Ninja Assassin

When Jung Ji Hoon, more popularly known as Rain, went to Los Angeles in 2008 to make his debut in his first Hollywood movie Speed Racer, he was very much the unknown.
The movie bombed but Rain was shot like a cannon ball into the entertainment atmosphere and landed on a bigger project called Ninja Assassin. This movie has been receiving a lot of attention from Rain’s fans throughout Asia. It is now here.
The Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry, directed Speed Racer and they instantly recognized the star quality in this Korean singing sensation. So before you could say “ahnyong haesayo” (hello in Korean), Rain was offered the major role in Ninja Assassin.
It was a role in which producers Wachowski brothers said was tailor-made for the man who was “unbelievable, a natural and a dream come true”.
With that kind of accolades from the Wachowskis who were also responsible for the Matrix trilogy, Rain dove headlong into the movie.
But first he had to hone his body most excruciatingly for the battle sequences over very long months under several physical instructors.
So the guy you see doing the almost impossible stunts is not a body double. It is indeed Rain with a superb physique and a look that sets all the young female hearts a-fluttering.
Rain’s dialogue in the show has been scripted in most parts into one-liners. But who cares? It’s Rain talking and it’s the cool dude’a moves that counts.
Ninja Assassin is very bloody, graphically violent and explicitly brutal. The splattering of blood walls, floors and bodies occur with great frequency.
Ninjas are trained killers who struck fear in the hearts of the common folk for their swift and silent assassinations back in 14th century Japan. In this show, Rain plays Raizo, an orphan who was brought up by Lord Ozunu (Sho Kosugi).
Ozunu keeps a stable of trained killers whom he adopted when they were very young. Failure to meet Ozunu’s stringent standards was met by ruthless punishment that drew blood.
The boys and girls are taught to be merciless and to ignore extreme pain and suffering. Death is not to be feared.
Raizo grows up and becomes one of the best in Ozunu’s ninja clans. His body, arms and the soles of his feet bear the scars of the arduous training since childhood.
The breath of fresh air within the walls of the ninja academy is young Kiriko (Kylie Liya Goldstein) who cares very much for Raizo. On the day Kiriko was killed for attempting to escape from Ozunu, Raizo made up his mind to leave.
The trail then leads to Berlin where Raizo stumbles upon Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris), an employee of Europol investigating the possibility of ninjas behind a series of assassinations in Europe.
By the time, Mika finds proof of the ninja existence, they are on their way to kill her. Raizo intervenes and saves Mika. And together they try their best to keep one step ahead of the shadow warriors.
The fight scenes in this film are some of the best I have seen. The Wachowski brothers have ratcheted the benchmark for choreographed martial art combat scenes.
Since Rain performed most of the difficult stunts, the bloody fight scenes imparted great visual gratification. Some of the best action sequences were between Raizo and Takeshi (Rick Yune) who was Raizo’s clan brother.
Both actors were amazingly agile and nimble on their feet. The twisting and mid-air body flips were captivating and engaging. In real life, Yune is an Olympic-standard Taekwondo expert so he was a perfect complement for Rain.
To witness these two human killing machines in action was sufficient to get the adrenaline flowing. All martial art exponents will definitely be enthralled by the interplay of light, shadow and the katana (Samurai sword) against a background of fire and a crescendo of death cries.
Some movie critics may want to find fault with the less-than-brilliant plot but the graceful movements of the finely-trained athletic actors will leave you with little cause to be dissatisfied.
Ninja Assassin is for martial art exponents who have a penchant for the art of ninjutsu. Of course, fans of Rain will need no other reason to be at the cinema.
This movie may or may not launch Rain’s Hollywood career but I have a gut feeling it won’t disappoint the Wachowski brothers at the box office.
Ninja Assassin can be summed up in two words: shockingly entertaining.

Little Big Soldier

Jackie Chan’s fans must be physically and mentally tired by now. After chasing their idol from cinema to cinema over dozens of films for more than 30 years, fans know a jolly good time awaits them when Jackie is in town.
Little Big Soldier may not be as grand as Red Cliff I and II, but it has its moments on the big screen. Unlike John Woo’s historical epic, Little Big Soldier takes a micro view approach to a period in China’s ancient times when the Middle Kingdom consisted of a chaotic bunch of warring states.
Jackie plays the role of a farmer turned soldier for the State of Liang. Actually, he and his two brothers were reluctant recruits into the army. Only the Little Soldier (Jackie) survived because he has more wit and luck than brawn.
His fate takes a detour when he rescued a wounded enemy soldier in the battlefield. The wounded soldier turns out to be a general (Wang Lee Hom) from the State of Wei.
The general was actually a prince who was the sole survivor in a dastardly plot by his brother Wen (Steve Yoo) who wanted the throne for himself.
The main focus is on the rocky relationship between the soldier and his captive general. While the soldier is adamant about returning to his original lifestyle of being a simple farmer, the general seeks to fulfil his destiny as a conqueror.
Wang Lee Hom, who is in reality is a talented singer with youthful looks, plays a scruffy, dirty and pugnacious prince who is quite embarrassed that he is a captive of a part time soldier.
His major however does not give him a weighty presence. But Wang has acquitted himself well in this role for which he had to strenuously trained for months on the use of ancient fighting weapons.
Naturally, he’s overshadowed by Jackie who somehow manages to steal the thunder from everyone who are his co-stars.
Not for the first time, Jackie plays the underdog but his role as a second fiddle suits him well in this film.
Together the pair makes an odd couple but there’s a moral to the story. Jackie conceptualized Little Big Soldier more than 20 years ago but circumstances prevented him from turning the story into reality until recently.
It is not the kind of movie that one expects to see as far as period movies are concerned. This Chinese New Year movie focuses on the relationship of two men who have divergent interests in life.
Somehow in the melee and chaos that rule their lives for a while, both arrive at a mutual understanding but not before fate throws them into a boiling cauldron of close calls and life-threatening situations.
Little Big Soldier does not have spectacular battle scenes. What it has in spades are cheeky repartees that draw laughter and sometimes trigger quiet reflection.
The two newcomers in the film are Steve Yoo or Yoo Seung-Jun who plays Wen, the ambitious brother of the general. Yoo was a Korean pop idol about 10 years ago.
His music career came to an abrupt end in 2002 amid controversy over his US citizenship status just before he was drafted into the Korean military service.
Lin Peng or the songstress who added a feminine touch to an otherwise macho movie is from mainland China who caught the world’s attention when she performed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
Little Big Soldier marks Lin Peng’s debut in the film industry.
The biggest surprise in this show is Jackie Chan’s uncommon approach to a storyline of epic proportions. Some of the scenes in the movie come from China’s popular scenic spots.
The rivers and the mountains are a wonder to behold. These make up for the clumsy battle scenes that simply could not stand up to the standards of John Woo’s Red Cliff battle scenes.
But this film has its own limited merits. While Wang Lee Hom now has bragging rights to being Jackie Chan’s sidekick in a movie, the show is singularly designed to entertain all who are going to the cinema this Chinese New Year season.

True Legend

New Chinese martial arts movies have clawed found their way into the Year of the Tiger. In accordance with the traits of the Lord of the Jungle, True Legend displays the ferocity and power of this year’s Lunar animal.
Director Yuen Woo-ping has once again tipsily treaded down memory lane and revisited his favourite subject, drunken fighting. About 30 years ago, Yuen together with a young actor Jackie Chan made each other famous in the classic movie Drunken Master.
True Legend focuses on Su Can, the founder of Drunken Fist. Because it is Yuen’s forte, the fight scenes are exhilarating and at times mind-blowing.
The story of the founder of Drunken Fist, Su Can, has obviously been stylised and exaggerated to give the movie a grittiness that draws the Chinese New Year crowds.
Vincent Zhao is an excellent choice for the main character, Su Can. In reality, Zhao was a champion in various martial art disciplines in China since his teenage years.
The physical demands that the Beggar Su role exacts on the actor calls for a man who has not only the stamina but also the skills to put forth a convincing performance.
It is always a pleasure to watch a highly skilled wushu exponent flips and turns his body in a fight sequence and know that you have not been shortchanged.
Director Yuen who is responsible for some of the most exciting scenes in The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Kill Bill has once again proven that he’s THE man when it comes to thrilling fight scenes, ancient or modern.
Mainland China actress and singer Zhou Xun who plays Xiao Ying, Su Can’s wife is the bright spark that ignites the show when it could have easily fizzles off down the misty mountain trail.
Zhou’s superb portrayal of a loyal wife who exhibits wisdom and courage in Su’s most trying times gives True Legend the cutting edge this festive season .
The only glitch in the entire plot is probably Jay Chou who seemed overdressed for his part as Lord of Wushu. It might not be Chou’s fault but the glitzy costume was not in congruence with the theme or the natural surroundings.
Michelle Yeoh’s role as Sister Yu was surprisingly short but nevertheless memorable. Her extensive acting experience in Hong Kong and elsewhere holds her in good stead in this film.
David Carradine a.k.a. Kwai Chang Caine shows up in the last segment of this movie like a ghost of kung fu past. Carradine who died in June last year had only a minor role but the actor’s fans will probably appreciate that “Grasshopper” has left them something to remember him by.
Even veteran Hong Kong actor Gordon Liu has a minor but significant role in this film. Liu plays a beaded master of levitation who floats to great heights during Su Can’s lost years in the wilderness.
If one can recall, Liu is the man who’s responsible for the spate of Shaolin Temple movies that overwhelmed local cinemas back in the 1970s.
Liu’s last memorable role was in Kill Bill (2003) when one of his biggest fans, Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino, cast him as Master Pai Mei.
In a way, True Legend is a tribute to the living legends who have contributed in no small way to the martial arts movies from the side of the earth where the sun rises every morning.

In the final analysis, True Legend is flamboyantly entertaining. At times, the action scenes are over the top but then it’s Yuen Woo-ping’s piece of work, so expectations are rather high.
So if you have a few hours to kill, invest some of your Ang Pow money on True Legend and embrace those riveting sensations that personify Yuen Woo-ping’s early movies like Snake In the Eagle’s Shadow, Iron Monkey and Tai Chi Master.
There’s a bonus in this show too. Some of the most spectacular faces of China’s countryside are also on full display.

Echoes of the Rainbow

Yesterday’s years and tears



SOMETIMES we unexpectedly meet scenes in a movie that open the floodgates of childhood memories. Echoes of the Rainbow (Chinese title: Sui Yuet San Tau) has a whole cupboard full of these mementos, keepsakes and tokens that have long been forgotten with the passing of the elders.
Sometimes we wish we wouldn’t have to travel down that lane again because it can be heart-retching because of its bitter-sweet taste. This is one of the few Hong Kong films that embarks on a different path, unlike its usual fare of gangsters, murder or insane comedy.
Not surprisingly, Echoes of the Rainbow has struck a chord, and quite loudly too, in the hearts and minds of its middle-aged viewers.
We who are old enough have now arrived at that plateau in our lives when reflections of old friends, schoolmates, parents, relatives and the difficult times occur more often than expected.
In Echoes of the Rainbow, Simon Yam plays a struggling cobbler, Mr Law, who tries to make ends meet to put food on the table for his wife and two sons.
Sandra Ng, the backbone of the household, is the kind of mother who may remind many of us of our own.
She puts a protective arm around our shoulders when dad comes with the cane, and makes us forget about our outrageous demands with some funny stories.
She is also constantly at our bedside when we are sick, feeding us with spoonfuls of bland porridge whether we like it or not
This then is where the past catches up with our present and makes us appreciate what awaits us in the future.
Director Alex Law who is also responsible for the excellent script belongs that age group where flashbacks of the past are in abundance and as vivid as ever.
The dialogue is superb in this movie. It is reality par excellence because it jolts our memory of what our parents had always told us “to keep us in the right path”.
Naturally, there is a touch of adolescent romance that will put a smile on many faces. It’s that distant admiration of a girl just quite beyond our reach.
Desmond’s fledgling romance with schoolmate Flora (Evelyn Choi) may conjure similar emotional experiences which some of us have experienced.
In the realm of love, time has no relevance. The young heart often remembers with greater intensity than what mature minds may have unintentionally forgotten.
The tale is seen through a pair of young eyes, Big Ears (Buzz Chung), who is the dunce of his class. The lad is the opposite of his older brother Desmond (Aarif Lee) who’s the favourite of his parents.
Desmond excels in sports and is one of the top students at the Diocesan Boys School, which by the way is also director Law’s alma mater.
A major part of the plot focuses on Desmond who serves as the rallying point of the Law family when tragedy follows closely the heels of a typhoon that destroys the tiny family shop.
The pathos of Echoes of the Rainbow is founded upon the ground of past realities that is so familiar with Chinese communities in Malaysia and Singapore.
It will have special appeal for the older generations who will remember this story only too well because family quarrels and dinner conversations in the movie will resurrect old scenes of our forgotten years.
It is no wonder that Echoes of the Past won the Crystal Bear Award for Best Film at the Berlin International Film Festival in February this year.
On top of that, it has garnered six nominations for the 2010 Hong Kong Film Awards. It is a movie well worth watching at least once. Bring along your parents. They will thank you for it.
Echoes of the Rainbow opens in cinemas this April.

Say Yes to life, just like Jim Carey

There are times in life when you need to laugh out loud. And when you have finished laughing, you suddenly realise there's something to be learnt from the hilarious situation.

I found that out when Jim Carrey and I had a rib-ticklin' time in the darkened hall of the cineplex near my home. Yes Man is one of the funniest movies in recent years.

Carey is known as "rubber face" in parts of Hollywood. Even though he's not an American and is actually a Canadian, he's definitely one of the best movie imports in the past two decades.

I have enjoyed Carrey's Bruce Almighty in the past. It made my day whenever I think of God and then Carrey (in that order).

With Yes Man, there's an underlying message. Most of us lead sedentary lives. We couldn't care less about the happenings around us. Most of the time, we don't have time to consider other options in life.

It would be great if we give in to our whims and fancies now and then. However, most of us are afraid to. We think our friends will consider us crazy. Our family may disown us, and we may just regret our actions.

Yes Man is basically about a man who decides one day to say "yes" to all and any challenges that come his way. Once he has made that life-altering decision, he went on to try bungee jumping, attend wacky parties and giving loans to all dubious bank customers.

Suddenly his life began to careen off the usual run-of-the-mill tracks. Along the way, he encounter strange and sometimes wonderful people.

His boss gives him a raise and promotion due to his spontaneity and as bank officer Carl Allen, he even manages to find the love of his life in Allison.

There were times in my life when I too found walking down the road less travelled daunting but on those rare occasions when I tried trudging down the unknown path, I had some interesting experiences.

So Yes Man did bring back a bucketful of feel-good sensations. After watching this movie, I reminded myself that I must say yes to some offbeat but reasonable challenges in life.

I am glad this movie showed up when it did. Very often, we lead very mundane and dull lives. We grow into adulthood and allow others to convince us that being a non-conformist is bad for our health.

Then somehow after entering the portal of matrimony, we convinced ourselves that we have to be careful all the time because we are now "family men".

This movie tells us in a hilarious way that we could live life to the fullest and have a whale of a time when we let our hair down. In other words, we must learn to let go and let the fun in.

I say a big "yes" to this movie. I am grateful it has jolted my sense of inertia that has got a lockdown on my life. Thank you Jim Carrey for the reminder.

Okay, let get off the road and drive straight down that country road and smell the wild flowers, if they are any.

Just grab those balls of fury

It's nice to sometimes come across a senseless, wacky and out-of-the-ordinary movie fare that offers nothing but fun, laughter and hilarious situations.

I am talking of Balls of Fury. If not for a couple of famous names and faces like Christopher Walken and Maggie Q, I would have given this film a pass.

But like all armchair movie critics of little significance, I made a pit-stop at this cinema hall for a brief glimpse into the window of incredible laughs.

I wasn't disappointed. Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is a ping-pong has-been who prefers to forget the good old days. One day, a FBI agent of equally dubious repute, Rodriguez (George Lopez) came a-visiting to recruit him to flush out a fiend who had eliminated Randy's dad with extreme prejudice.

From the moment Randy accepted the dangerous assignment, it was a roller coaster of laughs.

Nobody in his right mind is expected to take the movie seriously but you will be pleased to know that there's a smattering of familiar faces popping up on the screen now and then; people like Jason Scott Lee and James Hong.

If you want to know who is James Hong, then you haven't been sitting in front of the TV long enough. Mr Hong is that familiar looking chinaman who has appeared in countless TV shows over the decades. He's not particularly famous but his face is rather familiar in an insignificant way.

Maggie Q is sexy without being salacious or wicked. She's fun and has that kind of Eastern charm that most men, Oriental and Occidental, find rather attractive.
This 90-minute show probably wasn't a dramatic box office hit but I am sure it did make a commendable pile of cash at video rentals.

Most weekenders who have nothing better to do will rent this video on a lonely Saturday afternoon. I have caught this show in its re-run on Astro at least twice.
Each time, it came across as something like you want to view over and over again.

Perhaps it's just me but I find some of the comedic plots too insane to ignore. Christopher Walken was a small time tour de force back in the good old days. I was referring to the Deer Hunter that came out a generation ago.

These days, Walken find it personally satisfying to play roles in movies like Hairspray and Balls of Fury, and he's doing a good job at it too. Good for you, Walken!

You are in absolutely no danger of going into hysterics in praising this movie but you certainly won't want to watch it alone. See Balls of Fury who also have funny bones in their body.

Buy a couple of packets of pistachios, cashew nuts and macadamia buts and gallons of beverages and then turn on the DVD to see Balls of Fury.

Laughter is free. Laugh as if there's no tomorrow. For all of us, one day, tomorrow may never come. Think about it. Meanwhile, just laugh.

Love follows the scent of three women

Producer/director Tsui Hark who is better known for producing movies like Swordsman, Once Upon A Time in China and Seven Swords has ignited a trail of aromatic pheromone that has triggered packs of men and women catching its scent and following it.

After having sniffed it, they have either got lost or may have continued to walk in a daze.

All About Women is the story of three women who are a mixture of bohemian, oddball and corporate types. It is amazing that the entire plot was born on the cradle of pheromone. Pheromone is a chemical substance secreted by animals, including humans regardless of gender, that normally sparks sexual attraction.

On such a premise, the plot is born and before long, becomes quite convoluted that the ordinary movie goer may struggle to keep up with its pace.

Tsui Hark's brand of humour in this instance is fired simultaneously in several directions. Even though it is a romantic comedy of the slightly weird kind, it manages to draw some feeble sniggers from the audience.

However, Tsui Hark shares the credit of writing the screenplay with Korean director Kwak Jae-yong. One wonders what these two men were up to when they conjured the story in their minds.

There's an allusion that links All About Women to that Korean hit movie My Sassy Girl. Those who watch this movie can arrive at their own conclusion.

The focus of the show is on Tang Lu (Kitty Zhang Yugi), a beautiful, top-notch corporate powerhouse who has everyone running to her office when she barks an order. However, she doesn't hold a high opinion of men because she believes intelligence is the key to happiness, until one day a pheromone bullet went right up her nose.

Fan Fan (Zhou Xun) on the other hand is a dedicated lab rat who one day discovers that the secret of a woman's sexual success lies in a substance that will bring down any man to his knees. Thus, begins her experiments and the consequences that later leads to the intertwining of three women's lives.

The third party involved is Tie Ling (Kwai Lun-mei) who is an unusual specimen of a woman because she boxes in her spare time, turns rocker at night and has a handsome boyfriend that's the figment of her imagination.

If this movie wasn't so ambitious, it would have succeed magnificently from the word "go". But Tsui Hark may have momentarily forgotten that All About Women is not all about swordplay where battlefield melee adds to the attraction.

Numerous sexual tension filled scenes were deliberately exaggerated in their effects. That technique could have scored if it had been a novelty, except that it has been overused in countless films.

It would be unfair to Tsui Hark who is regarded as somewhat of a legend in Hong Kong if the conclusion is drawn that he has fumbled and fallen flat on his face.

All About Women does have its moments. They were far and few between but nonetheless they were there at unexpected moments. It wasn't a total washout.

I won't venture to say that this movie rates a "must-see". It would be more accurate to say "see it if you so wish and have some hours to kill".

Apart of Kitty Zhang who instantly draws any hot-blooded man's attention with her stunning looks, Zhou Xun and Kwai merely make up the numbers in the show. Since this movie is written, produced and directed by men, it is assumed that it also caters to men. So we get to decide where the axe falls.

This pheromone scented film is not designed to be intellectually stimulating but it seems to make a valiant attempt at arousing our physical senses in a season of Hong-Kong-no-hit-movies.

The limpid conclusion of All About Women makes one almost regret leaving Cecelia Ahern's The Gift lying unread at the bottom drawer. May be Tsui Hark will have better luck next time. We all know he can do much better.