Beijing Love Story (北京愛情故事) is an 2014 film out of Zhong Guo. The movie is an ensemble cast including Tony Leung, Carina Lau, Wang Xuebing, Yu Nan, Chen Sicheng, and Tong Liya. The movie is broken up into 5 different stories.
In Beijing, the party is going strong while some men pick up on some gals. A man falls for a gal and they hook up. Gal is preggers. In another story, married couple that has problems when the man goes out at night and sleeps around. Wife cracks cell phone to find his dirty deeds. Another story is of high school crush. Another story is of an aging couple madly in love dealing with death. Another couple with a kid try to rekindle their marriage with some roll playing.
All five story present a "LOVE" story of sorts. It seemed a big hit in Zhong Guo and Hong Kong as it cracked the top ten. Even in the US, the movie played for 6 weeks.
However, the movie was a major disappointment for me as the stories were trying present "love". It could be a culture thing as I noticed this in many drama series from Zhong Guo recently, the "love" they present seems more like a contract. Maybe its because I grew up in the states and that the "love" stories of wuxia lore are more inline with my Americanize Taiwanese upbringing. In the US, in the mainstream culture, only the old couple and high school couple would fall into the "love" category. But America's definition of love isn't keeping people married nor getting people to marry too. Marriage are down and divorces are up.
If you are a FOB, watch it. You might enjoy it. If you grew up in the US, I'd recommend you to pass.
Beijing Love Story (北京愛情故事) is being release in the US market this weekend. Seems to be anthology of lives that find their love in different ways. I wouldn't mind checking it out. I like these types of movies because the bang for your buck is high with so many characters. Most likely, these characters in and in themselves would not be able to carry a whole movie, but in shorten form, we take it the extremes of the story and don't have to invest so much time.
I will try my darndest to catch it in the local movie theatre. But current showtimes are not favorable to my schedule.
Mark Chao continues his accent into leading man status with the lead in this film by replacing Andy Lau as the younger Dee. The trailer starts with Mark's voice and it's on. Angelababy takes up leading lady status for this film. With the mystery set on high, we'll see if they can make these prequels a franchise. I for one hope it does.
Saviour of the Soul (九一神鵰俠侶) is an 1991 film out of Hong Kong. The movie stars Andy Lau and Anita Mui. The supporting cast include Aaron Kwok, Gloria Yip, Kenny Bee, and Carina Lau. The title of the film is translated to 91 The Return of the Condor Heroes.
Silver Fox breaks his master out of prison. But there clan doesn't accept failure. Thus Silver Fox is forced to kill his master. In order to take revenge, he seeks the person that prevented his master from succeeding, May. May is a bounty hunter in a group. Ching is May's partner from their younger years. Siu Chuen is a recent addition to the group. Siu sacrifices himself to save May during a brutal attack from Silver Fox. May wants to protect her loves one and goes into seclusion. However, Silver Fox and Ching both wait a year before they see May again.
This movie was early 1990s goodness all rolled up into one. Cheezy acting and style, a la the crazy trench coats. The crazy kung fu magic of the clans. The modern take on The Return of the Condor Heroes. I love it. But I am from that era and learned to love HK film during that time. The craziness of HK films was so different than the American films of that era.
The story itself is based on one of the more famous story arcs of The Return of the Condor Heroes. GuGu and Yang Guo are separated for ten years and crazy things happen to them both. Although some elements were swapped, it was in essential the story arc made into a film, with a modern spin.
Let the Bullets Fly (讓子彈飛) is an 2010 film out of Zhong Guo. The movie stars Chow Yun-fat, Jiang Wen, and Ge You. The large supporting cast include Carina Lau, Feng Xiaogang, Zhou Yun, Jiang Wu, Chen Kun, Hu Jun, Liao Fan, Wei Xiao, Shao Bing, and Miao Pu. There were many more. I only listed the ones I know.
The movie starts with a train going through southern Zhong Guo in 1920. The train is hijacked by bandits. The bandits demand money. The man on the train suggest that they can get money from a nearby town if they pretend to be the governor. The bandits and the man goto Goose Town to get money. Once there, the bandits find that a business man functions as the town warlord. The bandits go into battle of wits with blood and lives.
The movie is a thriller about how a bandit group takes on a local warlord and wins. I don't know if this was to play on the current state of how the people in Zhong Guo feel about some of the government corruption. When the people feel hopeless, they go with the one with power for safety. When they feel that fairness is within reach, they will fight for it. At least, that's what I walked away from the film thinking.
The acting in this film was pretty awesome. From Chow to Wen to Ge. It was pretty amazing to see them at work. Through in there a who's who of the current Zhong Guo actors landscape, you have a pretty amazing film, in terms of acting. The story was also quite convoluted. You have to pay attention to follow. No bathroom breaks for this. But you have the pause button.
It took me two sittings to get through this. The first was over a year ago via a local video store. The second was via Netflix.
Ashes of Time Redux (東邪西毒) is a 2008 film out of Hong Kong. This film is the restored and slightly adjusted version from the original 1994 film, Ashes Of Time. Some of the film's main characters are very loosely based on characters that appear in Jin Yong's wuxia novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes. This is also the only film directed by Wong Kar-wai that is adapted from material he didn't create.
The Cast Leslie Cheung as Ouyang Feng
Brigitte Lin as daughter of Murong clan
Maggie Cheung as Ouyang Feng's sister-in-law
Jacky Cheung as Hong Qigong
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Blind Swordsman
Tony Leung Ka-fai as Huang Yaoshi
Li Bai as Hong Qigong's wife
Carina Lau as Blind Swordsman's wife
Charlie Yeung as Girl with mule
The Story Ouyang Feng is a dealer for people looking for assassins. Feng has an outpost in the desert where people go to wheel and deal with him. Every year, Huang Yaoshi visits during springtime and they catch up. Along the way, various people roll through the outpost looking for action. Among them are all the others listed in the cast, with exception of Feng's sister-in-law and the blind swordsman's wife. One by one, an story of lost love and betrayal is presented. Everyone's running from something.
My Thoughts If you read my first post on the original version, you'll see that I didn't enjoy the 1994 version of Ashes Of Time much. However, I had fond enough memories of the film to include it in my Top 20 movies of the 1990s. And this version was also in Cantonese. The only Mandarin is from Brigitte Lin and Li Bai (and when Jacky speaks to Li Bai). So, I wasn't getting the language patterns other than from the subtitles. Which is disappointing. Mandarin dubs still try to stay within the emotional realm of the native tongue.
So, how was it this time around, 15 years after its release? Was this condensed version that included title headings to break up story arcs and "what they become" abstracts on the 3 of the five greats good? Much better! Even though I don't like watching canto dubs, this one was ok since it was such a beautifully shot film. The wide angle shots really presented the mode and the way things flowed made it seem like a dream. And all the stars were 15 years younger! Maggie Cheung was stunning! The rest of the cast just made things easy on the eyes while the environment was gritty and dusty.
The music was also re-scored with Yo Yo Ma on cello. I have the original soundtrack from the 1994 film and use it as finals study music for years. Unfortunately, I can't find the CD now, but the music was vastly different this time around. But it still entranced me in the moment and mood of the scenes.
Is there an coherent story, not really. Yet, it was the search for something on the horizon that made the story arcs move. I also think the Wong assumes you actually knew the story behind Feng, Huang, and Hong, which adds to how you think they are, but they break that character mode.
In the end, I believe this was a well deserved re-mastered version and one that should not be missed. Even at 17 years old now (really 18 in terms of filming), this film not only holds up well, its a testament to how good the HK movies were in the pre-turnover era.
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (通天神探狄仁傑/狄仁傑之通天帝國) is a 2010 film out of Hong Kong. The movies stars Andy Lau, Li Bing Bing, Carina Lau, and Tony Leung Ka Fai. Tsui Hark plays both producer and director. The movie is based on China's first and only female Empress Wu Zetian. Detective Dee was a high official during that time.
We Zetian is on the eve of announcing to the world that she's the boss of China! To show off, a 60 story statue is being built. When some mysterious deaths start, the queen sends for Dee to solve the mystery. Dee than starts on a deep exploration of the area around the kingdom to find the answers. But as the clues start to add up, they are thwarted and ambushed quite often. Do not fret as Detective Dee is on the case.
This was a pretty amazing film. The CG was pretty good for a HK produced film. More importantly, the story of mystery and historical doom kept me on the ride. Andy puts on a masterful performance that I think will deserve award type recognition. The story was wrapped in intrigue and mystery. The exact type of movie that keeps me engaged and thinking.
Back in the 90s, I had rented the bootleg of "Ashes of Time" from a local chinese video store. At the time, I wasn't all that familiar with who directors were and mainly followed stars.
Ashes of Time had a lot of stars. It's actually based on the Greats of the Condor Heroes book by Jin Yong. But the story is simi based in reality. They're not so invincible like they are in the book. And they're physical limitation are explored and exploited.
So, having been a fan of all things Jin Yong (at least from the drama stand point, I haven't read his books), I was super confused at the story and was quite disappointed in the fighting.
After my first watch, I thought the movie was well made, but the topics explored were no relevent to me and the fighting kinda sucked.
I ended up picking it up again on VHS again in the late 90s. Man was I disappointed, it was in Cantonese. I didn't finish it. I liked chinese movies dubbed into Mandarin.
So, I haven't had a good experience with Ashes yet.
Redux is newly remastered and restored. I hear its also tweaked a little. I've seen the trailer and its in Cantonese. I'll have to wait for the Taiwan or China version to see it again.
I hear its one of Wong Kar-wai's better films. If it's anything like Chungking Express or In the Mood for Love, I will like. I just can't really remember it much.
It's playing at a handful of theathres here in greater LA area. In Irvine and on Sunset.
I have the soundtrack from the original movie and had it on quite often when I had to study for finals or mid terms.
