A Bittersweet Life

A Bittersweet Life stars Lee Beyong Heon as sun-woo, a lonely gangster who dedicates his life to his organization. After winning the boss' favor, he is given a task to watch over the boss' girlfriend while the boss is away. In this task he fails, and even more falls in love with the girl. After the boss finds out, many events occur and sun-woo finds himself trying to find a way out. Directed and written by Kim Ji woon (A Tale of two sisters), the film is shot very nicely and music is a plus. (In Spain, the film won an award for it's OST). Lots of blood and violence, the film takes you right into the fights with sun-woo. An entertaining film, well directed and shot. I liked this film much more than John Woo's "The Killer." Maybe because the director and lee byeong heon made you feel like you're right there with them.

Arahan

In anticipation of the new fantasy film "Shadowless Sword," I decided to watch Arahan again (since Yoon Soy stars in it). It's a decent popcorn flick, with some slight humor. (maybe they were trying to be funny, but was weak on the execution)
Sang hwan is a nerdy cop with little or no common sense. After an accident the Seven Masters discovers that there's a very strong Chi in him and wants to recruit and train him. But being the lame idiot he is, he refuses, as the story goes on, only a hot chick could (Eui jin) could get him interested. The story is so so, the action sequences are decent. Yoon Soy may prove to be an actress that can play the roles of martial arts beauty. She looks well trained (she looks even better in the trailers of shadowless sword). My Intial viewing of the film, didn't really impress me, but this second time around I notice some of the direction of the film and editing. This film did win some award in Korea, possible for it's effects and action sequences.

2046

In Wong Kar Wai's “2046,” Chow Mo-Wan plays a Bogart-looking, vagabond-like writer interested only in getting by and swinging chicks. Most of Chow’s life goes something like this: he meets a lady and then bones her. Then he meets another lady and bones her too. Then he meets another lady and guess what? He bones her as well. After a few meaningless relationships, Chow meets Bai Ling, who lives in hotel room 2046, conveniently located across from Chow’s room. Bai Ling eventually falls in love with Chow, but like his many previous affairs it doesn’t last long, as the ladies’ man soon descends into his routine of one-night stands, gambling and drinking.

The only true love in Chow's life comes not from real life, but from his science fiction novel about a Japanese man falling in love with a female android in the year 2046 (the year and title of Chow’s fiction are inspired by none other than the room number across from his own). Needless to say, the android doesn’t love him back because she/it lacks emotions.

I had my fair share of bizarre movies, but this one easily ranks up there on my list of “Huuuhhh?” movies. It might take me a couple of more viewings of “2046” for me to fully understand the underlying meaning of Wong Kar Wai’s ambiguous plot.

But it does not take a PhD in Freudian psychology to piece together Wong’s hidden message/theme. At first glance, it seems like Chow’s countless unsubstantial relationships underscores Wong’s message of incapacity of constructing true relationships and the agony that goes along with it. By writing about a man in love with an android, Chow is subconsciously establishing the notion of such impossible love and perhaps, his real-life state of impotence for love and long-term relationships. On the heels of “In the Mood for Love,” Wong Kar Wai once again shows the idea of unfulfilled desires and ultimately, life’s disappointments.

If what I just wrote sounds confusing, you are right. But you can think of it this way: Wong is showing the painful feeling you get when you are too afraid to ask that hot girl out; or worse, when you have countless affairs in hopes of being emotionally detached because of your past failed relationships.

It takes skill to make a film of this caliber; one that combines the elements of cheap sex, cyberpunk androids, and breathtaking 1960’s scenes, into a story about painful breakups and failed relationships. “2046” is one of those movies that make you go “WTF?!?!” when the credits roll, and makes you want to watch it a second time to completely appreciate and comprehend the movie.

B

...ing

After a long break from posting reviews, I think I'm going to do more as I watch them...I guess maybe this film pretty much got me going again.



This film was released in 2003 (dvd released in february 2004, so it's not exactly a new film), but I just watched it two nights ago. It's a story about a girl name mina (Lim so jeong) who lives with her single mom, misuk (Lee mi suk). She meets a guy of her dreams Young-jae (Kim Rae won) and falls in love with him. Though I really think this movie was more about the mom and daughter than Mina and young jae.





...ing refers to the present continuous tense that used to express in english words. It's a simple and beautiful story, and I am so glad I watched it. The leads did an excellent job. Lim so jeong (the lead from "A tale of two sisters") is a great actress, she proved that in her previous film, and continues to show that she can play a different role this time. The soundtrack is also very nice (i have mine on order already). The film itself is so beautifully shot, you have to give it to first time director Kim Jin for doing such a wonderful job. I'm glad she made this film, with such an eye and mind to create this film....

I kind of regret that I did not watch this earlier. It's been out for over a year, and I never crossed it. It's actually out of print and no longer distributed by the publisher (according to yesasia), so I had to find another source to pick it up. One site had it, but I didn't want to buy it from them, as they tend to over charge, give bad service (and I didn't really know how good this film was). So I decided to drop by the local korean music/dvd store (usually my last option or when i'm extremely desperate to get it on the same day) -- and got real lucky to get this limited edition version. (the one site that had it, wanted $85 bucks + shipping). After watching this film, I wouldn't have minded paying the 85. It would've been worth every penny.

Dae Jang Geum - Best Mini Series

It's been a couple of months since I've watched the final episode of Dae Jang Geum (The Great Jang Geum or the international title "The Jewel in the Palace"). Eventually I got off my butt and finally got myself to start writing this review. I'm not sure why it took me so long, but for the past few months, all I've been doing is rewatching bits and pieces of the series. I've even spent time just reading what others had to say about the series, their perspectives on this historic drama, the development of the series, and the history of the chosun era.

This Drama is quite long compared to the other korean ones out there. (It's 54 1-hour episodes or in some other countries it's 70 45-minute episodes). But believe me, it will go by so fast, you're going to wish that it never ended.

I'm not going to go into too much details about the actual story itself (I'm going to leave it to you to watch it and enjoy every bit of it).

The story takes place around the mid-1400s to mid 1500s, during the Chosun Dynasty era. The main character Lady Suh Jang Geum (acted by Lee Young-ae) dreams of entering the palace to become the highest kitchen lady.

Images of her dressed in different hanboks...



She begins her life in the palace as a court lady and learns about many methods of cooking and various ingredients.

Jang Geum and her friend Yeung Seng concentrates on the dishes being made in the kitchen.


Jang Geum discovers something and discusses it with Keum Yeuong (another court lady who entered the palace the same time)


Jang Geum smiles and follows her teacher Lady Han...


Even though it's a drama about food and medicine, there are fierce compeitions throughout the story, here Jang Geum competes with Keum Yeuong in a food competition...oh...the food, you're going to love the food -- You're going to want to go out to your local korean town,(if you're lucky enough to have one nearby you), and start eating some of these delicious dishes. Some of the dishes in the series are still served today, you just have to know where to go. (or ask any of your korean buddies to take for some cold noodles-the buckwheat one on a hot day, or sol long tang, their classic beef broth noodle on a cold day...)



Sir Min is always behind Lady suh no matter what happens...even if it meant death.


Another picture of Lady Suh, here you could really appreciate the beautiful hanboks. It helps that the actress is so beautiful herself. :)


At times when Jang Geum is so happy, it will make you happy as well.


Through all the joys and struggles of lady suh, she becomes Dae Jang Geum.

The production of this series is amazing. The sets are so well made and the scenes are so beautiful. The music is also another major piece of this wonderful drama.

I could go on and ramble about how great the series is, but some of you might think I'm just out of mind, so I decided to post some statistics (found from various sources)

In Korea, the series aired from September 2003 to March 2004 broke many viewer ratings. The average viewer rating was 47% and reached 57% on its final episode. (Only 4 other dramas has ever reached 50% rating since 2000).

In Hong Kong, it broke all records. The series itself had a viewer rating of 47 percent, the Dae jang geum Special was 43 percent and Dae jang geum prologue was 38 percent. Dae Jang Geum has or will make its way to other countries such as Taiwan, singapore, malaysia, Japan and Middle east.

As you've noticed the unbelievable statistics above, this isn't just your typical drama series. It has drawn young and old, male and female viewers with its addictive storyline, its wonderful cast (All the cast did such a wonderful job, that after the series, they were given many contracts to do other series), nice music, and beautiful sets.

This is really a journey which you follow the life of Jang Geum. She will take you with her and make you laugh, cry, happy, at times even jump out of your seat and root for her. This series has truly been the best series I've ever seen, and I'm glad that many people around the world had the chance to enjoy it as much as I did...


Sources:

http://daejanggeum.blogsome.com/
http://www.hancinema.net/korean_drama_Dae_Jang_Geum.php
http://www.xanga.com/suprob/DJG

Jay Chou Live @ the Shrine (LA)

Jay Chou makes another U.S. appearance and holds a concert this time at the Los Angeles Shrine auditorium. Performing for a total of 2.5 hours, Jay rocked the shrine and put on probably the best chinese concert in the U.S. Singing all of his hit songs from all 6 albums, while keeping the crowd entertained with some little skits (A piano duel with a young and very talented kid). I have to say that this concert ranked as the best concert I've been to. A sold out concert, (probably the 3rd time any chinese singer was able to accomplish, the first was maybe his first U.S. concert in Las Vegas (MGM) two years ago, and the 2nd was probably Alan Tam and Hacken lee concert at MGM Las Vegas ). Opening with "In the name of the Father" (First track on his fourth album titled "ye hui mei" - his mother's name), and continues with many songs from the fourth album, then mixes a bit from the rest of his hits and his fifth album. I got the cheap seats, ($40 bucks, I couldn't afford the higher prices) ticket prices were up to $300 for VIP. He's headed for Connecticut for his 2nd U.S. appearance this year, which is also sold out....




Read more about Jay

2009 Lost Memories

Before i take on the much overdue, yet daunting task of reviewing The House of Flying Dagger, Hero and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (all in one post), allow me to continue the sequence of asian movie bashing. :D

(i had a professor in college who once wrote in my paper "why write about something you didn't like?")

2009 Lost Memories is not a bad movie... it's downright terrible. i'll spare you the storyline since you can google it. the only redeeming part of the movie is the opening act, when it catches the viewers attention by delivering an action-packed shootout sequence reminiscent of a good Rambo/Lethal Weapon scene: no matter how many rounds of ammo the bad guys pump, they'll never hit the hero. the movie goes downhill from there with convoluted scenes and concludes with some bizarre paranormal activities, like time travel. some critics have called 2009 an "invigorating sci-fi film," i call it absurdity at its finest.

2009 Lost Memories had potential to be a great movie, especially with ideas such as nationalism and identity. however, those elements were never expanded in the film. instead, it succumbed to sensational action scenes and far-fetched plots. 2009 was a complete let down. perhaps babibleu described it best in 2 words: "stupid movie."

F

Throw Down....unbelievable bad too!!

I couldn't believe how many bad films came out in the same year in HK. Here's another film you shouldn't watch and probably shouldn't buy it either. Here's another film with a decent cast (Aaron Kwok and Louis Koo, with upcoming star Cherrie Ying). The Story is about some Judo guys wanting to take on one another. There are so many missing holes in this movie, so many crappy editing and just a bad story line. It almost feels like they ran out of money and just decided to put together what they had. Only decent thing is the background music. (No I'm not talking about that awful song the lamer guy sings in the film either...)


Here are some other reviews from yesasia customers:
Click Here

Twins Effect 2 - HK film - Unbelievable bad...

Don't watch it. I was going to browse for some pictures to add to this post, but then I decided it wasn't even worth my time. I'm taking the time to comment on this film so that everyone out there doesn't suffer the same two hours of torture of this really bad film. First of all, Twins effect 2 is suppose to be the sequel to Twins effect 1 (makes sense doesn't it?). Well the story is completely different, the characters are different, I think the only thing that is similar in anyway is the cast of actors. By the way, the twins effect is really the effect of the twins (a girl duo of Gillian chung and Charlene choi, yeah they're not even twins...lame huh)
This film had a major all star cast and did not even come close to any of its hype. As cute as the twins are, they cannot sing or act....the film also stars jaycee chan (Jackie chan's kid), and many guest appearances of other actors (Jacky Chan, Donnie Yuen, Tony Leung ka fai, edison chen, etc). So I've already mention that the acting is bad, I forgot to mention that the setting is crappy, the outfits are so-so, special effects are terrible. Even the camera view is crappy. There's one scene where the twins fight each other on a bridge, and the camera decides to go around them in circles...twice...for no reason, nothing special beneath them, nothing special above them....so I guess that was more of a time killer...oh on a last note the martial arts in the film is totally lame, only one scene was worth watching at all, and that was the fight between Jackie and Donnie (which was a good 7-10 minutes)....


Here's some reviews from yesasia users...
http://us.yesasia.com/en/prodRvListPage.aspx?pid=1003557354§ion=videos&code=c&

I can't believe how any of those people could even consider the film good....

A Tale of Two Sisters

Since it's October, I figure I'd start with a horror/thriller film. I don't have much time right now, so I'll just post two pictures....Finally got a chance to add to this post. Well I have to say that this thriller/horror film is one of the best ones I've seen. It's unbelievably beautiful. Sounds wierd huh? I've watched this film several times (partly because there were some things that I didn't catch, partly because I enjoy the film). The actresses were so great in the film. All three were amazing...and I have to say the music works so well with the rest of the film. (I ended up ordering the OST...from Yesasia.com). I just realized I've talked nothing about the film itself -- well keeping it short, It's a tale of two sisters, who finally goes home and meets their step mother...