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Reviews
Fei yue qing hai (2003)
could have been more...
I watched this right after I watched Spider Lilies, another film following a similar plot line. Both films have our leads living a very lonely existence looking for love and affection to someone they feel connected too.
While Spider Lilies could have ended with a happy ending because both the leads were lesbians, Love Me If You Can had only a sad ending, since San is quite obviously not interested.
I'm left confused as tho who our main lead is, since San gets a lot of screen time and everything revolves around her, it is Ying's struggle to find love an acceptance that we follow.
If anything works, it is the characters, San is to much of a hero for her time, she's always fighting for the underdog and would willingly do anything to save a friend. Its no wonder that we see character's flock to her in an attempted to be healed by her.
Ying is the most damaged of them all, a young girl born into a bad family with seemingly no way out, her only solace is in the belief that she is one half of the legendary butterfly lovers and San is the other.
The story really never goes anywhere and till the end, we are left in doubt if San return's Ying's feelings.
The movie could have done with a better director and script writer, the two leads are effective and look the part, but the film's lack on concrete narration and disjointed editing really distracted from the overall effect of the film. the director choose to use a very simplistic style of camera work, making the audience feel like we are standing right in the scene, but when you through in excessive violence, well, then its just pretentious.
The young actress playing Ying was nominated for a Golden Horse Award for this film, she did not win, and I agree, she was believable as Ying and had such innocence to her that watching her demise was very disturbing. However, she was raw and sometimes she breaks out of character like she was unsure of portrayal, given better direction, she could have been so much more. there were also times she seemed so uncharacteristically strong that I wonder if this was the actress herself or was Ying more than what I had believed her to be.
The actress who play's San was more consistent but her character gave her little room for movement since San was never given the chance to redefine her feelings for Ying, nor was she give room to doubt herself and her feelings to those around her.
As I said earlier, this is San's life but its Ying's story that we follow.
In total, this is a film hard to connect to, it was to all over the place to really make it an effective film, but there were some gem's and some would be gem's.
Only for those who want to site through an incomplete story with a violent ending that didn't need to be.
Kidari ajeossi (2005)
two for one
having watched many Korean tearjerkers, I've become quite immune to them, and although i could not say i cried for this film but i felt like crying, which is good enough.
the plot follows two stories, on of the present between young mi and the young librarian who is quite possibly the nicest guy you'll ever meet without being a wimp and the story of a one sided love from a person who is no longer in the story, not dead just not there.
the director was brilliant in allowing the viewers to watch each story from the eyes of the female (meaning some males will find this quite boring), Yong Mi's story follows that of a typical romance where she meets the librarian and they start a relationship, not yet of undying love but more of a puppy love feeling. while the other character (that i can not recall the name off) expresses her one sided love for a male classmate that she never seems to work up the courage to confess too and when she does, life becomes to complicated to take that step.
when we finally reach the middle point and starts to suspect if the librarian is the male classmate the poor girl was in love with, we feel like what Young Mi would feel, will we continue on with this relationship, knowing there is someone out there who loved him for so long (10 years) and is suffering because of it.
the twist in the story became almost like a blessing before we remind ourselves what that really means and feel as helpless as Young Mi is feeling.
a truly worthy film for viewing, please do not miss it.
Hwang Jin-yi (2007)
so boring....
I had always had a soft spot for SHK since first seeing her in Autumn Tale and My Girl and I, after hearing so much about this film while it was in production I had made up my mind to go see it.
unknown to some, there is also a drama that was made and was released a few months prior to this movie. I wanted to get a hold on the storyline and a feel for the character before seeing this movie so i watched the drama. it was absolutely brilliant. the main girl in there, Ha Ji Won, was excellent, she had this proud-ness about her that was either endearing or dis-likable, but to me she was such a likable character,even if she wasn't lovable, and the dancing was so beautiful, especially the sword dance and the calling for justice dance she did to save her lover.
with that feeling i went into the movie, i knew from the forgo that the movie would be different, would have different feel and the character would be different too. but i never expected to not like Hwang Jin Yi, or find her a bore.
But i did, she was so utterly boring and the director tried way to hard for the viewers to feel sorry for Hwang's situation that it really ruined it for me. one of the reason the drama was so good was that Hwang in the drama was never portrayed to be a sympathetic character, the path she tread was the one she had chosen, she had no one to blame but herself, she never asked for our sympathy, and we don't feel the need to give it to her.
the movie's Hwang was the total opposite, we see her as being forced into the situation, taking crap from people and being betrayed by her best friend then abandoned by him. all the makings for a sympathetic character, but although i did feel sorry for her as would anyone with a bit of compassion in them but felt like a cheap shot. and i was left feeling like I'm been forced into the feeling.
what really did me in the most, was the fact that Hwang was suppose to be renowned for her beauty, intelligence and artistic nature in both drawing and dancing, the movie only portrayed her as a beauty with some brains, there was any particular scene that made us go 'wow she's so smart' and the most damming of them all, no dancing.
the worst thing this movie did was being un-memorable, it was such a shame, as i expected it to be much better.
if anyone has the chance, skip this movie and watch the series, but if you want to watch both then watch the movie first, there is no way you can stand this movie if you've already seen the drama. one of the stupidest thing i did was go watch the drama first.
A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995)
if only...
if Kate Winslet wasn't in this film i would have never bothered with it.
the main kid Kevin is such a loser with the softest voice i wonder how anyone can ever imagine him being a threat.
Princess Katey has a horrible accent, not to mention they ruined her character.
the only good thing about this film is Kate Winslet, Daniel Craig and Ark Milk. and if only the story was focus on them and their almost love triangle, it would score much higher.
Kate Winslet looks every inch the princess and is obviously the best fighter in the film, and the most useful character.
Daniel Craig has a head full of blonde hair and a British accent. nuff said.
Gwai ma hau yuen (1987)
a film of its time
definitely for high schoolers only.
the plot revolves around a senior class and their war of the genders as well as their over complicated love connections.
none of the characters are really that likable. The male characters are very stereotype.
there's the rich kid who's a jerk but is the most popular and leader of the boys team. who likes Loletta Lee's character for her beauty.
Rich Guy's trusty sidekick who is in turn in love with his sister.
Nice guy who is at the bottom of the food chain and in love with Nadia Chan.
the Romeo who followed Loletta Lee's character all the way back from America because he can't forget the days they spend together.
none of the actors are that appealing and recognisable. Romeo guy looks and feels like a singer, and spends most of the film tailing Loletta like a lost puppy.
for the girls, beauty queen Loletta Lee is the leader of the girls, she's not only beautiful she's also a B and knows how to hotwire cars.
she leads the troupes against the boys camp, she's no gentle girl as she has no crumps about entering the male toilet to take her revenge.
Nadia Chan plays the hard working girl who dreams of Mr Right, her Mr Right appears in the form of a friendly ghost who tells her her really Mr Right will appear very soon, enter Romeo.
Rich girl is the sister of the Rich Guy, who is best friends with Loletta Lee and is much like a sidekick to Loletta. She helps with the pranks and backs up Loletta.
Fat girl is friends with Loletta and Bonnie and is the usual fat girl in every film.
the pranks the girls play are quite mean, the boys although initially all like Loletta it isn't long before they realised although she's good to look at she's hard to stick around with.
Nice guy likes Nadia, who likes Romeo who likes Loletta who likes the gym teacher, who is married to biker chick.
by the end of it, the class unifies against mean teachers and Nice guy is sacrifice during the process. But thats okay, since the whole class is friends now and they can all enjoy the dance.
very silly stuff for high schoolers, it was pretty lame at the start but by the time they return to school it gets more fun. but then dies down again.
watch it only if you want to see it.
Yuk po tuen II: Yuk lui sam ging (1996)
not a bad film
not being very familiar with cat 3 films, I had originally expected to dislike this film as the first had been quite corny.
however, I did enjoy this film as although it is a cat 3 film it also had a decent plot line, good costumes and less out of nowhere nudity then the first.
the plot resembles some what of the Butterfly Lovers as Yau (Lee) cross dresses to go to school and makes a friend who I believe by the end she marries. Besides that there is nothing else similar between them.
Shu Qi is stunning as the temptress and Lee is cute and young looking although she is 29 by the time this film was made.
This seems to be the film to promote Shu Qi as she is given much attention to her 'hotness', having many nude scene's. Her voice was dubbed and her acting seemed fake, it may have been apart of the script or just bad acting.
Lee didn't flare much better as she was ill at ease with herself in the film and seemed a bit guarded whenever she had a nudity scene. The rest she was quite convincing as the young cute daughter.
all in all, not the best you can get but a definite try for anyone into the genre.