The Flowers of War

Directed by Zhang Yimou, this epic film is about courage and sacrifice set against the ravages and horrors of war in 1937 in Nanjing, China. This film also marks the first time that a Western Actor has the lead role in a Chinese production.

The film has a limited opening playing only in a short list of select cities (just 21 theaters nationwide) beginning on Friday, January 20th, 2012.

Since it is not playing anywhere in Florida, I have to hope that it will achieve a wider distribution later on, or I’ll have to wait for the DVD to review it.

Christian Bale (an Oscar winner for The Fighter and he starred as Batman in The Dark Knight) has the lead role. He plays a traveling mortician, attending to the dead, not an adventurer, yet he’s kind of a wayfaring dissolute man who happened to find himself in Nanjing, and at the church, when the Japanese troops attacked the city in December of 1937.

By circumstances unknown to me, so I’ll call them luck and fate, he and a group of frightened Chinese Catholic schoolgirls and another group made up of a dozen beautiful courtesans, find themselves trapped inside a walled cathedral – which they hope will afford them safety from the marauding soldiers. Bale’s character, John Miller, will take up the role of the church’s priest, donning the clothing and vestments of a recently killed priest

That’s about all the set up I can provide not having seen the film. Zhang Yimou’s cinematic pedigree – Raise the Red Lantern (1991), Shanghai Triad (1995), The Road Home (2000), Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) are amongst his best known films that have garnered interest, praise and adulation from western audiences.

He’s worked with Gong Li multiple times (at least 5 films), and with Zhang Ziyi at least three times. So he’s got the talent and the rep to attract China’s most beautiful and best known actresses.

The reviews have been mixed, but if you are attracted to Asian beauties, love going to the movies, and you live in or near LA, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington DC, Houston, Honolulu, Seattle, or Atlanta – then you will have an opportunity to see the film on the big screen as soon as Friday, Jan. 20th.

I will be happy to help you publish your review if you do happen to take in the film in the near future, wish to contribute a review, and you don’t already have author status on this blog. You can contact me on the Scanlover Forum via Private Message.

For interviews with Director Zhang Yimou and lead actress Ni-Ni, visit Sidewalks.

To view a calendar with The Flowers of War beauties as the models visit Beijing Shots.

The trailer for The Flowers of War is below:

He’s not only an eligible bachelor, but he revels in it. He’s unofficially – the hottest guy in the office. He’s also a male chauvinist, and his skill is in selling products to men. Girls working there fawn all over him, that is when they’re not flirting with him, or creating scenarios where they can bump into him.

On his way to the office one day – he meets a beautiful woman in the elevator. He offers to buy her a coffee, and she says she only drinks water. You can see the attraction. His for her is written all over his face, and she’s intrigued too, only she’s not so outgoing about it that you can easily tell what she’s thinking. She is Li Yu-long and she’s played by Gong Li. Lau’s Mr. Sun doesn’t know it, but she’s just been hired by his firm to become the Executive Creative Director of the firm – a position that he thought he would be promoted into that day.

After his boss, the firm’s CEO’s broke the news to him that Li got the job instead of him, he heads back to his office, where his staff had a surprise party set up for him – a celebration on his promotion. That he didn’t get. He dismisses them. Sorry guys, not today. Maybe sometime in the future.

The next morning, there’s a big meeting scheduled in the conference room to introduce this Li. Sun makes a bet with one of his buddies, that this Li, whoever she is, will look like a man. Soon after Li walks in and sits down. Sun goes over to chat her up.  He still hasn’t a clue as to who she is. He only knows that she is the woman from the elevator from yesterday. ”Oh – you also work here?‘, he says, amping up the wattage of his smile.

When Li takes off her glasses, Sun says, “You look good without your glasses.”

She replies, “You also look good … without my glasses.”

So that’s how these two – who are China’s two biggest film stars begin the 2011 romantic comedy film, What Women Want. If that title sounds familiar to you, that’s because this is a remake of the 2000 American film of the same name that starred Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.

Well Gong Li’s character is introduced and she has a game plan at the ready. She’s been hired because the ebb and flow of money has dictated that women are now China’s biggest consumer group. So Li has prepared a box of female products for each of these male execs (most of the creative staff are men – in this agency). She wants them to get in touch with their female side, their ‘anima’ and get familiar with the products. Because that’s what they’re going to be selling going forward.

Sun then aks her if women have a male side. ‘Sure they do’ is the answer – ‘And it’s called animus’.

Okay, there’s your start – boy meets girl. She’s now his boss, and she got the job he wanted but – no problem. That night while he is experimenting with the female products – a tampon applicator, birth control pills, lipsticks, high heels. stockings, etc etc, there’s an accident and Sun suffers a severe electrical shock when a lamp falls into the tub while’s having a bath.

When he wakes up, in the hospital, to his surprise and horror, he finds he can hear in his head, whatever women are thinking. He’s not sure about it and he thinks maybe he’s mistaken. But he isn’t.

Before you know it, he’s stealing the advertising ideas that Li Yu-long is creating. He’s submitting them and he’s gaining favor with the CEO. So far this is pretty much the exact same story that Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt gave us in What Women Want circa 2000.

I’m not going to give you any more of the plot details. Suffice it to say, that with two of China’s biggest movie stars in this film, it had tremendous production values. Everything about this film was beautiful visually. Seemed to me like nothing was too costly – from the sets, to the clothes, to the apartments – even the cars were expensive, and all of it beautifully presented.

But something was missing and it was sex. Simply – there wasn’t any. Not the before, nor the after, and certainly not the ‘during’. Lau’s Sun may have had many women in his bed – but we never saw them. Closest we got to that was when his Mom, who came by make sure he got to work on time, sniffed the air in his bedroom and said, “Hmmm, Chanel, the last one wore Dior” – before finding a female panties beneath the covers. As far as Sun & Li – not only did not they not go to bed, we never even saw them in a bedroom.

So the film, which was directed by Chen Daming, is a virtual scene for scene remake of the original. The Chinese version added in a side story about Sun’s father, but otherwise it was the same. This one wasn’t quite a failure – I mean after all,the two stars are wrapped up in a sensational looking package. But most people have said that there’s a lack of chemistry. I won’t agree to that. I’ll go as far as saying – the sparks really didn’t fly. Maybe we can thank SARFT for that.

SARFT is China’s State Agency for Radio, Film, and Television. In short Big Brother is watching. So while we witnessed some desire, and the stars looked at each other with passion nearly pouring out of every pore – nothing happened. Not only did nothing happen, but we got no indications that something had happened either.

The other thing that I thought worth mentioning is that film is set in China, as well as made and performed by Chinese people. But the flavoring wasn’t the least bit Chinese. This ad agency could have been set in Manhattan or Chicago or Century City. The buildings were all glittering sky-scrapers, the apartments were all worth many millions, and no one rode the subways, or carried a lunch box. Every woman was dressed to the nines and tens.

In the end, I’d say that this was more of a coming to grips with reality for Lau’s character. Gong Li was more much more than simply an attractive woman for Lau to chase. Because as the picture plays – he’s more interested in getting the job that she got rather than having a relationship with her. Only he can’t stay that course because love does intrude. On that note – we might say that this isn’t really about what women want. Instead it is more about what Andy’s Sun Zi Gang wants.

By the way, if you care to gaze at Gong Li and Andy for about 90 minutes, you can see this via Netflix streaming. Below is a trailer for the film.

Same Three Lead Actors - Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo, and Daniel Wu

Same Directors - Alan Mak and Felix Chong

Same Screenplay Authors – Alan Mak and Felix Chong

Same Producer - Derek Yee

Same Underlying Themes – Covert Electronic surveillance and Insider Trading

I’m not crazy, am I? Every indication would lead us to believe that Overheard 2 was a sequel to Overheard. Only it isn’t. Which brings us to the question: Is this shameless marketing?

In China, there is a state agency which we shall label SARFT. Yes, that is an acronym, and sorry, but no – I didn’t make up the acronym. This agency aka State Agency for Radio, Film, and Television are the folks that decide what is or isn’t acceptable content for the few billion Chinese people. They also oversee the Internet as it pertains to content and access within China.

Now I have already told you that I wasn’t able to access my blog while in Yangshuo in China earlier this month. Now you and I, and possibly a good number of the few billion Chinese people, will find a small barrier/speed bump created by SARFT for Overheard 2.

In Overheard, our three stars played Hong Kong cops who were conducting a covert surveillance to uncover financial shenanigans by corporate honchos in the form of stock manipulation and insider trading. Only these cops decided to follow up, with their own money, and get in on the insider info and make a bundle for themselves instead of submitting the incriminating sound bytes. But Big Brother SARFT had decreed that crime cannot go unpunished – hence our three eavesdroppers could not be brought back for a Round 2.

Lau Chin Wan, Louis Koo, and Daniel Wu were the three leads who portrayed the greedy cops who only wanted to cash in that one time. This time around Lau Ching Wan plays a stock trader named Manson Law. He’s great at what he does and as such, he came to the attention of a group of very wealthy men, known as The Landlord’s Club. These men want to manipulate stock prices for a double purpose: to line their own pockets, and to beat outside investors (read US financial services firms and banks) at their own game. In short they believed that their own tactics were good for their country (the famous cloak known as nationalism).

They seek to drive up the price of a particular stock which hit the market with an I.P.O. (Initial Public Offering) price of 10 all the way up to 26, then they will sell it all off.

While this is being discussed and planned, another player enters the fray. This would be Daniel Wu who plays Joe Szema, a master of covert operations in the form of electronic eavesdropping including the use of spy-cams, wire taps, and other illegal bugs. His target is Manson Law who is connected to The Landlord Club.

When Manson is called to meet with the Landlords, Joe is at the ready in a ‘nondescript’ van to follow Law and overhear what is being said at this meeting. But Law notices the van a few times too often, and attempts to race away. He’s driving a Ferrari. He has no idea that his car is being tracked by Joe with a GPS homing device.

But there’s a huge crash. Manson Law’s car collides with a truck. Shortly afterwards, the police find that a very sophisticated listening device had been planted in the car. That brings it to the attention of Detective Jack Ho played by Louis Koo.

Now  Detective Ho is not only quite tough, but he is also nothing if not driven, persistent, and focused. He’s so connected to law enforcement and upholding the law that he even busted his own wife, an investment manager, for dipping into client funds to cover a short-term cash flow problem, and she did jail time.

Ok there’s your set-up. I’ve set the stage for you. You should know that these three characters will soon intersect. You should also know that this film has plenty of action packed set pieces – chases on foot (I noticed they used the Mid-Level escalator in Hong Kong’s Central District – a place where I had actually been just a few weeks before seeing this film), a car chase, a motorcycle chase, and some gun-play. Then there’s the insidious market manipulation.

There’s triads, an over-the-top boss of the Landlord Club, cops, and the whole thing is visually splendid. A key element to this film is not simply how they manipulate the market, but the script wants you to understand why they do so. But I must tell that this part of the film is a little long-winded.

On the other hand – this film does entertain. As for shameless marketing, given what I’ve told you about SARFT, that another film with a sequential reference would still have to have brand new characters; are you surprised to hear that Overheard 3 is already in production?

Takeshi Kitano

Kitano has decided that the whole Yakuza experience is nothing more than the human equivalent of the most deadly King of the Hill game you’ve ever seen. From the lowest members of a Yakuza family, who are the button men or soldiers (the drivers don’t count), to the very top of the mountain where the Chairman holds forth – we see nothing but a supreme battle for power. Loyalties are constantly shifting. Your sworn brother today is your executioner tomorrow. And someone else will take care of him on the next day.

We start with a summit of one family. There’s a long line of limos and black-suited chauffeurs. We hear that Murase family has been doing a bit of drug business and that the Chairman isn’t pleased. So he instructs the Ikemoto family to set up an office on the Murase turf and begin to annoy and bother them.

An Ikemoto guy runs up a huge tab in a Murase night club in one night (600,000 Yen). He then claims he doesn’t have the money on him. The Murase’s demand payment but then are embarrassed when they send a couple of low level guys out to collect and find out that the guy was with the Ikemotos. An apology is necessary as well as the money being returned. But this meeting gets out of control fast, and the Murase lieutenant gets beaten up, and loses enough face that he’s required to cut off his pinky.

Remarkably and easily, that was the first violent episode of the film and it was also the softest scene of any that were violent in the whole film. From there, the Chairman manipulates everyone, including Kitano who plays Otomo who is an enforcer but a low-level one.

Kitano looks like he could play a heavy in any country despite his Japanese appearance. His face looks like a boxing glove. He’s going to kill a number of people in this film, including Murase who he shoots in a sauna, and the only time he smiles is when he’s laughing in the face of an opponent just after calling him an asshole.

So slowly, the body count rises. Soon it’s not slowly. Not only does the body count rise, but the frequency increases exponentially as well. We have plotting then killing, and each time, the plotting takes less time in order to devote more time to the execution.

At least in The Sopranos, there were family moments, like when Tony Soprano strangled a guy in between visiting Bates College and Bowdoin College with his daughter; and ostensibly, wives and children were supposed to be excluded from the assassinations. In Outrage, there’s not one role that works out positively for a woman. But that’s not all. The Ambassador from Ghana is set up as a patsy with a murdered girl. Before you know it, the Yakuza has decided to make the Ghanaian Embassy into a gambling casino. And they do.

When the Ambassador complains about his cut – and threatens to go to the police, they remind him with an ominous warning – You do know that you are dealing with the Yakuza, right?

But what happens is that the killing becomes the only leitmotif of the film. There’s no end to it. You’d think that these nitwits would catch on – that they’re being used. That eventually even the executioners will be executed. Takashi Kitano has delivered a film that is so nihilistic, and so bleak, that these power struggles become pointless. As you watch, you know well in advance about who the next victim will be. The only question is the ‘how’.

‘Why’ no longer is a part of the equation. You can substitute next for ‘when’. So the film loses it’s impact as well as you lose interest. Kitano does deliver a few striking shots. The only character in the film who smiles is the police detective who collects his weekly envelope of Yen.

It is a bleak world for these Yakuza. Upward mobility exists only up to the point when it stops because you just took a bullet between your eyes. As for we folks who choose to watch this film, I think I can say that this is not one of Kitano’s best efforts. But despite that you simply can’t look away.

Johnny To has received world-wide acclaim  for his stylish and hard-hitting films in the cops and crooks genre but he doesn’t limit himself to just those. In fact, I’ve reviewed a couple of his more recent films - Vengeance which had a relatively low police presence, and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart which was basically a romance. Besides those, I have personally seen close to a dozen of his older films.  That was one of the plusses of living in Manhattan – my proximity to the NY Chinatown where I could easily buy Hong Kong films on DVD. This time I caught his new film, which opened about a month ago on the 20th of October, at a real movie house – the UA Cinema in Taikoo, Hong Kong.

Okay, okay – enough off topic chatter. Let’s get back to the film. The first of the three main characters that we meet is the cop. Richie Jen (below) plays Inspector Cheung. As we first lay eyes on him, he is working a case that he caught. He’s on-site of a fresh murder. One old timer, a pensioner, has murdered another. This event doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but the murderer and the Inspector will cross paths again.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Inspector Cheung’s wife, played by Myolie Wu, is hot to buy an apartment. He thinks they need to discuss it further. But she is vulnerable to the real estate broker’s sale pitch (and not so subtle pressure tactics) about how time is of the essence, and that other buyers are preparing offers. So Cheung and Mrs are looking at getting a hefty mortgage.

Lau Ching Wan (below) plays the triad guy known as Panther. He’s a guy in his 40′s and he’s well known in the triad world. He serves as a bagman, he sets up dinners, he’s a go-fer, and above everything else he believes in loyalty. Panther will run around trying to raise bail money when that’s needed for one of his associates.He’s very well known in the Hong Kong triad circles, and everyone in his triad is his ‘sworn brother’.

Today, he’s going to need a ton of money and he’ll need to get it fast because one of his triad buddies has been running an internet investment house, and the market is turning, and his client has threatened him with mayhem or worse.

Denise Ho plays Teresa, the bank rep here. When we first meet her, she’s attending a sales meeting. She’s not doing well (actually she has the least amount of sales than anyone else on the team), and her boss wants her to amp up her sales figures, or else … she’ll be given the dreaded see-me-after-work notification; a sure sign that one is being fired. So she’s got to get her ass in gear and bring in mucho investment dollars.

So she starts cold calling new people, then when that doesn’t bring in any results beyond her getting some telephonic abuse, she starts contacting her existing clients. This is when the movie both slows down and accelerates at the same time. The first meaningful client is an old lady who isn’t investment savvy at all. Teresa runs her client’s profile and she’s definitely a client that should be put only into low risk securities. But this lady is complaining about bank fees, low interest rates, and how she’s struggling on her fixed retirement income. She says she’s willing to take a risk.

Teresa recommends an investment fund which is high return/high risk. It is called BRIC – because it invests in Real Estate Mortgages in such countries as Brazil, India, etc. Director To spends a lot of time with this segment – it is almost agonizingly slow. Teresa has to play a video for her client about this investment vehicle, then she has to coach her about what to say because they will need to make a recorded conversation where the client will state flatly that she understands the risk and is very willing to take such a risk. But the old lady is bewildered to a degree and gets her responses confused, so they have to stop and then re-start the recording many, many times.

The second client is Inspector Cheung’s wife. She comes in for a mortgage.

The third client is a loan-shark. Teresa tries to peddle the BRIC to him, but he’s far too savvy. He only uses the bank to keep his money in, and he can calculate the bank fees in his head. So he’s not about to make a big investment through Denise. He shows her and us how he does far better by means of his loan shark business. He says something along the lines of my money is working for me not for the bank. He actually turns Teresa’s sales pitch inside out and asks her to call if she wants to make money or needs money. That day, he’s come in to withdraw 10 Million HK dollars which he is going to lend out, so while the money is being prepared he chats with Teresa.

The money is brought to her office. While they’re putting it into a big bag, he gets a call. He’s got to run off to see his client. He’s going to take only 5 million with him. He wants the other five million to be put back into the account. Teresa says, you’ll need to fill out a deposit slip. He says, No time, I’ll do it next time. Just hold the money for me. So Teresa has the five million on her desk – she puts it into a cabinet and locks it.

Meanwhile things are in motion both locally, globally, as well as specifically in the bank’s parking garage. Locally Panther’s friend needs a quick influx of cash – so Panther sets off to meet the loan shark.

But there is a snatch and grab in the bank’s garage about to happen – with the loan shark as the target.

Also on this very day we have news of the possibility of a default in Greece, which could trigger a collapse of the Euro, and on stock exchanges all over the world, things will become chaotic.

The beauty of all of this is that Johnny To is able to tie all of this together – The Cheung’s, the loan shark, Panther, Teresa, the old lady in the high risk investment vehicle, a tumbling market, and that 10 million withdrawal, half in Teresa’s  cabinet and half in the loan-shark’s bag.

Johnny To really delivers with this film. You do have sit through some lengthy scenes that will serve two purposes – one to set up the specific characters motivations, and 2) to  create and establish that Hong Konger’s – from the very wealthy to the old lady living on a fixed income – are all greedy. Everyone wants money, and whether it be for gambling on horse racing, betting on sports, or running an illegal boiler-room financial operation, loan sharking, armed robbery, kick-backs up the line to the triad bosses, or even something as mundane cosmetics, phones, and clothing accessories, or as normal as being a financial rep for a bank – the film shows us that everyone is money-mad.

But for every winning bet there is a losing bet. Sometimes the people who set up long positions in their security holdings make money, and sometimes they lose money. Ditto for the short sellers. Honest cops stay where they are in a struggle, and crooks steal out of greed.

I really liked this drama. In one sense the film starts then you must endure a slowing of the pace all of which is quite deliberate. But then you are going to receive a terrific payoff in terms of viewing pleasure when To’s magic become evident. His pacing, editing, even the music score are just wonderful in this film. Just looking at his shot composition is often breathtaking. This is a brand new film so you will likely have to wait for the DVD or Netflix to get it. But, trust me, it will be worth your time. Of course, maybe you are already in Hong Kong – in which go see it right now.

She is Zixin, played marvelously by Gao Yuanyuan. She’s a financial analyst. She’s been dumped by a guy, and nearly sleepwalked herself into a tragic accident with an automobile on a Hong Kong street. At the last second she is snatched out of harm’s way by a seedy, scruffy, wino drunk. He is Fang (Daniel Wu has the role). Turns out he is, or rather was, an award winning architect who burned out on success and now the only thing he looks forward to is his next drink.

She works in an office tower and across the way, in the next building, we find Cheung. Louis Koo has the part.  He is the CEO of an investment bank. He has just two rules (actually three but bear with me a minute). Rule Number One - we never lose money. Rule Number Two - we never forget rule number one. Anyway Cheung and Zixin began a window to window flirtation. Ultimately she agrees to a coffee date with him via post it notes and hand held signs.

But she has forgotten that she made a date a week ago with the down and not quite out architect who saved her life for that very evening.

Meanwhile, Cheung has noticed a very busty babe working two floors below Zixin. She notices Cheung’s window flirtations and thinks they are meant for her. So a second coffee date is arranged at the same place.

Louis Koo as Cheung

There’s some confusion – Cheung is called an asshole (via a handwritten placard) by a thoroughly pissed Zixin after Cheung doesn’t show for their date and she sees him with the bimbo who made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Meanwhile Fang the architect has taken Zixin’s advice, and decided to get his act together as well as getting his groove back. He waits for her but she never shows.

There’s your set up and there’s your Act One. As Act Two begins we see the fall of Lehman Brothers on a big news screen playing on the side of a Hong Kong Building.

The repercussions are felt all over the world including Hong Kong. Cheung’s firm is flattened. Zixin’s firm suffers huge losses with the accompanying layoffs. Three years pass. Cheung has just been named the new CEO of Zixin’s firm meaning he is now her boss. Fang’s architectural career has resumed and he becomes extremely successful. In a not quite unexpected turn of events, his firm takes over the space formerly occupied by Cheung’s business. So the window flirtations are in play once more.

So in Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, we have all the key elements of a classic love triangle. On top of that it is really romantic.You start with a delightful female lead. She’s great looking, has a winning smile, a good figure, and she has a wonderfully emotive face.

Then add in two guys. Both are great. This is what is traditionally called a woman’s dream – two eminently presentable bachelors vying for her attention.

Wu’s Fang is the good guy of the male leads. He start as a ragamuffin and as we leave him early on- he’s seriously crestfallen that Zixin has stood him up. But we know he’s going to get straightened out and be back in play.

Cheung is a standard role for Louis Koo – Hong Kong’s favorite romantic lead. His third rule? All woman are up for the taking meaning that if they show an interest, he’ll be happy to play. This is what got him into trouble with Zixin in the first place. After showering her with a Maserati, and apartment to die for,

and an offer of bliss – he couldn’t bring himself to say no – as in promising  to forsake all other women forever. So Koo’s Cheung begins as the cad and he’s going to change his direction too.

Poor Zixin – she’s pulled this way, and that way, and when she’ still not sure, the script has her turning in both directions again and again. The so-called dream situation is anything but. What is a girl to do? How can she decide?

The story expands out of Hong Kong to Suzhou in Mainland China (Zixin’s hometown). If anything, this film was made for the mainland market. There’s great looking people, and they go to the best restaurants, wear beautiful clothes, and look like money is never a problem

I think this film will delight western audiences as well as those in Mainland China. There’s a mixture of Cantonese, Mandarin and English spoken (plus excellent English subtitles).

The situations aren’t Chinese in their essence, but they’re the stuff that romantic comedies are made of – the film could take place in any country – only here the setting is Hong Kong and China.

It is entertaining, light-hearted, and the major plus is the most attractive actors and actresses. This is a film that can, will and does please.

Oh yes, that third kind of man? The one that doesn’t cheat and doesn’t want to cheat – you’ll need to see the film for that answer. And don’t necessarily immediately discard ‘Martian’ as the answer.

Overheard aka Sit Yan Fung Wan, was co-directed by Alan Mak and Felix Chong,  with Chong also having written the screenplay. These are two-thirds, with Andrew Lau being the third, of the group that created the Infernal Affairs trilogy which later became the inspiration for Martin Scorsese’s The Departed.

We start (literally the movie’s opening images) with a colony of rats, the four-footed kind, scurrying about doing their business in a garbage strewn back alley in the lees of a Hong Kong skyscraper. Within seconds, we are far above this mean street and its night crawling denizens. This places us now in a high floor in this office tower, and a group of agents who work for the Hong Kong Police Department’s Commercial Criminal Bureau (CCB) are scurrying about doing their business which is to plant eavesdropping equipment. The target firm is E & T, a firm whose stock has exhibited such erratic price swings, that the Hong Kong version of the SEC has decided to investigate it.

The cops – Johnny, played by Lau Ching-wan, Gene played by Louis Koo, and Max played by Daniel Wu, are very good at what they do. And to prove it, the film calls for the man whose office they are bugging to make an unexpected late night return to his office while these cops are still in it. The tension is remarkable, and the suspense is truly pulse-pounding.

Of course, there is a back-up plan, called Plan B, and they go undiscovered. With the bugs in place, they will come to learn that the E & T stock’s share price is going to be artificially manipulated in a day or so.

With this – Mak & Chong present us with a moral dilemma. They’re good cops but being a cop in Hong Kong means low pay, long hours, and lots of danger. And our three cops also have some private issues to deal with.

A suggestion is floated. Let’s delete this audio exchange, let’s not report it, and let’s grab a piece of this insider trading knowledge for ourselves. We’ll buy the shares in the morning, ride the price up and then we’ll sell it off later in the day for a big profit.

There’s your set up.

The cops who are part of the investigative force looking to get the goods on the bad guys of an insider trading situation, become guilty of the same crime themselves. Oh they have some reasons for their actions, and they’re likeable guys. You’ll do more than just side with them – you’ll even root for them.

If only it was that simple. There’s a gap on the tape from the deletion. They even neglected to enter the deletion onto the logs. They come under suspicion themselves. Their own phones are tapped. Tempers fray, judgments are clouded by fears and doubts. Each of them has to struggle within himself. Particularly Johnny who seems on the one hand to be at the film’s moral center, while at the same time, he carries the largest burden of guilt.

Not only are the police looking into the situation a lot closer, but so are the management of E & T, who are guilty of far more than fiscal shenanigans.

While the film does earn praise, it is far from perfect. The first two-thirds of the film are masterful, but the final third stretches credibility. Lau is excellent as usual. There’s a reason he is called the Jack Nicholson of Hong Kong. Louis Koo plays a character older than his real age, and you’ll appreciate his acting which calls for to play a rough and tough cop instead of a ladies’ man. But Wu’s Max is a bit underwritten and under-developed.  On the debit side, Michael Wong is comically ludicrous as the CEO of E&T. He clearly approaches the ‘he’s so bad, he’s good’ line of demarcation.

On the female side of the cast – there’s only one character worth mentioning – she’s the wife of the supervisor of the three cops. She’s called Mandy and she’s more than just eye-candy. The actress in this role is called Jingchu Zhang (below). She does a superb job in a no-nonsense kind of role. She may not be crucial to the story, but she’s one of the underlying reasons that at least one of cops does what he does. In short, she is a bit of cinematic short hand. The screenplay doesn’t paint this story in broad black and white strokes. In particular, most of the characters, are decidedly gray.

In case you were wondering about the film’s opening shots with the rats – at one point, we watch a rat poke his head into a dark place . Where he is is obscured. We then can see only his hind-quarters and tail. Listen carefully and you’ll hear a snap. We don’t see what happens to this rat.

According the guidelines as established by SARFT, which is China’s State Administration for Radio, Films, and Television, in media for the public, no misdeed, or criminal activity, can go unpunished.

We can take this to mean that these cops will have bear a price for their actions, just as this multi-thematic alternate theatrical poster for Overheard tell us in an non-verbal way.

With or without the SARFT dictated ending, this is a worthwhile film that is fraught with suspense and suspicion, tension and trickery, action and fine acting, and thrills galore.

The film garnered 6 nominations for awards within the Hong Kong Film Industry, winning three. Co Directors Alan Mak and Felix Chong won the award for Film Direction from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.  Check out the trailer.

The star of the film is Yui Aragaki who is affectionately known as ‘Gakki‘ by her legion of fans. In this film she’s the central character. As the film opens it is in the early 1980′s and a small Japanese girl is reaching upward to the blossoms on the tree. Flash forward to 2005, and we find ourselves tracking a bus as it drives along the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada.

It is then, on this bus, that we meet Gakki as the now adult Sae Hirisawa. An English speaking young girl ask Sae some questions and we find out that she is headed for a lighthouse where she says, “… I am meant to be…”. The camera pans down and we see a framed photo in her hands.

The image is of a small child and a mother in the shadow of a lighthouse. Quickly the film flashes back to an earlier period in Sae’s life, this time it is 1996, and she’s a senior in High School, and there’s another lighthouse, this time in Eastern Hokkaido, Japan. So within the first 2 minutes of the film, we’ve covered a lot of years, going back and forth, and we know, for certain, that these lighthouses will figure prominently in this Japanese drama.

The story sets up with a High School senior on her way to take a college entrance examination. She’ll meet a boy on the train. He’s in school too – only he’s in a trade school for the fishing industry. The train hits a deer and is delayed. Sae’s going to miss her exam.  One thing leads to another and they become friends. Eventually they’re going to have to separate because Sae does take the exam and passes and is accepted into a prestigious university in Tokyo. The boy follows his family heritage and like his father and his grandfather, he becomes a fisherman.

Sae heads off to school. She’s going to meet a photographer in Tokyo.  The boy, Kouhei, played by Toma Ikuta, still pines for Sae. He heads down to Tokyo to see her. There’s a misunderstanding and some confusion.  That’s the way things go in life and in dramas. Times passes. Sae can’t get a job in Tokyo. Kouhei marries a different girl. Eventually Sae gets a job in New York.

Imagine my surprise to see Yui Aragaki in a New York street scene. Or on the promenade in Brooklyn Heights. Sae heads back to Hokkaido for a friend’s wedding. Naturally she will run into Kouhei at the wedding. Her presence is going to put a strain on Kouhei’s marriage. Sae heads back to New York.  Lo and behold the photographer appears in New York. And so it goes.

No need to tell you anymore. The film is beautifully shot in Japan, and New York, and Nova Scotia. Gakki will speak plenty of English in the film. She’s wonderfully attractive, as is all of the cast. They do manage to get you to invest emotionally in this story.

But the problem is that the story, while it has reversals of fortunes, deaths, separations,  and plenty of what might be difficult moments for the audience, doesn’t quite hit its marks. It isn’t a case of being done badly, or poor acting – no everything is handled very well – only the script has been engineered to present you with dramatic moments that just miss being exhilarating, or don’t quite get you to cry.

I wanted this film to make people cry. I had hoped to enter a film world where there’s a strong payoff for your emotional investment. Only it isn’t up to it.  Yes there are high points which you will make smile in expectation. There are low points – some of which you can see coming and others that do catch you by surprise.

I’ll say that I did like the film. The two hours and eight minutes were worthwhile, only not quite to what you might call memorable.  The film ended on an upbeat and positive note only without a payoff.

My Darling is a Foreigner

The story has some humor to it, but not nearly enough. The tale has all the expected speed bumps:

Her father is against it and about his hoped for approval – ‘Not in a million years’, he says.

Tony’s use of spoken Nihongo (Japanese) is excellent but that doesn’t mean he will use the right word all the time.

Saori’s English is a work in progress.

Each of them, Saori and Tony, will be the one that is different at a key social setting – Tony is mistaken for the Minister who performed the service at Saori’s sister’s wedding by Saori’s Mom. When Saori finally says, “This is my boyfriend”, her mother is shocked and immediately pulls Saori off to the side (right in full view of Tony).

At a party of Tony’s friends – Saori is the only Japanese – and she feels so isolated that she drinks herself into a stupor.

And so it goes. They set up together in a house, and for a while all is going smoothly. Although they’re not married or even engaged – this is the honeymoon phase. But Saori doesn’t tell Tony of her father’s objections. Eventually, there’s a family emergency, and Tony gets the bad news about the hoped for parental approval directly from Saori’s Tou-san (Father).

Saori has no answer when Tony decides to confront her about why she hadn’t told him. Meanwhile the pressure is building on Saori’s career. When the honeymoon stage has passed, and the pressure of internalizing the fact that her Dad was against the relationship continued to mount – Saori had to struggle more and more to be creative and keep up with her work.

There’s your set up. In the role of Saori, Mao does good work. She has a built in audience due to her fabulous performance in Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango) which was so successful as a TV series that it ran for two seasons, and a movie was made from the series.

I don’t know much about Mr. Sherr. But his role didn’t give him much of an opportunity to do much except show off his Japanese language skills. I’m not saying this as a negative about him, but his role was far more narrow than Mao’s.

They are a cute couple

The Good: every so often, there would be a cute animation of Tony and Saori – it was marvelous and it added considerable brightness and laughter. Mao Inoue’s performance. Jonathan Sherr’s Japanese. Nicely shot with lots of sunlight and pretty settings. For certain they did make a cute couple.

The Bad: The animation was the source of most of the laughs. In a cross-cultural, racially diverse relationship – there are going to be misunderstandings, miscommunications, and the like. In this film almost all of them were played seriously rather than for laughs. Often slow moving, and almost devoid of passion – there’s only one kiss and you’ll have to wait for it.

Summary: Worth seeing but not a must see. It has is it moments, but not nearly enough of them to fully impress.

In 2005, Lisa See wrote a novel called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. This book would become a best seller. In the book, a character describes a laotong thusly: A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity. The book opens with the following sentence:

I am what they call in our village “one who has not yet died.”

The speaker of these words is an 80 year old widow. She’s outlived her husband, and her future is limited. So she spends much of her remaining time looking at her past, filtered by memories that are hers alone, or those memories shared with her laotong.

From those 14 words, the story of a specific laotong would be told. The novel is more than 250 pages long, and in 2011, this story will be released as a motion picture. The director is Wayne Wang, who also directed the film version of the Amy Tang novel – The Joy Luck Club.

The film stars Li Bingbing, Gianna Jun, Vivian Wu, and Hugh Jackman. Filming began in China in early 2010. The North American film rights have been acquired by Fox Searchlight Films, and the planned release date in the US is July 15th.

The storyline as described by Fox Searchlight films:

In 19th-century China, seven year old girls Snow Flower and Lily are matched as laotong – or “old sames” – bound together for eternity. Isolated by their families, they furtively communicate by taking turns writing in a secret language, nu shu, between the folds of a white silk fan. In a parallel story in present day Shanghai, the laotong’s descendants, Nina and Sophia, struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers, complicated love lives, and a relentlessly evolving Shanghai. Drawing on the lessons of the past, the two modern women must understand the story of their ancestral connection, hidden from them in the folds of the antique white silk fan, or risk losing one another forever.

From the looks of the trailer, this film will be very special. I have every intention of seeing it and enjoying it.

“Our destinies are tied forever. We will be laotong – sisters for 10,000 years.”

Though this film was produced in China, it is an English language film. Originally Zhang Ziyi was to star in the lead role, but a scheduling conflict caused her to back out.