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glass_icarusA taxi, bullet train, bus, plane, shuttle bus, and car ride later, I am home! Proper babble will come later (maybe, after the jetlag), but I wanted to log the movies I watched on this trip before I forget them all.
1. The Four/四大名捕: This is the one movie I watched on the plane to Taiwan, having for once in my life actually slept for most of the flight. The wiki has a fairly un-spoilery summary, and a more coherent one than I can muster at the moment. I generally enjoy watching wuxia movies, and I am always in need of badass ladies, but the jealous love triangle aspect made it kind of meh. It was a fun watch at the time (long plane flights are good for fairly brainless entertainment!), but I wouldn't rewatch it if I had the opportunity.
[Technically The Return of the King should follow here, as I rewatched it with my cousins' kids on New Year's Day, but a) I'm almost positive all of you have seen it, b) all of the LOTR movies still leave me verklempt.]
2. Johnny English Reborn: The wiki says this was a James Bond parody; I'm only surprised it's not called "Mr. Bean Does James Bond." I watched this one at my aunt's as well, though I missed the beginning. There are definitely elements (the Bond-ish and British Imperial elements, now I think of it) that bothered me when I watched it, but upon further reflection, using bumblingMr. Bean Johnny English as a James Bond substitute is an interesting way to highlight those issues. In any case, Rowan Atkinson and his comedic genius made me cackle myself silly regardless.
3. The Thieves/도둑들 (wiki): Part of the movie marathon I had on the flight home, and also it has replaced Ocean's Eleven as the heist movie OF MY HEART. I loved Ocean's for the teamness of it, but The Thieves has layers and layers of infighting and intriguing as well, which makes things so much more interesting! (And also much more practically self-interested.) All the characters are amazingly developed and flawed, and I especially appreciated that the ladies varied in age and outlook and skill-sets, and that none of them were ever primarily a love interest.
4. Painted Skin: Resurrection/畫皮II (wiki, youtube: trailer, youtube: Korean-subbed): Wiki has a very short summary and the trailer is pretty spoilery, so I will just say that Vicky Zhao + Zhou Xun = FLAILY HANDS OF YAY!! Also, they have more chemistry together than Vicky Zhao does with her actual love interest in this movie, which I think is more awesome than it is a mistake. Heh. Sorry, actor dude.
5. Rurouni Kenshin (live action): I watched this without having consumed the manga or anime versions, and I liked it a lot! Went *____* at the fight scenes, and also Kenshin and Kaoru, who were adorable. Now I'll have to hunt down the rest, dammit. (Maybe before school starts up again? I don't have that much time to be fannish these days!)
6. Clash/Bẫy Rồng (IMDb): Being a mob-type movie, this was distinctly more grim. Fight scenes were much dirtier (which comes with the territory), but also pretty fun to watch. I enjoyed Trinh being a boss, but am not so sure I enjoyed the movie as a whole- there is quite a bit of fridging, including that of a child, though at least(?) we don't have to see that last and most of the dead characters aren't manpain fodder. Trinh's boss is manipulative in ways that I don't much care for in men in text and appreciate even less on-screen. Also, Clash is not nearly as character-driven as the other movies I watched on the flight home, and the plot was a little flat. I think these are flaws in most contemporary action films, though, so it would probably be unfair of me to single out this one.
Finally, just for the record: I want ALL THE FANWORKS for The Thieves and Painted Skin: Resurrection! (Tagging to remind myself to nominate them for Kaleidoscope.)
1. The Four/四大名捕: This is the one movie I watched on the plane to Taiwan, having for once in my life actually slept for most of the flight. The wiki has a fairly un-spoilery summary, and a more coherent one than I can muster at the moment. I generally enjoy watching wuxia movies, and I am always in need of badass ladies, but the jealous love triangle aspect made it kind of meh. It was a fun watch at the time (long plane flights are good for fairly brainless entertainment!), but I wouldn't rewatch it if I had the opportunity.
[Technically The Return of the King should follow here, as I rewatched it with my cousins' kids on New Year's Day, but a) I'm almost positive all of you have seen it, b) all of the LOTR movies still leave me verklempt.]
2. Johnny English Reborn: The wiki says this was a James Bond parody; I'm only surprised it's not called "Mr. Bean Does James Bond." I watched this one at my aunt's as well, though I missed the beginning. There are definitely elements (the Bond-ish and British Imperial elements, now I think of it) that bothered me when I watched it, but upon further reflection, using bumbling
3. The Thieves/도둑들 (wiki): Part of the movie marathon I had on the flight home, and also it has replaced Ocean's Eleven as the heist movie OF MY HEART. I loved Ocean's for the teamness of it, but The Thieves has layers and layers of infighting and intriguing as well, which makes things so much more interesting! (And also much more practically self-interested.) All the characters are amazingly developed and flawed, and I especially appreciated that the ladies varied in age and outlook and skill-sets, and that none of them were ever primarily a love interest.
4. Painted Skin: Resurrection/畫皮II (wiki, youtube: trailer, youtube: Korean-subbed): Wiki has a very short summary and the trailer is pretty spoilery, so I will just say that Vicky Zhao + Zhou Xun = FLAILY HANDS OF YAY!! Also, they have more chemistry together than Vicky Zhao does with her actual love interest in this movie, which I think is more awesome than it is a mistake. Heh. Sorry, actor dude.
5. Rurouni Kenshin (live action): I watched this without having consumed the manga or anime versions, and I liked it a lot! Went *____* at the fight scenes, and also Kenshin and Kaoru, who were adorable. Now I'll have to hunt down the rest, dammit. (Maybe before school starts up again? I don't have that much time to be fannish these days!)
6. Clash/Bẫy Rồng (IMDb): Being a mob-type movie, this was distinctly more grim. Fight scenes were much dirtier (which comes with the territory), but also pretty fun to watch. I enjoyed Trinh being a boss, but am not so sure I enjoyed the movie as a whole- there is quite a bit of fridging, including that of a child, though at least(?) we don't have to see that last and most of the dead characters aren't manpain fodder. Trinh's boss is manipulative in ways that I don't much care for in men in text and appreciate even less on-screen. Also, Clash is not nearly as character-driven as the other movies I watched on the flight home, and the plot was a little flat. I think these are flaws in most contemporary action films, though, so it would probably be unfair of me to single out this one.
Finally, just for the record: I want ALL THE FANWORKS for The Thieves and Painted Skin: Resurrection! (Tagging to remind myself to nominate them for Kaleidoscope.)
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Date: 2013-01-09 10:30 pm (UTC)(Would you mind if I also ask whether the language is relatively modern? I could not make it through Mandarin Di Renjie and the Phantom Flame on my own, and my mother threw up her hands and basically said, "I cannot translate ALL THE CONTEXT and archaic references necessary to understand this for you fast enough.")
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Date: 2013-01-09 11:16 pm (UTC)Haha, my Mandarin is sad even in terms of watching modern movies so I'm probably not the best person to ask, sorry! :x I watched it with subtitles. (It'd be an interesting exercise to rewatch the Korean-subbed version so I can't cheat by reading for comprehension, but I'd have to wait a few months to try it.)
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Date: 2013-01-10 09:07 am (UTC)(Curious, if you cannot use Korean subtitles for reading comprehension, is there a significant difference between having Korean subs and no subs?)
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Date: 2013-01-10 01:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-09 10:58 pm (UTC)Painted Skin 2 - best Chinese-language movie in 2012 for me! Lately there seems to be a trend in Zhou Xun movies, namely her character and another important woman in the story are written with heavy slashy hints. She always has chemistry with the other actress, so it works.
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Date: 2013-01-09 11:22 pm (UTC)Man, Zhou Xun (and Zhao Wei- it's incredible how inseparable they manage to become in that movie) was AMAZING. I think her IMDb profile or some such(?) said that she's becoming renowned for "sexually ambiguous roles" or something, haha, but it's nice to get confirmation of chemistry! ;D
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Date: 2013-01-09 11:20 pm (UTC)Oooo, so need to get my hands on this now.
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Date: 2013-01-09 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-09 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-10 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-10 02:47 am (UTC)The Samurai X OVA is darker and sadder than RK The Anime, but might be a good quick-ish way to scratch the itch.
Ooh, heist movie.
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Date: 2013-01-10 01:18 pm (UTC)Also SERIOUSLY YES WATCH THE THIEVES, it made me gleeface so hard!
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Date: 2013-01-11 03:49 am (UTC)Well, it's at 'save' status on Netflix at least...;-)
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Date: 2013-01-10 08:44 am (UTC)Also I've also been eyeing Rurouni Kenshin, and have also not seen the anime/manga, so hearing you say you liked it anyway is def a good sign for me.
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Date: 2013-01-10 01:19 pm (UTC)