What was the last Chinese film you watched?

[skylee]

I watched 高海拔之戀 a few hours ago. It was not too bad. Nice scenery in the film, and I like the freckles on 鄭秀文's face. I suppose it is suitable for watching on a date.

Actually the most annoying thing about watching this film was that the Mandarin speaking audience in the row behind me would not stop talking. This really didn't help improving the bias.

[gato]

I watched 高海拔之戀 a few hours ago. It was not too bad.

Is "not too bad" different from "not bad"? Two stars vs three?

[character]

我知女人心 (What Women Want) - I found it tedious (and sexist, but I guess that comes from the original).

[skylee]

I think 我知女人心 is a stupid film. How can a high flyer in the PR industry (Andy Lau) not know the face of a powerful woman (Gong Li) in the same field? It was so stupid that I quitted it after watching it for like 15 minutes on a long-haul flight.

[character]

How can a high flyer in the PR industry (Andy Lau) not know the face of a powerful woman (Gong Li) in the same field?

He was rather self-absorbed.

---

I've been watching a lot of Cathay films. They provide a fascinating look at a Hong Kong completely different from the modern city.

Some more information and reviews:

http://asian-cinema.blogspot.com/2010/01/cathay-remembrances.html

http://brns.com/pages/cathayrevs.html

[character]

East Wind, Rain - 东风雨 - Espionage movie set in WWII Shanghai. Watched it without English subs; couldn't really follow the mix of Mandarin, Japanese, and painfully-pronounced English. Stylish cinematography, though.

[Gleaves]

I finally saw 饮食男女, Eat Drink Man Woman. They showed it at one of the Smithsonian galleries here in DC. It was quite fun to see it with a large crowd as people's reactions to the dinner scenes were great. I did not expect it to be so funny.

[Lu]

Watched A Better Tomorrow. Fun movie, and such romance between Chow Yun Fat and the other guy!

[skylee]

But there are many guys in that film. But I guess you meant 狄龍.

[Lu]

Yes, Ti Lung. Incidentally, while Chow Yun Fat and Leslie Cheung both got very famous, I had never heard of Ti Lung before seeing this movie. I wonder why.

Saw part two yesterday. The story was not as well put together as in part one (in my opinion), but ohmygod Leslie Cheung *swoon*.

[skylee]

Yes he was just beautiful.

[character]

Yes, Ti Lung. Incidentally, while Chow Yun Fat and Leslie Cheung both got very famous, I had never heard of Ti Lung before seeing this movie. I wonder why.

Ti Lung was a big star in the 1970's. You could do worse than to watch his work then as way to get into Shaw Brothers films.

Greatest Civil War on Earth

Greatest Wedding on Earth

Two movies (with the same cast, though one isn't a sequel of the other) about the tension between Cantonese residents of Hong Kong and the influx of Mandarin-speaking refugees from the Mainland. I found them both pretty funny; the constant switching between Cantonese and Mandarin is head-spinning.

[Lu]

Yes he was just beautiful.

He was very handsome, but it's not just that, especially in that movie there is something about him that is just... I don't even know how to describe it.

Just saw part 3 (a colleague lent me a Chow Yun Fat box), which makes the mistake of bringing in a woman for the romance instead of keeping it between the guys. The woman is Anita Mui, who is very cool especially in the first part of the movie, but it's not enough. Then Tony Leung in this movie is not the Tony Leung I was expecting, and of course no Leslie Cheung in this one either. And it didn't help that the copy I was watching was dubbed in English, with no option for Cantonese.

All in all, considering Infernal Affairs and A Better Tomorrow, I conclude that Hong Kong cinema can make a great part 1, a part 2 very much worth watching, but things fall apart by part 3.

[abcdefg]

Saw New Dragon Gate Inn 新龙门客栈 today on a big screen downtown. Even though it first came out in 1992, It seems to have been re-released in honor of the Year of the Dragon. What a treat! Great film. Head and shoulders above that recent 龙门飞槚 debacle. And thank goodness, it was *not* in 3D.

[Neil_H]

Storm Warriors 2.

[animal world]

Over the weekend I watched Ang Lee's 饮食男女 (Eat Drink Man Woman) from 1994. This movie doesn't have great "depth" and after watching it you won't pick your brain trying to decipher what the movie is trying to tell you. This movie is very pleasant entertainment and the food... Oh, the food, is fabulous. It rekindled nice memories of my visit to Taiwan.

I enjoyed this movie and give it a warm recommendation.

[Kobo-Daishi]

The last Chinese film I saw was a piece of crap titled Xin Shao Lin Wu Zu (new Shaolin 5 ancestors).

One and a half hours of my life I'll never get back.

I watched it because of the discussion above about Ti Lung.

It got me to remembering the great kung fu movies he made in the 70s.

Shaolin Temple, the original Shaolin Wu Zu, Ten Tigers of Kwangtung.

I was always more into his early kung fu stuff rather than the John Woo two guns shooting/doves flying stuff.

I also enjoyed Ti Lung as Jackie Chan's dad in Drunken Master 2. Another great kung fu movie. On par with any of the Bruce Lee films.

Anyway, I was searching for Ti Lung on the Internet and saw mention of a new Shaolin Wu Zu so I decided to download a copy. I was so desperate for a copy that I was downloading 3 copies to see which one had the most seeders and would be the fastest to download.

It was taking days and then I thought it might be on one of the Chinese video sites, Tudou, Youku, etc.

I did an Internet search and got a Tudou link. It said it wasn't available outside of mainland China but then I got another link also Tudou and it worked. The first few minutes were pretty good but it took forever for it to stream so I waited for it to finish downloading on the p2p.

I was thoroughly disappointed. It was mostly kids fighting each other. A shiny aluminum mechanical fighting machine straight out of Power Rangers. A guy that looked the Red Skull without his mask. It was more like some of those silly superhero movies out of Japan than any proper kung fu film.

A waste of time.

Download Shaolin Temple, Shaolin Wu Zu, Ten Tigers of Kwangtung, or any of the other Ti Lung films from the 70s and you'd be better off.

[Kobo-Daishi]

I haven't seen the new Dragon Gate Inn.

I saw the one from 1992 on video a few years back. All I remember from the movie was that it was all this yellow hue to it. The desert sand and everything just covered yellow with dust.

I think one of the actresses got shot in the eye by one of the arrows flying all through the film. That's what someone once told me.

[Wang7]

Not a film, but a CCTV drama; Xi fu de mei hao shi dai

[Lu]

Wuxia (the one from last year with Donnie Yen). It was quite nice, a slow-paced wushu movie, which was a bit odd in the beginning, but overall I quite liked the movie.