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Three (2002) Movie Review
The new Asian anthology movie “Three”, in which 3 directors from 3 different countries craft individual tales unrelated to the other 2, should have been called “One”, and the only writer/director who should have...
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Phone (2002) Movie Review
Byeong-ki Ahn’s “Phone” is another in a long line of “Dark Hair Ghost Story” movies, in which a vengeful female spirit, sporting unnaturally long dark hair and unsightly dark, black eyes appear in the...
Read More »What Price Survival (1994) Movie Review
If “What Price Survival” proves anything, it’s that the Chinese, and most Asians in general, consider melodrama as essential as breathing air or having a bowl of rice for dinner. I’m not being facetious...
Read More »Infernal Affairs (2002) Movie Review
Almost everyone familiar with Hong Kong films knows the names Andrew Lau, Andy Lau, and Tony Leung. (Andrew and Andy are not the same person, if you were wondering.) Andrew Lau (“Sausalito”) is a...
Read More »Hero (2003) Movie Review
Much of your ability to appreciate the finer points of Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” depends on your knowledge of Chinese culture and history. This doesn’t mean those of us completely unaware of the country’s monumental...
Read More »So Close (2003) Movie Review
I guess you really couldn’t say that Hong Kong filmmakers are trying to capitalize on the success of “Charlie’s Angels”, since I can think back to the early ’90s when “The Heroic Trio” made...
Read More »Summer Time (2001) Movie Review
Like many South Korean movies made by baby boomers that lived through the democracy movement of the ’70s and ’80s, “Summer Time” owes its core premise to the Kwangju Incident. History informs us that...
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Another Heaven (2000) Movie Review
Joji Iida’s “Another Heaven” is a standard “X-Files”-inspired movie about cops chasing a more-than-human killer, but it makes the mistake of spending too much time trying to be deeper than it is capable. The...
Read More »Gorgeous (1999) Movie Review
Leave it to Jackie Chan to do a romantic comedy and not have a single kissing scene in the entire thing. (Unless you count the film’s outtakes, which play over the end credits; one...
Read More »Black Mask 2: City of Masks (2001) Movie Review
Besides the title and the presence of a man wearing Kato-inspired threads, “Black Mask 2: City of Masks” has little in common with the original “Black Mask” starring Jet Li. The original was produced/co-written...
Read More »Dream of a Warrior (2001) Movie Review
Let me just say that “Dream of a Warrior”, a South Korea/Hong Kong film, is as unfathomably bad as they come. If there is one saving grace to the Sci-Fi Romance it’s the presence...
Read More »Naked Weapon (2002) Movie Review
Imagine my surprise when “Naked Weapon”, a movie written by Jing Wong, the man behind such lackluster fare as “The Duel” and “High Risk”, turned out to be one of the more entertaining films...
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Gojoe (2000) Movie Review
I am a sucker for Japanese Samurai movies, but lately I’ve been disappointed by what I’ve seen. “Red Shadow” was lacking in any serious credibility, and as a result I loathe calling it a...
Read More »So Close to Paradise (1998) Movie Review
I must admit that the Chinese film “So Close to Paradise” surprised me. At first I found the film to be lacking and uninteresting and its acting to be spotty at times. But as...
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Tales of the Unusual (2001) Movie Review
“Tales of the Unusual” is essentially a “Twilight Zone”-inspired movie about 4 very different stories linked by a common sequence. But where other anthology movies usually have a constant theme (for example, horror or...
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Princess Mononoke (1997) Movie Review
I should first say that I have nothing against nature, forests, and all that other good ecological stuff. Hey, plants keep us alive, right? It just so happens that whenever someone attempts to make...
Read More »Enforcer (aka My Father is a Hero, 1995) Movie Review
Besides offering us a chance to see Jet Li pretend he knows how to smoke (which he really doesn’t, natch), “Enforcer” (or “My Father is a Hero”, which is the more appropriate title in...
Read More »My Boss, My Hero (2001) Movie Review
It probably behooves me not to take everything I see in movies seriously, as cinema is at best fictional versions of the truth, and at worst pure fabrications of some fevered writer’s imagination. Still,...
Read More »Sausalito (2000) Movie Review
“Sausalito” is a Hong Kong movie starring Chinese actors, but set entirely in San Francisco. The film is essentially a Romance, but not a Romantic Comedy since there’s little comedy to be had. It...
Read More »Two Cops 3 (1998) Movie Review
“Two Cops 3″, as the title indicates, is the third installment in a popular series that focuses on two cops as they fight crime side by side. Part 3 has strayed from the previous...
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