Kung fu Jungle | 一个人的武林 [ Movie Review ]

Pitch: I wasn't keen on watching Kung Fu Jungle. Donnie Yen's previous action flick Special ID and Wang Baoqiang's villainous role in The Fairy Tale Killer were pretty disappointing. But after a fellow movie buff friend's recommendation, I decided to this movie a chance and see how bad can it be.

Plot: Three years ago, Mo Hahou (Donnie Yen) surrendered himself to the police for accidentally killing marital arts opponent. In prison, he saw a news report about an unusual murder case and offer his aid to Inspector Luk Yuen-Sun (Charlie Young) to capture the killer in exchange for his freedom. Will they be able to stop the killer (Wang Baoqiang) who is on a vicious killing spree?

Perspective: Kung Fu Jungle turns out to be much better than I had anticipated. Right at the start, I knew that there's something special about Kung Fu Jungle. The numerous cameos and the manner that this movie romanticize with martial arts / kung fu made viewing this movie a wonderful treat. The end credits confirms my suspicion that this is a homage to the unappreciated crews that gave us years of enjoyable Hong Kong action movies. It was heartfelt and long overdue, specially in an era that Hong Kong action movies are even more at risk these days.

Donnie Yen performance was much better in Kung Fu Jungle than Together and Special ID. It was mainly due to the fact that the filmmakers in this movie knew how to play to his strength. It also made me realize that Donnie Yen has limited acting range. He tends to excel in roles that calls for a restrained personality (eg. his characters in Ip Man and Peter Chan's Wu Xia). But when he tries to take on emotional roles or a wilder range of personality (like a undercover cops), it tends to end up as a awkward mess.

Wang Baoqiang was surprisingly good too. His craziness was well control and it didn't go over the top like his previous role in The Fair Tale Killer. It made it easier to sympathize with his character.I don't think he is an action star but there were some scenes that I wonder how it was filmed. Did he performed the stunts or was it expertly choreographed / edited to make him look like a menacing martial arts killer?

However, there are some faults with Kung Fu Jungle. Realism in police procedures was obviously threw out of the window and certain aspects of the story was skim through without much thoughts. It felt like the focus was to tell a Silence of the Lamb-ish story with Kung Fu. It's not grounded in reality but Kung Fu Jungle provided an entertaining homage to the personals that made Hong Kong action movies great and for that, I am not going to nitpick much.

Rating: ***

The Wedding Diary | 结婚那件事 [ Movie Review ] ★★★

The Pitch


This year, there's three Asian movies that is out to cash in on celebrate the Valentine Day season. From Hong Kong - China, there's Romancing in Thin Air. From Taiwan - China, there's Love. Last but not least, from Singapore Malaysia, there's The Wedding Diary. 

The Wedding Diary is a comedy about the difficulties in preparing and executing the most important day in a couple's life. It features artists across the straits such as Ah Niu 阿牛 (Anniu), Elanne Kwong 江若琳, Kara Hui 惠英红, Zhu Houren 朱厚任, Marcus Chin 陈建彬, Chris Tong童冰玉 , Shaun Chen 陈泓宇 and Maggie Theng 邓妙华.


Ah Niu's recent debut as a director and leading actor for  Ice Kacang Puppy Love was pretty impressive. The Wedding Diary marks the second time for Ah Niu in the leading role. Not bad for a guy who don't really fit the usual handsome suave stereotype for a male lead in a movie. It would be interesting to see how he fares in this movie.

This review is made possible with special thanks to Clover Films.

The Viral Factor | 逆戰 [ Movie Review ] ★★★1/2

The Plot

A failed mission to protect a scientist who has stolen a copy of the smallpox virus left Jon Man (Jay Chou) severely injured and the scientist kidnapped by his traitorous colleague Sean (Andy On). The bullet is lodged in Jon's brain will paralyses him within two week and he decides to spend his final days with his mother (Elaine Jin).

What he didn't expect was that his mother revealed to him that he has a long lost brother Man Yang (Nicolas Tse) whom she left behind with his gambling addict dad Man Tin (Liu Kai Chi). To fulfill his mother last wishes, Jon decides to track Man Yang down in Malaysia.

En route to Kuala Lumpur (Capital of Malaysia), Jon befriends medical specialist Rachel (Lin Peng) and came across criminal organization attempting to kidnap her. During the process to foil this kidnap attempt, he discovers that Man Yang is a wanted felon working as a mercenary for Sean, who needs the help of a medical specialist to mutate the small pox virus and holds the world ransom.

After Man Yang failed to kidnap Rachel but escaped with the virus, the criminal organization attempts to control him by kidnapping his daughter. The righteous Jon has to decide whether to stop Man Yang from breaking more laws or assist his wayward brother in rescuing his niece and stopping Sean's diabolical plans?

Quattro Hong Kong I & II香港四重奏 I & II

QUATTRO HONG KONG I: Four Hong Kong directors come together for a common prayer for their beloved city.  Fruit Chan juggles animation and live action to craft an ode to cinema and innocence in The Yellow Slipper.  In Clara Law’s Red Earth, Daniel Wu plays a management consultant coming to Hong Kong to meet a girl, and witnessing a sensational sunset.  Heiward Mak, the youngest of the quartet, weaves a nocturnal tale of lonely hearts and destiny in We Might as Well be Strangers, and Herman Yau heads down memory lane for a dish of Fried Glutinous Rice before it went upmarket.

QUATTRO HONG KONG II brings together three of Southeast Asia’s best and Hong Kong’s own Stanley Kwan. From sleepy Tai O village to bustling Yaumatei to the city’s famed flower market, Cannes winners Apichatpong Weerasethakul (M Hotel, Thailand) and Brillante Mendoza (Purple, the Philippines) find mystery mixed with beauty. Malaysia’s Ho Yuhang lets fly his comic talents in Open Verdict, a gem about some kind of cross-border trade. And Stanley Kwan takes us on a real-time bus trip from the airport to Kowloon in 13 Minutes in the Lives of… The heady and deadly mix of Hong Kong and cinema; wonder never ceases.

It's a Great Great World | 大世界 [ Movie Review ] ★★1/2

Last Year Eric Tsang's 72 Tenants of Prosperity was a success at the Hong Kong Lunar New Year Box Office. The movie basically reminiscence the past with various Hong Kong movies actors and TVB television actors. This year, he is back with I Love Hong Kong and here in Singapore, we are getting It's a Great Great World 大世界, a He Sui Pian with similar structure from director Kevin Tong (Rule #1) and the Singapore MediaCorp Artistes.

For the younger folks who don't know about the Great World Amusement Park, it was one of the three amusement parks in Singapore. Back then, they were Singaporean's top choice of entertainment before the onslaught of television and shopping centers. It's kinda ironic that the movie about the Great World Amusement Park are performed with the local television actors. The same bunch of people who are drinking from the well that killed Great World. Bet you never thought of it that way.

Anyway, It's a Great Great World is a rojak mix of good stuff and the not so good stuff. There are moments that it hits the sweet spot that it was going for and there are moments that it just flounder badly.

The film starts with a young fashion photographer, Ah Min (Olivia Ong) doing a final walkthough at her late grandma (Yvonne Lim) photo studio before closure. She came across some of her grandma's favorite photo and decided to set out to find the owners of those photos. Using her grandma's phone book, she managed to locate Ah Meng (Chew Chor Meng), one of the guy in the four photos.

This grumpy old man turned out to be a lok lok (assorted dip snack) seller at the Great World Amusement Park and he went on to tell her about the four individual stories that are attached to those old photos. It felt kinda strange that for someone who missed her grandma funeral and will be heading overseas the next day for work would want to undertake such a mission. But if Ah Min never persisted in such a strange awkward mission, we won't be getting the following four stories.
 
The first story is about Ah Boo (Henry Thia), a middle age guy who getting all dress up to meet Elizabeth Taylor when she visited Great World Amusement Park's Sky Theatre for a movie premiere. He got his roses and photographer ready but his boss, the ringmaster appeared out of nowhere and forced him back to work. It turned out that Ah Boo was a clown and his boss is a meanie that like to torture his staff to amuse the young audience.

The issue here would be how the filmmakers and cast tried to squeeze humour out of the segment. Is it funny to see a drunken ringmaster bullying his performers? Is the movie trying to say that the kids back then enjoyed such mean-spirited acts? The freak show that the segment is trying to muster is so poor constructed that if that was the kind of acts performing in Great World Amusement Park, it's understandable why the park had to close down. Then there's the lame ideas of helping Ah Boo achieving his objective with Elizabeth Taylor.

However, all the issues with this segment aside, when the movie revealed the final act of the segment, it has a touching quality that was quite unexpected. It has such a heartwarming moment that made all the poor buildup bearable.

The second story is about romance between Mei Juan (Joanna Peh) a game stall vendor and Ah Leong (Zhang Zhen Huan) an ointment seller from a Malaysia kampong. While Joanna Peh and Zhang Zhen Huan looked good as a couple, the setup for these two to fall in love was weak in many ways.

For example, Ah Leong was fleeing from some unsatisfied customers who happened to be gangsters and in an attempt to get away with it, he decided to kiss Mei Juan as a cover up. It's an overused film trick that poor executed here. The situation was not properly set up to make it seems like he had no choice but to force his way with her to escape those that are chasing after him. In fact, it would have been better if he just hide behind the game table. It just hard to believe that the female game stall vendor didn't struggle harder to break away from him (and thus exposing him) and those gangsters would miss all those smooching right in plain sight.

But then again, this segment did managed to have moments that generate the sizzle between these two. Especially the part when Ah Leong dared Mei Juan to take the ghost house ride. It's easily the most funny moment of the show and in the midst of all the spooky comedy, romance between these two character started seeping through. There's also feisty moments when Mei Juan tore down Ah Leong's attempts to be suave that a delight to watch. In the end, it managed to make one root for their unlikely romance and given the weak introduction to these characters, it's impressive in it's own right.

AV [ Dvd Review ] *** 1/2

The gist of Edmond Pang's AV would be four Hong Kong university students attempting to have sex with a Japanese porn star through the guise of making an actual movie.

But yet ironically AV is about many other things and not so much on the original pitch. In fact there is so little depth on the sexual content that it's understandable why it gotten a IIb rating (Not suitable for Young Persons) instead of a Category 3 rating (Person aged 18 and above only). But the again AV excel in those many things that one could easily forget all about the gimmicky pitch and enjoyed what this AV have to provide.


It all started when one of their friends Lok faked a film production to make out with a girl. He was sacked from his university but that tactic inspired a bunch of friends to push the envelope further. The four of them decided to get funding and hire one of the popular Japanese AV actress  over and have sex with her while pretending to be making a movie. Numerous humorous cock up started to pile up in their way as they chase after the ultimate dream of most men ~ sex with a Japanese porn star!

The most entertaining aspect of AV was ironically not about the sex bits. It was the fooling among friends and the crude sex jokes that they shared or used at each other. It's the weird and funny obstacles that get thrown in their ways and how they overcome it. In the midst of chasing their dream, AV touches on doing something meaningful and audacious in their youth so that there won't be any regrets later on in life.

Then there are the tender moments in AV that makes one wonder if it's possible to fall in love with a porn star actress. It's a interesting take as while most people around the world view the porn career as a demeaning job, a significant  portion of the Japanese population don't see it that way. In fact, it seemed to be gaining popularity with the young female Japanese as some of the Japanese porn star do branch out to mainstream media career.

One of the nice moment here was the allusion on how ultimately porn star are there to sell a fantasy to the end user. It came rather unexpected but sometimes beneath the cutesy lovable facade lies something totally different.

Well that's what you get from a Edmond Pang movie. Interesting novel concepts with boisterous humour and tender moments of love in the most unexpected fashion.

Film: 3 1/2 out of 5 Stars

DVD Extra

When it comes to Edmond Pang movie on a dvd, you will bound to find at least some sort of extra feature in the Dvd. It varies from company that release his movie but you will get at least a commentary and making off segment. It's pretty rare as generally Hong Kong movies don't get so much extra effort put in for their dvds. What make it even better would be that it contain English subtitles for most of the extra segments and that's something that even the English friendly Korean Dvds don't normally do.

Disc 1

Director's statement - The Director's Statement comes in both Mandarin and English text. It covers the genesis for this AV movie and what was the inspiration for his movie. Who would expect that director Chen Kaige would have "something" to do with this movie.

Making of "AV" - Presented as "AV news" that follow Amamiya Manami to Hong Kong for her participation in this movie. It even tried to authenticated this "AV news" with a "Japanese" host speaking in Japanese and was dubbed over by a Cantonese narrator. There are plenty amusing moments in this segment. Specially on how they poke fun at the director for being just a little horny and the rest of the cast complaining about the first guy who got to make out with the female star.

Secret message from Amamiya Manami -

The not so secret video recording contains Amamiya Manami's monologue at the start and end of the movie. She also left two other video message for the director and cast. It's hard to believe someone so Kawaii (cute) and lively was a porn star.


Theatrical trailers and TV spots - One trailer and one tv spot for this movie. The second segment contains certain video scenes that is not in the movie.

Data Bank - Contain information on the Cast and crew profiles (in Mandarin) and the Synopsis (in both Mandarin and English)

Photo gallery - Automated sideshow of the cast during the film shoot. Comes with a soothing soundtrack to reminisce the video from a different angle.

Disc 2

Video commentary by Director and Cast - Why do a commentary when you could do a Video commentary. This video commentary works as the camaraderie between the director and the main cast made it fun to watch their lively bantering about the movie and stuff beyond it.

It turned out that the story of Kar Lok using film making as an excuse to make out with a girl was based upon a true life incident. They even point out that the actual Kar Lok played a part in the movie and his tale is well known in the Hong Kong film industry.

They even touch on censorship rules in Hong Kong and how the tight film schedule for AV made it impossible for Amamiya Manami to bid farewell to the rest of the crew before rushing for her flight back to Japan. There's plenty of interesting film making information and other amusing stuff that happened during the making of this movie. Not to be missed if you enjoyed the movie or if you are a fan of Hong Kong movies.

Deleted scenes - contain 9 mins + of certain additional, alternate and extended scenes that didn't make it to the final cut. The absence of English subtitles in this segment make it impossible to understand certain scenes that's converse in Japanese (unless you understand Japanese). The most amusing bit would be Amamiya Manami consoling the guys for their inability to perform the sex scenes and various snide remarks from the crew.

NG footage - A handful of NG footages that ended with an extra long making out scene with Amamiya Manami.


Beyond the Movie


Now for some updated AV News ... FilmsBlitz style

Amamiya Manami has retired (or Graduated as they like to say in Japan) from the Japanese Adult Video (JAV) industry back in 2008. As far as my research could find out, she was actually a newcomer in the JAV industry (with only 1 or 2 titles under her belt) prior to the making of this AV in 2005. Later on in her career, she signed up with one of the major and popular JAV company, S1 and stayed there till her final video. Some fans expressed joy that she didn't end her career with companies that are much more hardcore and degrading (yes ... even in the porn industry standard, there's a degree of debauchery) as many Japanese porn stars did with their twilight career.

For Folks in Singapore

With the new M18 & NC 16 rating dvds out for rental, you could borrow this Dvd and many other goodies at the library@esplanade.