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 a splash. So just who is copying whom here? Regardless, “Angels”...

January 27th, 2003 | 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 the South Korean city of Kwangju, in 1980, became a major staging point for student...

January 26th, 2003 | Read More

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 Japanese film concerns a pair of cops, the young and stoic Manabu...

January 21st, 2003 | 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 of them features Chan kissing co-star Qi Shu during an underwater scene.) “Gorgeous” is a straight comedy...

January 18th, 2003 | 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 by Hong Kong action mainstay Tsui Hark (”Time and Tide”),...

January 13th, 2003 | 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 of Lee Na-Yeong, who unfortunately dies before the film’s Third Act, but even before that is not onscreen...

January 12th, 2003 | 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 I’ve seen in a long while. The movie, about young girls abducted (some...

January 7th, 2003 | Read More

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 Samurai movie. “Gojoe” is a Samurai movie through and through, and it’s...

December 13th, 2002 | 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 the film progressed, its story drew me in, and its characters became people I could believe in and feel for. The film...

December 9th, 2002 | Read More

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 science fiction or mystery), “Unusual” goes for...

December 1st, 2002 | Read More

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 a movie about how nature is good and how man is inherently evil since all they want to do is destroy nature,...

November 30th, 2002 | 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 my opinion) is a pretty standard Hong Kong action movie. Which is to say its plot is outlandish...

November 29th, 2002 | 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, according to my viewing of South Korean movies, I think it is safe to assume that the life...

November 3rd, 2002 | 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 stars the delightful Maggie Cheung as Ellen, a single mother and cab driver who dreams...

October 26th, 2002 | 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 two by partnering a male chauvinistic cop (Bo-sung Kim) up with a female detective (Min-jung Kweon). As Choi,...

October 20th, 2002 | Read More

Mr. Iron Palm (2003) Movie Review

The South Korean movie “Mr. Iron Palm” is an undeniable Romantic Comedy, and as such its ending is inevitable from the opening frame. We know, for instance, that Korean expatriate Iron Palm (In-Pyo Cha) will have trouble convincing the love of his life, fellow expatriate Jini (Yoon-jin Kim),...

October 13th, 2002 | Read More

Public Enemy (2002) Movie Review

Despite a very graphic suicide (a bullet through the head) popping up early in “Public Enemy,” the rest of the film takes a dramatic shift toward comedy. Not long after the suicide, a cab driver is bludgeon to death by the film’s villain, Cho (Seong-jae Lee), who later commits a double...

October 10th, 2002 | Read More

Nang Nak (1999) Movie Review

The story of Nang Nak (which translates from Thai as “Miss Nak” (the formal/respectful designation for a woman)) has been told ad infinity and remains a popular (if not the most popular) part of Thai horror lore. The story is supposed to have originated over many generations ago, and is purported...

October 6th, 2002 | Read More

Soul Guardians (1998) Movie Review

The biggest problem with Kwang-chun Park’s “Soul Guardians” is that there is a feeling that the filmmakers are not entirely sure about the kind of movie they wanted to make and what sort of themes or statements they wanted to express. The result is a film that looks familiar, but is...

September 29th, 2002 | Read More

Legend of Gingko (2000) Movie Review

The actual title of “Legend of Gingko,” as revealed in the movie’s opening sequence, is actually “Legend of Gingko Tree.” Which brings me to this point: I don’t think the actual Gingko Tree shows up at all in the movie; although there is a big, giant tree that appears...

September 29th, 2002 | Read More