Blog Archives

Warriors of Heaven and Earth (2003)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Alan

Director He Ping’s film Warriors of Heaven and Earth clearly owes a debt to the American Western as well as the films of Akira Kurosawa. It has been a while since a Chinese historical sword flick has been made with this sort of lineage and it is interesting to consider the ways in which this film deals with its somewhat traditional subject matter.

Much like Kurosawa, who insisted that motion pictures should be full of motion, He Ping makes sure … (read more)

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Missing Gun (2002)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Jonathan

Missing Gun is a film about a gun, but it is less about the gun itself than what it represents — power and (after it goes missing) the loss of power. For most of the film the weapon has power only in potentia and is used on just two occasions, so any puns about execution are really unjustifiable cheap shots (bam!), but it is undoubtedly director Lu Chuan’s work on this picture that sees it rise above a fairly slight … (read more)

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Cowboy Bebop the Movie (2001)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Deni

Cowboy Bebop. If you haven’t heard it said by now, then you haven’t been listening. Pretty soon, everyone’s going to be saying it, so I’m gonna get it out of the way now.

COWBOY BEBOP ROCKS!!!

This film is not, under any circumstances, to be missed. Ever.

To bring you up to speed if you’ve never seen the series (and my brain is trying to grasp that concept without much success…) then what you have to look forward to … (read more)

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Brother (2000)

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Posted on November 6, 2005 by Mark Morrison

I watched over 100 people die violent celluloid deaths today. It may have got to me. 67 of those died by bullet, knife, bomb, piano wire and/or chopsticks in Takeshi Kitano’s new film Brother.

This is actually the first time I’ve watched a Takeshi Kitano film. Gasps of shock, shaking of heads, tuts of tut-tut. Calls himself an Asian film reviewer and has yet to watch the greatest living director of Japanese yakuza as he paint the walls red? … (read more)

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Beijing Bicycle (2001)

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Posted on November 6, 2005 by Deni

Beijing Bicycle is so much more than its synopsis indicates. Almost from the first frame it is a visual love affair with the humble bike, and images that most Westerners have come to associate with the high population Asian cities – that of teeming, treadling travellers choking city streets – do not so much crowd as flow across the screen. There are whole scenes just of this, a graceful, abstracted ballet of hundreds, if not thousands, of bicycles and their … (read more)

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Big Shot’s Funeral (2001)

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Posted on November 6, 2005 by Eugene

What I thought about the film. Ahem.

Well, let’s start with what expectations I had coming into the film. Well I hadn’t seen the trailer though a number of my friends had raved about it during Japanime 02 and it was Rosamund Kwan (whom I hadn’t seen since the Once Upon a Time in China series) with a dead Donald Sutherland. So automatically, one thinks an East meets West scenario. And it is. There’s no denying it. However, normally these … (read more)

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Metropolis (2001)

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Posted on October 24, 2005 by Ching Yee

This Metropolis isn’t the Fritz Lang version but it did give inspiration to Tezuka Osamu (Astroboy) to write his own version. And now we have the final product of Tezuka’s efforts and although he is no longer here to see his vision, I’m sure he would have approved.

It is only fitting that Rintaro was given this monumental task to bringing Tezuka’s work to life. A veteran director of many anime classics – he directed one of my … (read more)

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