刺青 - Spider Lilies

刺青 (Spider Lilies) is a 2007 film out of Taiwan. The film stars Rainie Yang and Isabella Leong.

Rainie Yang plays Jade, a webcam girl. Jade is looking for something in life but hasn't found it yet. Jade has a childhood crush on Takeko, played by Isabella Leong. Takeko was originally from Japan. Takeko also has a mentally challenged brother whom she has to take care of daily. Jade finds Takeko's place and goes there regularly to strike up a romance. In the end, the two go through hardships to fall for each other.



The film was a bit hard to watch. The subject matter was not very interesting to me. I wasn't even aware that this was a lesbian based film until the childhood accounts. I was only aware that this was a Rainie and Isabella movie. Maybe I should have read the back story. However, it gives a daily account of people looking for love and a purpose. In the end, it was a message that love isn't easy to come by and that you'll have to make some sacrifices.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (The Mummy 3) - 神鬼傳奇3

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon (The Mummy 3 - 神鬼傳奇3) was released to world in the summer of 2008 and is now on DVD. If you've seen the first 2 of this trilogy, you can expect some of the same but its mostly a departure from the first 2 Mummy films. Brandon Fraser reprises his role as Rick O'Connell as well as John Hannah as Johnathan Carnahan. The rest of the crew are new to the franchise. Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Isabella Leong, Anthony Wong, Jacky Wu, Jessey Meng, and Russell Wong (李連杰,楊紫瓊,梁洛施,黃秋生,吳京,孟廣美,王盛德).

The movie is the same formula of the first two. A mummy is resurrected and its up to the hero and friends to take care of it. In this installment, the main mummy is Jet Li. Jet Li has to get to the eye of Shangri-la to find the fountain of youth. Once there, the fountain gives him powers, including the ability to raise his mummified terracotta army. The heroes try to prevent this and you know the rest.

There are varying degrees of Mandarin Chinese spoken in the film. However, of the main Chinese cast, only Jet Li and Jessey Meng are fluent in Mandarin. Michelle Yeoh, Isabella Leong, Anthony Wong and Russell Wong would not call Mandarin Chinese their first tongue, and you can tell. Its weird to hear and see this unfold in an Hollywood film.  And this is only the Chinese actors.  Imagine when you hear Luke Ford and friends speak Chinese.  I can imagine, I took Chinese 1 and 2 in college.  Its like that.

I selected this off Netflix because I liked Mummy 1 and 2. I also wanted to see if the movie was as bad its been made out to be. It was that and much more. I won't ever want to watch this again.

Having scored $400 million plus worldwide. You can bet another sequel is coming. The epilogue points to Peru. Will Isabella Leong reprise her roll now that she's an love interest and mortal?

The Knot (雲水謠/云水谣)

Originally posted on xanga.



I finally finished The Knot (雲水謠/云水谣) today. I had been trying to watch the movie with my wife on and off for like a year now. I finally stopped waiting and finished the last 75%.

The movie stars Aloys Chen (Chen Kun), Vivian Hsu, Li Bing Bing, and Isabella Leong.

The movie starts in what appears to be New York and than jumps to a few other places. Some of the places are Taipei, Shanghai, and Tibet. There are quite a few more, but I wasn't paying all that much attention when they moved around a lot during the war segments.

Maybe because I didn't watch the whole movie at once, I didn't feel the connection between the main characters. I didn't get the point of the film in its entirety. The movie was "epic" in that it spans many years and the main storyline spanned 15 or so years.

Love is born. Love is forced to separate. Love is forced to wait. Is Love patient enough to let your life go to waste?

I've always wondered how these stories go. The Love that is born is in mere moments, but the wait is so long. So long that it is forced to die or leads to a life of confinement.

I guess if these types stories are based on true events, I feel very sorry for the parties involved. The agony of waiting and waiting. Is it the right choice? Should you just move on? What's the threshold?

I am a fan and Vivian Hsu and Li Bing Bing. I was hoping for more of the story to develop for Vivian Hsu, but it didn't happen.

I also noticed some veteran Taiwanese actors during the Taiwan segments.

All in all, I would recommend this. The production value was very high and the acting was very nice. However, the story is a little suspect and leaves you wondering. And not in a good way.