Movie Review : Wu Xia (2011)

 

Did I mention that I luuuurve Wuxia films? So to get to watch a movie titled Wu Xia sounded like the beckon of the chocolate river to my inner Augustus Gloop. The mater and I settled down for what seemed like the best way to kill 2 hours on a Sunday.

The wuxia genre encompasses stories concerning the adventures of martial artists. This story occurs somewhere in the early 1900s. I like my wuxia stories to be a little older since magic and romance seem vividly plausible at least 300 years ago, but I digress.

The movie started off promisingly enough. Bandits attack the general store that Liu Jinxi works in and when he tries to fend off the bad guys, ends up killing both. Detective Xu Baijiu is assigned to the case and through a series of stylishly presented observations, comes to the conclusion that Liu Jinxi is not really the peaceful village simpleton that he seems.

So far so good.

Then it goes downhill when people from Liu Jinxi‘s past start cropping up and creating trouble. Will Xu Baijiu discard his emotional baggage and make amends for the harm he has caused?

This is another of those movies that seem to be too long by about half an hour. I also got the distinct feeling that 2 directors were involved in making this movie. The first half is styled along the lines of Hollywood noir movies and the second half is based on Oriental themes of family and honor. The styles don’t really complement each other, at least here.

I seem to be on a Donnie Yen film extravaganza of late - Ip Man 1 & 2, 14 Blades, Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, The Lost Bladesman and now Wu Xia. Unless in his comfort zone of affable, gentlemanly martial arts master, Donnie Yen is not a powerful actor. His expressions are limited and he is at his best when he is flying all across the screen and pulping up the bad guys. When he brings on the emotions and soul searching, the movie is a drag.

Takeshi Kaneshiro was dashing and charming in House of Flying Daggers. As the nervous yet super sharp detective, Wu Xia has some edge and bite when he is around – it is literally a different film when he is away.

Tang Wei as Ayu – Liu Jinxi’s wife – has a small role. She is very believable but – and the mater concurs - she looks too young to play Donnie Yen’s wife. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of her work though.

Jimmy Wang plays the master villain and Liu’s psychopathic father. No way do they look even remotely related - much less father and son - but Liu probably took after his mother. He looks like a plump, ol’ Grandpa but when he unleashes the crazy side – as the poor grandson finds out – not even Donnie can bring him down.  

It is not really a new story to make an action movie on. The story leans more towards a man seeking to build a new life for himself but being thwarted. One gets the feeling that the presence of a major action star mandated the inclusion of the fight scenes. Personally, I felt they could have been trimmed down and a bit more of the psycho-crazy included.

The movie was a bit hit in China and I totally get why that’s the case. It is a visual treat - stylish and fresh. The indoor action sequences were amazingly shot and with my limited understanding of early 20th century Chinese clothing styles, I though the costumes also added to the general atmosphere.

Also loved the chase sequence over the village rooftops  – wasn’t all wirework-technique-abuse. Please Donnie Yen, tell me you didn’t use a stunt-double for some portion of it.

In all, a good way to spend the evening.

Movie Review : Zookeeper (2011)

Some movies are amazing and some movies are dreadful. C’est la vie. The Zookeeper falls into the amazingly-dreadful category.

Seriously, how badly can you screw up a story about a clumsy, kind hearted guy who is given advice on his love life by talking wild animals? That premise has CUTE written all over it. Sure, it’s a tired plot and no one associated will win any awards but sassy animals, one liners, bad people getting their comeuppance and the good guy finally getting the (best) girl are what escapism and entertainment is all about - for the major part. But this lemon of a snooze-fest is as dull as dishwater. 

Here the script is as cliched as the previous sentence, the animals are unfunny, the special (!) effects are terrible and most of the actors are completely disconnected from what’s going on in the movie. They seem to just wander around, deliver a line or two and stare at Kevin James trying valiantly to be funny and constantly failing.

Rosario Dawson has a smug smile that screams “You paid to watch this while I laughed all the way to the bank”

Leslie Bibb tries hard and almost succeeds at being a vapid, vacuous, gold digger. The guy in the gorilla suit and she are the highlights of this film and that’s hardly a compliment since they should be trying hard to wipe this embarrassment off their resume.

Nobody walks into this sort of a movie expecting award winning performances. Movie goers line up in droves for a fun night out with the family, watching a light-hearted movie with a happy ending. The movie made money for precisely this very reason but it is doubtful if people will continue to patronise the makers after viewing this.

AVOID.

Game Review : Symphony of Eternity

Ever since I had my 1^st Chocobo ride, I have been hooked to the Final Fantasy games. FF has been the beginning , the end and the everything in between of my RPG fixation. While Square Enix has yet to make an Android version available, just what do FF fans do till then with their Android systems?

Download Symphony of Eternity!!!!

Kemco Games’ SoE borrows heavily from early FF in terms of style, storyline, universe, battle system and artwork. I stop short of calling it a clone simply because Square let me down. SoE is a worthy enough contender and Square Enix has lost an opportunity here to stake claim to lord of the Android RPG landscape.

We have a young, wandering knight Kriest, his wise Golem friend Dauturu and Laishutia, a girl who isn’t all that she seems to be, on the trail of 4 Spirit Cyrstals. These must be combined to ward off the end of the world. On the way we have elves, golems and humans alternately battling and joining forces with our heroes. We have a large arsenal of weapons, spells and tablets, but I could only afford that particular level’s weapons after completing the challenge.

There are large dungeons to navigate and these just keep getting deeper with every challenge. But just when you feel like couldn’t handle another screen full of monsters, the boss pops for a showdown. Speaking of bosses, there’s a couple for every dungeon/maze (duh!). Make no mistake, they are powerful - yet not unbeatable. I personally have my healer ‘read’ their weaknesses and only then formulate a suitable strategy.

Standard RPG skillpoint system is included. The controls are amazingly user friendly. If tired of constantly battling the same old enemies in the tortuous dungeons - but you know you still need that experience and money - you can get into auto-pilot and have the characters automatically battle it out in turns. If you sense a character weakening and need to prop them up with potions, you can switch off autopilot during the battle, throw your teammate a life potion and get on with the job. This can be done even with the boss battles.

It retails for around $10 on the Android Market. Fortunately, I stumbled upon this as Amazon’s Free App of the Day. It is an addictive game. After playing the game late into the nights for 5 days, I developed sore thumbs and SoE fatigue (but naturally). Hence, I haven’t yet completed the game but once work gets out of play’s way, I fully intend to amass the Spirit Crystals and see this through. Maybe even publish a walkthrough.

Until we see an Android Chocobo, SoE will do. And in an exceedingly satisfactorily way at that.

Movie Review : Clash of the Families (2011)

 ‘Clash Of The Families’ is a 2011 South Korean crowd pleaser. It is a take on the meet-the-inlaws-to-be variant. Although incredibly formulaic it is a feel-good film and we can always use more of heart-warming, not less.

Peppy Da-hong is encouraged to settle down in the bonds of holy matrimony with one of the suitors chosen by her affluent family. She however is in love with Hyun-joon, an introverted, geeky cartoonist. Da-hong is from Gyeongsang and Hyun-joon from Jeolla. Both sets of parents – the fathers in particular - are prejudiced against people hailing from the other area.

I gathered that people from Gyeongsang are more urbane and affluent though considered less well-mannered while people from Jeolla are considered traditional and soft spoken.

Additionally, the fathers have some history together and this increases the tension between the families. Will Hyun-joon claim Da-hong as his bride or will loyalty to their families tear them apart?

The movie is divided into 3 parts – first; the lovers meet, fall in love and decide to marry, second; Hyun-joon sets out to win over Da-hong’s family (esp. her super-stern father) but his efforts fall apart and third; the melodrama is upped a bit as the lovers try to do what is right.

The problem with watching subtitled films is that one misses the jokes without the flavor of the original language. Without a grip on the cultural context and a grasp of the nuances of the language, the gestures, intonation and expressions look funny enough but with the translation only sketching the scene, it ends up being bland. Anyhoo, the translation was well done.

With good performances all around, this is silly, fun, popcorn entertainment. I only wished that Jo Seung-woo had been cast as Hyun-joon. Loved him in ‘Sword With No Name’. But he probably wouldn’t have fit as a geek.

And also wished I knew Korean.