YNOT at the Movies

The film is definitely great looking. It always seems telling its audience that it is about to tell a big story. So I waited and waited, but it never delivers.

A little bit more historical contents might help me to understand the film better. Instead, I am completely lost what they were doing in a room exchanging notes after those Italians arrived. Early version of mail order brides? Perhaps the filmmaker is more interesting in showing the glorious images than telling a story.

I wasn't sure what the main point the filmmaker is trying to make. Is the film trying to tell us how hard it was for these Italian peasants to come to the US at the beginning of the century? Or how messed up the US immigration policy has been since 100 years ago? And just who is that woman who speaks English on the ship and why is the character in the film?

I really wish the film could have shown us more. The film has so much potential and so much untold stories, but it finishes abruptly.

At the very beginning of "Fracture" (USA 2007, 112 min.), a structural engineer Ted, played by Anthony Hopkins, shoots his wife who is carrying an affair. Like shown in the trailer, he frankly tells the cop: "I shot my wife." That's how high the bar is set for this movie, because we all know Ted is not that stupid to incriminate himself. So, now what? How is his master mind going to play toy with the legal system to get away with the crime? How does he try to outsmart the assistant DA Willy (played by Ryan Gosling)?

This is a gripping court room drama that happens mostly outside of a court room. It's a wit battle from the beginning to the end. It's a very satisfying film because it keeps providing us new twists while making us intrigued.

Both Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling give outstanding performance. Anthony Hopkins shows us Dr. Lecter's creepiness from his soft voice and subtle winks. It seems Hopkins' character gets more pleasure from showing the DA that he can get away from anything with his brain. Ryan Gosling presents us again how brilliant he can be after his Oscar nominated performance in "Half Nelson."

This is a very entertaining film that it just gets better and better during the plot development. It's a solid piece of intelligent work. However, compared to the rest of the film, the ending seems a little weak. The DA's life seems also too glamorous. The movie makes me want to be a DA myself, to play a mind game with Dr. Lecter alike.

My rating: 9 out of 10.

Chinese director Feng Xiao-gang (冯小刚) is perhaps best known for his series of blockbuster comedies such as "Be There or Be Square" ("不见不散") or "A World Without Thieves" ("天下无贼"). His films are generally funny, original, entertaining, and almost surely have the irresistible soft-spoken Ge You (葛优) as a lead.

Well, Feng Xiao-gang seems tired of making us laugh, so he decides to make a tragedy instead of a comedy. Not just any tragedy, but an epic "Hamelet," well, sort of.

His latest film "The Banquet" ("夜宴", China 2006, 131 min.) is an lavish feast to the eyes and ears, but not to the brain. Its movie set is claimed to be the largest ever built in China, and the music is by renowned Chinese contemporary composer Tan Dun (谭盾). Of course, Ge You (葛优) is the lead actor in this film, accompanied by the always gorgeous looking Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) and our San Francisco native Daniel Wu (吴彦祖).

Daniel Wu plays the Prince Wuluan ("Hamlet), who is four years older than the Empress Wan, played by Zhang Ziyi (actually he is five years older in real life, but who is counting?), and they like each other. However, Wuluan's father, the Emperor, decided to marry Empress Wan. The heart broken Wuluan went far away and found comforts in dance and music, oh martial arts too. A few years later, Wuluan's uncle Li, played by Ge You, murdered the Emperor and made himself the Emperor, and then he took Empress Wan as his wife as well.

Now, what is Wuluan gonna do after both his father and his uncle took his beloved woman away from him and after his father is murdered by his uncle?

It really doesn't matter. No matter what he does, it's a messed up family already. How in the world the whole royal family want to marry the same woman, while they pretty much have the power to have any woman they want? I can't help but comparing this story with another superduperly messed up royal family in "Curse of the Golden Flower" ("满城尽带黄金甲").

One thing in common in both films is that they all use the story to show off the extraordinary looking cinematography. But the characters and the plots are flawed, royally.

However, I still think this film is worth seeing, almost for the same reason as I feel about "Curse of the Golden Flower."

I am looking forward to Feng Xiao-gang's next comedy, so I can laugh again, with its characters, but not at them.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

I went to a pre-screening of a Dutch film "Black Book" ("Zwartboek," Netherlands 2006, 145 min.) at the the Embarcadero Center Cinema. The film opens on Friday.

Based on true events, "Black Book" tells a young Jewish Dutch singer's incredible surviving story during the last moments of World War II. Rachel, fantastically played by Carice van Houten, was hiding from the Nazi in Holland. After a failed attempt to escape into Allied territory, she joined the resistance movements. Under a new name Ellis she became a German officer Müntze's girlfriend. How far would she go to survive or to fight? How would she deal with the moral dilemma sleeping with enemy?

Although the movie is almost two hours and half long, it is packed with thrills from one crisis to another. Every moment could be a turning point for life and death. This movie reminds me another surviving story in "Europa Europa." Watching both films, I can't help to ask the same question as the characters in the films are asking: "when will this end?"

Not the end of the film, but the end of their ordeals. And I am glad it's over.

My rating: 8 out of 10.

Next week, I have five pre-screenings. I don't know if that's enough.

Tonight, I went to a pre-screening of "Perfect Stranger" at the San Francisco Centre. The movie opens on Friday, April 13, and it sucks.

The movie opens with the incredibly gorgeous Halle Berry walks into a senator's office to "blackmail" the senator about his love fair with a male intern. I use the word blackmail because there is no other word to describe the purpose she goes to his office posing as somebody else. If I were the reporter, I would run the story on the front page, rather than secretly record the senator's panic plea: "I will do anything for you" after she told him story she will write.

But nevertheless, it's a great opening, so I was hoping it develops this story to uncover the senator's juicy secret. We all love to see hypocritical politicians going down.

Nope. That's about it. The movie starts to explore other's secrets. Halle Berry's (character's) friend is killed. She goes on a mission to investigate the killer, with the help with her computer hacker friend. The target? An ad executive Harrison Hill, played by Bruce Willis, who certainly has a taste for pretty women. How? By posing as a temp in his office, reminds us the office in "The Devil Wears Prada."

That's pretty much I can talk about the plot without giving any spoiler. And that's just the beginning of a whole a lot mess.

The film ostentatiously tries to be complex, but lacks the intelligence. It keeps adding more twists and secrets to the plot, but really has no clear idea what to do with them. The film constantly teases the audience by putting the characters in deep troubled situations, and then what? It turns out the film doesn't know either. So it always finds an easy and inconvincible way to come out of those situations. The film becomes laughable and completely loses its credibility.

Some obvious question I can't even ask because that will require revealing some of the "secrets" which the movie is banked on. Actually, I won't even bother to ask, because the film wouldn't even exist if it has asked the question at the first place.

My rating: 4 out of 10.

Set in a small town in Taiwan, "The Soul of Bread" ("爱的面包魂" or "Breadwinners and Sugar Plum") tells a story about how a young bread maker's life, especially his love life, is turned upside down after a young Chinese British student moved in.

The father is an amateur band member and radio jock who wants to spend a fortunate to buy a guitar so he won't lose face to his fellow band member. Cake is a savvy bread maker in love with the daughter Xiao Ping, his childhood friend. Brad is a Chinese British culinary foreign student temporarily living with the family.

Cake feels threatened by Brad's arrival, not only for his bread making business, but for his love to Xiao Ping. The battle between Cake and Brad for Xiao Ping's love continues in the bakery through bread making, and sometimes, becomes physical.

This cute comedy creates a few very original and lively characters. The film is quite funny, for example, the father's daily broadcast to the local residents using his own loud speakers is hilarious.

Although the acting is not top notch, most of the actors did a decent job to bring this script to live.

After all, it's definitely true that you have to cook with love if you want your bread to taste good. It also true to film making.

My rating: 8 out of 10.

"Road in the Air" ("單車上路", also called "脚踏车的祝福" and "Bicycle Odyssey") is claimed to be the first road film from Taiwan. But instead of traveling in cars, they are on bicycles, on an incredible life changing journey.

Lin Zhengyi is a cop who is consumed by the guilt because he didn't protect his partner during a police operation. A-Guo is a troubled young man who is on the run after he accidentally set a shop on fire. After they become friends, their life changing events create a bond between these two strangers and they start to drift together on bikes on the breathtaking Su-hua Highway in Taiwan's Taroko National Park.

That's where they met another two female characters of the film: a girl who is searching for her mom and Canadian student traveling around the world. They become friends and they share their innocence, confusion, past, and their dreams. Even they make mistakes sometimes in their lives, they are not bad people. Eventually they continue on their own journey to find redemption, closure, destination, and hope.

This is a coming of age story about four young strangers cross their paths looking for answers, and about their lives and avoiding the troubles they get involved. It's a very sweet film with very charming characters. I credit that to a great script and the terrific acting. What I like a lot about this film is that the dialogue in the film. They are so natural and exactly what these characters would say at those given moments.

I am very happy to have the pleasure to travel with these characters and get to know them. It's a beautiful trip, and I am not just talking about the scenery.

My rating: 9 out of 10.

Japanese film "It's Only Talk" ("やわらかい生活") is a quiet observant film. Watching this film brings me back fond memories of attending Asian Film Festivals. It reminds me the experiences when I watched films like "Grain In Ear" ("芒种") or "Café Lumière" ("珈琲时光"). Although they are completely different movies, but I can only find films like these in theatres during an Asian Film Festival.

In "It's Only Talk" ("やわらかい生活"), 30 something Yuko is taking a break living on her savings, because she is depressed. She wonders around and takes pictures and then posts them on her blog. She even meets strangers through her blog (sounds familiar?). She tells everybody in a matter of fact manner how her family and friends died tragically so people will feel sad about it. When her depression goes deeper, her cousin Shoichi came to be her company. Shoichi has very long legs, not it's relevant in any way, but it's just a physical profile I can not ignore. He cooks and cleans for her. When she asks why he doesn't cook and clean at his own home, he replies that when he goes back home, he would be depressed. They are unique characters that I don't see often in a film.

The film might sound really sad, but it's not. The film allows us to get inside these characters and to study their complex emotions.

I wish the subtitles didn't disappear so fast. I was constantly struggling to read what they say and looking up at the screen. Perhaps I missed a few lines here and there, so I didn't get part of the films. Or maybe they are not meant to be understood, only to be observed. One thing is certainly, this is not a film for everyone.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

I was really looking forward to seeing "Year of the Fish," only I am very disappointed.

This film is a rotoscoped animation. But that is not really something new: I have seen "Waking Life" many years ago. Therefore, I want to see some contents in the story and characters.

But besides the lovely animation, the script is very weak and the movie goes no where.

Seventeen years old Ye Xing freshly arrived Chinatown in New York City from China hoping to make some money to send back home. Only she finds out that she needs to pay back the human trafficker by working in a massage parlor as a sex worker. She got a fish on the street from a mysterious lady and I don't even remember how that fish is supposed to help her situation. Eventually she meets a musician (played by Ken Leung) and he will be her savor and help her to complete this Cinderella fairy tale.

Yes, the plot sounds ridiculous, it is actually absurd. I don't believe a thing in the film. Ye Xing seems can speak better English than most of the people in Chinatown, never mind she just arrived from China. In Chinatown, even I speak English to shop keepers, most likely they will speak back to me in Cantonese (which I don't understand). But in the film, all the girls in the massage parlor, including Ye Xing, always communicate in pretty darn good English. Maybe I am wrong on this observation, because I have never been to a massage parlor.

I don't know what the point this film is trying to make. If the film just wants to tell a story or to show off the impressive animation technique, it would have been better off if it left the massage parlor and Chinatown out of the film altogether.

I don't know what to do with the fish though. Steam it?

My rating: 5 out of 10 for the animation and Ken Leung.

Let me say this upfront, "A Dirty Carnival" ("비열한 거리") is not a Korean version of "Goodfellas." Why? For one thing, the gangsters in "A Dirty Carnival" are much cuter. The main gangsters are so preppy looking, which are the images the gang's "big boss" wants to create: some gangsters don't look like gangsters. And don't forget this is a Korean drama, so it is gonna have some romance added to the main characters, with total sincerity.

In "A Dirty Carnival," Byung-du is a 29 year old gangster who is not quite appreciated by his boss for his "hard work." In order to support his family, he has to become more creative in his gangster career and herd his followers. However, a high school filmmaker friend and a girl with whom Byung-du falls in love change his life forever.

The plot is quite interesting and engaging with a few twists, although quite predictable. There is a lot of violence in this film, but also a lot fun.

I really like the fact that crime is not the center of the film. Crime is used to support these character's relationships and develop their emotions. We see a very complex Byung-du who can be very tender and romantic, yet determined and brutal at the same time.

However, I don't really know how they can fight like a superman who will either never fall or recover remarkably fast. The chaotic fighting is just for show I guess, could have been cut off some more. And there is no cop ever in the film regardless how messy a fight becomes. Surely this is not a Hong Kong film. But nevertheless, this is a pretty darn good gangster films.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

During World War II, Lyle Nomura, wonderfully played by Aaron Yoo who is actually Korean, is a Japanese American boy who plays Jazz and is about to go to college on a baseball scholarship. However, his life has a dramatic turn when his family is forced to move into a Japanese internment camps. His family and other Japanese Americans begin to experience one of the ugliest chapter in American history: if one is Japanese descent, he or she must be the enemy and is tripped away all the rights as an American citizen, including freedom and dignity.

Although living behind a fence, Lyle develops a romantic relationship with the daughter of a camp guard and starts a baseball team to compete with the "White Americans" team living on the other side of the fence. Their story reflects the conflicts and racial attentions in American society during the World War II.

Sure, this is a melodrama, but it's a profoundly moving and well made melodrama. These Japanese American's stories make me think what the Americans were fighting for even during the World War II. For freedom? It's the US government who put its own citizens into concentration camps just like the Nazis did to the Jews. These Japanese Americans are put into these camps without knowing how long they will stay there. Sounds familiar? Are we repeating history by locking up people indefinitely in Cuba? Maybe not a repeat, since we are adding torture this time.

This is a movie about injustice, pride, dignity, sacrifice, and American history. While the film is very clear to make a statement to the historical events, it's also very entertaining and a beautifully shot baseball movie.

And because of this film, now I know what "442ND Go for Broke" means.

Finally I need to say a few words about the makeup in the film. So much of it. Every character seems wearing lipsticks. Almost all of them look so fair skinned like models appearing in a skin product commercial. But they are supposed to live in a concentration camp where they hardly have enough to eat and suffer from diseases and other harsh conditions. It must be the skin product. I want some of that!

My rating: 8 out of 10.

Liam Liu, terrifically played by Ken Leung, is a Chinese American actor from LA. Although he is not that lucky to be successful in the white washed Hollywood world, he is darn lucky with girls.

First, on a bus, he was picked up by a 16 years old blond Adelaide, and believe it or not, she falls in love with him. Then everywhere he goes, he always can get involved with another girl without even trying. When he goes to Shanghai to handle his inherited estate, he begins to rediscover his identity and his relationships while getting lost in translation -- he doesn't even speak Chinese.

Ken's character is a smooth talker with girls and never runs out of things to say. I really enjoy the fast paced quirky dialogues in the film, naturally delivered by Ken Leung. They are funny, witty, entertaining, sometimes even offensive: "This is Jewish heaven" because you don't need to tip in Shanghai.

I don't really buy that a teenager girl would hit on him on a bus and becomes obsessed about him. But, I don't care. The film works for me because it cheerfully presents us Ken's character, and it doesn't shy away from showing his emotions, not in a cheesy way. I normally would shrug off the so called "romantic comedy" genre, but this movie made me laugh with Ken's romantic experiences and by the end of the film, I like this guy. I think I would give him my email if I meet him on the bus, not sure if he will write me back though since he is so busy with girls.

I never figure out why every time he sleeps with a girl, he cries. No, I don’t think they are tears from joy or happiness for getting laid. It's kinda funny but weird to me.

Of course, sometimes the acting in the film is way over the top, and plot is not really believable. But that's what I would expect from a "romantic comedy," and I can certainly overlook those flaws when I can hang out with Ken Leung on the big screen.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

However, filmmaker Linda Hattendorf did something remarkable. She befriended with a street artist Jimmy Mirikitani, in her neighborhood in New York City, and made a documentary "The Cats of Mirikitani." During the process, she made a difference in Mr. Mirikitani's life. Now, through this documentary, Mr. Mirikitani's story is touching our lives, alright, I speak for myself, my life.

Born in Sacramento and grew up in Hiroshima, Jimmy Mirikitani was put in internment camps during World War II by the US government, and was stripped away his US citizenship simply because he is a Japanese descent. Many years later, in his 80s, he was homeless living on the streets of New York City. He self-claims to be the "Grand Master Artist," surviving by selling his art work, including paintings of cats.

He didn't want to seek help from the government such as the social security because he lost the faith in the US government for what has done to him and the civilians in Hiroshima during World War II.

After 9/11, with the help from Linda Hattendorf, Jimmy Mirikitani is off the streets and started a new life, and continues on his mission of "making art not war."

Despite his ordeal during World War II and his hardship living on the streets, he seems more cheerful than an average American driving on a freeway. The US government literally destroyed his life, but what we see is how cheerful he is most of the time and how he keeps up his hope about the future.

Mr. Mirikitani's charismatic charm is irresistible, both in the film and in person. After the screening of this film, during the Q&A section, Mr. Mirikitani, at the age of 86, came down the isle and volunteered to sing a song to the audience in Japanese. His voice is solid and projects how strong he is, physically and emotionally after all these years.

To me, the documentary is profoundly moving not only because it tells a fascinating story, but also because through Jimmy Mirikitani's story and his art works, I learned history, peace, and humanity.

My rating: 9 out of 10.

P.S. A shorter version of this documentary will be shown on "Independent Lens" on PBS on May 10, 2007.

P.P.S. After the screening of "The Cats of Mirikitani," I feel compelled to take a picture with this inspirational 86-years-old "grand master artist." I normally don't do the "V" sign, but I made an exception this time to follow his trademark.