by Jaime Grijalba.
As I said in the earlier edition, I will review in one paragraph all those asian films of 2012 that are not as writing-enducing as others that I’ve covered in the past editions of this half-monthly column, and as I say that I must say that I have a lot of films to cover, but I’ll divide it by two, so you’ll have this second and a third edition in two weeks time covering a total of eight films in capsule reviews of a paragraph or whatever I can come up with, so without further ado, let’s dive right into the industry of films.
Bao dao shuang xiong (2012)
a.k.a. Double Trouble
director Hsun-Wei David Chang
Taiwan, China, 87 min
Many know and love the films where Jackie Chan stars, fights and sometimes even directs. His films are filled with some incredible stagey acts and crazy stunts, while also maintaining some kind of humour about it, making it the best slapstic humour from anywhere in the world for almost two decades, he was a modern Buster Keaton/Charlie Chaplin for those who wanted to see him in that way . Now it seems that his son, Jaycee Chan, has taken the crown from his own father to continue doing this amazing kind of films of great spectacle and big budgets from the asian land of the kung fu and martial arts. Now, I just wish that he had a better spotlight and a better director to make his films any good. This ‘Double Trouble’ focuses on two guys, one is a chinese policeman taking his vacation in Taiwan and the other is a museum guard from Taiwan that is protecting one of the most ancient and important surviving treasures of the chinese culture (for those in the know, most of the chinese ancient culture can only be found in Taiwan after Mao’s smart move to destroy everything that reminded them of the glourious days of the chinese empire). So, making it short and sweet, the ancient scroll is robbed, and it is the job for this guard to look for it, because he thinks he’s guilty. He finds himself tied to this free policeman, due to the fact that he is detained by the guard due to his involvement in the robbery (he inarvetedly helped the two girls who robbed the scroll). So, this action adventure may have been great and interesting if it were any political about the issues that are at hand (Taiwan and China have a harsh history), and instead it just wants to have nice car chases and coreographed fights, that may be fun, but when the focus is not so much on Jaycee all the time, the film looses its strenghts (those little that it had) and aims for a bigger scope and range of characters, that end up in over-acting and innecesary twists. Still, there are some good scenes and sequences, specially one involving two girls on motorcycles and a bus filled with turists. (Rating: ***)
Don’t Click (2012)
director Tae-kyeong Kim
South Korea, 93 min
Excuse me but, I need to tackle this one and at the same time link to my 100 Days of Horror that are taking place in my blog right here, where I’m reviewing a horror film a day until Halloween, so I’m using today’s article to write about this asian horror film and make it count as one of my 100 reviews. Please feel free to enter the blog and sniff around, there’s something for each taste and kind of film, there are silents, bloody, gory, cult, classic and the certain oddity here and there. So, back to the issue at hand. How many films with vengeful ghosts must we encounter as we go day by day watching horror films from the land of Asia. It is true that the most classic and best films of the genre that have come from either Japan or Korea have had the issue of the ghosts and the curse that they leave behind as the leiv motif, and at the same time have been very effective at making a profitable industry out of ghosts of girls with long hairs. But in this day and time, the concept may feel a bit tired, and the whole thing is just not scary anymore, and this film fails because of that, even if it has interesting scenes and some peculiar themes, as a whole it is not scary because we’ve seen all and heard all when it comes down to it. Nevertheless, the cinematography is interesting and the acting is quite good from the protagonists. There are some interesting takes that I’m not sure if are present in other asian horror films (I’m quite sure there are, but they struck me as original), as, for example, how it includes the actual issue about the youtube and how a video can change your reputation in school, how it can make you a target and changes peoples lives, as well as the issue of fame, if its deserved or not, and all that jazz. We are talking about a vengeful ghost that kills its victims and “records it” making it a cursed video, where the ghost manages to travel through the images of security cameras and cellph0nes, as long as there is a way to see you, the ghost will find you and kill you. The whole thing is really a treat to watch when it really focuses on that, but when it recurs to the cheap scares and the thrills that we’ve seen a million times, it brings the whole thing down with it. (Rating: ***)
Fan Ju Ye Feng Kuang (2012)
a.k.a. Crazy Dinner Party
director Jing Shang
China, 100 min
The Mafia, a musician, a thief and a fake guru all converge in one restaurant on the verge of a financial breakdown. The owner of the restaurant has to sell it after he lost all of his staff after a killing was done in his establishment, so when all his staff leaves the building in a hurry and at the same time a bunch of people start appearing and attempting to eat there, he has to resort to a friend of his to make a simple dish with all kinds of vegetables to make it taste good. Then, as we approach the ending and we find that all the characters (surprise, surprise, not) are connected to each other in some way or fashion, we are given an enormous fight of two female characters that throw kitchen stuff at each other and displaying special effects that… well, they are really similar, in fact, they are a copy of those used in the spectacular fights in ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ (2010), and I’m pretty sure to say that the american film didn’t play in theaters in China, so I’m quite confident that this was a steal that has been inaverted by the american company that distributed the film, if not, we would’ve heard about the legal issues. Nevertheless, there are some crazy actors here playing with overacting at the maximum level of the expression ‘over-acting’. The actions make no sense most of the time, and even if its beautiful and wild, the whole endeavour is rather muddled by the issues of ripping off plots and shots from other films (no, they don’t count as homage). This is a wild chinese comedy, I would not be surprised if this was a huge hit in the eastern land, and even if it wasn’t, I’m sure more people are going to find out about this and watch it, be dissapointed but always remember the shining spots among all the mess. It’s not horrible, but it lacks way too much for it to be any good. (Rating: ***)
Four Assassins (2012)
director Stanley J. Orzel
Hong Kong, USA, 83 min
This guy, the director of this film, Stanley J. Orzel, is fulfilling the dream of many many fanatics and filmmakers that have an affinity for the asian film industry, he’s directing films inside the industry of another country than his own and he’s getting them made and accepted. Now, how he’s blowing his opportunity making really really bad films is something that should be taken care of, he’s making a bad name for foreigners that try to break in, I’m really really angry right now. This is a film that is boring and a waste of time to anyone that wants to watch it. The film is entirely spoken in english and has two english-speaking actors, possibly a fix for the movie to have its USA producers backing it, but then… how can possibly this film be any expensive? I suppose the actors are kinda known for the public, but even after that, they are not acting good in any moment of the film at all, and the film itself is an exercise in cheapness and indie filmmaking at its worst. Why couldn’t you just make an indie film with less budget and a better script? Well, maybe you just can’t, mr. Stanley J. Orzel, maybe you don’t have it in you, maybe you just are enjoying yourself as the rest of us are pleading to Toho or NHK saying ‘please, please, let me make a movie’ and they’ll say with a thick accent: ‘hell no, did you see that shitty movie 4 Assassins? not making that mistake again!’ The film is in one location only and with four actors, telling stories about their funniest or best assassinations, that are usually the same one. The structure has the audacity to give us two good and memorable stories about killings made by these assassins, but even after that, the plot gets so unnecesarily convoluted that I just stopped paying attention, when the protagonist died, I was wondering why it happened… oops, spoilers, I guess. (Rating: **1/2)
Thanks for reading these capsule reviews, I hope you enjoy them and expect more soon.
Ah, Jackie Chan. never my cup of tea I’m afraid, but he’s popular I know. Nice write-ups. Of this group I would like to see Crazy Dinner Party most.
Actually every one of these stellar capsule assessments has me most intrigued. Jaimie, I suspect your astute essays on Asian cinema will resonate as soon as a number of readers watch your subjects. I see FOUR ASSASSINS is the weakest of the lot, and DON’T CLICK the one that apart from missteps the closest to greatness.
Fine reviews. Are these available on DVD?
Yeah, they are. I think the only one that is widely available is 4 Assassins, but I could be wrong. The rest are R2 (Asian) DVDs.