Horror Stories | 무서운 이야기 [ Movie Review ] ★★★

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All's Well End's Well 2012 八星抱喜 [ Movie Review ]

The Pitch

When it comes to Chinese News Year period, the other activity beside celebrating new year at relatives and friends' house, it would probably be a trip to the cinemas for a He Sui Pian (贺岁片 Chinese New Year Movie).

In recent years, Raymond Wong and Eric Tsang had been consecutively churning out authentic He Sui Pian (贺岁片 Chinese New Year Movie) for the Chinese New Year period. This year, Raymond Wong is back with another installment of the All's Well Ends Well franchise and Eric Tsang has another installment of I love Hong Kong.  

All's Well End's Well 2012 八星抱喜 features the likes of Sandra Ng, Donnie Yen, Louis Koo, Kelly Chen, Chapman To, Lynn Hung, Yang Mi and Raymond Wong.

The interesting point would be to note that who has the better He Sui Pian and who takes in the biggest slice of the He Sui Pian Box office. Since it's impossible to gauge who is the winner in this box office until the end of the Chinese New Year period, let's just see who has the better Hei Sui Pian.



The Plot

All's Well End's Well 2012 八星抱喜 begins with an idea from a middle age lady. An idea to start a website (Bao Xi.com) that enables single woman to find single men with spare time to assist them. The rewards that the men get would be an embrace of gratitude from the woman if she is satisfied with the help rendered and willing to give that hug. The website helps to connect the following four couples with their respective stories.

Donnie Yen stars as Carl, a failed singer who has never given up on his dreams. He gets assigned to pose as the boyfriend of Chelsia (Sandra Ng) a member of now defunct two girls pop group. While her partner had found fame after the pop group disband, Chelsia became a has been. After a fallout with her abusive boyfriend, the desperate Chelsia took up Carl's offer and brought him to a dinner with Chelsia's mentor and ex partner. It turned out disastrous and Chelsia was mocked by her former partner. Could the failed duo reignite their music aspirations?

Raymond Wong stars as Richard, a successful lawyer who is a failure as a husband and dad. While researching online on how to be a better dad, he came across Bao Xi.com and decided to help Cecilia (Yang Mi) as her "cheap father". It turns out that Cecilia has a huge inheritance but her late father left a strange clause that requires her to marry before she turns 25 (which is in a week's time). The problem that Cecilia needs Richard to solve for her would be to figure out which of her three suitors are really worth marrying.

Louis Koo stars as Ken, a site foreman who offers to model for photographer Julie (Kelly Chen). The initial photos didn't turn out well as there's no connection between them. Under the advice of her photography teacher, Julie attempts to bring out Ken's masculinity by seducing him with her sensuality. Ken naively interprets that as love and started to woo Julie even with the apparent disparity in their social status.

Chapman To stars as Hugo, a romance novelist who couldn't show revealed his image to his readers as his publisher convinced him that will have adverse effect on sales. Feeling dejected, he decide to help a beautiful but blind Charmaine (Lynn Hung) in experiencing romantic feelings. The low esteem Hugo attempts to fake their romantic outings by bringing her to isolated places. In order to prove his publisher wrong, he brings Charmaine to a novelists dinner and tries to hide the fact that Charmaine is blind.



Stills

East Meets West 2011 | 东成西就 2011 [ Movie Review] ★★

The Pitch

Back in 1993, director Jeffrey Lau and a group of well known Hong Kong celebrities of that period, gave us The Eagle Shooting Heroes 东成西就, a memorable parody of Louis Cha's The Legend of the Condor Heroes (射雕英雄传). Folks who had seen it would probably remember the Tony Leung's sausage lips gag, the centipede torture and many more. Needless to say, it was one of Jeffrey Lau's outstanding works in his long history of "Mo Lei Tau" comedies.


Flash forward to today, director Jeffrey Lau is back with another 东成西就 (East Meets West 2011). Although it's not a parody of The Legend of the Condor Heroes, it follows the same format of having an ensemble of the famous stars in the current Hong Kong / China entertainment field. While a handful of them are famous enough to match their 1993 counterparts, the rest are mainly made up of relatively new stars and folks whom I have not heard of. Other than that, it features Kenny Bee, the only actor that appeared on both movies.


Personally, I am a fan of Jeffrey Lau's movies. Even though he had some misses (eg A Chinese Tall Story), he also help created some of the classic Mo Lei Tau comedies from Hong Kong (A Chinese Odyssey, All for the Winner and etc). Although his recent features (Just Another Pandora's Box and The Fantastic Water Babes) were panned by most online reviews that I had came across, I thought they were pretty enjoyable. Here's hopping that Jeffrey Lau would be able to achieve something special with this ensemble that makes this new update East Meets West 2011 worthy of it's Chinese title 东成西就. 


The Plot

Funny Meh?

Xiaoming (Karen Mok 莫文蔚) and her father Ah B (Kenny Bee 锺镇涛) are on the run from debt collectors. It turned out that Jia Jia (Huang Yi 黄奕), Ah B's unreliable wife (who also happened to be Xiaoming's ex classmate and stepmom) had accepted a deposit to set up a concert featuring the Wynners (Kenny Bee's famous Hong Kong pop band from the late seventies to the early eighties). It's an impossible mission as all the members of Wynners (except Ah B) are too busy to perform in this concert.

While the father and daughter are on their way to rescue Jia Jia from Mainland tycoon Zhou Dong (Eason Chan 陈奕迅), they came across a eccentric taxi driver Wen (William So 苏永康) who happens to be fanatic actor wannabe. On their quest to form a musical group, they came across Jade (Sitar Tan Weiwei 谭维维) a rich man's daughter who left the life of wealth for a musical career and her money minded butler Bing (Jaycee Chan 房祖明). Before they could make their way to meet Zhou Dong to rescue Jia Jia, they had a fiery car crash accident with Da Xiong (Ekin Cheng 郑伊健), a mute dumpling chef.

Da Xiong's son witness how these group of individuals became superheroes during the accident and escaped unscratched. He told the survivors that they were seven immortals that's been betrayed and killed by the eighth immortal. The legend has it that they are destined to be reborn as humans with no knowledge of their past and eventually, they would have to fight the evil eighth immortal. Naturally, the kid was dismissed as a liar until they found out about their supernatural power.

I like how you cut my hair ...

Meanwhile, Xiaoming became smitten by Zhou Dong and came out with a wacky plan to hold the "Wynners" concert. Things were going well until a shadowy mysterious figure (Stephy Tang 邓丽欣) came and wreck havoc. In times of distress, the seven individuals transformed into super powered heroes to rescue the concert goers from the destruction.

Could this be the eight immortal that they been waiting for? Will these seven immortals survive the battle with the power hungry immortal when their previous incarnations had failed?


The Perspective

East Meets West 2011 was a major disappointment. I am not sure if there was any creative inputs from the China bosses but since it's Jeffery Lau's name on the writer and director credits, he probably should bare the major bulk of this disparage. In recent years, his movies had suffered from his self indulgence with his sense of comedy and story that interest him. Sometimes, it hits the right spot but in East Meets West 2011 case, it was a horrid waste of time and talent.

But how do you critically review a "Mo Lei Tau" (nonsensical) movie? I am going to compare it with The Eagles Shooting Heroes and Just Another Pandora's Box, two of previous Jeffery Lau's movies.

Both East Meets West 2011 and Just Another Pandora's Box suffered from patchy storyline but what helped Just Another Pandora's Box was that it didn't have to suffered from the overcrowding of "main" characters in East Meets West 2011. There was a central love story of Ronald Cheng's character and the Rose fairy (Betty Sun) with the rest of the stars as supporting characters to that love story. In East Meets West 2011, all the "stars" are laden with their own stories and around the halfway mark, it seemed that the director realized that the movie had to focus on the main love story that revolving between Xiaoming (Karen Mok) and Zhou Dong (Eason Chan). Subsequently all the other subplots were either minimize or abandon.

Nothing for me to do?

Of all the characters that were affected, Ekin Cheng's Da Xiong and Huang Yi's Jia Jia suffered the most. It seemed that there were some build up between Da Xiong, his son and his ex wife but nothing was made up of it. Jaycee Chan had a special appearance / cameo billing but it turned out that Ekin Cheng had less screen time or things to do in this movie.

Ekin Cheng might not be the most talented artist around these days but among this cast, he is one of the most well known and to see his role reduced into a forgettable cameo, it's just kinda sad.

Likewise, Huang Yi's Jia Jia character was destined to have a never ending feud with Xiaoming. After a few squabblers, her character was discarded and were only brought back for some gags. Their resolution came quickly and there was very little emotional impact between the two. It makes one wonder why bother with her character at all. Just another waste of talent.

Are We Stars?

lucky they hide half my face

Comparing East Meets West 2011 with The Eagles Shooting Heroes, the first and foremost thing that's lacking was star factor. Given that Eason Chan, Karen Mok, Kenny Bee and Ekin Cheng are all well know personalities in the Asian region, the rest of the East Meets West 2011 stars are not exactly stars qualities (as compared to their counterparts in The Eagles Shooting Heroes). Who is this Sitar Tan Weiwei? Will Jaycee Chan still have a career in the entertainment business if his father is not Jackie Chan? Is William So still singing? I also wonder if Stephy Tang is popular in the Singapore market?

Movies of such nonsensical nature requires a certain star quality to it. It would allow the audience to like the characters quicker as there's hardly any material in such genre to do such buildup. It also allows comedy to arise from a play in their well known personality. These are stuff that you can't do with a relative bunch of unknown / wannabes / up and coming stars. It's possible to do such nonsensical comedy with relatively unknowns but they must have a strong sense of comedy and comedy performance. As again, it's lacking with those that's picked for this movie.

Beside that, the handling of the characters was a mess in East Meets West 2011. There were just as many characters in The Eagles Shooting Heroes and yet they well woven to support each other stories. In East Meets West 2011, you could remove a few of the characters and it wouldn't affect the gist of this story. That how disposable the characters are in this movie.

Last but not least, what The Eagles Shooting Heroes and Just Another Pandora's Box had that East Meets West 2011 didn't was that most of the characters from the previous spoof comedies were well known. Even though some of the eight immortals names sound rather familiar, I believed that they were mainly characters that made from scratch and it's just difficult to handle so many characters at the same time.

East Meets West 2011 might have been better if the focus was on Karen Mok and Eason Chan's character from the start. Reduce the other star roles into secondary supporting ones like the ones in Just Another Pandora's Box and remove all traces of their background stories. This movie had a fairly good theme of redemption and pure love. It just a pity that it muddled the story with allocating screen time for the stars.


Rating : **

Hong Kong Ghost Stories [ Movie Review ] ★★1/2

The Pitch Touted as the return of Hong Kong horror, "Hong Kong Ghost Stories" features two spooky tales from director Wong Jing and Patrick Kong. From the good o' classic such as Mr Vampire to the crappy cheaply made ones like the Troublesome Night franchise in the nineties, it's been a long time since there's any comedic horror movies from Hong Kong.  But can Wong Jing (King of low brow entertainment) and Patrick Kong ( Director of Mr and Mrs Single) revived this once popular genre for the Hong Kong film industry? Or is this just an excuse to put straight to video quality movie on the big screen to earn some quick bucks? The Plot The first story, "Classroom" is written and directed by Wong Jing. It stars Jennifer Tse (Nicolas Tse's sister making her acting debut) as Miss Yip, a substitute teacher who is returning to the teaching field after breaking up an abusive relationship with ex-boyfriend Chung (Pakho Chow). But she is not getting any break as her new class is unruly and her ex-boyfriend keep pestering her for a patch up. Things got worse for Miss Yip when she saw some of her students going for compensated dates. Her offers to help them were met with threats and acts of defiance from her students. And since this is a horror movie, Miss Yip subsequently got locked up in the toilet with slamming doors and flying blades (courtesy of the exhaust fan). Miss Yip soon discover that this is not your usual unruly class. It's the supernatural horrific type that wouldn't allow Miss Yip "abandon" them. To "entice" Miss Yip more, it seemed that there's a victimized student that would need rescuing. Could Miss Yip survive her class from hell? Patrick Kong wrote and directed the second story "Travel" in a non-chronological manner. It started with the funeral wake of Bobo (Chrissie Chau) that attended by four of her friends (Charmaine Fong, Jacqeuline Chong, Harriet Yeung and Rose Chan). They spent their time playing cards and recounting their first encounter with Bobo and policeman Jack (Timmy Hung) at a recent tour trip to Thailand. Halfway through the wake, Bobo's lover Karl (Him Law) arrived to pay his last respect to the deceased. The four girls quickly befriended him and invited him over for a steamboat dinner to talk about Bobo's last few days at Thailand. Karl then revealed some startling information about Bobo and his wife, Phoenix (Stephy Tang). Things are not what they seemed and it's twist galore with this segment. The Perspective  Comparing these two segments, Patrick Kong's Classroom was much more entertaining to sit through. There were some genuine funny moments that were delivered by the four female friends of Bobo. Ranging from digs at TVB / ATV (the two Hong Kong TV stations) to their rendition of extremely horny predators, the laughs kept coming to distract the rather weak performance from the rest of the cast (especially Chrissie Chau who got top billing here but was noticeably missing most of the time). The climatic twist galore was mildly enjoyable even though it's filled with plenty of plot holes. It could have ended earlier with the strongest twist but it went a little too far with the finale revelation and in the process diluted the impact that it had going. "Travel" won't be the next gem in the Hong Kong comedic ghost genre but it's definitely more enjoyable out the two stories that Hong Kong Ghost Stories had to offer.. Wong Jing's Classroom was rather unremarkable. It's not the worst material that he had put out and neither was it one of his better works. It's like a bland functional time wasting TV program. There's a major twist at the end which was also ridden with plot holes. One of the enjoyable bits of this segment was to see how it tried to justified the revelation with contrived explanations. The other noteworthy aspect of this segment would be that it provides a chance to check out if Jennifer Tse could act or not. Surprisingly, she wasn't as bad as her brother when he had just started out as an actor. Plus she looked like a young Gong Li to me and that makes it easier to follow her role as a protagonist in a rather uninspired horror story. It would be interesting to see what kind of choices she makes for her movie career. Bottom line, both Classroom and Travel are as scary as Hong Kong comedic horror goes (which is to say that it isn't). Not exactly the type of show that you should fork out hard earn money for but it wouldn't be that terrible if one actually like this genre and actually paid for this. If you could wait, I am pretty sure that the cable TV or dvd rental for Hong Kong Ghost Stories would be out soon after it's taken off the cinema screens. Otherwise, it isn't a big lost if you give this movie a miss. Rating: **1/2

Love In Space | 全球熱戀 [ Movie Review ] ★★★

The Pitch

Love In Space (全球热恋) is the romantic comedy follow up to last year Hot Summer Days (全城热恋). Directed by Wing Shya (夏永康) and Tony Chan (陈国辉) with an ensemble of well known Asian celebrities, these two movies basically presents a variety of love stories like what Love Actually did.  

Hot Summer Days was one of my top ten worst movies of 2010. It was a fumbling attempt to ape Love Actually's success and it drown in it's arsenal of cardboard characters and multiple weak storylines. But Hot Summer Days must have done well at the box office since a follow up had been green lighted. 

The Plot  

Love In Space follows a mother (Xu Fan 徐帆) and her three grown daughters as they juggle their unexpected love encounters in a space station, Sydney and Beijing.

In Space, No one can hear your sweet nothing

In a space station, Rose (René Liu 刘若英) is unexpectedly reunited with her ex boyfriend Michael (Aaron Kwok 郭富城). With only the two of them working in a confined space, romance started to blossom. They tried to suppress their underlying love for each other as the issues that caused them to break up at the first place remained unsolved.

When Garbage Met Disposable Gloves

In Sydney, Lily (Gwei Lun Mei 桂纶镁) had a love at first sight encounter with Johnny (Eason Chan 陈奕迅). Their relationship wasn't a easy one as Lily suffers from anxiety disorder (OCD) with cleanliness and he works as a garbage man. But fate kept pushing them together and it's up to them to overcome their status quo for their love to blossom.

Proof that Clark Kent disguise work

Lastly, Peony (Angelababy 杨颖) is a well known celebrity in China but credential wise, she just got the worst actress award. In order to perform better for her next movie, she went undercover to work as a waitress to study her role. What she didn't expect was that she would fall for a failed writer Wen Feng (Jing Boran 井柏然) there. Relationship bliss would not be easy for her as she is under contact with her agency and it's forbidden for her to date for the next five years.

 The Perspective

Love In Space is a marked improvement from Hot Summer Days. The most obvious improvement would be reduction of love stories between five couples to three. Concentrating on only three couples gave more time to build up the chemistry between characters. But then again, these three love stories are still rather predicable and the only thing that saved it from being a yawn fest would be their rather interesting setups.

The most enjoyable love story among the three would be the one between Lily and Johnny. The quirkiness of their situation and the actors performance made it a pleasure to sit through this section of the movie. 

The most gimmicky portion of Love in Space would be the romance between Rose and Michael. I was interested to see what tricks would a China film use to depict the zero gravity environment. While the mixture of wires and computer generated images were not top notch Hollywood standard, they were not too bad. The romance were passable largely due to charisma of the two actors.

Last but not least, the Beijing love story which features Angelababy in various outrageous costumes. I am not sure why Angelababy and Jing Boran were paired up for the second time. It seemed that the China audience like them as a couple but I felt that the chemistry between them was lacking. Or perhaps I am just not used to the China style of romance which this segment is catering for.

In summary, Love in Space turned out to be more enjoyable than expected. The reduction of stories worked well and the set up here were so much better than Hot Summer Days. It might not go down as a classic love story like Love Actually but it would do to pass time with a love one.

Recommended.

Four | หลุดสี่หลุด [ Movie Review ] ★★★★

Four innovative demented suspenseful comedic horror stories. This Tom Yum blend of Twilight Zone rocks.

In recent years, my personal favorite Thai horror movies have been the Phobia series (4bia and Phobia 2). It shows that good Thai horror might be in form of short stories and a collection of them brings in diversity and horror in the right dosage. When the trailer for Four appeared on my radar, it felt like a weak copycat aping the success of the previous two omnibus of Thai horror. But surprisingly, the only thing that was bad about this movie would be the trailer and Four was equally good as the Phobia series.

Think of it as a Thai Twilight Zone movie and you get the right level of scariness. It offers some intriguing concepts that probably would lose it's appeal if the each individual idea was to be expanded into a feature length movie.

Here's the lowdown on the plots of the four short stories and my thoughts on them.

The Noob's Human Holocaust | เกรียนหลุดโลก

Four kids hanging out at a mall, talking about Global Warming and how earth would benefit from some form of genocide. Their choice of mass massacre? It would be a virus without a vaccine. They started to diverge to how the virus could be spread through computers and other form of electronic devices. 

As their conversation gets weirder, one of the group member started to ask the most important question. Who organized this gathering?

On first impression, The Noob's Human Holocaust looked like a film school project with cinematography that felt amateurish. But for folks who are into films and film making, it won't be hard to spot that the entire segment was done in one take. That means one continuous shot of this segment with no NGs and no cuts. There was a moment whereby the camera floated away from the conversation and pans to the second level of the mall before making it's way back to the boys' table. The unsteady camerawork gave the used of handheld Steadicam away but extra points should be given to the filmmakers and cast for their various background works and coordination to make it possible to capture the whole story in one shot.

Technical details aside, the whole global cleansing conversation between this four kids was rather interesting (depending on your personal views). It felt rather nihilist and bleak but there's some truth in the overpopulation issue that these teenagers touched on. Their choice of virus seemed far fetched but innovative in it's own ways. The execution of this grand plan was both comical and horrifying. Needless to say, capturing this story in one shot just helped make it even more spooky. Eakasit Thairaat, the scriptwriter for all the four stories in Four and Paween Purijitpanya's "4Bia: The Deadly Talisman" directed this piece and personally, I will be keeping an eye on him, looking out for what is he doing to do next.

Last but not least, I personally digs how they used the virus as a form of subtle PSA (Public Service Announcement) to turn their handphones off during movies. Pretty niffy way to start a movie. this review belongs to filmsblitz at blogspot. please do not shamelessly copy it and use it as your own

The Gift Shop for the People You Hate | ร้านของขวัญเพื่อคนที่คุณเกลียด

Thada (Pakkorn Chartburrirak) had just been promoted to manager in his company. While everyone is celebrating for him, there's a disgruntled colleague that had some nasty stuff to say to him. After the incident blew over, Thada decided to go for a walk and look for gifts to give his colleagues as part of his promotion celebration. He came across a shop with the name "The Gift Shop for the People You Hate". Puzzled by the shop name, he went into the shop and was told by the salesperson that this is the place to get back at rivals or enemies. They carry umbrella that comes with a lightning rod and perfume laced with the deadly tiger wasp stingers. They even provide services to sabotage individuals up to the degree that the customers wished. 


Thada dismissed the salesperson's pitch and wanted to leave. The salesperson then mention that someone already bought six gifts for him and warned him to watch out for products with their company logo. Thada naturally didn't believe that and went on to enjoy his promotion. The fun starts when he starts to unwrap and uses his promotion gifts. 

Think of it as Stephen Chow's Tricky Brains that's less playful and more mean spirited. It's innovative in the ways that they came up with those whacky gifts. The suspense here would be to see how Thada could figure out which gifts are life threatening. The beautiful of going to the movies is so that we could live vicariously through these unfortunate protagonist.  The characterization for Thada felt uneven at times but that was easily forgotten with the delivery of one heck of a comeuppance twisty ending. This piece directed by Kongkiat Khomsiri (Muay Thai Chaiya  and Art of the Devil 2 & 3) is bizarrely entertaining.

The Night to Lose Your Mind | คืนจิตหลุด

After unwittingly shooting a pregnant lady during a robbery, Neung (Ananda Everingham) became a changed. He became a reckless trigger happy manic who is causing destress to his partner Joe (Thitti Vejchaboon. Even though they were wanted by the police, Neung insisted on carrying out another robbery and bringing his brother Song (Peerapol Sehnakol) along. Joe was reluctant but was forced at gunpoint to carry out their final robbery together. 


After their robbery, they encountered a police roadblock and decided to hide in a old abandon hospital. They were about to split their booty when they encountered someone or something that lurking around. Neung in his maniac mood swing felt that his authority had been challenged and decided to chased after the shadowy individual.  Resulting in a night that ripe to lose one's mind.

Arguably the weakest installment of the whole lot. This segment relied heavily on Ananda Everingham's performance to keep this segment going. While he did a decent job, it's hard not to feel that it dragged the story out a bit too long for it's own good.  It felt like an rendition of the Saw franchise which was enjoyable and decently filmed to get the type of reaction to torture porn.  The twist at the end was somewhat predictable but still satisfying even after the long wait. 


Who R Kong? | ฮูอากง

The grandfather of a Thai Chinese family had passed on but before he died, his last words were "Don't burry me or cremate me until...". His children obeyed his last wishes and left his corpse in his ancestral home. Years later, the family had problem hiring maids to watch over the body as it tends to walk around, scaring the hell out of the maids. 

They hired a fortune teller / exorcist to solve the problem and the family was told that the grandpa wanted to pass a message to his favorite grandchild. The message was said to contain hidden treasures in the ancestral home. The head of the household then decided that all the grandchildren would stay over to look after the grandfather's body.

The grandchildren were made up of an effeminate guy who refuse to admit that he is a homosexual, a brainy doctor who is quite an asshole, a internet porn addict teenager and a little girl who is constantly texting with her blackberry. Lastly, there's Song (Alice Tsoi), the granddaughter who seemed to be the most decent and sensible among the bunch.

This segment got the whole cinema laughing out loud and stomping their feet. The over the top comedic performance and situations made it hard to sit through without laughing. The effeminate grandson will bring the house down with his dance moves and his strenuous denial of his homosexuality. In between moments of laugh out loud comedic situations, there's the suspenseful ones involving one grandpa who can't keep still even after he is dead.

This "homedy" segment is wonderfully directed by Chukiat Sakveeraku (who also directed Love of Siam, one of my fave movies of 2009).  It's impressive that he was able to deliver a well blend of scary horror and riotous comedy. In an unexpected way, he was able to close this whole segment with a sweet ending. Personally it was a terrific way of ending a fun rollar coaster ride.


Beyond the Movie

I came across a set of four individual Thai posters for the respective segments here.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides [ Movie Review ] ★★★

The Pitch

Do we need another Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirates of the Caribbean adventure? The first was blast and it gave us the iconic Captain Jack Sparrow. The following back to back sequels were not that good and frankly, the novelty was wearing off. But the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise had been racking in the cash and in Hollywood, when there's profits to be made, it will be made.

Adapting Tim Power's book, On Stranger Tide to fit into the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, this installment would see Johnny Depp's Captain Jack embark on a quest to seek out the fountain of youth. There will be old and new crew joining force to helm this latest installment. Geoffrey Rush (amazing performance in The King's Speech) and Kevin McNally would be returning as Barbossa and Gibbs respectively while Penélope Cruz will be playing Captain Jack's love interest Angelica and Ian McShane (Kungfu Panda) will be taking on the villainous role of Captain Blackbeard. Rob Marshall (9 and Chicago) will be taking over Gore Verbinski as the director.

Could this installment kick start another trilogy for Disney? or will it reaffirm that this series need to be put to rest? Will the absence of Gore Verbinski,  Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and Will (Orlando Bloom) hinders the success of Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides ? Read on to find out This review belongs to filmsblitz at blogspot

The Plot

The Spanish had discovered the map to the Fountain of Youth and they are on their way there. Not wanting to be outdone, King George II wants to send Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) who had the map to the Fountain of Youth to guide an expedition to locate the Fountain of Youth before the Spanish. The expedition will be lead by Jack's old enemy Captain Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) who turned into a privateer after losing Jack's ship, the Black Pearl and his leg.

Unwilling to comply, Jack escapes and soon found his father who warned him about the dangers of the Fountain of Youth. He also discovered an impostor who had been recruiting a crew for the search of the Fountain with his name. That impostor turned out to be Angelica (Penélope Cruz) a former lover whom Jack had abandon many years ago. This review belongs to filmsblitz at blogspot

Jack was unable to escape from Angelica's clutches and ended up on board of Blackbeard (Ian McShane)'s ship, The Queen Anne's Revenge. He found out that there's a prophecy that Blackbeard would be killed by a one-legged man and to circumvent that prophecy, Blackbeard wants to locate the Fountain of Youth. Jack also discovered that to make the Fountain work, a tear from a mermaid and two chalices from Juan Ponce de Leon would be needed. This set up a race between the Spanish, the British naval lead by Captain Barbossa and the Pirates consisting of Captain Jack, Angelica and Blackbeard to locate the fabled Fountain of Youth. This review belongs to filmsblitz at blogspot

The Perspective

On Stranger Tides serves it's function as a entertaining blockbuster for the summer crowd. If you are not expecting much, you would be satisfied with Johnny Depp doing his Jack Sparrow routine and the mystical pirating fun adventures that one would expect from this franchise. But if you are looking for more substance and comparing it to the first movie, this series is getting tiresome and this installment was not well constructed to give the audience the same buzz that the first movie had achieved.

The biggest problem with this movie was that it tried to take on too many characters and subplots. There's three different groups of people heading for the Fountain of Youth, two different couples trying to make their untimely (and unlikely) romance work and there are two archetype of villainy at play here. These characters and their motivation were adequately presented but there were enough time or focus to make us care about them.

The weakest character in the midst of all the new characters woul be Blackbeard. The pirate that all other pirates fears was not that scary at all. There were hardly any buildup to make it believable that he was the pirate that everyone else feared. The script didn't help when this fearsome pirate was on a quest for the Fountain due to a prophecy that he would be killed by a one legged man. How's that for bravery? Ian McShane was fantastic as the villain to reckon with when he voiced Tai Lung in Kungfu Panda and sadly the same result didn't replicate here.

Mermaids, best part of the show

The romance between the two couples here felt mishandled. It's not as clear cut or well established like the romance between Will and Elizabeth. The chemistry between Angelica and Jack Sparrow felt that it needed a little bit more work on it or maybe a little bit more screen time to make it convincing. The love story between the mermaid Syrena and Philip, the religious man who tried to redeem Blackbeard soul felt rather squeezed in to make the Fountain plot device work. It could have been easily written off and it would not have make any major impact to the story. Personally, the love story between Syrena and Philip bogged the pace of the story down. This review belongs to filmsblitz at blogspot

If On Stranger Tides was the first movie, I don't think they will be making so much money or churning out sequels like this franchise did. This installment felt bland and is running out of creative juice to drive this franchise. But then again, my friend who went in with low expectation had a jolly good time watching Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Perhaps it would be wiser to be less critical of this movie and just go with the flow on this one.


Coda

There's a scene at the end of the Credits. (Scroll Over to Read)It shows the abandoned Angelica sitting alone on the beach and She discovered Jack Sparrow's voodoo doll being washed up on the shores. Angelica takes the doll and smiles with a wicked intention for revenge (End of Scroll)

Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides Character Poster

Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides Character Poster

Updated: Movie Review

Geoffrey Rush / Captain Hector Barbossa Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides poster

Penélope Cruz / Angelica Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides poster

Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides Mermaids poster

Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey / Syrena & Philip Swift / Sam Claflin Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides poster

Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey / Syrena Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides poster

Johnny Depp Captain / Jack Sparrow Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides poster

Ian Mcshane / Blackbeard Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides poster

Disney Studios SG just posted a new poster for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides on their Facebook Page. Looking forward to 19th May 2011

UPDATED

Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides Johnny Depp Captain Jack Sparrow poster

Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides Teaser poster

UPDATED: Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides Characters [ Posters ]
Updated: Movie Review 

It's a Great Great World | 大世界 [ Movie Review ] ★★1/2

Last Year Eric Tsang's 72 Tenants of Prosperity was a success at the Hong Kong Lunar New Year Box Office. The movie basically reminiscence the past with various Hong Kong movies actors and TVB television actors. This year, he is back with I Love Hong Kong and here in Singapore, we are getting It's a Great Great World 大世界, a He Sui Pian with similar structure from director Kevin Tong (Rule #1) and the Singapore MediaCorp Artistes.

For the younger folks who don't know about the Great World Amusement Park, it was one of the three amusement parks in Singapore. Back then, they were Singaporean's top choice of entertainment before the onslaught of television and shopping centers. It's kinda ironic that the movie about the Great World Amusement Park are performed with the local television actors. The same bunch of people who are drinking from the well that killed Great World. Bet you never thought of it that way.

Anyway, It's a Great Great World is a rojak mix of good stuff and the not so good stuff. There are moments that it hits the sweet spot that it was going for and there are moments that it just flounder badly.

The film starts with a young fashion photographer, Ah Min (Olivia Ong) doing a final walkthough at her late grandma (Yvonne Lim) photo studio before closure. She came across some of her grandma's favorite photo and decided to set out to find the owners of those photos. Using her grandma's phone book, she managed to locate Ah Meng (Chew Chor Meng), one of the guy in the four photos.

This grumpy old man turned out to be a lok lok (assorted dip snack) seller at the Great World Amusement Park and he went on to tell her about the four individual stories that are attached to those old photos. It felt kinda strange that for someone who missed her grandma funeral and will be heading overseas the next day for work would want to undertake such a mission. But if Ah Min never persisted in such a strange awkward mission, we won't be getting the following four stories.
 
The first story is about Ah Boo (Henry Thia), a middle age guy who getting all dress up to meet Elizabeth Taylor when she visited Great World Amusement Park's Sky Theatre for a movie premiere. He got his roses and photographer ready but his boss, the ringmaster appeared out of nowhere and forced him back to work. It turned out that Ah Boo was a clown and his boss is a meanie that like to torture his staff to amuse the young audience.

The issue here would be how the filmmakers and cast tried to squeeze humour out of the segment. Is it funny to see a drunken ringmaster bullying his performers? Is the movie trying to say that the kids back then enjoyed such mean-spirited acts? The freak show that the segment is trying to muster is so poor constructed that if that was the kind of acts performing in Great World Amusement Park, it's understandable why the park had to close down. Then there's the lame ideas of helping Ah Boo achieving his objective with Elizabeth Taylor.

However, all the issues with this segment aside, when the movie revealed the final act of the segment, it has a touching quality that was quite unexpected. It has such a heartwarming moment that made all the poor buildup bearable.

The second story is about romance between Mei Juan (Joanna Peh) a game stall vendor and Ah Leong (Zhang Zhen Huan) an ointment seller from a Malaysia kampong. While Joanna Peh and Zhang Zhen Huan looked good as a couple, the setup for these two to fall in love was weak in many ways.

For example, Ah Leong was fleeing from some unsatisfied customers who happened to be gangsters and in an attempt to get away with it, he decided to kiss Mei Juan as a cover up. It's an overused film trick that poor executed here. The situation was not properly set up to make it seems like he had no choice but to force his way with her to escape those that are chasing after him. In fact, it would have been better if he just hide behind the game table. It just hard to believe that the female game stall vendor didn't struggle harder to break away from him (and thus exposing him) and those gangsters would miss all those smooching right in plain sight.

But then again, this segment did managed to have moments that generate the sizzle between these two. Especially the part when Ah Leong dared Mei Juan to take the ghost house ride. It's easily the most funny moment of the show and in the midst of all the spooky comedy, romance between these two character started seeping through. There's also feisty moments when Mei Juan tore down Ah Leong's attempts to be suave that a delight to watch. In the end, it managed to make one root for their unlikely romance and given the weak introduction to these characters, it's impressive in it's own right.



The third story is about Rose (Xiang Yun), an aging singer who stayed on with the Flamingo nightclub because a man once promised that he would return to marry her. 10 years later, Rose had became bitter and drowning herself with liquor to get by. Her performance went downhill and so did her her popularity with the customers. Her manager Peter (Huang Wengyong) stood by her while the other performers schemed to remove her from the nightclub. They decided to place a ring on her dressing table to fool her that her man had finally returned. Rose took the bait and went onstage to give her final performance. It was after she declared her retirement that she discovered that she been fooled.

The story felt rather uneven and naively constructed. It's difficult to believe that a veteran performer would act so rash. I am aware that the movie was going for a lovesick singer who had waited way too long but it's not really well constructed why she would just assumed that the ring is from her dream lover without even seeing his shadow. There were a couple more twists along the way and each twist became more unsatisfying and it's pretty obvious that it's pandering to a happy ending closure.

But nevertheless, Xiang Yun performance was the saving grace of this segment. She switches from a depressed lovesick singer to a revitalized singer effortlessly. She still has that alluring presence that carried off well into the veteran singer role and when she performed the Chinese popular songs such as Méigui méigui wǒ ài nǐ 玫瑰玫瑰我愛你  (Rose, Rose, I Love You), it was a groovy good time that brings back all the charms of old Singapore. It's a pity that there isn't enough screentime and material for her to properly work on her character.

The last story would be one that is close to the narrator's heart. The last photo was a portrait of his mute wife Bee Lian (Apple Hong) and him. It brought back memories of his wedding dinner that he was too poor to hold but his in law (Chen Shucheng) helped him to throw one at Yong Chun Yuen restaurant (one of the famous restaurant that's still around today). While his in law was bargaining about the cost of the wedding banquet with the manager, Japanese started the historic invasion of Singapore. In order to give this newly weds a night to remember, the restaurant staff did something pretty unbelievable.

As again, there's mixed feeling for this segment. The film was trying so hard to show multiple dialects were the norm in back in the old days and attempting to derive the comedy out of the mixture, it just sound a little unnatural and forced. It was also amazing that the restaurant staff would make the decision of staying put during the bombardment. It's clear that they are trying to showcase the sentimentality of Singaporeans back in the old days but then again, isn't it foolish to risk the lives of the customers when Singapore are getting bombed?

But as again, it managed to achieved some touching moments. Especially when Bee Lian made a silent pledge as a wife to Ah Meng when we were aware of her fate from the beginning. Even though it's rather foolish, it's still heartwarming to see the restaurant staff mustering up courage to be defiant in the face of the impending invasion.

Stories aside, it's going to be a tough challenge to reproduce The Great World Amusement Park. The production set and the manner the movie was frame told tell tale sign of budget constrain. The indoor sets and stalls looked like something borrowed from the Singapore television program back in the 80s and 90s. There are also far too few Calefare (extras) to make the Great World Amusement Park convincing as the bustling place that folks flock to in the olden days.

Then there's the amount of dialects used in this movie. Normally dialects help to bring a form of authenticity to the people and time that the film is trying to represent but it felt that some of the cast are having a hard time with the dialects.

Comparing to the Hong Kong Lunar New Year flicks out this year, It's a Great Great World felt dwarfed by the experts in such genre. This movie felt like a telemovie that's out to cash in on the Chinese New Year crowd and the production felt rather rushed with budget constrain. There are quite a few moments that's really good but it's a pity that the journey there were marred with bad story planning. Personally it's hard to recommend this movie but I heard that there are people who liked it and personally know some who thought it was quite well made for the genre that this movie falls in.