Asian Auteurs, part 3 of 3

License to Express: 2046 (2004) VS Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)

(2046 nutshell) I do not agree with public opinion and think this is a direct continuation from ITMFL. Mr. Chow gets over his cheongsam girl heartbreak and evolves spectacularly into a successful writer and playboy. Everyone falls for him - the landlord's underaged daughter, the classy playgirl next door, and a gloves-on gambler also named So Lai-Chun. This sets the understone of the story, as Chow attempts to write a time travel story filled with love and regrets, based largely on past experiences, or more specifically, cheongsam girl. As impossible to understand as Mulholland Dr. on a first viewieng, WKW splatters the whole two hours with his usual themes, and then some. Production was an ungodly 2yrs, and part of the all-star cast vowed never to work with WKW ever. Extending the colour palette in 1960s Hong Kong and weird time-travel train coaches, 2046 is a beautiful cinema extravaganza. Amongst the beautiful cast, Faye Wong 王菲 makes a welcome return as her lovely care-free self, Takuya Kimura is a male flowerpiece 花瓶, and both former and current Chinese 'It' girls Gong Li 巩俐 and Zhang Ziyi 章子怡 turn up with solid performances. But 2046 is no doubt about Tony Leung, flexing his acting muscles again as one of the most versatile and best actors in the world. Despite the lavish suits and combed-back hair, Mr. Chow suffers the more he writes, as he discovers that he is not over cheongsam girl after all. But what can anyone do to change the past? WKW overload.
key scene: In a throwback to Leslie Cheung and Carina Lau in DOBW, sassy girl ZZY asks Mr. Chow: "Is this how you treat all girls? 你对每个都这样吗？" The venom, unacceptance, jealousy and rage burning in her eyes.

(SFLV nutshell) Lee Young-Ae makes a terrific transition from palace medicine girl to vicious murderer, in an attempt to piss all Cheung Kam 长今-loving aunties off. LYA plays a ex-convict fresh out of prison, falsely convicted for a vicious murder on a 5yr old boy 13yrs ago. Utilising her witty guile, she gains notorierity, fame and friends in the female prison, earning a beautiful nickname in the process. Upon release, she sheds her angelic image instantly and starts plotting and executing her vengeance. PCW adopts a passive approach this time, exhibiting minimum intent at the start, slowly moulding LYA's character into shape, giving the angel-face murderer a soul acting out of pure grief. I understand PCK's intention to reduce the violence and increase the intent, but this movie does drag about at times. For example, what has baker boy got to do with anything? However, by the time sweet vengeance reaches fruition, the spectacle of mass murderers (mob of victims torturing old boy to death) speaks volumes about the sheer grief of vendetta. Unspectacular, but a fitting ending to the brilliant vengeance trilogy.
key scene: daughter stopping dad from plunging axe into oldboy: "leave some for the next aunty."

2046 VS SFLV keywords: final part of trilogy, most well-produced, least extreme, full expression of director's fave themes, star-studded.

Ahh..manage to fulfil my small desire of becoming a movie critic with these reviews. Manchester has turn me into a full fledge movie maniac, and my to-watch list feels like infinity. Being exposed to HK, China and Korean cinema, and now watching western favourites, I do naturally feel unjustified about the lack of media coverage on excellant eastern movies. Thankfully, websites like lovehkfilm.com and koreanfilm.org can soldier on to increase exposure of Asian movies. Looking through IMDb's Top 250 list, I think there are at most 10 Asian films there. It is dead unfortunate that Westerners still associate Asian films with kungfu and violence, which they can 'relate' to via crappy Tarantino.

No doubt they make the best war movies, westerns and epic trilogies, but many other genres belong to the East:
- romance in the city ~ WKW only. Lost in Translation is good, but nothing comes close to Chungking Express.
- romantic comedy ~ My Sassy Girl is my all-time no.1, maybe Roman Holiday comes close. Then again, I happen to think Jeon Ji-Hyun is the most beautiful girl in the world.
- cops ~ HK must really love their police force, making so many cop and robber flicks.
- gangsters ~ other than Godfather and Casino, I find most other gangster flicks crappy, most notably the overrated Goodfellas. 'Gu wak zai' 蛊惑仔 rulez!
- slapstick ~ always thought Stephen Chow 周星驰 makes the funniest movies, until my recent ran-in into Monty Python. Ni!!
- action ~ anyone who has watched Police Story 1-3, or Drunken Master II, will know what I mean. All those polished kuailous can't even jump off one floor without a stunt double. And Chow Yun Fatt is the coolest person ever to hold a gun.
- melodrama ~ HK's Heaven and Earth 天长地久 and Korea's You are My Sunshine made me cry. 'nuff said.
- finally, cartoons ~ to think that there are ppl that actually prefer Disney to Miyazaki is unbelievable. Compare Laputa to Aladdin? Spirited Away to Nemo? bwahahahaha

I want to click your forehead too!!