Author Topic: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 561607 times)

Sandy

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2090 on: March 29, 2016, 07:56:16 PM »
Reviews and a review of your past reviews. :) What an added benefit to be able to see your journey reflected over 7 years of writing.

mañana

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2091 on: May 11, 2016, 07:56:48 PM »
A new verdict! Nice write-up, Beaver.
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pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2092 on: May 28, 2016, 04:59:49 PM »
Round Three Resurrection Review


Peppermint Candy (Lee Chang-dong Lee, 1999)
Won over Metade Fumaca (verdict by roujin)
Won over Picture Bride (verdict by smirnoff)
Lost to Hana-bi (verdict by Bondo)

I watched the the 2003 Hillary Swank sci-fi vehicle The Core under horrible circumstances — and I barely remember the movie — but I'm pretty sure that if you're in the perfect frame of mind and just go where the film takes you and suspend your disbelief and don't focus too long on the details, The Core is a fun time at the movies, however silly its central conceit might be. Peppermint Candy is sort of like that. It opens with a man's suicide and then each subsequent sequence takes us back further and further into his past, more or less showing us how he got there. It's a smartly structured film, both thematically and schematically, with a strong lead performance Sol Kyung-gu (the screenshot above is meant to convey how unlikable his character is). It's a great text to write about academically, with plenty of layered meanings to be teased out, analytically, without reference to engagement or emotional response. But as a story and as a character study, it's pretty effing silly, to be honest. At least in the frame of mind in which I watched it. By the end, I was literally laughing at the tragic events to befall our protagonist and groaning at each of the horribly scored train track shots that carried me further back into his past. It's akin to a film like Mr. Destiny in how simplistic it all is. The conceit of moving backwards in time puts too narrative much weight on those earlier scenes, and the writing isn't nuanced enough to bear it. It'd be an interesting experiment to watch the story unfold from past to present and see how the experience differed. It could end with a freeze frame of the guy screaming, "I'm going back!" to the approaching train, with cheesy music on the soundtrack. Perfect.

Now please go take the time to appreciate smirnoff's use of Ben Stein is his verdict.


Resurrection Standings (the top six films may earn resurrection)

Up next: Ju Dou.

pixote
« Last Edit: May 30, 2016, 12:34:34 AM by pixote »
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pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2093 on: May 29, 2016, 08:49:55 PM »
Round Three Resurrection Review


Ju Dou (Zhang Yimou, 1990)
Won over Goodbye South, Goodbye (verdict by Wilson)
Won over God of Gamblers Returns (verdict by ProperCharlie)
Lost to Moonlight Whispers (verdict by 1SO)

ProperCharlie's verdict is typically great, making me regret not being more enamored of this film myself. The quality of the existing US DVD releases was no help at all in that regard. Such a shame to have watched such a poor transfer, especially for a film that make good use of its setting in dye works. I surely would have liked the film more if I could have seen those colors really pop. Hopefully the recent Blu-Ray release in Japan finds an equivalent here before too long. Still, Ju Dou reminds me of Peppermint Candy in the way that the political implications seem to get in the way of the story and the characters. The narrative becomes a bit overwrought for my tastes. It's a tragic, melodramatic chamber piece, but a distancing one, with the characters feeling like pawns at service of larger themes. That trade-off rarely works for me, so this is not a film I can quite recommend, even though I'd readily give it another look in 35mm or on Blu-Ray.

For reference, here is how the screenshot above appeared on the DVD I watched:



And here are images from the Blu-Ray release.


Resurrection Standings (the top six films may earn resurrection)

Up next: Supercop.

pixote
« Last Edit: May 30, 2016, 12:35:17 AM by pixote »
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2094 on: May 29, 2016, 10:59:00 PM »
Peppermint Candy (Lee Chang-dong Lee, 1999)

Is this similar to Memento ?
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pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2095 on: May 29, 2016, 11:32:31 PM »
Peppermint Candy (Lee Chang-dong Lee, 1999)

Is this similar to Memento ?

It might have more in common with Benjamin Button, to be honest. The "backwards in time" storytelling angle links it ever-so-slightly to Memento (which I believe tells half its story backwards and half forwards), but the effect of that technique is completely different in a lifelong character study versus a thriller that spans two weeks. Peppermint Candy is much less of a puzzle, too.

pixote
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Bondo

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2096 on: May 30, 2016, 07:08:35 AM »
But Peppermint Candy did leave me puzzled. :o

pixote

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2097 on: May 30, 2016, 02:19:44 PM »
Round Three Resurrection Review


Supercop (Stanley Tong, 1992)
Won over The Blade (verdict by smirnoff)
Won over All's Well, Ends Well (verdict by mañana)
Lost to Wing Chun (verdict by Jared)

Supercop (née Police Story 3) is reportedly the first Hong Kong action film shot with synchronized sound ... so of course I watched an English-dubbed version. Sigh. That same version (the one streaming on Netflix) is also missing a few scenes from the original Hong Kong release. I wonder how many years away we are (if at all) from being able to go onto a service like Amazon Video and being able to choose between the various releases of a film like this. It's so frustrating that we're not there yet. I naively thought, after the VHS era, that the days of struggling with pan-and-scan-like modifications to movies were nearing an end. Silly me.

As for the movie itself, it's more or less what you'd expect, really: some good action, amazing (and nerve-wracking) stunt work, and scattered humorous moments all serving a very silly story. This plot involves pretty much the worse undercover operation ever — annoyingly so. In the first half, Jackie Chan's biggest antagonists are other cops. The plot is repeatedly driven by an apparent lack of communication between laws enforcement agencies. These circumstances can all be rationalized away, but really it comes down to lazy and indifferent screenwriting. The bad guys' plan in the second half is equally as silly. Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh make for really appealing leads here, and Maggie Cheung brightens up her brief scenes. I agree with smirnoff that Supercop is better than The Blade (I haven't seen the other two films it faced), but if I had a choice between watching Supercop or a full-length behind-the-scenes documentary on its production, I'd choose the latter.


Resurrection Standings (the top six films may earn resurrection)

Up next: Charisma.

pixote
« Last Edit: May 30, 2016, 02:33:35 PM by pixote »
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2098 on: May 30, 2016, 08:20:59 PM »
I am not sure I understand. All these recently viewed movies are being resurrected ? Some of the reviews are mostly negative.
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Bondo

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Re: 1990s Far East Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #2099 on: May 30, 2016, 08:46:02 PM »
Pixote will watch many, save few. He is our authoritarian leader.