title: reviews.
Cinema isn't that exciting to me this month. Still managed to catch two films. I still want to watch Departures and Gu Gu the Cat. o.0 Shinjuku Incident Shinjuku Incident depicts an era in the 1990s where chinese illegal immigrants flood the land of Japan in search for livelihood. 鐵頭, acted by Jackie Chan, came to Japan however in search for his love, Xiu Xiu, whom he later discovers has married a yakuza, Japanese triad leader.  Determined to make himself a living, Jackie leads a bunch of fellow migrants from China and craved out a share in the triad world.  Needless to say, they came heads on with the yakuza, who has never recognized the migrants' status. The fight for power and wealth soon became scheming, brutal and gory. This film claimed to be Jackie's most compelling performance yet. Well, it's true that Jackie had a breakthrough in the role he acted. Instead of his usual playful fighting hero, Jackie took on a character who doesn't know how to fight. He had to really act. Real emotions, real drama. But it just wasn't good enough for me. Although Jackie himself has a certain unique presence, his acting just wasn't strong enough to bring out his character fully. I'll rate his acting about 3.5/5.  On the other hand, Daniel Wu had the perfect role to star in. He had a careful and thorough grasp of his character's development throughout the film, and brilliantly acted out the transformation which was so drastic it's scary to watch. Drug abuse scenes simply sealed his character's transformation. What's more, he's so dashing. Daniel Wu, 4.5/5. Overall, the film has slightly too much gore than necessary, which tends to distract the audience rather than enhance the storyline. Abit draggy. 3.5/5.  Watched Shinuku at Filmgarde, so might as well review it too. We sat at the side, pretty near the speakers. So it became quite loud at certain points of the moive. And the popcorn was stale and hard. But still, it's cheaper. Just remember to bring your own popcorn and grab the center seats. ;P 17 Again A pretty typical Hollywood film. About love, family, and what could have been.  This is the first film starring Zac Efron, since High School Musical. Both Zac's performance and the box office will critically determine his career from now on.  After turning 17, Mike O'Donnell decides to help his son secure a sholarship to college.  And get his daughter out of detrimental relationships. I think Zac Efron did quite well in this film. It wasn't simply a smile-and-look-cool performance. I think he handled the fatherly role pretty decently. I can still remember how he shouted the typical father's line "Don't you walk away from me!" at his daughter. Not bad, 3.5/5. Fighting Spiders  Lastly, hands up for a local production!! Woot! Even though chinese drama has been around for nearly 30 years, i'm starting to think that english dramas in Sinagpore have better scripts and actors. I enjoy Sayang Sayang, Calefare, the Noose and Stories of Love -- the Anthology Series. Of course there are many failures. Like VR-Man, Red Thread and propagandish Serves You Right. I feel ashamed just listing them out. But you have to agree that over the past year, we have been seeing much hope for local english dramas. And Fighting Spiders just brought local english drama up another notch. From the scripting, to camera angles, to post-production editing, you can see just how much effort is put into this drama.  Left to Right: Frederick Fielding as Peter, Liang Shijie as Charlie, and Edwin Goh as Soon Lee. The trio is a brilliant mix. Soon Lee is attractive but brash, Charlie's adorable and timid, and Peter is calm and collected, adding on a foreigner's touch. Apart from childhood's fun and innocence, the drama tackles issue like poverty, gangsterism and prostitution in the 60s. A simple, heartwarming, drama reminiscing the old kampung days. I watch it for a part of my history i'll never experience. I hope you'd enjoy it too. :) |
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