Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561813 times)

Melvil

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #470 on: March 08, 2009, 10:21:09 AM »
Better luck with your next matchup, duder. Awesome screenshots though. :D

Thor

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #471 on: March 08, 2009, 11:51:19 AM »
I always want to see whatever duder has just watched.
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Melvil

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #472 on: March 08, 2009, 10:00:31 PM »

Deja Vu (Kin-Nam Cho, 1999)

The primary theme of Deja Vu is fate. In the opening scene, this crazy clown lady sets up the movie through a magic act she is performing for some kids. She makes several appearances in the film, using her tricks to interject some pearls of wisdom about fate, love, luck, and the unpredictability of it all. After her introduction, we meet two young women, Vicky and Hung (cousins), in a shopping mall as they each have a chance encounter with different guys, Nicky and Peter respectively. When the scene ends, we see it a second time, but with a small change. The two women have swapped positions, so that their encounters end up pairing them against the opposite guys.


In the scenes that follow, it is shown how the story would go based on both of these possible starting points, essentially showing each scene twice. The not-so-subtle difference is that in one of the threads both couples end up working out (Vicky and Nicky, Hung and Peter), while in the other the couples don't get along at all and call it off before too long (Vicky and Peter, Hung and Nicky). I like the general idea used, but I think it could've been handled a little better. It works better once you have the big picture at the end, but watching it at the time I had some problems with how the different relationships were portrayed.


Once the couples in the second thread break it off, there's really nowhere left for it to go, so logically enough it ends, and the rest of the movie follows the 'successful' thread. Once again, it makes perfect sense thinking back on it, but at the time it felt strange that the structure was dropped barely half an hour in.

The characters are generally likable, but the pair pictured above is given a lot more to work with than the pair pictured below. Technically, there's not much to be impressed with, it's very rough around the edges. Many of the scenes are heavily tinted, and it's very artificial and not very attractive. The music and editing also has problems that are occasionally distracting. For some reason I still found the movie to have a certain charm to it.


Storywise, I'm a bit torn on it. The majority of it is pretty standard relationship drama fare, nothing great. The structure of the first act felt like more could have been done with it, but the way the story concludes plays off of it nicely, and genuninely made me appreciate the purpose of it. It makes a simple point, but it got me thinking about how and why things work out the way they do in life, so it must have done something right.

Credits roll...Unfortunately there's one downfall yet to come. Crazy clown lady is back! She stops the credits for an epilouge-montage of the story where she lays out a complete explanation of the characters and why their relationships played out the way they did. Ugh! Completely unneccesary.

One of the more interesting examples of the dual-storyline technique. Also, more scenes needed actors playing kites.



Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 (Ka-Fai Wai, 1997)

The strangely named Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 is a Hong Kong crime comedy, following a character named Kau and an assortment of fellow triads he falls in and out of company with.

The first thing worth talking about is the cinematography. Almost all of the movie is shot with a really wide angle lense, and it has a very distinct and unique style. It doesn't always work, especially in the first half some of it is really aggravating to watch. One action scene is shot upside down, until the cameraman apparently falls down a flight of stairs. But over the course of the movie it improved and grew on me, and some of the camera work is really cool and inventive.


Either by strange coincidence, or the mad genius that is pixote, this movie is also based around two diverging paths of the same story. When the movie starts, Kau gets involved with a group of small time criminals in a job to transport cars for a local clan boss. Due in part to a decision Kau makes, things go very wrong very fast, and he and his partners find themselves caught up in ever escalating chaos. Things don't end well.


Then we're back at the beginning again. We relive the first few scenes, but are shown different pieces of them which helps build the story and keep it from being repetitive. It's also pretty cool how there are a lot of repeated shots showing how things change this time. At the point where the first story took off, Kau makes a different decision and drastically changes the events to follow. The majority of the movies screentime is devoted to this second story. This time, Kau gets talked into partnering up with Matt (someone else from the first story who dropped out of the plan with Kau this time), who has taken a hit job. Once again, things keep escalating as they get caught up in ever more complex situations.


Oh yeah, so this is a comedy, mostly of a darkish nature, but I didn't get a lot of laughs out of it. It was more 'fun' than 'funny' with a lot of absurd and sometimes just stupid stuff happening, and at times it leans almost into parody. The first story is the movies biggest weakness, with a plot that's not that interesting, involving a lot of stupid stuff, and the worst offenses with the camera work. It also focuses more on the ensemble cast, but the group dynamic is never that good. In the second story Kau is clearly the star, and despite an odd role, he carries the movie much better.

Interesting camera work, crimelord brothers named Blackie and White, and a shootout in the dark. What's not to like?



Verdict

I enjoyed both movies (better the second time!), but they both have their flaws, and neither of them are great. My second viewing of Deja Vu almost changed my decision, but I still think TMWTB No. 1 is the stronger movie. Sorry crazy clown lady!

edgar00

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #473 on: March 08, 2009, 10:42:08 PM »
Too Many Ways to be No. 1 sounds pretty bitchin'.

I just felt like saying that.

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Colleen

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #474 on: March 10, 2009, 08:49:25 PM »
Full Contact vs. City Hunter

For this match-up, I wanted some popcorn movies after wading through the heaviness of Oscar/Filmspot season.  I chose to match up Full Contact, a Ringo Lam action flick starring Chow Yun Fat, with City Hunter, a Jackie Chan vehicle.  Both date from roughly the same time.  Full Contact has a 1992 date (although the fashions look about 3-4 years older) while City Hunter was released in 1993.

Full Contact

Chow Yun Fat plays Jeff, a small time crook in Bangkok who nevertheless has a conscience.  He is loyal to his friends and doesn't use unnecessary violence.  His close friend is Sam, who owes a lot of money to a local boss who runs a criminal gang.  After rescuing Sam from the boss, Jeff agrees to go in with Sam and the thug gang on a heist of a large amount of ammunition from a convoy.  He sends his girlfriend home to Hongkong with a promise to rejoin her after this one last project.  Of course it all goes wrong, the real bad guys double-cross the sort-of bad guys (Jeff and friends), and Sam betrays Jeff at a crucial moment and flees, leaving Jeff to die, or so he believes.  The rest of the plot traces Jeff's recovery and quest for revenge, in true action movie fashion.  There are montage sequences of Jeff mourning, nursing his anger and bitterness and training hard to recover his skills.  He then goes to HongKong and sets his plan into motion, in the process discovering that his love has found solace in Sam's arms, and Sam has become a true member of the criminal gang--or has he?  Will Jeff get his girl back?  Will all the bad guys die horribly?  Will Sam redeem himself?

The movie is very reminiscent of similar John Woo movies of the time, with explosions, bullets flying, slo-mo action sequences, interspersed by several moody music sequences where heartfelt ballads describe the characters' feelings during montages. 

Cheesiness is not objectionable to me in this sort of movie; in fact it adds to the experience, and Full Contact brings the cheese.  Chow Yun Fat is young and pretty, although he has an unfortunate NKOTB style wardrobe involving way too many bandanas.  The direction is not Woo level but it gets the job done.  It's a movie that engages the brain undemandingly for 2 hours and then vanishes, leaving only a memory of some yummy shots of deltoids and the humor of the recurring cameo by a Boston terrier.

City Hunter

Yikes.  I hadn't read up on this film before I watched it or I would have had second thoughts about choosing it. 

City Hunter features Jackie Chan as the titular character, a sort of cross between James Bond, a private eye, Bruce Lee and one or more of the Three Stooges.  The plot involves Jackie being hired to find a Japanese gazillionaire's runaway teenage daughter.  Jackie is aided by the niece of his dead partner, who he secretly lusts after and who is secretly in love with him.  Blatant and stupid plot machinations put all of these folks, plus several others who are not well explained, on a cruise ship out at sea.  Unbeknownst to all, a gang of terrorist criminals is also on board, about to take the ship hostage. 

There's a bit of extremely basic cliched action movie standard plotting but the whole thing is mainly played for laughs.  There is a LOT Of slapstick, and Jackie goes awkwardly from being competent and skilled in one scene and a complete klutz in the next, generally injuring his crotchular area in the process.

The movie is based on a manga series from the late 80s which spawned an immensely popular cartoon series, and I get that the comic and cartoon were generally pretty light and played for laughs, and the movie is trying to capture that cartoon feeling.  Chan hams it up, making faces, getting beaten and tossed around, succeeding in some fights almost accidentally.  A few bits got smiles from me but not much more.  The clumsy characterization--is he a womanizer or truly in love with his partner?  Is he an idiot who gets lucky in fights, or a skilled fighter playing dumb? -- detracts from what little enjoyment there is.  The physical humor is very much on the 3 Stooges level with more crotch injury and boob jokes. 

One sequence that was probably the most technically impressive at the time, but which now dates the movie horribly, is a sort of dream sequence in which Jackie, one of the bad guys and several side characters transform into Street Fighter characters and carry out Street Fighter style fights complete with accurate sound effects and actions.  It was a technical achievement but not terribly amusing, at least not to me.  Maybe if I was more familiar with the game it would have meant more.

Chan apparently disowned and badmouthed City Hunter immediately after finishing it, but in an interview that was included on the disk and which was recorded more recently (he makes references to Rush Hour) he seems more kindly disposed toward it, talking about what he was trying to get at in the movie while implying that it didn't quite work out as he'd hoped.

Jackie Chan's appeal is that he has perfected the character of the well-intentioned but somewhat foolish guy who succeeds in part because of his good heart and in part through dumb luck.  There is something of that persona in City Hunter, but the character is too much foolish and not enough heart; that coupled with the lame plot and one-note supporting characters makes the movie a chore rather than a pleasure to watch.

No competion:  Full Contact goes forward.  It might be something of a guilty pleasure, but I did enjoy it.

Melvil

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #475 on: March 10, 2009, 09:46:29 PM »
Nice writeup Colleen. Full Contact sounds fun. City Hunter sounds like it should be fun, but when those types of movies fail they tend to fail horribly.

Quote
One sequence that was probably the most technically impressive at the time, but which now dates the movie horribly, is a sort of dream sequence in which Jackie, one of the bad guys and several side characters transform into Street Fighter characters and carry out Street Fighter style fights complete with accurate sound effects and actions.  It was a technical achievement but not terribly amusing, at least not to me.  Maybe if I was more familiar with the game it would have meant more.

I almost want to watch it just for this. :D

Colleen

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #476 on: March 11, 2009, 06:01:32 AM »

Colleen

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #477 on: March 11, 2009, 06:25:10 AM »
And just for fun, the training/recovery montage from Full Contact.  For the record:  Chow Yun Fat's character is nearly killed in an explosion caused by the bad guys; he saved the burned girl and the dog from the fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr643Z5uR80#

smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #478 on: March 11, 2009, 07:01:02 AM »
Whoa. That street fighter bit was unreal. lol

Good verdict.

duder

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #479 on: March 11, 2009, 07:20:35 AM »
No need:

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I can't believe you killed this, Colleen!  :)
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