Motorway - 車手

Motorway (車手) is an 2012 film out of Hong Kong. The movie stars Shawn Yue and Anthony Wong. The supporting cast includes Barbie Hsu, Josie Ho, Gordon Lam, and Michelle Ye.

Shawn Yue plays Cheung, a young cop that likes to drive fast with a vengeance. Anthony Wong plays Lo, a cop that's about to retire. Lo and Cheung make the most unlikely pair, but they both like to drive and know cars. A diamond makes its way to HK and two bad guys go after it. But one of the guys is in jail. The other guy, who's an expert driver, bust the guy out of jail and kills some cops along the way. A citywide manhunt starts and the cops chase and chase these two men. Cheung seems to have luck and tails the the get away driver, but doesn't have luck. On a mountain top range not unlike something out of an Initial D comic, a deadly chase happens. The driver always seems to be a step ahead and take a bunch of cops out. Lo decides to pursue after so many cars are left disabled. Will Cheung and Lo be able to stop these two maniacs from getting the diamond?



This movie was sort of a throw back to the late 90s and early 00s HK films. Very gritty, matter of fact, and straight to the story. Character development is left to a minimum. You figure it out along the way. A chase/heist all put into one, you have tension, suspense, and you feel for the cops. Barbie Hsu's turn as an doctor was just to get some eye candy into the film. It's too bad Michelle Ye is transitioning into more "older" women roles. Ye plays Lo's wife and has short hair. I am sad since Ye is one of my favorite HK actresses and is still quite stunning!

I would highly recommend this film for HK enthusiast. If you're not familiar with HK style, you might not like the lack of character development and purpose of the film.

BTW - the English translation of the title is a bit off. The Zhong Wen version translates to "driver".

My Kingdom - 大武生

My Kingdom (大武生) is an 2011 film out of Zhong Guo. The movie stars Wu Chun, Barbie Hsu, and Han Geng. I actually saw this movie in my hotel room while on a business trip in Zhong Guo.

In the world of Chinese Opera, when a master is challenged and loses, he must exit his studio and remove himself from that world. When Wu Chun and Han Geng's master loses, they are forced to retreat into seclusion and gain their skills to mount a challenge when they are older. The practice for many years until their adulthood. They head back to what appears to by Shanghai and take over the studio their master lost to by beating the reigning master. Once they are the head of the Opera, they become famous and rich in the city. However, they both have a bit of bad boy in them. Will their new found fame and glory go to their heads?

This movie was quite boring. I was waiting for it to get more interesting. However, it wouldn't. It refused. It must have said to itself, "Hey, no one else here, let's make the story confusing, lead characters unlikable, and throw in a love triangle. Seriously, they should have stuck to a simpler story.



My Kingdom

Futute X-Cops -- 未來警察

Futute X-Cops (未來警察) is a 2010 film out of Hong Kong staring Andy Lau, Barbie Hsu (大S), Fan Bing Bing, and Mike He.

In the future, 2080, Andy Lau is the chief of a team of cops set to protect a scientist. Fan Bing Bing and Andy are a couple but in the process of protecting the scientist, the wife is killed. But the bad guys find a way to go back in time. But in order to do that, you have to be a cyborg with limited human organs. Andy is transformed into a super cyborg and sent into the past to protect the young scientist.



The movie was pretty weird. It felt slapped together. There seemed to be gaps that just assumed you knew what happened. The acting from Andy felt early 90s when all he did was smile a whole lot and looked surprised. 大S and Andy's romance seemed way icky.

I had high hopes due to its sci-fi nature, but was ultimately let down.

泡沫之夏 - Summer's Desire - Upcoming

泡沫之夏 (Summer's Desire) is set for broadcast in the next few months, but I noticed the extended trailer for it from GTV today. I've posted it below.

Pretty long teaser, but nothing out of the norm. But no release date mentioned.

It is an Taiwanese drama with a male lead from China. One of few if not the first (minus HK). But its already strange as his Mandarin is distinctly China style and very far from Taiwan Mandarin.

Looking forward to Serena Fang, Coco Chiang, and Maggie Wu's participation in this series.

The Chinese title translates roughly to "bubbles of summer". Summer is in the English, but Desire is not part of the Chinese. But whatever, the Chinese titles are never as provocative as their English translations. But the title is a play on the Barbie's characters name of 夏沫 and 泡 meaning abandon. This series had "Summer's Bubble" attached to it for some time.

On His Majesty's Secret Service - 大內密探靈靈狗

On His Majesty's Secret Service (大內密探靈靈狗) is a 2009 film out of China. The movie stars Louis Koo with Barbie Hsu and Liu Yang.

The movie is a comedy about a group of 12 zodics that protect the emperor. Amoung them is Louis Koo as Dog. Dog doesn't know much kung fu, but makes up for it by being a master inventor. Dog is engaged to Faithful, played by Barbie Hsu. But their engagement is loose as it seems to be broken a couple times during the movie. Enter a master plan to assassinate the emperor, things start to get tricky.

The movie's humor didn't seem all HK, especially with most of the cast being from China. The dialects and uneven storytelling were quite distracting. And Barbie Hsu being next to Liu Yang wasn't good for 大S. Liu Yang is working herself into a cinema beauty. Skip it if you're looking to laugh a lot, but watch it for Liu Yang.

轉角*遇到愛 - Corner * With Love

轉角*遇到愛 (Corner * With Love) is a 2007 drama out of Taiwan. The two main stars are Show Luo and Barbie Hsu. There's a large supporting cast, but they too many to list.

Lang, played by Show, is a oyster egg cake cooker at a restaurant in Shanghai serving Taiwanese style dishes. Lang is there because he got tricked into coming here. An agent told him that someone wanted to but his comic strip. Xin Lei is a piano playing daughter of a rich Taiwanese family in Shanghai . Xin Lei has the world at her heels along with a "perfect" fiance.

How in the world can these two meet and eventually fall for each other? Its a little thing I like to call drama magic. Because in real life, it could and would never happen. Xin Lei's family business goes under and she's literally kicked out into the streets to fend for herself. In a strange turn of events, both lead protagonist head to Taiwan for the remainder of the series.

The version I watched was a China version and the episodes were like 22 minutes long. It was quite annoying to skip the opening and ending titles so often. Had I know this before hand, I would have rented the Taiwan version with only 19 episodes. The China one broke it up into 40 episodes.

The like the series for the most part and would recommend it. There was rumors of a sequel, but Barbie's been busy with a movie career of late.

Catch for a good glimpse of Shanghai and for two of more appealing leads in Show Luo and Barbie Hsu.

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.

愛的發聲練習 - My So-Called Love

愛的發聲練習 (My So-Called Love) is 2008 movie out of Taiwan starring 大S, 彭于晏 and 張孝全. I had mentioned that I was looking forward to it last November, here.

The movie starts in the present time and than flashes back in time. Part of that flashback includes a flashback of 大S's mother abandoning her. Than the flashback moves to 大S in High School (I am predicting her Senior year in High School). 大S is looking for a place to stay and suddenly, gets a call from her mother. They reunite where 大S now has a sister and a step-father. But things do not stay sane and the step-father ends up being a peeping tom. 大S falls for Liam and they end up moving into a apartment together. 大S passes the exam for entry into a college, but not Liam. Liam ends up going to the army. Finances are not good. Loneliness creeps its way into everyone's lives. 大S cheats and the exploration into a self destructive life begins.

The movie was a major let down for me. There wasn't much hype about it, but I was looking forward to it. What was I expecting? I can only guess that I was expecting it to be good. Which it wasn't. It was slow, overly sensual (I didn't see a reason behind it), confusing, and generally morbid. 大S is the main star and her childhood paints a picture of her fear in dealing with issues and the ability confront things that would be considered "good" for her. On the verge of "happiness", 大S exhibits unexplainable self destructive behavior.

The movie has good music and is very stylish. But that can't make up for a slow plot, uninviting characters, and a morbid tone to the movie.

It's for import where you can find it and it comes with English subs.

詭絲 - Silk

Silk (詭絲) is 2006 film out of Taiwan starring Chen Chang with a supporting cast of 大S (Barbie Hsu), Wilson Chen, Karena Lam, and Janine Chang.

Chen Chang plays a cop with extraordinary vision. So good, he can see the feathers of the birds flying above him as well an expert lip reader and a sharp shooter. A cop with an extreme temper to go with it. Chen Chang gets re-assigned to a special paranormal division for all the previously mentioned skillz, but mostly for his keen eyesight. The time has trapped a ghost with a special technology called the Menger Sponge. The plot thickens as the guy that put this team together is a little tipsy and doesn't play by the rules. Rules fly out the window and the triller horror begins.

When I first heard about this movie back in 2007, I thought it was a Japanese movie. I didn't find much more back in the day, but when I saw it via Netflix in 2008, I realized it was a Taiwan movie. With the supporting cast a who's who of the "it" actors and actresses, I was pleasantly surprised.

The action, suspense, solving of the mystery, and the resolution all left me satisfied. Before I started the film, I thought it was going to be a movie like Ringu or The Ring or ghost with hair that covers the face, etc. type movie. Boy was I wrong. It was a mystery and the subplots revolving around the main plot made it all the more intriguing.

I highly recommend this film.