this alone like me. (3.5/5) I saw a FB post on Christopher Nolan’s 30 films to see before you die the other day. I wouldn’t have bothered if it’s a post by Christopher Tan, but this is Nolan we are talking about. If he talks films, you should fu*king take notes. Anyway, out of the 30 I have yet to see 12 and I have not even heard of 6 of them. That’s a grade of “fail” by my lofty standards. Since I am sitting on a few that I actually own, I thought I do one in Nolan’s list today. Al Reinert’s For All Mankind documents the Apollo missions perhaps the most definitively of any movie under two hours. Al Reinert watched all the footage shot during the missions--over 6,000,000 feet of it, and picked out the best. Instead of being a newsy, fact-filled documentary, Reinart focuses on the human aspects of the space flights. The only voices heard in the film are the voices of the astronauts and mission control. Reinart uses the astronaunts' own words from interviews and mission footage. The score by Brian Eno underscores the strangeness, wonder, and beauty of the astronauts' experiences which they were privileged to have for a first time "for all mankind." The documentary is bookended by President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 speech that adds a mythical feel to mankind’s greatest endeavour. This is a documentary that is very different in that there are no talking heads and rather than focusing on one particular space mission, it edits many of the Apollo missions into one fluid take, from preparation to lifting off to walking on the moon to coming home. The images are stunning and nothing beats listening to the astronauts’ speech as they looked at a little blue marble while standing on the moon. The documentary doesn’t have an ounce of American jingoism; it is as if to say this small step is for all of mankind and that includes you and me. I watch a lot of sci-fi stuff but I always know I am watching a movie because everything is CGI. With For All Mankind, I have none of that feeling. Its spine-tingling and some of the images scored to the atmospheric music of Brian Eno put in a hitch in my breath. A must-see. Nolan knows his films. Although I must say I have not much love for The Tree of Life, but for Nolan I will try watching it again. (4/5) In case you are wondering about Nolan’s bucket list for films, here it is: https://www.bosshunting.com.au/culture/christopher-nolan-30-must-see-films The war genre is not my wife’s goto genre, so I did this on my own. But she is going to regret not seeing Thor on horseback charging through columns of tanks, mortars, machine guns and crazy suicide bombers. What a glorious sight! Almost as good as him going mano a mano with Hulk. After the tragic events of 9/11, the US determines that the Taliban in Afghanistan is the source of many of the attacks on US citizens and assets. Their first step in confronting the Taliban is to send in Special Forces teams to link up with the Northern Alliance, the enemies of the Taliban, help them in their fight against Taliban, including through coordinating air support, and reduce the Taliban's territory. The first team "in country" is Operational Detachment Alpha 595, lead by Captain Mitch Nelson. The 12 of them face overwhelming odds. This is their story. 12 Strong doesn’t try to blaze a new warpath for the genre. It is contented with going through the same old emotional beats and rough terrain. But it is still a hoowah good time as you see brave men fighting impossible odds, even if it is shallow. What I like about this is the punishing landscape and the need to bring the battle on horsebacks. It is realistically shot and it is hard to imagine that all 12 made it. It would have been amazing on Atmos but I only had this on DTS-HD MA5.1. This is a great one for your home theatre. (3/5) PS - Maybe I just show her the scene of Thor charging like a bat out of hell at a monster rocket launcher with just a machine gun as his Mjolnir. Some others we have seen include I am Mother, Ryuichi Sakamoto:Coda, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and Toy Story 1-3.
YANG Posted June 21, 2019 Posted June 21, 2019 The war genre is not my wife’s goto genre, so I did this on my own. But she is going to regret not seeing Thor on horseback charging through columns of tanks, mortars, machine guns and crazy suicide bombers......... Wifey don't like noisy war mobie... Can go little softer thriller... Michael Maan's "BLACKHAT" can give a softer side impression of Thor.
westendboy Posted June 21, 2019 Author Posted June 21, 2019 Wifey don't like noisy war mobie... Can go little softer thriller... Michael Maan's "BLACKHAT" can give a softer side impression of Thor. I saw this. It’s terrible. One of the worse things Michael Mann have ever done. The casting is all wrong. None of them look remotely like a world-class cyber terrorist/hacker
Guest AndrewC Posted June 21, 2019 Posted June 21, 2019 I saw this. It’s terrible. One of the worse things Michael Mann have ever done. The casting is all wrong. None of them look remotely like a world-class cyber terrorist/hacker +1... was a totally crap movie.
westendboy Posted June 27, 2019 Author Posted June 27, 2019 A quick one - Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch is only a sequel by spirit. It has no link to the first one. This one showcases another criminal that commits crimes blatantly and the police has no clue how to catch him. It doesn’t quite have the same sense of historical time and place like its predecessor, and it definitely doesn’t have the same star power. That said, Tony Leung plays his role superbly well and he chews every scene he is in. Louis Lo, HK’s #1 busiest actor, puts in a creditable performance as an undercover cop. The plot is the usual run of the mill stuff and I have a strong feeling Wong Jing took a lot of liberties with the story. And this being a Wong Jing movie you know he goes through cycles of good-bad-bad movies. This one isn’t an exceptionally good one but neither is it bad. It’s one of those you won’t remember much in a week. And Wong Jing being Wong Jing, still paints women in two categories - cannon fodder or sex objects. But watching this in Cantonese is so cool. That gives it another 0.5 (3.5/5) height=650 width=500http://a66.tinypic.com/24gv9yg.jpg[/img] Oh my goodness... did Mr King even vet through the storyline or did he just sign away all his creations for big bucks? This is one big colossal waste of time. In case you didn’t know, Castle Rock is based on the stories of Stephen King, and the series intertwine characters and themes from the fictional town of Castle Rock. At the 16th minute of the last episode, the protagonist Henry Deaver says: “I don’t know what’s happening”. Fu*k! You and me both man! Then somewhere at the 30th minute he tells Molly: “Get into a car and drive as far away from Castle Rock as possible”. Wished that advice had come earlier. The characters did the best they could with the slack material and Sissy Spacek is a pleasure to watch. The trainspotting elements are pretty cool, but only if you are a big Stephen King fan. These don’t last though. Most of the characters are just brooding enigmas walking from point A to B. The story is the epitome of lazy writing but each episode has one thing that will keep you going. The only great episode is #7 with Spacek’s character carrying the episode. It is a brilliant episode, featuring all sorts of good horror and melancholia, but during the last few minutes it falls flat, right onto its face. I blame myself for being patient, too patient, hoping against hope that the axe will drop and everything will make sense, but it didn’t. In the end, the final revelation felt like a slap in my face. It felt like one good story idea stretched out across 10 dreary episodes. This looked great on paper - taking King’s story characters, themes and creating the fictional town of Castle Rock, but the execution is way off the mark of a good King horror tale. The scariest part is that they are doing a season 2. I am out of here. The only good thing is that I didn’t get my wifey to watch this with me. Feeling a little under the weather, so I thought I will watch an action no-brainer, but I never thought Peppermint would be that brainless, guileless and witless. It has zero subtlety. It plays out like a cliché straight arrow like those bullet-ridden tattoo-covered scumbags. We know they are bad guys, the scum of the earth, because they have tattoos on their faces, wear gold chains, hold guns like bouncing rappers and punctuate their speech with f-bombs every other time. So Jennifer Garner is here to wipe out the mess of the city, five years after seeing her family get mowed down by these scumbags. If it’s done well, you would probably feel for Garner’s Riley and punch your fist in the air as another dirtbag bites the dust. But you probably won’t. If you did, my respect for you just gone down a few notches The only good thing is seeing Garner channeling Alias. But with a script this kindergartenish, I am surprised she didn’t just shoot herself and join her family in the end. At least they are in a better place. (2/5) Onwards to another stinker I thought the title sound promising. At the very least I can find out what crypto currency is about, especially when a friend of mine just left high post in a Russian ran crypto currency company. But heck... there’s not much mentioned about crypto currency at all. In fact, this is just a family drama that you won’t give two hoots about. I have not seen so much wooden acting before. It even wants to be cryptic. Hey! Maybe that’s the original title, but somebody messed up and it became Crypto. At the 33th minute, Kurt Russell’s character utters in a gruff voice: “grab a shovel or go”. No way am I grabbing a shovel for this BS. (0.5/5) height=600 width=500http://a67.tinypic.com/11vo26f.jpg[/img] I started watching this in the afternoon, but 15 minutes I had a feeling my wife might dig it. So I told her the basic premise - girl wakes up on her birthday and it is a bad day. Before the day is over, she will be killed by a masked man. Then she wakes up again... on her birthday, the same day. She needs to find out who her killer is to stop the time loop. She said okay. I am careful with these time paradox genre because it always gives her a headache. This one didn’t. We actually bought pizzas, thinking it be fun to eat them while watching. We had so much fun that we forgot to eat the pizzas. So in went the sequel. This time we remembered to eat. Awesome movies in this genre don’t have to try very hard to explain the how. If done well, we are being led by the compelling characters towards dire straits. This is just so much fun. The sequel ups the ante by throwing everything including the kitchen sink into the plot. The plot is as busy as a beehive, filled with all sorts of crazy ideas. In the midst of it all it still manages to spring surprises, dazzle with its mordant humour and warm us with its heart. We enjoyed them tremendously. I remember watching the trailers in the cinema, but you know how we think we can judge a movie by its trailer. Well... I just thought it was all so silly. They are silly alright, but they are also so inventive and never once take themselves seriously. (3/5,3.5/5) Others we have watched include Herstory, , Steel Rain and The Upside, MiB: International and Dark Phoenix.
westendboy Posted July 1, 2019 Author Posted July 1, 2019 height=650 width=450http://a67.tinypic.com/e5qwr9.jpg[/img] We saw Still Human the other evening at Filmgarde @Bugis+. It was a screening by Singapore Film Society. It’s an excellent movie by a first time director and it’s so good I owe it some nice words. It was nominated for a slew of awards at the recent concluded HK Film Awards and it won 3. The major one is for Best Actor for Anthony Wong (黄秋生). The veteran plays a paralegic from the chest down and he is so amazing he chews up the scenes he is in without breaking a sweat. The acting is so organic and authentic, you won’t feel he is reading from a script. It feels like he ad-libed the scenes. Playing opposite him is a newcomer who plays the Filipino caregiver. She is also very good and in her I see the embodiment of all female foreign helpers who are here to ply an honest living. When the movie is on the two of them it is so good. Heck! I probably can see this 10 times, which is 9 times more than our Ilo Ilo. None of that arty farty flatulence; just good ole honest portrayals. It plays out like a comedy of manners as the two of them struggle to find a common ground. And OMG... watching this in its native language of Cantonese is just lovely. There are a couple of missteps (a side plot involving Wong’s estranged sister played by 叶童 and a too long dalliance on other foreign helpers) which drag it down a bit. But these don’t make the movie suffer. Still Human still hits the funny bone and by golly... grab our emotional heart, filling it with so much human warmth that we burst out in tears. (3.5/5) Saw another one from Nolan’s list. Initially, I saw it with my wife over the weekend, but 30min in I could see she couldn’t take it anymore. I too had a hard time. The film doesn’t adhere to a traditional narrative structure and it is difficult to follow the proceedings when there isn’t a “guide” in the form of actors. So I suggested something else and finished this on my own today. All I can say she shouldn’t have given up so easily. The film improves by leaps and bounds as it goes on. Heck! “Improves” doesn’t even begin to describe the feeling. The story is about how the Algerians fought against the French for their independence. As I watch it I can literally see how Ghost in the Shell and numerous other movies copied scenes from this. This one has a raw power that feels authentic. Everything is filmed, but because of Pontecorvo’s shooting style you will feel it is documentary footage. The staging of some of the bombing scenes and crowd revolt scenes is mind boggling. “How did he do that?” is a constant question bouncing across the walls in my consciousness. Some say “terrorist”, some say “liberals” - it is a thin line. Totally reminded me of the mass demonstration scenes in Hong Kong. The Battle of Algiers (1966) is absolutely unforgettable. You cannot say you love movies and not see this political film. Finally, I can definitely see how it influences Nolan’s Dunkirk. (5/5) The others we have seen include Punchline, One Cut of the Dead, The Wolf of the Wall Street and Oh Lucy!
Guest AndrewC Posted July 1, 2019 Posted July 1, 2019 Caught this while on a flight. Korean remake of the 2016 Italian movie (“Perfect Strangers”)… Very nicely executed. Worth watching if you’re flying SQ soon. [embed=425,349] [/embed]
westendboy Posted July 12, 2019 Author Posted July 12, 2019 Crawl was just what I needed after a week of classes that just drained me out. This is a genre film; it’s not rocket science. Nobody involved in this thinks they will be up for the Oscars, but that said this is surprisingly very decent. The story is simple: A young woman (Kaya Scodelario), while attempting to save her father (Barry Pepper) during a Category 5 hurricane, finds herself trapped in a flooding house and must fight for her life against alligators. For me, this is a straight-up survival film and I likened it to the problem-solving genre. There are some awesomely executed jump-scares that lifted me off my seat and many near-death close calls. There are also some gory deaths that put a smile on my face... yes, yes, I need to see a psychiatrist. The two characters are economically fleshed out within 10min, just enough to make you root for them. It is not without some false notes, like these two characters don’t bleed to death after being bitten by gators and even sent on a death roll. But I loved it, fricking loved it to bits. After a gruelling week, this is the adrenaline rush I needed. Super fun! And I can’t wait to watch it again at home... the sound mix is incredible! You know... I always read these FB posts on Father-Son, Mother-Daughter, Father-Daughter, Mother-Son (did I get all the permutations?) bonding over trips and food. Let me tell you... nothing beats the Father-Daughter bonding here! All their maligned history ironed out in a jiffy and their love and commitment to each other underscored in bold; all because of near-death situations. Ultimately, I learnt one important lesson: don’t live next to an crocodile farm. 3.5/5 height=650 width=450https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1a/Poster_for_Always_Be_My_Maybe.png[/img] This is something easy and stress-free to veg out to on a weekend with a loved one. It’s a rom-com and it manages to hit the right balance between the “rom” and the “com”. That’s not easy in this genre. Always Be My Maybe hits a home run because the affable chemistry of Ali Wong and Randall Park, and they wrote the script too. The story is about a pair of childhood friends who end up falling for each other when they grow up, and of course in the game of true love nothing is and should be easy. It doesn’t break new grounds in the genre, but there are enough cool flourishes to keep it zippy and fresh. That’s thanks to the featured delectable food (some pretentious ones) and a super-duper uber cool character who plays himself. I give you a clue - he is someone you call if you want to kill the bogeyman. We fricking laughed ourselves to a tummyache at the scenes that featured him. Another cool aspect that subverts my expectations is the original songs written and performed; one of which is “I Punched Keanu Reeves”, I kid you not and it is fricking hilarious. This is a bubbly dish with cool grooves and it’s pure comfort food. 3.5/5 Others we have seen include Instant Family, Second Act, The Mustang, Thinner. On the TV series front we finally finished This is Us S3 and it was a terrible misfire and we won’t be following this anymore. Now we are into Little Big Lies S2.
westendboy Posted July 23, 2019 Author Posted July 23, 2019 We tried a Lin Dai classic tonight, The Blue and the Black, Part 1 (1966). This was released a few months after Lin Dai’s suicide and it’s going to be hard for us to watch Part 2 where they used a different actress. In fact, the final shot that featured Lin Dai wasn’t her and the director shot the back view of another actress. 蓝与黑 was Hong Kong’s answer to Hollywood’s Gone With the Wind, set during the tumultuous times of World War II. But it could have fooled me - the only times I see the presence of Japanese are the front and the back. Everything in the middle is about stifling and crippling family traditions that forbid the star-crossed lovers from coming together. This is impossible to watch with modern eyes because it will become a comedy of human behaviour. The man is so sad that he can’t be with his love that he weeps and punches the pillow, not once but twice. The girl is so idealistic and lovely that all the men in her presence become either incompetent or scumbags. With modern eyes, you will no doubt feel the piercing stab of sexism. Thank goodness we could see this with “old” eyes. Watching this is like taking a time machine to a time when saying how you feel must be done through metaphors. I just love the characters’ names like 醒亚 and 唐琪. I only know 小华 and 小英 . And Lin Dai is a classy dame. There is so much poise about her and she oozes sex appeal, yet there is something tender about her. I watched her scenes with a pit in my stomach, knowing she committed suicide before the movie was completed. Thankfully, all her scenes are intact except the final shot, but I guess one can see that last back view shot of another actress playing her role as a metaphor. (3.5/5) We enjoyed Gloria Bell so much. Julianne Moore is phenomenal, this is her showcase all the way to the final celebratory frame. The story is simple: A free-spirited woman in her 50s seeks out love at L.A. dance clubs. Okay, I took that from IMDb because I am lazy, but it’s way more than that. It feels like a rumination on loneliness in the 21st century and a character study of a woman whose best years are seemingly behind her. This is one of those rare movies that I hope never ends. Even if it is just showing us her everyday life, it is engrossing and nuanced, full of little treasures. (4/5) Murder Mystery is about a murder mystery aka Agatha Christie style with an ensemble cast where everyone has a motive. I find it entertaining without it pushing any envelope. It’s hilarious and self-awared of the genre tropes, but not cool enough to cross into the wow-this-is-so-clever parody territory. The characters are colourful without much of an ounce of authenticity to them and the twists and turns felt tacky. But what ultimately sold the movie was the effervescent chemistry between Sandler and Anniston. That is a match made in heaven. Another croc movie. The Pool predates Crawl and it’s by the Thais. This one is fricking insane - one man, his girlfriend, one dog, a sofa, a crocodile; all these in a 6-metre deep pool with no ladder and no way out. If you can look past the questionable CGI and some contrived moments, this is minimalist genre filmmaking at its best. This one has more twists and turns and tick tock close shaves than the average Hollywood movie. My wife and I were like screaming away at all the close calls. The movie never once forgets how to entertain the hell out of you. (3/5) We did a double-bill the other day. The first one lived up to its long title - Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. It’s the story of Ted Bundy, the serial rapist-killer. If ever there’s a movie to tell you that evil lurks anywhere and anytime, it’s this one. I enjoyed watching how the narrative trek unfolds and how it doesn’t humanise Bundy. It essentially begins by telling the story from Liz Kendall’s point of view; very well acted by Lily Collins. She was the girlfriend of Bundy. The approach was fresh and I particularly like how the movie never sensationalised the gruesome killings. Just by using voice narrations of the murders easily sent chills down my spine because my brain was connecting the dots. But I did find it odd that midway in the film, the POV shifted to Zac Efron’s Ted Bundy. It did sway back to Liz’s POV in the last act. I must say Efron gave quite a career-defining performance. The guy is one wicked killer behind a killer smile. That’s his greatest weapon and his utter lack of remorse will put a chill in your heart. (3.5/5) Then it’s the Japanese remake of Gideon Ko’s supermassive hit, You Are the Apple of My Eye. You know how people always say casting is everything. Choo and I found it so hard to be totally engaged with the movie. My wife hated the guy’s curly hair and eyeliner-ed eyes. Me, I couldn’t stand the actress. She can emote almost like the floor of my living room. Plus, the story is exactly the same, likewise with all the major plot-points of the original. The Taiwanese original manages to hit the bullseye depicting the precocious nature of teenage romance, nostalgia and all the horny feelings that come with it. This Japanese remake is a pale shadow of the original. But still our goosebumps rose up and a hitch built up in our chests at the last wedding scene. The movie is a good reminder that first love don’t always work, but with its demise comes a maturity. Who marries their first love anyway? I doubt there are many. (2/5) Others we have seen include The Barbarian Invasions, Alita:Battle Angel and Punch-Drunk Love and Miss Bala.
westendboy Posted August 8, 2019 Author Posted August 8, 2019 Five Feet Apart is another teenage critical disease of the week weepie in the vein of The Fault in Our Stars. It is mawkish and rides the tropes like a rodeo king, and it doesn’t reach the heights of TFiOS, but I am giving it a free pass because the leads deal with all the emotional trappings with gusto and most importantly it serves as a good reminder that all of us should count our blessings. Seventeen-year-old Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) spends most of her time in the hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control all of which get put to the test when she meets Will (Cole Sprouse), an impossibly charming teen who has the same illness. There's an instant flirtation, through restrictions dictate that they must maintain a safe distance between them. As their connection intensifies, so does the temptation to throw the rules out the window and embrace that attraction. What is the first thing you want to do when you fall in love? I am giving you a few seconds to think about this... nope, it isn’t that... wipe that silly grin off your face ... it’s a touch, a human touch. “Human touch. Our first form of communication. Safety, security, comfort, all in the gentle caress of a finger. Or the brush of lips on a soft cheek. It connects us when we're happy, bolsters us in times of fear, excites us in times of passion and love. We need that touch from the one we love, almost as much as we need air to breathe.” Breathing is hard for these CF patients. A touch is impossible. A kiss, don’t even think about that. The things all of us probably take for granted. I love seeing how they struggle to make sense of their love in this cruel scheme of things, and I can appreciate why they want to take the bull by the horns by risking that one little feet. It’s their little victory in this game called life. Sting once sang “if you love someone set them free”. That’s not BS. I was talking to a colleague the other day about how I broke off with my girlfriend by doing one last loving act for her... nah, I won’t share here, but it was a final act that gave both of us wings to soar again. I think to love is better than be loved. The last act Will does in the movie is a great one. Don’t underestimate the healing power of a touch. So if you're reading this, and you're able, touch him. Touch her. Life's too short to waste a second. (3.5/5) Fast Colour is what Dark Phoenix should have learned from. The latter had the ludicrous budget but simply got crushed with the expectations and the slip ups. The former, on the other hand, manages to tell a coherent superhero story with a fraction of the latter’s budget. It is an intelligent coming of age tale and a resonant family drama. I admire its aspirations even if it’s solemnity threatens to drown it. (3/5) height=600 width=450http://a64.tinypic.com/2nak0ol.jpg[/img] The reason I wanted to see The Little Drummer Girl is Park Chan-wook (Oldboy and The Handmaiden) is the director. This 6-episode mini series is based on John le Carré’s novel about an English actress recruited to infiltrate a terrorist cell. It will be a mission that will require her best acting talents and suffice to say, it’s going to be an Oscar worthy performance but alas nobody outside the circle will know what she has accomplished. Knowing Park, I am not surprised to see every scene meticulously rendered with a superb sense of place and time. It is buoyed by some A-class acting talents and Florence Pugh put in the best performance I have seen on the TV front this year. There is a vulnerability and fragility in her, but there is a quiet and focused drive in her as she toils with understanding who she is in the scheme of things. This is a bit of a slow-burn and people will say it is a 4-episode story stretched to 6, but I didn’t feel that way. (3.5/5)
westendboy Posted September 8, 2019 Author Posted September 8, 2019 Old school magic meets the modern world in this epic adventure. Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) thinks he's just another nobody, until he stumbles upon the mythical sword in the stone, Excalibur. Now, he must unite his friends and enemies into a band of knights and, together with the legendary wizard Merlin (Sir Patrick Stewart), take on the wicked enchantress Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson). With the future at stake, Alex must become the great leader he never dreamed he could be. Those of you who lament that there aren’t enough family oriented movies, look no further than this King Arthur story transposed to the world of post-Brexit Britain. There are some great quips that had us in stitches. My fave was the one about Burger King. The CGI is terrific and never overwhelming and the kid actors are great, especially Andy “Gollum” Serkis’ son. That said, the boy is the strongest and also the weakest part of the movie. Much of the expositional dialogue consists of him talking, instead of him whacking somebody, anybody. Everything pivots from him. But the boy has the charisma for me to forgive a lot. The Kid Who Would Be Kingcould have shaved off some minutes from the middle act, but just as it nearly descended into a slog of a quicksand, it has a way to lift off with some truly inventive scenes, like the training montage with sentient trees. It did over-reach, trying to do a lot, but the kids are so hilarious that I didn’t want to put on my critic’s hat too much. Writer-director Joe Cornish did the excellent Attack the Block (2011), and he has come back with another solid effort. This one can be enjoyed by the whole family, young and old. (3.5/5) Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) is constantly switching between two worlds: the poor, mostly black, neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white, prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what's right. The Hate U Give is based on a Young Adults bestseller which I have not read, so I can’t compare. It starts off quiet, and then it isn’t. It begins comfortably, and then it isn’t. It doesn’t reach the heights of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing (1989), but it manages to make you understand the racist world we live in that can crack any moment. It reflects the current state of race relations in America to a T without being preachy. The movie nestles snuggly within the narrative track of a coming-of-age tale and also as a warm family drama. All through it the issue of racism threatens and looms. It is about how a girl learns about her roots and strength, ably acted by Amandla Stenberg in a star-making role. The target audience isn’t just young adults; it hits all the demographics. It is a piece of stirring cinema with a powerful message. It doesn’t condescend and manages to present a complex problem accessibly. It is worth 2h 15min of your time. (4/5) Twice, it has happened this year, seeing a bright star of a TV series die ever so slowly. It happened with This Is Us S3 which was so painful to watch. How can something that could make us laugh and cry turn out so bad. Of course, this is all in-our-opinion territory. Please don’t take offence if you are still enjoying it. Now, it’s the turn of Big Little Lies S2. IMHO, S1 was so refreshing and the way it ended was so audacious. It felt right - fricking woman power. If it ended there and then it would have been perfect, but no, due to its success, it drags out Liane Moriarty’s novel (which ended in S1) to no man’s land. At first we were thrilled that they managed to sign up Meryl Streep for a major role, but it’s like a case of 大材小用. Her role isn’t strong and she couldn’t lift the story with a script like this. Conflict is what drives drama, but how the writers draw the conflicts here feel arbitrary. And wow! I could have seen how everything will end up in a court case - a battle between Kidman and Streep. It’s David E. Kelley’s old game, the man is synonymous with the law and the court, with TV series like The Practice, Boston Legal, Ally McBeal etc. But it’s a court battle that is weak because the journey to that point is a bore. Nothing lift off for us throughout S2. What a waste of so many talents. The good news is that I am dumping This Is U and Big Little Lies from here on out. I can’t believe I have never checked The Newsroom out... till now. Thank goodness for Anna Pitoniak’s Necessary People. The first episode left us breathless. The dialogue is Sorkin-ese - the characters don’t talk, they rattle bullets at each other like they have gatling guns for a mouth. On a good day, it sounds like fricking rock music, on a bad day it will give you a lovely headache. I fu*king love this! This is about a newsroom getting a huge shakeup. The news anchor has to work with a new team of producers and reporters to tell news the right way - ethically and morally right. It is about telling the news right so that it reaches out to 10 persons, rather than sugarcoating it to reach thousands. The pilot episode actually uses real news - the oil spill at Deepwater Horizon to tell its story. It has such a vibrant and economical way of introducing characters that become instantly memorable. The direction is slick and sexy, the characters are vivid and the dialogue is oh-la-la splendid. Nobody writes dialogue like Aaron Sorkin.
westendboy Posted September 8, 2019 Author Posted September 8, 2019 In this offbeat comedy from Finland, Turo is stuck in a small village where the best thing in his life is being the lead vocalist for the amateur metal band Impaled Rektum. The only problem? He and his band mates have practiced for 12 years without playing a single gig. The guys get a surprise visitor from Norway-the promoter for a huge heavy metal music festival-and decide it's now or never. They steal a van, a corpse, and even a new drummer in order to make their dreams a reality. I have a few friends who are into heavy metal and they are the nicest dudes I know ever. Yes, they sometimes wear black tees with skulls and have long hair tied up in a ponytail like scalp-collecting Red Indians, but they are the sweetest chaps ever. Music does not maketh the man. Like them, the four dudes in Heavy Trip are the nicest dorks in evil-looking garb. Care has been meticulously taken to not make them cliches. This is a superb crowd-pleaser. You would probably enjoy it more if you are a metal fan because some of the band references and metal elements won’t sail over your head. But trust me, the missus and I aren’t metal fans and we were laughing like crazy. The vibe is full of free swinging gusto and I love how the guys are portrayed - full-blooded anti-establishment zealots with a heart. Heavy Trip feels like a love letter to heavy metal, satirising many genre elements linked to metal music, including blood, vomit, corpse and inverted crosses, but it is all in good goofy fun, never becoming stupid. Heavy Trip had me in its balls when a douchebag asks them WTF they play and one of them replies with a straight face: “Symphonic post-apocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme war pagan Fennoscandian metal.” (4/5) Just saw Bodies At Rest. Surprise surprise, this is actually a lot of fun. The cool thing about it is that it uses only one location - the morgue. Directed by Renny Harlin, this feels like Die Hard in a mortuary. Lots of twists and turns, cat and mouse games, as Nick Cheung and Richie Jen goes mano a mano. I find the setting refreshing and the movie uses it in some very unexpected ways. It doesn’t reinvent the action genre, but it does give it an adrenaline shot. (3.5/5) Surprise, surprise. Line Walker 2 is one crackerjack of a movie. We are not fans of the TVB series. We saw a few episodes and gave up and we never saw the first movie. My mom had free tickets and she gave them to me. I was really expecting it to be crap and crappy movies are fun to rip apart. However, it surpassed my wildest expectations. This concoction is 50% Mission Impossible, 30% James Bond and 20% 无间道. Get ready to be slammed left right centre with twists and turns. There are some superbly staged gun-fights and that last action sequence involving the running of the bulls in Spain is OMG crazy. I hardly felt the 100min runtime which means it is outrageously entertaining. This is like Hobbs and Shaw orient styled. (3.5/5) I don’t think I want to write a long review for Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood so this will do. Every scene in the first two acts is meticulously constructed and shot. The whole thing feels like a love letter to filmmaking in the 60s. The performances have bravura and the banter is textbook Tarantino. That said, this has got to be my least favourite Taratino movie because it’s uneven, flat and hollow. It just doesn’t have a main story stem that keeps me invested. It was indulgent filmmaking with many scenes overstaying their welcome. Then came the final act. Oh my goodness... that saved it for me. You need to brush up on your Hollywood 60s history to get it. Just wiki Sharon Tate before you go see it. (4/5) Others we have seen include The Professor, Bel Canto, Girl, The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Sunny (Japanese remake of the Korean original), Children of a Lesser God, Kursk, The Highwaymen, Bonnie and Clyde and Happy Gilmore.
westendboy Posted October 4, 2019 Author Posted October 4, 2019 Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) is based on the book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It’s on my book shelf together with One Hundred Years of Solitude, but I have yet to read them. Half an hour into the movie, I have the nagging feeling that the book is infinitely better than the movie. The story is about a young man who falls in love with a young woman like a thunderbolt. He writes letters to her (that’s how they woo girls then), but the father disapproves of the love because he considers the man of low status. So he sends her far away and she gets married to a doctor. Meanwhile, the young man decides to wait and stay chaste for her... for over 50 years until her husband finally passes on. By chaste, I mean he still has sex with over 600 women (he documents them). He believes that as long as his heart is with his true love he is not being unfaithful. Guys, if you are reading this, don’t use this excuse hor What’s wrong with this movie is almost everything. The casting feels wrong - so many characters feel miscast, like a square peg being forced into a round hole. The tone is dry - when it should dance on water, it feels like a march through mud. The two leads don’t look convincing with Javier Bardem drawing zero sympathy. How to feel for a man who cries when she isn’t in his eyeline? That’s the definition of a weak man. New age sensitive man, my foot. However, I think the most criminal element is Mike Newell’s direction which is as dry and arid as the Sahara. There is no guile, no magic and all labour, like a cut and dry process with zilch life. One day, I will give the book a chance, but probably not this year. This movie made me feel like I had caught a disease.(2/5) Cold Pursuit has all the ingredients in place for a dark and riotous take on the revenge genre, but it’s hard to put a finger on why it missed the mark in every department. Mind you, it is a good movie, but it could have been a great one. You have Liam Neeson, the dude with a particular set of skills, but he couldn’t propel the movie. The characters fail to be memorable, even the ways they bite the dust should elicit guffaws, but it didn’t work. Some characters like the wife and the newbie police are conveniently forgotten in the last act; Laura Dern playing Neeson’s wife vanished in the first act. I have no idea what purpose she served in the plot. Talking about the plot, it seems to be borrowed liberally from Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, but it doesn’t even come close to that masterwork. If done well, Cold Pursuit could have been a blast. Seeing bad guys die in all manners of death would have you punch the air in joy, but like the freezing setting of a town in Denver, Cold Pursuit is a frigid and turgid mess that never thawed.(2/5) Woah! The Metacritic score for this 5th Rambo movie is at 29/100. What is wrong with these critics? We had so much fun with this that it’s criminal. Even the couple sitting behind us were cheering when the scumbags drop like flies. That’s how you make a revenge flick. Almost four decades after they drew first blood, Sylvester Stallone is back as one of the greatest action heroes of all time, John Rambo. Now, Rambo must confront his past and unearth his ruthless combat skills to exact revenge in a final mission. A deadly journey of vengeance, RAMBO: LAST BLOOD marks the last chapter of the legendary series. I like Rambo’s world - there’s no gray, only black and white. If you are not a good person, you deserve to die in the hands of John Rambo. There is not much of a story here, the plot is paint-by-the-numbers, but I didn’t care. If you want Academy Awards stuff go buy a ticket to see Ad Astra. Me? I just want to see lots of dead bad guys. Woah! I see deep fried bad guys, bad guys on satay sticks and bad guys perforated with more holes than your talcum powder holder. It’s hammer time! And I mean that literally. It was so fun swimming in a bloodbath (I am making an appointment with my shrink after I post this) and this is the worst tourism movie featuring Mexico. The whole country basically only had 2 good persons and I love how simple it is to draw a bad guy. If you have tattoos, wear singlets, have bulging muscles, wear chunky necklaces, have an automatic stuck in your waist band, have a leery moustache, rape girls with your eyes and talk with bad grammar, you are a f$cking bad guy. If only the world is so easy to spot a bad guy. Don’t believe it when they this is the last one. The next one should be call Final Blood where John will train his protege (perhaps a son he never knew he had) and the franchise will reboot with New Blood. (3.5/5) Just past the hour mark, Choo asked me when will the torture be over. I told her we are not even halfway there. She stared at me, wide-eyed, her mouth hanging open in disbelief, any longer I think blinding light will shoot out like Godzilla in the movie poster. If there were problems with Godzilla (2014) it was because there were too little monster and too many lame human characters. With this sequel, we get quadrupled the monsters and the same bunch of lame human characters. Monster movies don’t need a convincing plot. To me, the key is making it fun. It isn’t to make it believable because we all know it’s hogwash. But this movie tries so hard to make it relevant by putting in big concepts like climate change and the need to reboot mankind. They only stop short of shafting how plastic is killing the earth. The story is quite dense if you seriously want to switch on your brain power. Me, I don’t switch it on for movies like these. The strength in a monster disaster movie is always in the spaces in between the monster mayhem. This one has everyone looking all so serious, and the characters are as flat and thin as a flattened tissue prata. Who cares about the broken family and the estranged members’ exploits? As with all of these genre flicks we get scientists who spew nonsense. I find the casting of Zhang Ziyi weird. She is probably there to fill some Chinese quota so that the movie can open in China. First half of the movie she has nothing worthwhile to say. Second half of the movie she becomes a cultural spokesperson with too much to say. IMDb says she plays two roles. I don’t know man... I only saw one. Seriously, nobody watches this type of movie for character development. Everyone just wants to see monsters mash and to get your destruction fetishes satisfied. In that department the fights are gorgeous, but I just couldn’t watch it with child-like eyes. I have to say the Atmos sound design is pretty awesome though. Lastly, bashing these quick thoughts out is my way of getting my brain back. It’s back (2.5/5) Others we have seen include Brightburn, The City of Lost Children, Rocketman. There are lots more, but I can’t remember.
YANG Posted October 13, 2019 Posted October 13, 2019 all angmoh cast and production crew in a TiongKok firm production investment film is a big NONO...
westendboy Posted October 16, 2019 Author Posted October 16, 2019 If I were to write the tagline for this movie, it would be “A death destroys their friendship, another death mends it, and the truth will set them free”. That’s probably too long, but it sums up the three acts beautifully. This made in China film is slightly over 3 hours, but I hardly shifted in my seat. When it was over, I felt like I had learnt a great human lesson. So Long, My Son is freshly minted at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival with Wang Jingchun and Yong Mei winning the Silver Bear for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively, and most deservedly so. Their performances are so measured and lived-in. In this epic saga, spanning 30 years, Yaojun (Wang Jingchun) and Liyun (Yong Mei) are a couple who struggles to cope in a society of constant change. After their son’s death, Yaojun and Liyun are haunted by memories of a once-happy household. To make a break, they move to a city where no one knows them, forming a new family with an adopted son. But this offers no comfort: lack of fluency in the local dialect isolates them and their son rejects them. When he disappears one day, the couple is forced to consider returning to the site of their lost hopes. I am not a parent, but if I were to hazard a guess, I think the worst thing a couple can ever go through is to witness the death of their offspring. The pain is all the more pronounced here because the son is their only child, the result of China’s population control policy. There is a scene I watched in disbelief with righteous anger nearly boiling over – the couple found out they are pregnant again but they were urged by the higher authority to abort the child (at that point their son is still alive). At last they were awarded an award for Best Family at the factory they worked in. What a farce! This languidly paced movie has it all: forced abortion, enforced labour camp for listening to pop music, extramarital affair, death in the family and attempted suicide. The rippling effect of the death of their only son plays out in the couple’s lives through three decades of China’s changing economic landscape. It is a world that has forgotten them, making them empty shells, merely existing. It looks like a cry-fest on paper, but co-writer and director Wang Xiaoshuai is not interested in going down the path of maudlinness. The camera is pulled back during the death scene; we see running shapes and hear horrendous sobs. Our minds connect the dots, our senses grab every subtlety and nuance written on their mien. The drama never feels cheapened and when revelations arrive in due course there is a series of small measured explosions of the heart. The plot of So Long, My Son does not unfold in chronological order and characters’ motivations are not explained in clarity, but we are in the hands of a great storyteller who lets the scenes breathe and the characters flourish. In the end, the Chinese tight-lipped stoicism melts away, the why is explained and the rendering is cathartic. It is easy to view So Long, My Son as an anti-government film, but I don’t see it that way. I see it as a narrative about a couple’s emotional memories, numerous threads of unfulfilled dreams and regrets intermingled, trying to hold on to the memory of a lost son and as memories go, nobody thinks in linear. Yaojun and Liyun are but two of many forgotten cogs in the great economic machine of China. They are simple and good people, but yet the most devastating of events descended upon them. It feels like a confluence of good intentions (I borrowed the line from Thomas Shelby of Peaky Blinders S5). The cast is impeccable, especially Wang Jingchun and Yong Mei, whose nuanced portrayal of the ill-fated couple is spellbinding. My senses hinged on every little expression on their faces and their entire being; their performances are empathetic and rooted in the Chinese reality. Their pain feels real and it is utterly heart wrenching to see what they have become. Fortunately, Yaojun and Liyun’s character arcs experienced a much deserved upswing that never becomes contrived. I felt so happy for them and wanted to believe it is the start of something beautiful. The themes of guilt, forgiveness and acceptance are prevalent in dramas, but in the hands of Wang they come like a tsunami of feels. “Less is more” is an axiom that is never easy to achieve without making a movie feel pretentious, So Long, My Son exemplifies it and makes it look easy. 4 / 5 PS - this is being screened at the Oldham Theatre as part of the Asian Film Archive’s New Releases programme. Tickets at solongmyson.peatix.com [embed=425,349] [/embed] I call myself a movie buff but there are still many cinematic masterpieces I have not seen. This evening we scratched one off the list, Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961). It’s weird watching a movie that I have heard so much about and even seen the Sergio Leone’s remake, Fistful of Dollars and Walter Hill’s modern remake Last Man Standing. But none of them comes close to Kurosawa’s visionary movie. By now, everyone would already know the story. It’s about a ronin, played by the incomparable Toshiro Mifune, who finds himself in a desolate town ravaged by two rival gangs. The person who has the best business in town is the coffin maker. The man with no name, decides to hang around to wreak havoc and ultimately rid the entire town of all the scumbags. Yojimbo came at the wake of a series of luminous films like Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and many others. Yojimbo doesn’t make you ponder about humanity like Rashomon; it doesn’t have the sweep of Seven Samurai and the melancholy of Throne of Blood, but it is nevertheless compelling and absorbing. I think this is the most I have laughed in a Kurosawa film. Mifune’s Sanjuro is a master manipulator, a God of mischief and the incarnate of Loki. His method of pitting both sides against each other is an elaborate plan. It resembles a chess game and he is holding both the black and white pieces. The man makes himself indispensable and both sides want his services. The dude is employed as a bodyguard who does everything but that. In modern context, he is a superhero. It is easy to see the western influence in Yojimbo and compared to his entire oeuvre this is practically an American Western with swords. With his pompous swagger and a toothpick in his mouth, Mifune is the epitome of cool. Now I understand why this is considered one of greatest films of all time.(5/5) Others we have seen include Sanjuro, The Kid and Ma.
westendboy Posted November 12, 2019 Author Posted November 12, 2019 There is a scene midway that has a father mixing paints and giving a bevy of excited children a colour each. He tells them each to paint a segment of a bus destroyed by a bomb and to make it vivid. It is a scene I seldom see in war movies which are more interested in showing you mass destruction and extreme cruelty. The scene makes absolute sense because these are people who still crave for a semblance of normalcy in their dire lives and the instilling of hope in their children is still vital, perhaps even more important in those trying times. A while later, the documentary’s director, Waad Al-Khateab, points her Sony video-cam at a girl, probably about five years old, and asks what happened to the bus. The little girl smiles and says it was destroyed by a “cluster bomb”. How in heaven’s name does she know the term “cluster bomb”? For Sama is a love letter “written” by a mother for her baby daughter Sama (it means sky in Arabic). It documents her confessional hope for Syria and the battle-ravaged city of Aleppo,. It is a 100-minute documentary of unflinching horror and the senselessness of war, made with the sheer passion of a rebel and the undying love of a mother, wanting her daughter to understand why she continued to live in a city when they could die at any moment. Waad Al-Khateab and co-director Edward Watts have crafted a film with an escalating narrative drive. It begins with a 26-year-old girl entering Aleppo University with rising hope in 2012. With just a handphone, she filmed the fervent protests against the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, probably feeling jubilant that a renewed future is close at hand. However, any hope for that gave way to atrocious crimes against humanity as the corrupt regime and its allies refused to yield, pelting the city with ordnance and bombs till 2017 when the rebels finally surrendered. The story of the death of a city and innocence is told in flashbacks with weary cut and dried voice-overs by Waad, explaining to her daughter why she and her husband Hamza, a doctor and freedom fighter, stayed behind. The film would act as testament and legacy for Sama if she and Hamza don’t make it. The film is not a downer throughout the runtime. There are scenes of levity as Hamza and Waad find love and get married. In another scene, their neighbour quips that their life resemble a soap opera with explosions and you will feel her joy when her husband surprises her with a persimmon. As much as there are harrowing scenes of death and destruction, there are also many moving scenes of familial and human connections. But it is those unflinching scenes of horror that you will never ever forget. Waad relentlessly documents everything at ground zero and the hospital, the nexus of suffering. The self-taught journalist shoots everything, never evading her Sony-cam from the horrific scenes of carnage. A scene of two brothers covered in dust, carrying their dead youngest brother to the hospital is particularly heart wrenching. The footages are so in-your-face, so you-are-there that you forget you are watching a film until someone breaks the fourth wall, like how a grieving mother screams into the camera “why are you doing this?” amidst the tragedy of losing her young son. For Sama also has a centerpiece that in my humble opinion is the Scene of the Year – my heart broke into a million pieces and an eternal minute later my heart melded together and leapt with sheer joy. It is a marvellous and magical scene that is not engineered, demonstrating the undying spirit of human beings. You will know it when you see it. This is a soul-shattering film; it feels epic, yet intimate, also putting you right smack in the midst of harrowing pain. When the house-lights came on, I sat in my seat stunned out of my senses, counting my blessings. Yes, it will do that to you. If you are reading this it means you and I have it a lot better than the people in this film, who don’t all make it out alive. Like everyone, I have seen my fair share of war movies. In my humble opinion, For Sama dwarfs them all in terms of honesty and authenticity. No amount of gloss, sugarcoating and emotional manipulation can reproduce the fervid wallop the film sends to your very core. Sama may be too young to understand the film, but not us. This is essential viewing and a strong contender for Best Documentary of the Year. 5 / 5 [embed=425,349] [/embed] Between my wife and I, Keigo Higashino is like our god. His mystery stories never fail to astound us. Masquerade Hotel is based on another one of his bestsellers but it has not been translated to English yet. When three murders occur in Tokyo, aside from the corpse and the crime, the commonality is the placement of numbers next to scene of crime. As such, the lead investigator pieces together enough clues to assume the scene of the next murder. He goes undercover and presents himself at an employee of the hotel. The present hotel employee is placed in charge of the detective's training, but it is clear that they have different priorities. In the meantime, there is a potential crime to prevent and criminal to apprehend. The narrative structure resembles Higashino’s latest novel Newcomer. The plot feels chaotic because other than the main task of capturing the murderer, the plot goes off-tangent a number of times to tell different stories with no link to the throughline. We didn’t mind it because the stories are interesting and the climatic revelations are about the human condition. Why does a particular guest always seem to make off with the hotel’s ¥20000 bath robe? Why does another guest complain till Kingdom Come and nothing seems to pacify him? Why is a young lady guest so fearful of a stalker? The acting is all round excellent even if the plot borders on the ludicrous. It does know when and how to reel it back in with the main investigation of the serial killer. If you want something cerebral and entertaining, this is one hotel worth checking in. (3.5/5) There’s so much to take away from The Kindergarten Teacher. One of the most sublime aspects of the movie is that it is open to so many interpretation. Being a teacher, a lot of what the teacher does resonate with me. But unlike her, I like to think that I am careful when I deal with talented kids. I feel a lot for the teacher here - it’s like sometimes I think I am the only one who sees the potential in a kid, but how far can I go to nurture it before it becomes wrong in the eyes of the world. Really thought provoking film. And the movie works because of Maggie Gyllenhaal. (4/5) Others we have seen include Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Annabelle Comes Home, Doctor Sleep, Child’s Play (2019), Long Shot, The Public, 心冤, Baby, Rustom, Newton, Special 26. We are watching this Korean series now.... so much to like. Might say more once we are done.
westendboy Posted November 19, 2019 Author Posted November 19, 2019 Do you remember what you wanted to do with the rest of your life when you were sixteen? Me, I only knew what I wanted to do the next day. For Chen Nian in Better Days, she knows, definitively – she wants to study, take the exams, go to a good university, become one of the smartest ones and if possible, protect the world. Based on the novel Young and Beautiful by Jiu Yue Xi, Better Days stars Zhou Dongyu and Jackson Yee as Chen Nian and Xiao Bei, who meet each other at a trying time in their lives. Nian is the victim of relentless bullying in school, while Bei is a small-time hoodlum living on the fringes of society. An unlikely friendship ensues and they seal a pact. Derek Tsang’s Better Days was pulled from the 69th Berlin International Film Festival a few days before its premiere. The Chinese censors probably drew a hardline at the movie’s depiction of bullying in school and the negative portrayal of gaokao (高考), a nation-wide 2-day examinations that determine the fate of over 9 million students intending to enter the university and polytechnic. At times the entire family’s fate hinges on the results of the examinations. In China, the movie was originally set to open in June, but was again pulled, only to open in October, probably after making some changes. I am not sure what changes were made, but the movie I saw still pack an emotional wallop. Tsang burst onto the scene with the outstanding Soul Mate (2016), an excellent rumination on a pair of childhood friends as they grow up with differing ideals in China’s rapidly changing urban landscape. The subject matter of his sophomore effort is a challenging choice, but in the third act he is on familiar ground as he tackles the theme of sacrificial love between friends. Better Days doesn’t shy away from the physical and emotional toll bullying does to an individual. What makes the scenes horrific is that no reasons are provided. It is as if there are only three types of students: the bullies, the bullied and the ones that stand at the side to laugh and capture the bullying on their handphones. The adults only come in with platitudes when the worst is over. Nian knows nobody can help her and the best thing she can do is to do well in the exams and leave the god forsaken place. Nian’s role can quickly become a cloying one but in the hands of Zhou Dongyu, Nian comes alive with an unshakable resolve brimming inside her frail body. Zhou is in her late twenties, but it is so easy to believe she is a sixteen-year-old student. She again turns in a bravura performance with an uncanny ability to emote a range of emotions behind a mien of tortured passivity. Playing opposite her is Jackson Yee, a member of the band TFboys, in his first main role, who also turns in a credible performance. The movie over-stretches with the first two acts with one too many bullying scenes, but it is in the extended third act that it lays on the twists and surprises. Perhaps it is one twist too many, but the acting and cinematography are so good that I lapped them up as they come. “Growing up is like diving. Don’t think, just close your eyes, and jump in,” says the police investigator Zheng Yi (Fang Yin). That’s more easily said than done. In one scene, Nian asks Bei why there aren’t lessons on how to become an adult. Better Days has finally seen the light of day and it is a thought provoking film that dares to ask some hard questions. 3.5 / 5 [embed=425,349] [/embed] Dearest Anita is amateur hour. The cinematography, dialogue and plot are all so clunky. But... my goodness... the sincerity is so genuine that the missus and I could overlook a lot. Heck... our eyes were welling with tears near the end. This one is the brainchild of the Anita Mui fanclub which is still going strong 16 years after her death from cervical cancer. The story is based on true stories. After Mui’s family auctioned all of Anita’s prized possessions, the rest of the knick-knacks were discarded. A few of the rabid fans picked up the trash from the dumpsters to look through the stuff. What’s left were mostly photographs, presents and letters from fans. Yes, Anita kept everything! Think about that for a while. You would think these fans are just curious and probably after a quick buck, but no, they proceeded to hunt down the givers and return the item to them. How’s that for a story? This is a love letter to Anita Mui, her persona and her music. It is also an ode to all the fans who were transformed by her music. The story that touched me the most was the one about Anita’s childhood friend. Through her extended flashback you will learn Anita started singing professionally at 4 because she realised she could earn money for her family who was in need. All through from a teenager to just before her death at 40, Anita tried to keep in touch with this friend who helped her when she was at her lowest. However, the friend, acted by Myolie Wu, felt that they are at two different ends of life and told Anita not to see her anymore. It would be easy for Anita to do just that, but she didn’t which says a lot about the type of person she was. I don’t know about others, but I can totally believe these fans who shared how Anita’s music changed their lives. It is the same for me - literature, movies and music touch me and sometimes they are the wind beneath my wings. Some years ago, I made a trip up to Da Yu Shan and chanced upon the ling wei of Anita. Her fans still visit her often because they were lots of fresh flowers. I have heard so many great Cantonese female singing voices, but I have yet to hear a voice like Anita’s. Her husky vocals has so much emotions and range. After Anita, I can’t think of another female singer with as much clout as her. IMHO she was the last Super Star, and to listen to all these stories featured in the movie is quite an amazing ride. I still miss her singing and acting. Never had a chance to catch her live concerts because I was a poor kid then, but her music lives on in my heart. (3/5) We are late to the party for this Korean series, Hotel De Luna. The buzz is so good we thought we should give it a shot. 4 episodes in, it is easy to see why this gets so much love. It’s very creative - imagine a hotel that exist in between time and space of which the guests are ghosts. These are ghosts with unfulfilled wishes and they are lost on the road to Afterlife. So they will wind up here for some respite. The world building is super cool - it doesn’t lay everything out in one episode; every episode will have an element on the world, it’s why and how, explained in an interesting manner. This being a Korean drama, also expect a romance of the fantasy level. There is the owner of the hotel, Jang Wol Man, since God knows when, time has stood still for her. She is a tyrant, a hard as nail woman, who always gets her way. Then there is a human man, Goo Chan Seong, who reluctantly becomes the manager (there are only so many things a spirit can do in a human world). This is what the Koreans are good at - the push and pull between them is so exquisitely calibrated. On my side of the screen, we can’t wait to see the clash of lips and eventually the collision of bodies, but on the other side of the screen the writers make sure they take their time. Every episode brings them one step closer. If this is Hollywood, they are probably in bed after one episode. Their relationship is also hilariously depicted. We also love the side-plots that run in tandem to the main romantic narrative spine. This being a hotel means there are lots of stories about the ghosts that work there and the guests. We just finished the one about a ghost bride, which has a beautiful twist. Who says ghost can’t teach you one or two things about being human? We are going to take our time with this PS - We just finished ep8. This must be the best episode so far. The side-plot of the spirit and Jang Wol Man’s back story dovetails so sublimely. One of the most burning questions gets answered. I particularly love that amusement park scene. I have seen so many scenes of how a vengeful person exact revenge, but I have not seen it done this way. Brilliant, and how it culminates to what Chan Seong did has so much emotional heft. This is great stuff. All this plays out to a second half that I have no idea what will happen and that’s fantastic. Others we have seen include The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil (Korean), The Traitor (Italian), Kim Ji-young: Born 1982, Doom Patrol S1.
westendboy Posted November 27, 2019 Author Posted November 27, 2019 Wifey and I checked out of Hotel De Luna last night. It was an immensely satisfying and wonderful two-week “staycation”; one of those “holidays” that is so refreshing and yet so bittersweet because the magic disappears like wisps of smoke the moment we stepped out of the hotel. What’s left are the enchanting memories to be cherished forever. It sounds like I am describing something perfect; it isn’t. Depending on your tolerance for romantic mushiness, the entanglements (and disentanglements) can be extremely sappy and grates on the nerves. There was also one reveal concerning Gu Chan Seong’s back story right at the end that for wifey and I wasn’t well-handled. That said, everything else felt like the perfect “stay” - an explosion of feels and catharsis. It wasn’t just the impeccable cast, set design, CGI, soundtrack, fashion and compelling storylines, for both of us it is the life lessons that we gleamed from the series that made it so unforgettable. Death is not the end. This drama espouses not only that notion, but how we end it here in this lifetime matters. A hotel that hosts ghosts and spirits still bearing unfulfilled desires and deep grudges offers a treasure trove of stories. I want to share so many but I would do you a huge disservice if I do that. Some of the story ideas are so creative - imagine a magical telephone that allows the dead to make one last phone call to a person who is dreaming. In comes this father and son who were killed by a truck driver; they request a phone call to the driver who rammed into them. The eventual phone conversation not only surprised me, but brought on tears and a wave of euphoria because I picked up an important life lesson. Throughout the 16 episodes, the writing duo, Hong sisters, maintains a deft balance between the horror, fantasy, humour and drama elements. Thematically, this one hits the bullseye. Fate versus choice, it feels like everything that happens is preordained, but Ma Go always gives the principle characters a choice. Chan Seong could have spent a lifetime with a younger Man Wol when he goes back in time, but does he? What is love? The themes of love (in all its beautiful guises), hope and forgiveness are well-examined in refreshing ways. I particularly love the life lesson of letting go (please don’t cue the music of Let It Go) which ultimately will set a person free, even a ghost. Grudges and hate imprison us, stopping us from being the best of ourselves. The sage adage of “if you love someone set them free” (don’t cue Sting please) is epitomised here to great empathetic effect. Some episodes carry a few seemingly disparate storylines, but in the last act all of them will dovetail together, serving up a superb dish of feels. What meticulous writing! All the best writing is laid to waste if the characters are not compellingly drawn. Led by IU and Yeo Jin Goo, Jang Man Wol and Goo Chan Seong are drawn with a sure hand. We want them to be together, but we know it is impossible. Their love story is bittersweet; parting is such sweet sorrow. I love how their back stories are teased out slowly and when the full picture is finally revealed you will understand why they are the way they are in this lifetime. Not forgetting the back stories of the staffers at the hotel too. Why would Mrs Choi want to see out the death of a family line before leaving for the Afterlife is especially compelling. If you have not checked into Hotel De Luna, I urge you to do so at the earliest convenience. It’s not Hotel California, you can check out anytime you like and you can leave even if you don’t want to, but my bet is that you will not only be entertained but will learn so much. Forgive, let go and move on. Leave a legacy of kind acts. Love yourself, others. This is one of the best TV series this year. 4.5 / 5
westendboy Posted December 28, 2019 Author Posted December 28, 2019 My annual Best Films of 2019 write-up https://reelthoughtsfromageek.wordpress.com/2019/12/22/the-best-films-of-2019/ This is my fave music of 2019 write-up https://reelthoughtsfromageek.wordpress.com/2019/12/13/the-music-wrap-up-2019/
westendboy Posted March 5, 2020 Author Posted March 5, 2020 https://reelthoughtsfromageek.wordpress.com/2020/03/04/the-invisible-man-2020/ https://reelthoughtsfromageek.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/hitman-agent-jun-2020/ https://reelthoughtsfromageek.wordpress.com/2020/02/19/happy-old-year-2020/
westendboy Posted March 12, 2020 Author Posted March 12, 2020 https://reelthoughtsfromageek.wordpress.com/2020/03/12/tv-series-crash-landing-on-you-2020/ Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
westendboy Posted March 26, 2020 Author Posted March 26, 2020 https://reelthoughtsfromageek.wordpress.com/2020/03/26/a-beautiful-day-in-the-neighbourhood-2019/ Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
westendboy Posted April 8, 2020 Author Posted April 8, 2020 It’s the start of the lockdown. Everybody’s go-to acronym is the ubiquitous WFH, but mine is PAH (play at home). I intent to come out this one-month (hopefully) hibernation with my sanity and sense of humour intact and hopefully not fat. So it’s time to do the stuff I love. In terms of movies, music and literature I got it covered many times over. One month is probably not enough time to watch all the movies in my to-be-watched list and to keep my critic’s mind sharp I will offer badinages about everything I have seen. The movie selection is going to be an eclectic mix with lots of classics and arthouse films interspersed with some mainstream fare. Oh... Choo is with me but the poor gal is in WFH mode. We binged Mr Mercedes based on a Stephen King’s novel. It is easy to watch but not stellar stuff. It follows King’s novel closely and tries to give a pathological study of a killer, but any suspense went out the window because of King’s choice of narrative trek. I doubt we can carry on with S2. School on Fire (學校風雲) is a 1988 Hong Kong action film directed by Ringo Lam. The film involves a young schoolgirl Chu Yuen Fong (Fennie Yuen) who becomes caught in a tragic stranglehold of triad activity after she testifies over a triad beating. When this news reaches the triad leader Brother Smart (Roy Cheung), Yuen Fong must pay him protection money for what she has done as events begin to escalate. I enjoyed the late Ringo Lam’s On Fire movies (except Sky on Fire) but never had a chance to see School on Fire. This is one harrowingly bleak movie, a middle finger up-yours at every strata of society type of movie. It’s unflinching, uncompromising and unapologetic in its portrayal of society - from the dysfunctional family unit to the flawed school system to the incompetent law - every strata got their ass kicked to the high heavens. This is something you won’t get to see in Hong Kong cinema these days, but it is an important film. Brutally honest and raw, the ultra-violence cuts right to the bone. This is a brave film to make because Lam definitely wasn’t thinking of turning in a huge profit from it. I remember it was banned here. So glad I got to see it. Nashville is a 1975 American satirical musical ensemble comedy-drama film directed by Robert Altman. The film follows various people involved in the country and gospel music businesses in Nashville, Tennessee over a five-day period, leading up to a gala concert for a populist outsider running for President on the Replacement Party ticket. Robert Altman’s movies are acquired taste and I usually have respect for people who get his movies. I can finally scratched Nashville off my list. What a movie! This one defies easy pigeon-holing and it totally go against the grain of Hollywood’s storytelling stylistics with a joyful bounce in its step. Nashville offers a panoramic view of America’s political and cultural landscape, weaving through 24 main characters. It is funny, poignant, tragic and despicable, sometimes in a space of a few minutes cycling through the different feels. It sounds crazily impossible on paper, but Altman made it work, creating a wild tapestry of quirky characters in crazy situations. The camera can focus on one character and in the next second focuses on another, and you will never be befuddled. Because it is so vivid, your eyes will concentrate on the random happenings. I came away from this getting a keen observation on American life and its eccentric byways. My favourite scene is Tom (Keith Carradine) launching into the Academy Award winning song I’m Easy while the camera glides and segues to three women sitting in different spots in a pub, all thinking the song is about them. One of the most brilliant scenes in cinema I have ever seen. This one has a life of its own and one can see it again and pick up new details. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a 1966 American black comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols in his directorial debut. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is an adaptation of the play of the same name by Edward Albee. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor as Martha and Richard Burton as George, with George Segal as Nick and Sandy Dennis as Honey. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is one of two films which was nominated in all the major categories and most deservedly so. A landmark film of unflinching honesty and seething anger. It’s about a bitter, aging couple, with the help of alcohol, use their young houseguests to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other over the course of one distressing night. Wow! Incredible film, a true actors’ showcase. I felt like I was in a masterclass of amazing acting. All four actors dissolve into their roles. Emotionally charged with breathless vitriol, this is killing each other with words. All four character arcs are wonderfully realised and I sat in my seat completely enamoured with some of the finest acting ever. Elizabeth Taylor is stunning and fully deserved her award many times over. She can be a conniving *itch vomiting hurtful words and can be vulnerable in the next moment. Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? Me and you should be too. Emotionally, we were totally spent after the movie. This is a perfect film. Then, I broke out my Criterion blu-ray boxset of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Dekalog, a ten episode TV series, each loosely depicting one of God’s Ten Commandments. We saw just the first one and I finally understand why this is regarded as one of the most revered TV series ever made. The first one hit us like a sledgehammer. I will say more once we are done. Hmmm.... what should we see today.... decisions decisions.... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
westendboy Posted April 10, 2020 Author Posted April 10, 2020 Have you ever played this game when you were a kid? If you have a choice for a super power what will it be? Every kid I know always says invisibility, more like every boy I know lah. You know and I know where’s the first place we want to check out when we are invisible. Hollow Man (2000) is an invisible man story made for the basest of guys. Is it a travesty to say I sort of enjoy this like it’s a guilty pleasure? It’s a very hollow movie, man. Scientists that look nothing like scientists and the leader of them behaving like a narcissistic monster/slasher. Pretty nifty visual effects in its time, but at times you wish the movie would just disappear. The only reason I suggested this movie was because I wanted Choo to understand why The Invisible Man (2020) is so good. Lost in America is a 1985 satirical road comedy film directed by Albert Brooks and co-written by Brooks with Monica Johnson. The film stars Brooks alongside Julie Hagerty as a married couple who decide to quit their jobs and travel across America in a Winnebago. This is the anti-American Dream movie, skewering hedonism and greed, but it is easy to identify with it because here in Singapore it’s the same. It is hilarious to watch as the odd couple negotiates cockamamie scenarios. This one has laughs that hurt and pains you when you ponder over them after it’s long over. The good ones have that power. This one has it. This is the perfect time to watch movies I normally won’t think of watching. Ultimately, my aim is to watch all the best movies in the world. Howard Hawk’s Rio Bravo (1959) always appear on many best films list. It is about a sheriff (John Wayne) who attests the brother of a powerful rancher to help his drunken friend (Dean Martin). With the help of a cripple and a young gunfighter (Ricky Nelson), they hold off the rancher’s gang. Wonderfully acted, a witty script and damn sexy, but you need to watch this with old and soulful eyes. I have a feeling the modern generation will consider this boring, slow and long. Not me, I like all the subtext - singularly, they will lose but together they are formidable - a down-and-out sheriff, an alcoholic, a cripple, a wet-behind-ears dude. The other subtext I like is that a good man is defined by how he treats his gal. Three Identical Strangers is a 2018 documentary film directed by Tim Wardle and starring Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran. It examines a set of American identical triplets, born in 1961 and adopted as six-month-old infants by separate families, unaware that each child had brothers. Wow! Just freaking WOW! This is a true rollercoaster of a movie and it’s all freaking true! The first 15 minutes is the ultimate feel-good arc and then I was thinking “wait a second. That’s the end of the story. It can’t be topped.” Topped, it does, so many times over. This one has so many twists and turns, but through it all it never loses its authenticity and emotional fidelity. I am being intentionally vague here because it is better to go into this one blind. Based on the excellent Three Identical Strangers, my mind threw up The Boys From Brazil (1978). It will make an interesting progression from the ideas in the previous movie. This one is about a crazy plot to rekindle the Third Reich. It’s total BS but Gregory Peck and Lawrence Oliver’s acting made it plausible. Then it is Zhang Yi-mou’s Red Sorghum (1988). In 1930s China a young woman is sent by her father to marry the leprous owner of a winery. In the nearby red sorghum fields she falls for one of his servants. When the master dies she finds herself inheriting the isolated business. I saw this years ago on VCD and the scene of a man getting skinned alive was seared into my mind. Revisiting it brings a sort of reverence. This is China’s fifth generation filmmaking at its best. There is a sense of frankness seldom seen in China’s cinema these days. The cinematography is brilliant and the tone is nihilistic. It starts off with a voice narrating a parable and the storytelling turns ever so slowly on its little gears to engage your senses. In the last act, it completely swerves into a different territory that will make your jaw drop. Gorgeous film. Gong Li is such a babe. Today we are going to do a Lord of the Rings (extended) marathon. We did it once when we were dating but that’s on DVDs. It was amazing. Choo didn’t want to stop. This time will be on my 110” screen and hi-def. See ya all after 10 hours. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Recommended Posts