The Sorcerer and the White Snake - 法海:白蛇傳說

The Sorcerer and the White Snake (法海:白蛇傳說) is an 2011 film out of Zhong Guo. The film stars Jet Li, Eva Huang, and Raymond Lam. The supporting cast include Charlene Choi, Wen Zhang, and Vivian Hsu. I watched this in the comforts of my hotel room on an recent trip to Dalian, Zhong Guo. And it was playing in the theaters, what?!

The movies follows Abott Fahai (Jet Li) with his assistant Neng Ren (Wn Zhang) as they battle an temptress demon (Vivian Hsu). After finding out how powerful Fahai is, you know you don't want to mess with him. We move to two lovely nagas played by Eva and Charlene. They decide to play a joke on a medicine picker and than save his life. In order to save the life, the naga has to kiss the person. There goes the love story. The naga now wants to enter into the medicine mans life. They marry and have an happy life. However, when demon's run amuck. Trouble follows. When the medicine man wants to save the ppl of a sick village, the naga lends her hand. Fahai enters the picture here and says that humans and deities can't co-exist. Its not part of nature. From here on out, the movie gets crazy with the fighting and special effects. Will love win out?

The movie was quite entertaining. I like Eva. I like that she's willing to play both meek and strong roles. In this movie, she plays a very strong role and it helps carry the movie while Jet is at his temple. The movie gets good when both main characters are at it with each other. However, you can see just how important Jet is to movie. When Jet is absent, the story drags and felt uninteresting. When he was there and with Eva, the movie was great. And it's a total shame to waste Vivian as a temptress demon. Only 5 minutes of film time. Weak! More Vivian!

If you're an Jet Li fan, you should watch this. If you're new to these stuff, it might be a hard watch.

Beauty On Duty - 美麗密令

Beauty On Duty (美麗密令) is a 2010 film out of Hong Kong. The movie stars Charlene Choi, William Chan, and Sandra Ng. But the film is a really an ensemble cast of over 10 people that contribute to the main story.

Charlene Choi is a tough nosed cop that is recruited to go undercover in a beauty pageant. Choi is there to protect the daughter of a key witness. However, the key witnesses old boss has sent killers to off the daughter. It's up to the crack staff of HK and Zhong Guo police to stop these guys and convict the bad guys.

The movie was quite bad. I was only in because I generally like Charlene and usually watch her stuff. However, this ensemble cast was not all there. The hi-jinx were all really cheesy. The gurls were all eye candy, but that was it, nothing to keep you around.

The Storm Warriors - 風雲II - 風雲2

The Storm Warriors (風雲II/風雲2) is 2009 film out of Hong Kong. The movie stars Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng. The supporting cast include Simon Yam, Charlene Choi, Nicholas Tse, Tiffany Tang Yan, and Kenny Ho. The movie is a sequel to the 1998 film, Storm Riders.

The movie starts with the capture of Nameless, Storm, and many other jiang hu warriors. They are captured by Lord Godless and his son, Heart. However, many of them do make an escape. Lord Godless has also been given all power by the emperor. Nameless and Lord Godless have a intense fight, but Nameless is fighting hurt and cannot defeat Godless. They all escape and Godless's men start to look for them. Wind, who was not captured, comes and aids in their escape.

After they escaped, Storm and Wind are given instructions by Nameless to seek out Lord Wicked for help. Once there, Wind is chosen by Lord Wicked to become one with a wicked demon power. Storm is than trained by Nameless.

Once Storm and Wind are trained in their arts, they go after Lord Godless and defeat him. But Wind's no longer himself, but possessed by the wicked demon eye. Storm and Wind than go at it. They fight to a standstill, but the cliff around them crumbles and Storm finally cuts the demon eye to restore Wind. But Storm falls to his demise off the cliff.



How can the sequel match the original, produced more than ten years after the original, to live up to the hype? You can't, so you just go with the flow. The movie starts off in a confusing place. How did Lord Godless capture all these heroes? Why did they escape so easily? But to the credit of the movie, it says, "forget the story, bring on the fighting". The movie is seriously 75% fighting. Swordplay fantasy fighting. CGI, slow mo, "chi" all thrown in there for good measure.

What should you expect, you should expect a film that says "to hell with character development" and say yes to "computer style fighting". This is not your Jet Li style wuxia film, but a 2009 CGI extravaganza.

I never did read the comics so I am not all that familiar with all the characters of the story, but if you watched Storm Rider: Clash of Evils (風雲決), some of the plot points are also used from there.

Simply Actors - 戲王之王

Simply Actors (戲王之王) is a 2007 film out of Hong Kong. It stars Charlene Choi and Jim Chim. It also has many many cameos. It's almost like a who's who of HK peeps from around the 2007 time frame. The movie also seems to feature the debut of Kathy Yuen.

The movie is about a cop that joins a arts school to learn acting so he can go undercover and infiltrate the triad. At the school, he learns about acting and life.

The movie ran way way too long. Way way long! I am emphasis "way way" for a reason. The movie should have been 80-90 minutes, but dragged to 120 minutes. I did fast forward because I was waiting for it to end. And it just kept going!

If it weren't for the few glimpse of Kathy Yuen, I would have stopped the movie.

Butterfly Lovers - 武俠梁祝 (劍蝶)

Butterfly Lovers (武俠梁祝/劍蝶) is a 2008 film out of Hong Kong filmed in Shanghai. The movie stars Wu Zun, Charlene Choi, and Hu Ge.

This movie takes from a classic Chinese story that is compared to Romeo and Juliet. The story is compared to because of the ending. However, the story that leads to the ending isn't very much like Romeo and Juliet. The original story doesn't include any wuxia elements. But this is a movie and a wuxia at that. So, throw in the wuxia elements.

Choi plays the only daughter of a rich family named Yanzhi. Sent to learn kung fu at a friend of her father's. Hu Ge plays Chengen, Yanzhi's long time and childhood friend. Chengen escorts Yanzhi to the kung fu school. On the way there, Zhongshan rescue's Yanzhi from local thugs. Zhongshan is a little tipsy during their first encounter. Off to school Yanzhi goes. Yanzhi finds out that Zhongshan is the 1st brother of the students of her generation. Yanzhi is assigned to take care of Yanzhi. All the while, Yanzhi is disguised as a dude. Zhongshan keeps thinking Yanzhi is a gurl and they strike up a bond. Chengen is secretly in love with Yanzhi and sets in motion a string of events to gain power and to take Yanzhi as his bride.

Love triangle? Yupe, except, Chengen is the man left out. Queue action, locked up parents, mis-communications. You've got the other half of the movie.

I was surprised to see Hu Ge as a villain. And a villain he is. Using any means possible to force Yanzhi to marry her.

Wu Zun and Choi did not have any chemistry in my opinion. The relationship that builds up between the two of them seemed forced and un-natural.

The movie had a 1990s HK wuxia movie feel. Was it good, no. Was it entertaining, for the most part. It received such bad reviews in general, that I was expecting it to suck really bad. Of which, it didn't. Sometimes, the hype that comes with a film doesn't do it justice. Wu Zun and Hu Ge will need another venture to break into the film world.

I couldn't find a trailer on youtube, but the film site has it. Who knows how much longer the film site will be up.

The Storm Warriors - 風雲II - Upcoming

The Storm Warriors (風雲II/風雲2) is set for release in Hong Kong on December 17, 2009. I've been hearing about this movie since the summer of 2008. The film is produced and directed by the Pang Brothers. This is the sequel to the 1998 film, The Storm Riders. Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng reprise their roles as Cloud and Wind. Simon Yam, Charlene Choi, and Nicholas Tse round out the rest of the star studded cast.

The poster, teaser, scene and trailers are now available. The build up starts now. This could be a visual extravaganza or a total letdown. I hope its good. But I don't have high hopes for the story.