Kung Fu Cyborg - 機器俠

Kung Fu Cyborg (機器俠) is a 2009 film out of Hong Kong. The movie stars Hu Jun, Betty Sun, and Alex Fong. The supporting cast include Ronald Cheng and Jacky Wu.

In the year 2046, cyborg robots have been created and are going into production. But they need to test it out in the field. Hu Jun as Dachun is recruited to partner up with their finest model, K-1, played by Alex Fong. Dachun is the chief of police of his village and Betty Sun as Sumei is one of the police officers. K-1 starts to develop feelings for Sumei. But a directive of his programming states that he will shut down if he develops real "love" emotions. K-88, played by Jacky Wu, has developed "religion" and is on the loose. K-1 is recruited to stop him. A battle between K-1 and K-88 goes all CGI.

But the movie doesn't end with that epic battle. We're treated to the next half the film where Dachun is combined with K-88 for a all out funny experience. Sumei now takes the lead in the pursuing K-1. What will happen if K-1 gives in to his emotions?

The movie had received some unfavorable reviews from some the English HK movie sites. You can tell why. The movie is all over the place and the storytelling is rather convoluted. The placing of the story into a rural village also makes this film way less "cool". The country bumpkin stuff didn't work well.

In all, I was expecting it to suck to a certain degree. Which is did, but it was still rather enjoyable for being completely absurd and irrelevant.

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.

600th Post and a lot less posting...

All things must come to an end. A post a day for a year and 2 months plus was a good run for me.

This blog really never got in the way of my life before. But life is going to get in the way of this blog. I will be much too busy for the next 3-4 months to keep up with much of anything with entertainment.

My personal blog posting streak ends tomorrow. I'll still be posting, just with a lot less regularity than I've shown since the summer of 2008. From June 6, 2008 to today, I was able to maintain an 0.83 post count per day. Sadly, that number is headed down.

I don't know who'll care about this anyways. I think I have 2 or 3 regular readers. I've never been able to fully understand the Google Analytics data for my blog.

When July or August rolls around, hopefully, I'll get back to posting daily again and to starting another streak. And celebrating another Laker Championship.

Sherlock Holmes - 福爾摩斯

Sherlock Holmes (福爾摩斯) is a 2009 film out of the US. But the movie is based entirely in London in 1891. The film stars Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, and Rachel McAdams. The film is directed by Guy Ritchie.

Based in 1891 London, Robert Downey, Jr. plays Sherlock Holmes. Holmes infiltrates and stops Blackwood in a black magic ritual. Jude Law as Doctor John Watson is along for the ride and helps Holmes. From here on out, we are given bits and pieces of Blackwood's master scheme. Holmes and Watson seem to show up regularity when things go bad and get clues to solve a mystery.

The movis is a Guy Richie film. If you're a fan of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking and Snatch, you'll be a fan of this film. The film has a lot of the Richie film making qualities. The movie had a "epic" feel as it recreated 1891 London. The slow motions. The camera angles! Its a Richie film through and through.

I can see why it did so well at the box office and how word of mouth made it a bigger hit.

So, were there Asians in this film? Yes! They had a scene where Watson just got a little change and was contemplating if he should join some Chinese coolies in a gambling match. In another scene, a kung fu coolie comes out of the sewer to beat up on Holmes. Not very glamorous, but they do get some screen time.

Wonderful Town - 2007 Thai Film

Wonderful Town is a 2007 film out of Thailand. The movie stars Supphasit Kansen and Anchalee Saisoontorn. The movie was a hit with the critics in 2007 and may have been the film of the year for 2007 in Thailand.

A Bangkok city boy Ton, played by Supphasit Kansen, takes an assignment down south in the sleepy town of Phuket. Phuket was one of the communities hit by the 2004 Tsunami. Ton finds a cheap hotel more inland because its cheap. Na, played by Anchalee Saisoontorn, is the main caretaker of the this establishment. Ton goes to the hotel site his company sent him there for and tries to pass his time. Na dreams of fleeing the responsibility of having to care for the hotel on a day to day basis. Eventually, Na falls for Ton. Can Ton give Na security? Will he flee back to the city after his fling?

The movie was super slow. Really, really slow. The story develops at a snails pace. But you do start to find out about both Ton and Na. More so with Na as the story focuses on her town and her life much more. Ton on the other hand is presented on only one level. I couldn't really make him out for the life of me. Was there something more?

The ending is a bit of a surprise, but not without reason if you get the rest of the film. Should you watch this? If you're into artsy fartsy movies, please do. If not, you'll want to wait for Ong Bak 3 as your next Thai movie fix.