Monday 8 September 2008

R-Point

Director; Su-chang Kong
Starring; Woo-seong Kam
Genre; Horror/ thriller
Year; 2004
Release; UK Tartan Asia Extreme

Little Korean horror flick. A bunch of Korean soldiers, during the 2nd Vietnam war, are sent to find the source of mysterious radio transmissions, apparently sent by a unit that vanished 6 months previously. Another film that shows a lot of promise, but falls short of the mark. It never really builds any atmosphere, and just when it might do, the story cuts away. At the point in the film where things should start to come together, it just descends into a confusing mess. You know roughly whats going on, you just don't know why. The ending seems to happen for no apparent reason. Not really scarey enough to be a horror, not enough thrills to be a thriller.

Heroic Duo

Director; Benny Chan
Starring; Ekin Cheng, Leon Lai
Genre; Action/ Drama
Year; 2003
Release; UK Tartan Asia Extreme

HK made thriller, made during the decline of such things. Everything starts off with such promise. It's quite clever, and rather slickly made. It all looks good, and plays out quite well, untill you get to the end. Then it all goes wrong, becoming everything that was wrong with HK thrillers of this period. It's ok, and perfectly watchable, but, it's all a case of same old same old towards the end. Shame.

Friday 5 September 2008

Initial D

Director; Wai-keung Lau
Starring; Jay Chou, Edison Chen, Anthony Wong
Genre; Action, Car
Year; 2005
Release; UK Contender

Live action version of a popular Manga and Anime series. Centred in the world of street racing, more specifically, the drifting style. Comparisons wih F&F3; Tokyo Drift are inevitable, so here goes. Tokyo drift is an overplayed, overhyped, nonsensical pile of shit. Initial D is somewhat better than that. Ok, the story is rather cheesey, but so is most Manga (unless it's utterly incomprehensible). It's the action, and the style, that this stuff is about, and here it scores quite well. The drifting scenes are unfaked, they really are hanging the back out on mountain roads, this gives the driving scenes a certain edge.
Although this is filmed in Japan (the birthplace of drifting as a competetive race style, and the story setting), it was made by Chinese, and the cast is chinese too. It's a decent enough film, for a bit of fun.