“I found that glass” Writer/Director Kar Wai Wong hit the scene in 1988 with gangster drama æșè§ćĄé [Wong gok ka moon] [As Tears Go By] in a way that many compare to Martin Scorsese‘s debut splash Mean Streets. It’s a gritty look at the streets of Hong Kong populated by men who are nothing without their fearsome reputations. “Guts” are what sustain them, keeping them alive within this cutthroat underground of tough guys bluffing in the hopes loud threats prove enough to stay at the top and crazy psychopaths calling…
Read MoreTag: Cantonese
TIFF14 REVIEW: SanlĂșnche fu [Tricycle Thief] [2014]
“Patience. Everything is fine.” With a title like SanlĂșnche fu [Tricycle Thief], Maxim Bessmertnyi‘s film could go two ways. Is it about someone who steals a tricycle or about a thief that rides one? There is also a third option: a hybrid of both. This is the direction the writer/director chooses with his Macau-set tale of a desperate man about to be evicted from his home. He lives in a city rich and vibrant with mainlanders coming in all the time to win big and leave with smiles on their…
Read MoreNYAFF14 REVIEW: éąšæŽ [Fung bou] [Firestorm] [2013]
“Do you have evidence?” For fifty minutesâminus one crazy hand-to-hand combat fight on top of a fallen metal gate suspended over two adjacent buildings’ fire escapes in midairâwriter/director Alan Yuen‘s éąšæŽ [Fung bou] [Firestorm] is a fast paced actioner that fearlessly goes to the darkest corners Hollywood never would. After it crosses that threshold of time, however, the film goes off the rails like an out of control locomotive crashing into everything along its path until it culminates in an epic street shootout with enough destruction to rival Man of…
Read MoreREVIEW: çĄéé [Infernal Affairs] vs. The Departed [2002 & 2006]
“I can’t finish the novel, I don’t know whether he’s good or bad” This is a question posed to Andy Lauâs character, by his live-in girlfriend, in the brilliant Cantonese film çĄéé [Infernal Affairs]. She is a writer plodding through the plot of her new novel, which eerily mirrors the double life lived by her significant other. A small detail like this helped create characters that live and breathe with a history behind them. Unfortunately, while adding almost an hour of length, Martin Scorseseâs new remake, The Departed, fails to…
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