Movie: Ip Man (葉問)
Director: Wilson Yip
Writer: Edmond Wong
Producer: Raymond Wong
Country: China
Language: Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese
Released: 2008
Minutes: 108

For the first time since Hero, I might have to actually admit to liking a film with Donnie Yen in it. Playing the role of Ip Man shouldn’t be a difficult role for Donnie Yen, seeing as he is a well accomplished martial artist, however, in most of the films I’ve seen him in, the overall plot devices used to hold the story together are weak, which causes the film to crumble into a thousand pieces. Ip Man, I feel, is the first time for Donnie Yen to showcase himself in a film that has some importance to it.

Ip Man is the story of the famous Chinese martial artist who has been attributed with training millions of people including the likes of Bruce Lee. The film begins prior to the 1940s occupation of China, where Ip Man lives a rather non-secluded life with his family. His wife pressures him into spending more time with their son and with the family instead of practicing martial arts. Constantly being nagged into dueling with someone, Ip Man usually gives in to the wants of others.

This time period is a golden age for Ip Man, as things are looking promising and he has earned the respect of many people throughout his town. However, as time goes on, things begin to change and Japan comes storming in and conquers their beloved home. Now under the occupation of Japan, Ip Man is forced to find labor in order to bring food to the table for his family. Furthermore, the Japanese have begin to hold small tournaments in an attempt to showcase their abilities against the Chinese form of martial arts. Hearing about this, Ip Man at first refuses to take part in the sport because that is all he sees it as. When his friend decides to join in an attempt to win food for his family and friends, but doesn’t return to work the next day, Ip Man finds himself joining the ranks within the tournament to figure out what happened to his friend.

Ip Man is a story of hope in a rather difficult time for the Chinese people. Forced to live with the bare necessities and often lacking these essentials for living, people began to take drastic measures. Some willing to sacrifice their pride in order to satisfy their families needs, while others would do anything to never disobey their country. The film shows how great the master martial artist really was and serves as a perfect homage, showcasing his loyalty to his family, his friends, and most importantly, his country. The martial arts in this film are spectacular and well choreographed with nothing over the top, which keeps the film feel more realistic than other martial arts films that serve a similar purpose. I have to say it… Good job Donnie Yen! You are finally in a movie that I really enjoyed.

Cast: Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Lynn Hung, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Gordon Lam Ka-tung, Fan Siu-wang

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Movie: True Legend (蘇乞兒)
Director: Yuen Woo-ping
Writer: To Chi-Long
Producer: Bill Kong, Zhang Zhenyang
Language: Mandarin
Country: China, Hong Kong
Release: 2010
Minutes: 110

It might just be a tad bit cheesy with the beginning cinematics, or just totally ridiculous with the animations in general. True Legend is a hard film to understand. (Well, for me at least.) I had the idea in my head that the fact that Michelle Yeoh was casted in this film was a good enough reason to merit watching this movie. However, as the film grew longer, I felt that not only was I confused at what to do next, I also had no clue why I was still watching this film.

The plot would be pretty predictable if it just wasn’t so outrageous. The film begins with a corny cinematic of a group of men ascending towards a fortress on the edge of a cliff. As the men slowly slaughter the enemy they have snuck up on, the audience is informed that their prince has been captured and an execution has begun. In the last moment, Su Can, the general of the forces attacking the fortress, saves the day by killing the men that were about to commence with the execution. A battle wages on for a good ten minutes and then the scene cuts to a victory party.

During the celebration of their rescue of the prince, Su is offered a job as a governor. Su politely declines and believes that the prince should offer the position to his step brother, Yuan, for he is the right man for the position. Su plans on retiring from the military and conveys this to his step brother, and he insists that he wants to spend the rest of his time with Yuan’s sister, Ying. Although hesitant at first, Yuan seems to be grateful for Su and Ying.

Five years pass since that day of their victory, and Su and Ying have given birth to a baby boy. They soon discover that Yuan is coming to visit them and Su becomes filled with joy. However, Su’s father becomes nervous because he knows that the intentions of Yuan’s return are not in the interest of Su’s new family, but instead, revenge on Su’s father for killing Yuan’s father.

That is basically the premise of the movie until 2/3rds through the film, when the plot changes at what one would normally merit as the ending of the movie. However, for some odd reason, the film continues onward, only to prolong your pain.

The problem with True Legend is actually not the acting, which in most of these martial arts films tends to be the biggest down point in the film. Instead, it is the martial arts. The fighting isn’t the problem, its just the way the story implements the fights. Each battle seems like an epic ending to a film that would make you satisfied if everything ended here. But, oh no, it doesn’t end there, because that is only the first fight of many more to come. But then, why the hell is everything resolved? Because it isn’t! There is still some hidden plot device deeply buried within the film that you somehow missed that gets thrown at you. Actually not really, I believe that they just wanted more fight scenes within the film, so they implemented all of these useless sequences with no actual benefit to the film.

An example of this is the weird scene with Jay Chou and the sage, where the main protagonist fights with him, but his training is cut short and no lesson is ultimately learned. Or the last 1/3 of the film that has nothing to do with the other 2/3 of the film’s plot. Its just there for… I really don’t know. If you want, you can cut the film when you feel like it ends and most likely would still gain the same knowledge as if you watched the film to its end.

Ultimately, the problem with True Legend is the attempt of using rubbish plot devices to create long drawn out fights that ultimately serve no purpose other than eye candy for those who like to watch 15 minute fight sequences. For me, it’s really hard to last through the entirety of these epic fights without feeling the emotions that the characters are supposed to endure to make these fights have some sort of meaning. With poor story telling, the whole film falls apart and becomes nothing more than a mockery of itself because the seriousness of the situation just doesn’t exist when everything seems like a joke.

I could go on for hours about this film, but I think I’ve conveyed my overall feelings towards the movie. So, if you like the following yesses, then maybe you can get something out of this film: Yes, its a martial arts film. Yes, it has fighting. Yes, it has no plot that hasn’t been used in any other martial arts film to date. Yes, Michelle Yeoh is in it, and no, she doesn’t fight. And finally, yes, people do weird magical shit that is never really explained. YOU HAVE TRUE LEGEND!

Cast: Vincent Zhao, Zhou Xun, Jay Chou, Michelle Yeoh

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Movie: Monga (艋舺)
Director: Doze Niu
Writers: Tseng Li-ting, Doze Niu
Producers: Doze Niu, Dennis Yu, Chan Ya-wen, Alan Tong, Lee Lieh, Yao Cheng-chung, Chang Hsueh-shun
Country: Taiwan
Language: Taiwanese, Mandarin
Released: 2010
Minutes: 141

Monga is a Taiwanese film that follows the bonds formed between five friends. The film begins with Mosquito, a young boy who finds himself constantly getting into trouble. Whether it is with his school or other classmates, he often finds himself running away from those who want to hurt him. In one of these cases, a group of bullies chase Mosquito because he made a mockery of one of them by not appeasing their demands. The bullies eventually catch up to him and begin to lay in on him, however, Mosquito is capable of handling his own. A group of boys watches from a distance and they see Mosquito take hit after hit but manage to somehow stay in the fight.

Later the four boys confront Mosquito and ask him to be a part of their group. Hesitant at first, he finally decides that nothing but good can come from their friendship. The high school students form their own little gang due to one of the members father’s being a powerful Boss of a gang. They soon make a blood oath to one another saying that they are all brothers till the end.

However, as time goes on, things begin to change and the five friends find difficult times in the area known as home. Mainlanders are approaching the elder bosses and asking them to get with the times and form a bond between their turfs and that of the Mainlanders.

Some of the bosses are reluctant to join forces with these new powers, which creates turmoil between some of the other bosses of Monga. The five friends find themselves in the middle of the problem and soon begin to realize that the cause of problems is coming from within their own group.

Monga is an excellent film that can hold up to the many Hong Kong gangster films that share a similar attitude and mindset. It is well casted and the story is well written. Each character is capable of bringing his own to the film without the many characters resulting an overwhelming feeling like many films of this caliber. Due to the characters’ and actors’ ability to stand out and not become generic mobsters as in the case of a lot of films like this one, the size of the cast works to their advantage.

I felt that this film was capable of drawing attention to an overused theme such as blood brothers, but was able to distinguish itself from the other blood brotheresque films that are already out there. Monga is a great tale that shows a friendship between five friends and the measures they will take to preserve it or destroy that friendship to do what they believe is right.

Cast: Mark Chao, Ethan Ruan, Rhydian Vaughan, Teng-Hui Huang, Chang-Hsien Tsai, Ma Ju-Lung, Doze Niu, Jason Wang, Chia-yen Ko, Han Dian Chen

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Movie: Taipei Exchanges
Director: Ya-Chuan Hsiao
Writer: Ya-Chuan Hsiao
Producer: Jui-Lan Hsaio, Ya-Chuan Hsiao
Country: Taiwan
Language: Taiwanese
Released: 2010
Minutes: 82

Taipei Exchanges is a cute little film directed and written by Ya-chuan Hsiao. The story follows Doris and her sister, Joise, from the creation of their coffee shop to present day. Although the idea of opening a small coffee shop is Doris’ dream, she soon comes to the realization that reaching her goals is a lot harder than it seems. With Taipei having many coffee shops throughout the city, Doris’ shop begins to suffer. Her sister comes up with a plan when one of their clients asks for a Thai cookbook in the coffee shop that isn’t for sale. Instead of tagging a price on the item, Joise decides that she will give the book in exchange for something else. Since Doris needs her plumbing fixed, Joise gives the man who wants the cook book a proposition: Fix the pipes and the book is yours. The man happens to have a brother that can fix the problem, so the first exchange is made.

Throughout the movie, various exchanges are made. Whether it be physical items or a story, people find ways of exchanging one thing for another. Doris soon begins to hear fascinating tales of the world outside of Taipei, which she has never ventured to. These images begin to conflict with her current dream of running her coffee shop and she begins to wonder what else she could do with her life. At the same time, her mother is reluctant to allow her daughters to follow their dreams because she thinks they seem less practical and more childish. With this in mind, she constantly lectures the two sisters and tries to thwart their overall goals and aspirations by guiding them toward what she feels is in their best interests, although the interests of the mother might not actually be what is best for her two daughters.

Taipei Exchanges, like I mentioned before, is a cute film that isn’t trying to be anything spectacular, but still manages to allow the viewer to reflect on the emotions the cast is going through and to sympathize and feel the exchanges that are being made. Doris, played by Lunmei Kwai, is delightful and as cute as always. Her sister, Joise, played by Zaizai Lin, is a great match with Lunmei Kwai, making the film a lot more entertaining and flow smoothly.

With all this in mind, Taipei Exchanges, is nothing other than a film about acquiring one’s dreams and figuring out what one really wants in order to gain their goals. However, sacrifices must always be made in order to reach what one desires, and each person handles their life differently.

If you like easy-going films that have a message within them that might be lost within a much larger film, then Taipei Exchanges is a film that is a must see, for it is nothing more than a brilliant little spectacle of human life that only makes you smile in the end.

Cast: Lunmei Kwai, Zaizai Lin, Han Chang, Chen-Xi Lin

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Movie: Bad Guy (나쁜 남자)
Director: Kim Ki-duk
Writer: Kim Ki-duk
Producer: Ahn Sang-hoon
Country: Korea
Language: Korean
Released: January 11, 2002
Minutes: 100

Bad Guy is a film by the exceptional Korean director Kim Ki-Duk. Known for his films always having a special touch to them, Bad Guy follows a young college woman who is forced into a life through planned events. The opening moments of the film show the young woman sitting on a bench with a man sitting adjacent from her checking her out. Puzzled and annoyed by the looks she receives from the mysterious man, she calls her boyfriend to comfort her. With the boyfriend’s arrival she feels secure and doesn’t expect any more glances from the bizarre man.

The man then ventures over to the bench that the two are standing next to. Without saying a word, he grabs the girl and begins to kiss her. In a rage, the boyfriend attempts to separate the two to no avail. The man continues to kiss the young college girl as she tries to squirm away from him. Separating from him, the girl demands an apology but the man refuses. He begins to walk away but a group of soldiers who were present during the spectacle block his path of escape. The soldiers demand the man to give the young woman an apology. He refuses to acknowledge his wrong doings towards the woman, and the soldiers begin to hit the man and the young woman walks over and spits at him.

The film is brought to a later moment and we see the young woman shopping in a store. She discovers an art book that she likes but realizes she cannot afford the entire book. She glances around her and then rips a page out of the book. On her way out of a store, she sees a wallet and pockets it. Continuing onward, she leaves the store behind her and is then immediately confronted by a man who says that the wallet she stole is his and within the wallet is a vast amount of money. The girl hands over the wallet to the man and the man begins to thumb threw it. He reveals to her that the money is missing and that she now owes him all the money.

Bad Guy, like many of Kim Ki-duk’s films, follows silent characters who rarely talk but whose actions are capable of explaining their emotions. With that in mind, throughout the film, an eerie feeling is present, which leaves the viewer wondering what is going to happen next. With each passing moment, we soon discover the dark life that is ahead for the young woman. Forced to work in a brothel to pay off her dept, the young woman finds herself confronted by the man that kissed her as now he is her bodyguard.

Bad Guy is different from other films by Kim Ki-duk I have seen in the sense that it feels darker than most of. Watching the film can become hard to continue at times, but curiosity keeps one watching as we want to see where Kim Ki-duk takes us. With each passing moment, as more is revealed to the audience, we discover that an unlikely bond has formed between two people of two different worlds. This delicate bond is what keeps the characters from being completely taken over in this dark underground world to which they have been brought. Even with the bond being forged within dark undertones, it still manages to shed some light in a world that has hardly any good left within it.

Cast: Cho Jae-hyun, Seo Won

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Movie: Eternal Summer (盛夏光年)
Director: Lester Chen
Writer: Cheng-Ping Hsu, Hsu Cheng-Ping
Producer: Leste Chen, Patrick Mao Huang
Released: 2006
Country: Taiwan
Language: Mandarin
Minutes: 95

Eternal Summer is a Taiwanese film that tells the story of a childhood friendship between Shane and Jonathan. As the two continue to grow, the bonds they have formed become stronger and the two become inseparable. However, once they reach adulthood, they soon find themselves confused and frustrated about how they feel about one another.

From a young age, Shane has been known as the trouble maker in his class, always acting out and doing mischievous acts such as cutting an unsuspecting girl’s hair or making bad grades on tests. Jonathan, a good student, is confronted by the teacher who asks him to befriend Shane. Hoping that Jonathan’s positive behavior and attitude will rub off on Shane, the teacher conveys the importance behind the much needed friendship between the two. Jonathan follows the teacher’s demand and soon finds himself at the side of Shane.

Jonathan and Shane reach high school and find themselves closer than ever before. Spending most of their time together the two’s friendship is stronger than ever until a young girl named Carrie appears. Carrie, a transfer student from Hong Kong, soon finds herself interested in Jonathan. Slowly pulling Jonathan away from Shane, Shane finds himself jealous of this new bond between Carrie and Jonathan. Furthermore, Jonathan begins to go through a sexual crisis and finds himself wanting to separate away from both Carrie and Shane. Shane becomes confused, not knowing why his friend wants to distance himself from him and confronts Carrie on the matter. The two become friends and begin to see each other often, but decide to keep it a secret from Jonathan due to his past relationship with Carrie.

Taiwanese cinema has received a lot of attention from outside audiences due to the many gay and lesbian films that come from this small island. Eternal Summer is one of the many films out there that deals with sexuality and coming out. Although there are quite a few films like this one, Eternal Summer, however, is capable of telling a story about a difficult time period for any gay person. The conflicts between coming out and deciding how to let those who are closest to you know your sexual orientation is present throughout the entire film. An inner conflict between the characters and their yearning to live their life the way they want to, but not knowing how to confront one another on the issue. With the fear of losing those closely to them, they decide to shut it off in order to sustain what they already have.

The young actors in this film do an excellent job at portraying the emotions these characters are going through. Their acting is believable and brings the characters to life allowing one to really sympathize with the situation the three find themselves in.

With all this set in motion, Eternal Summer is a great film that is unrivaled in the sense that I believe it is capable of telling the much needed to be heard story of the most difficult time period in a gay or lesbian person’s life. If you like gay and lesbian cinema, I recommend that you add this film to a list of must see films.

Cast: Joseph Chang, Bryant Chang, Kate Yeung

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Movie: Cape No. 7 (海角七號)
Director: Wei Te-Sheng
Writer: Wei Te-Sheng
Producers: Jimmy Huang, Wei Te-Seng
Language: Taiwanese, Mandarin, Japanese
Country: Taiwan
Released: 2008
Minutes: 129

Starting off slowly, Cape No. 7 is an easy film to turn off in the first ten minutes. However, if you can mange to make it through a tiring beginning that slowly introduces all the characters, the plot eventually unfolds and the film begins to draw the audience’s attention.

The film begins with a sub plot about the journey of a Japanese man being forced to return to Japan after the end of the Japanese occupation. During this man’s time at sea, he begins to write a set of letters to the woman he left behind. Within these love letters, he expresses the deep melancholy that has been growing within him and the loss he has gone through from leaving her behind.

The meat of the story takes places sixty years later, following a young man named Aga who is an ex-rock band singer and guitarist who seems to be straying away from the idea of composing music. Although he has a natural talent in the musical arts, he finds himself doing remedial jobs to support himself. With his return to his hometown, he finds a job through his stepfather as a mailman, which he accepts in order to appease his family, although he quickly finds himself not caring for the job. While working, Aga discovers an old letter marked as return to sender. He decides to take the letter home with him.

Contemporaneously to all of this, a nearby resort is planning a concert for a Japanese artist. However, when the councilman gets word of this news, he demands that the opening band consist of Taiwanese natives. Reluctant at first to allow this, the resort owner finally gives into the councilman and an audition of the townspeople begins.

Tomoko, a young aspiring Japanese model, is sent to the town in order to help manage the process of selecting members of the band and helping them rehearse and hone their skills. She soon discovers that the job she has been handed is near impossible, and that the likelihood of forming a band capable of having a passable performance is next to none.

Cape No. 7 has proven to be quite popular with Taiwanese people as it is the second highest grossing film next to Titanic in Taiwan. It was well received and won a few awards at the Golden Horse Awards, but wasn’t selected for a position in the nominations for the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

Although the film has its moments, I found myself at times wanting it to just come to its conclusion. The movie is just over two hours long and has a lot going on at once. The plot isn’t hard to follow, but towards the end a yearning for a resolution is far from dormant within the audience. Furthermore, as the film is in three different languages, it causes some complications with the acting. I find certain dramatic moments harder to sympathize with due to what I suppose is a language barrier between some of the actors. Tomoko (Chie Tanaka), especially in some of her more emotional sequences where she is forced to speak Mandarin, just doesn’t hold up to what I would expect in a film of this caliber. Furthermore, for someone who isn’t trilingual, there is a lot of relaying on subtitles to convey the overall message that is being made throughout the film. The problem with this is that a lot of the subtle humor is missed due to a lack of understanding between the Mandarin and Taiwanese dialects, and when you add in the Japanese that is spoken in the film, its easy for a person that doesn’t know anything about these languages to just not get some of the jokes.

Cape No. 7 is definitely a great Taiwanese film, but if it’s a film that speaks to anyone, it only really serves Taiwanese people. It is a film that makes it harder for foreigners to really grasp the overall purpose and humor due to the fact that most of the film is in Taiwanese with a lot of the humor being based on the clash between Mandarin, Japanese, and Taiwanese. The language also inhibits the film in the sense that some of the actors just aren’t as good at acting in a language that is foreign to them, which just makes some scenes harder to buy. Although the case, this doesn’t mean the film isn’t worth seeing, because it definitely is a gem compared of a lot of films that come from Taiwan. Just remember that it starts out slow and some of the humor will be completely missed. However the case, the overall message is still received by the end of the film.

Cast: Van Fan, Chie Tanaka, Kousuke Atari, Rachel Liang, Johnny C.J. Lin, Ming Hsiung, Ying Wei-Min, Ma Nien-hsien, Joanne Yang, Bjanav Zenror, Ju-Lung Ma, Chin-Yen Chang, Hsiao-Lan Pei, Chang Kuei, Shino Lin, Pei-Chen Lee

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Movie: Millennium Mambo (千禧曼波)
Director: Hsiao-hsien Hou
Writer: T’ien-Wen Chu
Producer: T’ien-Wen Chu, Gilles Ciment, Eric Heumann, Wen-Ying Huang
Country: Taiwan
Language: Mandarin
Released: 2001
Minutes: 119

Millennium Mambo is a Taiwanese film that, like most films from Taiwan, hardly receives as much attention as other Asian films. Although this is the case with many films from this small island, Millennium Mambo is a film that anyone with basic knowledge of Asian film has most likely heard of at some point.

The film begins with a young woman named Vicky telling the story her life prior to ten years before. At that time, she was a young, naive women, struggling with a relationship and life she could barely manage to keep together. The relationships she finds herself in and the work she chooses in order to support her boyfriend and herself are difficult. The audience is introduced to a drug-fueled world that spirals uncontrollably in any direction. The viewer is forced to watch Vicky break up and then reconcile with her boyfriend, only to find a new reason to break away. Regardless of how bad things get, with each attempt to leave, she finds herself returning to a man she has mixed feelings for.

Directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou, Millennium Mambo is a film that is truly brought to life through the style of the director. He chooses his shots carefully, and each scene depends on the actors’ ability to convey the seriousness of the relationships they find themselves in. Particularly important is Shu Qi who plays Vicky. Without her ability to show her mixed feelings, and to accurately portray her struggle with with the problems within her relationship and self, the film would have not been nearly as interesting. Shu Qi does an excellent job at selling the film, and without her, it would have become bland and boring halfway through. Since she is so capable of digging into her character, we can sympathize with her and find ourselves not angered at her stupidity and nativity.

I wouldn’t consider Millennium Mambo to be the best film to come from Taiwan, but it definitely is noticeable when thrown in with the massive selection of films that comes from Taiwan. The film is capable of keeping away from the over-dramatized acting that appears in most films that hail from Taiwan. One interesting point, though, is that the film leaves one with a feeling that things were never settled. The tale being about a young girl and how she changed throughout time is never really actually conveyed throughout the film. Instead, we are only shown the experiences she has gone through.

Cast: Qi Shu, Jack Kao, Yi-Hsuan Chen, Chun-hao Tuan

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Although this next short has less to do with Asian films, I found it to be an interesting video. INTER // STATES is a time lapse film showcasing Tokyo from many different angles and positions throughout the city. Samuel Cockedey has a true gift in being able to put his camera in the right position and capturing the magnificent city life of Tokyo. It looks like a lot of care and effort was put into this short, so I had to post it! Enjoy!

Please give his site a look and watch his videos. He is also a photographer of the same caliber. You can purchase the images from his film at Getty Images.

You can find the video on Vimeo by Clicking Here
Other videos by Samuel Cockedey can be found Here.
And lastly, his Official Website.

Last Stop is a short film that was shot in a 48 hour period. It recently won a Jury Prize and People’s Choice Award at the Kaohsiung Film Festival.

Here is a link to the video on Vimeo (Unfortunately WordPress doesn’t allow me to embed videos from Vimeo.)

Here is a link to the Kaohsiung Film Festival website.