azncowboy123-915-393930 Reviews

Gallants (2010)

A very fun kung-fu flick

[7/10 · 9 January 2012]

As noted by other reviews, this film is a throwback to the old school kungfu flicks of the 60's and 70's.

As the film has been well reviewed on the web already, I'll just add a few observations:

• Even though it's a nostalgic film, it might be too "hip" and "retro" for those for the original audience of these flicks.

• It's hilariously funny, but a little tighter editing would have made the movie even better. Teddy Robin, for example is very funny, but he gets a bit annoying after a while.

• Bruce Leung Siu-lung still moves amazingly well at 57 yrs old.. better than most action stars in their 20's.

• JJ Jia is a dead ringer for Kwai Lun Mei.

East Meets West (2011)

A hilarious superhero comedy / fantasy.... with caveats

[8/10 · 27 November 2011]

East Meets West is a genre mashup comedy from director Jeffrey Lau. Lau made the classic Steven Chow films A Chinese Odyssey 1 and 2. His specialty seems to be mixing comedy with heartfelt mythmaking, elements which made his Chinese Odyssey films cult favorites. He revisited the Sun Wukong theme in 2005 with A Chinese Tall Story.

Here Lau thankfully has left the Sun Wukong fixation behind in favor of a new kind of mythology.. superheroes. The film works best early on as a parody in the vein of Mystery Men or Kickass. These are everyday people who become superheroes with somewhat dubious powers. The humour is hilarious, offbeat and incredibly energetic in the first half hour or so. Lau adds a bit of commentary on pop music, HK nostalgia and kung fu in the mix. The CGI is better than expected for a HK comedy and works well in the cartoonish moments.

Lau overplays his hand with the romantic angle though, leaving most of the cast with nothing to do for the second half to last third of the movie. Most of the 'heroes' have good backstories but little to no development and closure. The film undergoes a tonal shift and drags on a bit too long. The romance has some payoff, though not enough to justify the amount of screen time it gets.

On balance, it's still a worthwhile flick just for the well-done offbeat humour, something we don't get enough of these days from HK film.

Reign of Assassins (2010)

One of the Best Wuxia Flicks in the last 10 years or so...

[9/10 · 5 December 2010]

In the modern Wuxia genre, there is Crouching Tiger, there is Hero and now there is Reign of Assassins.

John Woo turns out to be much more of a natural wuxia director than Lee or Zhang.

Great supporting cast, great backstory, and great, beautiful fights! Only strike against it is kind of a glut of kungfu / wuxia flicks in the last year or so.

Lot of what seem to be sly inside jokes for the Chinese audience and the theme of marriage is an interesting one for this genre. I believe this will certainly go down a wuxia classic.