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Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561613 times)

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1750 on: September 02, 2012, 02:44:38 AM »
Round Two Resurrection Forecast, Films 16 - 30


He's a Woman, She's a Man (Peter Chan & Lee Chi, 1994)
Won over Sumo Do, Sumo Don't (verdict by roujin)
Lost to The King of Comedy (verdict by flieger)
Hmm, gay panic hilarity. How can that miss? And yet roujin scares me by citing as a highlight the "references to Cantopop stars." Not really my thing. And flieger scares me further with the implication that the comedy takes at least forty minutes to get going, with "the laborious set-up, the endless montages, and the stock situations" dominating the movie until that point. Will I laugh more than I cringe and shrug? That's the real question here. I'm going to keep He's a Woman, She's a Man on the waitlist for now. It's very borderline, though. (Waitlisted)



Fallen Angels (Wong Kar Wai, 1995)
Won over Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (verdict by jbissell)
Lost to Blues Harp (verdict by BlueVoid)
I watched Fallen Angels once — it was my first Wong film — because someone kept badgering me about how it was the best film ever made and omg how have you not seen it? I thought you liked movies! etc. Lofty expectations. The film didn't live up to them. I'm not even sure if I paid attention. There were images for a while and then there weren't and then I said okay whatever. When afterwards the badgerer asked me what I thought, I replied, omg! and changed the subject. (Resurrection Candidate)



Minbo - or the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion (Itami Jûzô, 1992)
Won over The Cherry Orchard (verdict by Melvil)
Lost to Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (verdict by Bondo)
Despite kicking Minbo out of the bracket, Bondo did actually like this film, so hopefully he won't feel victimized if I consider it for resurrection. :) It's certainly a film I've been looking forward to seeing for a while, and what I saw of it during my previews looked very promising: "This looks like a whole lot of fun. The opening has these awesome drums going in the background throughout, which for whatever reason gives me a ton of confidence in this film. Itami's movies haven't done too well in the bracket so far, but I'm optimistic that Minbo might recapture some of the magic of Tampopo." I'm definitely worried that it won't be able to sustain that energy though, especially given Bondo's comment that it was "a little less tightly paced" than Supermarket Woman and Melvil's admission that "it might be just a little too long for what it is." But we'll see. (Resurrection Candidate)



Undo (Shunji Iwai, 1994)
Won over The Underground Banker (verdict by duder)
Lost to The Puppetmaster (verdict by worm@work)
Undo's round one victory isn't that impressive when you consider that its opponent, The Underground Banker, was one of the most worthless films in this bracket. But duder made a strong case for it nonetheless, especially with his choice of screenshots and his brief mention of "Iwai's treatment of image and sound." worm@work liked it as well ("a pretty good film") and even cited the one element that's giving me pause (the film's very short length) as something that was perfect about it. I almost feel like I should consider it for resurrection just because forty-seven minutes is such a small commitment. Then again, that's two more episodes of Louie I could catch up with. (Waitlisted)



Full Contact (Ringo Lam, 1992)
Won over City Hunter (verdict by Colleen)
Lost to Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 (verdict by flieger)
I haven't seen Full Contact, but flieger's analysis of it seems as incontrovertible as his writing is enjoyable. If you haven't read his verdict, you should make it a point to do so. (Eliminated)



Madadayo (Akira Kurosawa, 1993)
Won over Operation Scorpio (verdict by smirnoff)
Lost to Raise the Red Lantern (verdict by lotr-sam0711)
smirnoff sent Kurosawa's swan song into the second round with the highest praise: "It's too bad the film was so frustratingly boring. It failed to evoke any emotion! The truth is I couldn't wait for it to be over." Sam the Cinema Snob actually did like it some, at least through the first half, but not enough to convince me to watch it anytime soon. (Eliminated)



Forbidden City Cop (Stephen Chow & Vincent Kok, 1996)
Won over From Beijing with Love (verdict by duder)
Lost to Flirting Scholar (verdict by oldkid)
duder once again brainwashed me into liking this film with his captioned screenshots, and oldkid made no effort to snap me out of it ("I highly recommend it"). It's a damn conspiracy. (Resurrection Candidate)



Ley Lines (Takashi Miike, 1999)
Won over An Affair (verdict by roujin)
Lost to Perfect Blue (verdict by Bill Thompson)
I know this bracket pretty well — I've spent more than a little time with it — and yet if you had asked me an hour ago if Ley Lines was part of it, I would have said, no, I don't think it made the cut. That's not a good sign. Also not a good sign: my first round experience with Rainy Dog, the previous film in Miike's Black Society Trilogy. roujin's verdict makes Ley Lines sound more interesting and effective than that earlier film, but I get the feeling that I, like Bill, would ultimately find it frustrating. (Eliminated)



Kagerô (Gosha Hideo, 1991)
Won over 12 Storeys (verdict by 'Noke)
Lost to Wing Chun (verdict by smirnoff)
Another film that I was really excited about after my previews, just based on the look and feel of it ("a very unique mood"). 'Noke liked it more that I even hoped, and his enthusiastic write-up for it persuaded smirnoff to give it a try. That didn't work out so great. He liked the look of the film but felt it focused too little on the main character, who was the only interesting one. That leaves me torn. I'm pretty discouraged by the comment at IMDb that "Tatsuya Nakadai seems bored at times," and I hate that that's the only other review that I have to go on. (Waitlisted)



White Badge (Jeong Ji-yeong, 1992)
Won over Once Upon a Time in China (verdict by Bill Thompson)
Lost to Hard Boiled (verdict by michael x)
White Badge barely made it out of round one (Bill deemed it a film that could "easily be ignored") and lost in round two for the same reasons. The subject still sounds interesting to me, but movie never did. (Eliminated)



Patlabor 2 (Oshii Mamoru, 1993)
Won over The Bride with White Hair (verdict by FifthCityMuse)
Lost to My Rice Noodle Shop (verdict by Bondo)
There are at least six animated films already through to the third round (Whisper of the Heart, Pom Poko, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Perfect Blue, Only Yesterday, and Princess Mononoke), so I don't feel too bad that I haven't resurrected any of the many others that have lost a matchup. Patlabor 2 might well continue that trend. FifthCityMuse makes a good argument for its virtues, but he was also a much bigger fan of Oshii's Ghost in the Shell than I was. I'm a little scared off by the supposed density of the plot (especially if much of it is done though dialogue), and I haven't been too kind to sequels throughout this process. I'm very drawn to see Patlabor 2 nonetheless, but I don't think I can make it a priority. (Waitlisted)



The Longest Nite (Patrick Yau, 1998)
Won over The Longest Summer (verdict by Clovis8)
Lost to A Dedicated Life (verdict by duder)
The final first round film I watched in its entirety was Yau's Expect the Unexpected, and I thought it good enough to resurrect. It wouldn't quite have met my standard for resurrection in this round, however, and The Longest Nite sounds like it might be in that same category. duder's screenshots from the final setpiece did more to pique my interest than his Tastelessness Reel did to minimize it. But my instinct is still that The Longest Nite went exactly as far in this bracket as it was supposed to. (Eliminated)



Pushing Hands (Ang Lee, 1992)
Won over Three Seasons (verdict by smirnoff)
Lost to Artists in Wonderland (verdict by tinyholidays)
According to the two verdicts, Lee's debut film is "decent" at best (smirnoff) and "hackneyed" at worst (tinyholidays). Can't say I'm inspired to check it out. (Eliminated)



Royal Tramp (Ching Siu-Tung & Wong Jing, 1992)
Won over A Chinese Odyssey Part Two (verdict by sdedalus)
Lost to Temptress Moon (verdict by jdc)
jdc sold me ("This is silly, over the top slapstick humor with a lot of dick jokes.") and then unsold me ("I really do not have a desire to watch Royal Tramp again"). It's okay. Stephen Chow will have other chances. (Eliminated)



Christmas in August (Hur Jin-ho, 1998)
Won over The Contact (verdict by smirnoff)
Lost to After the Rain (verdict by edgar00)
I could have sworn I posted a review of Christmas in August when I watched it (for the second time) right before the kickoff of this bracket. I can understand why a lot of people really, really like it, but it just didn't affect me very much. And though smirnoff and edgar00 both seemed happy to have watched it, I'm not sure that either of them would go so far as to place it in round three, either. (Eliminated)


Through thirty films, I've labeled just seven as resurrection candidates, put nine on the waitlist, and eliminated the other fourteen. I might have been a little too stingy with my resurrection candidacy so far, but I'm going to hold off on adjusting the numbers until after I get through the rest of these second round forecasts.

pixote
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Bondo

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1751 on: September 02, 2012, 07:27:26 AM »
It's been 10 years but I enjoyed Pushing Hands. Not too torn to see it go though.

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1752 on: September 04, 2012, 05:54:13 PM »
Round Two Resurrection Review


Mahjong (Edward Yang, 1996)
Won over A Confucian Confusion (verdict by worm@work)
Lost to Made in Hong Kong (verdict by flieger)
flieger pretty much covered my reaction to Mahjong in his verdict, though I would stress even more the poor quality of almost all the performances. It's most notable when the actors are speaking English (which, given the film's preoccupation with the internationality of Taipei, happens often), but it's by no means limited just to those moments. There's no modulation of tone from emotion to emotion: when a character is angry, he's the scream-y yell-y kind of angry for the full duration of the scene; same as when he's happy or sad or confused or whatever. It's all very broad in a way that I found more grating than humorous. There is, nonetheless, an interesting tapestry of characters and situations on display here, and the film ultimately won me over, if only barely — largely thanks to the actor in the screenshot, who, as Luen-Luen, gives one of the only quiet performances in the otherwise loud movie. It's not a fair comparison perhaps, but Yang's film kept calling to mind John Sayles' City of Hope, made five years earlier and, to my mind, superior in most respects. Also working against Mahjong is its present unavailability on DVD.

pixote
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pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1753 on: September 05, 2012, 05:11:08 PM »
Round Two Resurrection Forecast, Films 31 - 45


Lies (Jang, Sun-Woo, 1999)
Won over Out of the Dark (verdict by edgar00)
Lost to Down the Drain (verdict by flieger)
Lies is a sex film that "didn’t go deep enough" for edgar00 (there's a joke there somewhere) and "a bit of a slog at times" for flieger. It's that second comment that worries me most. If this were still the first round, I'd probably resurrect Lies sight-unseen just because it sounds so damn interesting. But the third round of this bracket promises to be exciting, and I intend to keep it that way, so the number of films that are a slog (even if just occasionally) must be kept to a minimum. (Eliminated)



The King of Masks (Wu Tian-Ming, 1997)
Won over Red Dust (verdict by edgar00)
Lost to Pickpocket (verdict by MartinTeller)
edgar00 and MartinTeller have engaged in a conspiracy to try to persuade me to revisit this film, which long ago severed my relationship with Mick Martin and Marsha Porter's indispensable classic Video Movie Guide. Well, it won't work, dammit. I hated this film so much. The fact that I remember next to nothing about it can't keep me silent. It cheap, melodramatic dreck! I will shout it from the rooftops in the rain as cheesily lugubrious music plays on the soundtrack of our lives. (Eliminated)



All's Well, Ends Well (Clifton Ko, 1992)
Won over Hail the Judge (verdict by roujin)
Lost to Supercop (verdict by matt tmw)
The first five minutes of this movie were very hit-and-miss. The film went on to be a hit with roujin and a miss with mañana, who admitted, "It’s very well possible that there’s a wonderful comedic sensibility here that is lost on me. It’s also possible that this movie stinks." I'm going to guess the truth is somewhere in the middle. I'm going to further guess that that middle doesn't demand to be in the third round. (Eliminated)



The Geisha House (Kinji Fukasaku, 1999)
Won over Birdcage Inn (verdict by Melvil)
Lost to Only Yesterday (verdict by ProperCharlie)
Melvil left the door open for this to be a good film that just didn't mesh with his sensibilities. ProperCharlie pretty much slammed that door shut, isolating the same section of the film that most bothered Melvil: "BUT - then comes the final 15 minutes when you can forget about anything good in this film, because it all goes horribly wrong. ... It’s an utter failure and sadly disappointing." As far as I'm concerned, that settles that. (Eliminated)



License to Live (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 1998)
Won over Sopyonje (verdict by BlueVoid)
Lost to Ringu (verdict by Bondo)
Even before rereading the verdicts, I know that License to Live is a film that's interested me ever since faceboy teased us about its merits but never got around to writing up a verdict. I wish someone else had eliminated this film from the bracket because I'd rather not fuel the joke that anything Bondo kicks out is worth a second look. Rereading the verdicts now, I see that this is like the tenth film to lose its second round matchup because the reviewer felt it self-destructed in the final act. An interesting trend, especially since that's exactly what kept me from resurrecting Kurosawa's The Serpent's Path in the last round. I thought I remembered BlueVoid liking this a whole lot, but in actuality he deemed it "a very solid effort" that played a little better in memory than in viewing and could have been a very powerful movie had it been a little tighter. Kurosawa already has two films in the third round. I guess that's enough. (Eliminated)



Farewell China (Clara Law, 1990)
Won over A Class to Remember (verdict by tinyholidays)
Lost to Center Stage (verdict by FifthCityMuse)
I had very low expectations for Farewell China before I previewed it, but the opening minutes impressed me. Judging by the verdicts, the whole film is kind of like that, succeeding when it doesn't seem like it should, defying expectations all along, even though it's sort of a mess. I'm definitely curious about it but still can't seem to shake my hesitancy in viewing it — maybe just because of the poor quality of the available transfers. I'm going to put it on the waitlist for now, but I suspect I'll give it a look before this process is complete. (Waitlisted)



A Chinese Odyssey (Jeffrey Lau, 1994)
Won over Royal Tramp II (verdict by sdedalus)
Lost to Cure (verdict by BlueVoid)
BlueVoid pretty much sealed A Chinese Odyssey's fate when he wrote, "The movie feels like an extended episode of the 'Power Rangers', only with a story which is less satisfying." Ouch. But then I glanced at some images from the Blu-Ray and got just a little curious to watch Lau's film. Just a little, though. (Eliminated)



Kung Fu Cult Master (Wong Jing, 1993)
Won over The Swordsman in Double Flag Town (verdict by Tequila)
Lost to Shower (verdict by ProperCharlie)
Kung Fu Cult Master needed a last-second reprieve by Tequila just to make it out of the first round, and that's a lucky thing for all of us, because ProperCharlie's second round review of it is delightful. (Eliminated)



The Harmonium in My Memory (Lee Young-jae, 1999)
Won over The Eel (verdict by Bondo)
Lost to Rebels of the Neon God (verdict by Bill Thompson)
Just in sampling the first few minutes of Harmonium, I figured it'd be a very pleasant, watchable movie — and for the most part, it sounds like I was right, with a notable exception. Bondo noted the broad comedy ("[p]ratfalls aplenty, piss, poop and fart gags") that felt out of place in the film's first half, and Bill Thompson led his review with the question, "Can a fart joke exist in the same realm as a story about love, childhood desires and crushed dreams?" The answer, at least in this case, seems to be no, and The Harmonium in My Memory sounds a bit too underwhelming to consider for resurrection, even if it did turn out to be more or less pleasantly watchable as predicted. (Eliminated)



Rhapsody in August (Akira Kurosawa, 1991)
Lost to Princess Mononoke (verdict by 'Noke)
Lost to Moonlight Whispers (verdict by Bondo)
I'm rather proud of the resurrection review I wrote for Rhapsody in August after round one, and I'm happy it got a second look in this bracket. That said, I don't think it really belongs in the third round, so that works out fine. (Eliminated)



April Story (Shunji Iwai, 1998)
Lost to My Rice Noodle Shop (verdict by edgar00)
Lost to Happy End (verdict by jdc)
April Story earned one of my longest resurrection reviews of the first round, but choosing between it an Happy End (which I also resurrected) would have been a toss-up for me. It's a shame that April Story was failure with both reviewers who watched it for the bracket, especially given the number of fans it has here, but so it goes. (Eliminated)



My Neighbor The Yamadas (Isao Takahata, 1999)
Won over Black Jack (verdict by Bill Thompson)
Lost to Tonight Nobody Goes Home (verdict by BlueVoid)
BlueVoid writes convincingly that My Neighbors the Yamadas isn't a third round film, but all the screenshots I've seen contradict him — gleefully. I'm just too much a sucker for stripped-down animation not to give it a look. (Resurrection Candidate)



The Stunt Woman (Ann Hui, 1996)
Won over Nowhere Man (verdict by jbissell)
Lost to Kids Return (verdict by ProperCharlie)
jbissell and ProperCharlie offered very similar reviews of The Stunt Woman and its very distinct three acts. It sounds like just expanding the first act (as jbissell sums it up, Michelle Yeoh is "elevated from her backup duty to lead stunt woman after an injury") to feature length would have made a tremendous movie. Too bad that instead the film veers into poor melodrama, by the sound of it. (Eliminated)



Moe no suzaku (Naomi Kawase, 1997)
Won over Black Republic (verdict by roujin)
Lost to Comrades, Almost a Love Story (verdict by smirnoff)
smirnoff was sort of elliptical in describing why he wasn't a fan of this movie, which seems fitting, given roujin's mention of Kawase's "sometimes elliptical way of showing narrative information." I'm definitely intrigued, and I'm not even sure why. (Waitlisted)



The Power of Kangwon Province (Hong Sang-soo, 1998)
Won over Spring and Chaos (verdict by edgar00)
Lost to Lifeline (verdict by sdedalus)
I already denied resurrection consideration to Hong's first film (The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well), but I feel much better about his second feature, and even more encouraged by the two positive write-ups of it. "I think Hong Sangsoo gets better with every film he directs," wrote sdedalus at the start of his review. Just the justification I needed. (Resurrection Candidate)


I was really worried about the lack of viable-sounding resurrection candidates at the start of this set. Glad it got better near the end.

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smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1754 on: September 05, 2012, 06:43:50 PM »
The screenshot for A Chinese Odyssey makes me glad it's eliminated. :D

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1755 on: September 05, 2012, 10:04:45 PM »
While the shot for The Power of Kangwon Province makes me glad it is still in with a chance.

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1756 on: September 07, 2012, 05:40:39 PM »
Round Two Resurrection Forecast, Films 46 - 60


Taboo (Nagisa Ôshima, 1999)
Won over Yumeji (verdict by worm@work)
Lost to Slight Fever of a 20-Year-Old (verdict by Bill Thompson)
I've seen all four of the films involved in the two matchups above, and I agree with the verdict in each case. Taboo is an okay movie that I think went exactly as far in this bracket as it was meant to. (Eliminated)



God of Gamblers Returns (Wong Jing, 1994)
Won over Fist of Fury 1991 II (verdict by roujin)
Lost to Ju Dou (verdict by ProperCharlie)
God of Gamblers 2, God of Gamblers 3, and God of Gamblers Returns all lost their second round matchups. As I delve back into the verdicts, I'm kind of rooting against them to sound worthy of resurrection because my completist tendencies will have me wanting to watch all four of the main films in the series, and that's a big time commitment. Luckily for me, this entry sounds fun but not quite fun enough to merit resurrection consideration. Well, unless roujin was serious when he confessed, "I'm actually just making all of this is up. Chow Yun Fat has sex with a sheep for 90 minutes." Then I'll have to reconsider, obviously. (Eliminated)



Nabbie's Love (Nakae Yuji, 1999)
Won over Doctor Mack (verdict by Tequila)
Lost to Musuko (verdict by roujin)
Tequila built up a good deal of enthusiasm for Nabbie's Love with his first round verdict, memorably calling it "a gem ... the kind of film I don't want to write about but instead just show you some screenshots and go 'there - don't you see?!'" roujin was kind to it in the second round as well, except when it came to the performance of the lead actress and the presence of Ashley MacIsaac, against whom roujin has some sort of untold grudge. All things considered, I'm very prepared to be delighted by this movie. (Resurrection Candidate)



The Blue Kite (Tian Zhuangzhuang, 1993)
Won over Kite (verdict by 1SO)
Lost to Green Fish (verdict by Bill Thompson)
I've seen The Blue Kite, but all I really remember of that experience is the sense that I was watching what in the abstract seemed to be a good or even very film but in the moment didn't really affect me much at all. It sounds like 1SO had a similar experience, and maybe Bill a little bit, too. As such, it's a movie I'm reluctant to revisit but also one I don't feel comfortable dismissing out of hand. (Waitlisted)



Intimates (Cheung Chi Leung, 1997)
Won over Kitchen (verdict by tinyholidays)
Lost to The Scent of Green Papaya (verdict by ProperCharlie)
I have no idea how to reconcile tinyholidays' experience with this movie with that of ProperCharlie. I'm picturing Intimates as a guilty pleasure romantic melodrama that can emotionally floor you if you go along with it (one scene reportedly had tinyholidays "gasping and clutching a pillow over [her] face") or frustrate the hell out of you if you don't. If the other reviews I read had been a little more positive, I might have given this film a chance, but they were similarly mixed. Plus, one review claims that "a good thirty minutes were edited out when transferring the film to laserdisc and DVD." That scares me. (Eliminated)



Art Museum by the Zoo (Lee Jeong-hyang, 1998)
Won over Alan and Eric Between Hello and Goodbye (verdict by Melvil)
Lost to Sleeping Man (verdict by Bondo)
Aw, this sounds like such a nice, sweet little movie. I'm upset that it doesn't seem quite like third round material because I really wouldn't mind the excuse to watch it. But Melvil labeled it "a little better than the average," as romantic comedies go, and Bondo was "largely unimpressed." So I guess that's another pleasant-sounding film that I won't have the privilege of being slightly underwhelmed by. Damn. (Eliminated)



Living on the River Agano (Satô Makoto, 1993)
Won over The Weald (verdict by matt tmw)
Lost to Summer Snow (verdict by tinyholidays)
I already resurrected the film that Agano beat in the first round, and it seems likely I'll consider resurrecting this documentary as well — especially since I had trouble turning it off after the first five minutes. In his verdict, mañana praised it as "totally compelling, bittersweet, and at times powerful," which is about as strong a recommendation as any bracket film has had. tinyholidays didn't find it quite as compelling, with the narrative seeming a bit too shapeless, but she still had "plenty of respect" for it, and that's good enough for me. (Resurrection Candidate)



Dead or Alive (Takashi Miike, 1999)
Won over Swordsman (verdict by FifthCityMuse)
Lost to Postmen in the Mountains (verdict by ProperCharlie)
Ha, this is an interesting case. Both the film that Dead or Alive beat and the film that it lost to were first round resurrections; and Dead or Alive might well be resurrected itself. FifthCityMuse praised its "audacity," and that's a word that always piques my interest. ProperCharlie summed up the film as "festival of eyeball-infecting filth and depravity with pacing issues and sense of ennui permeating every frame" — and that description intrigues me as well — but he also mentioned "a knife-throwing clown" and that's a f—king deal-breaker. I don't subject myself to clowns unless I absolutely have to, sorry. But I give the movie huge points for being upfront about that in its tagline: "WARNING: This motion picture contains explicit portrayals of violence; sex; violent sex; sexual violence; clowns and violent scenes of violent excess, which are definitely not suitable for all audiences." (Waitlisted)



Shall We Dance? (Suo Masayuki, 1996)
Won over Eighteen Springs (verdict by FifthCityMuse)
Lost to Eagle Shooting Heroes (verdict by Bill Thompson)
I don't remember much about Shall We Dance?, but my instinct is that the third round would be incomplete without it, just by virtue of its success at the US box office. It took in an impressive $9.6M for Miramax, outgrossing Eat Drink Man Woman ($7.3M) from three years earlier. Then again, I've already denied first round resurrection to The Legend of Drunken Master ($11.6M) and Iron Monkey ($14.7), so my logic might be problematic. Still, aside from those two movies — and Supercop, whose $16.3M gross is a bracket best — Shall We Dance? appears to have had the most successful US theatrical release, with few others film even close to it: The Wedding Banquet ($6.9M), Farewell My Concubine ($5.2M), Raise the Red Lantern ($2.6M), Princess Mononoke ($2.4M), To Live ($2.3M), Shanghai Triad ($2.1M), Akira Kurosawa's Dreams ($2.0M), Ju Dou ($2.0M), Three Seasons ($2.0M), The Story of Qiu Ju ($1.9M), The Scent of Green Papaya ($1.7M), Shower ($1.6M), Picture Bride ($1.2M), The King of Masks ($1.1M), After Life ($800K), Chungking Express ($600K), Ghost in the Shell ($516K), Hana-bi ($500K), Perfect Blue ($113K), Sonatine ($58.8K), and Xiu Xiu ($23.9K). Oh, maybe it's worth pointing out that FifthCityMuse and Bill Thompson both enjoyed the movie. (Resurrection Candidate)



City of the Rising Sun (Kim Sung-su, 1999)
Won over General's Son (verdict by worm@work)
Lost to A Scene at the Sea (verdict by smirnoff)
I've had a feeling since before the bracket began that the best thing about City of the Rising Sun was its title. The verdicts by worm@work and smirnoff only reinforce that feeling. (Eliminated)



Ordinary Heroes (Ann Hui, 1999)
Lost to One Evening After The War (verdict by roujin)
Lost to Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring (verdict by tinyholidays)
It's a borderline case, but Ordinary Heroes likely belongs in the third round of this bracket. Too bad I already had to resurrect it once. As both verdicts make clear, it's a difficult film, and not without its missteps, but it's one I look forward to revisiting myself someday. (Eliminated)



In The Heat of the Sun (Jiang Wen, 1994)
Won over Slight Fever of a 20-Year-Old (verdict by roujin)
Lost to Okoge (verdict by Bondo)
roujin completely sold me of In The Heat of the Sun in his first round verdict, and Bondo said he wouldn't mind seeing it resurrected, so this is an easy one. (Resurrection Candidate)



Buddha Bless America (Wu Nien-Jen, 1996)
Won over Fong Sai Yuk (verdict by 'Noke)
Lost to Kamikaze Taxi (verdict by tinyholidays)
I watched Buddha Bless America early on in the bracket, and it's possible that I might have already been immune to its beauty by that point. I had already spent hours and hours with it, working on creating and timing the subtitles so that the film could be a part of this project. That's a horrible way to watch a movie, and I thought that when the time came to consider resurrecting the film, I'd give it a fresh look. Thinking about it now, though, and comparing it to some of the other films up for resurrection, I just can't see myself appreciating so much more that I'd send it into round three. I did like the film, mind you; just not as much as 'Noke did. (Eliminated)



Lost and Found (Lee Chi-Ngai, 1996)
Won over Postmen in the Mountains (verdict by smirnoff)
Lost to Princess Mononoke (verdict by lotr-sam0711)
I'm fascinated by the love-hate relationship that Sam the Cinema Snob seemed to have with this movie. It's as if he kept getting mad at himself for enjoying for he was watching. There's a similar divide in smirnoff's review. With little warning, he goes from saying the movie has "some magic" to saying the movie is "just okay." That's a sharp drop! So, yeah, I'm definitely intrigued, but... (Eliminated)



Dr. Akagi (Shôhei Imamura, 1998)
Won over Samurai Fiction (verdict by smirnoff)
Lost to Shanghai Triad (verdict by Beavermoose)
I swear I reviewed Dr. Akagi on the forums way back when, but I appear to be a liar. It was a movie I struggled to like and eventually succeeded in doing so. I would have resurrected it after the first round, but the second is as far as it deserves to go. (Eliminated)


Yay! That was a much better set than the last one. The total number of resurrection candidates is up to thirteen, with another twelve films on the waitlist.

pixote
« Last Edit: September 07, 2012, 06:20:28 PM by pixote »
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smirnoff

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1757 on: September 07, 2012, 07:05:50 PM »
Hmm, I wish I'd put a little more effort into my Lost and Found verdict. I'm strangely nostalgic for it now, even the ending (which I kind of slammed).

It's probably wiser to trust in what sam wrote though. Much more thorough.

On the flip side, I'm happy to see Dr Akagi and City of the Rising Sun taken out. It feels like progress. :)

Jared

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1758 on: September 08, 2012, 06:32:33 PM »
I've gotten a ton of terrific dramas in my short time in this bracket, but it was a fun change of pace to get a nice cat and mouse action film and a crazy cooking film.

Running Out of Time


Running Out of Time is a 1999 action film by Johnnie To, who seems to be a  board favorite looking at his thread in the Director sub-forum. I can see why with this movie.
 
Andy Lau plays Cheung, a man with a terminal cancer case with motivations that are generally unclear at the beginning of the film. He commits crimes serving these motivations and that is where Inspector Ho (played by  Lau Ching-Wan), a hostage negotiator gets involved. It soon becomes apparent that the inspector is an important piece to Cheung's plans, which unfold throughout the movie.

All sorts of good action movie stuff happens: theft, car chases, revenge, gunfights, etc. I had a good deal of fun with this. I am not very familiar with Johnnie To's work, but this was a heck of an introduction to it. His direction once the pace picks up in the movie is pretty fun.

Complaints are pretty minor. Both of the leads have a vague flirtations with characters that would be possible love interests. I'm glad it didn't go down that road, but at the same time what scenes are there are not all that interesting and didn't do a ton for the story in my opinon.  The movie also breezes through some pieces that help connect the dots of the mystery, or provide some backstory. I had to rewind back to a conversation or two.

vs

The Chinese Feast


The Chinese Feast is a flat out nutty film that I had a good time with.

The plot was somewhat difficult for me to follow, and looking at Sam's previous review I can see I'm not alone in that. Basically the film opens with a master chef retiring, when he realizes that his work has caused him to lose everything he loves in life. The next hour or so of the film revolves around a guy in his young 20s named sun and the crazy-haired daughter of a restaurant. These two build a friendship through the restaurant, which for some reason is going to be lost if the owner loses a cook-off against a guy that looks a lot like Jet Li. Sun and Crazy Hair track down the master chef from the beginning, who is now a drunk. They coach him back to form so he can compete in the cook-off on behalf of the restaurant.

I was kind of lost in  a lot of the parts of the film where the story is being conveyed, but there are a lot of silly scenes that really kept me hooked. The ending cook-off is a lot of fun (although one feels bad for certain exotic animals), and Crazy Hair and Sun both provide some zany moments. In one scene they can't seem to grab a hold of a dead fish that is probably bigger and heavier than an average human. The movie spends roughly 3 or 4 minutes as this fish slides around the restaurant. Very bizarre.



The Verdict

The Chinese Feast had a lot of fun and crazy stuff, but it wasn't really hinging on much of a plot. It's ending is the best 10 minutes in either of these two films, but that isn't enough to overcome how much I enjoyed Running Out of Time overall. It made me want to start visiting some of To's more recent work, so I have to declare Running Out of Time the winner, by a slim margin.

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1759 on: September 09, 2012, 12:25:56 AM »
You don't know how relieved I am that at least of the films I resurrected sight unseen were worthwhile viewing.  :)

Plus, I really enjoyed reading this verdict. Very nicely done.

pixote
« Last Edit: September 09, 2012, 12:28:04 AM by pixote »
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