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In this episode of Mission: Impossible: Ethan Hunt runs—nay, sprints—at London & Africa

A somewhat dull, infodump-y first act, but it keeps ramping up as it progresses. M:I's title sequences are always kino. The submarine scene kept me fixated on the screen, not wanting to break the insane silence & tension by eating a damn popcorn. Unfortunately, it doesn't offer much aside from the action sequences—but hey, I watched this not for the superb plot, but rather for Tom Cruise's insane stunts.

Surprisingly much more somber, emotional, & "serious" compared to the previous entry. I especially like the emphasis of Hunt having no other option but to do the mission—an contradiction to the previous entries where Hunt is usually offered to choose to do the mission or not.

Many callbacks to prior entries, especially the first three films—which unfortunately I have not watched, so I didn't have the full picture, but it didn't detract from the experience.

Well, it's basically an action-romance-comedy film that just happens to feature Jackie Chan. The story is pretty much formulaic--a village-born girl comes to the city to find her true love, met him, got her heart broken, but eventually makes up & falls in love with each other.

I don't think Jackie Chan is the best pick for a lead in a romance film; he doesn't really show a good enough chemistry with Shu Qi, who's absolutely drop dead gorgeous (haha, see what I did there?) and gave us an incredible performance. At least it has some incredible fight sequences, though. Casting Tony Leung Chiu-Wai merely as a gay sidekick that barely makes an appearance is just overkill.

Also, apparently I watched the inferior 88-minute US cut, which removed a good deal of content from the original, 120-minute cut--including Stephen Chow's cameo!

wtf did I just watched?

Tsui Hark's Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain is an insanely beautiful, incredible mess of a wuxia film. The plot is basically anime-like about friendship & the new generation, rampant with stuff just pulled out of thin air with minimal explanation (Blood Demon? Virgin bones? Grand Sky Mirror? Shapeshifting Light Magic? lmao). Made before Mr. Vampire, it's extremely ambitious in of VFX; unfortunately the technology wasn't there yet, so we're left with this janky mess of wire-fu and Microsoft Paint-level celluloid graphics. However, I think Tsui Hark realised this, and thus made the colors took centre stage.

Coincidentally this film is also why I think Cantonese is the perfect language for wuxia films—it feels energetic, aggressive, rhythmic, rounded, & full when compared to Mandarin; although, I do realise that the differences are basically down to how the director wants it, though.

Jiang Ziya tells the story of the titular character and his own conflict between obeying the will of Heaven or following his humanity. It is the second (I think?) Chinese animation that adapts the classic, Ming-era novel Fengshen Yanyi that’s produced by Coloroom Pictures, who also made the Ne Zha series.

In of visual graphics & animation quality, it is a visible improvement from 2019’s Ne Zha, but unfortunately it has a much more plain & bland art style that doesn’t leverage its Chinese cultural aesthetics, unlike Ne Zha, which makes it less captivating & interesting. Okay, I get that the Shang & Zhou dynasties are typically seen as more... fantasy-like rather than realistic, and there's more creative liberties in depicting them, but I’m not a fan of the angular, circuit board-esque depictions of Heaven; it doesn’t make much sense, because where did the inspiration come from? Story-wise, it has a much more mature, darker themes, with a more serious tone; touching on the effects of war & violence, death, the seemingly heartless government (which is proxied by the Court of Heaven, btw), delivered in a more straightforward manner.

Specifically for non-Chinese audiences (or those who are not familiar with Fengshen Yanyi or just Chinese mythology in general), there's a definite lack of exposition on the characters involved and the context of the story; the gist of it is explained in the amazing intro sequence, but the audience is assumed to be familiar with the story of Shang dynasty’s downfall and the Zhou dynasty’s uprising, as well as Chinese mythology & folk religion. I don't have much of a problem in this regard as I enjoy researching & diving deep into these stuff, though.

Johnnie To's Election gave us an close-up, politically-charged glimpse of the Hongmen-descended Triad society. Rituals dating back to the early Qing dynasty era were kept upheld until the present; an unbroken tradition that everyone seemingly follows, but only when it serves their own interests. Nothing is off-limits when it comes to power—breaking the oath is not a problem, as long as you stick to the ritual & tradition.

Take the 1985 Mr. Vampire / Geung si sin saang, swap the vampires out for ghosts, and you have Mr. Vampire III. It's still just as good as the first film, though, with its incredible action & fight choreography and uniquely lo-fi VFX. The plot doesn't feel as strong, but still decent otherwise.

Dumb, nonsensical, full of tropes, straight-up ripping characters from various popular video game franchises,and poking fun at his own creations. Wong Jing made this film on a tight budget—Aaron Kwok doesn't even really appear in this film (and he even poke fun at that fact)—and yet it is still made with great ion. It's also crazy that this film features basically A-list stars of the era—even 3 out of the Four Heavenly Kings are here! (and again, Wong Jing pokes fun at this fact by making a Leon Lai gag)

Johnnie To & Wai Ka-Fai's films, to me, always feel like they're larger than life, and is pretty much rarely "realistic" in the sense that we, the audience, are often seeing from a character's perspective. The close-up wide angle shots, exaggerated facial expressions & behaviors of extras, the illogical & emotional decisions that the characters made; all combine to present to us the perspective of the character.

The stories themselves also more often than not feel more like a fairytale, by virtue of inexplicable coincidences & occurrences that usually happens in their films.

For the film itself, Needing You seems to follow a similar formula to Turn Left, Turn Right, but puts an office twist to it. The story's not as poetic as the latter, but is still good enough. Watching A Moment of Romance prior to this film might make the experience better simply due to the sheer amount of references to that film in the latter half. It's hilarious seeing Andy Lau Tak-Wah battling against his own persona from that film.

Once Upon a Time in China is surprisingly not blindly patriotic. Tsui Hark definitely puts a China-first view on this film, which is ed by the historical context of the Qing dynasty—which was Manchurian instead of Han—and the Century of Humiliation that happened around the same time, which made the Chinese felt like they "didn't own the country".

On the other hand, it also recognises the need for change in order to keep up with the world; again, a consequence of the Ming & Qing dynasty closing themselves off the world, believing that they are "superior". Jackson's death depicted this perfectly: he died from Wong Fei Hung's bullet that he launched from his own hands, combining Western technology & Chinese martial arts.

Unreliable narrator films are plenty out there, but Johnnie To & Wai Ka-Fai's Mad Detective / San Taam might be one of the few that does a terrific job in depicting & visualising the unreliable-ness.

We experience the film through Bun's perspective, a schizophrenic detective who supposedly can see a person's true personality. The film never questions whether what Bun (and we) see is real or not; to Bun, it is his reality.

As it is with To & Wai's films, the cinematography & compositions are beautiful; the soundtrack is on point, creating a suspenseful, mysterious theme; and the stories feel like it's larger than life, even if it's quite simple.

a fictionalized adaptation of Jing Ke's (failed) attempt to assassinate the soon-to-be first emperor of China.

as far as I know, the history of Qin Shi Huang Di is... pretty much grey, like the depiction of the capital city of Qin—he undoubtedly unified China into one massive empire, standardised one language, and built the Great Wall; but he was also a tyrant, executed scholars, burnt & banned books, and was paranoid of assassination attempts. this film attempts to depict this morality conflict through Nameless' actions, his wavering heart, and his conflicted view of the emperor.

ultimately it's an incredible film (although I'd argue that Tony Leung & Maggie Cheung basically stole the spotlight from Jet Li), with Zhang Yimou's almost-monochromatic color sensibility, and a beautiful fight choreography.

god what an experience. a very marked technical improvement on every front, compared to the first film. the first and third act still gave me chills even on second viewing.

unfortunately I am not familiar with the novel it's based on, Investiture of the Gods / Fengshen Yanyi, but Chinese folktales (and just stories, in general) of rebellion against corrupt authorities always fascinate me—this, Sun Wukong, Romance of Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Peking Opera Blues, Kung Fu Hustle, and Mad Fate, just to name a few.

Consequently, I also noticed that a lot of popular Chinese stories are also about rebellion, and it's probably related to the Imperial Chinese political ideology of 天命—tiānmìng, the Mandate of Heaven—that traces back to the Zhōu dynasty, and the accompanying right to rebel against an unjust, corrupt ruler, be it a local lord, the emperor, the Court of Heaven, or even fate itself.

somewhat unrelated but this film and the Journey to the West book I'm currently reading makes me want to dive straight into Chinese mythology & theology.

extra thoughts: I'm not too sure about Yang Yu's background, but it seemed like he was heavily inspired by Western oil paintings? The composition, color, and lighting in a handful of frames (esp. those slo-mo stylistic ones) felt reminiscent of those styles.

An overall decently executed, well-written adaptation of a classic shenmo novel, Investiture of the Gods, which in turn is a fictionalized & mythologized retelling of the fall of the Shang dynasty and the rise of Zhou dynasty.

The film easily sucks you in to the world of the Shang dynasty through the detailed costumes, the immersive sets & landscapes, and the fantastic acting performances (although the CGI leaves something to be desired--it lacks some polish in certain scenes). Also, there's the ever-present problem of adapting epics into films--too many characters & plot, and yet there's too little time. The 2.5-hour runtime actually still feels a bit too rushed, with some characters only barely making an appearance (Shen Gongbao, Twelve Golden Immortals, Ne Zha, Yang Jian (okay, ittedly the story is more about the humans rather than the gods & immortals), or Bo Yikao), but I guess that's the issue with adapting epics into films in general.

But, I suppose that is more of a problem for those who weren't raised & immersed with these stories (yes, including Journey to the West), because I would assume that the average Chinese person would've understood the characters & the story through cultural osmosis, and didn't come in to the film empty-handed; compare that to me, who never knew or heard about the story until adulthood, only getting exposed to it for the first time from the these films.

Watched on Thursday April 24, 2025.

kino. absolute kino. goes incredibly hard from the beginning, and somehow goes even harder as it progresses. I just straight up got hyped the moment Shen Gongbao took out his Sky-Splitting Thunder Whip.

call me a child but Chinese fantasy stories brought to life with those fancy animations hits just right for me

...I seem to have entered HK flick territory here. What an absurd, incomprehensible (to my non-Cantonese speaking ass) this film is. The garbage, zero-contrast, burnt-in subtitle didn't help me understand, either. However, I still loved it. After all, it's a Wong Jing film, just... lacking in Stephen Chow's humor. The final act is essentially just back-to-back incredible wuxia fight scenes, topped off with Jesus vs. Batman (lmao). The rest of the film...? Meh, but still rather funny.

Rewatching this incredible film 15 years after my mother first introduced me to it still leaves a remarkable impression. It is still a fine piece of wuxia film, and looking at it with my adult- & critical-ish eyes, I no longer only see the cool stunts and sword fights; I also see the struggle of a woman wanting to escape the demands of a patriarchal society, of wanting freedom to do whatever she wants, to love whoever she deems fit.

Slightly unrelated but why hasn't the original novel pentalogy been translated to English? I thought with the release of the film, there would be some level of interest towards the novels; but apparently not. I'm still curious to read the original story though.

an overdramatic, emotional story that's let down by underdeveloped overall story, questionable characterization, and stiff acting (save for Kirana, she's easily the star of the film). anyway I suppose "abuse porn" films like this sells because of the emotional content & the ability to create catharsis within its viewers, despite the failings I mentioned before. almost everyone in the theater sobbed when I watched this film (even I, who tried to watch this logically, shed a tear on that friggin' bait-and-switch at the end)

some assorted thoughts:
- I do appreciate the "realism" in some of the character motivation, in the sense that there's not one logical person within the story—it seemed like everyone's too wrapped up within their emotions. but still, there's no clear reasoning as to why the whole family holds so much grudge about their stepmother's death, when they don't show that much attachment in the first place--especially the four brothers.
- the ending felt like it tried to bait people into feeling sad, and the switch just made me roll my eyes.
- the father's subtext is basically "he's got no one after he lost his second wife, so he fell into depression & ruined his family's life" lmao (like, seriously, what was the point of that early flashback of his first wife's death? it just straight up transitions to hims marrying the house maid)
- echoing another review, there's a number of weird transitions—esp. that one during the mother's accident that just made me burst out laughing.
- this is basically bad parenting + terrible coping mechanism + absolutely zero emotional intelligence in the whole family. the ending of the film, however, tries to sell this as an "anti-bullying" film when there's a much better angle that can be explored about how do you cope with the death of a family member and placing the blame of their death on someone, and so the film only deals with this on a surface level (okay, I can kinda understand that this film is from Alie's perspective, so they might not explore it even further). it's such a shame, though.
- haven't read the novel it's based from, so I can't comment on its faithfulness.

impressively builds upon the first film, and tops it off with a sick & badass battle scene. best enjoyed together instead of separately, though.

a classic, genre-defining film in every manner possible. amazing soundtrack, masterful plot that invites us (as Asagawa's proxy) to keep digging into the rumor, slowly building up the feeling of dread, inching ever closer to the source of the horror.

on the other hand, maybe it's just me, but I don't seem to be scared from watching this? Pulse and Cure terrifies me even more than this. I'm not putting it down though, and by no means it is a bad film--it's an incredible film, but that's just how I felt when I watched it.

you can swap out the guns for swords & spears, but it's still very John Woo, stylistically--epic sets & fight choreography, with slow-mo cuts peppered in-between--it's a feast for the eyes. CGI seems a bit dated though.

yet another HK action bro film, rampant with shootouts & friendship. it's incredible though (especially that single take, two-floors shootout sequence)

this is literally just an action exorcist film with islamic & javanese themes lmao

decent acting, fight choreography, and cinematography, but absolutely idiotic & disted writing with no clear intention of what every scene wants to tell

an incredible action-slash-melodrama. dudes rock lmao

preliminary thoughts: a wonderful Tsui Hark film about three women making an unlikely alliance to overthrow Yuan Shikai. rife with HK-style humor & action, but also addresses the corruption in politics; nationality, identity & belonging amidst political chaos; how women are treated only as objects of desire, and would only be "seen" if they disguise themselves.

This review may contain spoilers.

in a nutshell: two insane guys fighting against god's fate using feng shui

an interesting concept that I like so much, especially on fate & how things would still fall into place regardless of what we do (but also about how we can rebel against it, writing our life on our own). however, the execution is a bit messy & all over the place, and the CGI isn't the best.

Watched on Monday March 10, 2025.

This is the first Shinya Tsukamoto film I've ever watched, and it's very... raw & claustrophobic. I always love it when directors just throws us into the film without any prior context, and that's exactly what he did--we understand the film just as much as the protagonist does, which is barely. All throughout the film, I can only think about 無限事後 -- Endless Hell in Buddhism, which is very fitting to what happened in this film; we don't know how long he has spent time there, and the endless suffering that he saw and experienced. It also shows the absurdity of life; how there's nothing exactly worth living out there, and yet they decided to keep on living (come to think about it, it's probably pretty close to absurdism, isn't it?)

Fascinating found footage / mockumentary horror. The soundtrack's pretty good at building the atmosphere, and the slightly fragmented narrative also creates an unsettling feel to the film.

fake blood specialists must've had a field day when they're working with Takashi Miike

Johnnie To did not just put a "are you blind?! can't you see other cars on the road?!" in a film with a blind main character lmaooo

Otherwise, I feel like this is a weird combination of To's previous works--a hint of rom-com, a generous slice of HK-style comedy (slapstick, physical, loud, and exaggerated), served on a plate of a la Sherlock crime drama. And yes, this does cause a lot of weird tonal shift all over the film, but it's still very much comedy-first, and luckily the jokes land most of the time.

I don't think I could come up with a review that encapsulates this film perfectly. At most, all I could say is that this film is an abstraction of an emotional experience about unplanned parenthood; about living in a dead, decaying city surrounded by the sounds of machinery; about loneliness, detachment, & isolation; about escaping the horrors of reality. It doesn't make much sense, precisely because life itself makes no sense.

Eraserhead is probably the least accessible of Lynch's filmography (at least that's what a lot of people said), and probably his most experimental, abstract, and absurd. It was his first feature film, preceded by a couple of short films. In many ways, I saw that the building blocks for his later works were here: unnatural organic matter; the spiritual/supernatural existing nearby, influencing our thoughts & behavior; sounds of machine & electricity buzzing in the background; and characters struggling to escape reality, among others.

It is a weird & unsettling film, but it's also mesmerizing. I can't keep my eyes off the screen from the very first scene. That's just how powerful & magical his works are.

Rest in peace, David Lynch. I don't think there'd be anyone as unique as you anymore, you man.

Poetry and music in motion. Expressions of love through their respective "language". Feels like a Shunji Iwai film, but with a HK touch of dramaticism and comedy as well as Johnnie To's beautiful visual compositions.

Turn Left, Turn Right is a sweet, heartfelt, relaxing summertime watch that kept me on my toes as they didn't realize their closeness from each other, separated by just one degree from another--be it a baby, a pair of couple, a dog, a carousel--the list goes on.

this film singlehandedly reignited my interest in opening up a small cafe somewhere in a small city

This review may contain spoilers.

My eyes were completely glued to the screen from the moment the opening sequence started, all the way to the final gunfight. Johnnie To's PTU is full of suspension & tension between the characters & their environment, all depicted through a beautiful imagery of light & shadow. It is a technically captivating film; the lighting, composition, choreography, camera movement; everything is beautiful.

However, behind the gorgeous imagery, lies a dark, corrupt city, where everyone is out for themselves: a detective tried to cover up their own mistake by any means necessary; an investigator who didn't want to seem incompetent because she cowered during a firefight; two rival gangs who wanted to kill each other; and a cop who had no problem with brutality as long as he can help his friend. Everything happens in the dead of night, out of the sight of the common people, who gets terrorized at the hands of cops & triads; their hearts are like the black of the night.

One complaint I have about this film is that there are times where I get mixed up in the plot, because new characters just come up out of nowhere without any clear introduction (or maybe my attention span just sucks, though)

Watched on Tuesday December 24, 2024.

Out of all the films I've watched so far this year, nothing hits harder than Tokyo Sonata, both personally & politically. It embodies everything I feared about and have seen where I lived--sudden layoffs, difficulty finding employment, having to 'save face' in front of others, especially family.

It is a story of smoke & mirrors; of hiding the truth from others to keep the facade, the face that they've built from falling apart--which, inevitably, will happen. Ryuhei hid the fact that he'd been laid off and tried to maintain control of his family; Kenji pocketed his lunch money to pay for piano lessons; Takashi never seem to appear in the family, finally showed up when he decides to the military; while Kyoko can only watch as her family fell apart, one by one.

It is a bleak story, where the only thing that would keep your family in place is money and authority--both owned by the father, Ryuhei. When he lost the money, he started to spiral down, scrambling to maintain control of his life by reclaiming his authority in the family--he forbade Kenji to take piano lessons, and drove Takashi away after knowing that he wants to the military.

As such, Kurosawa offered three alternatives in the film; death, like what the Kurosu family did (and Ryuhei attempted); dissociation, which is what Kyoko & Ryuhei wanted to do; or to keep on living for the sake of family, which they eventually did. It is a comforting ending, telling us that even if the world is as terrible as it can get, sometimes, it's worth living for.

I'm actually pretty surprised that Kiyoshi Kurosawa made this film, because I've only known him for his horror works, and it feels like a Shunji Iwai film, but more... aggressive.

Wow, I'm actually very impressed with this film! An incredible mix of relentless action with slick choreography, above-average story with a nice pacing, and a fitting, spooky atmosphere; top it all of with a good deal of comedy, and you've got yourself Mr. Vampire--a horror-comedy piece that's extremely hilarious & entertaining. The CGI & effects holds up very nicely, considering that this is a 80's HK film (to be fair, I barely watched any other HK films besides Stephen Chow's, so I might be wrong here)

A rather average Wong Jing film that tried to jam a lot of things at once--action, comedy, gambling, drama, & romance--but failed to excel at or focus on any one of them. The film felt flat through the whole 120-minutes runtime with jarring tonal shifts sprinkled throughout, until it finally got somewhat exciting in the final act.

Not very recommended except for avid HK gambling films--for most people, God of Gamblers II / Dou hap is much more engaging, funnier, and still stars Andy Lau.

Watched on Tuesday December 10, 2024.

Totsuko is such a goofy girl lmao I love her so much!!!

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is my first entry to the world of Tsui Hark's filmography and gong'an fiction (essentialy Chinese dynasty detective fiction) and suffice to say I'm pretty much hooked! Incredible choreography by Sammo Hung, as well as a stacked cast makes this film very much enjoyable. The CGI might be a little bit outdated by modern standards, but it still holds up on its own.

I'd have to say though, there are moments where this film is weirdly hilarious. A lot of surprises just suddenly happens out of nowhere (and funnily enough, all of them involved arrows, lmao)

Andy Lau & Stephen Chow together as leads in a film? It feels like a fever dream come true (EDIT: I hadn't realised that I had watched Tricky Brains, which also stars them as lead actors). Unfortunately everything else is just average, just like the average Chow film: interesting intro, slightly boring middle act with decent jokes peppered throughout, and a fantastic final act. However, even the most average Chow film is still very, very enjoyable to me than any modern slop, be it foreign or local.

A great mix of romance, melodrama, and gratuitously violent classic HK action, paired with an amazing, neon-lit backdrop of Hong Kong night life, wrapped up in a beautiful cinematography & soundtrack. I feel like Tony Leung steals the spotlight here, even though he's just a side character in the story.

For a film adaptation of a manga, I thought that 聲の形 did a pretty good job of condensing it down to a 120-minute film. There's still quite a lot of stories that were cut out, though (e.g. the reason why Shoko was put in a normal school, about half of the elementary/grade school scenes, Naoka & Shouko at the hospital, Nagatsuka makes a film).

And... yeah, I don't think we were meant to "like" anyone in this story (except for Nagatsuka, bless his soul). As far as I understood:

Shouya seeks recognition from his friends, albeit in a wrong way, and after the world turns in him, wants forgiveness (and recognition) again in a messed-up way;
Shouko is meek, sees herself as a burden to others, and constantly apologises to others (which is common on oft-bullied children);
Miki is a mere spectator, watching & enjoying everything that happens from the sidelines (and occasionally cheering as well), but refuses to claim any responsibility & thinks that they did nothing wrong when faced with the consequences;
Naoka resists change, wanting everything to be "same as it ever was", and puts the blame on others;
Miyoko is good-willed, but has no courage to actually do something to help others when push comes to shove; and
Yuzuru puts other people before her, at the expense of herself.

In conclusion: everybody's fucked up, good adaptation, but read the manga instead if you have the time

A fun, exciting film that was apparently adapted from a manga of the same name. Decent fight choreography, serviceable plot (though ittedly I haven't read the original manga yet), and for me reason, chock full of ikemen??? I have nothing against them, it's just that the girls around me at the theater kept screaming everytime Sawamura appeared on screen

Eh, not feeling this one. It's guilty of style over substance--relying on being weird & creepy for the sake of being creepy & weird, without adding anything much from the original short. It's still an allegory of how people derive their happiness from another's suffering (which was pretty clear from the original short), but adds nothing substantial to it. In fact, the first 30 minutes of the film plays exactly just like the short!

The live-action adaptation of 君は放課後インソムニア is, unfortunately, just... okay. It only affirmed my view that live-action adaptations of mangas generally suck because they had to cut out a lot of content, which makes the film felt quite rushed. Things just happen very quickly, and consequently the characters aren't fleshed-out enough. ittedly, I haven't read the manga, but after watching this, I intend to, soon.

Don't get me wrong, though--plot-wise, it's still very good & heartfelt, and I enjoyed it a lot! It's just that knowing how most high-school romance manga goes, this film seemed to only touch the surface of the manga.

I can't believe that I've slept on this film for over 6 years by now; it is truly a visceral experience that I haven't felt in an animation before.

Films like 眠る男 always fascinate me, because they managed to breathe life & beauty in the mundaneness of life. The strangeness of Takuji's incident is relegated to the background, in favour of the stories of the people around him. We are never told why the incident even happens.

The film moves at a snail's pace--but it's nothing but captivating; hypnotic, even. The soundtrack is minimal; at times, there's only the ambient sounds surrounding the scenery. I definitely would rewatch it again!