What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 18 Dec 2010, 22:31

R-Point: Boooorrrrrrring, and the acting wasn't very good.

Xenon · Post by **Xenon** » 19 Dec 2010, 10:28

gasteropod wrote:R-Point: Boooorrrrrrring, and the acting wasn't very good.

Shit of bulls. I remember seeing that movie when I was 17 or something. Creeped me out. Loved the ending.

Ip Man - loved every second of it. 9/10

Ip Man 2 - the first half of the movie was very good, but the second part felt like I was watching something else. *cough* Rocky *cough*. Nowhere near as good as the original. 6/10

Deadly Outlaw: Rekka - just like almost every Takashi Miike movie it's either hit or miss. This one was a hit with me. 8/10

P.S. Riki Takeuchi

.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 19 Dec 2010, 15:48

Perfect Education 4: Secret Basement (Japan, 2003) - 1/5
Cherry Blossom Education. Secret Basement suggests a return to old school with its title, but turns out a flat-out melodrama with a focus on a mute antihero’s traumatized mind. Any attempts to play it seriously fail thanks to a ‘monkey meets 1980’s soap opera hero’ protagonist, and director, who also appears to have a calling for the fore mentioned television genre. The film’s exceptional dumbness and a couple of glorious anti-feminist bombs help just enough to make it tolerable.

Perfect Education 5: La coiffeuse (Japan, 2003) - 2.5/5
La coiffeuse? The French language opening credits for the 5th Perfect Education certainly do take the viewer by surprise. 30 minutes later, betting on a French director would still feel like a winning idea, that’s how European this film blessed with long takes and little explained characters is. There’s an explanation though. The director is Masahiro Kobayashi, an art house auteur and Cannes veteran largely ignored in his native country. Whether this well acted and beautifully shot if somewhat soft and safe drama has anything to do with the Perfect Education heading is up to arguments. Female star Keiko Oginome was quite a gal a decade before when co-starring in Fukasaku’s Triple Cross (1992), and, in fact, not all that bad middle aged. Additional eye candy is provided by beautiful winter landscapes.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 20 Dec 2010, 01:01

The Legend Is Born - Ip Man: Meh

Instant Swamp: Wonderful! Very funny and very quirky, loved it.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 21 Dec 2010, 02:15

Onibaba: Good but I did prefer Kuroneko, I was expecting more of a horror film too but I'm not holding that against it.

luckystars · Post by **luckystars** » 21 Dec 2010, 21:40

gasteropod wrote:The Legend Is Born - Ip Man: Meh

I liked it!! It's a lot like a tv movie though

Definitely a 7.5/10 for entertainment value

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 22 Dec 2010, 23:39

I liked Ip Man: TLIB as well, although after an hour it goes from 'great' to simply 'ok'. Sadly. It had so much more potential yet they somehow screwed it all up a bit in the end.

Anyway, Mongol was on TV last night, so I watched that, and I have to say I really thought it was very very good. It's too bad that the originally planned trilogy won't go ahead. Loved everything about it. Just excellent.

luckystars · Post by **luckystars** » 23 Dec 2010, 12:18

Yi-Long wrote:I liked Ip Man: TLIB as well, although after an hour it goes from 'great' to simply 'ok'. Sadly. It had so much more potential yet they somehow screwed it all up a bit in the end.

Anyway, Mongol was on TV last night, so I watched that, and I have to say I really thought it was very very good. It's too bad that the originally planned trilogy won't go ahead. Loved everything about it. Just excellent.

Cool will put it on my Rental list

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 24 Dec 2010, 14:28

Yi-Long wrote:Anyway, Mongol was on TV last night, so I watched that, and I have to say I really thought it was very very good. It's too bad that the originally planned trilogy won't go ahead. Loved everything about it. Just excellent.

Why is that?

I saw it at the cinema. It's pretty good. It's worth a rent/download but isn't a keeper. The trailer makes it out to be full of action, it isn't but what is shown is impressive. It's more drama than action.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 24 Dec 2010, 14:33

bradavon wrote:
Yi-Long wrote:Anyway, Mongol was on TV last night, so I watched that, and I have to say I really thought it was very very good. It's too bad that the originally planned trilogy won't go ahead. Loved everything about it. Just excellent.
Why is that?

I saw it at the cinema. It's pretty good. It's worth a rent/download but isn't a keeper. The trailer makes it out to be full of action, it isn't but what is shown is impressive. It's more drama than action.

I believe the reason was that the original shoot was much harder than they had anticipated, so they're not gonna bother...

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 26 Dec 2010, 12:35

Perfect Education 6 (Japan, 2004) – 1.5/5
Koji Wakamatsu returns the series back to darker and more violent grounds. It’s got a good start with an ill-lucked man hired to commit a murder and looking for a hiding place. He discovers a convenient and distantly located house inhabited by a young woman. The screenplay even has an original twist to offer, but unfortunately goes into limbo before soon. The scenario is milked to death, and the serious minded film ultimately stumbles to the verge on unintentional humor. Gravure idol Mika Ito plays the victim, Naoto Takenaka is nowhere to be found this time.

Perfect Education 7: Maid, for you 3D (Japan, 2010) – 3/5
Moe Moe Special Beam! Japan’s maid cafes are an otaku culture offspring fighting for its share of the mainstream kawaii cake enjoyed not just by male nerds but ordinary citizens and normal girls alike. Always two steps behind the trends master filmmaker Kenta Fukasaku provides his essay on the subject, enhanced with 3D sex scenes. It’s a ridiculous entertaining affair, accurately missing almost every intellectual point, and most likely not on purpose. Of course, in reality, maid cafes are silly let loose entertainment for most customers, and employ a very much entirely sane staff. This would not go well with Fukasaku’s nerd-maid kidnap romance but nor does it have to. The reality is out there, this is a movie. Grab a beer and enjoy the ride, filled with cinematic wft-moments, cute maids, occasionally beautiful digital cinematography, and gravure idol gone nude Ayano’s 3D assets that home technology does no justice.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 30 Dec 2010, 15:10

Gallants (Hong Kong, 2010) – 1/5
A bullied young man runs into elderly kung fu masters (Chen Kuan Tai, Bruce Leung, Teddy Robin) who reluctantly take him as a student. Gallants is a near intolerable post modern take on the old school martial arts genre. Solid action choreography and some excellent pieces on the soundtrack do little to save this MTV product enhanced with cartoon effects and hip hop. Even the Shaw Brother style character introduction texts are now computer generated! Yes, times have changed, but it's a real shame to see these old school guys teen raped to pass for modern entertainment.

Exodus (Hong Kong, 2007) - 3.5/5
Pang Ho-Cheung is one of the very few interesting Hong Kong filmmakers left. Exodus, while not perfect, is one of the more delightful and sometimes even ingenious films to come out from HK in the recent years. Simon Yam stars as a cop who starts suspecting women have created a conspiracy to kill all men. While not nearly as violent as the director’s more recent Dream Home, Exodus comes with a very welcome load of originality, plus impressive cinematography and soundtrack. The ending is also excellent.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 30 Dec 2010, 18:39

Was looking forward to Gallants.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 30 Dec 2010, 19:03

Watch Exodus instead

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 31 Dec 2010, 01:12

Sairen (aka Forbidden Siren): It started off all right, but then got silly, and then got melodramatic, shame.

Xenon · Post by **Xenon** » 31 Dec 2010, 13:13

gasteropod wrote:Sairen (aka Forbidden Siren): It started off all right, but then got silly, and then got melodramatic, shame.

The movie was based on a video game - what did you expect.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 31 Dec 2010, 21:32

Gallants was pretty decent imo-i liked it anyway.

Devil & Angel 2/5

Predictable Lo Lieh basher follows a well worn plot device of inarcerated man getting out of jail and going after the baddies who put him there.rather plodding affair but i always find these films have entertainment value.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 31 Dec 2010, 21:50

I thought I was the only poor bastard on this forum who suffered obscure shit like Devil and Angel.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 31 Dec 2010, 22:11

i love 70's bashers and always find even the crappy ones watchable. Fists Of The Double K is one of my all time favourite films and deserves a Criteion BD release imo

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 01 Jan 2011, 07:48

saltysam wrote:i love 70's bashers and always find even the crappy ones watchable. Fists Of The Double K is one of my all time favourite films and deserves a Criteion BD release imo

I must have some shit you haven't seen.

Anything you're after?

luckystars · Post by **luckystars** » 01 Jan 2011, 11:06

saltysam wrote:i love 70's bashers and always find even the crappy ones watchable. Fists Of The Double K is one of my all time favourite films and deserves a Criteion BD release imo

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 01 Jan 2011, 18:09

Seven Samurai (Japan, 1954) - 5/5
3rd viewing. First saw it on TV as a kid, then in cinema as a teenager, and now on TV again. Always stunning.

Dai nipponjin (Japan, 2007) – 3.5/5
Hitoshi Matsumoto’s documentary film is a must see for anyone interested in modern Japan. Best viewed with no information about the content. Stop reading! If you are, however, boneheaded enough to still be reading, then at least do your friend a favor and trick him into believing this fake doc is the real deal. Symbol-director Hitoshi Matsumoto plays an everyday loser – divorced, poor, unpopular – whose inherited destiny is to protect Japan from a various bunch of Godzilla baddies. He is Dai nipponjin, the great Japanese, although nowadays more commonly mocked as the great dumbass. Overlong but original and nicely shot, the film also goes very political during the last 15 minutes.

Lolita Vibrator Torture (Japan, 1987) – 3.5/5
Hisayasu Sato’s most notorious film unloads 60 minutes of terrific cinematography, stunning use of black & white stills, and one hell of a soundtrack. And, school girl vibrator torture of course. It’s a pink film on the surface – Sato was yet another director who mainly used the genre as his personal playground – and that is its limitation. Without sex scenes Loli-Vibe could be a mini-masterpiece of badass cinema, but even as it stands, it’s a definitive cult classic. Beautiful, fresh, shocking, occasionally boring, and totally unique. Has any other movie ever ended in more kick ass feminist punk fashion than this?

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 02 Jan 2011, 04:59

Mizuchi (aka Death Water): Started out interestingly enough but just got progressively more confusing as it went on, had too many unnecessary flashbacks, and its most intriguing plot point just ended up getting ignored. The film also felt about twice its actual length.

Xenon · Post by **Xenon** » 02 Jan 2011, 18:17

Alive (2002) - hard to believe that Ryuhei Kitamura himself directed this snoozefest. And I hate how Japanese love to fuck up the whole plot, which I thought was good until the whole alien-infested chick nonsense began. The action was decent but the problem is there was very little of it.3/10

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 02 Jan 2011, 19:26

Xenon wrote:And I hate how Japanese love to fuck up the whole plot

Interesting. Care to explain (concerning other films than Alive)?

Bullets 'n' Babes

What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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