Review of "Wonderland" (movie) - Hardly a wonderful journey and leading to nowhere

One thing that really irks me is being "lured" into watching a drama or movie on the basis of the cast lineup but finding out that I have wasted my time because the story turns out to be such a letdown. Unfortunately, "Wonderland" is one more title I can add to my list of works that fit this definition.

To be honest, I wasn't keen on checking this out when I first read news of its production. Out of the 5 leads, I was only interested in Jung Yu-mi and Choi Woo-shik and wanted to see how they would act together after seeing so much of their siblings' bond in the Korean variety shows they did. It was only when Netflix started pushing this in their recommendations and the plot seemed interesting and novel enough so I decided to give it a shot. I didn't start off with having sky-high expectations in the first place and yet still felt quite disappointed.

The concept itself could be said to be quite in tune with the current enthusiasm over AI and how it has an impact on our lives in various aspects. Using generative AI to produce images and videos of the people who had passed away or actually still alive but in an unconscious state so that the living could still engage with the supposed dead - there is actually a lot of room for discussion as to whether it is ethical and good for those who are still living. The story simply dishes out this cutting edge technology but how it was used by the characters in this movie without explaining properly who created this for what reason and to be used for what purpose as well as what is the ultimate outcome that this choice leads to. And to make things worse, it seems like the fundamental rules and operating logic of this technology aren't clear-cut and standardised. While I can imagine that the dead can choose to use this so that their living family members can still engage with them if they miss the departed, what then is the goal for this arrangement? And how do they end things - is it decided by the living unilaterally or the departed whose "consciousness" exists in Wonderland? And what happens when the arrangement ends? The data is deleted or still stored somewhere? And why would the consciousness of a dead person involve yet another dead person? And can the Wonderland staff decide on their own what is good or bad for the client and put an end to the arrangement without their consent?

Likewise, this technology is restricted to family or people are related by marriage, it would look logical from a legal aspect but how about an unmarried couple like who Suzy and Park Bo-gum played? It was never explained properly how Tae-joo got injured and why Jeong-in was so bent on keeping him "alive" in a fictitious world other than the flashback scenes which suggested that they were very much in love. However, what are the safeguards and controls to stop someone from abusing the system? Could someone just go to the company and ask for this service without making sure that it's not some jilted lover or stalker wanting to live out their fantasies through Wonderland?

I can do with a bit of guesswork through clues or indirect revelations in stories instead of having everything spelled out. However, I wonder how many people actually realised who Gong Yoo's character was until they did a search online. I for one couldn't find anything in the movie which indicated who he was (other than he seemed like a stranger with a romantic vibe) so I was flabbergasted to find out - how did the director expect the viewers to know for sure? And why was the Wonderland staff able to contact him to go and save another dead person in her fictional world? I would expect to find out and know everything about the story through the movie itself but if I have to fill in the blanks through Wikipedia or Google after watching, it totally defeats the purpose of watching the movie in the first place. This is somewhat similar to watching a drama and they tell you that you have to watch the spin-off for the ending. Equally, if not even more annoying, I would say.

I don't have an issue with using the cast lineup as "bait" because interest needs to be generated for people to have the urge to check out the work. While the synopsis can be a clue into telling whether the work will be your cup of tea, the façade still has to be attractive enough since first impressions do matter. The worst thing that can happen is, the story is beyond salvage that not even a star-studded or capable cast can uplift it. 

In view of this reason, it is hard to critique the cast's performance because I felt that the lacklustre acting wasn't entirely their fault. The story itself did not make much sense in the first place with so many loopholes and lacked logic despite being a sci-fi fantasy. With a crippling script like this, I wonder if the cast did understand what the director or scriptwriter was trying to convey in the first place because the characters lacked much depth and emotions portrayed were superficial at best. This could jolly well turned out to be something which was more emotionally moving but alas, it was not meant to be.

Open-ended stories without everything laid bare are fine. Implied developments and settings are still acceptable. What feels like a journey to nowhere is something like this movie when you end up wondering - "and then, so what?". Perhaps it is more important to work on crafting the story to make some sense rather than banking on big names to save a sinking ship. 

Review of "The First Slam Dunk" (movie) - A perfect blend of nostalgia and novelty

For those who are familiar with "Slam Dunk" or are longtime fans, the first thought you may have of a new movie like this surfacing so many years after the anime series in the 90s was - is this going to be a rehash of old material? 

In my case, I have read the manga and watched the anime series multiple times over the years so I would say that I know the material pretty well - some details may be a bit hazy in my memory though. As such, I wasn't that keen about watching another movie which could jolly well be a repackage meant to milk money out of fans in search of Slam Dunk nostalgia. Then, it seemed like this new movie was very well-received both critically and in the box office so I got curious about this film again yet happened to miss it while it was showing in cinemas. As fate would have it, this movie is now made available on major streaming platforms so I finally got to watch it more than 1 year later since the release in Japan in Dec 2022.

Contrary to my initial apprehension, the story wasn't exactly a total repeat of existing material. True, the match featuring Shohoku vs. Sannoh wasn't anything new. However, the surprise element turned out to be the backstory of Miyagi Ryouta who was one of the regulars in the Shohoku team but honestly hadn't been given much attention in the past. As such, the substantial focus on Ryouta and his family really fleshed out his character in such a way that it presented him in a very different light and should have made him a lot more endearing to the audience. For those unfamiliar with the Slam Dunk series, they could jolly well have been mistaken into thinking that Ryouta was the lead in the story instead of Sakuragi Hanamichi because of the heavy emphasis devoted to him in this movie. While my personal bias is Mitsui Hisashi and I would have preferred to see a film focusing on him, I think that the choice of featuring Ryouta in this movie was an unexpectedly good one because nobody could have seen this coming and the result turned out to be better than expected.

Given that the original anime series was back in the mid 90s, technology has of course improved by leaps and bounds over this period of time so the overall viewing experience of this movie was definitely elevated thanks to sharper graphics and smoother motion movements. However, what was even more impressive was the clever intertwining of 3DCG and 2D animation which added a lot of realism to the basketball scenes and made them so compelling and enjoyable to watch. When you compare it to the anime in the 90s, it would also make you marvel at how much technology has improved over time and the wonders of the 90s got a new breath of life through better graphics.

While I'm not sure how many people would become newly converted fans of Slam Dunk thanks to this movie, I, as a longtime fan, would say that this definitely went beyond my expectations. The sincerity and effort put in by the production staff in putting out something that would fulfill the needs for reliving the good old days with something new to satisfy heightened expectations certainly didn't go unnoticed. If it was just a half-hearted effort to bring in longtime fans to watch something which we all had seen before, I don't think the movie would have achieved the success it enjoyed. Rather than just focus on improved technology and skills to enhance the viewing experience, the story was not neglected as well and gave us something new to discover and be touched about. However, this also got me worrying that it might be a long time in the future before we can see another installment in the series since this took close to 20 years in the making (from the first proposal in 2003 to the movie's release in 2022). Hopefully, I'll still be around when that happens and get to relive the Slam Dunk magic again in my lifetime.

Review of Sully

What attracted me to this film were two factors i.e. the true story behind the miraculous landing on Hudson River in 2009 and Tom Hanks. I must admit that I had some reservations upon finding out that the movie is only 96 minutes and wondered if this was long enough to contain what needs to be told. In the end, my worry was unfounded. In fact, this length turned out to be just nice and prevented the film from over-glorifying the hero or putting in unnecessary fillers which would have dragged down the quality of the story.

To give some background into the story, allow me to describe briefly what happened on 15 January 2009. US Airways Flight 1549 which was heading from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, encountered double engine failure due to a bird strike within minutes of its takeoff. Without any engine power, enough altitude nor any nearby airports for the plane to land safely, the pilot Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) made the unprecedented decision of landing on the Hudson River. Luckily, everyone survived the ordeal and were quickly rescued by the emergency response services amid the bitterly cold winter.

Instead of focusing solely on what happened during those 208 seconds, the meat of the film lies in the subsequent investigation. No doubt the survivors, public and media hailed Sullenberger and Skiles as the heroes, the investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board seemed to be headed into another direction i.e. one which tried to find fault with the pilots' decision rather than mechanical or weather or accident factors. While trying to cope with the media attention, Sullenberger grapples with PTSD and the pressure from the investigation which questioned his judgement and threatens to end his career in an dishonourable manner. Of course, the results of the investigation proved to be in the pilots' favour in the end so it was a huge sigh of relief for the heroes who truly deserved the credit for saving everyone on board including themselves.

Much as most viewers will probably dislike the NTSB for their way of investigating the accident, I think that it is understandable to a certain extent because they have to be fair and not lean towards a certain view before the investigations are concluded. As the media and public generally viewed the pilots in a favourable light, the NTSB's stand of having to prove that the pilots could be potentially at fault for landing the plane on the river rather than seek an airport to land would not go down well with everyone. According to the film's director Clint Eastwood, there was a certain degree of dramatisation in the movie so it could be that the words used by the NTSB investigators were not as nasty nor filled with accusations as shown in the film.

Personally, I felt that the issue was more with their investigation methods and assumptions made rather than the stand they adopted towards the pilots which conveniently took out the surprise factor i.e. the reaction time which the pilots needed and did not take into account that they could not practise like those pilots doing the simulations. As such, when Sullenberger pointed out these fatal errors in the investigation, it felt like justice was done and he managed to save his and his partner's careers with his own efforts. It is easy to assume things when you are not put into such a critical situation and it would appear that the investigators did not consider this when making their conclusions. Without this film, we probably wouldn't have known that there were such loopholes in the investigation.

Besides the investigation, I think the film also had a feel-good and heartwarming aspect to it. Besides Sullenberger's concern for his passengers and crew as seen from his attempt to ensure that everyone was off the plane before he left and how he wanted to know the survivor numbers immediately, the way the emergency response services were pictured here indicated that the achievement did not belong to the pilots only but that these rescuers had also been instrumental in the success. Without them and their quick action, the survivors would have suffered in the icy cold river.

Another part of the film which I thought was handled quite well was the PTSD aspect. Sullenberger, like everyone else, is human after all so it was natural that he would be affected by the close shave ordeal. However, he was not given the time and space to recover psychologically due to the media frenzy, pressure from the investigation, looming threat of his career being ended at this juncture and possible financial hardship brought onto his family. It is easy to forget that heroes are humans too and Tom Hanks managed to show a very raw and real side to the hero which was probably not apparent in media reports.

Tom Hanks did a fantastic job in playing Sullenberger. There was hardly anything dramatic in his actions and mannerisms just like Sullenberger who thought that he was just performing his duty and wasn't enjoying the hero treatment. As such, it didn't feel like Hanks had to exert himself too much when playing this role. However, beneath that facade of calmness, he still managed to show the underlying worries and insecurities Sullenberger had when he started to doubt himself. When faced with those accusations from the NTSB suggesting that he was wrong, he tried to seek assurance but found that even if people agreed with him, he still wasn't 100 percent convinced. When self-doubt started to creep in, he could no longer maintain his confidence as shown by his confession to his wife that there might be a possibility that the investigation might not turn out well for him. He really projected the dilemma of believing in oneself and being cornered by those who didn't in a convincing manner. I also liked his chemistry with Eckhart and how both men did their best in the face of adversity, be it in the sky and on the ground i.e. against the investigation authorities.

In conclusion, this film is definitely worth watching for its succinct take on the aftermath of the Hudson River miracle, great acting from Tom Hanks in particular and the ending brimming with positiveness and warmth. Be sure to stay till the credits roll because you will see footage of Sullenberger and Skiles with the survivors during their gathering and hear their thoughts about this incident and how it has changed their lives.

Review of "Busanhaeng" 부산행 (Train to Busan)

I've never been keen on horror movies e.g. those involving vampires movies. As such, I wasn't particularly interested in watching "Busanhaeng" at first because I thought that it was just a horror film. I guess when age catches up, my appetite for such horror films has gone down by a lot. To think that I used to like watching horror movies in the middle of the night and relished seeing Sadako crawl out of the TV in the Ring series! However, after hearing rave reviews about the film from the people around me, my interest was piqued so I gave in to my curiosity in the end. And I have to say, it did exceed my expectations to a certain extent.

A disclaimer though, if you haven't watched this movie, beware of spoilers ahead.

Gong Yoo plays the lead role of Seok Woo, an investment fund manager who is so caught-up with his work and got a divorce from his wife. Although he is raising their only daughter Su-An (Kim Su-an) with the help of his mother, their relationship is somewhat aloof and frosty as seen from his absence from a school performance which led to Su-An being unable to sing her song and his buying of a gift for her birthday which was exactly the same as what he gave her during Children's Day. When Su-An asks to go to Busan to meet her mother, Seok Woo reluctantly books tickets on the earliest train from Seoul to Busan the following day so that he can bring her there personally and be in time to return to work.

However, things get off to a weird start the next morning as Seok Woo drives Su-An to the train station when emergency services seem to be heading off to somewhere in a hurry. Thinking nothing much about it, Seok Woo and Su-An board the first train to Busan, oblivious to what is happening at the train station. Su-An catches a glimpse of someone attacking the station master and is shocked but doesn't manage to tell Seok Woo who is taking a nap. Meanwhile, a wounded girl boards the train at the last minute thus marking the start of carnage on the southbound train.

As more passengers get infected by the virus which supposedly turns them into bloodthirsty zombies, those who survive the attacks (for now) gather in a single carriage, thanks to efforts by Seok Woo along with married couple Sang-hwa (Ma Dong-seok) and Seong-kyeong (Jung Yu-mi). When they get news that they can alight at one of the stations along the way to Busan and be rescued by authorities, the survivors find to their horror that even the soldiers have been infected and try to get back onto the train. Seok Woo, Sang-hwa and Yong-guk (Choi Woo Shik) are separated from the rest of the survivors and have a hard time reuniting with them but at the expense of Sang-hwa who puts up a brave fight against the vampires. However, the majority of the survivors fear that Seok-woo and Yong-guk may have already been infected along with Jin-hee (Ahn So-hee), Su-an and Seong-kyeong and decide to force them to be separated from the rest in a front carriage. This unwittingly proves to be the lifesaver for the small group as one of the survivors is so disgusted with the selfish behaviour displayed by the majority which led to the demise of her elder sister and unlocks the door to let the vampires in.

The ordeal does not end for the remaining survivors as the tracks are blocked by obstacles and they have to switch trains in order to continue to Busan. However, this causes more of them to be infected and Seok Woo, Su-an and Seong-gyeong are the only ones who make it to the breakaway train. Unfortunately, in a valiant attempt to save Su-an and Seong-kyeong, Seok Woo gets infected too and jumps off the train so as to prevent himself from attacking them. Su-an and Seong-kyeong finally make it to a tunnel where they walk on foot, unaware that soldiers are prepared to shoot them if they are vampires. Upon hearing the song Su-an had planned to sing for Seok Woo the day before, they are convinced that Su-an and Seong-kyeong are still humans and take them into custody.

In terms of pacing and entertainment value, "Busanhaeng" does not disappoint as the action and tension builds up nicely. There were many notable scenes which were so gripping e.g. when the vampires were charging towards the survivors after the train stopped halfway in its journey and when the survivors were chased down the tracks in their bid to board the runaway train with the vampires hot on their heels. Although the vampires looked really grotesque with their twisted actions and blood-stained faces, I thought that what was more frightening about them was their speed in attacking humans rather than their appearances. For those who like vampire flicks, this film should have enough action to satisfy you. Being confined to the constraints of a moving train, space is definitely limited so it looks like the cast had an even tougher time doing all those action scenes. In terms of this, I think they deserve accolades for their efforts.

As for the story, I thought that it was a bit lacking in some areas. First of all, the origin of the virus and how the outbreak came about was not explicitly explained. Through the phone calls between Seok Woo and his subordinate, it was implied that they had or rather their company probably had invested in some company which was making or researching the virus. However, that's pretty much all the information you get in this regard so I thought it was insufficient. The characteristics of the vampires' behaviour such as being blind in the dark and being tame when they do not see humans were also not explained so they were presented to the audience in the form of tested deductions by the survivors. Towards the end, there was also no clear explanation on how the virus was contained or the whole issue resolved so I thought that it wasn't a very satisfying ending. As such, if you can ignore these loopholes, the film itself is still an entertaining one to watch.

With regard to the cast, I thought that Gong Yoo and Ma Dong-seok stood out in their own ways. Although I didn't watch "Coffee Prince" and was never a fan of Gong in the past, I liked his performance in the movie "Dogani" (The Crucible) which was his first project after leaving the army. This time, I thought he nailed it as a workaholic who was more concerned with protecting his own interests to one who showed his natural instinct as a father to protect his daughter at all costs. The transition between both sides of his character was smooth and his last scene as he bade farewell to his daughter was indeed heart-wrenching. Of course, it would have been ideal if Seok Woo didn't die in the end but if he didn't, that might not have turned up the "touching" factor of this movie and showed his love for Su-an. On the other hand, Ma was a scene-stealer from the start due to his macho size which didn't quite match his gentleness in front of his pregnant wife. He was especially nimble and convincing in those action scenes against the vampires but it was a pity that his character perished too early. Jung Yu-mi did appear as a spunky yet somewhat foul-mouthed pregnant lady at first but without Ma around to carry on the banter, her screen presence sort of deflated to a damsel in distress saved largely by Seok Woo so she didn't make that much of an impact on me in the end.

In short, "Busanhaeng" is a pretty good film in terms of its action and entertainment. However, if the loopholes in its story could have been patched up, it would have been close to perfect.

Review of "The Laundryman" 青田街一號

I caught this movie at its special presentation during the Singapore International Film Festival held at Marina Bay Sands' Sands Theatre on 27 November. Before the movie was screened, the director Li Chung and the cast members Sonia Sui and Yeo Yann Yann went on stage to greet the invited guests and press which unfortunately I wasn't able to get close to since there was a security line to separate the invited guests and other members of the audience. Nonetheless, I was still able to catch a glimpse of Sonia Sui from a couple of metres away when she stood briefly in front of the movie's poster for a photo-taking session. She was really stunning in person even though she had just given birth to her son not that long ago and literally dazzled with her dress. It was a pity though that Joseph Chang who was one of the leads, was not able to come to Singapore and I wondered why especially considering how significant he is in the cast lineup.

Before the movie started, the director and cast were invited on stage to greet the audience. Apparently, the two actresses had not seen the final version of the movie yet so the director was joking that he was "worried" for his life since he had to leave many scenes on the editing room's floor. In particular, he was apologetic towards Yeo because her part was affected to a large extent. I gather from the fact that the movie was about 1.5 hour long, there must have been a lot of editing done to make sure that the story could flow smoothly within such a short period of time. Then again, when there is a need to make so many cuts, it makes me wonder too as to whether they might go overboard with it just to meet the time limit and if the story would be adversely affected.

To classify this movie under a particular genre would be somewhat difficult as there was a deliberate attempt to blend comedy, action, romance and criminology into this film. I thought that it was a very ambitious attempt on the part of the director who was making his directorial debut with this film. Considering the length of the film, I did have concerns over how the story structure would be affected.

Before I begin sharing my views on this film, here's a summary of the storyline. There is an old-style laundry shop which operates in a quiet street on Qingtian Street where the beautiful owner Ah Gu (Sonia Sui) is actually the boss of a group of killers and the laundry shop is a front to cover up the tracks of these killers by "washing" away the corpses of the victims. Among the killers, the top killer is Qingtianjie Yihao (No.1 of Qingtian Street) played by Joseph Chang as nicknamed by Ah Gu because he is the best among his peers. There is not much blood and gore since he kills in a relatively clean manner e.g. breaking the neck of his victims or strangling them. The actual dirty part of the job is done in the laundry shop when the corpses are put into the machines and you actually see blood from the transparent water tubes. Of late, No.1 has been suffering from seeing the spirits of his victims haunting and following him around to the extent that he does not dare to stay at home. When No.1 tells Ah Gu about his problems, she dismisses this as mere hallucinations and that he shouldn't be scared of those spirits. Nonetheless, when he insists on solving the problem so as to keep his sanity and get his life back to normal, Ah Gu introduces him to a psychic (Wan Qian) which leads to an unlikely romance developing between them. On the other hand, Yeo plays a female police officer who is investigating the series of disappearances and comes to find out the true identity of Ah Gu and the dark secret she is hiding.

As I mentioned earlier, the biggest concern I had was whether the story would flow well despite the short running time and the editing which had to be done. Frankly speaking, I thought that the story had its bright points such as the part where the man making toy models was pining for his neighbour and sought to kill the latter's husband as he was abusing his wife, the interaction between No.1 and the psychic or the fighting sequences in the climax involving Ah Gu, No.1 and the police officer which were entertaining to watch. During the post-screening talk section, there was a lot of mention of how they tried to be as realistic as possible by using real weapons such as knives or not pulling back punches. In that sense, the movie does have its bright spots and I applaud the crew and staff's efforts in making this movie.

However, if I am to judge the story as a whole, I thought that there were too many elements clamouring for my attention thus leading to me having difficulty trying to make sense of how each part correlated to one another or sustain my attention for the entire span of the movie. In addition, I thought that the pacing was slightly uneven when too much time was spent on some parts while the reverse happened for some other parts. The part about the model man was supposed to be funny but at one juncture, I thought that the joke was getting a bit stale. On the other hand, I would have liked to know more about Ah Gu's background and her rationale for doing what she did but I felt that there was too little devoted to this important fact. As a result of this problem, the biggest casualty would be Yeo who had a really forgettable role other than she was beaten up really badly by Sui in the climax scenes. It felt so odd to see Yeo pop up of nowhere and suddenly go to the laundry shop to confront the baddie when she wasn't featured too prominently initially in the investigation process.

As for the acting, I thought that Joseph Chang and Wan Qian did quite well to make an impression on me and had pretty good chemistry (there were in fact rumours of them dating). My impression of Chang in the past was that he seemed more like a tough guy but this movie showed that he's capable of doing comedy well. Too bad on the action front, they made him look like a weakling in front of Ah Gu who was supposed to be a doctor but strangely could fight that well. In the end, Ah Gu didn't lose because she was poor at fighting which I thought was a rather bad way to end the fighting sequence. The romance factor between Chang and Wan's characters was implied rather than expressly displayed so it did feel a bit odd when you suddenly realise that they had developed feelings for each other. I didn't really mind that but somehow, it felt really out of place.

As for Sui, I felt that she was not featured as much as I assumed when I watched the trailer which was a pity. I had the impression that she was the female lead but the movie featured more interaction between Chang and Wan rather than between her and Chang. In fact, Wan seems to have appeared more than Sui in the movie. As such, I thought that if her role of Ah Gu could be developed further to show a more complete picture of who she was, that might have convinced me why she did what she did. After watching the movie, it just gives the impression that Ah Gu was obsessed with some weirdo ideology and she was a psychopath of some sorts which I thought was not a fair representation of herself. Likewise for Yeo, she didn't get the chance to show what she was capable of doing. Especially after hearing about how she went through lessons to prepare for the filming, there must be more than meets the eye for her role which unfortunately couldn't be seen by the audience.

In conclusion, I found that the movie did not really meet up to my expectations which I attributed to the trailer looking more exciting than the actual film. In his directorial debut, there were some rough edges which I thought that the director could have been able to smooth over if he had more experience. The editing done might have gone overboard to affect the fluidity of the movie which I thought was a great pity because I think this could have potentially done better if it was 2 hours long. Luckily, the movie still had some bright spots in its story and the acting was fairly good given the time constraint and choppy editing. If there could be a DVD version with a director's cut which can add more body to the story, I think I might be interested to check this out again.

A nostalgic tribute to SG50 - "7 Letters"

"7 Letters" is a compilation of 7 short films from 7 of Singapore's well-known filmmakers to commemorate the Golden Jubilee namely  Boo Junfeng, Eric Khoo, K Rajagopal, Jack Neo, Tan Pin Pin, Royston Tan and Kelvin Tong. I haven't watched films from every director so I approached this movie with no knowledge of their styles and which type of films they specialise in making. As the free screenings at the National Museum were so popular, I resorted to catching this film at Golden Village instead.

I do not plan to go into details on each of these films even though there were some which didn't really interest me. Given that this is a celebratory gift for the nation, I guess it's better that I keep my criticism to a minimum. Nonetheless, I would like to share my thoughts on the stories which did strike a chord with me in one way or another.

The Girl directed by Jack Neo
Jack Neo's films are usually commercial hits in the cinemas because the themes of his stories tend to be on things which affect most of us, be it NS, family problems and bread-and-butter issues so they can easily engage an audience of all ages and genders. On the other hand, he always gets rather harsh reviews from critics on the value of his films. Frankly speaking, it's not easy to achieve commercial success in a small market like Singapore. To go out of Singapore is yet another feat. Not all arthouse or indie directors can succeed too. Although I don't really see his films as those food-for-thought type of films, they aren't always as bad as how the critics make them out to be. I've watched a number of his films in the past especially during the Chinese New Year period because honestly, there's not much you can do during those few days other than head to the cinemas. In addition, the elders in the family tend not to be keen on Hollywood movies so it's always a natural choice to go local. Then again, after his highly publicised affair scandal years ago, it just feels terribly odd to see his films preaching the goodness of family ties or doing good so my interest in his films have dwindled a lot since then,

This short film however gives off a slightly different vibe. Signature-style of humour with a mix of dialects and Chinese, the story is as simple as it gets. A girl has a crush on a boy in the same class and would even sacrifice her well-being just to help him even though the guy treats her like trash. However, what really hooked me was how the simple story ended with this really sad twist of the girl's family moving to another kampung and the boy had no chance to repay her for what she did for him. Cliche or corny you may say, but sometimes, an emotion as simple as regret like in this instance is what really gets to you.

The Flame directed by K. Rajagopal
The entire film is in monochrome and depicts how an Indian family is faced with the choice of staying behind as Singaporeans or taking up the offer of British citizenship on the eve of the British's military withdrawal from Singapore. The father insists that his son and daughter-in-law go to UK with him but the son is caught in a dilemma especially since his wife refuses to go and become second-class citizens. On hindsight, it's easy to applaud the daughter-in-law for standing up to her father-in-law and insisting on staying in Singapore. However, at that time, nobody knew what was going to happen to Singapore after the British left so you can't blame the father for believing that things in the UK would be better for the family. What impressed me about this story was the great acting between the three characters and how they managed to convey the conflict convincingly to someone like me who didn't go through those difficult times and didn't have to make such a tough choice. It made me feel a sense of admiration to those who decided to stay despite the uncertainty and honestly speaking, if not for those who believed in a future for the nation, we might not have made it. Of course, for those who left, I can't blame them too because they thought that it was the best way out at that time. Luckily for the film, it doesn't choose to judge either side for the decisions they made which I thought was a good thing.

4:30 by Royston Tan
I can empathise with the little boy in this story because I used to be a latchkey-kid myself where I returned to an empty home after school. Eating lunch all alone with no one to talk to until someone returned home in the early evening is really not fun for kids of that age. Other than this "familiarity" with the lead character's situation, the nostalgia of seeing things from the past and that community spirit which is sorely missing nowadays brings back a lot of fond memories. Now, we hardly know our neighbours, let alone allow them to come into your place to borrow the shower room or offer them kueh like that Malay grandma did.

Grandma Positioning System (GPS) by Kelvin Tong
Again, this is a relatively simple and straightforward story of a Chinese family which has to travel to Johor every year during the Qingming festival to offer prayers to ancestors. Despite doing it every year, the family actually has little time and patience as seen from their eagerness to wrap things up quickly and get back into their routines. Even the route to the grandfather's grave is always "forgotten" by everyone except the grandmother who spends a huge amount of time talking to the grandfather about how to get home from the cemetery with her grandson seemingly listening without a care at the side. However, when the grandmother passed away, the family finds themselves stuck again in a bid to find the grave the following year and manages to find the location with the help of the grandchildren who remember what the grandmother said in the past. Just when the family is glad that they can wrap things up quickly unlike previous years, the grandson heads back to the graves and repeats what his grandmother said in the past so that the grandparents' spirits will be able to go to their new house. The significance of this film is probably not so much about mocking the impatience showed by the family members when paying respects to their ancestors and how much they were focusing on their own lives but rather the fact that everything is changing so quickly around us that there are hardly any landmarks of the old times which we can remember or see these days. That could be why the grandmother was insistent on telling her dead husband's spirit about the directions back home in case he got lost without the old landmarks along the way. Good thing that the grandson remembered what she said or else the "tradition" would have been lost with her passing.

Review of "Everest" (movie)

"Everest" is a movie based on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster which happened between 10 and 11 May 1996 where eight people were caught in a blizzard while trying to scale and descend the summit. However, the film focused mainly on the happenings at the South Summit which involved mainly two commercial expeditions led by Rob Hall of Adventure Consultants and Scott Fischer of Mountain Madness and resulted in the deaths of 5 members in total from both teams including Hall and Fischer themselves.

For the first part of the movie, it features how Hall prepared his team for the climb to Everest including the trek to reach base camp and multiple climbs to acclimatise. It is worth noting that right from the start, it was made very clear to the climbers that even though the ultimate aim was to scale the summit, if the circumstances did not allow for it or the climber's condition was deemed not suitable to continue, the climbers should give up on this goal. No doubt that the climbers paid for the expedition companies to guide them up the mountain, it was also the duty of the companies' staff to ensure that the clients make their way down safely. Needless to say, this advice fell on deaf ears for some people because the desire to reach the top mattered the most at the end of the day.

The second part of the movie described how both teams had to work together in order to overcome the odds of ever-changing weather conditions and overcrowding due to a high number of climbers aspiring to reach the summit during the same period. However, unexpected complications such as ropes which were not repaired on the way to the summit and some team members who were seemingly not physically suitable to make the arduous climb also contributed to the difficulty of the ascent. This in turn caused delays along the way up and down as the sudden blizzard hit the climbers and resulted in some of them losing their lives.

As I left the cinema, there were a few questions I pondered over. Of course, on hindsight, it is easy to pin blame on a single or multiple causes for the disaster, be it due to natural or human causes. Besides, the movie's way of telling the story may not be 100% accurate so we can't really blame one person for another's fate. As such, there is no intention on my part to say who was right or wrong but rather, the following points are the what-ifs that I popped up in my mind after watching the film.

First of all, there's always this saying that the outcome is not the most important thing but the process matters most. However, in this situation, I wonder if that also holds true for the climbers. Being able to scale the summit is important but being able to make your way down safely should also be the same. Does it mean anything if you manage to scale the summit but end up losing your life after that? It's especially regrettable that some of these climbers did go to the top and end up not coming back. I wondered about the decision of Doug Hansen's to keep going even though it was way past the 2pm turnaround deadline when he was still making his way up and there was a lot of time needed to head back amid the rough weather conditions. I can understand why he insisted on proceeding because the summit was within reach and he had already tried multiple times in the past. Physically and financially, there was no way he could do this one more time. The feeling of failure again would have been a crushing blow. Then again, I also wonder if Hall had been insistent enough to stop Hansen from scaling the summit, would things have turned out differently for the both of them? Granted that Hall was in such a dilemma because he understood Hansen's reason for insisting so well, you can't blame him for doing what he did. It certainly isn't a pleasant situation to be caught in when a split second decision can decide your fate and both options are equally painful decisions to make. I just feel sorry for these two men because one didn't live to savour his success while the other didn't manage to save himself and reunite with his family.

Secondly, the idea of allowing commercial expeditions scale Everest presents another dilemma. On one hand, the clients are the ones paying for their trips and should have the ultimate say in deciding whether to proceed with the climb. On the other hand, the professionals in the expeditions make judgments as to whether someone is fit enough to proceed or if conditions are favourable to proceed but can they persuade or even force their clients to turn back if need be? Will the clients even listen to them or will they insist that they have the final say just because they paid for the expeditions? Should there was a minimum requirement before anyone attempted this massive task, would it have helped in reducing the number of people who attempted the climb despite their personal limitations?

Last but not least, this movie reiterates the point that the forces of Nature should not be taken lightly. Granted that the weather changes were swift and beyond the control of the climbers, there was no way they could have fought against that. Even if they had all made their descent before the 2pm deadline, would it have helped? Of course, we won't have the answer to that now but it just drives home the point that when Nature is concerned, there is no harm with being more careful and aware of the dangers which come along with each situation.

On the whole, I think this movie is great in terms of showing the beauty of Everest and how people are so enamoured with climbing it that they would even put their lives at stake. Despite the fact that I may not be fully convinced about giving up your life for this purpose, I could see how strong the desires of the climbers were in pushing themselves forward with each step upwards. On the other hand, as this is a factual story, the plot did lack a bit of dramatic appeal thus it can appear a tad bland to some viewers. This also affected the character development as there was hardly any time left to explain why certain people did the things they did. One thing I was rather puzzled over was Beck Weathers' family situation. It appeared initially as if he was estranged from his family as seen from the family portraits which excluded him and his wife Peach's lukewarm attitude towards him. Then again, when she heard about her husband's survival and needed immediate medical attention, her earnest efforts in sending a helicopter to pick him up from the mountain showed that she still loved him. It got me wondering if Beck's expeditions to climb the Seven Summits was the cause of his seemingly cool relations with his family and constant absence at home but the movie did not actually talk much about this so I thought it was a pity that our understanding of the characters seemed to be rather superficial.

In conclusion, this is a pretty decent film so do check it out if you are keen.

Review of "Foodies" (movie)

"Foodies" is a Swedish documentary on the fine dining culture and its relationship with a newly-emerging group of foodies i.e. the food bloggers. Five influential bloggers in this field who cross borders and/or go to far-flung places just to seek out the best places to eat i.e. Andy Hayler, Aiste Miseviciute, Katie Keiko, Perm Paitayawat and Steven Plotnicki are at the centre of this film as the camera follows them around on their food blogging adventures. Other than seeing them feast on the nicely-arranged fine cuisine, you will also get to see a different viewpoint of this trend e.g. how restaurant owners and chefs feel about this growing breed of food bloggers in this Internet age and the influence they exert.

I don't consider myself as a full-fledged food blogger. A J-drama/J-movie blogger would suit me better since I've been blogging about this genre for as many as nine years. Food reviews were an extension of my Facebook and Instagram posts as I wanted to write something about the food I've tried. Nonetheless, I've been less than diligent than I would have wanted to be. I procrastinate posting my reviews due to various reasons and by the time I want to get back to it, I tend to drop the idea at the end because I would have probably forgotten how I felt about the meal after some time. Besides, I didn't want to stress myself out by insisting on posting about every meal I had outside. Unlike those professional bloggers or those who are really serious about food blogging, I only post those places which are OK or good because anything nasty is probably best kept to myself. Even though I did go to a number of nice places during my Japan trips last year, I still have posted nothing about them. In short, I am just a "casual" food reviewer who is plain lazy. ^__^

As I do post food reviews from time to time, I was intrigued by this documentary and decided to catch it yesterday night. However, the overdose of food scenes seemed to have taken a toll on me as I struggled to keep awake after the 30-minute mark. Perhaps it was because I had a heavy dinner earlier or didn't sleep well the previous night. Anyway, I was glad that the movie picked up pace afterwards and the fact that it was only 90 minutes long also helped. I admit that I was quite amazed by some of these bloggers' willingness to go the distance in search of the best restaurants but honestly speaking, this is not what everyone can do due to financial and time constraints. As such, it was a bit difficult to identify with or even agree with some of the things they did. Personally, I'm not a fan of fine dining because I have this impression that fine dining is expensive, restrictive and rather not filling because of the small portions. Maybe it's just me but even after watching this documentary, it still does not spur me to explore fine dining as I'm perfectly content with my low and mid-range dining.

If there is some food for thought which I take away from this film, it would be the issue of how the self-perceptions of food bloggers tend to clash with that of the restaurant owners and chefs. Personally, I think it is fine if someone speaks ill of the food or experience at a restaurant provided that there are reasonable grounds for that opinion. Besides, it cannot be that the food can please everyone so there would definitely be people who don't like a certain restaurant even if everyone else likes it. As such, to have both positive and negative comments is natural. However, I think what is evident from the perspective of the restaurant owners and chefs is that some food bloggers may have written strongly-worded reviews despite a lack of understanding of the food, local practices or cooking methods thus giving the impression that they are ill-qualified to be dishing out such opinions. As the Japanese chef at Kikunoi in Kyoto said, if the people who say anything without having the necessary knowledge are ridiculous, those people who believe blindly what the food bloggers say are also as bad as the bloggers. On the other hand, bloggers think that they are entitled to their own views, be it positive or negative. It seems like there is still a gap to be bridged between both sides as bloggers become more knowledgeable about the topic of interest while restaurants can tap on this new group of influencers to do more for their businesses and improve in lacking areas.

If you are interested in the food blogging culture, you may wish to check out this film at Golden Village (Singapore) as it is showing since 16 July.

Review of "Helios" (赤道)

Just looking at the cast lineup alone already tells you that this is a blockbuster-type of movie. Actors from Hong Kong (Jacky Cheung, Nick Cheung, Shawn Yue and Janice Man), Taiwan (Chang Chen), China (Wang Xueqi, Feng Wenjuan and Josephine Koo) and South Korea (Ji Jin-hee, Choi Siwon, Yoon Jin-yi and Lee Tae-ran) come together in this multi-national production which talks about how the Hong Kong police join forces with the Chinese and South Korean authorities to retrieve a portable nuclear explosive device DC8 which was stolen from South Korea and catch Helios, the elusive thief who is planning to sell the device. On paper, it sounds like a pretty tempting and interesting film because you hardly get to see that many A-listers in a single film. Then again, I'm always wary of such movies being over-estimated because the story tends to be a let-up if the cast lineup is the selling point of the movie. Luckily, Helios defied this conception I had and turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

From this point onwards, there will be some spoilers about the movie so if you do not wish to know about them, you may wish to skip this review.

Given that most movies would last 2 hours only, it is difficult to ensure that each and every A-lister in the lineup gets their time to shine. It is inevitable that some of them don't get as much airtime as the others which leads to the flat presentation of their characters e.g. Shawn Yue's detective role. I find that I hardly know anything about him nor remember what he did except for those action scenes in the multi-storey carpark at the beginning of the film. It may be that he will get another chance at showing more of his acting especially if there is a "Helios 2" but just based on this film alone, his performance was somewhat forgettable. At the other end of the spectrum, Jacky Cheung starts off rather mildly as a subject matter expert and professor but as his true identity is revealed, his importance grows and the significance of his actions become apparent. In terms of airtime, he may not have as much as the others but he sure grows on you over time. As for the Korean actors, the fact that they were in another country meant that their actions had to be somewhat restricted thus it is natural that they were not able to do as many things as the Hong Kong police or Chinese authorities so the constraints they faced made them appear somewhat passive and underachieving.

Due to the fact that this film consists of an international cast, it is also a multilingual film with Mandarin, Korean and English spoken by the characters. Too bad the version here doesn't show Cantonese which I thought was a pity because some lines do have a different meaning and punch in that language rather than Mandarin. In order not to disrupt the tempo  of the story by having interpreters to communicate among the characters, this film has a rather ingenious way of solving this problem i.e. a device worn in the ear which translates among languages automatically based on spoken speech. It doesn't seem like interpreters were doing the translation so I assume that device has some program that does the job automatically.

The story actually does a pretty decent job at defying expectations with twists here and there instead of being another anti-terrorism story where the leads save the world easily. It leads you to believe that something might happen then heads for the other direction. For example, when Janice Man and Nick Cheung had fighting scenes in Macau, the assumption is that the guy tends to prevail because of the physical strength he possesses over the woman. However, Janice Man's character was such a strong fighter that Nick Cheung was rendered powerless and almost got killed if not for his colleagues who came in the nick of time. Another example was when Ji Jin Hee and Choi Siwon were cornered by Chang Chen and Janice Man and were left bleeding to death literally. Then, it is discovered that Ji who was thought to have suffered more serious injuries and passed out first was the one who survived while Choi didn't. When Nick Cheung and Jacky Cheung had the final showdown, most stories would probably stick to the mantra of "good prevails over evil" but it turned out the other way round. Last but not least, when Jacky Cheung and Wang Xueqi met in the train at Kurama, Kyoto, it proved to be that the evil had the upperhand this time and hints that there may be a sequel to settle things once and for all. I like the fact that these twists made the story more unpredictable and interesting but I do fear that if the sequel wants to stick to the "good prevails over evil" principle, it might turn out to be a letdown if the baddies go out without a good fight.

Among the cast, I would say that Jacky Cheung, Nick Cheung and Janice Man were probably the ones who made the deepest impressions on me. I've not seen too many of Jacky Cheung's movies and he is not as active in movies now compared to the late 80s and early 90s. However, the fact that he is able to assimilate into his roles and make the audience feel that we are looking at the character, not the singer Jacky Cheung, is probably what makes him successful as an actor. His portrayal of the professor Siu Chi-yan seemed a bit bland in the beginning because he was playing a supporting role to the police i.e. Nick Cheung and Shawn Yue to help in the arrest of Helios and retrieval of DC8. However, when it was revealed that he is the real Helios (instead of Chang Chen), he was able to show the ruthless side of Helios while maintaining a straight face and strike fear in his opponents without having to do anything. Especially in his final showdown scenes with Nick Cheung and Wang Xueqi, these are when his acting really shines through.

On the other hand, Nick Cheung had a heavier role in the sense that he had to be hot on the toes of Helios in order to achieve his mission. However, his character as the police officer Lee Yin-ming was somewhat not a typical police officer. Most police-and-thief stories would make the police officer be brainy or a tough fighter but Lee seemed rather ordinary. He was no good fighter (especially against Janice Man) nor was he the super-brainy type. Nonetheless, Nick Cheung managed to make Lee appear believable as a "normal" police officer who still managed to get to the truth, albeit in the end, he let down his guard too much and ended up losing his life. He was so convincing in that scene when he was struggling before his death and deserves a lot of praise for making it look so real. I thought Nick Cheung was fantastic in making a character appear "ordinary" which was probably more difficult than the other way round.

Last but not least, Janice Man is an eye-catching actress. It's not just her looks which I'm talking about but the fact that she could be such a mean fighter means that she'll likely be a top action actress in Hong Kong since there aren't that many now. Granted that she had very few lines in this movie, it was difficult to see if she could handle emotional scenes well but I liked that her facial expressions were strong enough to give off the icy feeling of the Messenger so it seemed like lines were superfluous this time for a femme fatale like her.

As I mentioned above, I thought Shawn Yue had too little to do in this movie which was a real shame. Likewise, Chang Chen, Ji Jin-hee and Choi Siwon probably had some issues which prevented them from shining in this movie. Ji and Choi had the problem of their characters being somewhat hampered by the fact that they were not on home ground but at least Choi got to do a motorbike chasing scene with Chang Chen through the busy streets of Hong Kong. Since they had to abide by the rules of the HK jurisdiction, that effectively meant that they could not do many action scenes especially if it involved guns. In addition, in those scenes when they were searching for intelligence with another agent played by Yoon Jin-yi, those seemed rather odd too because they seemed to be led around by Yoon who irritated me a lot with her overboard facial reactions in a bid to emphasize the severity of the situation they were in but all these guys could do was to get frustrated at each other during the argument at the da pai dong. It's kinda funny and ironic, considering how they were depicted to be potential heroes who could save their country and complete their mission in the beginning of the film but had a rather undependable colleague in Hong Kong who seemed to be able to do nothing. Last but not least, their endings also made them look a sorry sight as they were heavily defeated by Helios and his sidekicks. Wonder if the Korean audience would take issue with this? One thing about Choi, although I've not seen his dramas in full before (did catch glimpses of him in a Taiwanese drama and "Poseidon" with Lee Si Young), I think he was better at the action scenes compared to those which required emotions as he was practically squeezing the expressions out from his face. He probably just needs to loosen up a bit, blend in a little more with his character and can probably carve out a decent acting career with his looks and ability to do some serious action scenes.

As for Chang Chen, he was depicted as the main villain i.e. Helios from the start and spoke some pretty good English although some words were pronounced in a rather funny way. That aside, I liked the fact that he was able to balance the demands of being a cool villain with his other human side especially through his interaction with his godmother Josephine Koo. However, once it was hinted that Jacky Cheung was the real mastermind i.e. Helios, Chang Chen's importance seemed to dwindle sharply and he was hardly seen towards the end of the film. As such, I thought it was a pity that he was conveniently "chucked aside" after serving his purpose as the decoy for the real Helios.

If you are in the cinema for this film, do stay till the ending credits for the theme song sung by Jacky Cheung and Choi which is in Cantonese and Korean. For a brief moment, I doubted that Jacky was singing both languages on its own but the Korean voice was obviously different. Later, I went online to check and confirmed that it was the two of them singing the song together. Then again, it seemed like Choi was doing mostly the chorus while Cheung could be heard almost all the time.

In summary, this film was enjoyable in the sense that it defied my expectations in a good way and had some intense action scenes with great acting and nice scenery especially as the snowy Kurama. I don't deny that there are some flaws here and there but I guess this is inevitable with such a big cast and the fact that it is a multinational production where there were many factors to take care of. I like the fact that it tried to show the irony of the geopolitics situation which the HK police were in because the Helios case was developing in their territory and the other interested party should be South Korea only but the Chinese authorities just had to poke their finger into this to complicate the situation. If this was a purely Chinese-HK production, I doubt that this not-so-subtle hint would be allowed to stay in the movie. It would be fantastic though it there is going to be a Helios 2 since the story is far from finished but with Nick Cheung's character out of the way, would Shawn Yue step into his shoes in the fight against Helios or someone else would join the cast lineup? I also hope that Jacky Cheung continues to reprise his role as Helios because the thought of having anyone else in that character just breaks the continuity of the story and spoils the appeal of the sequel, at least to me.

The beauty and sorrow of Taiwan - "Beyond Beauty" (看见台湾)

I first heard of this documentary film produced by famous Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien from the Taiwanese news channels because it was such a hit there in 2013 for being the most commercially-successful documentary there. The director Chi Po-Lin also received lots of attention for being brave enough (maybe silly in some people's views) for giving up his civil servant job just before he reached retirement and could get his retirement payout for the sake of filming this movie and going into debt (you have to rent helicopters to do the aerial filming). I don't think many people would do that considering the risks involved in making a documentary like this where commercial success is hard to come by.

Lots of people raved about it, not only for the breathtaking scenery captured through aerial photography but also the underlying message behind this movie. This is not a travelogue to entice you to visit Taiwan although the trailer may have you believing otherwise with the nice images but rather as the caption says, it shows you the beauty and sorrow of Taiwan. As such, it is not a pretty picture of the land and sea from start to finish but rather a reality check on what is happening in Taiwan which is also likely to be the same situation or somewhat similar elsewhere in any other country. Frankly speaking, I didn't think this film would ever make it to Singapore so imagine my surprise and joy when I saw that it was showing in Cathay cinemas for a limited time only!

To be perfectly honest, the first part of the movie was rather slow and sleep-inducing. It's true that the breathtaking images of the mountains, land and sea were indeed very beautiful but without any dialogue and the calming BGM (composed by Singaporean composer Ricky Ho), it was quite "boring" to a certain extent. However, when the narration from scriptwriter-writer-author Wu Nien-jen started, the tempo started to pick up and finally got me to sit up and pay attention.

The film can be divided up to four main sections i.e. the introduction which contains the beautiful images of Taiwan as seen from a bird's eye view and highlights things which were not obvious from our usual point of view, the "unnatural" things people resort to that spoil the beauty of the land, pollution issues and the conclusion which explains the dilemma between the needs of humans and the pilfering of natural resources. As I mentioned above, the first part of the film can be seen as a travelogue of sorts with the nice scenery coupled with calming music. However, from the second part onwards, it becomes a reality check.

Some of the things mentioned in the second part include building European-style resorts on mountains which hardly fit the look of the mountainous landscapes, hot-spring hotels built within a small area thus causing the width of rivers to be narrowed drastically, the installation of water pumps to extract underground water for the use of fisheries. The extent of this type of "development" is so appalling not only because of how extensive it is but also how it stands out from its surroundings in such an odd manner. That stretch of pipes from the coast to the fisheries really made me gape. I think this particular line from Wu's narration really summed up this section very well - "People build and install things in areas which aren't suitable for such purposes but when things go wrong, they blame the weather, Nature and the government." There is some truth to an extent because landslides happen when heavy rain comes and brings down the soil from mountain slopes especially if the ground is loose due to the extensive buildup of buildings and lack of vegetation. However, the first culprit that gets fingered at is usually the weather or Nature or the government for failing to protect the property and lives of people who made a conscious choice to be near those places. I'm not saying that these three factors have no impact on the natural disasters that happen but it is also true when you consider it from the other side of the argument that certain places aren't suitable for certain purposes and there is a risk to bear if you choose to do it otherwise. For example, there was this instance quoted that due to the extensive pumping of underground water for the fisheries, it has led to the ground sinking in that area. However, you still don't see any changes made to stop this sinking since the pumping is still going on. Economic concerns are really crucial here and it's not easy to ask people to change.

The third part talks about the ugly face of pollution and how people choose to turn a blind eye to its effects even though they can see rivers turning brown, black or even red due to the discharge of waste water from factories. That scene of the Yin-Yang sea where the seawater near the coast is black and the seawater further out is a pristine blue was really an eyeopener. Air pollution from power generators and the harmful environmental effects of stripping mountains bare for the sake of the cement industry serve as real-life examples of how industralisation and modernisation have affected the environment. I like it that the film doesn't really try to preach from the high moral ground but delivers the facts directly to the audience so that they can see from themselves that all this talk about pollution is not just something far from their own lives but something very real that's happening near them.

Last but not least, the conclusion actually tries to address the dilemma between humans' needs and the taking of resources without any concerns. Part two and three may be seen as largely critical of humans' actions but part four tries to explain the problem faced. For example, the lack of flat land for housing has led to more houses being built on slopes and hills. If given a chance, people would probably not have resorted to this but when you see how precariously these houses are perched on the slopes and can be easily swept away by landslides (if that really happens), the message in the narration becomes hauntingly true - "people are more concerned with the price of their house per square meter rather than whether their houses will still stand safely tomorrow". The film doesn't actually try to tell you what you should do but rather brings across the message that we are mere migrants of Earth and asks you to consider if you are taking up more resources than what you actually need. I guess that's a good question we should be asking ourselves and start by doing small things to avoid hurting the environment even more.

One point that particularly impressed me about this film was the use of specific and real-life examples in bringing its points across. Particularly, I think the in-depth explanation about the cement industry was a very good one. Knowing how lucrative the industry can be and the potential backlash the crew may face by singling the industry out, it takes a lot of courage to do that. Frankly speaking, I do not think that those who are really the key players in hurting the environment would change as a result of this documentary. However, the film would have helped to raise awareness among the general public and let them be aware of what's happening in their surroundings. Maybe the effects of this film will only be seen in many years to come but at least it's a positive step in the right direction.

If you are interested to watch this film in Singapore, it will be showing in Cathay cinemas until 3 September.

Review of "Maleficent"

"Maleficent" is really not your typical Disney movie. "Frozen" bucked the trend by being a film which attracted people of all age groups, had a runaway hit song, poked fun at some of Disney's typical developments in its past movies and reversed the trend of princesses always waiting for their princes to save them. In that sense, "Maleficent" was also very different from typical Disney movies because its protagonist is not a typical hero but rather one who can seen as both a hero and villain.

Instead of being a film meant purely for children, the message it tries to convey seems to be one which can be understood more by adults. Although I had the nagging feeling that this might be a kiddie movie before I watched it, I was pleasantly surprised at the end.

If you are interested to know how the story progresses, you can visit the Wikipedia page so I won't go into further details here. As for those who have not watched this movie yet, be warned that there will be spoilers below so you may wish to skip this review.

Angelina Jolie is awesome as Maleficent. In fact, if she had not taken up this role, it would have been difficult to imagine who might have played it as well as her. Her metamorphosis from a cheerful fairy to that of a dark fairy was due to the betrayal by the man she loved. According to Jolie in an interview, the significance of that scene where Maleficent had her wings cut off by Stefan was tantamount to rape. Of course, in a Disney film, it would have been impossible to convey that explicitly.

Due to the physical and emotional pain she suffered, that caused Maleficent to change into a dark fairy. However, she was not evil by nature thus her heart softened as she watched Aurora grow up and became drawn to the little girl she had cursed because of the misdeed by Aurora's father. There were multiple facades of Maleficent which made her more endearing to the audience and her actions more understandable instead of traditionally strict lines separating the good and evil in typical children's stories.

I also liked the twist where a mother's love was seen as "more true" than the spontaneous "love at first sight" typical in Disney stories. It made the story less predictable and provided a source of redemption for Maleficent who could save the girl she cursed.

Frankly speaking, the graphics in this movie were a tad darker and less colourful than what you usually see in Disney movies for children. That cannot be helped as Maleficent was portrayed as a dark heroine with lots of pain, anguish and hatred for most of the movie. Of course, when she finally overcame the dark past, things became better and the world suddenly became colourful again. I thought it was a great way to show that how people's perspectives of the world can change depending on their state of mind. If Maleficent had continued being a dark heroine, her world would still be dull-looking even though it was far from reality.

In conclusion, "Maleficent" is a film which exceeded my expectations in a good way and I would recommend it to anyone to give it a try in the cinemas.

Review of "Overheard 3" (窃听风云3)

This movie is the long-awaited sequel in the Overheard series which have had the same leads i.e. Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo and Daniel Wu. However, the story's setting and their characters have all been changed so there is no worry about not having watched the earlier installments and being unable to understand what Part 3 is all about. In fact, I watched Part 2 before Part 1 and it didn't bother me any bit since the stories were independent of each other.

The central theme of these movies is on eavesdropping or wiretapping where the characters try to outsmart one another through the use of such intelligence gained from this method. This time, the story is based on a group of people hoping to profit from the trading of land rights owned by indigenous people living in the New Territories area of Hong Kong. At one end is Lau Ching Wan and his three buddies who appear to be working with the village heads' leader Uncle To but are plotting to seize all the profits instead of being content with what they already have. On the other end is Louis Koo whose character went to jail for a staged accident under the influence of alcohol in order to kill his buddy who had threatened to wreak Uncle To's plans. He engages the help of Daniel Wu's character to help in monitoring Lau and his cronies in a bid to help his former girlfriend who is Uncle To's daughter and to take revenge for what happened to him and his buddy.

Frankly speaking, there were some parts of the movie which I found rather contradictory or difficult to understand. For example. the story had started by explaining how the Hong Kong government gave house-building rights to the New Territories residents in 1972 so as to prevent them from making a fuss over the development of their area. However, from the time Louis Koo's character went to jail till he was released, it was said that he was in jail for just 5 years and yet the fashion style of the characters seemed a mismatch especially when they were all carrying advanced smartphones. Assuming that when the drink-driving accident happened in the late 80s or 90s (guessing based on the clothes, hairstyles and accessories worn), how could the smartphones and advanced computer equipment be available by the time Louis Koo was released? The story suggested that this was happening in the current times but the clothes worn especially the spectacles worn by Louis Koo seemed to be from the old times.

I also felt that the movie had deviated a bit from its "eavesdropping" concept too much due to the advancement of technology in current times. It was like Daniel Wu's character was doing more of "watching" the characters though the video feeds rather than eavesdropping which is the essence of this series and what makes it doubly exciting. To be able to acquire intelligence merely by hearing and not being able to see what those being monitored are up to is actually more challenging. In this sense, I think Part 3 failed to deliver what it should have done.

In such movies dominated by the male cast, it is inevitable that the actresses will be relegated to being insignificant characters. I thought Michelle Ye's character was simply annoying because the only thing she managed to do was to weaken the resolve of Louis Koo's character and resulted in his tragic fate at the end. However, this was an improvement from Part 2 when she played Koo's wife and had such limited screentime to make her presence felt. As for Zhou Xun who played the role of Louis Koo's buddy's wife, I thought her scene opposite Koo was quite good. There they were staring at each other and she was burning with rage while tears welled up in her eyes while he could not do anything to alleviate that pain and just kept looking at her with sorrow in his eyes. Although no words were exchanged between them, I thought it was a pretty intense scene showing the complicated emotions between them. Zhou also had pretty good chemistry with Daniel Wu as a potential love interest while her rejection and showdown with Lau Ching Wan was yet another powerful scene. In this sense, Zhou had a meatier role than Ye and was easily more memorable.

On the whole, I think Overheard 3 might disappoint those who have been longtime avid fans of the series because it's lacking in excitement and the complicated story about land rights may not interest everyone. Perhaps it's time to know when to stop or else any residual value from this series might be milked dry by the time the next lacklustre sequel comes up.

Review of "Transcendence"

On paper, "Transcendence" sounded quite promising as a sci-fi thriller. However, the biggest problem I found with the story was that the concept of transcendence wasn't really explained and explored clearly so at the end of watching the film, I found that I was still none the wiser about what the whole hoo-ha over transcendence was about. I thought it was a real pity that the film had the potential to do better if the concept was developed to its fullest but it went the other way instead and felt like a half-baked effort.

In addition, I didn't really see the link between the advanced technology which the scientists were working on and the ills of the world e.g. pollution and diseases affecting humans which ultimately resulted in the global blackout when the main characters died. Maybe the message was that something created with the intention of goodwill can be manipulated by those who have the desire to use it for their own benefit. Then again, is the film trying to say that Will had the ambition within him so when his consciousness was merged with the AI, he had the power now to do what he always wanted to? However, when you look at the earlier scene where he was speaking at the presentation, he expressed his view that his wife had the lofty ambition to solve the problems facing mankind and he was more concerned about his research. Somehow, that seems a bit contradictory to what the later version of Will thought and did.

It was also a great pity to see Johnny Depp being relegated to leading man in name. In fact, Rebecca Hall (Evelyn) was seen in action more than him and it felt like she was the lead instead. However, if you look at how the script was written, I guess there was no way to see more of Depp in physical action since he had to die before his consciousness could be uploaded to the AI. If that didn't happen, the story would not move forward. However, if the story had been more detailed and taken the trouble to explain some of the fundamental questions over the concept of transcendence and what it really meant or involved, I think there would have been more room for Depp to explore the inner world of Will a bit more and make his performance more memorable to viewers.

Review of Jobs (movie)

I was actually deliberating between watching "Jobs" and "Elysium" (since they both came out in the cinemas the same week) when I decided to watch the former first. I am neither a fan of Apple products nor Steve Jobs himself but I thought that his life as the founder of Apple and the man who brought the company back to life with products like the iMac, iPod and of course, the most famous of all, the iPhone, would be quite interesting to see. However, I think this film does not do him justice at all and is a huge disappointment.

I can't say that I am very familiar with the key events of Steve Jobs' life but I know certain highlights like Apple Computer started in the garage of his foster parents' house and how he was kicked out of his company. However, the film began with an introduction of the iPod at an Apple Town Hall meeting and was then rewound to his days in college. That's when I think the film started to look more like a compilation of teasers rather than a biopic movie about Jobs. First of all, Jobs' fascination with calligraphy class and why he wanted to go to India and how it inspired him was never talked about in detail. All of a sudden, you see him thinking about his birth parents and he started crying in front of his buddy and girlfriend. The next scene would then jump to when he starts building Apple Computer. It feels as if the movie throws a couple of knots to the viewers, expects them to untie it with what they already know about Jobs or can infer from the "clues" given so far and hope that people will get what they are driving at. For someone like me who has never read Jobs' book nor know much about him, I was left bewildered most of the time.

The rest of the film continues in similar fashion with so many questions going on in my mind:
- Why did Jobs react so strongly to the news of his girlfriend's pregnancy? Why was he so convinced that her baby wasn't his? Did he react like this because he didn't want the pregnancy and family life to derail his career? And why did his daughter Lisa come back to live with him after he refused to acknowledge her? What happened to Lisa's mother?
- Why did Jobs start to be aloof towards his colleagues and friends? Was it success that got to his head? Was it his difficulty to interact with people that caused the situation?
- Why was Jobs so hung up about the fonts in the word processing program? Was it to do with the influence from the calligraphy class in college?
- And what happened after Jobs got rid of those who chased him out of Apple? What about the iPod? What about the iPhone?

And so, this led to me effectively switching off mentally at a couple of times throughout this movie. The choppy editing and jumping of scenes helped in shipping me off to slumberland too. The film gave me too many teasers but there was no way for me to find answers. And I can't help but feel that this movie is just a superficial look at Jobs only. I don't even know which is the image that the production crew wants to project. Is it the strictly-business only Jobs who may be a man with great ideas but extremely difficult to work with? Is it the heartless jerk who refused to acknowledge his daughter? I thought that the movie didn't actually paint Jobs in a good light but rather tried to show all his flaws with little for him to redeem himself. I'm sure that there could be more than what we saw in this movie but unfortunately, you won't be able to know Jobs better through this movie. You might as well get his book which should be clearer and gives you more information.

Given the limited time for the movie, I do appreciate that it is unlikely to include everything that may be of interest to viewers. However, I think that the production crew was probably too ambitious in trying to give a complete picture of Jobs but ended up upsetting the balance. If they had chosen to  focus on Jobs' professional life and how it was closely linked to Apple's fortune, this could have been a more inspiring piece of work. The obvious omission of an important part of Apple's history in the past 10 years or so was a glaring mistake. Apple became sought-after again after Steve Jobs returned so what exactly did he do to rejuvenate this company? I would have thought that most people will be interested in this part of Apple's history. Showing us a glimpse of iPod at the beginning of the film is simply not enough. If the intention had been to showcase more of Jobs rather than his baby Apple, there needs to be more insights into his interpersonal relationships. Otherwise, looking at this movie alone, you get the impression that Jobs is nothing but a jerk and yet his family and friends stick to him, somehow in one way or another. Then this leaves us with the question "why" because we don't know what is it that they saw in him which we as outsiders and viewers of this movie can't.

Despite my criticism for this movie, Ashton Kutcher surprised me with his portrayal of Jobs. At the beginning of the movie, I thought it was the real Steve Jobs at the Apple town hall. As the film progressed, his mannerisms including the way he walks and talks and how he looked like simply was like a carbon copy of Jobs. As such, I have to give Kutcher credit for being able to bring Jobs to life with his effort and dedication. Then again, if the script wasn't such a let-down, I think this would have been an opportunity for Kutcher to show off Jobs' inspirational leader side (although it looks obvious that he's a tough person to work with and under) . Too bad the movie just didn't match up and correspondingly, Kutcher's performance was somewhat restricted or dragged down by these limitations. If there is ever going to be a part 2 of Jobs or another crew gets together to produce something related to Steve Jobs, I think the most important thing to consider is, what angle of Jobs are you going to be looking at? For any famous person, there has got to be various angles you can look at so it will be best to choose appropriately rather than be overly ambitious and try to cover everything within 2 hours. I think "Jobs" was a victim of its own ambition and should have tried to make sure it could handle whatever it placed onto its plate. Unless you are a big fan of Jobs or Apple, I seriously think that this movie will probably leave you dissatisfied at the end.