Fighter in the Wind

Fighter in the Wind AKA Baramui Fighter
South Korea (2004)
Starring:  Dong-kun Yang, Aya Hirayama, Masaya Kato

Fighter in the wind is one of those 60 or 70 movies I've been sitting on for five or six months, waiting till the time was right to watch it.  It had literally been so long I forgot what it was supposed to be about.  I'm glad I finally took the time to watch it.   This movie has some pretty horrible reviews, but given that it is based on a true story some of Choi Bae-dal's fans might not like it.  In nearly every movie that surrounds a figure wrapped in legends truth is exaggerated and the films tend to use a sort of poetic license as history is twisted to fit the big screen.  Fighter in the Wind is no different.

The movie begins as a Korean man ends up joining the Japanese air force during WWII.  After he and a few other Koreans refuse to go on a kamikaze mission the fighting life of Bae-dal begins...starting with a Japanese General.  There is a sense of honor that Baedal seems to be fighting to obtain that starts in that one fight with the General.

There are a few things I didn't like about this movie.  The action while good is all fragmented.  I like my martial arts flicks to have fluid action through each fight and not clip to the punch landing or knee breaking.  Okay maybe I have just one complaint.  The movie other then the lack of fluidity from the director in the fight scenes is pretty cool.  All in all I wish I had watched it months ago instead of letting it sit there.

Quote(s):  A man can be poor As long as he has a goal and strives to attain it he is beautiful. - Choi Baedal

I am afraid of fighting.  I am afraid of being beaten and loosing.  But, I am more afraid of surviving as a cripple than dying in a fight.

Huang cun gong yu - Curse of the Deserted

Huang cun gong yu - Curse of the Deserted
Singapore (2010)
Starring:  Shawn Yue, Kitty Zhang Yuqi, Zefeng Li

I was kind of hoping and expecting more from Curse of the Deserted.  The movie was filmed well and the actors did good, but the story wasn't quite what I was hoping.  From all of the trailers I was hoping that this would be scary enough to keep me on the edge of my seat.  Sadly it wasn't really scary.  The story was okay though.  I think the writer and director were going for a psychological thriller that didn't quite pan out the way they expected.

With that said, for a ghost story that isn't super freaky with some slight mind bending story behind it it is worth a couple hours on a boring night.

Ajeossi - The Man from Nowhere

Ajeossi - The Man from Nowhere
Korea (2010)
Starring:  Bin Won, Sae-ron Kim, Hyo-seo Kim


Ajeossi was unique.  It certainly isn't the typical bullet ballad or is it a straight kick ass movie, but it has aspects of both.  The beginning is a little slow, but when the action starts to kick in the pace changes completely.  


As the movie starts it opens up defining this awkward relationship between a pawn shop owner that shuts most of the world out and a little girl that is without friends or a father.  There's speculation due to his seclusion that the pawnshop owner is a sexual predator, but we soon learn that is far from the truth.  


From one silent good deed to the next he takes care of the little girl till her mother betrays the wrong group of people and she is kidnapped.  From then on this silent pawn shop owner goes up against gangs, villains, organ harvesters, police, and his own past. . . when all the forces at work in the movie come together there's one spectacular bang. 


The Man from Nowhere touches on some subjects that we all wish didn't exist.  In some very blunt ways it depicts the atrocities committed by organ harvesters, the dark underworld of gangs and drugs, and the violence created by these shady paths of life.  This movie is super graphic and will leave you going WTF? a few times.  To me it is in a small way a reminder of the acts committed against other humans on a daily basis, we should all be so lucky as to never see this part of life in reality.


With that said, the choreography is done well.  The cinematography is also pretty good.  Every person in the movie had a foul mouth and the way things were translated gave me a good laugh.  It could be the movie was actually written that way and it was designed to interject humor through dialog - I would welcome someone's opinion who can understand it in it's native language.  All in all I'm glad I watched it.  If you want to see it in English though, I'd go for the subtitled version instead of the dubbed one - the audio on the dubbed version is all kinds of horrible.   
Quote:  He didn't flinch when I shot the gun.

San kei hap lui - Mr and Mrs Incredible

San kei hap lui - Mr and Mrs Incredible
Hong Kong (2011)
Starring:  Louis Koo, Sandra Ng, Kwan Yue, and Chapman To

Mr and Mrs Incredible is a funny comedy that had me giggling all the way though.  The story is based on two married superheroes who retire forcing them to deal with some of life's finer points.  From arguments and health issues to acting normal and dealing with small town gossip this couple is plagued by the issues that come with being married for years.  From fertility to infidelity the comical bickering and bantering  was funny all the way through this movie.

Gazer Warrior and Aroma Woman are an inseparable duo that struggle to conceal their super powers and former identities from their friends during retirement.  They are successful, albeit barely, for a good while till trouble comes into their lives again. . .  Yes the silliness in the movie matches their superhero names.

All in all the film was kind of silly, kind of funny, and not super unique.  Foreign superhero movies interest me because they require quite a bit of imagination; I'm curious what types of situations and superhero powers other cultures can dream up.  From that perspective this movie was okay.   With that said, if one were to take Mr and Mrs Smith and cross them with the Incredibles, send them back in time about 900 years the result would be Mr and Mrs Incredible.  This movie really was an Asian fusion of those two movies.  If you youtube the actual trailer it will prove that point in about 30 seconds, though strangely enough the trailer is made with zero percent of the film footage.  It was still worth it just for the giggles.  Not to mention who doesn't like a superhero movie?

Quote:  Drunk carriage driving will be fined 2 dollars, serve six months suspension, and the horse will be confiscated.

Koi Mil Gaya - I Found Someone

Koi Mil Gaya - I Found Someone
India - Bollywood
2003
Sratting:  Rekha, Hrithik Roshan, and Priety Zinta
Awards: over 15 different awards

I often look around for foreign alien movies.  In a way similar to written history I am positive that movies and other cultural media help to depict how topics are viewed within a country or culture.  I also pay attention when foreign movies show those who are less fortunate and are invalid or slow for some reason; I find it equally interesting to see how cultures around the world view and treat people who are challenged in such a way.  Another example would be one from Tibet with a group of blind children on a pilgrimage to a location in the roof of the world; that showed quite a bit of how blind children are treated in today's world - another movie for another day when I write that review.  While this movie didn't really help me to understand either from India add ten more movies like it and I might be able to extrapolate what I am looking for.  What this movie did do is to be one of the first sci-fi movies from abroad that incorporated aliens and super powers that I have found.

Rohit's father worked on programs involving contacting aliens and then fell from the scientific community after a strange turn of events.  Rohit was born challenged and finds his way through his younger years happy and care free.  Then one day he discovers his father's research and his whole world changes.

This movie was a great little family oriented movie.  It made me laugh and smile.  In short I enjoyed it!  Between Rohit's developing relationship with Nisha and children dancing and singing with aliens it was a unique and fun little move for me.  Then I discovered that it had a sequel:  Krrrish.  If I have enough time I'll get that review up tonight...  This movie does borrow heavily from about a dozen movies that I grew up watching in the US, but if you can not pay attention to that it's a good intro for Bollywood into the Sci-fi scene.

На игре 2. Новый уровень/Na Igre 2. Novyy uroven - Hooked 2. The Next Level

На игре 2. Новый уровень/Na Igre 2. Novyy uroven - Hooked 2.  The Next Level
Russia (2010)
Starring:  Sergey Chirkov, Marina Petrenko, Pavel Priluchnyy, Evgeniy Kharlanov, Tikkhon Zhiznevskiy, Nodar Siradze, and Aleksey Bardukov


Na Igre 2 picks up right where the first left off.  It's the beginning of the struggle between multiple parties for and against world domination via an army of programmed gamers.  This movie features a well knit web of deceit and domination that evolves into a struggle for life from all sides.  If you watched the first one... you've gotta see this one too.


All of the open story is closed in this movie.  I have to give it up for the director and writer of this movie (Pavel Sanayev and Aleksandr Chubaryan) they really didn't leave loose ends.  This movie was just as difficult to acquire, it was kind of luck that I happened upon them both.

на игре / Na Igre - Gamers. In Search of the Target

на игре / Na Igre - Gamers.  In Search of the Target
Russia (2009)
Starring:  Sergey Chirkov, Marina Petrenko, Pavel Priluchnyy, Evgeniy Kharlanov, Tikkhon Zhiznevskiy, Nodar Siradze, and Aleksey Bardukov


Na Igre seems to be patterned after a guy's teenage dream; any gamer from the olden days of Street Fighter tournaments at the local arcade to the Halo fanatics of today can appreciate the concept behind this movie.

In Gamers there is a group of video game tournament winners who are given a CD.  Once played the CD programs the brain granting the skills of the games each played to the winners.  From there on out it is a battle for control of the CDs by many different parties.

All in all Na Igre was worth watching.  It was different and unique.  It is kind of amusing to watch these super first person shooters try to out smart themselves and the world around them.  There are a few things in the movie that don't really connect and make sense, but if you can forgive that and were a game fanatic - it's worth an attempt at watching.  Na Igre certainly was a difficult movie to get my hands on though.

Zhan gu - The Drummer

Zhan gu - The Drummer
Hong Kong/Taiwan (2007)
Starring:  Jaycee Chan, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Angelica Lee, Josie Ho, and Kenneth Tsang
Awards:  Golden Horse Award - Best supporting Actor (2007), Wine Country Film Festival - Best Feature Film & Best Actor (2009)

The son of a powerful triad gang leader through his own decisions turns his and his family's lives upside down.  After sleeping with the girlfriend of a powerful gang leader Sid is forced into seclusion as an alternative to losing his hands or his live.  Having been the drummer in a band he is drawn to the sounds of drumming echoing through the mountains in his exile.  The discovery of the Zen Drummers changes his life forever.

This movie was interesting.  There is a mix of some action with inspirational concepts buried in the story around the Zen Drummers.  It doesn't go so far as to be a spaghetti style Hong Kong triad movie and has a bit more action then your typical Buddhist inspired movie.  Such a balance is a difficult one to maintain in a movie and the did a decent job walking that fine line in this movie.

Listen to Your Heart

Listen to Your Heart
USA
2010
Starring;  Alexia Rasmussen, Kent Moran, and Cybill Sheperd

The movie concept of a deaf person and a musician falling in love seems to be a recurring theme, though fewer and further between most of today's theme recurrences.  This one was done fairly well, but mostly because of the deep love and life lessons that it presents.  Listen to Your Heart was an awesome movie that was well worth it's time.  It's a good drama, love, life, loss, and inspirationally eye opening movie.  It seems like the budget might have been a little low, but then that makes part of a movie.  

Danny and Ariana meet at the restaurant where Danny, the struggling musician, works.  Though he captured Ariana's attention he does not at all impress her mother.  Where they end up is another place altogether.  Falling deeply in love is where this story begins.  Living through some of life's hard trials and tragedies is the journey that Listen to Your Heart takes the viewers on.

All in all I was anticipating a sappy love story and it proved to be so much more then that; sure there is a sappy love story, but there is also the beauty and inspiration of a love painted tragedy and a story that will make us all think about enjoying the time that we have.  Danny and Ariana are amazing characters for so many reasons. I really enjoyed this movie; I'll warn you though it could possibly have you both laughing and crying.

Quote:  What's one thing you could always use more of?  "Love" -Danny

Daybreakers

DayBreakers
USA
2009
Starring:  Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Neill

Daybreakers is a modern day vampire movie.  Some of the concepts it tackles and the way the movie is presented it is not your average teen vampire flick.  This movie touches on global catastrophe, greed, corruption at the highest level, extremely twisted population control methodologies, and then of course vampires creating some action.

Daybreaks starts out by describing what the human race went through and how vampires rose to power.  With their food supply dwindling and having farmed nearly all the humans left in existence the vampire race is facing a widespread change coupled with near extinction after a decade or two in complete power.  The surviving groups of humans aren't about to give in without a fight.

All in all the movie was pretty cool.  The story was unique and the effects were fairly decent.  I would recommend this one for vampire movie lovers.

Quote: "Living in a world where vampires are the dominant species is about as safe as barebacking a $5 whore."

La Herencia Valdemar - The Valdemar Legacy

La Herencia Valdemar - The Valdemar Legacy
Spain
2010
Starring:  Daniele Liotti, Oscar Jaenada, Silvia Abscal, and Laia Marull

The Valdemar Legacy was a decent horror movie.  There's a twist or two that I didn't expect.  The dark style Spanish movies are known for is also present, Jose Aleman uses contrast between shadow and light well throughout the movie as a means to help create the scene and convey the story.

La Herencia Valdemar begins with a well respected property appraiser being given the opportunity to appraise an old remote estate, the Valdemar mansion.  What she finds there will change her life.  When she is out of contact for a few days her boss hires Nicolas to locate her and ensure that she completes her appraisal.  Nicolas soon discovers the legend of the Valdemar properties.  Through the movie there is a story within a story that is very well placed and played out.  There are also appearances by at least two of history's infamously evil figures.  

In this movie the cinematography is pretty good, the acting is alright, the plot is somewhat unique, and the flow of the story is well enough to keep you watching.  The Valdemar Legacy is just part one of a story.  Part two, La Sombra Prohibida, should be releasing on DVD some time in the next few months.

Travelers and Magicians

 

Travelers and Magicians
Bhutan
2003
Starring:  Tshewang Dendup, Sonam Lhamo, and Lhakpa Dorji

When I saw this movie I watched it mainly because I wanted to visually explore Bhutan as much as this movie would allow.  It certainly satisfied some of my curiosity with some gorgeous scenery, but I know there are many spectacular wonders the cinematography in this film didn't touch.  With that said, being the first movie from Bhutan that I've watched I had to see what type of story it conveyed.   I found the beginning a little strange and almost annoying, but it was worth sticking out the first 20 minutes as the movie changed drastically.

From the beginning this movie is a story of travelers.  Dondup travels the mountain roads for days so that he can get to the capital and move to the United States.  Along the way as he rides buses and hitchhikes as he is forced to travel with a growing group of people.  One person whose path was crossed in this journey was a monk with a story to tell.  His story of a dreamland is mystical and certainly has its own meaning amongst choices the travelers will one day have to make.

Quote:  "A peach blossom is beautiful,  But you see, a blossom is only beautiful because it is temporary."

"You should be careful with dreamlands because when you wake up, it may not be very pleasant."

Aladin

Aladin
India - Bollywood
2009
Starring:  Ritesh Deshmukh, Jaqueline Fernandes, Amitabh Bachchan, and Sanjay Dutt

I can not express how insanely happy it made me to find this movie.  There are just certain stories that always capture my interest, Aladin and the Genie have been one of them for almost 30 years.

The story has little new to it, but it comes from close to the land of the original tale and so from that perspective it is new enough.  This story begins with Aladin hiding from his heritage.  Through a strange twist of fate he ends up with the magical lamp and from it summons Genius.  Aladin can not conceive of three wishes and is prodded by Genius who is eager to get the three wishes over with and go about his way.

This movie has the comedy, the love story, the Bollywood dance, a cultural overlay, magic, carnies, a genie, and some interesting visual effects.  Oh, there is this funny song that you have to hear.  There's a Genie rap in the movie that cracks me up, I wish I understood the Hindi part - but, that might take some of the humor away.  All in all I was happy to see the movie and at just over two hours the time was much better for this story then the typical near 3 hour epics that Bollywood produces.

Quote:

The Haunting - No-Do

The Haunting (aka No-Do)
Spain
2009
Starring:  Ana Torrent, Francisco Boira, and Hector Colome

No-Do is a horror movie from Spain.  In its own rights it is unique.  There are some heavily borrowed parts of this movie, but it did still contain some originality.  I found the beginning a little hard to follow, yet towards the end it all fell into place.

This movie wasn't overly gory, but did of course contain some gore.  It also had a number of spirit hauntings and one bad ass demon.  The church is featured heavily throughout the movie and plays a multi-sided stereotypical role.  Who else is going to try and expel your demons though?

All in all it wasn't a horrible movie, not terribly scary either.  There were times when the level of fright portrayed by the actors wasn't quite in line with the story, but I think that's where many horror movies go wrong anyway. It did have that famous Spanish dark overtone that you'll find in movies like Pan's Labyrinth or The Orphanage.


Quote:

Veer

Veer
India (Bollywood)
2010
Starring:  Salman Khan, Zarine Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, and Jackie Shroff

As the poster says, it Veer is the epic love story of a warrior. The movie boasts some decent sweeping visual scenes as well as a multicultural tale.  Veer is a story of honor, betrayal, and love against the backdrop of a historically epic time in India.

Veer is a Pindari warrior whose father and tribe are betrayed by the British and Madhavgarh's King.  Fate one day brings Veer and his warriors to rob a train that will change the course of history for the Pindari.

Veer has extremely mixed reviews on all fronts, still I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Some say the final scenes aren't necessary, but I find some cosmic peace in the ending; others say the battles were unnecessary, I'm not sure how else one would portray this warrior without them; and still others yet say it was cheesy, every Bollywood romance has a huge element of that.  All in all I'd watch it again.  I hope Netflix soon brings it to the USA masses, I'd like to see Zarine Khan boosted into stardom and this first movie of hers referenced as one of her greats in years to come.

Quote: This story belongs to fearless the Pindari whose saga of bravery was not considered as a part of history by the British. But, they could not stop them from becoming a legend.

"What is the Greatest Thing for a Pindari?" - "Courage"
"And greater than courage?" - "Promise"
"And greater than a promise?" . . .

Strigoi

Strigoi
UK
2009
Starring: Constantin Barbulescu, camelia Maxim, and Catalin Paraschiv

I have to give it up for originality.  I was expecting something that didn't wow me too much, something that wasn't really exceptional, and that is exactly what I got.  I actually thought it was a Romanian movie till I did the research on it.  With that said, it is a vampire movie and maybe it's vampire lore somewhere that they behave in the manner depicted in the movie.  If not then these vampires are completely different then those I've grown old with on film.  There is some humor in this movie that's kinda funny.  There are also a lot of things that just don't seem to connect properly, but hey I still gave it the length of the movie.  It was enjoyable on some level, and probably what I'd recommend as a stormy Sunday afternoon flick.