As The Quiet American begins we hear these words spoken by Michael Caine as Thomas Fowler:
I can’t say what made me fall in love with Vietnam – that a woman’s voice can drug you; that everything is so intense. The colors, the taste, even the rain. Nothing like the filthy rain in London. They say whatever you’re looking for, you will find here. They say you come to Vietnam and you understand a lot in a few minutes, but the rest takes a lifetime.
As you watch this 2002 film, which is set in Vietnam, circa 1952, a series of thoughts and ideas will percolate in your mind. The film stars Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, and Vietnamese beauty, Do Thi Hai Yen. There’s not much of a mystery about what will happen with these three people. Their roles look self-evident.
I did a piece about Japanese actress Kyoko Hasegawa back in August of 2009. That’s when I became aware of the film Rain Fall. This is a political conspiracy and a thriller combined, and the setting is in Tokyo. Kippei Shiina stars in the role of John Rain, an America with a Japanese father. He’s an ex-CIA covert operative, a trainer of US Navy Seals, and an assassin. In short, he’s one bad dude that you won’t want to mess with.
Gary Oldman stars as the head of the CIA’s Tokyo office. He chews up the scenery in an over-the-top performance. Oldman’s character, William Holtzer, is mostly office-bound where he commands his men from a state-of-the-electronic-arts war room. When he’s not barking orders like ‘Take the shot, TAKE THE SHOT!, he’s cussing up a storm or bemoaning (Jesus Christ!) yet another missed opportunity.
The gorgeous Kyoko Hasegawa is on hand portraying the daughter of a Japanese whistle-blower. It will be Rain’s job to protect her.
Also on hand are a few Japanese police detectives, and the Yakuza. The detective is a wise and savvy veteran who gets a good handle on the case, but he can’t prove squat. The Yakuza are a shadowy presence. We will see the head guy a few times, but will meet some of his street soldiers on more than a few occasions.
The film was written and directed by Max Mannix. This was just his second time at directing a film. Names with two X’s are pretty rare; Xerxes, anyone?
I’ve been following the career of a particular Japanese actress for a few years. Her name is Yuko Takeuchi. She was born on April 1st, 1980 so she’s 30 years old now. Her career in acting may have started before 1996, but that was the year she appeared in her first Japanese TV Drama Series which was called Saibougu. Her first film appearance was in 1998 in a film called Innocent World. Those were 14 and 12 years ago. I wasn’t able to find anything on Saibougu, but here is a clip from Yuko’s first film appearance.
From that beginning role, Yuko has gone on to win a number of awards for acting in both films and TV, so I thought I’d present a look back at Yuko on both the big screen and the small screen. From this point, I’m going to limit the presentations to those shows that I’ve actually seen. We will follow these chronologically so you so you get to watch as Yuko seemingly has grown more beautiful with the passing of years.
Lunch Queen Cover
In 2002, Yuko was the female lead in a TV series called Lunch no Joou or Lunch Queen. Yuko had top billing as Natsumi Nagita, a girl for who lunch was the highlight of the day. Through some rather unique circumstances, Natsumi ends up working at this restaurant called The Macaroni Kitchen. The restaurant was famous for it’s Rice Omellette with a demi-glaze sauce as shown in the image.
Did you notice that the title is not Girl + s, instead it is Girl + $ as in Girl$. They call it Paid Dating and according to Hong Kong film Director Kenneth Bi, who helmed this film, the girls following this pursuit do not think of themselves as prostitutes. Instead they see themselves as having fun with pay.
This is a brand new film. It just opened two days ago on the 2nd of September. It attracted a lot of attention at the Hong Kong Internation Film Festival last March. And there’s plenty of buzz about it now.
While this film isn’t really about The Social Network or even social networking – chat, text, and email is how the girls do their business. Plenty of personal info is divulged and before you can say How much? or gei doh chin a?, which is Cantonese for how much, the old barter system comes into play. Cash is traded for sex.
There are four female leads and each of them are in the business for different reasons. Three of the girl are in it for the money and more, but Bonnie Xian’s character Ronnie is actually a bored rich girl. She doesn’t do it for money. In fact, she pays the john. This Xian’s 5th film.
Bonnie (straight on view) and Michelle (half-profile)
While watching Jersey Shore last week on MTV, I caught the trailer for The Social Network. The movie is the story about the founders of Facebook and releases to theaters on October 1st. While watching the trailer, I saw someone who I thought was Brenda Song who I am a big fan of. When I went to check the cast list, I was surprised to see that she is indeed in the movie along with a few other Asian hotties: Malese Jow, Crystal Hoang, Yoko Okumura, and Tessa Sugay.
I was set on going to seeing The Social Network after watching the trailer. Knowing that these beauties are also in the movie is an added bonus. I hope the reviews are good once the movie critics publish their reviews for it.
Calling all action film fans. Especially if you favor or love the Hong Kong style which basically hasn’t a lot of dialogue, and is often quickly paced.
Beast Stalker is a 2008 release and about the worst thing I can say about it is that the title is a bit misleading. Dante Lam previously co-directed, with Gordon Chan, the excellent Beast Cops in 1998. That film was nearly unanimously acclaimed, so using ‘Beast’ in this title might be an attempted marketing ploy for knowledgeable film folks.
Nevertheless it has all the style and chops that Lam is noted for – gritty and tense situations which are amped up by a jittery hand held camera, strong characters who are both good and bad, and some very fine use of lighting and slow motion.
The story is a bit hum-drum as it starts: A well connected criminal is convicted and being driven to prison. His gang engineers a way to spring him out of that car. Then a massive multi-car crash occurs involving a number of vehicles. One car is the one in pursuit with Sgt. Tong (Nicholas Tse, Hong Kong’s version of Johnny Depp). Another is the car driven by Prosecuting Attorney (what we call an A.D.A. in the States), The third car is the one driven by Hung (a hoodlum for hire played by Nick Cheung). And of course, the first car with the convicted but escaped criminal. Read more…
Before Lust, Caution (2007), before Brokeback Mountain (2005), before The Hulk (2003), and even before Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Taiwanese movie director Ang Lee was well known in international movie circles for his very well received The Wedding Banquet, which was released in 1993.
The story basics start with three characters, Wai-Tung and Simon, a gay male couple, living in Manhattan, and Wei-Wei, a beautiful struggling artist who is a tenant in a rental apartment property in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that is owned by the portfolio diverse Wai-Tung.
Wai-Tung has not told his parent that he is gay. Said parents continue to harangue him about getting married and presenting them with grandchildren. And Wei-Wei is facing deportation from the US unless she can marry an American.
Well, Wai-tung is a naturalized American citizen, so a ‘marriage’ of convenience between he and Wei-Wei is designed by the threesome. This should allow Wai-Tung and Simon to continue as they wish, and Wei-Wei would then be granted a green-card to allow her stay in the US. Or so they thought. Wai-tung announces this to his parents in Taipei, and to his shock and dismay, they promptly announce that they are flying in to meet the bride, and arrange the wedding, as a civil ceremony only just won’t do.
Connected (Bo Chi Tung Wah) released in September, 2008, is a taut thriller with plenty of action. Directed by the veteran and reliable Hong Kong director Benny Chan, the film has enough action with shootouts and chases to keep the 18-30 year old males involved, enough eye candy and dramatics to satisfy the 25-45 males watching on DVD, and a sympathetic but resourceful woman as the victim of a kidnapping along with a couple of cute 6 year old kids, so you can safely ask your significant other along to watch the video with you.
In a nutshell, an attractive single Mom called Grace Wong, an electronics whiz played by the wonderful Barbie Hsu, while driving a sporty convertible gets into an auto accident which was no accident. When she recovers her senses, she as well as we are brought up to speed as we all learn she is a victim of a kidnapping.
The bad guys want something from her brother and think she might have it, or might know where he is. She doesn’t have a clue but the bad guys have to resort to some real heavy-handedness to get to that point. Read more…
Look For a Star aka Yau Lung Hei Fung is a 2009 Romance from famed Hong Kong director Andrew Lau who is most famous for the Infernal Affairs trilogy that he co-helmed with Alan Mak.
The star is the eminently bankable Andy Lau who has returned from doing a few period epics to a modern Romance in this feature. His co-star is Shu Qi.
The film is set entirely in Macau, which is a mere 40 miles and 40 minutes away from Hong Kong via your choice of high-speed ferries like jetfoils, turbo-cats, jumbo-cats and other kinds of hovercraft. I must add that clearing immigration in both Hong Kong and Macau took almost as long as the rapid trip across the South China Sea. Macau is correctly called the Las Vegas of the East, and serves as a glittering backdrop for the story. Read more…
“In America, I will have a daughter just like me. But over there, nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch. Over there, nobody will look down on her because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there, she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow.
The recent post on this blog about Ming-na Wen brought to mind her role as June Woo in the wonderful film adaption of the Amy Tan novel, The Joy Luck Club. The novel’s pedigree is impeccable. Published by G.P.Putnam & Sons in 1989, the book was on the New York Times best seller list for more than six months, it has been translated into more than 35 languages, and has sold in excess of 30 million copies world wide since its original publication more than 20 years ago.
After Amy Tan had a lengthy three day meeting with screenplay writer Ron Bass and movie director Wayne Wang, where they hashed out how the novel would be adapted into a movie, the three of them made a pact that they would not sell the book’s movie rights, or the screenplay, unless the studio gave them total creative control, meaning they would control the screenplay, the choice of location and actors, the filming, the editing, all the way up to and including the final cut. Read more…
As The Quiet American begins we hear these words spoken by Michael Caine as Thomas Fowler:
Connected (Bo Chi Tung Wah) released in September, 2008, is a taut thriller with plenty of action. Directed by the veteran and reliable Hong Kong director Benny Chan, the film has enough action with shootouts and chases to keep the 18-30 year old males involved, enough eye candy and dramatics to satisfy the 25-45 males watching on DVD, and a sympathetic but resourceful woman as the victim of a kidnapping along with a couple of cute 6 year old kids, so you can safely ask your significant other along to watch the video with you.
Look For a Star aka Yau Lung Hei Fung is a 2009 Romance from famed Hong Kong director Andrew Lau who is most famous for the Infernal Affairs trilogy that he co-helmed with Alan Mak.
June Woo: The opening narration: