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Kung Fu Hip-Hop (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Jordan Chan (Actor)
| Fan Bing Bing (Actor)
| Poppin Hyun Joon (Actor)
| Yang Yang
There's good, there's bad, and then there's Kung Fu Hip-Hop. As the silly title and Jordan Chan's even sillier thumbs-up pose on the cover indicate, this is not a movie to be taken seriously. Those looking for kung fu action or quality cinema should steer clear, but if you're in the market for a cheesy inspirational dance film and unintentional comedy, Kung Fu Hip-Hop is a groan-out-loud guilty pleasure prime for late-night rewatch. The story is the stuff of B-movie dreams. A kung fu-savvy street vendor (Jordan Chan) with mad dancing skills enters a dancing contest in hopes of winning the prize money to pay for his blind sister's operation. But to get the prize he has to beat the reigning... [read more]
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Bee Movie (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
It's a bird, it's a plane ... it's a beeLike the title reveals, Bee Movie revolves around our useful black and yellow insect friends that have the inclination to sting from time to time. The fast-paced colorful animation comes packed with stinging humor and buzzing action. In this bee-populated big-screen feature, writer and producer Jerry Seinfeld also lends his voice to the animated answer to Benjamin Braddock, new-generation graduate and wanna-bee success Barry Bee Benson. Not only revolving around Barry's life, Bee Movie introduces the viewers to the most vibrant beehive ever to appear in a film and much more. Among the secrets revealed are the size and kind of magazine you need to take out a bee, exactly what kind of jobs are... [read more]
August 21, 2008 Picked By A-Xiang Joe See all this editor's picks
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Lost In Time (DTS Version)
Cecilia Cheung (Actor)
| Lau Ching Wan (Actor)
| Paul Chun
| Louis Koo
Cecilia Cheung, Lau Ching Wan, and Louis Koo star in Derek Yee's bittersweet tale Lost in Time revolving around a woman's desperate attempt to overcome the loss of the most important person in her life. Cecilia Cheung plays the female protagonist Siu Wai whose life is turned upside-down after her fiance Ah Man (Louis Koo) has a fatal accident. Now left alone to manage not only her own life, but also that of her late lover's young son, Siu Wai's formerly happy life takes on a new gloomy aspect, until an unexpected third party appears to lend her a helping hand. Cecilia Cheung offers a passionate performance in her role as single parent who struggles to make ends meet, while Lau Ching Wan... [read more]
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Lost In Time (DTS Version)(US Version)
Cecilia Cheung (Actor)
| Lau Ching Wan (Actor)
| Louis Koo
| Derek Yee (Director)
Cecilia Cheung, Lau Ching Wan, and Louis Koo star in Derek Yee's bittersweet tale Lost in Time revolving around a woman's desperate attempt to overcome the loss of the most important person in her life. Cecilia Cheung plays the female protagonist Siu Wai whose life is turned upside-down after her fiance Ah Man (Louis Koo) has a fatal accident. Now left alone to manage not only her own life, but also that of her late lover's young son, Siu Wai's formerly happy life takes on a new gloomy aspect, until an unexpected third party appears to lend her a helping hand. Cecilia Cheung offers a passionate performance in her role as single parent who struggles to make ends meet, while Lau Ching Wan... [read more]
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God Man Dog (DVD) (Deluxe Edition) (Taiwan Version)
Tarcy Su (Actor)
| Jack Kao (Actor)
| Jonathan Chang Yang Yang (Actor)
| Chang Han
Taiwan director Singing Chen waxes lyrical about religion, relationships, and stray dogs in her poetically quirky sophomore feature God Man Dog. This modern allegory follows a group of disparate souls who are very different and yet the same as they make sense of their fragile beliefs and bungled lives. Exploring self, questioning faith, and affirming life, God Man Dog's uncommon method of storytelling and odd leaps of faith should strike chords with both the doubtful and the devoted. The first half of God Man Dog is slow moving, if not downright depressive, as the characters and their various unhappy states of existence are introduced. Pianist Ching's (Tarcy Su) mental health and marriage to... [read more]
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Throw Down (DTS Version) (US Version)
Aaron Kwok
| Tony Leung Ka Fai
| Johnnie To (Director)
| Louis Koo
The world of Throw Down can only be described as judo jiang hu meets contemporary Hong Kong. Johnnie To's amusing tribute to Kurosawa and the hard-boiled samurai flicks of yesteryear, the film is an engaging, whimsical action melodrama filled with quirky, earnest characters floundering about in odd, yet oddly compelling, situations. Aaron Kwok plays a wide-eyed judo enthusiast who wants to challenge former judo champion Louis Koo to a duel, but instead finds a mumbling, stumbling, drunken man, a shadow of his former self. Refusing to leave without a match, Kwok stays on at Koo's bar as a saxophonist alongside a sexy-cute aspiring singer, played by the sexy-cute Cherrie Ying. For Kwok, Koo,... [read more]
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PK.COM.CN (DVD) (English Subtitled) (China Version)
Jaycee Chan (Actor)
| Wilson Chen (Actor)
| Niu Meng Meng (Actor)
| Xiao Jiang (Director)
I've never seen a Mainland film like PK.COM.CN. While that doesn't make it a great film per se, it does make PK.COM.CN an interesting venture for Chinese commercial cinema and a novelty well worth watching. To even consider a film like PK.COM.CN commercial cinema is already a minor surprise as its head-scratching story and pop arthouse aesthetics resemble a post-modern stage play more than anything. Not even Taiwan would throw out something like this and call it a commercial youth film. And yet, the type of buzz, budget, and promotion PK.COM.CN warranted, not to mention the casting of Wilson Chen and Jaycee Chan, makes it an undeniably commercial film, albeit one that is born from and... [read more]
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Komaneko - The Curious Cat (DVD) (Special Edition) (Taiwan Version)
Health is poor, spirits are low, work is piling, and rent remains blissfully unpaid. At least I still have Komaneko. Written, designed, and directed by Goda Tsuneo, Komaneko - The Curious Cat is a feature-length stop-motion animation starring a very cute, very cuddly, and very curious stuffed cat who happens to be an aspiring stop-motion animator herself. Clearly the paws-on type, Komaneko earnestly goes though the steps to make her very first stop-motion film, down to sewing little felt leads and creating sets and background art with paper and crayons. With everything in place, she starts snapping away with her 8mm, but that's when everything starts falling down... Komaneko's opening... [read more]
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Assembly (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Hu Jun (Actor)
| Zhang Han Yu (Actor)
| Ren Quan
| Wang Bao Qiang
China has made many, many modern war films dedicated to just about every battle worth romanticizing during the Sino-Japanese Wars, Chinese Civil War, and Korean War. These films generally hold marginal interest for those outside of China since they operate mainly as military-buff recounts and celebrations of PLA valor over fill-in-the-blank reactionary enemy that fall in line with the party's vision of modern Chinese history. Recent blockbuster Assembly, however, represents a new kind of war film for China, and not just because it's managed to reach a lot more people than, say, Battle on Shangganling Mountain. Assembly is a Chinese war film that offers no politics, concentrating on the... [read more]
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Ratatouille (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Brad Bird
I watched Ratatouille with a 3-year old who is currently obsessed with super heroes. Hey, want to watch a movie about a rodent who becomes a super chef? "Yeah, hee!" came the big response; whereas I cringed at the idea. What will Pixar think of next? A cockroach barista? Rats conjure up images of the Great Plague, disease, and so forth - nothing too positive. To see a whole army of rats swarming around the sacred kitchen is not my ideal night of entertainment, but that's exactly what happens in this brave new animation. Having an extremely keen sense of taste as well as a passion for culinary arts, you can say, Remy is not your average rat. But in a world driven by humans, an eccentric rat... [read more]
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Magic Boy (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Tsui Tin Yau (Actor)
| Kate Yeung (Actor)
| Anjo Leung (Actor)
| Adam Wong (Director)
Adam Wong made a solid directorial debut in 2004 with the indie feature When Beckham Met Owen, an insignificant-slice-of-life drama about a middle school boy who begins to question his own sexual orientation. The film was mostly an exercise in mundane realism, capturing the unexciting living conditions and internal conflicts of a housing estate youth in everyday Hong Kong. And yet for a film with unattractive photography, amateur leads, and no emotional or narrative ups and downs to speak of, When Beckham Met Owen was quite palatable, just on the brink of meaning something. It was a fine start for a new director working on a shoestring budget, and Wong has made good on his promise with his... [read more]
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Island Etude (DVD) (Single Disc Edition) (Taiwan Version)
Yang Li Yin (Actor)
| Tung Ming Hsiang (Actor)
| Xu Xiao Shun
| Wu Nien Jen
When I was living in Taiwan, one of my big plans was to take a round-island trip. Unfortunately, it simply never happened, so now I can only live vicariously through Island Etude. The directorial debut of A City of Sadness cinematographer En Chen, the eminently enjoyable Island Etude follows a hearing-impaired young man's one-week bike circuit of Taiwan. Starting and ending at the southern port city of Kaohsiung, the film has all the romanticism of a traditional road movie, and leading man Tung Ming Hsiang paints some inspiring imagery as he huffs along on a scrappy bike, with a pack and guitar on his back. As expected, the film is comprised of random encounters and episodes that seem to add... [read more]
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Brave Story (DVD) (English Subtitled) (Hong Kong Version)
Matsu Takako
| Tokiwa Takako
| Imai Miki
| Wentz Eiji
Anyone who's ever played an RPG should find the story of Brave Story familiar. A 10 year-old boy named Wataru follows mysterious friend Mitsuru through a strange portal, only to arrive in a fantastic medieval land called Vision, complete with dragons, anthropomorphic creatures, melee weapons, and armor. Once there, Wataru assembles a party of compatriots and treks across in the land in search of the "Goddess of Destiny", in order to fulfill some important quest involving fate, destiny, and the lives of untold innocents. Or something like that. Wataru's quest actually has acute real-world significance to him: his parents are estranged and his mother deathly ill, and Wataru wants the Goddess... [read more]
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The Sun Also Rises (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Anthony Wong (Actor)
| Jiang Wen (Actor, Director)
| Joan Chen (Actor)
| Jaycee Chan (Actor)
Thirteen years ago, Jiang Wen made his directorial debut with a little film called In the Heat of the Sun, which still remains one of my all-time favorite films. In the Heat of the Sun offered a revisionist take of the Cultural Revolution, following a group of apathetic teenagers in the heat of their lives, basking in the reckless freedom of days without parents, teachers, or school. By applying hazy-dazy, coming-of-age nostalgia to one of the most controversial periods in modern Chinese history, Jiang told a different story from that of the mainstream memory of pain and suffering. This adolescent vision of the period created significance in its irreverence, challenging public and personal... [read more]
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Kiki's Delivery Service (Hong Kong Version)
Miyazaki Hayao (Producer)
A teen witch's coming-of-age taleAnother work of passion, Miyazaki Hayao's fifth directorial film turned into a major success for Studio Ghibli. There is a certain charm about Kiki's Delivery Service that won me over as soon as this movie was in my DVD player. It all starts with the relaxing music by Miyazaki's first choice film score composer Hisaishi Joe whose acoustic sounds complement this original story about a thirteen-year-old witch like a glove fits the hand. As for the stunning artwork from the now established Japanese animation studio the world has come to know and love, many viewers including myself may get the idea to look for original paintings from the movie to put up at home. As background motifs for his... [read more]
December 6, 2007 Picked By A-Xiang Joe See all this editor's picks
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Exodus (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Simon Yam (Actor)
| Annie Liu (Actor)
| Irene Wan (Actor)
| Nick Cheung (Actor)
Sometimes it's hard to tell whether Edmond Pang is challenging the audience or mocking the audience, and that's what makes his films so interesting and entertaining. Hong Kong's best young director makes it six winners in a row with his latest effort Exodus. This time he's taken the eternal battle between men and women to its logically illogical conclusion - all women are in cahoots to kill men. Pang throws a curveball at the audience from the very first frame, beginning the film with a fairly long scene of scuba divers beating up a man in a long hallway in slow motion. Who is this man? Why scuba divers? Why is he getting beaten up? It turns out none of these questions matter as the opening... [read more]
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Fearless (Director's Cut) (Hong Kong Version)
Jet Li (Actor)
| Nakamura Shido (Actor)
| Harada Masato (Actor)
| Collin Chou (Actor)
No disrespect to Jet Li, but after watching a string of his past movies like Unleashed (2005), The One (2001), and Romeo Must Die (2000), my impression of the actor was limited to his martial arts skills. Honestly, how I ended up seeing Fearless was nothing short of a coincidence. Basically, it boiled down to two choices: lousy first row seats for Pirates of the Caribbean 2, or a three-hour wait until the next screening of Perhaps Love. Then there was Fearless offering ample seats; thus began my rediscovery of Jet Li. Touted as Jet Li's last film in the martial arts genre, Fearless chronicles the life of legend Huo Yuan Jia who found the progressive Jing Wu Sports Federation at the turn of... [read more]
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Green Snake (DTS Version)
Joey Wang (Actor)
| Maggie Cheung Man Yuk (Actor)
| Vincent Zhao
| Tsui Hark (Director)
Tsui Hark's Green Snake is simultaneously revered and reviled, and honestly, it's not hard to see why. Sublimely beautiful Hong Kong Cinema icons Joey Wong and Maggie Cheung star as a pair of immortal snakes who attempt to circumvent the natural order by attaining human form, thereby pissing off the local Buddhists, including Zhao Wen Zhou (a.k.a. Chiu Man Cheuk, Vincent Zhao, and probably a few other names), who plays Fa Hoi, an exceptionally powerfully monk whose devotion is tested by his own earthly desires. Though the two snakes' human lives don't really cause anyone grief, it's the human foibles - love, anger, lust, jealousy, intolerance - which serve to bring their paradise-on-Earth... [read more]
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Perhaps Love (DVD) (US Version)
Jacky Cheung (Actor)
| Takeshi Kaneshiro (Actor)
| Zhou Xun (Actor)
| Ji Jin Hee (Actor)
Hong Kong doesn't attempt too many musicals, making Peter Chan's glossy 2005 foray into the genre, Perhaps Love, all the more worthwhile. Though not at the same level as Hollywood's flamboyant offerings, the film wins with great production values, a clever conceit - Perhaps Love is not a musical in the traditional sense, but rather a movie containing a musical - and the pure force of Jacky Cheung's vocals. Cheung stars as worn-out, ill-tempered director Nie Wen who is shooting a musical starring his girlfriend Sun Na (Zhou Xun), Hong Kong actor Lin Jian Dong (Takeshi Kaneshiro), and himself. The musical is about a girl who loses her memory and gets rescued by a circus master. The circus... [read more]
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I Not Stupid Too (Cantonese / Mandarin Dubbed Version) (Hong Kong Version)
Shawn Lee (Actor)
| Joshua Ang (Actor)
| Ashley Leong (Actor)
| Xiang Yun (Actor)
A follow-up to 2002's I Not Stupid, Jack Neo's I Not Stupid Too continues the director's crusade against Singapore's overbearing education system and work values. Focusing on the communication gap between parents and children, the film revolves around two normal, clean-cut, angsty teenage boys from different backgrounds who stumble over to the wrong side. With their parents too busy or hardheaded to understand them, trouble communicating at home eventually leads to troublemaking outside of home. One of the truly winning points about both I Not Stupid and I Not Stupid Too is Neo's ability to come around to all sides of the story. The film is told mostly from the children's perspective, but... [read more]
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