REVIEW: Bodyguards and Assassins

NEW YORK, January 30 – Is it me or is Donnie Yen bucking to be the next national hero of Hong Kong? Maybe he’s starting with Hong Kong and shifting to be a national hero of China. It sure seems like it.

Yen’s recent acting filmography includes Ip Man (葉問), The Founding of a Republic (建國大業), and Bodyguards and Assassins (十月圍城). He is also set to release Ip Man 2 (葉問2) later this year. Interestingly these films have all been historically based fictions with an emphasis on individual heroism and valor.

Some film critics argue that Yen is treading dangerously close to Chinese Communist propaganda in his recent pictures. I wouldn’t go so far as to label his films as propaganda, but they are very careful in their handling of modern Chinese history. It’s a soft touch that is not characteristic of the fast paced Hong Kong film industry.

Yen’s current film, Bodyguards and Assassins, tries to carefully reshape Chinese history with varying degrees of success.


The film is mainly centered on the arrival of Sun Yat-sen in 1905 Hong Kong. Sun plans to unite the various rebellious Chinese factions in order to overthrow the troubled Qing dynasty, and the royal court responds with a group of highly trained assassins (ninja?).

Donnie Yen plays a crooked police officer in the burgeoning Hong Kong police department. As a gambling addict, he constantly finds himself broke and desperately looking for side jobs to cover his addictive habit. As a thug for hire, he sometimes takes jobs that are morally questionable. Over the course of the film, Yen’s character has a change of heart and decides to protect Sun Yat-sen with a heroic band of outcasts, homeless, and destitute individuals.

The film can easily be bifurcated into two halves. The first half is the introduction segment which provides the various background stories for each hero and villain. The second half of the film is dedicated to the action packed chase and fighting sequences between the various characters.


The first half is pretty long (almost an hour) and suffers from a lot of pacing issues. It jumps from one character background segment to another character segment without any sense of order or rhythm.

However, Sun’s arrival to Hong Kong changes everything. The tempo picks up and the rest of the film is a high paced sequence of chase and fight scenes. The frenetic nonstop movement is the hallmark of Hong Kong cinema, and the kung-fu is pretty top notch with Yen showing off his amazing skills.

Some of the best acting performances in the film were delivered by Tony Leung Ka-Fai (梁家輝). He brought serious acting chops to the role, but some of his counterparts lacked the same skill. It was like watching a tennis pro play with a teenage amateur.


Eric Tsang (曾志偉) also had a small side role as the police chief. His limited on screen time was funny and delightful. He lightened the mood during some of the most depressing moments of the story.

On a negative note, the film attempts to hand jam a nationalist allegorical message throughout the narrative which I found a little distracting. It wasn’t a subtle nudging… more like a slap in the face. Jeez… I get it: patriotism and equality. I felt like a customer being subjected to some hard selling by a used car salesman.

If you could bear with the long introductory exposition, Bodyguards and Assassin will take you through an amazing journey of unlikely heroes and fascinating villains.

Related Links:

• YouTube - Bodyguards & Assassins - Official Trailer
• Bodyguards and Assassins - Hollywood Reporter
• Reviews: BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS - Twitch
• Bodyguards and Assassins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• IMDb: Shi yue wei cheng (2009)
• Bodyguards and Assassins (2009) - LOVEHKFILM.COM
• Bodyguards And Assassins (Shi Yue Wei Cheng) - Screen International
• 'Bodyguards and Assassins' helps Chinese cinema enter the big leagues The Independent

NYAFF09: Crushing and Blushing with Kong Hyo-Jin

NEW YORK, June 25 – This is the first in a series of blog posts covering the New York Asian Film Festival. The film, Crush and Blush (미쓰 홍당무), was screened at the IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue).

Crush and Blush is a Korean romantic comedy about a bizarre love pentagon between teachers at a Korean middle school / high school. Kong Hyo-Jin (공효진) plays Yang Mi-sook, a homely school teacher with an obsessive crush on Lee Jong-hyeok (이종혁). The movie is a hilarious comedy of errors with a heart warming story.

Kong Hyo-Jin, the lead actress, introduced the film and provided a short commentary. She spoke briefly about the qualities that attracted her to the role of Mi-sook. She talked about her desire to play the underdog and her efforts to make her character a more sympathetic and lovable figure.


Related Links:

• Crush and Blush - AsianMediaWiki
• Crush and Blush - NYAFF09
• Crush & Blush Trailer (Youtube)
  

REVIEW: Ishirô Honda's Latitude Zero

NEW YORK, December 25 — Finally, a Special Edition Double DVD of Latitude Zero (aka "Ido zero daisakusen") has been released in the United States (Release Date: December 11, 2007). It was released by Tokyo Shock, a subsidiary of Media Blasters.

Latitude Zero is an underwater tokusatsu adventure by Ishirô Honda, the director of Gojira. It's a sci-fi film centered on Latitude Zero, an Atlantis-like underwater utopia. It's a classic Toho Studios production.

First, I want to address the matter of the packaging. The packaging is pretty stripped down for a "special edition". I was hoping for more extras and liner notes, instead the box was filled with Media Blasters advertisements. This advertising stuffing included a fold-out catalogue and a DVD of trailers. It was disappointing.

When "cult" films such as Latitude Zero are transferred to DVD, they are frequently victims of poor packaging and stripped down DVD authoring. Media companies just produce these DVD releases with very little creativity or care. The Latitude Zero release follows this trend of bland packaging and presentation.

Tokyo Shock could have paid a writer and a graphic designer to create an interesting booklet and box cover. It would cost very little money to produce.

Let’s get back to the film...


Crew of the Alpha submarine.
Before I reviewed this film, I read a lot of internet reviews on Latitude Zero. Many mainstream movie reviewers gave this film a bad review. However, I don't think it's really that bad. Latitude Zero has its problems, but it's a decent film. It is just misunderstood.

I understand that Latitude Zero is not for everyone. For many mainstream movie goers, many standard Japanese tokusatsu films (such as Gojira) are perceived as too weird and sometimes incomprehensible. Guys wearing large rubber monster costumes are still a little alien to western audiences.

However, Latitude Zero is just a step beyond the standard tokusatsu fare. This film was Honda's attempt to create a mixture of a western style sci-fi adventure with Japanese visual effects. He was trying to target both an American and Japanese audience simultaneously.

Capt. McKenzie (Cotten) catches a bullet with his bare hands.
The cast was a unique mix of western and Japanese actors. The most notable western actors were Cesar Romero (The Joker from TV's Batman) and Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane). They are joined by Akira Takarada (Gojira: Fainaru uôzu, Gojira, and Kingdom Hearts Video Games) and Masumi Okada (Brother Michael from TV's Shogun). Takarada is veteran Godzilla actor and a staple of Toho Pictures. His tokusatsu career spans the entire history of Godzilla films from the original 1956 Godzilla film to Godzilla: Final Wars.

The movie was also filmed in English, and many of the Japanese actors had to learn English. Some of the Japanese actors had the English script broken down into phonetic katakana in order to learn it. If you listen carefully to the Japanese actors, you will hear extra syllables and trailing sounds at the end of words. This is mostly due to learning English from reading the katakana phonetics.

Mutant humanoid bat henchmen.
The story of Latitude Zone begins in the Pacific Ocean. A research team is lowering a deep sea diving bell into the ocean. Two Japanese scientists (Takarada and Okada) and an American journalist (Richard Jaeckel) are diving into the deepest part of the ocean in order to study temperature shifts. An underwater volcano suddenly erupts, and their deep sea diving bell crashes to the bottom. They are quickly rescued by Captain Craig McKenzie (Cotten) and his uncanny submarine crew. After the rescue, the Alpha, McKenzie's submarine, is quickly pursued and attacked by the Black Shark, Doctor Malic's (Romero) submarine. An action filled underwater pursuit begins.

If you are fan of early sci-fi films, Latitude Zero will be a bizarre cinematic treat. Most of Latitude Zero's story deals with the concepts of a utopian society and the miracle of scientific progress during the early 20th century. The film portrays science as both a destructive force and a nurturing one. The ambivalent feelings toward scientific progress are a familiar theme to many sci-fi movie fans. In many respects, Latitude Zero is very similar to The Thing from Another World (1951), Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965), and Forbidden Planet (1956).

Giant griffin versus a submarine.
This film also has a good helping of Kaiju fun. It is an Ishirô Honda film after all. The crew of the Alpha battles humanoid bat creatures, giant rats, and a large furry Griffin monster. Many kaiju fans will also recognize the orchestral score. Music for the film was provided by Akira Ifukube, composer for most of the Godzilla films.

Latitude Zero does suffer from some pacing issues. The exposition scenes are painfully slow in the movie. Honda tried to stuff a political message into the long dialogue scenes, but it was completely awkward. He was trying to argue that the Cold War has tainted the noble pursuit of scientific research and human governments could not be trusted. It was a little too didactic, and it was a drag on the story.

In the end, Latitude Zero is not for everyone. However, if you enjoy a bizarre cinematic sci-fi experience, I highly encourage you to pick-up Ishirô Honda's Latitude Zero.

Ohh... Did I mention that they have girls on trampolines!

Related Links:

• IMDB: Latitude Zero
  
• Wikipedia: Latitude Zero
  
• TVGuide.com: Latitude Zero Review
  
• Toho Kingdom: Latitude Zero
  

REVIEW: Akira Kurosawa's Drunken Angel (Criterion Collection)

NEW YORK, November 30 — The folks at Janus Films and Criterion Collection recently released the latest high-definition digital transfer of Akira Kurosawa's Drunken Angel (released November 27, 2007).

As part of their standard production, Drunken Angel is a masterfully authored DVD with an amazing accompanying booklet. The packaging reminds me of old rock albums that were accompanied with original artwork and great liner notes. Packaging and good liner notes are slowly becoming a lost art with cheap DVD releases, Thinpaks, and direct downloads.

The Criterion DVD also has great extras like old archive interviews with Kurosawa and commentary by Donald Richie. Donald Richie is the author of A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History.

Drunken Angel's Criterion Collection Packaging and Liner Notes.
I have to confess that I'm a huge Akira Kurosawa fan. I have most of Kurosawa's movies in the restored Criterion Collection editions.

Drunken Angel is not characteristic of Kurosawa's later samurai movies like Rashômon or Seven Samurai. It's closer in tone and content to his earlier films dealing with post World War II Japan such as Stray Dog and Ikiru. It deals with many of Japan's post war problems such as crime, disease, and poverty. These themes are the pillars of Kurosawa's early noir classics.

In many ways, Drunken Angel is a precursor to Kurosawa's more famous Ikiru. Ikiru is one of my all time favorite films. Both films deal with issues of fatal diseases and poverty in Japanese society. Drunken Angel seems a little raw in comparison with Ikiru. In this film, Kurosawa was still looking for his own voice and style. Some scenes seem like pale imitations of Italian neorealism and Russian silent films. There were also some scenes that didn't seem like Kurosawa at all. (Note: Both of these styles are hugely influential on Kurosawa's own directorial style.)

The main story centers on the two main characters played by Takashi Shimura and Toshirô Mifune. Both Shimura and Mifune play notable samurai in Kurosawa's Seven Samurai movie. In Drunken Angel, Shimura plays a drunken doctor, who treats poor patients in his small clinic. Mifune plays a gangster that is diagnosed by Shimura with a deadly case of tuberculosis. Shimura directly confronts the gangster with his illness.

Shimura's directness was shocking to a Japanese audience because of Japanese medical practices at the time.

In the 1940s and the 1950s, it was common for Japanese doctors to lie to their patients about deadly ailments like cancer and tuberculosis. Japanese doctors believed that news of a fatal disease would be like handing a death sentence to a patient. The news would impair a patient from living the rest of their lives with any sense of normalcy. Kurosawa often criticized this medical practice in his early films. The practice of concealing fatal diseases prevented Japanese society from dealing directly with the problems of poverty and poor health.

In post war Japan, many Japanese died of deadly diseases from poor living conditions, poor hygiene, and polluted water. Disease and hygiene became very serious issues, and Kurosawa explores these issues in Drunken Angel.

If you don't mind some of the raw elements, I recommend that you watch Drunken Angel. It is not one of Kurosawa more polished films, but it does not disappoint. The film has passionate performances from both Shimura and Mifune, and Kurosawa's directing and editing are emotionally powerful.

Related Links:
Criterion Collection: Drunken Angel
IMDb: Akira Kurosawa
Wikipedia: Akira Kurosawa
Wikipedia: Tuberculosis

REVIEW: Transformers Movie, 2007

4 JULY 2007 -- This is my quick and dirty review of the Transformers movie. Don't worry... no plot spoilers.  However, read at your own risk.  You've been warned.

The Good.  I went to the movie with the intension of seeing a decent tokusatsu (special-effects) movie, and it does deliver.  The audience was really involved in the film, and they cheered at the end.  It had lots of action and some good variations on the transformation.  The story is utter crap, but that is not the main reason someone watches a tokusatsu film.  They did bring back Peter Cullen to voice Optimus and other voice over actors from the original cartoon series.  If you want to see giant robots smashing everything in sight, the movie does not disappoint.  I did enjoy it on that level.

The Bad.  The main problem I had with the movie is marketing it as a "Transformers" movie.  It's not a Transformers movie.  I compare it to the Dean Devlin Godzilla movie because it is a good tokusatsu movie that is divorced from the original source material.  If they marketed the movie as a unique property, I would probably be more accepting of the movie as a whole.  Furthermore, the character design was too radically different from the original show (gen 1), and some of the character personalities were changed.  Their behaviors seem out of character for some of the Transformers.

Another problem I had with the movie was the slow pacing through the first hour (of a 144 min. film).  The first hour was a light "Dawson's Creek" episode focused on the human characters.  A lot of it could have been edited out for pacing and brevity.  Also, the movie introduced a lot of human characters that did nothing.  They didn't have a role or function in the movie.  They just appeared and faded into the background without any real contribution.  They definitely could have been edited out.  It would have made the plot more coherent.  

It also bothered me that the story is told from the point of view of the human characters.  In the cartoon series, the story is told from the perspective of the Transformers.  I found that element of the cartoon series made it very unique and different.  Since Astro Boy, anime has frequently allowed the audience to relate and sympathize on some level with the villains and nonhuman entities.  In Japanese story telling, the villain is not just evil.  There are usually circumstances that drive essentially good characters to perform evil acts (see Akira Kurosawa's "Stray Dogs").  However, Michael Bay probably wanted characters that the American audience could sympathize.  Therefore, the Transformers seem a little distant and cold.

The Ugly.  Although the CGI looks acceptable, there are some problems.  In some of the combat scenes, the fighting is frenetic and all over the place.  I had a hard time distinguishing between the different transformers.  Where does one end and the other begin?  This is the real problem with using extremely intricate mech designs.  Many of the fights become large sloppy blurs of twisted metal on the movie screen.  Some scenes remind me of Dragon Ball Z fights, which result in quick blurry motion lines on the television screen.  Too confusing...

Optimus Prime, Original Cartoon

Optimus Prime, 2007 Movie

The other problem is the relationship between the robot forms and the vehicle forms.  In the original cartoon, the vehicle designs relate highly to the robot designs.  For example, Optimus Prime is a semi-truck in vehicle form.  In robot form, Prime's torso still looks a lot like the cab of a semi-truck.  You can clearly see the balance of form and function.  This is the real genius of transformers.  The mechanics of the transformation were believable to a certain extent.  This translated well to the action figures.  They transformed the same way the cartoon did.  However, the movie disregards all sense of function for the sake of form.  The movie displays intricate mech designs and cool vehicles, but it's difficult to believe that the robot forms can mechanically change into the vehicles.

The conclusion. Well, I recommend everyone see the movie at least once as a good tokusatsu film.  It's fun, and big robots kicking ass is always cool.  However, it sucks as a Transformers movie, and they should stop marketing it as such...


For more information on Tranformers Movie, 2007:

• Transformers Movie, 2007 - Official Website
  
• IMDB: Transformers Movie, 2007
  

--
James Leung Man-Fai
,

OTAKU USA, First Issue in Stores! and Paprika (Anime Review)

09 JUNE 2007 -- I'm back from my funky adventures below the Mason-Dixon Line.  I've returned to a humid and sticky New York City.

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OTAKU USA! The first issue arrives on store shelves!


OTAKU USA is the first real American J-Trash magazine with some red meat.   The articles are interesting and well written.  The reviews and features are comprehensive and engaging.  It contains: anime reviews, manga previews, Gundam Model kit previews, j-pop news, movie news, Tokusatsu info, interviews, and Kaiju movie updates.  It is edited by Patrick Macias.

I've read this magazine cover-to-cover.  It's been a long time since I've done that...  Get youself a copy immediately.

OTAKU USA Magazine is available at these stores: Barnes and Nobles, Borders, Books A Million, Hastings, Walden, Loblaws, Target, and other magazine retailers.

• http://otakuusamagazine.com
  

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ANIME: Papurika

I finally viewed Satoshi Kon's (Paranoia Agent and Tokyo Godfathers) latest movie, Paprika (a.k.a. Papurika) on the big screen, and it was quiet trippy.  It was very reminiscent of his work on the last few episodes of Paranoia Agent.  The most memorable scenes consist of dreamy sequences that rapidly turn into a dark imploding world.

The general plot involves a medical corporation that develops a dream machine that allows therapists to delve into the patients' subconscious.  This new ability leads to problems when a fiendish criminal tries to steals dreams from patients and manipulates their minds with the machine.  Paprika, a mysterious dream heroine, must stop the criminal from completely overtaking the dreams of everyone involved in the project.

The film does include many element of Wachowskis' The Matrix, and there are other references such as Journey to the West, Tokyo Godfathers, Roman Holiday, and Tarzan the Ape Man.

Paprika is a gorgeous and visually enticing movie.  It has a bright palette of colors and characters that will keep audiences interested in every cell of animation.  It was almost hypnotic.  Masashi Ando's (Paranoia Agent) character designs are very intricate, and the animation is surprisingly fluid.

I am a huge fan of Satoshi-san work.  As with Paranoia Agent and Millennium Actress, he creates the same sense of intensity in this film.  His movies have a distinctive pacing and rewarding climaxes.  Satoshi-san did not disappoint his fans with this amazing film.  A must see anime!

You can watch Papurika trailer on YouTube.

• Sony's Official Papurika Website.
  
• Animenfo: Papurika.
  
• Anime News Network: Papurika.
  
• Wikipedia: Papurika.

--
James Leung Man-Fai

Welcome to the NHK, Newcastle United, and Neverwinter Disappointment

NEW YORK, December 26 — Staying cool...  

The weather has been erratic in New York City.  Messed up...

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ANIME: Welcome to the NHK




This is the real face of the otaku (esp. NEET and hikikomori).  Ronery, sad, anti-social, paranoid, perverted, and addiction ridden adult children.  Wikipedia's description of the plot: "The story follows Tatsuhiro Sato, a university dropout entering his fourth year of unemployment. He leads a reclusive life as a hikikomori, feeling that this happened due to some sort of conspiracy."

I was afraid that Studio Gonzo was going to do a terrible adaption.  However, they created a good show.  This is a story of developing characters.  Gonzo does a good job at defining the main characters: Sato, Misaki, and Yamazaki.

They have made several changes in order to make it acceptable for television.  The biggest change is the removal of the drug use.  I don't judge Studio Gonzo too harshly on these changes because they successfully juggle comedy and uncomfortability.  Those are the two most important elements of the Welcome to the NHK story.

The only problem with Welcome to the NHK story is the grounding.  It assumes that the viewers have some knowledge of otaku, Neets, Hikikomori, anime, manga, date sims, mo-e, MMORPGs, internet suicide groups, lolicon, and other related subjects.

You can watch Welcome to the NHK through fansubs.  They are available on YouTube and Bittorrent.  

• Animenfo: Welcome to the NHK.
  
• Anime News Network: Welcome to the NHK.
  
• Wikipedia: Welcome to the NHK.
  

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Newcastle Return to Form

Newcastle is roaring back with the current win streak.  They were second to last in mid November 2006.  Now, they're in the middle of the pack.  Damn, I hope they can maintain this winning tempo. 

 

• Premiership League -- English Soccer

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Neverwinter Week



I finished Neverwinter Nights 2 in only a week.  The single player campaign was pretty lame.  It was a weak version of Baldur's Gate 2 with D&D 3.5 Rule Set.  The gameplay was weak.  The camera angles are annoying, and the games is a resource hog.  It was a disappointment.  Furthermore, the high system requirements might hinder the growth of the mod community and multiplayer persistent worlds.  I already uninstalled it.