CHASING THE DRAGON. (2017) A HONG KONG CRIME THRILLER REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.

Terracotta Film Club presents Wong Kar Wai's Days Of Being Wild This May

Terracotta Film Club will present DAYS OF BEING WILD for its May edition at the Prince Charles Cinema.

Terracotta organisers are proud to showcase one of the most acclaimed masterpieces of modern cinema from one of Hong Kong’s finest auteur directors, Wong Kar Wai.

DAYS OF BEING WILD features an outstanding ensemble cast including Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu Wai and more, involved in a roundabout of fleeting emotions and unrealised relationships.

It also marks the first in a long collaboration between Wong Kar Wai and acclaimed cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

Wong Kar Wai's second film relates the story of a vain, amoral young playboy (Leslie Cheung) drifting through a series of casual friendships and affairs.

Christopher Doyle's exquisite cinematography and a lush, dreamy soundtrack, perfectly capture the mood of youth’s endless boredom over a long, hot summer in 1960's Hong Kong.

This screening is part of the Terracotta Festival’s IN MEMORY OF: Leslie Cheung & Anita Mui section. It will take place on Wednesday 29 May, prior to the official launch of the festival on Thursday 06 June.

Synopsis

An outstanding ensemble cast are involved in a roundabout of fleeting emotions and unrealised relationships.In the sweltering heat of a 1960’s Hong Kong summer, a layabout playboy Yuddy (Leslie Cheung), exercises his pastime of drawing women close to him then callously drops them at the last minute, under the emotional shadow of not knowing who his real mother is.The narrative moves from one character to the next; from one of Yuddy’s lovers (Maggie Cheung) to the new attention of her affections, a beat cop (Andy Lau) and back again to Yuddy and his latest squeeze. All the while, maintaining an incredibly visually detailed recreation of that era.Exquisite cinematography by Christopher Doyle and a lush, dreamy soundtrack, perfectly captures the mood of youth’s endless boredom over a long, hot summer.

Courtesy of Palisades Tartan

A Simple Life (Tao Jie) Review

★★★☆☆

For me, realism is an ugly word.

Mostly, this is because commenting on a lack of ‘realism’ is like a get-out clause for people who want to slam fantastical fiction, but are unable to think of a more valid criticism. Instead of commenting on narrative flow, story structure or character development, they choose to poo-poo aspects of a story that actually reveal creative ambition. Unreality is not a negative trait. Hell, it’s almost the opposite. I know about reality. I have to live here. In fact so do you, so tell me: is it really all that fun?

For those of you shaking your heads right now, prepare to be vindicated, because A Simple Life, today’s review topic, is a very realistic movie. It is also decidedly not fun.

A Simple Life is a film about a relationship. Roger (Andy Lau) is a film producer, living in Hong Kong while working in mainland China. Ah Tao (Deannie Yip) is Roger’s family’s maid. The family itself has emigrated to the USA, leaving Ah Tao only Roger to care for. Until, that is, one night, when Roger returns to his house to find Ah Tao unconscious, having suffered a stroke. She recovers, but is severely weakened, so Roger takes it on himself to look after her for a change.

This might at first sound like a bonding-through-adversity tale, but that’s not it at all. Ah Tao and Roger are already bonded before the film starts, after a long lifetime shared. Ah Tao apparently spoiled the young Roger rotten, going behind his parents’ back to get him film magazines and soft drinks, and their mutual affection has endured since then. They aren’t bosom buddies exactly. The difference in their lifestyles and social status makes some awkwardness inevitable. But nevertheless, these two are family, and at its core, A Simple Life is about watching that familial bond in action.

Admittedly, this does make for a vaguely compelling experience. Sometimes the film is a hair’s breadth from dullness, and I found myself staring at the DVD player timer, wondering how much more to go. But at other times, the film proves charming, and even funny. Lau is good with deadpan comedy, and the affection on display in some of his interactions with Ah Tao might win a smile from a stone.

However it is Yip’s performance that is more noticeably impressive. Her role calls, not only for emotional flexibility, but for physical artifice as well. It is a challenge, but one Yip proves well able to meet. Emotionally, I felt she was at her best acting against Fuli Wang as Roger’s mother. The awkwardness of their encounters, as Ah Tao’s illness brings down the social barriers between them, was palpable. Yip also achieves much on the physical side. In particular, the degeneration of her walk into a terrible, paralytic shuffle, really drives home the impact of Ah Tao’s stroke.

But despite all this, once the credits rolled, I found A Simple Life left little impression on me. The sheer lack of drama leaves it an annoyingly weightless film.

This is not to say I wish, oh, that about halfway through A Simple Life, Ah Tao suddenly has to fight ninjas or something (though that would have been interesting). Many films have a similar structure to A Simple Life, eschewing the straightforward conflicts of the average yarn. Rampart, that cop movie with Woody Harrelson in it, is a good, earlier-this-year example. What set that apart from A Simple Life though, was its sense of purpose. Rampart may not have had a plot per-se, but David Brown’s headlong dive towards self-destruction gives the film dramatic propulsion, something A Simple Life lacks.

See, Ah Tao may be well-acted, but as a character, she has no purpose. She is at the centre of the film, but she is never moving towards anything. Her life, in essence, is waiting: waiting to have that inevitable second stroke, and eventually, to die. And because this is what she is doing, the audience is stuck waiting too. Waiting and waiting for these miserable things to happen to her.

Not fun right?

Well yes, and yet it also happens to be depressingly accurate. At Ah Tao’s stage of health, life tends to become just one jerky, downward slide towards death. That’s not to say it’s devoid of fun or interesting things, or that it’s impossible to have goals at that stage. It’s just a conclusion once ignorable, is now plainly visible. And Ah Tao, in the face of that conclusion, and her physical fragility, essentially just gives up. The result is A Simple Life presents the experience of extreme old age as nothing more than a wait for the reaper.

This is realistic. But it makes for an experience I cannot recommend.

Adam Brodie

Rating:12A
UK Release Date: 3rd August 2012
Directed By:Ann Hui
Cast: Andy Lau, Deannie Yip , Lawrence Ah Mon

SHAOLIN Starring Andy Lau, Jackie Chan Coming To DVD/BLU-RAY This September

Teaser Trailer For Chen Daming's WHAT WOMAN WANT Remake starring Andy Lau

sourceFilmsmash
Mel Gibson may not be the man of the moment due to his much publicised private life but his old movies attracting a lot of attention and one has been remade in asia. You maybe looking at his movie cv thinking it must be Lethal Weapon, Braveheart, Patriot or even Signs, nope! His foray into romcom in 2000 with Helen Hunt with WHAT WOMAN WANT!!!
Yes folks yes Mel Gibson's romcom has been remade in China with Chinese megastar Andy Lau reprising Gibson's role and Gon Li in Helen Hunt's part. Asia is going through a phase of remaking Hollywood movies with a Japanese version of Ghost already been made and a few others on the cards as well. The whole thing with these Hollywood  remakes is all down to a recent deal  which see several big named movies getting a asian makeover but I dont blame the asian film market for trying as hollywood has been for years destroying many fantastic asian/world  cinema movies with mediocre version.

So above is the first trailer and the movie will be released in China on February 14th, 2011.

Fred Wang (Andy Lau) is the top gun of the leading ad agency has his mind fixed on promotion to creative director. When the post was given to a new colleague Ellen, Fred is given an assignment to prove himself - pitch for a women's hygiene product. While brainstorming Fred met with an accident at home. He wakes up to discover his new gift - the ability to hear women's thoughts. The chauvinist suddenly becomes the expert on women psychology.