Sunday, November 18, 2012

Cold War


It has been years since I last went to cinema to watch a Chinese movie, especially a Hongkong movie.  Hongkong movie equals nothing but crap in my mind, for a long time.  Cold War breaks that stereo-type.

The story is very well written.  A brutal war is going on, but it is just like the under current in the sea, you can hardly see it from the surface.  Enemy is faceless, every one can be a friend or a foe, that's what the two deputy chiefs of police of Hongkong are facing.

The audiences are like riding a plot roller coaster, when you are pushed to the very top of the plot, there is a sudden twist of the story, the unthinkable happens.

Story aside, the actors' skillful acting adds a lot of points too.  Three time Hongkong film award winner Tony Leung Kah Fai and Heavenly King Aron Kwok both did an excellent job.

If you have not watched this movie, I would recommend you to watch it.

My rating:  8/10

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Skyfall


It has been quite a while since last episode of 007 movies.  Skyfall came with high publicity and high expectations.  I was eager to watch it first hand and so I did it on the first weekend since its release.

First impression:  It is big production.  The file was shot at at least four different locations, namely Istanbul, Shanghai, Macau and London, and probably Scotland, which will make it 5 locations.

For people who also watched TAKEN 2 before watching SKYFALL, they may have a bit of disorientation as whether they are watching TAKEN 2 or SKYFALL actually.  The first scene was shot at the rooftops of the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul with the beautiful blue mosque as the background, which is almost identical to TAKEN 2, and people chasing after each other on the same roof top!

The scene of Macau I guess is totally fictitious, as I have never known of such a location in modern Macau, even though I can't say I know Macau in every single detail.  Never mind, it is a movie, it is supposed to bring fantasy to life.

The plot is interesting, but it is not organized or linked organically.  The scene in Shanghai looks like rather irrelevant, other than artificially adding some Chinese element to the taste hopefully to entice its Chinese viewers.

One of the key features of every Bond movie is from the Q section of MI6.  Mr Q will always come up with some new and fancy gadgets that will save Mr Bond's life in a hilarious way.  Mr Q used to be an old and fragile gentleman.  In this episode, Mr Q has a new successor, a modern age young techie, supposed to be a computer genius.  However, the 'new' gadgets are not really new, and their usefulness is very much in doubt.

Another observation is why modern people think a think layer of glass and electronic locks are strong enough to lock up criminals?

There are many surprises in the plot, there are many flaws in the plot.  There are plenty of actions in the movie, although this episode doesn't offer too many beauties to please the viewers' eyes.


Overall rating:  7/10