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dkelsbury
Reviews
Na yeh ling san, ngoh choh seung liu Wong Gok hoi mong Dai Bou dik hung Van (2014)
Good movie
I read some spoiler reviews first, so I was prepared to be disappointed in this movie, especially knowing the ending leaves you hanging. Maybe being forewarned helped, but I did enjoy this movie and I'm glad I took a chance on it. Your experience may be different, particularly if you haven't watched many Asian movies before this.
The cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity was a brilliant scene. Some seemingly random things happen that are not clearly explained by the end of the movie. For example, people getting sick and crumbling into ash or catching fire. Some hints may have been nothing more than false leads to keep the mystery going (like the Morse code phone messages). But I felt the last scene made it plain that the passengers were actually traveling on to the next life as everyone talked about loved ones and voiced their regrets.
To give credit where it's due, the movie still didn't make complete sense to me until I read the review. A bus crash would explain about 80-90% of the puzzling events such as people burning suddenly, bruises appearing. Also the words of the man in the gas mask (a medic) saying "I'm trying to help you." This makes some scenes quite poignant when you think back on them. I remember the last line as the bus is driving away from the city and one of the women says "I'm going to miss it." She's not talking about the deserted city of Tai Po- she's saying she is going to miss the living world. The passengers start to mourn their lives at the end because they are moving on to the next life and will not be returning to their families.
Monsters (2010)
Disappointed
Saw this early on Zune before it came out in theaters. Frankly, it was a waste of money. A low budget movie like this can be excused for having only a few, lackluster special effects. But if a movie is promoted as sci fi horror, then it needs to make up for the lack of effects by having suspense, frights, etc (e.g. Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch). Monsters failed in that.
The movie began with an action scene that had brief but okay effects, but even that part was confusing. I was never 100% sure about the location and why the main characters were there. After the opening, the movie focused on the relationship between the woman and the journalist and how they were trying to get back to safety in America. But I didn't see any chemistry between them so the romance aspect failed too. There is an attempt to build tension as you think something is going to happen, but it takes too long for anything to happen, then when something does, you don't see anything and it's too little, too late.
What the movie did have was glaring political commentary about illegal immigration and the plight of natives in Mexico & Latin American countries. The movie pretty much whacks you over the head with its pro-immigrant views, which irritated me to no end. I think that, if the movie had been better and succeeded in its suspenseful or romantic aspects, I could have accepted that part easier. As it was, my eyes were rolling as I watched the last 1/2 hour or so. I really believe that the whole purpose of the movie was to promote this political view and that the alien/monster concept was just put in to bring in a bigger audience.
Then I read these glowing reviews of Monsters. My first thought was 'what movie were they watching?' The only conclusion is that these reviewers liked the political message. Sorry, but that was not what I wanted to spend my $$ on.