@ Yi: Are you planning to check out AOT: Redux? To at least see for yourself.
It was released last Friday in the UK and NONE of my bloody cinemas are showing it . The Mei Ah DVD is unwatchable so to me it's a moot point which is better. I sure as hell am not going to endure the Mei Ah DVD ever again.
It's relevant how good a film is, if the only way to see it is so bad you cannot follow the bloody film.
I fall into the 'didn't like the ending' category, I'm afraid.
Rebuild of Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone: 4/5
I preferred this, although was disappointed that Katsuragi appeared to have black hair, explosions often consisted of circles, and the EVA 01 did a gay roar. Great animation though, and the cube angel was way better than in the TV series. From the trailer for the second film, it looks like it's going to be very interesting, I'm looking forward to it.
Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee’s Counter Attack (Japan, 1971) – 4/5
Toei’s girl gang evolution continues. Norifumi Suzuki picks up from where Delinquent Girl Boss left off and takes the genre to the next, or should I say lower, level in Sukeban. The director’s usual mix is well presented; action, humour, sex, and lightweight drama. The latter brings some substance into the pic, but never gets in the way of more imortant things, such as Reiko Ike’s blue bikini top.
Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee’s Challenge (Japan, 1972) – 3/5
Slightly less inventive but nevertheless enjoyable follow up to Queen Bee’s Counter Attack. This time miss Ike meets Chiyoko Kazama’s rivalry girl gang and fights the evil yakuzas lead by Asao Koike. The film is best remembered for its gruesome torture scenes. The cast features some brilliant visits, such as Tooru Yuri as a pervert priest (Suzuki’s usual mockery of religious authorities and male sex), and Furyo Bancho Tatsuo Umemiya himself in a small cameo.
Cat Girl Kiki (Japan, 2006) – 3/5
Young social outcast picks an abandoned cat from the street, and next day it has turned into cute girl... with big cat ears. An otaku product to the power of ten, yes, but a supremely cute one. It’s also downright hilarious in its good meaning calculativeness. If you have even slight understanding for Japanese geek mentality and kawaii culture this will make you laugh 20 minutes non-stop, starting from the first scene. Closing to the end the film starts falling appart due to lack of courage and imagination to go all the way, but the very last scene is good. Yui Kano is very good as the lovable neko shojo; she’s cute, fun and lively.
Last edited by HungFist on 17 Sep 2008, 17:18, edited 1 time in total.
The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?: 2.5/5
Very dated (well it is a couple of years older than me after all), and failed to pique my interest. Not a bad film by any means though, and I'm sure many consider it an anime classic.
Legend of the Doll (Japan, 2006) – 2,5/5
Same basic idea as in Cat Girl Kiki, only with stronger Akihabara geek focus and doll instead of a cat. The nerd humour is endlessly hilarious – and double the effect when the main character’s cosplay fan friend is on screen - but compared to Kiki the heart is missing. It’s party due to less talented director, partly because of Noriko Kijima wooden performance (playing a doll is no valid excuse). She’s tends to be as good as her dress.
Mischievous Lolita: Attacking The Virgin From Behind (Japan, 1986) – 1/5
Same as above but in pink. Unfortunately future mainstream / arthouse director Shusuke Kaneko’s talent is nowhere to be seen here. Some random great laughs are on offer, plus a cute lead, but stupid side plots that are only there to satisfy the raincoat men neutralize the positive effect. The title is yet another lottery drawing by the studio. There is no connection whatsoever between the title and content.
A MAN, ONCE A SUPERMAN - 5/5 (if i could award a film more i would)
Nice to see Jeon Ji-hyeon back on screen again although it's Hwang Jeong-min that gives a performance of a lifetime and steals the show in this excellent but very sad and tragic movie. My Sassy Girl move over, this is my fave K-Film ever!!
Synopsis
SONG Soo-jung is a producer going on her third year at a small company. Her specialty is human interest stories. She is driven to produce these shallow stories for the sake of her ambition of one day becoming Korea’s own Oprah Winfrey. However, she is reaching the end of what’s left of her pride. One day, after months of not getting paid, she leaves her office with the company camera to produce a story on a lion apparently refusing to eat its meal. On her way, however, she comes across a robber, but she is saved somehow by Superman in a Hawaiian shirt. “Superman” claims he’s unable to tap into his supernatural powers as the bad guys have placed kryptonite inside his head. However, he doesn’t let that get in his way from helping others, from saving the world from global warming to saving a lost puppy. Soo-jung can see this will make a good story and, with a little tweaking and a little fabricating, she produces the Superman Saves the World documentary which goes on to be a ratings hit. However, the true story behind this “Superman,” including the bullet and not the kryptonite that is lodged in his brain, helps the frosty, calculating Soo-jung to awaken to what’s truly important in life.
Finally watched the series now (and also watched the movie between episodes 22 & 23) and I can see why it's so popular, I do think it's slightly overrated though. I was surprised at how funny many of the episodes were, it has a good sense of humour.
The R1 'Remix' collection has quite disappointing picture quality, as there is some kind of distortion on the lines, it's quite hard to describe but it kind of moves lol (moire effect? Dunno). Also, the brightness is too high so the space scenes in particular don't look good since they should be black, so I decided to turn the brightness on my TV down 20 notches to watch this series, something I don't usually do. Good value though at around £14 before delivery, and the 5.1 remix is decent.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig: 4/5
I didn't enjoy it as much as the first series as it didn't grip me as much, but it's still a really high quality anime series, and incredibly intelligent.
The R2 Manga box set is way better quality than their first series one, but I noticed something which lets it down. The first volume or two has proper PAL transfers from an HD source, but then the next few volumes are window-boxed and appear to be NTSC-PAL conversions, and then strangely enough we're back to proper PAL for the final volume haha. Weird.
So, once I get paid on Friday I will be ordering Solid State Society to complete my S.A.C. experience.
Sakuran (Japan, 2006) – 2,5/5
Punk girl Anna Tsuchiya stars as a courtesan in the most colourful period film – or perhaps a film in general – ever made. A 300 million yen screensaver for flat screen TV owners. The film looks gorgeous, but doesn’t go far beyond that. Tsuchiya of course is a pleasant sight in the lead, but doesn’t manage to rise far above the unoriginal screenplay. It should also be noted that the cinematography itself is nothing exceptional; rather it’s the set, colour and costume design that shines. By far the best thing about the film is the pop/rock soundtrack by Shiina Ringo. It creates some stunning moments, but is unfortunately under-used as a whole. Also worth mentioning is the nudity filled bathing scenes; in such mainstream production they might have raised some eyebrows if the director wasn’t female.
Uncle’s Paradise (Japan, 2006) – 3/5
Shinji Imaoka’s pink feature sounded a bit dubious, but the pic makes it to the positive side. Imaoka obviously possesses decent audio-visual skills, and some single scenes of pure insanity make comparisons to the works of Takashi Miike and Teruo Ishii seem at least half-justified. There is – to quote a reviewer who’s name I’ve forgotten – enough sex to put the main character into grave, but the film is humoristic and blessed with a sympathetic cast. The storyline follows and elderly man who’s too afraid of his horrible nightmares to sleep, and only finds consolation in overuse of vitamins, and sexual adventures, sometimes provided by his fisherman nephew’s cute girlfriend.
Death Note (Japan, 2006) - 3/5
Former pink director Shusuke Kaneko’s Death Note stumbles a bit in the beginning – especially with one cgi generated character that caused some amusement in the audience – but the quality improves before long. The fantasy tale of a man who is granted an opportunity to take the justice into his own hands is surprisingly dark and captivating. Teen idols Tatsuya Fujiwara and Kenichi Matsuyama both convince in the lead roles. Not being familiar with the source material the true success of the adaptation process remains a mystery, but as an enjoyable and occasionally silly mainstream effort Death Note more than does its job.
Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone (Japan, 2008) – 4/5
Another adaptation of a source material I’m not familiar with. The opening is fast and confusing, but the pic soon finds its track and gets better scene by scene. The scifi action becomes secondary next to themes of war and loneliness. Carefully crafted characters provide a good grounding for the epic final battle.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) – 1/5
More old Miyazaki hitting the Finnish cinema screens. While I consider My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service delightful pieces of cinema, this Miyazaki doesn’t convince, appart from the opening scene. The dialogue is miserable, mostly repeating things that have already been already seen on screen and understood by the audience, and the preachy storyline doesn’t reach its end in acceptable time. Not even Joe Hisaishi score manage to stand out.
Big Bang Love – Juvenile A (Japan, 2006) – 2,5/5
Miike’s prison set murder mystery, also going by a more lyrical title 4.6 Billion Years of Love, is loaded with gay themes and skilfully light images. It suffers from intentionally artistic outcome, but still manages to entertain even on repeated viewings. Worth mentioning is also the ending, which is one of the best in recent memory.
Vexille (Japan, 2007) – 1/5
A prime example of the worst type of animated garbage Japan has to offer. Although the setting – future Japan completely isolated from the rest of the world - sounds interesting, the film achieves nothing. It’s loaded with nerve wrecking slow motion action scenes and fearless heroes and robots that share equal charisma. Worst of all is the loud soundtrack that makes the poor viewer develop suicidal thoughts. The positives of this problem-waste are few and far between; there’s a decent piece of music in the opening credits, followed by a rather exciting ”death star invation” 95 minutes later.
Appleseed: Ex Machina (Japan, 2007) – 1/5
Hong Kong maestros Terence Chang and John Woo in the producer's chair have brought little extra quality to the second Appleseed animation, which, according to my weak recallings, fares very poorly even compared to the 2004 original. It’s a rock and roll scifi actioner with plenty of dull slow-mo gunplay and zero character depth. While far from the worst films the genre has to offer, Ex Machina features no redeeming qualities. It can be watched, but I can’t think of any good reasons to do so.
Tokyo Sonata (Japan, 2008) – 4/5
I always thought Kiyoshi Kurosawa might be able to pull out a great movie if he left the ghost out. That’s exactly what he does here. The director crafts a slightly satiric downfall drama that becomes increasingly humoristic, even absurd. It all begins when a white collar father loses his job, and is too embarrassed to tell the truth to his family. Some of the plot turns don’t even attempt to be believable, but Kurosawa evens the affair with restrained visual style and relatively slow pace. The soundtrack works quite well. After halfway, during Koji Yakusho’s comedic appearance, there’s a long continous take where Kurosawa’s skill really shows.
Secret Sunshine (South Korea, 2007) – 1/5
More Cannes glory. Do-yeon Jeon scored the best actress award for her role as a suffering single parent in this film. She gets to display some drastic changes in her character, but the performance is a bit hard to enjoy when every turn only aims at cheap melodrama. It’s a shame, as there are some good elements, like the first, humoristic 50 minutes, and Kang-ho Song, who is very good as a likable loser who falls in love with the lead character. Unfortunately, the majority of the film is so incredibly shabby that it buries all the positives. 2½ hour running time doesn’t make it any easier to endure.
Sky Crawlers (Japan, 2008) – 3,5/5
Initially I saw this as a potential crowd pleasing effort by Mamoru Oshii. That is fortunately not the case. Sky Crawers doesn’t go overboard with philosophing, but it’s pure Oshii from themes of identity and soul to lack of comprehensive answers. It’s not Oshii at his most effective, and suffers from some over-length, but it’s a fascinating piece set in unidentified time and place in the future. The numerous air battles are well done, and the final touch is given by Kenji Kawai’s terrific score.
Ashes of Time: Redux (HK, 2008)
The availability of Ashes of Time will finally improve thanks to this revised version, but that’s where the good news end. The new remastering is a disaster. The image is now glazing orange / green, even dark at times. Dirt and scratches are gone, but so is film grain, at expense of sharpness of course. Digital touch shows in numerous new reflection effects. In the beginning there’s an apocalyptic cgi sun added next to the swordsmen.
Perhaps even worse is the ”improvements” made to the soundtrack. New surround effects in some of the fight scenes are only needless, but disrespecting Frankie Chan’s pitch perfect score is unforgivable. Much of the original music is gone while some has been remixed into inferior versions. Most of the time the images are accompanied by Yo Yo Ma’s new, dull desert drama music.
It’s unbelievable how much these, and other changes, weaken the film. A bad movie it it still not, but a lot less effective. Stylistically it’s now more in line with Wong’s recent, more coherent drama features. This will probably appeal to overseas critics, but the bite is gone. Of course Wong already messed with the film once before, with the International Cut. It’s been despised by fans, but compared to Redux it was a small compromise.
Chocolate (Thailand, 2008) – 3,5/5
Prachya Pinkaew’s latest dumps Tony Jaa in favour of having a female lead (JeeJa Yanin). The story of a autist girl who gets in trouble with the local gangsters and learns martial arts by watching Bruce Lee films on TV isn’t over-written for sure, but the basic idea - having a cute, 22 your old girl beating the shit out of 120 opponents - is fun of course. In your usual Thai style half of the villains appear to be transvestites. There’s also a hilarious, cgi enhanced slow motion shot of a fly getting electrified. The finale, which is a series of completely insane and incredibly painful looking stunts, sets the genre bar once again a bit higher.
Ocean Waves (Japan, 1993) – 4/5
I had the pleasure of seeing this in a Studio Ghibli approved theatrical digibeta screening. Ocean Waves being a TV production no true cinema prints exist. The endlessly fun and cute, but still somewhat realistic (compared to Ghibli’s better known fantasy films) school drama is about two high school students who fall for a Tokyo girl. A truly delighting film.
So bad it's funny, Clarence Ford just isn't a good director. I don't think I actually sat through it all when I originally bought it years ago, but I did this time.
In the Line of Duty: 3.5/5
Always liked this one, totally action-packed with really good fight scenes. This time I found myself really liking Cynthia Khan, mmm.
Police Story III: Supercop: 3/5
I find this film to be overrated, but it's all right. The most impressive stunt is hindered by silly editing and camera work, and I am referring to Michelle Yeoh's amazing motorbike stunt onto the top of the train, but it ends up looking fake, tut.
Where did you see Ashes of Time Hung? It was released a few weeks back here but my bloody local cinemas still haven't shown it . I didn't realise the International Cut was director approved.
bradavon wrote:Thanks. Over how many days did you see those films?
6, basically. Friday-monday + friday-sunday (next week), which makes 7 days, but since on fridays I first had to take a 4 hour train ride to Helsinki after school, I didn't have so much time for films. So, two fridays count as one day. And the latter sunday wasn't a full day either, as I had to take the six o clock train back to my hometown. So, maybe you could say I saw those films in 5.7 days
Note that there's another load in the non-asian thread.
Well, I'll be having a 7 film marathon in one night later this month at Night Visions. The full program hasn't been confirmed yet, but they have at least Tokyo Gore Police, I Drink Your Blood and Battletruck: Warlords of the 21st Century. Gonna be a fun night. A lot of energy drink needed... and I sure hope I don't have to wait for the train for long after that. Last time it was a bloody nightmare to spend 90 minutes out in the town in that condition... :tard:
Project S (Hong Kong, 1993) – 2,5/5
Aka Police Story 3: Part II. Not on par with the Jackie films or most Michelle Yeoh movies but quite passable entertainment nevetheless. The opening scene is terrible, but don’t let it distract you, the rest is good. A couple of hilarious cameos included.
Uno Koichiro no nurete utsu (Japan, 1984) – 2/5
Ace wo nerae goes pink. For once Nikkatsu manages to spit out a theme (s)exploitationer that actually exploits the theme; tennis is firmy included. The screenplay – yes, there is one – follows the source material at least to some extent, of course throwing a couple of sex scenes here and there. The cast is fine, and the soundtrack even features a relatively good theme song. First time director Shusuke Kaneko won the Yokohama Film Festival award for best new director for this movie, although the honor feels a bit exaggerated
Virgins From Hell (Indonesia, 1987) – 3/5
Good trash from Indonesia. The amount of technical mistakes alone is unbelievable, not to mention the complete lack of logic in almost anything the characters do. Why do the villains have a canister of gasoline with them on a draft that has no engine? How come an explosion leaves a motorcycle ”hanging” in the air? For what reason does our hero hit the enemy with a gun barrel, then throw the gun away, hit the baddie a few more times, and then run back to get the gun so he can shoot the poor fella? The answer is, of course, for fun. The prison camp episode in the middle is weaker than the beginning and ending, but the acting, which makes most Hong Kong martial arts stars seems like versatile artists, saves a lot. More fun is added by the english dub, which isn't exactly first grade either. Oh, and don’t expect any skin. These girls are virgins, and bathe with their clothes on.
Quite possibly the best film I've ever seen.
On par with Kazuaki Kiriya's Casshern.
Miyazaki, Oshii and Kon are amateurs.
Otomo is the master.
I used to be "the man who loves the movies you hate".
Now I'm just "that weird french guy with a cat avatar who comes to BnB once a year for no reason and then disappears again".
. The Mei Ah DVD is unwatchable so to me it's a moot point which is better. I sure as hell am not going to endure the Mei Ah DVD ever again.
