Trigger

a.k.a - I have too many DVDs, so tell me what to watch.

So I placed my first big order in quite some time the other day. It hasn't arrived yet, but it should be here soon. Here's the list...

Love Bakery
Pisces
Summer Breeze of Love
Wasabi
Sleeping With The Dead
City Horror - Scream
Dream of A Warrior
Hit The Goal
Shinjuku Boy Detectives
Go!
My Left Eye Sees Ghosts
Getting Any
Chinese Odyssey II - Cinderella (Mega Star Version)
Chinese Odyssey I - Pandora' Box (Mega Star Version)
Phantom The Submarine
I Not Stupid
If U Care....
Frightful School Horror, A
Dog Soldiers (Full Version)
Infernal Affairs (Dual Endings Edition DVD)
Conman 2002
Memento
PingPong
Love For All Seasons
Black Mask 2
Golden Chicken
Hero
Naked Weapon
Laundry
Marrying The Mafia (2 Disc - Korean Version)
Phone (Korean Version)
Oasis (Korean Version)
Surprise ( Korean Version )
Lover's Concerto (Korean Version)
Break Out ( Korean Version )
2009 Lost Memories ( Korean Version )
Jail Breakers (Korean Version)

I recently watched some that I had backlogged... Dead or Alive, Guns and Talks, Last Witness, Sorum, Avalon and a few others. If you want my thoughts on these or any others, my doors are now open. Feel free to make requests for films you don't see listed - chances are I probably have them on DVD or have seen them (well, it's possible anyway)

d2cheer

Reviews of these please
Phone (Korean Version), Infernal Affairs (Dual Endings Edition DVD) and Hero


I am also wondering what you mean by full version of Dog Soldiers... I have the UK Region 2 SE and was not aware of any cuts...

BTW I thought Guns & Talks was pretty slow... 4/10

Avalon was pretty cool I would give that one a 6.5/10

Trigger

Guns and Talks was pretty forgettable, but not a bad movie really. Avalon was crap (IMO), but i'm keeping it anyway cuz some of the effects were cool. Really lame movie though.

I don't know about that whole Dog Soldiers thing - that's the description from my receipt that I just cut and pasted.

Those were the 3 films that topped my list already to watch first (along with 2009)... so you got it.

zerotl

Korean movies please, especially jail breakers and break out.
tnx.

I don't mean to hype anything, but pingpong was AWEEESOME!!!!

Trigger

Everyone's been saying how awesome pingpong is - I'm really excited for it. Package hasn't arrived yet - I think one or two items in my order are holding it up. I hope DVDShelf doesn't just ship my order incomplete. :/

On another note - I received my Korean DVDs of Battle Royale and Shaolin Soccer from DVDAsian - let me tell you that they are going to start getting more business from me - really awesome customer service and speedy shipping. They also carry alot of stuff that other sites don't have. They've moved into my top 4 asian online stores.

devilshalo

Infernal Affairs, Wasabi, BM2... Please.

Glad you're taking requests again. Sorry it comes at the expense of being newly single.

zerotl

Are you sure they have shaolin soccer korean version @ dvdasian? I just checked, and they're out of stock. ONe other thing, does it also have that combing effect that the HK release had?

Trigger

They had it when I ordered it... maybe I got the last one.

As for the combing effect - I noticed it at first, but then I adjusted my player and TV settings and it went away. I never had that problem with the HK release. I set my player to treat my TV as a widescreen and then I set my TV to widescreen as well (I have a hi-def 4:3 set that can act as a widescreen set) - the image is awesome.

Trigger

Allright - my order came in. I'm excited to start watching these. I'll start tonight - first up is probably Phone and 2009 and maybe Internal Affairs. I'll let you know once I watch them.

Trigger

I watched Ping Pong and half of Phone last night.

Ping Pong was a cute little movie about a couple of kids (Smile and Peco) who grew up together playing ping pong. Smile always idolized Peco and thought of him as a Hero. Peco was always outgoing and confident and Smile - who got his name because he never did - was always shy and reserved and introverted. They became the best ping pong players of their high school, but playing against each other, Smile - never wanting to show up his hero - would always be holding back. Peco soon learns that Smile is better than he is and he quits the game and gives up his dream of becoming the best. I won't reveal any more than that - you'll have to watch it. Just know that it's a touching coming of age/loss of innocence film.

Sam Lee is in this as well playing a ping pong player from Shanghai. The cast is great overall. Peco and Smile have great chemistry on screen. The ping pong scenes were good... some were excellent, but overall I was a bit disappointed I think. I've seen professional ping pong being played and I was expecting a bit more. One of my friends actually went pro with it and was ranked something like 16th in the country. As intense as it was in the film - it gets even more intense and fast-paced than that in real life. Then again, these are high-school kids so maybe they weren't pro level yet. In any case, that's not the main focus of the film - it's just the backdrop for the relationships forged around the game.

I was a little bit let-down with the ending - those who have seen it may know what I mean by that - but I did quite enjoy the movie. It's not really something I have to see over and over again, but it's almost worth the asking price (15 USD) for the HK DVD. The DVD I picked up was pressed by Panorama (up and comer). The DTS sound was great and the transfer was pretty clean and accurate. The DVD was feature-less, though it did come with a slipcase... classy. I'd say it's about all you would need for this film.

This was a well-made film and everything from the acting to the directing to the cinematography to the story was all good stuff. This is a great family movie and I can easily recommend that it end up in your collection. The movie gets an 8.2 from me.

________________

Phone on the other hand... I watched half of this last night before falling asleep. I'm most definitely going to watch it again and all the way through because it's decent so far. I'd say this film is a bit overhyped though. There are some scary moments and some creepy scenes, but the slick interface and over-glossy production value makes this film seem too sterile to be scary. This must be Korea's answer to Ring... (as if Ring Virus wasn't enough). I won't bother doing a full review until I've seen the whole thing, but so far it's worth watching. Hopefully there will be a big climax at the end - I'll be quite honest and tell you that I don't really like where the plot is headed... So far it's about a girl who wrote a column about some sex offenders and started getting stalked by one of them who was angry about it - he'd harass her on her cell phone. She changes her number and starts getting even stranger mysterious calls. It turns from a thriller to a ghost story pretty quickly and with little warning. The girl's sister has a husband and a creepy little ugly daughter who starts acting like Regan MacNeil.

The verdict's not out on this one yet, but so far I'm quite torn between thinking it's crap and thinking it's a fun and stylish Korean popcorn flick. One thing about Korean cinema is that they know how to make good looking films... great with the camera and effects and they throw nice hefty budgets at them. Alot of times though it seems like they just make them up as they go along... I find myself wanting to say "style over substance" about almost every Korean film I see. That doesn't mean that I don't like alot of them though. Volcano High and Shiri were incredibly stupid, but I wouldn't want to ever part with the DVDs cuz I love watching them.

Hopefully today I'll be able to get to the ones I promised - I wanted to wait until my roommate could watch them with me (he had to work last night). If he works again, I'll just watch Black Mask 2 and perhaps finish Phone and watch either Dog Soldiers or Hero (VCD) or Jailbreakers. If he can watch something with me, I'll make sure and watch Internal Affairs and 2009 Lost Memories if there's time.

Trigger

Ok - I've watched the following... Summer Breeze of Love, My Left Eye Sees Ghosts, Phantom The Submarine, Infernal Affairs, Golden Chicken, Hero, and 2009 Lost Memories. I'll be glad to post my thoughts on them if anyone's interested.

Here's a quick run-down... let me know if you want me to elaborate (if anyone's reading this thread still that is).

Summer Breeze of Love - 4.5
My Left Eye Sees Ghosts - 6.5
Phantom The Submarine - 7.8
Infernal Affairs - 7
Golden Chicken - 5
Hero - 9
2009 Lost Memories - 7

LeRoy

I'd like to know more about Phantom The Submarine. Could you compare it to other movies? Maybe talk about the story and the SFX?

Thanks

Trigger

Phantom The Submarine is basically a Korean version of Crimson Tide. A sub's weapons commander fires on a superior officer who was going crazy and earned himself a firing squad execution. He lives through it only to be stripped of his identity and given a number and a position on S. Korea's first secret Phantom nuclear sub. The entire crew is nameless and the project is a big secret. The following spoiler tells a bit more, but I don't reveal the ending or anything.



They did a remarkable job of making a low-budget sub movie look good enough to hang with the big dogs of sub movies. Of course there are plenty of scenarios that rely on the ignorance of the audience, but as with Crimson Tide they are forgiveable (guess that depends on if you like Crimson Tide or not). This movie had alot of good suspense and action. Fans of Die Hard movies and Under Seige movies should take note of this film.

Special effects-wise, they went with scale models in murky water and it looked quite good. Torpedo launches were handled with CGI that was top quality. That's about all there was in terms of special effects. Although there was plenty of blood and water and steam which all looked quite realistic. Considering the movie came out in 1999, it's quite remarkable.

The DVD from Modern had fantastic DTS sound and a quality picture transfer. Shy on the extras, but it came in an Amaray style case with a slipcover. Nice indeed.

I enthusiastically recommend this to those who liked Crimson Tide, Die Hard and Under Seige.

rkndkn

Hi Trigger,

Could you tell me if Panorama's "Ping Pong" is a TRUE Region 3? Everywhere says Region 3 except for DVD Asian, which lists it as "All". So I was wondering if it's one of those 3's which is actually not coded.

Thanks a lot!

Trigger

Yes - it's indeed Region 3.

LeRoy

Hey Trigger, thanks for the lowdown on Phantom! I liked Crimson Tide so I think I'll give this one a try.

Kumar J

You did not get The Returner !Its a 2 disk DTS with English subs!If you want I can get it for you from Tokyo

Trigger

never heard of The Returner... hmm... fill me in.

IC_Freeze

hey Trigger, some questions....

infernal affairs only a 7? must not be good?

Also what did you think of Lover's conserto? I thought it was great movie, a bit cheezy at times but it fits well.

Ping pong - so it's good huh? good enough to stick it in your pants?

Kumar J

Here you go, and make sure you see the trailer.It was not a big hit in Japan because it's a voilent picture.But you might like it
http://www.returner.net/

Trigger

Yeah, man - Infernal Affairs was decent and gets a solid 7 from me... I liked the story and whatnot - a 7 is actually a pretty good score when you think about it. A 5 is an average & watchable film. Levels of suck for me are 1-4. 7 is good. Things I didn't like are the lack of action, the lack of style (I mean it was neither slick and polished enough nor was it quirky enough to be classic HK cinema), and the alternate ending. Yeah - it lost half a point due to the lame alternate ending. They made it out like it was a big deal and it turns out to be nothing... a big fat nothing. 20 seconds of film. A different outcome. Yawn. The DVD was good. It's worth picking up I think - no biggie if you pass on it though. They created an intriguing plot and managed to sqeeze out a bit of tension.

I didn't see Lover's Concerto yet. I'll try to watch it tomorrow.

Ping Pong is good. It's wholesome enough to watch with the family and yet cool enough that you don't feel like you're watching some kid's movie... it's certainly not a kid's movie. It's a nice change of pace - especially if you look at your DVDs and most of them are violent bloody Tokyo shock cinema.

Trigger

whoa - I want it. Is there another DVD besides the Japanese versions?


By the way... I watched Dog Soldiers. Sheesh, what a pile. It was fun, but high on the stupid factor. The DVD is crap cuz it's fullscreen. That's probably what full version meant. :/ Adjusting the X/Y scaling revealed a bit more picture, but not enough. I give it a 5 and recommend it only with the caveat that you have to know you're getting a fun bad movie. There's some good about it, but overall just stupid.

If anyone wants a real review of this or something else, let me know. I'm trying to get to the rest of the list.

Trigger

Actually, yeah - can you get it for me? And what's the price gonna be? cdjapan is OOP on the 2 disc. email me or somethin.

Trigger

I watched:

Jailbreakers - 8
Phone - 7.5
Marrying the Mafia - 8.5

Great night for films. I'm happy to give a review on any of them if anyone wants one.

squidget

wow. this looks bada$$ i bit the bullet and bought it over at
http://www.hmv.co.jp
it looks well worth the funds.

Trigger,
whats your full review on Jailbreaker?