Go Lala Go! - 杜拉拉升職記

Go Lala Go! (杜拉拉升職記/杜拉拉升职记) is a 2010 film out of Hong Kong. The movie stars Xu Jinglei, Stanley Huang, Karen Mok, and Pace Wu. The movie is based in Beijing with some scenes in Thailand. The movie is loosely based on a book called Du Lala’s Promotion.

Xu Jinglei plays LaLa, a career minded women. LaLa starts off at a entry level HR position and works her way up. In that same company, we find Stanley Huang as Wang Wei, the director of the sales department. Wang Wei is in a relationship with Rose, played by Karen Mok. Pace Wu plays Helen, Wang Wei's secretary. They all work in this US company trying to make it in China. Sounds like the company I work for now, except, we're an ant and the company in the movie is a elephant. Du Lala climbs up the ranks of the company. Along the way, a romantic relationship starts with Wang Wei on a trip to Thailand. Will Lala abondon her career or go for love? Can't you have both?

The movie was quite slick and I really thought Pace Wu was drop dead gorgeous. Pace Wu made the movie for me. Seriously too little screen time.

As with most big budget Chinese movies, you'll have to deal with the different Chinese Mandarin dialects as will as the Chingrish. And English. The addition of English into many conversations between Rose and Wang Wei seems forced and un-natural. Top that with Wang Wei's American English accent with Rose's British English accent. Very strange indeed.

In the end, I liked the film, but felt that there was something missing at the end.

Shinjuku Incident - 新宿事件

Shinjuku Incident (新宿事件) is a 2009 film out of Hong Kong. The movie stars Jackie Chan, Daniel Wu, Xu Jinglei and Fan Bing Bing. The movie is based primarily in Japan with a few scenes in China. Starting from the 1990s to current times. I've been looking forward to watching this since February and recently rented it on DVD.



The movie starts with Jackie as Steelhead arriving in Japan via a boat (FOB). Jackie eventually makes it to the Tokyo area to reunited with someone from his village from China, Jie, played by Daniel Wu. Steelhead primary reason from coming to Japan was to find is girlfriend/fiancee, Xiu Xiu, played by Xu Jinglei. Because Steelhead and Jie are illegal immigrants, they take whatever they can get and run when the police come sniffing. Steelhead befriends a restaurant owner, Lily, played by Fan Bing Bing. Steelhead comes to the rescue of Lily as some punks try to rob her. Through it all, Steelhead displayed a world view of working hard and not taking advantage of the situation.



Steelhead finally finds Xiu Xiu. But Xiu Xiu is now married to a mob boss and has a daughter with him. On top of that, she's changed her name to Eguchi Yuko. From that moment on, Steelhead's outlook on life changes. In essence, Steelhead heads down the path of crime and destruction as all that he believed in before was betrayed by Xiu Xiu.



As advertised, its the "new Jackie". Drama Jackie to be exact. Jackie does not display any of his comedy fu for you here and the action is based on reality for the most part. HK triad gritty movie moved to the hustle and bustle of Shinjuku, Japan.

The majority of the film is in Mandarin Chinese. The Japanese speak limited Chinese in this film and the HK boys speak Canto for some reason.

If you're looking for comedy fu Jackie, go somewhere else. If your looking for a new triad story from HK POV, this is a fresh look.

A few fun observations. Kathy Yuen has a couple of scenes and she is quite lovely in both. Jack Kao plays Taiwan gang leader. The "making of" was quite interesting, so don't miss it if you actually like the movie.

The LoveHKFilm guys love how Daniel Wu can integrate English terms so fluidly into his interviews and commericals. In the "making of", Daniel does it effortlessly. But, if you've spent anytime with Americanized Chinese/Taiwanese, its the same. We don't remember or can't recall lots of Chinese, so I use the English terminology. And after we graduate high school or go off and start a family, its even worst.

Shinjuku Incident - 新宿事件 - Upcoming

Jackie Chan is back making movies in HK again. This time, in a movie called "The Shinjuku Incident" helmed by Derek Yee. The movie is based on a familiar subject in HK films, the triads. But this time, its in Japan, so its called the Yakuza. The movie is set for release on April 3, 2009.

The movie also stars Daniel Wu, Xu Jinglei, Fan Bing Bing, Ken Watanabe, Yasuaki Kurata and Naoto Takenaka.

From the trailer, it looks like regular triad/yakuza fair. A gritty film for Jackie and familiar territory for Daniel Wu.