Koi Mil Gaya (2003)

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Posted on May 29, 2004 by Eugene

A Bollywood Sci-Fi flick, eh?

The first time I heard about Koi Mil Gaya, I admit to be mildly interested. I envisioned an epic space opera with emphasis on the opera. I imagined something as camp and kitsch as the Flash Gordon movie with dance numbers.

The credits open with a comets crashing and galaxies swirling. Words scroll up the screen in that oh so familiar fashion and… we get the opening credits. So what I get instead is a … (read more)

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Indestructible Hong Kong: Festival 04

Posted on May 20, 2004 by Alison

HKIFF 2004 Report

I’ll try something a bit different this year, in the interest of getting my report finished before December. So you’ll be getting a brief review-ette of all the films, followed by production details, and full reviews of a selection of the more interesting ones. Let me know what you think…

Three-Corner Bout: Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines

I caught three of the Thai films on offer this year, representing three very different styles. Beautiful Boxer, a … (read more)

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Hebei Acrobatic Troupe of China

Posted on May 20, 2004 by Jonathan

Being bend-y was never my thing. My sense of self-worth was in no way related to whether or not I could do the splits (probably a good thing, considering that I even find touching my toes a bit of a stretch), and my lack of gymnastic ability had never really bothered me…until, that is, I had the good fortune to see the Hebei Acrobatic Troupe, when it had me near suicidal.

These guys are incredible. They even put the lead-footed … (read more)

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Uproar in Heaven (1965)

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Posted on April 30, 2004 by Ching Yee

Vintage clothes are always in fashion it seems and just like vintage threads, old animation is always welcome.

Uproar in Heaven is pretty old and rare — produced through the years 1961 and 1964. A lot has progressed in the world of animation since then, the most notable of which is the use of the computer in animation but it’s also good to see many principles of animations hasn’t changed.

Animated by the Shanghai Animation Studio, this program is actually … (read more)

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Bollywood Queen (2004)

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Posted on April 22, 2004 by Eugene

Maybe there’s been too much Mike Leigh viewing recently but there must be something distinctly drab and grey about British film and TV that, when trying to recall examples of films in a contemporary setting, the only ones that come to mind are those that have dark and mundane urban settings or imperfect and almost tragic protagonists.

Of course you contrast this with the Bollywood tradition where things seem exotic and colourful – where there are no moral ambiguities and … (read more)

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Herbal Tea (2004)

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Posted on March 30, 2004 by Eugene

The joke was going to be that I wasn’t going to mention Chungking Express.

Well, all hail B’doom-ch’nk, the god of obvious punchlines.

Watching Herbal Tea, it is pretty hard to not draw some parallels with Wong Kar Wai’s debut masterpiece – but not for anything particularly praiseworthy or innovative. Just the plotline of the third story in CKE is quite closely aligned to that in Herbal Tea.

(For those not familiar with Faye Wong’s debut performance … (read more)

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2002 (2001)

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Posted on March 4, 2004 by Jonathan

This film stinks and I hate it. You know why? Not because of the completely incoherent plot. Not because the performances exist in an emotional vacuum. Not even because the soundtrack (ironically featuring a song entitled “Let Me Die”) made me want to kill myself. No, I hate 2002 because I want to be a magic cop. (Actually, I really want to be a magical-realist cop, but I’d happily settle for the plain old magic version.) If I was a … (read more)

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Elixir of Love (2004)

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Posted on February 19, 2004 by Eugene

Like all nostalgic reminisces, fairytales no longer seem to be as good as they use to be. It seems the underlying message of the stories are either too unPC or trite to really appeal to our grown up sensibilities. And yet most of us still maintain a small emotional attachment to them. Add to that, the modern-day fairytale which is the Romantic Comedy and you are more than likely to draw an audience.

So yes, this applies to Elixir of … (read more)

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