Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561619 times)

WillMunny

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2050 on: November 29, 2013, 05:41:54 PM »
the match-up was between two films that I knew by reputation and both of them lived up to it, a tough verdict, this bracket will be a chance to force me to finally explore films I have always neglected to watch for lack of time and ignoring where to start, consider me ready for another match-up Pixote  8)

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2051 on: November 29, 2013, 05:47:45 PM »
consider me ready for another match-up Pixote  8)

Take your pick!  8)

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pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2052 on: December 05, 2013, 05:08:51 PM »
Round Three Resurrection Review


Kamikaze Taxi (Masato Harada, 1995)
Won over Cyclo (verdict by Sam the Cinema Snob)
Won over Buddha Bless America (verdict by tinyholidays)
Lost to Sonatine (verdict by Jared)

After reading Jared's verdict, I wasn't sure whether to watch the 140-minute or the 169-minute version of this film. I went with the latter, and I'm pretty confident it was the right choice. Kamikaze Taxi is a surprising, ambitious mess of a movie, and these kinds movies are best viewed in all their messy abundance. There are definitely scenes that are expendable from a narrative standpoint. In fact, an editor could probably create two or even three very different 80-minute films from the material here, each of which would be successful but in very familiar ways. The uniqueness of Kamikaze Taxi resides in all these different elements residing in the same film. It's not a perfect, clean vision — the overall execution feels rushed and unpolished, like the rough draft of some future masterpiece — but a fascinating ride nonetheless. It's also a borderline resurrection candidate, for sure, even though I wouldn't expect to survive too much further in this bracket.


Resurrection Standings (the top six films may earn resurrection)

Up next: The King of Comedy.

pixote
« Last Edit: December 05, 2013, 05:12:51 PM by pixote »
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2053 on: December 05, 2013, 05:28:40 PM »
Yea, I like certain stretches of it a lot, but it's a messy film.

jdc

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2054 on: January 07, 2014, 08:56:39 AM »

Be interesting to see if he can go four-for-four (jdc has matched Kids Return up against After Life, and Bondo has paired off Hana-bi and Peppermint Candy).

I hope I haven't held up this round, I do have the films so will get through them around the China new year
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Jared

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2055 on: January 07, 2014, 02:37:41 PM »
I think  we've all kind of held up this round  :)

I hope to post another verdict with the next 2 or 3 weeks.

Jared

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2056 on: January 30, 2014, 09:56:58 PM »


Siao Yu


Siao Yu had Ang Lee's name on it, and that's all I ever need to be interested in a film. For this particular movie, Lee co-wrote the movie with Sylvia Chang, the director. I had yet to see a Chang film and was eager to check this one out.

The movie is about Siao Yu, a young girl (19 or 20?) who lives in America and needs a green card. To get one, her and her boyfriend Giang Wei scheme to marry her to a down on his luck writer named Mario Moretti, played by Daniel J. Travanti. Moretti has gotten in gambling debt with the mob (Big Pussy in a small role!) and takes on this marriage plot when Siao Yu and Giang Wei shell out $10,000. Moretti and Siao Yu are forced to live with each other to keep up appearances for immigration.

Giang Wei and Moretti's ex-wife float in and out of the movie, sometimes being helpful, but usually being jealous and antagonistic. These supporting characters just seem to be there to add a little bit of difficulty to Siao Yu's plight, and just aren't all that great in my opinion. Fortunately the leads are wonderful enough to carry this thing on through. Travanti in particular carries a Gene Hackman like demeanor through the movie which I rather liked.

One guesses the path of the movie reasonably early on. It's one of the types where two very different people that are having some hard times come together and form a nice friendship as they learn from one another. It shortly begins to feel like a father daughter sort of thing as Siao Yu's boyfriend gets more and more emotionally abusive. 

A nice little movie that I liked quite a bit. Nothing too inventive, but really well executed with some very good performances. A lot of fun watching these characters grow.

vs

Happy End
 

I had never even heard of director Ji-Woo Jung, so this was a match up of new discoveries for me.

The movie is about a cuckolded husband named Ki Min, played by Min-sik Choi (the lead of Oldboy) and his wife, Bora, played by Do-yeon Jeon.

Ki Min has gotten into a rut of laziness. He is unemployed and spends his time reading in a used bookstore. Bora, on the other hand, is the principal (?) of a school and obviously resents her husband's lack of effort. When we start the film we understand that the affair has lasted quite a while as we observe the distance between the two of them.

There are good performances in this film and some wonderfully shot sex scenes, but other than that the movie just didn't leave me all that enthusiastic about it. I guess I just didn't really understand what the film was going for in it's third act, and worse, didn't really care. I feel like it was trying to be provocative and edgy....like it was trying to say big important things. I just think it misses the mark.

The Verdict
Siao Yu isn't one of the better films I've seen in this thing, and Happy End is far from being one of the worst. Still, this was a reasonably easy decision for me. Siao Yu moves forward.

BlueVoid

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2057 on: January 31, 2014, 10:20:23 AM »
Nice job Jared. Siao Yu is a decent film and one of the more 'accessible' in this bracket. Glad to see it move on.
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smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2058 on: January 31, 2014, 12:30:25 PM »
Great write up Jared. Definitely more interested in the one you moved forward. :)

mañana

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2059 on: April 14, 2014, 07:29:28 PM »

Postmen in the Mountains - Huo Jianqi, 1999

This film is so earnest, it was hard to believe it's not Canadian. It’s a perfectly pleasant story of a father retiring from his mail route through an isolated mountainous area, and how his son learns about how this job is as much about people and community as it is the seemingly mundane delivery of letters, packages, and news. There’s a tension between the draw of modern life and rural tradition, which is all fine enough but totally by the numbers. Over the course of the film, son learns about dad and does a little growing up himself. As in numerous other rite of passage stories you’ve seen, junior transitions towards manhood by discovering his father is a human being with thoughts and feelings. Why is this something that gets shielded from sons? Men are so hopeless. It’s pretty and sweet, but the touch is skilled enough that it mostly avoids tripping over into saccharine barfiness. There’s also a dog.




Running Out of Time - Johnnie To, 1999

This has everything Johnnie To genre films are advertised to have: good leads, sharp unfussy editing, good pacing, and skillfully executed set pieces. Neither in terms of style or narrative, does Running Out of Time buck convention much, but it’s all realized so adroitly and certainly a markedly improvement from my last Johnnie To bracket film. Though neither struck me as particularly remarkable, Running is an effortless pleasure while The Mission was lackluster. Points deducted for the occasional use of hideous slow motion. Still haven’t seen anything from Johnnie To that has me joining the cabal, but Running is good fun as it transitions from set piece after set piece.     



This match-up doubles as Retrospots ’99 homework, because I’m efficient that way.

Verdict: Running Out of Time, because I like it more. 
« Last Edit: April 15, 2014, 08:24:48 AM by mañana »
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