Reviews-Quiet Family,Mr.Wai-Go,Color Of Pain,Chinese Odyssey2002
05-24-02, 02:32 PM
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Reviews-Quiet Family,Mr.Wai-Go,Color Of Pain,Chinese Odyssey2002
-The Quiet Family
My favorite out of this group of five.
Basics: Dreaming and hoping for success- Mom,Pop, their 3 kids, & uncle buy a lodge up in the mountains to run. Several weeks go by before they get their first guest. He ends up dead. To avoid the bad publicity and escape the eye of the police, they decide to bury the body... And this is how it all starts... the degeneration of their ideals/morals/values. (In trying to solve problems that arise, they only manage to get worse off, usually later, but due to these prior actions...)
A very entertaining movie full of dark humor. It took me a while, but I did recognize Song Kang-Ho in the film (also in The Foul King). The way the movie progresses reminded me of Very Bad Things only much better humor. Recommended!
Score= 8/10
-Mr. Wai-Go
Basics: A low budget film with Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang and others...
This is satire about male sexual dysfunction in modern times. Two stories are told here.
1- Wong playing a porno star who is having troubles performing at work, but no difficulties around his wife (he ends up on a quest to get some Viagra for an important upcoming shoot at work...only viagra isn't as easy to obtain as he thought...) -very funny! He also gets to personify one of his body parts.
Wong is pretty good in this movie
2- Tsang is nicknamed "Viagra" because he is impotent for 2 yrs. now. Also, his wife never pays any attention to him... Life in the village he lives in is very dull until a hottie (Bobo) and her husband move to town. It is discovered that she is very vocal in bed and Viagra and his friends start hanging around her window every night to hear the 'show'. Bobo's husband dies and the nightly excitement is gone... Viagra decides to make some excitement of his own by calling Bobo and talking dirty to her over the phone... In both stories, the men do find solutions to their impotence. Solid acting from both Tsang & Wong (nice to see). Pretty funny stuff, there are a few scenes that some may think are too much though. Nothing really graphic, (only a couple of breast shots) Recommended!
Score= 7.5/10
-Color Of Pain
Cast: Kenya Sawada, Raymond Wong, Terence Yin, Sam Lee, Tony Ho, Josie Ho.
Basics: An assassin (Japanese) is shot in the head during his most recent job. He survives, the doctors leave the bullet in his head and tell him they don't know how long he has to live because the bullet is in a dangerous area of his skull and they're unwilling to remove it... The assassin leaves, and a few days later comes across a bank robbery, he decides to go with the robbers, he intimidates them until they agree to let him work with them. The group then goes on to do more robberies... The counter story is of a young officer (trained as a sniper) still depressed after accidentally shooting a fellow officer, getting him temporarily reassigned to desk work. He is now reassigned to field work after going through psych treatment and desk work for a while. Josie Ho plays the Lieutenant for the field work. Assassin & sniper run into each other and...
Thoughts: The assassin (Sawada) comes off as cool and confident. Well played. The themes presented have been done many times before... this however, has new flavors... and has good energy. It did start to fall apart towards the end, but the first 3/4 kinda make up for the weak ending. I found it to be an enjoyable action movie. Note: The dialog (audio) was in Cantonese, English, & Japanese. Recommended film.
Score= 7/10
-Chinese Odyssey 2002
Cast: Tony Leung, Faye Wong, Vicki Zhao, Chen Chang
Basics:
Thoughts: I think I'm in the minority here, but here goes...
Beautiful settings, great costumes, clean transfer, and superb acting! Unfortunately, those things weren't enough to overcome the poor script IMO. Tony Leung delivers his lines well, I'd like to see him in some other comedic roles. (I think he'd do well). Most of the jokes seemed to fall flat for me. (I understood the humor well enough, it just wasn't very funny)... Reminds me of the time I first watched Ace Ventura. I didn't laugh once. I didn't find it that funny. I had seen Jim Carrey in The Mask prior to watching Ace Ventura. Maybe that threw the movie. I enjoyed The Mask very much...
I like all the actors in Chinese Odyssey 2002, just not the movie. This movie drew a few smiles, but no other emotions from me. Maybe Ace Ventura and Chinese Odyssey are too silly for me? (but I like Stephen Chow! and he can get a bit silly)
Only recommended for those who like it silly!
Score= 5/10
Comments are always welcome
Cheers,
Gabe
Links to my other reviews
ps- I'll stick Sino-Dutch War 1661 in another review thread...
My favorite out of this group of five.
Basics: Dreaming and hoping for success- Mom,Pop, their 3 kids, & uncle buy a lodge up in the mountains to run. Several weeks go by before they get their first guest. He ends up dead. To avoid the bad publicity and escape the eye of the police, they decide to bury the body... And this is how it all starts... the degeneration of their ideals/morals/values. (In trying to solve problems that arise, they only manage to get worse off, usually later, but due to these prior actions...)
A very entertaining movie full of dark humor. It took me a while, but I did recognize Song Kang-Ho in the film (also in The Foul King). The way the movie progresses reminded me of Very Bad Things only much better humor. Recommended!
Score= 8/10
-Mr. Wai-Go
Basics: A low budget film with Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang and others...
This is satire about male sexual dysfunction in modern times. Two stories are told here.
1- Wong playing a porno star who is having troubles performing at work, but no difficulties around his wife (he ends up on a quest to get some Viagra for an important upcoming shoot at work...only viagra isn't as easy to obtain as he thought...) -very funny! He also gets to personify one of his body parts.
Wong is pretty good in this movie2- Tsang is nicknamed "Viagra" because he is impotent for 2 yrs. now. Also, his wife never pays any attention to him... Life in the village he lives in is very dull until a hottie (Bobo) and her husband move to town. It is discovered that she is very vocal in bed and Viagra and his friends start hanging around her window every night to hear the 'show'. Bobo's husband dies and the nightly excitement is gone... Viagra decides to make some excitement of his own by calling Bobo and talking dirty to her over the phone... In both stories, the men do find solutions to their impotence. Solid acting from both Tsang & Wong (nice to see). Pretty funny stuff, there are a few scenes that some may think are too much though. Nothing really graphic, (only a couple of breast shots) Recommended!
Score= 7.5/10
-Color Of Pain
Cast: Kenya Sawada, Raymond Wong, Terence Yin, Sam Lee, Tony Ho, Josie Ho.
Basics: An assassin (Japanese) is shot in the head during his most recent job. He survives, the doctors leave the bullet in his head and tell him they don't know how long he has to live because the bullet is in a dangerous area of his skull and they're unwilling to remove it... The assassin leaves, and a few days later comes across a bank robbery, he decides to go with the robbers, he intimidates them until they agree to let him work with them. The group then goes on to do more robberies... The counter story is of a young officer (trained as a sniper) still depressed after accidentally shooting a fellow officer, getting him temporarily reassigned to desk work. He is now reassigned to field work after going through psych treatment and desk work for a while. Josie Ho plays the Lieutenant for the field work. Assassin & sniper run into each other and...
Thoughts: The assassin (Sawada) comes off as cool and confident. Well played. The themes presented have been done many times before... this however, has new flavors... and has good energy. It did start to fall apart towards the end, but the first 3/4 kinda make up for the weak ending. I found it to be an enjoyable action movie. Note: The dialog (audio) was in Cantonese, English, & Japanese. Recommended film.
Score= 7/10
-Chinese Odyssey 2002
Cast: Tony Leung, Faye Wong, Vicki Zhao, Chen Chang
Basics:
From imdb
The emperor and princess find life behind palace walls too mundane, and are always plotting their escape. Most of the time, the Empress Dowager and the palace guards foil their plans. Eventually, only the princess manages to escape, disguised as a man.
In comes the other set of siblings. Lung (Leung), the village bully, is an uncouth and rough man whose ambition in life is to just be a drifter. He has a younger sister, Phoenix, a tomboyish girl who operates a small restaurant and is looking for her true love. COMMONERS...Meet Lung (Leung, left), the village bully and his tomboyish sister, Phoenix (Vicky Zhao Wei).
Things get complicated when the princess arrives at the village and meets the siblings. She is attracted to Lung and vice versa. This confuses Lung (she is disguised as a man, remember?), so he sets out to match make his sister with his new friend. At the same time, Phoenix is also attracted to the princess.
The situation gets messier when the prince manages to find his way to the village, where he soon falls for Phoenix.
The emperor and princess find life behind palace walls too mundane, and are always plotting their escape. Most of the time, the Empress Dowager and the palace guards foil their plans. Eventually, only the princess manages to escape, disguised as a man.
In comes the other set of siblings. Lung (Leung), the village bully, is an uncouth and rough man whose ambition in life is to just be a drifter. He has a younger sister, Phoenix, a tomboyish girl who operates a small restaurant and is looking for her true love. COMMONERS...Meet Lung (Leung, left), the village bully and his tomboyish sister, Phoenix (Vicky Zhao Wei).
Things get complicated when the princess arrives at the village and meets the siblings. She is attracted to Lung and vice versa. This confuses Lung (she is disguised as a man, remember?), so he sets out to match make his sister with his new friend. At the same time, Phoenix is also attracted to the princess.
The situation gets messier when the prince manages to find his way to the village, where he soon falls for Phoenix.
Beautiful settings, great costumes, clean transfer, and superb acting! Unfortunately, those things weren't enough to overcome the poor script IMO. Tony Leung delivers his lines well, I'd like to see him in some other comedic roles. (I think he'd do well). Most of the jokes seemed to fall flat for me. (I understood the humor well enough, it just wasn't very funny)... Reminds me of the time I first watched Ace Ventura. I didn't laugh once. I didn't find it that funny. I had seen Jim Carrey in The Mask prior to watching Ace Ventura. Maybe that threw the movie. I enjoyed The Mask very much...
I like all the actors in Chinese Odyssey 2002, just not the movie. This movie drew a few smiles, but no other emotions from me. Maybe Ace Ventura and Chinese Odyssey are too silly for me? (but I like Stephen Chow! and he can get a bit silly)
Only recommended for those who like it silly!
Score= 5/10
Comments are always welcome
Cheers,
Gabe
Links to my other reviews
ps- I'll stick Sino-Dutch War 1661 in another review thread...
05-24-02, 04:47 PM
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Thanks gabe
Nice reviews
I will be adding The Quiet Family & Mr. Wai-Go to my next DDDHouse order. I will be taking off Chinese Odyssey 2002 . I will a little bit iffy about this anyways.
I totally agree with your review of Color of Pain. I'm just not as good at describing it like you, as seen here.
Nice reviews
I will be adding The Quiet Family & Mr. Wai-Go to my next DDDHouse order. I will be taking off Chinese Odyssey 2002 . I will a little bit iffy about this anyways.
I totally agree with your review of Color of Pain. I'm just not as good at describing it like you, as seen here.
05-24-02, 07:23 PM
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a differing opinion - I thought Chinese Odyssey 2002 was hilarious, reminded me of a good early 1990's HK Stephen Chow type of comedy. I highly recommend the movie.
05-24-02, 07:52 PM
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what??!!
Chinese Odyssey 2002 is one of the best HK movies to come along in recent years! How can you not like it??
I too felt the movie was very Stphen Chow-ish, but the production and script was just so good. Excellent photography and soundtrack too. It did get silly, but was still very enjoyable.
Subtitles here are excellent too... no missing sections.
Roseart,
Don't miss this because one person did not like it....
J.T.
Chinese Odyssey 2002 is one of the best HK movies to come along in recent years! How can you not like it??
I too felt the movie was very Stphen Chow-ish, but the production and script was just so good. Excellent photography and soundtrack too. It did get silly, but was still very enjoyable.
Subtitles here are excellent too... no missing sections.
Roseart,
Don't miss this because one person did not like it....
J.T.
05-25-02, 10:04 AM
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Originally posted by jtkv
Roseart,
Don't miss this because one person did not like it....
Roseart,
Don't miss this because one person did not like it....
My next order for DDDHouse is just getting big.
05-25-02, 06:19 PM
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Originally posted by yangshouwen
alot of the jokes are related to Wong Kar Wai films. so some of it (or alot?) may fly over peoples heads if they're unfamiliar to his body of work.
alot of the jokes are related to Wong Kar Wai films. so some of it (or alot?) may fly over peoples heads if they're unfamiliar to his body of work.
05-25-02, 09:19 PM
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Originally posted by gabegarwick
Maybe that's why it seemed so flat to me... that was the first WKW film I've seen...
Maybe that's why it seemed so flat to me... that was the first WKW film I've seen...
)and The Eagle Shooting Heroes to name the films that I can recall him directing. Wong Kar Wai produced. I also felt it being a little flat as I watched it having not rewatched a Wong Kar Wai film in the last couple of months, and found it a little difficult to look for some laughs some of the time. Although i won't call it a bad film, but like someone posted, it left my parents with a pretty blank expression.
