Author Archives: Mark Morrison

The Good – The Eighth Wonder of the World

This is actually a short tourist doco presented shown at the Terracotta Warriors Museum in Xi’an, China. Partly for the century-spanning plot from crazed despot who wanted to be buried with an army of life-sized soldiers right through to the accidental farmers who dug a well in 1974 and hit terracotta paydirt; partly because it’s in CIRCLE VISION, which means you stand in a big round room and the warring armies … (read more)

1. Exiled: Johnnie To’s best film since Running Out of Time, a superb and cyclical story driven by fine characters, set beautifully on Macau. The best black comedy heroic gangster-western of this or any year.

2. The Host: Big budget big monster Korean blockbuster totally delivered on the tsunami of its own hype with an unexpectedly intimate story of a small family versus a big problem.

3. Gankutsuo: Every time a new disc of this arrives we … (read more)

From 30 October to 9 November 2003, ACMI in Melbourne will pay tribute to Leslie Cheung with Rouge and more – many for only a single screening, and possibly your only chance to see them screened in Australia. As part of the program, a special commemorative book is being published, with articles by Philippa Hawker, Clare Stewart and Audrey Yue, as well as tributes from Tsui Hark, Chen Kaige, Adrian Martin, Mike Walsh and others. It will be on sale … (read more)

Best film: Infernal Affairs
Runner-up: Sympathy For Mr Vengeance
Honourable mentions: PTU, Running on Karma, Save the Green Planet

Read on for the complete mini-reviews, as each teamster looks back on their cinematic highlights for 2003…

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Alison:

Golden Chicken
Just way too much fun to resist. Sandra Ng is impossibly endearing, the large collection of cameos are amusing, and this was probably my only chance to see Andy having a good moan. In fact, I think I need to … (read more)

Plenty of folks dig the stuff I dig. If I say “I saw a rocking Hong Kong action film!”, or “I checked out this outta control anime!”, or “I watched a kickass Korean flick!”, then people wanna hear about it. If they hear there’s a cool new one, they’re queuing around the block quicker than you can say Melbourne International Film Festival.

But, if I drop the words “I saw a funky Bollywood flick!” into the conversation, suddenly people get … (read more)

For sheer excitement, Hong Kong action movies cannot be matched. A Hong Kong action movie never pauses to dwell on the improbability of an event, the ludicrous danger of a stunt, or the coincidence of an encounter. Except for the inevitable cantopop video clip in the middle of the film (usually to reinforce the binding love between hero and heroine before one or both meet a tragic end), these movies go go go. Standard production turnaround for a Hong Kong … (read more)