The Last Supper - 王的盛宴

The Last Supper (王的盛宴) is an 2012 film out of Zhong Guo. The movie stars Liu Ye, Chang Chen, and Daniel Wu. The supporting cast include Qin Lan and Huo Siyan. The movie is based on Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty in Zhong Guo. The story takes place from when Liu is 48 years old to his death at 61 years old.



Liu Ye plays Liu Bang as the movie opens when he is 61 years old. Haunted by memories of two of his greatest enemies, Lord Xiang Yu and General Han Xin. The movie goes into episodic flashbacks of his struggle from common man to emperor. Liu seeks the help of Lord Yu to reclaim his wife and family. The set out to overthrow the Qin government, the fall of Qin, and the fall of Lord Yu. Along the way, Liu's army is partially lead by General Han Xin. But Liu's paranoia prevents him from trusting those close to him and those that helped him establish hit empire. The movie closes out with with the death of both General Han Xin and Emperor Liu Bang.



This was an artsy fartsy movie at its core. Told in episodic flashbacks and full of deep thoughts, it tells a story of commoner to emperor to paranoia. How much of this is based on history is beyond me. I only know a little of the Qin and Han dynasty from wuxia series and films, like The Myth. And an wiki article here and there. Nothing to make me understand that era.



I do recommend it because the acting is pretty awesome. Liu Ye, Chang Chen, Daniel Wu, and Qin Lan age with the screen and it's very believable. Some of the best acting in a ancient Zhong Guo film in recent memory. The language wasn't super formal and very modern so I didn't have to turn on the subtitles.

Driverless - 無人駕駛

Driverless (無人駕駛) is a 2010 film out of Zhong Guo. The movie stars Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Li Xiaoran, and Ruby Lin. The supporting cast include Chen Jian bin, Wang Luodan, and Huang Xuan. The movie is directed by Zhang Yang. Zhang Yang says that this is the 2010 version of his 1997 film, Spicy Love Soup (愛情麻辣燙).

The movie follows 3 story arcs that have common characters. The first story is a love triangle between Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, and Li Xiaoran. Liu and Li are married with a 2 year old son and they have marrital problems. Liu runs into Gao at a business presentation. They dated in college. The second story is of Ruby Lin and her pyramid scheme. Ruby is dumped and looking to get back on her feet. Ruby sucks in a depressed Chen. The third story is Wang and Huang whom play the teenage love story. Wang plays a deaf girl that has had a very shelter life, but finds friendship with an womanizing player in Huang.

Weird happenstance intertwine all three arcs. The car accident that ultimately links them all is a little underwhelming. Unless you see it, you won't know what I mean.

In all, I was sucked in to the movie because of Gao Yuanyuan, Li Xiaoran, and Ruby Lin. Three lovely ladies entering their mid 30s in spectacular fashion. If it weren't for these three ladies, I would have stopped watching. Sometimes, its not about the story as it is about the eye candy casting.

The Promise - 無極

The Promise (無極) is a 2005 film out of China. It is directed by Chen Kaige and stars Jan Dong-gun, Hiroyuki Sanada, Cecilia Cheung, and Nicholas Tse.

This is a very complicated movie to summarize. Please head over to wikipedia for the condensed version (it's like 1,300 words as of today). No way I am writing something that crazy. I am lucky to get to 300 words with each post.

The movie was crazy. Insane actually. It was super hard to follow and the CG was distracting. Having Jan and Sanada speak mandarin was even more distracting.

It was a much hyped movie of 2005 and made it to the awards in some place in 2006. I am going to guess because of the hype and Chen's rep. Other than that, this movie is a mess.

I guess I am not a Chen fan anymore. I didn't like Forever Enthralled (梅蘭芳) at all.

Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress - 巴爾札克與小裁縫

Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress (巴爾札克與小裁縫) is 2002 film starring Zhou Xun, Aloys Chen, and Liu Ye.

The movie is about 2 teenage boys sent to the countryside for re-education during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Set in the Sichuan hills that gets flooded in present times via the Three Gorges Dam.

I am not sure how I came to watch this movie as it doesn't show up in my Netflix history. But I could have rented it from Blockbuster.

In any case, I was a little bored while watching the movie. I can see how the the repression and eventual escape of the three main protagonist can stir people up.

I don't believe this movie was ever released in China, but it did make the Film Festival circuits back in 2003 and 2004.

Connected - 保持通話

Connected (保持通話) is a 2008 film out of Hong Kong starring Louis Koo and Barbie Hsu. This is actually a remake a Hollywood film called Cellular. I have not seen Cellular so I cannot do a comparison.

Connected starts by doing a little background feature on Barbie Hsu as Grace Wong and Louis Koo as Bob. We start with Grace as a single mother taking her daughter to school and gets kidnapped and finds a way to dial out. We than break to Bob as a collections drone who's a deadbeat Husband and Father. Bob's son is on his way out of the country with his sister. On the call, we find out the Bob's wife has left him and that Bob's not very good at keeping his promises. Grace can only dial out and her dialing is random, so she has to stay connected to the person on the other end or she will not be able to call that person again. Grace and Bob are connected via fate and via the call as Grace calls Bob.

The fun starts from there and its a pretty wild ride and I enjoyed it a lot. Louis takes up the majority of the screen time. Louis does a good job as a timid and un-action oriented Bob. Who's trying to see his son and save Grace's family.

I haven't seen Cellular before so I have no clue as to how much was taken from the original. But they only needed the main plot points to make a good movie.

You should check it out when it makes it to the USA on April 28th, but you can get an imported version via Ebay if you can't wait.