The Lost Bladesman (關雲長)
Big-budget martial arts history epic set it in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history that tells the famous story of the warrior Guan Yunchang (關雲長), who subsequently was immortalized as Guangung (關公), the god of war. Guan epitomizes the valor and righteousness of a great warrior, and Donnie Yen (甄子丹), despite his small stature, does a reasonable job in portraying this massive figure, making up with martial dexterity what he lacks in imposing physique. Written and directed by Alan Mak (麥兆輝) and Felix Chong (莊文強), who created the Infernal Affairs franchise, there is plenty of room in this film for political intrigue, as the virtuous Guan faces off against the devious arch villain Cao Cao (曹操), played by veteran Chinese actor Jiang Wen (姜文).
The Burning Plain
From the pen of Guillermo Arriaga, the screenwriter who also brought us the seriously heavy films 21 Grams and Babel, The Burning Plain is yet another exercise in Arriaga’s perennial and heavy-handed exploration of the human condition. Taking his place in the director’s chair for the first time, Arriaga brings his vision to us in undiluted form, using all the familiar techniques of preposterous coincidence, an absurd understanding of human motivation, and a multi-stranded, chronologically fractured narrative. At the center of the film is a burning caravan containing the bodies of two adulterous lovers. How did they get there? How did their affair affect those around them? Do we really care? Competent acting by the likes of Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger never quite manages to lift this movie beyond a formal exercise in art house self-congratulation.
When We Leave (Die fremde)
A powerful indie film that tackles the issue of honor killing. The story is about Umay, a young German woman of Turkish descent who is fighting for independence. The victim of domestic abuse, she flees to find refuge with her own family, whose main concern is more about her honor than her well-being. The film, which has done well on the fringes of the festival circuit, is driven by social concern, and this inevitably narrows the focus of the drama, giving the characters little life outside of the issue at hand. For all that, director Feo Aladag takes pains not to over-simplify the issues, and even characters such as Umay’s violent brother Mehmet are given a degree of light and shade.
Dream Home (維多利亞壹號)
Real estate ambitions take a murderous turn in Dream Home, in which Josie Ho (何超儀) plays a salary worker who knows what she wants, and if she can’t get the luxury apartment she wants with money alone, she will take things into her own hands. Bursting jugulars and cranial evacuation via vacuum cleaner are just some of the horrors on offer, but unfortunately director Pang Ho-cheung’s (彭浩翔) inventiveness pretty much stops there. This is a one joke social satire about the lengths people will go to get the right apartment in the big city, and even Ho’s gutsy performance, infused with a profound sense of urban malaise, cannot save the film from banality.
Hatchet II
A serviceable horror movie in its first incarnation in 2006, this sequel is just an excuse for more blood — buckets more. Picking up where the last movie left off (Marybeth escaped the clutches of the bayou-butcher Victor Crowley), the heroine is back with a new cast of victims, purportedly to recover the remains of her family. There is plenty of action with a chainsaw, and a butcher’s shop worth of viscera is scattered about the screen, but director Adam Green seems to think this will make up for the lack of a comprehensive story and command of dramatic structure. It doesn’t.
Welcome to Sha-ma Town (決戰剎馬鎮)
Billed as a Western comedy, Welcome to Sha-ma Town is the debut feature of director Li Weiran (李蔚然), a well-respected director of commercials. The film features Taiwan-born comedian Lee Li-chun (李立群), super model Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) and emerging Chinese actor Sun Honglei (孫紅雷). Set in China’s “Wild West” of Gansu Province, this is a comic cat-and-mouse game between two rival sets of villains looking for buried treasure. The battle is ignited when the mayor of Shama brings a random collection of local artifacts onto a TV antiques show. There is plenty of social satire about China’s get-rich-quick mentality, but both the humor and the satire are largely aimed at an Asian audience.
Hello Ghost (Hellowoo Goseuteu)
South Korean comedy drama that goes the route of laughter and tears. A huge success in its home market when released earlier this year, it is reported that the English-language rights have already been bought by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets director Chris Columbus. The story is about Sang Man, a depressed and lonely man who starts seeing ghosts. He must fulfill their wishes if he is to escape them, rather in the manner of the Ricky Gervais vehicle Ghost Town, and in reluctantly doing so, he rediscovers his own joy in living.
Amore 14 and Sorry I Want to Marry You
Two films written and directed by Italian Federico Moccia. The first is an Italian teen romance that has failed to generate much interest since its release in 2009. A 14-year-old suffers various minor romantic tribulations on her way through high school in this Italian remake of countless insipid Hollywood reworkings of the genre. The second is an unconvincing but mildly amusing story of the mayhem that ensues when a middle-aged executive falls for a bubbly high school senior.
1778 Stories of Me and My Wife (Boku to tsuma no 1778 no monogatari)
An inverted Scheherazade tale from Japanese director Mamoru Hoshi, this film tells the story of a science fiction writer who promises to write a funny story to his wife every day for the short time she has to live after being diagnosed with cancer. Bitter sweet, with some fine acting and an almost fatal lack of structure, 1778 Stories of Me and My Wife falls firmly into that category of films about loss that try to affirm life though learning about its close.
Spanish Movie
A Spanish send-up of contemporary Spanish movies in the manner of the Wayans brothers, this film is so utterly derivative in concept that it will make you believe that Scary Movie is the height of comedic invention.
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