Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress - 巴爾札克與小裁縫

Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress (巴爾札克與小裁縫) is 2002 film starring Zhou Xun, Aloys Chen, and Liu Ye.

The movie is about 2 teenage boys sent to the countryside for re-education during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Set in the Sichuan hills that gets flooded in present times via the Three Gorges Dam.

I am not sure how I came to watch this movie as it doesn't show up in my Netflix history. But I could have rented it from Blockbuster.

In any case, I was a little bored while watching the movie. I can see how the the repression and eventual escape of the three main protagonist can stir people up.

I don't believe this movie was ever released in China, but it did make the Film Festival circuits back in 2003 and 2004.

Amazing Race 14 - Tammy and Victor - Leg 11

I actually caught the full episode of Amazing Race Season 14, Leg 11. In Leg 11, the teams continued competing in Beijing with 2 main challenges.

The first challenge was between dressing up in Chinese Opera make-up and cloths or to take orders at an restaurant. The second challenge was to eat some "Chinese" delicacies. Those delicacies include, grasshopper, larva, scorpion, and starfish.

Spoiler here, Tammy and Victor came in first after they found the bikes first. They had good command of Mandarin Chinese that made getting from place to place easier.

It was nice to see Beijing in the background. I've been to Beijing once in 2000 as part of a 3 week "Super Vaction" tour of China. We spent 4.5 days in Beijing and saw the most things there.

I hope to make it back to Beijing one of these days. Hopefully, my dad will be able to show me around this time.

Drunken Monkey - 醉馬騮

Drunken Monkey (醉馬騮) is a 2002 Shaw Bros film starring Jacky Wu. It's an marital arts movie about the Drunken Monkey style. Set to the old style of Kung Fu martial arts movies from the late 70s and early 80s.

The movie does have a few elements of wire fu, but the majority depends on the the actors being martial artists themselves. I have to assume that this was Jacky Wu's first attempt to break into the movie side, having become a star on the television side. But Jacky had to wait a few more year before he got the point of a Legendary Assassin.

As for the movie. Oh my. I don't even know how to give you a plot synopsis. Its all over the place and you end up wondering what it is all about at the end. But the main points are Jacky Wu doesn't know Monkey Style at the beginning of the film. Somehow, Jacky learns Monkey Style and sorta gets a love interest. In the end, they have to fight the big boss of the movie and all ends well.

The movie relies on comedic elements intermixed with serious elements. But I was lost or not assumed at some of the elements.

If you like Jacky Wu as a good guy, you won't want to miss this film.

Old skool guys like Gordon Liu and Lau Kar-leung also appear in the film in substantial supporting roles.

I got a hold of this via Netflix.

Arahan - 阿羅漢

Arahan (阿羅漢) is a 2004 film out of Korea starring Ryu Seung-beom.

Ryu plays a character named Sang. Sang is a policeman that gets beat up and picked on by everyone. Sang gets trained in a special martial arts and eventually saves mankind by defeating the Arahan.

The movie was ok. I wasn't a fan of Sang nor the female lead, Yoon So-Yi as Eui.

The fighting was impressive but lacked that "crunch" factor. I don't think its released here in the states. I watched a bad english dub of this from a local video store.

There was a lot of hype surrounding this film and I was ultimately swayed by the hype and let down. Without the hype? I may have liked it more.

蘇打綠 - 春‧日光 (Sodagreen) - Upcoming

Sodagreen's new CD is dropping 5/8 in Taiwan called 春‧日光.

I've been listening to the first single from the CD the last few days. Just play it in the background and replay, over and over.

I am looking forward to it. Hopefully, AMAX will get it by the end of May