Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - 星際大戰外傳:俠盜一號

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (星際大戰外傳:俠盜一號) is an 2016 film. The movie stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Donnie Yen, and Jiang Wen. The supporting cast include Ben Mendelsohn, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, and Forest Whitaker. The main storyline is set immediately before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. This is also the first film in a newly created Star Wars Anthology.



Fifteen years before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Galen Erso is taken back to continue development of an ultimate weapon, the Death Star. Wanting to protect his daughter Jyn, he has her go into hiding. Now an adult, Jyn has changed her name and had multiple run ins with the "law" and send to a labor camp. In transit, Jyn is rescued by the Rebellion and asked to find her father. They find out that Galen has put a flaw into the Death Star, but just has to get those plans to the rebellion. Jyn is chaperoned by a rebellion veteran Cassian and his re-programmed imperial droid, K-2SO. On their first mission, they pick up 3 more folks, a blind monk Chirrut Îmwe, his mercenary friend Baze Malbus, and Bodhi Rook, an Imperial cargo pilot defector with news of Galen. Now they have to obtain the plans and get it to the rebellion.

This movie was pretty awesome. I have this pretty high up there in my Star Wars movies. I watched it twice already and don't mind watching again. Can't wait for the Blu-ray to come out.

Felicity Jones was just awesome and her back and forth with Cassian was playful but very serious at the same time. The addition of non-jedi monk Chirrut added comic relief and evangelism of the concept of the Force. The new tagline of "I'm one with the Force, the Force is with me" will ring on for generations.

If you don't know Star Wars, this movie may be hard to understand, there were already a lot of built in concepts that you needed to know from the previous Star Wars cannon. But it is entirely possible that you could have watched this as a war movie. Mission is to destroy the get the death star plans, build a team and go do it, like Saving Private Ryan style. In that regard, this was a very war like movie and the rebels weren't portrayed in the best light.

All in all, this is a great addition to the Star Wars family and I for one thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

Let the Bullets Fly - 讓子彈飛

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.