Mulan

Hua Mulan
China (2009)
Starring:  Wei Zhao, Jaycee Chan, and Rongguang Yu
Awards:  Golden Deer (Changchun Film Festival 2010), Shanghai Film Critics Award (Shanghai Film Critics Awards 2010)

Mulan is another epic.  Epic in story, history, deeds, and the filming.  When I first watched this movie it reminded me of Joan of Arc.  It wasn't till a little later that I discovered Hua Mulan is a true historical Chinese figure dating roughly back to 300AD.

Hua Mulan, a woman who couldn't bear to see her aged father be called to battle sacrificed herself and went to fight for him.  Women of course weren't allowed in battle so she disguised herself as a man and took her father's place.  Legend has it that she fought for 12 years under his name.  A noble tale of sacrifice and honor.

I 100% enjoyed this movie.

Goemon

Goemon
Japan (2009)
Starring:  Yosuke Eguchi, Takao Ohsawa, Ryoko Hirosue

I'm just going to open this up with the fact most of Goemon was visually stunning.  Between the scene settings whose detail was amazing to match the period, the fight scenes, and some pretty good CGI this movie was one of the most impressive that I've seen in a while.  With that said there were some periods of the movie where I caught myself thinking, "just get on with it."  All in all though it was phenomenal.

The story itself is based off of a mythic legend from the 1500's in Japan.  Goemon was somewhere between a simple thief, a runaway ninja, or the son of a samurai family.  The story of Goemon is mirrors that of Robin Hood.  He was a man who stole from the rich and gave to the poor.  His fighting skills have grown to nearly super-legendary levels over the past few hundred years.  In truth little is really known about hit, but that doesn't change the fact that his legend lives on.  Today a round cauldron like bathtub is still named after him Japan.

Lang zai ji - The Warrior and the Wolf

Lang zai ji - The Warrior and the Wolf
China (2009)
Starring:  Maggie Q, Jo Odagiri, Chung Hua Tou

I was hoping for a Chinese version of Dances with Wolves... That didn't happen.

I will have to say the scenery was cool in this movie, but that's about where it ended.  The dialog lacked as much as the recently reviewed Valhalla Rising and it was not nearly so easy for me to glean a story from this film.  I fell asleep about half way through and can't find it in me to start it again from that point.  Someone will probably tell me that I missed one of the most monumental endings a film has ever had....and I'd probably be okay not watching it still.

Valhalla Rising

Valhalla Rising
Denmark (2009)
Starring:  Mads Mikkelsen, Maarten Stevenson, Alexander Morton
Awards:  International Fantasy Film Award - Special Mention ( 2010 Fantasporto); International Fantasy Film Special Jury Award (2010 Fantasporto)

The first thing that I noticed about this movie was the scenery which was consistently stunning all the way though.  The film itself was dark and not just in story, but in the actual brightness as well.  There is limited dialog and so much is inferred through the actions, travels, and cinematography.

I enjoy the concept of Viking, Nordic, and other Scandinavian tales so I decided to give the one a whirl.  I'm pretty sure I won't do that again - just wasn't my type of movie or storytelling.

There is a fair amount of blood and some fight scenes for those of you who are after that.  There is also a good underlying tale and moral to the story about trying to conquer lands that aren't yours.  I really enjoyed the part of humans acting on behalf of God or in his name.  The superstition that is projected from those in the native land of this movie from  a millenia ago was fairly amusing, for about 5 minutes.  If you find something you like in this movie I'd enjoy hearing about it.

20th Century Boys

20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End
20-seiki shônen: Honkaku kagaku bôken eiga


20th Century Boys 2:  The Last Hope
20-seiki shônen: Dai 2 shô - Saigo no kibô


20th Century Boys 3:  Redemption
20-seiki shônen: Saishû-shô - Bokura no hata


This is a series of three movies produced from 2008-2009 from Japan.  The movies is based on an award winning magna series called Yawara written by Naoki Urasawa.

When my week long venture of watching these three was over I was happy.  I can see why this might have been a huge success in Japan.  It was kind of gory and in some ways seriously creepy.  The story continuously develops and devolves as more and more information lost in the minds of the group who wrote a story during their childhood.  This is the story of one man, Friend, who climbed to the top of the religious/global political ladders and a group of childhood friends who must gather together years later to fight against the evil that Friend is unleashing on the world.  

Aside from being a super long story this set of movies was cool.  The special effects left a little to be desired and the style of filming was a little different, but all in all for another take on the end of the world it was worth the watch.  I don't think I'll watch it twice though.   

Delhi 6

Delhi-6
India (2009)
Starring:  Waheeda Rehman, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor

Roshan was born to a Muslim mother and a Hindi father.  He was raised in America and when his grandmother takes ill he is the only one that is willing to travel back to the city the family came from.  He willingly thrusts himself into a world where he placed between two major religions, a culture unlike any he has ever dreamed of, beliefs and customs that people are willing to die to defend, and a black monkey.  As he discovers the roots of his family, meets his parents old friends, and his family's oldest supporters Roshan's life completely changes the more he is immersed in his new world.

This movie depicts culture shock in a wonderful light.  It partially shows the edges of the boundaries that different religions, castes, races, and cultures create simply by being.  It's full of good humor, song, dance, and of course a Bollywood love story - but, it also has a bit of racial and religious clashing.  In the arena of Bollywood movies I found Delhi-6 a good one; finally a movie where I didn't feel like I wasted my time for the first time in a week!

Ninja's Creed

Ninja's Creed aka Royal Kill
USA (2009)
Starring:  Alexander Wraith, Gail Kim, and Lalaine

I'm not even going to go through the trouble of finding a trailer and embedding it.  While there was a reason to watch Alien vs Ninja, I can think of no reason to watch this movie.

Ninja's Creed started out with some amazing scenery and I thought to myself, "maybe all of the other critics are wrong and it's just an under appreciated movie."  Nope. . . I don't even know how this movie received funding.

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."

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.

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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.


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Heer Ranjha

Heer Ranjha:  A True Love Story
Punjab
2009
Starring:  Neeru Bajwa & Gurchet Chitrakar

Heer Ranjha is a true love story from Punjab.  The story is said to be over 300 years old.  Heer and Ranjha have a mausoleum shrine in Jhang that is visited by lovers to this day.  Every year to date in this town there is a festival thrown in their honor.

This movie follows the story of this couple dubbed the Romeo and Juliet of the east whose story of love, dedication, pain, and loss has spanned hundreds of years.  The legend of these lovers has only grown in recent years; their story epitomizes what every hopeless romantic dreams regardless of the centuries that have passed.

I do not remember the dance sequences in this movie because they were all overshadowed by the depth of the story.  The cinematography in this movie wasn't super spectacular.  I think the movie was made to carry a small anti-drug message as well; it is the first Bollywood movie that I have seen where they mentioned marijuana and opium then portrayed those who smoked it as slow and dimwitted.  All in all for the story alone this movie is a must see.  Again Bollywood has brought us an epic love story that will make your heart yearn and tears fall; this movie is well worth its time.

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