AThames Reviews

Temptress Moon (1996)

An opium ride!

[8/10 · 24 July 2013]

This was an interesting movie.

This is a tale of tragic romance, where the male character is an emotional wreck (due to him being a slave for his sister and her husband, who also forces him to have a little experience with incest), and the female character is living her day in an opium cloud.

The acting from the main actors is top notch, namely Leslie Cheung and Li Gong, who always seem to deliver in every movie I have seen them in (Li Gong struggles a bit in her English speaking roles, and it does take something away from her performance in those movies, I must admit). Li Gong usually plays an intelligent character, but here she is an opium addict, so it is definitely different seeing her looking all confused and dumbfounded all the time.

The cinematography was spectacular, as it usually is when Christopher Doyle is in charge. The lighting and camera angles reminded me a little of David Lynch, and I believe it was done this way in order for you to see the world like you had smoked opium, just like the characters. You should see the movie for the acting, cinematography and camera work alone.

The main critique of the movie seems to be that it is very hard to follow the plot and figure out who is who. I agree with this. It gets established 40 min or so into the movie, but you could be tempted to turn off the movie before that because it is so confusing. But once it gets established who is who, and what they want, the plot becomes a lot better, and I became very involved in the movie.

The Isle (2000)

Haunting

[8/10 · 24 July 2013]

This was a trippy movie. As with all Ki-duk Kim movies the cinematography was stunning, and the music really added to the movie. This is the second film of his I have seen where the main character doesn't utter a single word. But that doesn't take anything away from the amazing performance Jung Suh put on, as the very mysterious and sometimes scary clerk/prostitute. She genuinely gave me the chills at some points in the movie. I read that a lot of the audience walked out from this movie because of the violence that was on display. It did make me cringe a little, but I felt it was very relevant to the movie. There has also been complains about animal cruelty, specifically hacking a live fish into pieces. It didn't bother me none, it wasn't torture.

The movie deals with depression and loneliness, but in a very original way. You as a viewer are made to make a lot of the conclusions yourself, and I like that. It is not a popcorn movie, and like his other films there isn't really a plot. But it is still a very good movie, and it kept me entertained until the end, and left me with a lot to think about. Something I value in a movie.

Skyfall (2012)

Great action, great scenes, mediocre story and weak characters

[7/10 · 24 July 2013]

I can see this movie has received very mixed reviews. A lot of IMDb users hates it with a passion, a lot think that it's mediocre, and some loves it. All critics loves it. I was personally loving it during the beginning. The intro song was not the best ever, but it was okay. The intro scenes however were awesome. The action scenes in the beginning were awesome as well, especially the chase scene. The cinematography and soundtrack was great as well. Very beautiful shots of the cities(especially London, felt very "londonish") and landscape. Some of the still shots of Bond were a bit melodramatic but beautiful as well, also; clichées are allowed in a Bond movie (well done clichées that is). The villain was great as well (Javier Bardem is up there as one of the greatest villain actors ever). Overall, the acting was very good.

Now for the bad stuff. The story was a bit weak. I can accept that Bond is pushing the boundaries of realism, but why did he need to get shot, fall 100 feet, land on his back in the water, then get sucked in to a waterfall? It makes no sense. If he just got shot and passed out, and fell 10 feet or something like that, it had been much more acceptable. Not that it matters a lot, but it does bug me a little. I also know that hacking is the new magic in Hollywood, but it became a bit ridiculous in this movie. They should start to become a bit more aware of the fact that the audience is getting more knowledgeable about computers, programming etc. There is no need to present "hacking" as some kind of magic universe where everything is possible, like presenting the hackers monitor as some kind of visual labyrinth in which you need to maneuver through an orb of 1's and 0's, or the annoying "the faster you type, the better you are hacking" rule etc. Some of the characters were also a bit weak. The bond girl in particular, what was up with that?

All in all a good movie, but with some annoying little flaws.

The Host (2006)

Political satire, slapstick humor, drama, tragedy, action and more!

[9/10 · 24 July 2013]

I was a little skeptical going into this movie, and it was actually my friend that "forced" me to watch it. I have had it on the shelf for a long time, but I was too afraid that it was going to suck. S. Korea produces awesome movies. But from what I had previously seen, I did not think they could master a monster movie. I knew it had a genius director behind it(Joon-ho Bong - Memories of murder, Mother), but I also knew it was about a (CGI) monster, and I thought to myself that there was no way a production company in S. Korea could raise enough money in order to produce a watchable CGI monster (I still have trauma after watching the first Resident Evil). But I am glad to say that I was wrong. The CGI was not spectacular (ala Life of Pi), but it was good enough to not take anything away from the awesome action scenes.

It's a movie that tries to include a lot of genres; comedy, political satire (on the US in particular), horror, tragedy, intensity, thrills and ultimately (it's Korean after all) sadness. But it does so masterfully imo. The action scenes are really intense. Man they were awesome, I would go so far as too say that they were probably the most awesome action scenes I have ever seen in a monster movie. The music and the cinematography really added to that as well. The plot is very engaging, and you can almost feel the desperation the main character has yourself. The comedy is slapstick humor, it is intended, but I could imagine it could turn some people off, I was able to appreciate it though. All in all a highly recommendable movie.

Ip Man (2008)

Awesome choreography, intense scenes and a great story

[8/10 · 24 July 2013]

Directed by Wilson Yip (Killzone, Flashpoint) This movie is a "portrayal" of the famous Wing Chun master Yip Man, credited as being the guy that taught Bruce Lee kung fu.

The movie starts of a bit slow, and seems a bit awkward imo. The dialogue didn't really work on me, and I didn't quite feel the comedy or drama the dialogue was supposed to invoke. However, troublemakers enter the city and the fighting shall begin. When that part began, the movie immediately started to grow on me. The fighting is very well choreographed, and the stunts are really amazing. I am very interested in martial arts and fighting, and thus many movies loses me when I have to see a 300 pound muscular guy supposedly gets knocked out for 10 minutes by 1 jab from e.g. Jackie Chan or choked out by Angelina Jolie. However, in this movie the fight scenes are so amazing that I easily accept that a knee to the body can send a guy a flying across the room. The fighting is of course unrealistic (though not extremely so), but they somehow make it seem legit in this movie, and you actually start believing for the duration of the movie that Ip Man is capable of this stuff.

As for the cast, Donnie Yen is the one that stands out. He is a really great choice for Ip Man, with a very calm and intelligent charisma, and he shows in this movie that he is capable of being a diverse actor. The other actors did a fine job as well, most notably his wife (Lynn Hung) and General Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi), considering their acting experience. The cinematography, soundtrack, costumes and art direction are all well done. They got some fairly experienced people for that, but not anyone "really" famous (except for the movie buffs perhaps), most notably Kenji Kawai and Kenneth Mak.

My main critique lies in the fact that this movie markets itself as a historical portrait, while this is clearly not so. Apart from the fight scenes that has probably never gone down in reality, we also have the portrayal of the Japanese. While they definitely did invade China and committed some atrocities there, I somehow doubt they had karate tournaments with Japanese vs Chinese. The movie also claims that the city population was reduced from 300k to 72k, which I somehow doubt, but I am unable to find any source that either disprove or confirms that statement. But since the movie is from China I guess a non-biased portrayal of the Japanese invasion is too much to ask. But the thing that bugged me the most was the final part of the movie, which show a fight scene with following events that I am 100% positive has never happened, but the movie actually try to claim that it did (obviously I can't explain the scene to you without spoiling).

So all in all a great movie. The plot meets the required amount of relevancy that is needed to keep you interested, but what really stands out is the fight scenes which is what lift this movie to great heights, and what I assume has secured it a place on the IMDb top 250 list. I greatly enjoyed the movie, but the fact that the movie tries to sell itself as being a historic portrayal really bugs me the wrong way and drags it down a point.

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

A beautiful, hypnotic movie with an original plot

[9/10 · 24 July 2013]

When you look up animé movies, two movies will repeatedly get mentioned - Akira and Ghost In The Shell. And with good reason. This movie was a lot better than I had anticipated. I was expecting something like a Lara Croft: Tomb Raider kind of movie, but this was something else, thankfully.

The year is 2029. The world has become intensively information oriented and humans are well-connected to the network. Crime has developed into a sophisticated stage by hacking into the interactive network. To prevent this, Section 9 is formed. These are cyborgs with incredible strengths and abilities that can access any network on Earth.

This movie (directed by Mamoru Oshii) was the movie that was supposed to bring the animé genre to the western audience, it failed at that, and I can understand why. Like the movie Cloud Atlas, this movie quickly becomes more complex than your average action flick and I think that this turns a lot of people off. The movie starts of as an action movie, but it quickly turns into a more philosophical piece. I was actually pretty intrigued by some of the movies philosophical questions, which I am not going to analyze in this review, but the main topic is; What makes a human? and more importantly, what makes a human an individual?

The animation was good, though it is funny to see how much animé styles change for each decade. You can just compare Ghost In The Shell (1995) with Ghost In The Shell 2 (2004) to notice the difference.

The voice acting was also very good (I watched the Japanese version as I hate dubs, but some say that they also like the English version) I would also really like to give a shoutout Kenji Kawai(the music composer), this guy is awesome at making soundtracks. The cinematographer (Hisao Shirai) in this movie also does an awesome job, though I am not familiar with any of his other movies. Kenji Kawai and Hisao Shirai really elevates this movie to something else. The shots of the post-apocalyptic city along with the very haunting soundtrack was very intense.

My only complaint about the movie is that I don't think it was long enough. It runs for 1:22 including credits, and there is definitely not any time wasted. The plot moves very fast, and so does the dialogue, which I thought was a shame because some of the dialouge really needed to sink in (for me at least), but it then quickly moves on to the next scene. Imo, this movie could have been a lot better with a running time of ~2 hours. Where we could have seen more of the city, and learned more about the status of the world which the movie only covers briefly. I don't know if the short running time is a deliberate choice made by the director, or if it is a matter of budget issues. I believe it is the latter, it is a little bit like (though not nearly as bad) as the new Berserk movies, in which they really amped up the animation quality, but they have also slaughtered more than 50% of the story that was in the original manga and anime.

Overall great action, great animation, great voice acting, really great soundtrack, very nice cinematography, but a little too short imo. I highly recommend.

Casshern (2004)

Great opening scenes, but the movie eventually disappoints.

[5/10 · 24 July 2013]

This movie has gotten mixed reviews from critics and has received a mediocre score on various movie rating sites. But because of the very high praise a lot of people has given it, I decided to watch it. The movie is based on the anime that goes by the same name.

The movie immediately lets you know that it is very melodramatic, in terms of soundtrack, acting and plot. Some movies are able to pull this off, some aren't. In the beginning I thought that it would be able to pull it off because I was very intrigued by the cinematography and the sets (reminds you a bit of 300 combined with Sin City - aka. A lot of green screen.

But then, as I was sitting there and getting my expectations up, it suddenly became a low budget movie with over the top action and comically bad CGI ala 'Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus'. This is not to mention the soundtrack that suddenly became as original as an AMV on Youtube. For some reason, that I can't comprehend, I keep reading "The best part about Casshern is the action", I would say the exact opposite.

The plot also became VERY far fetched which I can't explain in detail without spoiling but i will say this; Next time you find yourself on a mountain, look for an abandoned robot making castle in the middle of nowhere, this will greatly improve your chances at world domination. After the plot takes off the CGI unfortunately becomes worse and at some points very annoying (some weird fetish with making blurred lighting effects around every character). It suddenly became one of those movies that tried to bite off more than it could chew. To pull off what this movie tries to do, they would need a Hollywood blockbuster budget, not $6 mil. Those $6 mil. would have been enough to create a good movie, but they went way over board with this.

The key message in the movie is that "war sucks, hatred breeds hatred etc.", which is a perfectly fine message, but they really made it way too clichéed. They even show flashbacks of real war footage during the ending scene of the movie.

All in all, I liked some parts of the cinematography, I liked some of the sets, the pictures were good, acting was good, good casting. But the movie tried to bite off more than it could chew, it was all over the place in terms of what it wanted to be, and it simply wasn't a complete piece of cinema.

The Chaser (2008)

Stylish, dark, entertaining and depressing movie

[8/10 · 24 July 2013]

This was a very dark movie, even by Korean standards. The movie starts of as a kind of black comedy. The protagonist is a pimp who has a hard time controlling his prostitutes. When one of his girls doesn't return, he believes that someone is picking them up and selling them. He calls his former buddies in the police force, that unfortunately is busy dealing with a case of someone throwing feces in the face of the city mayor. The comical mood changes when the perspective changes to one of his girls, who finds herself in a very creepy house with an even more creepy customer.

This is not about a typical chase, where the protagonist has to track down and capture the antagonist. That all happens inside the first 15 minutes. This chase is about tracking down the girl, and later, about tracking down evidence in order to convict the antagonist. But it also becomes far more complicated than that.

During this chase, you are really feeling the frustrations that the main character is having. You get equally mad at the incompetent police force, and you will feel a need to scream "pick up the phone moron!" or "Noo, don't go in there!" on several occasions. The chase scenes are very well done, and the action/fighting scenes are also very well done. They feel very realistic and are well choreographed (and violent). Also, the villain of this movie does not look like a villain. But you will still end up getting the chills every time he looks into the camera.

The dialogue is harsh. It's mainly the protagonist throwing insults at the people he is encountering, it can be comical at times, but it can also be the exact opposite. No one is talking nice to each other in this movie.

The cinematography is well done. It's a very dark toned movie, but that doesn't bring down the beautiful shots of the city (Seoul). It really helps set the correct mood for the movie.

My only complaints would be that it becomes a little too long for it's own good, and some of the scenes felt a bit forced in order to finish the storyline.

Confessions (2010)

Original, stylish and well done drama

[7/10 · 24 July 2013]

The director, Tetsuya Nakashima, was unknown to me before this movie, so I didn't quite know what to expect.

Reading the plot line will probably make you expect something entirely different, than what it really is. Especially if you are used to Korean revenge (or Hollywood for that matter) movies. It's not an action packed movie where a grieving mother goes on a killing spree ala Kill Bill (of course it isn't) or (what I expected) a movie where you watch a grieving mothers plan slowly coming to realization with a satisfying, justified execution of the antagonists at the end ala Sympathy for Mrs. Vengeance. This movie ends the story from the mothers perspective about 30 mins in, and this is where it gets interesting. You now get the history told by 4 other characters, the two "killers", one of the girls in the class, and one of the "killers" mom.

First of, the cinematography is spectacular in this movie. The lighting is also really well done. The soundtrack fitted very well at some scenes, but it also became a bit corny at times. My main critique lies with the use of slow motion. For the first 10 - 15 minutes of this movie, the slow motion effect is constantly being used along with a very noticeable soundtrack. You normally only see this in scenes that is supposed to stand out from the other scenes, or be some kind of climax. The use of slow motion in this movie became a bit overcooked in my opinion.

But now to the good stuff: The plot is great. You just need to get past the first 20 - 30 minutes, and you will become involved in the plot (in the beginning it's a bit hard to understand what is going on). The characters are also very interesting. There is 5 main characters whose story is being told individually in different segments. There is the teacher whose daughter recently got murdered, the "genius" that wants to be acknowledged for his skills, the unpopular dropout, the confused mother, and my favorite, the very perceiving and intriguing girl.

The movie is very dark. As a frequent watcher of both Japanese and Korean cinema, I have seen my fair share of dark movies. But this is up there with the darkest ones. That does not mean that it's sulky. There is a lot of great comedic moments (altough they are dark as well), such as when the "genius" gets renowned for finding a way to uncensor porn (as some of you porn-watchers may know, porn is censored in Japan). There is some great and intelligent dialogue that I found very interesting. It does however also get emotional at some points, though avoiding getting corny (apart from the soundtrack at some particular scenes).

All in all a very intelligent movie, with intriguing characters, interesting plot, great cinematography, mediocre soundtrack and sometimes overuse of the slow motion effect. Some people on IMDb also criticized scenes with overacting, such as scenes where a character burst into manic laughter. I don't quite agree with that. It was meant to seem "overacted" because the character (not the actor) did in fact not genuinely laugh. Overall I liked the movie a lot, and the good outweighs the few flaws that I think it had.