Archive for the 'Chinese Movies' Category

House of Flying Daggers / Shi mian mai fu - [CMovie] [2004]

 House of Flying Daggers / Shi mian mai fu

In the Nineth Century, the Tang Dinasty in China is weak and corrupt, and an army of rebels called "The House of the Flying Daggers"fights against the government military forces, and steals from the rich to give to the poor people. Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), two captains of the government army, plot a scheme against the rebels using the blind dancer Mei (Zhang Ziyi) to approach their leaders, but their love for Mei leads them to a tragedy.

(more…)

Tags: ,

Home Sweet Home / Gwai muk - [CMovie] [2005]

Home Sweet Home / Gwai muk

Taiwanese actress Shu Qi (Three Times) plays May, a young mother who moves into a new apartment complex with her family. But no sooner have they settled in than May's young son goes missing. It transpires that he has in fact been kidnapped by a hideously deformed woman (played by Hong Kong beauty Karena Lam, from Koma, in a mountain of grotesque make-up) who believes him to be her long lost son.
May is forced into the ducts and vents of her apartment building to track down her boy, and confront this other terrifying, yet equally bereaved, mother. Directed by Soi Cheang (Love Battlefield) and co-starring Alex Fong and Lam Suet, Home Sweet Home thankfully disregards many of the staples of recent Asian horror to deliver an effective little film, capable of providing as many genuinely emotional moments as effective chills.

(more…)

Tags: ,

Forest of Death / Sum yuen - [CMovie] [2007]

 Forest of Death / Sum yuen

Steven is a student of botany who has written his doctorate paper on the theory that Plants Are Sentient Creatures. He spends all his time and effort trying to prove that plants have feelings and even language. Mary, Stevens girlfriend works for a major TV station and her achievements seem to outstrip Stevens. One day, a criminal has abducted, raped and murdered the Prime Ministers daughter in the forest. Eric was arrested as he was a major suspect in this case. Soon, the truth behind the crime is revealed through Stevens research. An experiment is carried out in the crime scene forest to determine whether or not the suspect is guilty by obtaining eyewitness and evidence: the forest itself.

(more…)

Tags: ,

Fly Me to Polaris / Xing yuan - [CMovie] [1999]

 Fly Me to Polaris / Xing yuan

An HK version of Ghost and Always, this well-produced romantic drama stars Richie Ren as Onion, a blind-mute whos in love with his nurse Autumn (Cecilia Cheung). Before any feelings can be exchanged, he dies in a Meet Joe Black kinda way and proceeds to win a celestial contest. This flimsy plot device states he can have one wish - which he uses to live again. They deny him that, but give him the opportunity to return for one week. Theres a catch: no one will recognize him and he will be unable to reveal his true identity to anyone. He returns nonetheless for the chance to see Autumn, and subsequently suffers untold buckets of heartache and pain as every last facet of his resurrection prevents him from reuniting with his stricken love, who apparently loved him too.

(more…)

Tags: ,

Fearless / Huo Yuan Jia - [CMovie] [2006]

 Fearless / Huo Yuan Jia

Inspired by the real-life hero, Fearless is a thrilling masterpiece from action superstar Jet Li. When an ill-advised fight destroys the reputation of a renowned martial arts champion (Li) and his family, his difficult path to redemption will bring him face-to-face with the most ferocious fighters in the world. Orchestrated by Yuen Wo Ping, the legendary choreographer of The Matrix and Kill Bill, this sensational, riveting epic is being described as "astounding" and "visually stunning with brilliantly executed fight sequences".

(more…)

Tags: ,

Fatal Contact / Hak kuen - [CMovie] [2006]

 Fatal Contact / Hak kuen

Wu Jing plays naive wushu player who, for the sake of the girl (Miki Yeung) he loves, to make money for her to live comfortably, and for her glory, enters into illegal matches and fights painfully against all odds all the way through. He turns from an honorable wushu player into a mean fighting machine who stops at nothing to win, irregardless of how inhumane and ruthless his blows are, leading eventually to a tragic ending. 

(more…)

Tags: ,

Exiled / Fong juk - [CMovie] [2006]

Exiled / Fong juk

The time is 1998. The setting is Macau. Every living soul jumps at every chance to make quick money before the Portuguese colony ushers in a new era under the Chinese rule. For the jaded hit men, they wonder where this journey will end. Against this background of fin-de-si?cle malaise come two hit men from Hong Kong sent to take out a renegade member trying to turn over a new leaf with his wife and newborn baby. They soon find themselves in the throes of a dilemma when two of their former associates also show up, intent on thwarting them at every cost.

(more…)

Tags: ,

Eve and the Fire Horse - [CMovie][2005]

 Eve and the Fire Horse

Two impressionable young sisters find their fledgling religious beliefs leading them toward opposite ends of the spectrum following a series of family misfortunes in this drama from Canadian filmmaker Julia Kwan. Eve (Phoebe Jojo Kut) and her sister Karena (Hollie Lo) were raised by Buddhist parents who showed only a passing interest in their faith. When the family suffers a series of setbacks, elder daughter Karena looks to Catholicism as a means of improving her family's lot in life as her strong-willed younger sister Eve — born under the sign of the fire horse — opts for a unique blend of Buddhism and Catholicism that is entirely her own creation.

(more…)

Tags: ,

Drink-Drank-Drunk / Chin bui but dzui - [CMovie][2005]

Drink-Drank-Drunk / Chin bui but dzui

Siu Man (Miriam Yeung) is a beer promotion girl, doing the rounds of bars and getting customers to buy their drinks, but she and her partners are facing stiff competition from younger, pushier and more glamorous competitors. The girls also find customers increasingly demanding, especially those who know of Siu Mans reputation as Ms Never Gets Drunk. On her way home from one such particularly difficult days work, where she has also had to fight off the advances of her brother-in-law Brother 9, she helps a drunk man get home, but he ends up staying at her house for a while. The man is Michel or Michael (Daniel Wu)  the owner of a failing French restaurant. It has always been Siu Mans dream to open her own coffee shop, so the two of them come to an arrangement to share the restaurant. Siu Man is approaching 30 and her friends hope that there may also be romance on the horizon for her, but there are a few problems  because of previous bad experiences, Siu Man is deeply mistrustful of men who drink heavily, while Michael  only in Hong Kong as part of his travels across the world  doesnt want to be tied down and is starting to feel it is time to be moving again.

(more…)

Tags: ,

Dog Bite Dog / Gau ngao gau - [CMovie] [2006]

Dog Bite Dog / Gau ngao gau

Dog Bite Dog shocks its audience with a brutality rarely seen in Hong Kong cinema. The exorbitant violence, a necessary evil for survival in Dog Bite Dog, ensures the film a cult following. Acclaimed director Soi Cheang (Home Sweet Home) departs from frightening thrillers for this stunning piece. Edison Chen (Infernal Affairs II) and Sam Lee reunite after Gen-Y Cops, delivering breakthrough performances as a merciless assassin and a mentally unstable cop, respectively. The normal struggle between a cop and an assassin takes place in a surprisingly nihilistic world, creating enormous cinematic tension and a relentlessly pessimistic mood. Visually and thematically unique among Hong Kong films, Dog Bite Dog is a must-see for those interested in alternative cinema.

(more…)

Tags: ,

Close
E-mail It