Category: asian cinema

Review: Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon

A wuxia version of Sherlock Holmes* could be over the top awesome but Dee only deducts/lipreads a few things here and there and the rest of the movie is pretty standard fantasy fare with the addition of also being sexist as hell: there are two women, one is a walking damsel in distress and the other one is the empress who’s only function seems to be to threaten our heroes with beheading (she’s more or less a very boring version of Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts) to make things more interesting (I guess? It doesn’t work, though).

I’m not sure if this movie even passes the Bechdel test since the one time these two women talk it’s about how Dee needs to be the Hero™ to save poor damsel otherwise → beheading. Yeah, it’s pretty shite and cringeworthy (the scene is also completly pointless).

I’d say instead of watching this go for Painted Skin / Painted Skin 2** which are not without their own problems but it least have female characters and some of them can kick ass (though they mysteriously tend to get wounded and need saving when men are around …). Also these movies have a story that goes beyond „evil foreigners attack us by truly ridiculous means“.

Btw, I think this would have been much cooler if Dee was just the brain and someone else – a woman, obviously – would be the muscle. That way it would feel less redundant, now there’s Dee who is smart and can fight and that police guy who’s not smart and can fight and the young doctor who’s not smart and can’t fight. Pretty pointless bromance.

* I somehow totally missed that this is what Dee is supposed to be in the also very mediocre but still better (as far as I remember) first movie.
** Or of course Duelist.

Gemischtwarenladen

Godzilla war einer der beschissensten Filme, die ich 2014 gesehen habe (keine Überraschung), wer Lust auf das (schön trashige) japanische Original UND weibliche Charaktere hat, sollte sich diese Liste bei The Mary Sue ansehen.

Die taz verbreitet dann mal weiterhin (wieder über die Satire-Seite „Wahrheit“) maximalpriviligerte Kackscheiße. Ich finde das echt interessant, wie mensch ohne auch nur den Hauch von Selbstreflektion oder Recherche sowas fabrizieren (und eine „linke“ Zeitung das dann drucken) kann.

DangerBananas berichtet wie sie auf dem Schulhof mit Tütensuppen gedealt hat: „ Zwei Räuber-Hotzenplotz-Kassetten gegen vier Päckchen Yumyum war ein prächtiges Tauschgeschäft.“ ^___^

Ziemlich interessante Diskussion (zumindest die ersten paar „Fragen“) über rassistische Sterotype und Repräsentation am Beispiel von Resident Evil 5 und Watch_Underscore_Dogs.

Die Regierung in UK nimmt weiterhin die falschen Drogen und denkt, sie müsse nach Pornofilter jetzt auch bestimmte Stellungen in Pornos verbieten. Und schafft es dabei natürlich auch noch frauenfeindlich zu sein. Ich kann darüber noch nichtmal mehr lachen, wir hatten solchen wirkungslosen Bullshit einfach schon zu oft.

Asian Cinema: Hua Mulan (2009)

I’m usually not a fan of historical military movies (Red Cliff etc.), endless combat scenes get old for me very fast no matter how epic they are.

And essentially Hua Mulan is exactly that but while most of these films are also all about manly men-bros and their bromances this is obviously about a woman joining the army even though it is forbidden (this circumstance/setting makes this one of the weird movies that feature a strong female main character but still only barely pass the Bechdel test).

It’s far more entertaining and dramatic then most other endless battle films I’ve seen and it’s a lot of fun to watch, so go for it.

(Mini-)Review: Queens of Langkasuka/The Tsunami Warrior

Hey, this is actually pretty nice. The fighting scenes are nothing special if you’re used to wuxia movies and the acting seems clumbsy in places but once the rather terrible first half is behind you there’s princess Ungu kicking ass and the end has some nice WTF-moments reminiscent of good old Hong Kong-cinema times. Also women leading armies in full glorious armor (with boobplates though, unfortunately)! Check it out!

Here, have a weird trailer:

Review: Duelist / Hyeongsa (2005)

This movie is so full of cliches and it does every one of them so perfect. It’s pure awesome: from the ultra-stylized visuals (probably half of the movie is in slow-motion), the soundtrack ranging from Samurai Fiction-style cheesy rock to orchestral uber-schmalz, to the characters: Namsoon, the main character is a tomboy, a police detective of course falling in love with the beautiful mysterious, melancholic and androgynous villain. Guess if it ends badly? It sure does!

The story isn’t really important and I don’t really get it every single time I watch it but I love everything about the movie, the ridiculous fighting scenes (not much flying, though), Namsoon drunk and crying and screaming and kicking ass at the same time, snow falling in slow motion. This is asian cinema at its best, gender-reversed and wonderful.*

I also love the A Serious Man-style beginning that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the rest of the movie: the story of a man who invites himself into the spooky house of a sexy single woman, which gets interrupted because the guy telling the story is distracted. Why never find out what happens next. Nevertheless the thing comes to full circle because the last scene of the movie is the same guy telling how he witnessed the tragic „united in swordplay“-scene (which might arguably the real end of the movie) and almost jerked off to it.**

Oh, and don’t bother with the TV-series based on the same manhwa, it looks just terrible.

*Also no women or other supporting characters dying shortly before the final show-off as a plot-motif. Thumbs up.
** What is a nice comment on how this movie is taking itself not at all serious.

EDIT 2014: Pretty sure this doesn’t pass the Bechdel test, though (and if only barely), since this is one of these strange „only female character in there is the main character“-movies. It still totally rocks, anyway.