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Reviews
Gong yuan 2000 AD (2000)
Curiously half-hearted
For a movie hyped for its SFX and action scenes, this one felt more like a TV movie. There are, to be sure, some nice fight sequences (in a carpark; along the Singapore river; on a Hong Kong street) and Aaron Kwok is likable enough, but everything else just limps along, from its hokey laptop-that-can-destroy-civilisation-as-we-know-it plot device to its bland photography to its lame climax. I recommend another Hong Kong blockbuster from this year, TOKYO RAIDERS instead, which has more charm & suspense in its opening sequence than 2000AD has in its entire (heavily padded) duration.
Yi ge dou bu neng shao (1999)
Zhang Yimou rules!
This neo-realist type of movie will come as a surprise to those who associate Zhang Yimou with the rigid formalism of "Raise the Red Lantern" It is actually close in mood to another excellent film of his, "The Story of Qiu Ju."
The narrative has a delightful simplicity to it and I especially loved the first half. The scenes where the teacher is trying to earn enough money for the bus-fare to the city are hilarious and unexpectedly moving. The kids are great too: not those treacly tykes you get in so many Hollywood movies.
I recommend this movie highly. My only complaint is that the city sequence seemed to drag on a bit too long & felt too emotionally manipulative ... but that's just a matter of taste. In terms of Zhang's other work, I will put this higher than "Shanghai Triad" but a bit lower than "To Live."
Hana-bi (1997)
Prepare to be bruised
I was a little bit familiar with Kitano's more genre-based works like VIOLENT COP before thus, but HANA-BI really takes the elements of the crime movie while transcending it. For an example of a film that mostly failed to do this, just look at Tarantino's JACKIE BROWN. The plot & pacing are as meticulous as the "dot" paintings painstakingly depicted here; the shocking violence is disturbing and cathartic but never less than completely *felt*. The ending has got to be one of the most wrenching in cinema history. Terrific soundtrack too - one of the very best of the 90s.
Noon o Goldoon (1996)
A masterpiece
This is the greatest among the dozen or so Makhmalbaf titles I have seen. I was stunned that a movie so thematically complex (politics, history, redemption, etc.) can be conveyed with a superb lightness of touch. When you watch it, you really feel like you're watching a comedy. Only gradually does the movie reveal its many layers, culminating in a final freeze-frame that might be the BEST in all of cinema. More people should watch this movie! (It's certainly a lot more fun than anything by Abbas Kiarostami - a man who is more of a moral philosopher than a film-maker per se).
Tian yu (1998)
good debut
Sure, the music is bombastic and some of the scene transitions are a bit abrupt, but this was a very promising directorial debut for Chen. Worth watching for the subtle changes that register vis-a-vis the lead actress's performance alone. The transition from naive-but-haughty to bruised-and-disillusioned reminded me of Gong Li in RAISE THE RED LANTERN. Some lingering sentimentality (aided no doubt by the over-emphatic music) stops this from being in the first rank, but it's still a lot better than I expected.