Showing posts with label hong kong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hong kong. Show all posts
1 February 2018
19 February 2017
15 March 2016
18 December 2015
24 September 2015
11 July 2014
EIFF 2014 Review : Aberdeen( Heung gong jai,2014)
Genre:
Drama, World Cinema
Rating: 15
Screened:
20, 22nd June 2014(EIFF)
Director:
Ho-Cheung Pang
Cast:
Miriam Yeung, Louis Koo, Gigi Leung, Eric Tsang, Ng Man-tat, Carrie Ng
Though Pang Ho-cheung’s Aberdeen is very much a Chinese film about Hong Kong, it refuses to alienate its audience by making its focus specific issues of Chinese life. Aberdeen is essentially a film about relationships in the contemporary world told through the parallel and intertwining lives of the people in one family. On each level of the family’s infrastructure the camera picks out key details: a lonesome daughter’s midnight snacks, a father’s gender-centric obsessing, an uncle’s indifferent cheating, and a grandfather’s bliss in later life. Here the family is its own source of anxiety and its own salvation.
Ho-cheung’s Hong Kong is one of colours and life, a buzzing hive of activity where events collide and erupt to produce new scenarios. Here, family life spirals out of control and is ,time and time again wrenched close to some kind of epiphany only for life to inevitably stumble in the way. All of this is shown in a gorgeous Technicolor palate which, along with the fantastic pace of the story, produces an odd travel documentary feel to some of the film. At other points the camera floats through a miniature of Hong Kong shot in hues of purple, red, orange and green, a weird dreamscape where the camera retreats at points of transition. As with most details in the film, even this space plays an important narrative role later in the film. Ho-cheung utilizes a zany sense of fate to keep all events integral to the story at some point or another.
In the end the film proves it has some slightly backwards ideas about its resolution, yet overall it’s a heart-warming story of life, love, and family. Ho-cheung seems to want the audience, like the family, to understand that equilibrium is an impossibility but that’s not a bad thing at all.
A ponderous cross-section of life in contemporary Hong Kong, spinning through the realities of everyday life whilst tackling some hefty ideas on what family means. Aberdeen is clean and colourful, inquisitive, and honest to the end.
Scott Clark
26 April 2013
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
14 March 2013
Watch New Violent Trailer For Johnnie To's Drug War
Hong Kong cinema has made a name for itself as a worldwide leader in action thrillers, a market that's delivered by the likes of John Woo,Shaw Brothers, Dante Lam, Tsui Hark. Even cinephiles worldwide who may not be overall fans of the genre they can say they have at least 1 hong kong thriller amongst their collections. Johnnie To is another fine Hong Kong based director who has contributed many great films down the years and next month Drug War (Du Zhan) will be released and tonight we have a brand new English subbed trailer.
If your looking for something gritty, violent Drug War will supply your needs. With the film been filmed on mainland China, there was a sense of doubt the violence as well as To's signature style the film would get the certificate due to China's strict regulations however everything has got the thumbs up now! The film was the secret film at the recent Rome Film festival which it left some great reviews which is probably why now we have a new trailer with English subs! We don't know yet if (or when) Drug War will arrive in UK&Ireland, USA there is a distributor however no release date has been set.
Drug War (Du Zhan) is set for a 2nd April Chinese/Hong Kong Release and stars Sun Honglei, Louis Koo, Honglei Sun, Michelle Ye, and Yi Huang.
Synopsis
Set in Jinshan, China, Timmy Choi, a cold-hearted drug dealer, crashes his car into a convenient store after the exposure of his drug factory. In saving his own life, he locks his wife and brother-in-law inside the factory. Police officer Lei, extremely smart and careful, tries to track down drug criminals by offering an opportunity for Ming to reduce the penalty. Choi helps out by betraying all his brothers, until the last minute when he turns back...
source:Twitch
11 March 2013
Third Window Films Releasing Pang Ho Chueng's Vulgaria This April
To (Chapman To Man-chak), a long-time film producer, has yet to produce anything resembling a hit. Beset by financial troubles, he has become desperate for money - so much so that he is unable to pay the alimony to his ex-wife (Kristal Tin). Despite his former spouse's bitterness, their daughter still clings onto her faith in him - and wishes to see him on TV once his new movie premieres. To is soon introduced to a potential Mainland Chinese investor, Tyrannosaurus (Ronald Cheng), by his buddy Lui Wing-shing (Simon Loui Yu-yeung), but Tyrannosaurus is not only the head of a Guangxi triad gang, he turns out to have very particular tastes in food and sex. Regardless, To is determined to woo this investor, even if it means giving into his every demands. Tyrannosaurus eventually tells them to cast his childhood idol Yum Yum Shaw (Susan Shaw) in a remake of a classic pornographic film. He even gives the film the title Confessions of Two Concubines...
DVD and Blu-ray Special Features
- Anamorphic Widescreen transfer with 5.1 Surround Sound
- Making Of, Theatrical Trailer
Vulgaria stars Chapman To(Internal Affairs), Ronald Cheng, Dada Chan, Suet Lam, Kristal Tin and the film will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray from 15th April 2013.
Pre-Order / Buy Vulgaria:DVD
/ Blu-ray20 August 2012
Win White Vengeance On DVD
Q.White Vengeance star Anthony Wong starred in what cult classic with Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung which came out in UK In 1992 name that film?
Email Your Name, Address, answer along with what 2+2=? to winatcinehouseuk@gmail.com, to double your entry if you haven't done it already like us at Facebook page (include your facebook name in email)
Deadline for this competition is September 9th, 2012 (2359hrs).
Terms and Conditions
- This prize is non-transferable.
- No cash alternatives apply.
- UK & Irish entries only
The Peoples Movies, Cinehouse and G2 Pictures have the right to alter, delay or cancel this competition without any notice - The competition is not opened to employees, family, friends of The Peoples Movies, Cinehouse, G2 Pictures employees
- This competition is promoted on behalf of G2 Pictures
- If this prize becomes unavailable we have the right to offer an alternative prize instead.
- The Prize is to win White Vengeance on DVD
- To enter this competition you must send in your answer, name, address only, Deadline September 9th, 2012 (2359hrs)
- Will only accept entries sent to the correct email (winatcinehouseuk@gmail.com), any other entry via any other email will be void.
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UK Competitions and Prize Draws at UKwins
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ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions
2 August 2012
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:12AUK Release Date: 3rd August 2012
Directed By:Ann Hui
Cast: Andy Lau, Deannie Yip , Lawrence Ah Mon
7 July 2012
Who Said Chinese Can't be Naughty, Trailer For Pang Ho-Cheung's VULGARIA
This is not a post about Bulgaria or that fictional country from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang but the trailer for Hong Kong film maker Pang Ho-Cheung's latest adventure VULGARIA. Cheung is no stranger to Cinehouse as we last read about him with Love In A Puff, Dream Home (wai dor lei ah yut ho) and fresh from Hong Kong Film Festival Vulgaria proving he's one of Hong Kong's most intriguing film makers. When it comes to raunchy, sexual references in Asian cinema it tends to come from Japan but occasionally elsewhere like Hong Kong and this film has sexy nurses, maids and a mule with plenty of wash your mouth with soap dialogue and sexy jokes prove this might be funny film. So don't judge a book by its cover or in this case film title, yes its naughty but potentially one of the funniest sex comedies from Asia in a while.
source Twitch
12 March 2012
5 February 2012
15 January 2012
4 January 2012
3 December 2011
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