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 : **

Gantz | ガンツ [ Movie Review ] ★★★1/2

The Pitch

Gantz has been in publication as a Manga series since 2000 and is currently going on strong. This gory manga depicts a group of people who were plucked right before their death and given a mission to kill aliens with futuristic weaponry. Folks who had not read the manga and wondered about it's popularity could finally get a taste of Gantz with the two part movies adaption.

To sweeten the deal, this film stars Kazunari Ninomiya and Kenichi Matsuyama as the two protagonists of Gantz. Kazunari Ninomiya career in Japan ranges from being a singer, songwriter, actor and radio host. For movie fans and the rest of the world, he probably more well known for his performance as Private Saigo in Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima.

Kenichi Matsuyama on the other hand, has been making regular appearance in recent Japanese movies that were shown in Singapore. Movies such as the Death Note franchise (as the iconic L), Detroit Metal City (switching from Johannes Krauser II and Souichi Negishi), Kamui Gaiden (as the reluctant ninja Kamui), Kaiji the Ultimate Gambler (doing a supporting role) and the recent Norwegian Wood which was shown just a couple of weeks ago. With these two popular Japanese actors / idols fronting the adaption of a popular manga series, it's intriguing to see what Gantz the movie has to offer.

The Plot

Kei Kurono (Kazunari Ninomiya) and Masaru Kato (Kenichi Matsuyama) tried to help a man who had fallen onto a subway tracks and after saving the man, they were hit by the oncoming train. Instead of dying a gruesome death, they were surprise to find themselves intact and teleported into a Tokyo apartment with a strange looking black sphere at one end of the room. They soon realized that they were not alone. The others were equally bewildered and no one could give a concrete explanation on  how they got there and what's going on.

After sometime, the black sphere known as "Gantz" was activated and presented a weird mission to the people in the apartment. Gantz then opened up and to their surprise, there a bald naked man with a breathing apparatus  They also found suits and a range of weapons inside three racks that protruding from Gantz. Before they could figure out what's going on, they were teleported back out to a Tokyo suburb to commence their alien hunting mission.

The Perspective

As a newbie to the Gantz story, this movie was an entertaining introduction to the world of Gantz. The premise for Gantz was pure escapism and high octane adventure that does not shy away from gore. The concept of hunting aliens in a wide variety of forms with a range of futuristic weaponry would appeal to fans of gaming, manga and fantasy.

Perfect Distraction

Not forgetting the babelicious eye candy Kei Kishimoto (Natsuna Watanabe) who provides a nice distraction from all the alien hunting going on in Gantz.

What the movie didn't do that well was the characterization of the Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato. Both came across as whinny as they struggle with their respective issues. The whole issue with Kei Kurono's childhood dreams of being a hero and Masaru Kato's being overly worried about his brother just slow down the pace of the movie. Instead of being excited about their new powers and thinking of how to  survive the next mission, they spend their time mopping about with their past problems. Personally it just felt like the wrong genre to explore such personal issues.

But overall, Gantz was fun and a great introduction to the manga series. It might inspire one to pick up the manga to see what's missing from the movie adaptation. It also wet one's anticipation for the sequel Gantz Perfect Answer. Let's hope that Gantz does well in Singapore so that the distributor would bring in Gantz Perfect Answer.

Kei Kishimoto (Natsuna Watanabe) So Sexy and Kawaii that I am going to post her picture again!

Rango [ Movie Review ] ★★★

The Pitch
The last time Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski teamed up, we got Captain Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Caribbeans franchise. Now they are back with an animation about a pet chameleon roughing it out in a small old west town populated by desert animals.

We have seen Johnny Depp in a variety of memorable roles that range from a murderous barber, the owner of a chocolate factor, a author of a classic story and a character from a classic story. Mostly characters that are a bit weird but always interesting.

Rango, a talking lizard who is out of his elements seemed like a role that suits Johnny Depp like a glove. A domestic pet trying to act tough in face of adversity has plenty of opportunities for laughs and Johnny Depp might just be the man to deliver it. The story of an accidental hero is not new but it might be lots of fun with Johnny Depp in the lead role.

Plus Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) who gave us  memorable special effects in Star Wars and plenty of others films, would be providing their first full length computer animation feature. Would be interesting to see if they can challenge Pixar, Dreamworks animation and other animation companies for a piece of the animation market pie.

The Plot

A lonely pet chameleon became accidentally stranded in a dessert after his tank was knocked out of a vehicle. After getting some direction from an armadillo, the chameleon set off to find the town of Dirt. Before reaching there, he was chased by a hawk and was nearly eaten up.

He met Beans (Isla Fisher) and she took her to the Dirt, a small town that looks like the Wild West. He enters a bar and found that it was filled with mean looking animals that are about to chew him up. In a moment of inspiration, he decided to role play as a tough character and called himself Rango. To gain some street cred with the folks in the bar, he decided to share bravado stories of his "past"

 Meanwhile, Beans who was trying to save her father's property, discovered that the only bank in town was running out water. Water in this movie is like the money, a prized commodity in this town and without it, the folks are leaving town.

Rango on the other hand, fascinated the rest with his stories until the real outlaws came by to challenge him. A shootout was about to happen when the hawk returns to Dirt. While everyone scrammed to hide from this predator, Rango was blissfully ignorant about it. In the overused accidental hero angle, Rango eventually found out and in moments of panic, he managed to kill the hawk.

The town mayor decided to make Rango the sheriff of the town and without thinking much about it, he took the job on. A worried Beans then demand Rango to quickly solve the water shortage problem.  Town folks also informed him that with the hawk gone, the second super predator, the rattlesnake might return. Rango who was busking in his new found adulation did not take those warning seriously and promised that he will solved the problem eventually.

On the first night as a sheriff, Rango inadvertently gave the mole robbers the bank location and tools to "prospect" the bank. Waking up to the discover that the bank had been robbed, Rango was tasked to form a posses to retrieve the stolen water. Along the way, Rango and Beans noticed that something is fishy about the town running out of water and it might be more than a mere robbery.

The Perspective

With high expectation comes disappointment. Rango is still somewhat enjoyable entertainment but it's definitely not as good as one would hope for.

From the start, it was incredibly tedious first hour that almost put me to sleep. It could be that I was tired but it felt like a long walk in the hot dry desert. The jokes were mostly flat and the best scenes were already on the trailer. It doesn't help that the movie moves in such a predictable fashion that it felt like it was cut and copy from many classic (cult or otherwise) movies. It's like I seen this movie before, in many different other fashions.

The characterization was a problem here and ironically Rango was the biggest culprit in most part of the movie. It was really hard to relate to this character. Personally, that not much in Rango character that would make me root for this underdog masquerading as a top dog. In fact, he became rather irritating egoistic when he became over confident. Not to mention there a silliness about Rango that seems like a desperate bid to endear himself to the audience. Some might like it but it did very little for me. Using Jack Sparrow as a reference, Johnny Depp's Rango would be like the Captain Sparrow in the last two installments where it would have been better if there's less of Captain Jack Sparrow.

But then again, things start to pick up in the later half when the story finally moved into the right gear. Once Rango and gang attempt to retrieve the water bottle from the moles, the action adventure started to veered into the right excitement. Things became more sinister and dark truths about the missing water started to unravel. A villain that worthy of attention finally shown up and things escalated to an interesting twist. Our hero went on a  personal journey to discover his identity and met a very iconic western genre character before going for a grand showdown.

It makes me wonder what happened in the first half. Was there a change in writers? Why did the story took so long to get where it was going? The last act was the redeeming part of the movie. It makes Rango likable once again and brings some sort of excitement to the movie. If only the movie was consistently good as the last act.

The animation factor. ILM did a commendable job. Some scenes were beautiful to look at. The rendering of Rango and his animal friends were top notch. Personally, I am looking forward to their next animation project.

Last but not least, Rango is filled with reference to classic movies and particularly Johnny Depp movies. See if you could spot references like Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas and Mad Max 2 . Some hit the right spots as intended while others did nothing much as being an obvious reference to those who knows. References to other movies might help up the fun factor of the movie but too much of it might bring along a negative effect.

Watching Rango makes me wonder how is this movie going to be marketed to kids. There are plenty of moments that felt too dark for a kid show. The reference jokes might be lost with them too. Personally, the film is marred by the slow start but somewhat redeemed by the final arc. Rango is entertaining but not as good as expected. Perhaps it's the high expectation or personal weariness that didn't allowed me to enjoy the first half of Rango as much I would like to. I am more than willing to rewatch this movie again to see if the perspective changes.