Fantasia '06: Week One (preview)
Thursday: Seven Swords (might catch the creepy-looking Brit film in order to kill time until 9:30, if schedule allows even one movie *at all*)
Friday: Tokyo Zombie (wanted to double-header it, with the Korean gangster flick "A Bittersweet Life")
Saturday: The Maid
Sunday: A Chinese Tall Story
So, the story behind Seven Swords was that it was totally everywhere on one the last weeks I was in HK. I'm not sure what happened, but while I had time to see things as insignificant as Howl's Moving Castle BEFORE ANYONE IN MONTREAL (and not dubbed), Eros (which I looked for for years after it was said to have had a private showing at Cannes - and which was finally released in Asia, maybe NA but I didn't care), and, err, the Wayward Cloud (gratuitous hardcore sometimes-mature pr0n with finish, and interspersed with 60s/70s cheesy lip-sync musical performances - it was Tsai Ming-liang, and there I go, absolved). Basically, I didn't see Seven Swords, and now I itch to see it, even if my friend thinks it's the worse movie of the year. I read an interview in the Sunday Morning Post Magazine with the three of the ladies in the film, Charlie Yeung, Kim So-yeon, and Zhang Jingchu. I believe the reviews were mixed, but nonetheless, it was big, and had big names. Since the Chinese program for this Fantasia is so thin, why not throw away $7.50 plus the price of popcorn?
Then, there's Tokyo Zombie, with Tadanobu Asano, Chara's husband, blabla. The poster looks interesting, and we're sort of intrigued by weird-looking movies (near future, wig, manga-based). There seems to be a trend going on with zombies this year. (I am likely to miss Death Trance, which appears to be the same actor as in Verses, that crazy crazy zombie 'n yakuza movie that played at Golitzinsky's party at Greek Easter '04.
The Maid: Singaporean movie. There was an interview with actress Alessandra De Rossi when the movie came out, either in a HK or S'pore paper. And so it's a Singapore movie - I'm really fond of Singapore, and it's worth every nostalgia-inducing cent.
A Chinese Tall Story: It's going to be cheese! It's got Charlene Choi of the Twins in it. And, while he's no Ekin Cheng, it also has the rarely-appearing Nicolas Tse. Must be noted that I'm going to be missing the World Cup final. >_>
Seven Swords is not the worst movie of the year...but it gets kind of close.
Of course, Leon Lai made me all nostalgic for when I was all about him out of the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Canto-pop, so perhaps my opinion is not to be trusted.
It's...ok. But it could have been so much better, considering Tsui Hark's record. The actors...are...ok. The whole film's a little bit shy of ok status, but my opinion of it could be a bit skewed considering my soft spots for Leon Lai and Donnie Yen
Ah, I want to see Tokyo Zombie! Asano Tadanobu is a particular favourite of mine (I always refer to Chara as Asano Tadanobu's wife as opposed to the other way around) and I attempt to watch everything of his (which is difficult, considering how prolific he is.)
Oh yeah! Asano Tadanobu, Tadanobu Asano - he's good. I handpicked a few movies with him in it in previous Fantasias, like that Thai film where he plays a reformed gangster (with posters of Ichii the Killer at his workplace or something), or Ichii... Previously, I "acquired" that older mid-90s film on which set he met Chara (but never watched it, but it's on a CD somewhere). I must've seen more movies by the man, but is all I can remember...
Man, Leon Lai, my mother used to love him (and particularly Andy Lau). :P [Alan Tam and Andy Lau are probably the first singers I tried singing after as a kid...]