Change Your Image
Cinematheque_Asia
Reviews
Zerkalo (1975)
Is our life really chronological?
We are born, we live, and then we die. There's a clear beginning and end of our physical being but throughout our lives our memories, thoughts, and perceptions often live simultaneous in the past, present, and future. There is no time except what we perceive as human beings. This is the heart of The Mirror.
The film is an abstraction of the mind. Most importantly it is an autobiographical window into Tarkovsky's soul. Tarkovsky always had a fascination with haikus and the significance of time, space, and dreams. He has noted in interviews that a haiku seemed to capture a disparate thought or feeling that only exists within itself but was entirely significant in its own reality. The Mirror is just a meditation in all these concepts.
If there is one flaw it is that the film itself is a bit philosophically and emotionally invested in Tarkovsky's own view of life. This is a film that could seem too abstract without knowing quite a bit about Tarkovsky beforehand. This film is still well worth seeing for the surreal and metaphysical dream like nature of the cinematography even if this is your first Tarkovsky film.
Saat po long (2005)
Preposterous dialog and plot but the action is top grade
Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung (who looks like an asskicking purple Chinese Santa Claus in this movie) both shine in this action orientated crime thriller. If you are seeking sensible dialog and a cerebral plot you'll have to look elsewhere. This is a brutal HK action movie in every sense of the word. The unfortunate problem with this film is that while there is an interesting backdrop of characters and a plot to speak of the dialog and execution of it is B-grade. There were obvious emotional "tearjerker" attempts shoehorned into the movie's plot but it's hard to take anything seriously when every tragic death comes right after receiving a phone call from their loved one. It's a ridiculous cliché and I was a bit surprised to see it in a film from 2005 that wasn't supposed to be a parody. When you watch a movie like SPL (Kill Zone) sometimes you have to wonder how much better it would have been if they hired a real writer to work on it.
With that being said even with these ridiculous elements this movie is still far better than most Hollywood movie attempts at martial arts action and probably cost 1/10th to make as well. Donnie Yen really mixes up his fight choreography with obvious inspiration from Capoeira, Kali/Silat style knife and stick fighting, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and run of the mill greco-roman wrestling moves. Yen proves he's one of the premiere physical action choreographers anywhere in the world.
Fong juk (2006)
Over the top and melodramatic
I'm one of those people who will never get Johnny To movies. He specializes in "re-imagining" the modern HK gangster and urban crime drama by sloppily superimposing it with classic western mythos. The problem is Exile suffers just as the rest of his movies often do from over exuberance and a significant director's attention deficit disorder when it comes to keeping the audience enthralled like Leone or Peckinpah did rather than snickering from the implausible scenarios presented on screen. The character interaction in Exile is often cheesy, melodramatic, and while there is loads of charisma from the 5 HK co-stars there is not a single line worthy repeating in this review.
Exile obviously doesn't exist in any kind of real world but a parallel universe in which doors can fly off hinges and twirl around in mid air from the impact of gun shots. You also get plenty of mugging for the camera and slo-mo pose offs with constipated grimaces by the actors. There is also some obvious product placement (Red Bull) which gives the entire movie a ridiculous campy atmosphere. The entire experience borders on self parody and if it weren't for some interesting action scenes and good music his movies would be about the equivalent of made for cable trash that you would find on U.S. cable channels.
With that being said, even at To's worst his movies are made on a relatively tiny budget and look like they cost much more. So on a dollar per quality ratio I suppose he's pretty profitable and I can understand why HK studios shower him with projects.
Yin shi nan nu (1994)
Ang Lee's love poem to Taiwan
This is one of those rare films that came along and knocked me on my ass because of simply how close it is to my heart. My father is a chef from Taiwan and owned his own restaurant so I grew up around the sights and sounds that you could see in the movie. Even though our family unit is nothing like Chu's in the movie I could identify very well with the humorous and fatalistic trials and tribulations of your typical Chinese household. Eat Drink Man Woman also captured the hectic life of Taiwan fairly well.
Ang Lee proves again what a master he is at blending his skilled hand at film making with contemporary and ancient eastern traditions to come up with this warm-hearted spirited movie. This is simply put a movie about life and enjoying the simple pleasures of family, food, and friends while you can while overcoming a narrow outlook to see the bigger picture. The message is simple but it's the delivery of it that counts.