Extending the short movie-coverage in What’s Korean Cinema? 43, Kenny B and Paul Quinn review Kim Ji-woon’s Memories, Park Chan-wook’s Cut and Bong Joon-ho’s Shaking Tokyo. Only some of the biggest Korean directors ever.
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Ladies and Gentleman, I invite you to read this vast list of the best Hong Kong Movies from the past decade. Now let’s clear things up right away, the order of this list has been put together by myself and if you disagree with my opinion e.g. “What do you mean Second Time Around is better than Election: Volume 2!!?1?!!” that is your opinion, this is mine and now we can get on with the rest of our lives.
This list is compiled of the best movies from this decade, not the best movies I’ve seen this decade, so this list will not include Oscar winning classics such as “Stormriders” or “Young & Dangerous IV: Roy Cheung gets reincarnated and no-one notices”
Some notable classics will be missing; obviously I haven’t seen every movie we were graced with for the past decade. If you do have the strong urge to voice your opinion, please leave a comment at the bottom of the page where I will most likely respond and say “UR RONG!!” on a serious note, I would love it if we did get some feedback
Over the remaining weeks I will post 5 articles of our count down leading us from the number 50 spot right down to the best damn movie that has came from this decade!
Now that we’ve gotten past the introduction onto the list! Read More
Written & directed by: Lee Chang-dong
Starring: Sol Kyung-gu, Moon So-ri
Plot: Released from prison after serving two-and-a-half years for involuntary manslaughter, Jong-du ill (Sol Kyung-gu – Voice Of A Murderer; Public Enemy) advisedly decides to pay a social visit to the family of the man he killed in a hit and run accident while drunk driving. He is given short shrift by the family but not before briefly meeting and becoming fascinated by the dead man’s severely disabled daughter, Gong-ju (Moon So-ri – Bewitching Attraction; A Good Lawyer’s Wife). Returning to the apartment to see the young woman when he knows she will be alone, Jong-du loses control of his feelings for the girl and sexually assaults her. Feeling guilty over the incident, he is amazed when Gong-ju telephones him at his place of work and invites him to come and visit her again. He accepts her invitation and their meeting leads them into a series of clandestine encounters during which the pair come to fall in love with each other. Read More
Jackie Cheung plays Lam, a literature teacher who has a lustful admirer in the form of his pupil Wu, played by Karina Lam. Despite his own understandable misgivings, Lam concedes that he has also developed a thing for Wu. Meanwhile it turns out that Lam’s wife, played by Anita Mui (also mother to their three sons) has a dark secret which is dragged to the surface when her school old teacher becomes ill with cancer. Read More
Plot (Mei Ah): Tommy Luke (Chui Tien-You) applies to be the security of a mysterious villa, he asks his friends Nam (Wong Yue-Nam) and Pricilla (Tiffany Lee) to go with him. They discover that there is a thousand year old Egyptian Mummy placed under the basement. Tommy breaks the mummy accidentally. From the day after, Tommy recognizes that his body is being dried off and is turning into a mummy. Read More
Plot: Johnny (Lau Ching-Wan) and the ‘La Brassiere’ gang return for more sticky situations.
Johnny and Lena (Gigi Leung) have been hired by the president of a Japanese baby production company known as ‘B&B’, the wealthy Japanese business man has bought the when he discovers that his wife is pregnant. It’s now up to Johnny and Lena to design and produce the very best baby product that money can buy.
Johnny seeks help from his old buddy Wayne (Louis Koo). Wayne is a little bit of a playboy but he finds himself happy with his current girlfriend and now work colleague – Lena. He loves her despite her little quirks (her frequent use of the phrase “Huh” and late in the movie “Grr…like this”).
The three amigos admit they don’t really know the first about babies so they decide to hire Japans leading baby expert – Boey (Cecilia Cheung). Boey has a special talent which allows her to communicate with the babies. She also wants to help cure Wayne’s fear of babies.
Johnny finds himself in need of a personal assistant so he hires the clumsy and breathless – Sabrina (Rosamund Kwan). At first both he and Wayne made fun of the poor woman until loving flame ignites between the two. Problems occur when Johnny’s ex-girlfriend Samantha (Carina Lau) returns to the scene.
With relationships on the fritz and the all their test projects going horribly wrong, can the group sort everything out in time? Read More
Plot: Set in the Ming Dynasty the Emperor (Chang Chen) and the princess (Faye Wong) both fed up with their royal duties attempt to escape the palace. The emperor is caught by his mothers (Empress Dowager) guards and sent back to the throne, but the princess manages to escape disgusted as a man.
The Princess meets Yilong (Tony Leung), Yilong has the reputation as a pain in the neck, a well known village bully (although the term village idiot comes to mind) who seems to cause more harm than good. He’s on a mission to find a suitable husband for his sister Phoenix (Vicky Zhao). Obviously mistaking the princess for gentleman they become sworn brothers and insists that the Princess is the perfect man for his sister.
Phoenix, to whom is quiet the tomboy is also quiet pleased with the catch her brother has caught for her. Although ‘he’ seems to be more interested in her brother, rather than her. Although she soon meets a wondering swordsman who sweeps her off of her feet.
The swordsman turns out to be the Emperor to whom has left the palace to find the princess. He also happens to fall in love with the boy-ish yet beautiful Phoenix
Things suddenly get complicated when the Empress Dowager comes for the emperor and the princess… Read More
The Podcast On Fire Network aims to provide a large, continually expanding overview of Asian cinema. On the flagshow Podcast On Fire, the big guns out of Hong Kong cinema gets a spotlight through discussion and review while the remainder of the network shows gives you insight into Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese cinema and the history of adult oriented Hong Kong cinema!