BBS鄉民的正義 (Silent Code) is an 2012 film out of Taiwan. The movie stars Chen Bolin and Ivy Chen. The supporting cast include Puff Kuo.
Bolin is a super hacker. Chen is a leader of a online community called BBS. Bolin's about to graduate college and look for a job. But before he does that, he's been trying to hack BBS. A nosy reporter finds out about BBS and wants to write a story about it. With the help of Bolin, she's engaged with the community. However, there's a mastermind to BBS that people do not see.
This movie was interesting. The BBS world was interesting. They virtualized BBS for us that are watching the film. It probably more like a forum or a guild in real life. It eventually dives into cartoon world for a good part. Almost Matrix style, but the consequence is mob mentality. If you're a fan of Taiwanese films, this is in the middle of the pack more geared towards a younger crowd.
愛情無全順 (Campus Confidential) was released in Taipei a few weeks back. It broke into the top ten but didn't take the top spot. The movie reteams Machi Action's main stars, Wilson Chen and Ivy Chen. However, they play off a specific Taiwan phenomena of zhainan (宅男). It's a bit different than your typical nerd as their lives are generally taken care of so well by their momz, that their social awkwardness is massive.
How this story will play out is beyond me. I just know that it seems like a neat concept.
花漾 (Ripples Of Desire)is an Taiwan movie release last month in December 2012. It stars a lot of famous people from Taiwan entertainment. And a couple of HK veterans help the cause.
愛 (LOVE) is being released in Taipei the weekend before Valentine's Day. This ensemble love movie is an who's who of the Taiwan movie sphere. 3 of the most righteous leading men around in Eddie Peng, Ethan Ruan, and Mark Chao lead the attack with director and actor Doze Niu. The ladies that hold these men as arm candy are Shu Qi, Ivy Chen and her look alike Amber Kuo with Zhong Guo star Vicki Zhao.
Enjoy the promo posters as they give a nice glimpse into the pairings in the movie.
Whatever your take on love is, this movie aims to tell you!
If you're Taiwan this month, watch it! I think the cast is far different than the TV series that it won't even matter if you saw it. It'll be enough of a standalone to bring the rest of the world along for the ride.
I still have my doubts about Angelababy and Huang Bo. Very sad that Janine Chang, Ivy Chen, and Vic are not part of the movie.
Alright Taiwan, let's make 2012 a bang up year for Taiwanese movies.
The gang over at Black And White are wishing you a Merry Christmas! Seems that I can't get away from the media coverage of this movie recently within the Taiwan entertainment realm. It's not like tebow coverage, but it seems to pop up all over the place.
Unfortunately, the coverage hasn't all been positive. Ivy Chen, the main female lead in the television series was cut out of the movie due to "length" issues. Haha. Yeah right. Everyone's saying that nothing was behind it. If you look into it, there's some politics that were unfortunately involved.
And Angelababy is reportedly behaving badly by refusing to help promote the film. DRAMA!!
But I can't wait for this movie to come out! Man, I can't wait for it. Just screen it here in LA already!
痞子英雄:首部曲:全面開戰 - Black And White Episode 1: The Dawn of Assault is set for release in January of 2012. The film is set to star the majority of the cast from the television series from 2009. Vic Chou will not be reprising his role as "black" portion. However, it looks like they've gone out and got Huang Bo to be the "痞子" or rascal part of the equation. Mark Chao, Ivy Chen and Janine Chang round out the returning cast. Angelababy and Alex To were added to the cast as well. Add to that an contingency of Taiwanese movie mainstays like Terri Kwan, Dean Fujioka Tatsuo, 阿Ken, Leon Dai, and Jack Kao, this movie looks awesome.
The trailers are starting and the stars are hitting the circuits in Taiwan to promote the film. I would imagine that with an earlier Chinese New Years, the movie will play to that. I have to decide if I can wait for the Blu-ray version to be released in Taiwan or get a crappy version around LA in February. Decisions, decisions.
聽說 (Hear Me) is an 2009 film out of Taiwan. The movie stars Eddie Peng and Ivy Chen. The supporting cast also includes the lovely Michelle Chen. The movie was released in support of the 2009 deaf olympics in Taipei.
Eddie Peng plays Tian Kuo, a delivery person working at his parents cantonese restaurant. Ivy Chen plays Yang Yang, the sister of an deaf swimmer, Hsiao Peng, played by Michelle Chen. Tian Kuo delivers food to their swimming site one day and takes a liking to Yang Yang. They communicate in sign language. Although Tian Kuo isn't deaf and takes up sign language as an hobby. Due to his liking of Yang Yang, he studies extremely hard to keep up with her and learns new ways to express himself. Yang Yang however is too busy trying to make money, that she doesn't take to Tian Kuo's advances. However, Tian Kuo doesn't give up. In the meantime, there's the issue of marrying a deaf person that's addressed and actually handled pretty gracefully.
I have watched the movie twice already and found out more about the leads with the second watching. In all, this may be one of my favorite romantic comedies I've seen in quite some time. Eddie Peng is an endearing male lead that lets love lead the way. Ivy Chen gives an cute and subtle performance as an younger sister that's willing to sacrifice for her family. Add that to a very unique storyline, you've got a, dear I say, great movie?
If you're a recent fan of Taiwanese cinema, this is a must see gem. All three leads have gone on to bigger and more hyped movies, but this movie could be the one that will establish their legacy for years to come.
I had an "upcoming" post for this movie back in the summer of 2009. It has since become one of my most visited post.
I picked up the Black and White OST a few weeks back. If you've read my review, you'll know that Black and White is now among my favorite dramas. The soundtrack to this awesome series isn't so shabby either. It has 8 songs on this 21 track soundtrack. Throughout the series, the music helped set the tone and mood for many scenes.
If you're a fan of the series, you'll want to pick this up and re-live the scenes in your head as the music rocks out.
聽說 (Hear Me) is an upcoming film out of Taiwan. The movie stars Eddie Peng and Ivy Chen. The supporting cast also includes the lovely Michelle Chen. The movie is scheduled for release in Taipei next week on August 28, 2009.
The movie is a romance between a deaf swimmer played by Ivy Chen and her admirer played by Eddie Peng.
From the trailer, it looks like Eddie falls for Ivy. Ivy is deaf and with the relationship comes the hard task of communication. Sign language.
I am going to look for this movie as it makes it way to Los Angeles.
Help support this movie, not only for Taiwan cinema but also for the hearing impaired.
痞子英雄 (Black and White) is a Taiwanese Police Drama starring Vic Zhou, Mark Chao, Ivy Chen and Janine Chang.
The series runs 24 episodes. During its initial 12 week broadcast run in Taiwan, April to June 2009, two episodes were broadcast each week. Because of this, you'll notice a "previously on" for all the odd numbered Actions (episodes) and a "preview" for all the even numbered Actions. The episodes were typically 45-50 minutes long. I've been looking forward to this series since April, had a first thoughts post, and found it was airing here in Los Angeles on LA 18.
The main drivers of this series were also behind Mars and The Hospital (白色巨塔). You'll notice quite a few familiar faces from all those series. If you wanted to go even further back, you'll notice Meteor Garden folks in bit roles in Black And White as well.
If you've seen Mars and The Hospital, you'll know that they represented the highest production value for Taiwanese Dramas during their year of release. In this case, I haven't seen any drama out of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China that can match the production value of Black And White for 2009. I don't watch Korean and Japanese dramas, so I cannot compare. In any case, the production value is very high. The story is intense and characters pop up left and right and you need a chart to make sense of it all.
Black And White is a series about 2 cops. Vic Zhou plays the "Black" cop named Chen. Mark Chao plays the "White" cop name Wu.
Chen's nick name is "Pi Zi/痞子", which I think translates to "rascal". Pi Zi can also mean riffraff or ruffian. But the way I see it from the series, Chen is more of a rascal.
Wu's name is "Ying Xiong/英雄", which literally translates to "hero". You'll noice Wu's car has "HERO" engraved on it.
You put their names together and you get the Chinese name of the series, 痞子英雄. As for the English translation, it's the contrasting cop styles of the two. Chen is willing to bend the rules to get to a goal and doesn't ask if its right or wrong. Thus, you give Chen the "black" label. Wu on the other hand, is a hard nosed cop who plays it strictly by the rules. On Wu ends, there's only black and white. Wu has chosen to stand completely on the white side and everyone better get out of his way.
My brief review is going to be only high level and superficial. I will try not to spoil anything for you.
First Quarter (Episodes 1-6) Introduces all the main characters. Which include all the supporting staff of the 2 Kaohsiung police divisions. The 2 divisions are separated into North and South. Our main protagonist are officers in the South division in the detectives department. The support staff include the department head, the division head, forensics department, and hi-tech department.
During these first few episodes, you get a glimpse of the "character" of Chen and Wu. And the female interest are introduced. Janine Chang as Lan Xi Ying is part of the forensics department and is super close friends with Wu. Ivy Chen plays Chen Lin, the daughter of the head of the biggest triad in the area, San Lian Hui. Ivy Chen is a rocket in a bottle type character.
It's also during this time that you'll see that they play Chen to the womanizer side and introduce the Pi Zi for which he is nicknamed. Wu's a cop that wants to bust any and everyone willing to break the law.
The main arc resolves around the pursuit of the people responsible for "Dreamer". Dreamer is a hallucinogen that makes you very very happy.
Second Quarter (Episodes 7-12) Things start to get interesting here. Chen's background is further explored and the female love interest start to complicate work and everyday life. A special person to one of our heroes is introduced.
Third Quarter (Episodes 13-18) Another special person to one of our heroes is introduced. Sonia Sui as Lei Mu Sha is it and she lights up the screen. The series takes a very dark tone at this point.
As if the first 3 quarters didn't turn your head, these last episodes introduces as much as it resolves issues.
If you want the epitome of Taiwan's high production value on TV in 2009, look no further than Black And White. It was a wild ride and i was glad to be on it for the roughly 2.5 weeks it took me to finish it.
I am definitely looking forward to the movie now. Set for release in the summer of 2010. Let's go Taiwan, let's support these type of endeavors.
痞子英雄 (Black and White) is a 2009 Taiwanese Police Drama starring Vic Zhou, Mark Chao, Ivy Chen and Janine Chang.
It will start to air at 7pm here in Los Angeles on LA 18 (KSCI) starting Thursday, August 6th. My best guess is that it will NOT have English subtitles.
I finished the series recently and wanted to sit on it for a few days before I wrote up a review. I had a first thoughts post a few weeks back. I'll have my final thoughts posted in a couple of days.
In my opinion, Black and White is the most hyped series out of Taiwan this year. So much hype that they broadcast the whole series on a daily basis the week after the last episode was aired.
The series seemed to show up in a lot of English blogs during its 12 week run from April to June. The hype carried it to a movie deal. They will follow up the series with a movie next summer.
痞子英雄 (Black and White) is a Taiwanese Police Drama starring Vic Zhou, Mark Chao, Ivy Chen and Janine Chang.
I am half way through the series and must say that it is awesome. Overall, the production value is very high in comparison to the other stuff I see around. Can it match the production value of TV shows in the US? No, but that's not the point. You gotta take it for what it is. Taiwan and China are not up to par with say a CSI or Lost, but it will get there eventually. I think its a matter of $$ that the industry can get.
Ok, back to the series. The story has a similar feel to The Hospital in terms of internal politics. You can't have it black and white. There are way too may grey areas. Mark walks the white line. Vic walks the black line per se. You'll have to see the politics to fully understand.
For the female leads, I've been quite disappointed. They are both strong characters, but do not really impact the story that much. I really hope the second half is better for them.
I noticed that there are many many people in power that are influenced by many other factors. There's a sense of mystery that looms over it all. Vic's character has a background revealed. But Mark's does not. The mystery has a 24 type feel to it.
Hey, I am half way through and its a been a wild ride. It's lived up to and exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend it. Looking forward to the movie as well.
