The Film List HONG KONG
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Visible Secret Ghost story Hsu Chi and Sam Lee are fun to watch, and for the most part this film is fun and clever. The attempt at the end to pull a Sixth Sense turnabout fails horribly, too many plot contradictions, seems like an afterthought invoked late in the production.
Silly fun.
IQ Dudettes Comedy Follow the competition between the elite A class students and the slacker B class students. The point of an ideal education being a merger of humanities and science / math is very clearly made by the end, instead of opting for the Revenge of the Nerds kind of ending I expected. Lots of cuties in this for everyone.
Fun.
Shaolin Soccer AKA: Siu lam juk kau Action Comedy Probably Stephen Chow's tightest film to date. It has everything, and it all works, backed by an amazing supporting cast and some truly stunning CGI effects, and trust me, I don't often praise CGI in movies, because most of it is bad, lazy, sloppy or simply ill advised.
Brilliant!!
King of Beggars AKA: Wu zhuang yuan: Su qi er Action Comedy Stephen Chow explores historical aspects of social class and good will in the Ching Dynasty. Fun! Lots of really great gags in here!
Solid!
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father Comedy Neat story about a man played by Tony Leung going back in time to learn who his father really is as a person.
Fun!
Martial Angels Action Although laden with star talent, like Sandra Ng ("Thirteen" from the Young & Dangerous series), Hsu Chi (or Shu Qi depending on who you ask) and a bunch of groovy women, this film is pretty silly. Disconnected action, disjointed plot, a Russian spy that suddenly remarks "Oh, that's right, I forgot, I speak Chinese!" where upon he does, dubbed badly, for the rest of the film until someone finally, mercifully, blows him up. Amusing, but no Heroic Trio.
Good drive-in movie.
Flowers of Shanghai Drama 1880's. Peeks into a week in the life of several key people working for or patrons to four snappy brothels (flower houses) in Shanghai. Lots of impressive long shots that make the whole thing feel like a golden lit stage play. Well handled, though it drags at times.
Fun!
Shanghai Triad Drama A period piece, this film is a sweet look into the 30's social dynamics of the underworld in China as impending Western influence is taking hold. And simply adore those Triad gowns!! Gong Li is wonderful!
Slick!
Love Me, Love My Money Romantic Comedy Hsu Chi & Tony Leung are in top form as the unlikely pair that end up in love. While I'm disappointed the subplot of the boss rectifying his poor treatment of his company's staff, the other issues get wrapped up pretty well, and there are a lot of laughs along the way. Shot extremely well.
Fun!
Full Time Killers Action Godlike. Although slow in places, this thing is a work of art and beauty. Andy Lau is amazing! The making of footage on the flipside of the DVD is equally nifty, because seldom will a film include multiple agonizing takes of key scenes both action and non-action so that you might understand how excruciatingly demanding and exhausting film making can really be. Love the Clinton mask, and am very sad that I have yet to be able to get my hands on the Andy Lau 12" doll from Dragon decked out in the brown leather jacket with the pump action shot gun and the 12" scale Clinton mask! Somebody send me one of those, please!!
Excellent!
Legend of Zu High Fantasy Action Some of the most startlingly neat CGI I've ever seen, and worth viewing simply for that. The story is extending the already layered and potentially confusing story of the old flick Warriors of the Zu Mountains. Regardless, there are a lot of fun moments and a huge amount of simply amazing visualization. Just don't expect high drama, I mean, this is Hark Tsui we're talking about.
Fun with great CGI!
Man Called Hero 20's Fantasy The best I've seen from Hark Tsui, with some of the most amazing, if not sublime, water effects (real, composited and CGI) I've ever seen. Neat fantasy story set against a historical backdrop drawing from one of my favorite eras. A solid film with a lot of landmark moments. Francis Ng is awesome in this, as always!
Excellent!
Storm Riders High Fantasy Action My least favorite of the CGI heavy martial arts flying fights films, but some fun effects and a story that is about as you'd expect when you base a 1.5 hour film on 10 years worth of HK comic books. As always, get the subtitled HK version, not the cropped US version.
Educational.
Black Mask Action Hark Tsui and Jet Li, what could go wrong? A fun film with a lot of great fights and excellent comic moments. The US re-release version blows for several reasons, but I'll not whine. Karen Mok is AWESOME in this, as usual.
Fun!
I Love Maria Action Comedy I dunno why, maybe because the robot woman is based on the female android in Fritz Lang's Metropolis, but I adore this silly film. Fun gags, great characters, and a solid punchline story.
Groovy!!
Accidental Spy Jackie Chan Better than expected, fun spy plot, with a hot Vivian Hsu as the dope fiend good times girl. Great action while also wonderfully restrained compared to Jackie's typical ilk.
Fun!
Cop on a Mission Crime Daniel Ng as an undercover cop who goes corrupt after falling for the allure of the money, power, and boss's demanding wife, as told from his perspective of being buried alive. Leaves you feeling empty.
Pointless.
Good-bye Mr. Cool Drama Ekin Cheng, Karen Mok in a standard story of a bad gangster thug type guy who has reformed and tries to live a decent, humble life, and ultimately fails when trouble finds him. Basically, he gets killed for doing the right thing, which pissed me off, because everything about the callous way he dies really belittles the otherwise very well done, albeit shallow, rest of the film.
Solid, skip the ending.
Naughty Couples Comedy Adapted from a stage play, this comedy with Francis Ng and my good friend Irene playing the Filipino Maid is a whacky good time full of innuendoes, misunderstandings, misconceptions and general tomfoolery.
Fun!!
Return to Dark Crime Everyone dies in this bad ass piece of work. The hit woman Joey Meng is wonderful, and once again blonde is the color of choice for Chinese bad guys.
Fun!!
Glass Tears Drama Miu-suet Lai, the independent HK female writer / director received a lot of praise at the Cannes Film Festival for this film, and I can respect that, but still feel a bit disappointed that the film meanders so much, has a lot of bad editing, and ends a short of thorough resolution or protagonist development. A case of overly unresolved "slice of life" coming of age in a young girl's life dramatic film making. On the whole, though, to be fair, it is thoughtful, and does have a lot of legitimate, insightful moments and very neat visual metaphors, like the goldfish. Almost a great flick. The behind the scenes footage is a hoot, and not entirely for good reasons.
Educational.
Fist Power Action About family values, hostage kids, stars Man Cheuk Chiu (from Body Weapon, likely the next Jet Li). Loads of kick ass fights, especially with the evil gui-lo and the hottie in sandals. Very well done Jing Wong film.
Excellent!
Horror Hotline Giant Big Head Monster Horror Francis Ng, Sam Lee, Josie Ho (Macao's favorite rich girl) star in this slick, tight though completely unresolved scare fare. Cool set up, lots of neat bits like the frosted broadcast booth or the ghost girl.
Fun!
A Gambler's Tale Drama Francis Ng, Sam Lee, Shoky Kwan in this story of the ups & downs of a gambling lifestyle. A lot of funny scenes, ultimately tragic and ironic ending (all about the extremes of luck versus self sacrifice for sake of same). Ending actually made me tear up. Damn them.
Great!
Snaker aka Ghost Wife 2 Horror Sadly nothing in common with the original Ghost Wife, just cashing in on name recognition. Totally comic book camp, although impressive to see an entire cast act through a film without ever wearing shoes. Whacky snake woman Cinderella / Little Mermaid story that is ultimately agonizingly bad.
Deep hurting.
Jan Dara Drama Christy Chung is great in this sad ending tale of a house full of scandal, history, meanies & weanies. Arty, lots of sex & blood.
Great!
X-Cops Girls Action Schlock Low-budget mainland crap with a brief appearance from Hong Kong action celebrity Anthony Wong Chau-Sang.
Crap.
The Losers Club Comedy Francis Ng as "Kenny" a washed up singer who's career is resurrected by a desperate TV producer.
Fun!!
Love on a Diet Romantic Comedy Massively successful film about the unlikely pairing of two obese people helping one another slim down to try to please a lost love and in the process fall in love and moreover revamp their own self-appreciation. Sammi and Andy Lau make this work, and the fat suits are surreal while convincing. The tape worm scene is especially memorable.
Fun!
Body Weapon Action Schlock Angie Cheung shows lots of skin in this raped woman getting revenge flick. She retaliates after learning to shatter a man's g-spot with a well aimed kick from a mercenary hairdresser, and her success is visualized with slow motion exploding eggs.
Silly fun.
Spacked Out Drama Teen girls work through numerous personal and inter-social issues, basically what Glass Tears should have been. Find this one NOW!
Excellent!!!
Victim Thriller Ringo Lam directs this groovy little yarn about a kidnaping that may have resulted in some supernatural badness. Well shot. Really great build on the potentially possessed lead character, especially when contrast against his wife and the investigating cop. The main question, is the kidnapping victim possessed, or just an evil plotting dick?
Fun!!
Hit-Team Action Swat Team drama about good cops doing bad things to try to make right out of wrong. Great weapon play!
Fun!!
Musa Historical War Epic Joint China & South Korea production, beautifully rendered, neat historical angle, and loads of wonderful swordplay. Exotic, bloody and a solid tale of finding yourself to better face overwhelming odds, at least to make your personal sacrifices have more value for the people you are sacrificing for. Or something like that. Very impressive on many levels.
Wonderful!
The Wesley's Mysterious File Man Vs. Alien Schlock Andy Lau, Hsu Qi, Rosomund Kwan, what could go wrong? Let's start with a shallow story, awkward pacing, loads of unmotivated 360 degree jump cuts, inconsistent character super powers, recycled explosion footage, unresolved two dimensional character issues, inconsistencies in alien monsters, and perhaps some of the worst secondary character acting I've seen since Hercules Goes Bananas. The white cast is dubbed over in English, the establishing shot of San Francisco is actually the Hong Kong harbor, and explain to me why aliens that can fly away into space as clouds of CGI vapor would ever need space ships to begin with. On the flip side, though, this film has some elements that made it fun to watch in a very Mystery Science Theater 3000 kind of way. The translation of "ow!" to subtitles that read "terrible pain" was a funny moment in context, and dialogue like "Not only the Chinese know Chinese Kung Fu!" from the head of the secret US alien defense team Double X had me on the floor. And don't forget the line "We've traced his brainwaves!" Oh boy. The loads of CGI monsters and tentacles were fun, and the kid playing the young version of Andy Lau deserves and Eyebrow Acting Oscar. Fans of deep hurting schlock will dig this, everyone else go back and rent Full-time Killer or Love on a Diet or Love Me, Love My Money. Heck, anything else would probably be more healthy for your mind than this, well, maybe not Bio-Dome. And ever wondered what a sex scene in Cocoon would've looked like? Find your answer here. Ick.
Terrible Pain Kinda Deep Hurting!
You Shi Tiaowu AKA The Island Tales Drama Kaori Momoi, Hsu Chi and the rest of the Chinese and Japanese cast are delightful in this odd film about people trapped on an island that has been quarantined briefly by the government for concern over a disease. The quarantine is an effective device in a compressed time frame to force the characters to interact and deal with the worst their assorted quirks and paranoia can bring to bear. Kaori Momoi is wonderful in this (as strong as her altogether different roles in Baunsu ko GALS & Swallowtail), although her English is often heavy with accent (though still sounds authentic certainly) which might make her hard for people to understand that might not be used to the accent that accompanies learning English second to Japanese, Cantonese or Mandarin. A well shot, interesting film where the lulls and pauses are even more delicious than the action.
Beautiful!
Princess D Drama Daniel Wu plays a vid game designer who overcomes a creative block up after a strange and wonderful rescue from near death by a punker bartender played by the wondrous Lee Sin Ji from a club. He makes her the inspiration for his next big game, and through their brief relationship they both learn to empower themselves through pursuing their dreams. Some wonderful CGI sequences that lead me to believe that Princes D would actually be a very cool, creepy and dreamlike adventure game. A great dig in this as well at clone action chick games with the first draft of Princess D the game, man that was so apt, and SO horrible! Lots of neat visual storytelling, often the most powerful when saying the least verbally. A really neat piece of work that I believe points to the potential of Hong Kong dramatic cinema when approached with integrity rather than looking for a quick cash in on the current big name, so in other words, this is the opposite of Wesley's Mysterious Files.

Groovy!!

Great website as well!

http://www.princess-d.com/
The Eye Suspense Supernatural Thriller Simply one of the best things I've seen in a long time. Though clearly inspired by Sixth Sense this film goes in a new direction and handles with class, style and richness that would make it a worthy double feature with Sixth Sense certainly. Instead of going the typical route of big effects and cheap stunts ALA Thirteen Ghosts (which works for mainstream schlock but can seriously hamper & undermine a dramatically based thriller) this film is deceptively lackluster, retaining a visual classical continuity that speaks to great restraint and maturity on behalf of the Jang Brothers and their twin crews in HK and Thailand.
Excellent in SO many ways!
Dance of A Dream Romantic Musical Comedy This film is practically a musical in the traditional sense, with a degree of a nod to Singing in the Rain and West Side Story in scenes that play out wonderfully. The supporting cast is rich and could have stood to have had more time in the film. The main story is traditional and no deeper than that of a typical Fred Astaire film. The cruelty in the touching climax gets a rather hollow feeling reversal into happiness, but otherwise the personal moments in the film feel sincere and are often surprisingly warm, original and believable. The developing friendship between the lead women is truly amusing, and Sandra Ng's roommates are hilarious. The cinematography aspects of this are far richer and carefully crafted than a typical Hong Kong romantic comedy (musical) to the level of Shall We Dance from Japan, although this is a lighter story than Shall We Dance in most regards. Anita Mui is apt casting as she was a huge teen pop star in HK in the late Eighties, and is well matched against Andy Lau. Sandra Ng is a long-standing comedian and actress, and additionally is now the spokesperson for a weight loss and physical fitness chain in HK for her success in toning up and slimming down for this role. For those who might have rather seen pretty women in the leads for pretty sake (although I think Sandra Ng is a god) go rent Wesley's Mysterious File. There is an example of pretty leads in a 2001 film from HK starring with Andy Lau, and evidence as well that pretty cast doesn't mean good film making. Dance of a Dream, if nothing else, is solid film making and very appropriate casting. No one could have pulled of that role but Sandra Kwan-Yue Ng.
Fun!!
Wu Yen Romantic Historical Mythological Comedy Sammi Cheung, Anita Mui & Cecilia Cheung in one film, together, at the same time. Oh... my... god... Feels like a huge play about miscommunication, deceit, deception and convolution. Oh, yeah, and a spirit trickster fox that can be either a woman or a man at will, though always played by a woman, an emperor who is always a man but always played by a woman, and a gypsy amazon warrior woman who is always a woman and always played by a woman but does not always have a giant red mole across her brow. Throw in meddling ancestors, a warped love triangle, loads of slap stick and heaps of shadow puppet transitional story telling, and you've found entertainment to get drunk with. Fun certainly, just don't expect an action film or a mighty drama, cause sister, this ain't it. Devilish slapstick fun with some seriously loaded gender bending currents churning up foam occasionally across the breaking surface. And no, that was not an innuendo.
Devilish slapstick fun.
Mak dau goo si aka: My Life as McDull Animation & other media First animated feature I've seen from HK, and hopefully not the last. Brilliant and unconventional, with an amazingly whimsical style of narrated recalled episodes interwoven with introspective investigations and loads of imaginative tirades. Wonderful mix of styles and techniques in the rendering, covering pretty much the full gamut of potential animation disciplines. Great comic writing, lovely recurrent jokes, terrific voice talent and really excellent songs, especially the one about tasio bau (steamed pork buns). Excellent for the kids, heck, the whole family! Really smart stuff!
Brilliant!!!
Sleeping With The Dead Horror Thriller Smart and well shot except for a couple bad CGI blood bits. Loads of really clever visual storytelling, and a lot of out takes on the DVD that further attest to the wisdom of the editing staff (case in point, the decision to cut & reshoot the hugging skeleton climax scene). Loads of elements to remind you of the genre of tense spookshow that Sixth Sense rekindled so well, without ever letting you feel let down, been there done that. Although not perfect like The Eye, it can certainly share a space on the same shelf. I will note that the Canton Kid site liked it far less than I did, equating it with the Troublesome Night series (ouch) as the restraint in the film that I liked annoyed them, among other things. Fair enough. I agree with them about loose ends as well, sometimes it is hard to tell open for audience interpretation from sloppy continuity.
Solid!
2002 Action-Comedy Ghostbusters meets Frighteners with serious big budget flair. This flick rocks no matter how slap stick or absurd it sometimes gets. Seeing Sam Lee swim up a birth canal with a flock of sperm cells as a visual metaphor of his reincarnation, for example, or the comment on a ghost appearing in green light, a nice poke at the HK horror convention of overly saturating the supernatural in toxic green light. As usual Canton Kid and I don't exactly agree on this one, and I'm beginning to believe it is completely an issue of context and convention. Context as in where this film sits amongst its peers in the action-horror-comedy genre, did it do anything new? yes. Was it entertaining? yes. Did it have an air tight plot? no. Did it at least resolve most primary and chief secondary plots? Yes, surprisingly well actually, if somewhat absurdly at times. Did it get a laugh intentionally? Yes, often. Did it tug at the heart strings during the mushy moments? Yup. Did it have great effects? Generally. Cool gizmos? Yup again. Lots of environmental effects (water, fire, etc.)? Definitely, though not evenly dispersed. Tons of cool posturing? Of course. Cool femmes? Mostly, though at times awkward looking, which speaks to the editing I think. Sure, this is no high drama masterpiece, but would you expect it to be? I do agree with the Kid that the coolest parts of this thing generally felt under developed and left me wanting a hell of a lot more, like Sam Lee's all to brief role. Still, a lot of smart bits in here. Someone here in North America should rip it off immediately. Hmmmm...
Delightful though light!
The Longest Summer Drama A sometimes heavy handed film about a group of disenfranchised guys who suddenly feel alienated in their own country as their employers, the British Military, pulls up anchor and leaves them behind during the hugely weird hand over of Hong Kong in 1997. Set against the backdrop of the largely uncertain and extremely anxiety ridden hand over, from a few months prior to just past the hand over the story arcs through a string of events that force each man in the group to confront himself on some level, and if surviving, to come out changed and scarred. Sam Lee, younger than I've seen him before, is amazing in this. The cadence of the film is often uneven, but forgivable. The filming often feels very impromptu and gorilla. The relationships among characters in the film seem as congruous as being lucky enough to twice drive beneath children chucking rocks off an overpass. There are some fresh visuals to haunt you afterwards, like the kid on the subway with the hole straight through his head, and the hole is an improbably healed hole, and we even get another child's POV view through the hole to gaze down the length of the subway aisle, or the story of how he got that way, the story that turns out to be oddly incidental, nearly unrelated. Maybe a bit too much like how real life works, I dunno. Still, the scene where Sam Lee, after being called a mainlander redneck by the loudest of an obnoxious group of school girls, chucks the offending girl out of the open 2nd story window of the moving bus down into traffic below makes this film worth the rental, not because I have anything against obnoxious gangs of HK schoolgirls (although the director appears to, they are a recurrent theme in the film, and often end up getting done over, a metaphor about karmic rewards apparently), but I have to applaud the unprecedented sudden burst of horrifying action this scene accomplishes. Now that is good shock cinema!
Educational & well crafted.
My Left Eye Sees Ghosts Ghostly Comedy-Romance Sammi & Lau Ching Wan, what could go wrong? For light feel good fare, this works. Not world shaking, but certainly entertaining, and like Love on a Diet this caters to the conventions of two cats irritating one another, realizing when separated that they love one another, oh, will they get together in the end, tension tension drama drama and damn! Not even a gratuitous full monty sex scene for a pay off. I kid, no one expects a pornographic ending really, although would anyone really complain? Anyway, Sammi plays mean and spoiled turned into nice and appreciative by the end. Yawn for the most of that. What makes this flick cool is the take on ghosts, which is played lightly but is darn creepy if you stop to think about it, especially the 90 years dead little girl hanging around with her sister outside the funeral home. Lau Ching Wan's comedy kicks ass generally in this, would expect nothing less. He's HK's answer to Sean Connery after all, yup!
Groovy.
Ruang talok 69 AKA 69, 6ixtynin9 Thailand Thriller Crime Drama Simply luscious on so many fronts. The star, Tasanawalai Ongartittichai, is completely believable as a frustrated, mostly honest middle class single working woman recently burned by her former employer, laid off in perhaps the cruelest "fair" method of random selection I've to date seen portrayed in film. Simple set up, loads of rich characters, great dialogue, excellent cinematography, delicate color arrangements more manipulative than most heavy handed Hollywood musical scores without ever appearing to be so. So while I might feel tempted to disagree with the characters choices in the ending, I certainly understand why she made them, and left this film feeling lucky once again to have access to international VCDs. Certainly a good one to recommend to fans of bits like Snatch, Way of the Gun & Lock, Stock.
Brilliant!
Wicked Ghost Ghost Horror Lathered in Green Lighting Considerably better than the sequel, but only for the quality of the actors. Francis Ng is seldom a disappointment. Some nice shots but in general frustrating as the tensions seems to come more from frustration at the key characters keen ability to remain inactive and stand by stupidly while their friends are slowly, horribly killing themselves one way or another. Really annoying and difficult to buy into. Some fun scary ghost shots derived directly from Japan's The Ring, including a very funny bit where a character receives a VHS tape that actually has footage from The Ring's infamous scare sequence on it, followed by a cute punchline with Francis Ng inviting the hapless viewer to lunch. I respect a film that will acknowledge who it is ripping off within it's own content openly. Then the audience can accept the liberation of creative content as simple respectful homage. One the flipside, the poster for this film is the BOMB. Love it. Oh well.
Lame.
Wicked Ghost 2 The Fear Ghost Horror Lathered in Green Lighting Although this has some neat ideas overall it is extremely bad. On the gore front, the possessed woman who locks herself into a hospital bathroom, whittles a mop handle into a stake, then commits suicide via shoving the stake through her own head (and not the easy way through the eye socket, nope, she did it the old fashioned way, through the sides of her own skull, who says possessed Chinese women are afraid of rolling up their sleeves and getting down to the tough labor?) to be discovered the next morning by perhaps the funniest untrained extras I've seen in quite some time. The ghost twins of the abortion another woman is haunted by held great creep value. The historical bit explaining the rage of the main ghost is truly macabre to the point of being funny, I mean, bad enough the new wife has the old wife raped and then accused of adultery, worse that as punishment the old wife has her limbs amputated and is left to marinate in a clay pot full of ginseng tea while her head pokes out to see the world pass by, no, that wasn't bad enough. Upon the husband's protests against the evil new wife's request to consummate their love before the still very much alive and angry old wife sitting there in her pot next to the love shack bed, the evil wife answers his protest against being seen by casually fetching a old fashioned letter opener and popping out the old wife's teary eyes. And then, THEN has the old wife killed by a priest pal of the family, thereby negating the need for all of the preceding torture and further sealing the fate of all of the antagonist's ancestors in modern day. An odd point, as upon the blinding the hubby killed himself, which makes me wonder how exactly he and the evil new wife ever produced any offspring, but clearly I'm thinking too much about this.
Lamer.
Dream of a Warrior Fantasy Crap. Something I seldom say, but this flick hurts enough to resurrect MST3K. Bad sets, bad acting, moderately to very bad costumes, silly CGI antics, lame story and weak conclusion add up to my really wondering if someone desperately needed a tax shelter so badly that they would throw money away like this. Burning the cash would've been prettier. And to think Leon Lai was good in Fallen Angels. Oh wait, he wasn't allowed to speak in that film. Guess Wong Kar-wai is even more of a genius than I thought he was.
Garbage.
July Rhapsody AKA Laam yan sei sap Drama Excellent introspective / interpersonal piece that really had some teeth to it without feeling hopeless or worse, manipulative & artificially gratifying. Might be a good double feature with American Beauty as well. Best performance to date that I've seen from Anita Mui, and every actor in this seems like a powerhouse. Hats off to Ann Hui for the direction and Ivy Ho for the brilliant script. Seriously one of the best dramas I've seen in a while, especially if you have a taste for classical literature ALA poetry.
Excellent!!!
Suzhou River Drama Beautiful to look at, touching to endure. The frequently POV and semi-handheld camera work is quirky but successful. The locations portraying Shanghai are deliciously chewed up, layered, soiled and water stained Pleasantly moist so to speak. Lurid and fetching the way Cyclo is, but delivers at a far faster pace like Swallowtail Butterfly, though without the humor generally. Really a nice though sardonic love yarn. Did I mention yet that many of the visuals in this need to be taught to our young ones IMMEDIATELY? The shot of the courier Mardar perched on the ladder leering down thoughtfully at unwitting hostage Moudan, their heads on diagonally opposite intersections of the grid, static yet breathing, a masterpiece to behold and a desktop wallpaper waiting to happen with the quiet disturbed power of Leon without quite the pedophiliac undertones (although perhaps not completely without). Excellent work, and some really interesting credits if you ever want to see how the Germans and the Chinese might work together to produce a tweaked out love story. Last note, really appreciate and respect the move to anchor the tale to a narrator that is a partial, biased yet generally passive voyeur. Certainly an exploration of existentialism, at least more candid and blatantly than most flicks, as truth be told all flicks are a degree of existentialist experience, the very notion of an audience of passive voyeurs vicariously living another's life through the medium. And so on.
Excellent!

Three AKA San Geng

Godlike Web Site:
http://www.threemovie.com/

Arty Horror Three short films from three places, South Korea, Thailand and Hong Kong, each progressively better than the last, and certainly worth the viewing.
Memories is a sometimes heavy handed jumper with some very cool gross out moments at the end that begin with a heavy nod to the Ring then carry a few steps further deliciously. Downside, the Tales from the Crypt punchline left me feeling pretty empty, really. Told through two simultaneous inter-cut narratives, one follows the hubby trying to remember what he did, while the other follows the wife waking up with amnesia in a street. The hubby material is generally boring and laden with noise blast jumper moments that are OK, but nothing new, except the visitation from the apparent ghost of the missing wife whole feels a brain is a good thing to waste after all. Nice one. The wife's narrative as she goes through a mini-Memento tracking through the clues and flashes of memory trying to figure out who and where she is kicks ass. This is well shot, well edited, tense and absolutely wonderful. Apparently also too good to be true, because the climax of the short film is apparently a simultaneous realization by both people as to what had happened between them. Neat. Now we've managed to resolve the mystery, true, in the lamest way possible, well, not completely lame, it's definitely disturbing on a visceral level which has appeal on a base level, BUT now we also feel empty, because the wife, who by now we dig, well her whole struggle and journey past the scary construction sites and insane cab driver, now all of that is rendered useless and unjustified, while the hubby rides off into the sunset the tail end of a Viagra commercial. Damn, almost a genius piece of jumper genre fare.
The Wheel is a very captivating and almost completely alien yarn that works well and moreover is generally fun to watch. Starts a bit slow, and the appearance of dead loved ones could have been held off until the end, and didn't get the crying blood thing but it looked cool so who cares? Ends extremely well, who can frown on a machete welding preschooler? Moving on.
Going Home is what I bought this anthology for without even knowing it. Oh my. Beautifully rendered in every department, the location is an astoundingly effective nearly abandoned pair of adjacent dense apartment towers in the seedier side of HK, where we follow a Dad and son moving in while everyone else is moving out (the building is going to be demolished in a month explains the manager). We meet another couple and a little girl, and we learn through brilliant art direction all kinds of things, like how ghosts do graffiti, how Eastern medicine cures liver cancer, how to best groom and maintain a beloved wife who has taken a three year hiatus from living to get well again, and most importantly, how big a urine bottle needs to be to adequately provide for your well saturated hostage. I'm making light only because I'm giddy with joy over how fresh, beautiful, terrifying, disturbing and ultimately heart touching (did I say "touching", more like "pounding with a meat cleaver and pair of well matched tuna"). Been a long time since I've burst into tears during a movie, not counting tears of frustration. I love this film, and frankly, of the three, this one most deserves to be remade as a full length feature with more characters and intertwined stories, because frankly, the location alone is simply a freak magnet. And here I also have to retract earlier snide remarks about Leon Lai. Although I expect he was massively directed, still, in this he was simply perfect, and trust me, his role would not be an easy one to pull off for most actors, not convincingly anyway. Perhaps he has found his true niche in cinema? And as for the rest of the cast? Although familiar already with the power of Eric Tsang, the rest of the cast was new to me, and further, blew me away as well, astounding as two of the actors I'm referring to are tiny children, not something I'm generally impressed by. And how does Eugenia Yuan manage to hold so still playing a stiff and still manage to convey her character (something I've ironically accused Leon Lai of doing in the past, ha ha)?
Three solid chunks!!
Visible Secrets 2 Schlock This ends with the one character I like, September played by Cherrie Yin, tossed away like a Kleenex while the two characters I found progressively annoying stroll away into the cemetery sunset. Does it sound like I'm going to recommend it? Timing is stiff and slow, gags thin and spare, and over all disjointed and dull. Did like the voyeur character and his crib, a detail really poorly developed, let alone the potentially really creepy red bikini femme Abbott & Costello team next door and the creepy old leering woman on the bench outside. Tighter than the first one, true, but not nearly half as entertaining.
Limp.
The Peeping Schlock Thriller As the poster promised, impossibly big boobs abound in this whiny who is playing who thriller. Amusingly, also like the poster promised, the girls seem to manage to always keep their hands or other handy obstacle over their nipples to a degree that becomes increasingly amusing by the end of this weary trek. Okay, so the plot is simple. A guy named Calvin played by Keanu wanna be Daniel Wu (a fellow University of Oregon grad BTW) makes his living secretly installing cameras and taping the misdeeds of cheating husbands and wives He has his best pal who looks amazingly just like Sam Lee but isn't, and girlfriend in tow. He gets an offer too good to be true (we all know what that means) to spy on the life of Kwai Fung Ming, a Taiwanese politician. Kwai, we learn, is a bisexual castratory skank who of course Calvin falls head over heels for thus losing his girlfriend (the only marginally attractive woman in this film) and his best friend (the only other marginally attractive woman in this film despite being a guy). So basically I find myself hoping Calvin will die as soon as filmically possible. Through an improbable series of event Calvin gets played and winds up dead, but not before his ex-girlfriend has been drugged up at a club and raped by a Taiwanese Triad boss (oh, but I'm sure he wore a condom being the sensitive rapist Taiwan is so known for) while Calvin watches on the surveillance cameras. Oh wait, did I mention Calvin gets some with Kwai Fung Ming somewhere in there? No? Probably goes to show how painfully forgettable the big torrid scene is, unless of course you enjoy lots of close ups of sweat pooling on Calvin's neck and the bunions on Kwai Fung Ming's toes. Ick. So anyway, why I'm bothering to even write this much when clearly there is much about the film I dislike, is this: Calvin ends up dead. This is unprecedented. In this breed of schlock there is never any real justice generally for Calvin's particular flavor of spine shanked macho anti-hero. Usually they can do all the sinning they'd like while all their loved ones drop like flies around them and at the end, at best, have a little introspective moment where they say they're sorry to a grave stone or something. Not here. Sure, the sex is lame, sure, we can see that the couples are still wearing panties and their hips are impossibly far apart during the grinds. Sure, the lesbian surveillance footage should be extracted and used for a Korn video. It'd be MTV2 safe, trust me. Sure, the ex-girlfriend gets raped by Taiwan's answer to Mr. Clean. BUT. BUT there ending somehow makes everything OK. Mr. Clean goes to jail. The release of the other surveillance footage puts all the other bad public figure women into a place of ridicule and scandal, for them even worse than jail. But most importantly, the girlfriend gets to hook up with the best friend, a far better person than Calvin, and further, gets to bear witness to almost every shunned femme's deepest secret fantasy, her wanker ex-boyfriend being bludgeoned to death by Mr. Clean. So although I hated watching it, in the end, I actually kind of respect the outcome. Weird how that works out.

As a side note, the scene between the girlfriend and Kwai in the bathroom is a real lesson in why women are far better at dealing with conflict than men sometimes. Here they are in the same bathroom after is has become very clear that Calvin is about to switch teams. I'm expecting a huge gratuitous cat fight Roger Corman meets Troma style. Instead, the girlfriend undoes her shirt and presents her breast and training bra to the mirror. Says nothing. Kwai snickers, saunters over, unbuttons her own blouse to reveal two baby pigs slung to her chest in surgical silk. Girlfriend sulks, covers up and departs defeated. My instructor Ty would ask if this is Information, Action or Decision. I would have to reply "D. All of the above." Because truly this astonishing nonverbal moment is when everything in the film changes, and when I should have realized that Calvin isn't the protagonist of the film at all. The girlfriend is.
The Touch Action
Running Out of Time 2
Stupid
Naked Weapon

Once A Thief (TV Pilot)
Twenty Something Taipei