What was the last Chinese film you watched?

[Meng Lelan]

roddy, you absolutely should. My kids loved both movies and were always snatching it out of my wushu DVD library to watch them over and over.

[imron]

Which version of Shaolin Soccer did you watch? There is the international version which for whatever reason has a few key scenes cut from it, and the original version. Obviously the original is the better version, and in fact there are parts that just don't make sense in the international version due to the missing scenes.

I just watched 大笑江湖, which is a pretty lacklustre martial arts comedy starring 赵本山 and 小沈阳, about a shoe-repairer who stumbles his way to becoming a hero in a plot to assasinate the emperor.

[Meng Lelan]

I'm watching 武林志 right now.

[roddy]

It was on an ancient VCD (remember those?) and the film made sense (well, I thought it made sense) so I'm guessing it was the original.

[Gleaves]

I just watched two 80s HK horror movies - 凶猫 (Evil Cat) and 凶榜 (The Imp). Much to my surprise, I enjoyed both, especially Evil Cat. Cheesy, but fun.

[abcdefg]

I watched a prequel to 叶问 and 叶问2 coming over on the plane a couple days ago. It was called "The Legend Is Born - Ip Man" ( 叶问前传 / Ye Wen Qian Zhuan). I missed Donnie Yen as lead actor. Unfortunately the details of the film are kind of blurry now due to ingesting it together with several others in a non-stop movie coma during the 13.5 hour trans-Pacific flight.

[amandagmu]

女篮五号 and have started 冰上姐妹。Still looking for a copy of 两个小足球队。I'm studying sports history in the 50s and 60s.... go figure. :-)

I saw Ip Man 2 about two weeks ago. It was meh. I liked the first one a heck of a lot better.

Are there any movie-watching groups in Beijing? Or does anyone want to start one? I'd volunteer my place if we can figure out how to hook up my mac (or your PC laptop) to the giant TV sitting in my living room (came with the rental, but I hate watching TV... so...). I'll make popcorn and buy some beer.

[gougou]

I'll be gone the next two months but I'd be interested in a movie watching group after that!

[Lu]

Me too! Both the two months' absence and the interest in a movie club.

[renzhe]

I've just finished 非诚勿扰 2. Didn't think that I'd like it, and I was right

It has a strong cast, but it's neither here nor there. I guess I'm not into the genre.

[imron]

Did you see the first one?

[gato]

Saw “让子弹飞” a few days. It's the biggest Chinese movie in recent year. Domestic ticket sales are reported to have surpassed even Avatar.

I was a bit disappointed by it actually. I think the movie would have been better if it were more realistic so that you could identify more with the characters. Some people say that they had to exaggerate the story of corruption, sale of political offices and revolt against the rich to get passed the censors. There is probably some truth in that. The movie is like a cross between a historical drama by Jiang Wen, a farce by Feng Xiaogang, and a Hong Kong kungfu/organized crime story (Jiang Wen, Feng Xiaogang, Ge You, and Chow Yun Fat are have roles in the movie). The combination does seem a bit awkward.

[roddy]

I was just about to ask if anyone'd seen that. I won't put it at the top of my list then.

[skylee]

I like the trailer of 非誠勿擾2. I will see it when it is released here.

[abcdefg]

Saw “让子弹飞” a few days. It's the biggest Chinese movie in recent years.

I saw it yesterday in Kunming. Had lots of the right ingredients, but somehow they did not coalesce. It was good to see 周润发 Chow Yun Fat again with a decent role after stumbling through that awful Confucius mess last year.

I will have to admit that my languange skills were not totally up to the task. Several places in which the audience laughted, I was left completely in the dark.

[renzhe]

Did you see the first one?

No, but I was told that it was better. I was also told that you don't need to have seen the first one, as long as you know the basic premise.

[rob07]

Been watching a few movies lately. The new releases seem to show up on youtube very fast, much faster than on any of the Chinese sites.

赵氏孤儿

If you like ancient Greek tragedies (which I do) you will like this, very much the same sort of feel. The story originally comes from the 史记. I was surprised to find that the story is actually quite well known already in the West, Voltaire did his own adaptation of it.

大笑江湖

One for the Jin Yong fans, others probably won't like it.

让子弹飞

Like gato says, this one is a mix of a lot of different sorts of stuff, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Still, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it before and it kept me very engaged so that is a good thing. Loved the Chinese-English bilingual puns.

非诚勿扰2

An OK movie I guess but it just felt like a much less good version of the first one. A classic sequel.

Ge You is in three of these. He's been busy!

[imron]

Heh, I like Jin Yong and didn't think that much of 《大笑江湖》。 In my opinion a better, recent movie in this genre is 《剑雨》, which also stars the same baddy as 《赵氏孤儿》。

[skylee]

Ah, so 非誠勿擾2 is not that good? Perhaps I should just spend the money on some other film then.

[BaoMiHua]

Having watched 非诚勿扰 just couple days ago I watched 非诚勿扰2 yesterday, and feel similar to rob07’s comments, ok sequel, but the first one was better.

Would probably recommend for people seen then first one, but maybe that's just me since if I don’t hate the original, I will usually watch all sequels too, no matter how bad they turn out to be :rolleyes: