Friday, July 3, 2009

Fatal Move



"Fatal Move"

The film opens with Lin Ho-Tung performing a mob hit inside a meat truck before attending his older brother's private party. Triad boss Lin Ho-Lung is celebrating his son's first birthday, but the party, however, is interrupted when Police Inspector Liu Chi-Chung arrives outside of the club with his colleagues, warning the gang of throwing any parties without the police's consent.

As Liu and his colleagues keep an eye out on several of the gang’s major crime figures, Lung’s right-hand man and assassin, Lok Tin-Hung, takes on and brutally massacres a street gang. Lung’s wife Soso and fellow gang member Law Ting-Fat (Cheung Siu-Fai) meet up with Lung to discuss the flow of imported goods being shipped to Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Tung spends dinner with loan sharks, with whom he owes a gambling debt. Lung eventually finds out about the debt, and confronts his brother.

Tung and Tin-Hung later meet up with Wu during a drugs shipment. The police later arrive at the scene. A gunfight ensues between both the police and triads, resulting in Wu’s arrest. As Wu remains uncooperative with the police, his wife Tracy (Pinky Cheung) talks with Soso, threatening to have Wu expose Lung's gang, if she does not receive $20 million. Tung and Tin-Hung eventually torture Tracy, who reveals that the threat was bogus and that her secret lover coerced her into creating a lie so she could flee with him once she had gotten the money. The gang eventually executes Tracy’s lover, and breaks into police headquarters to assassinate Wu. Various cops and triads are killed in the struggle as a gunfight ensues with the Triads trying to escape the police precinct.

Soso and Fat are revealed to be scheming against Lung and his gang. They kidnap and kill his financial backer, Uncle Yu (Hui Shiu-Hung), along with the hired kidnappers, in the hopes of financially disabling Lung.

Lung and Tung eventually start a war killing various Triad gangs they suspect were responsible with the murder. Lung later has a meeting with his rival, Flirt (Tam Ping-Man) who reveals he had nothing to do with Yu’s death, and quickly realizes that he was blackmailed by Fat and Soso. Lung goes after Soso and Fat, resulting in a violent shootout. After Fat is eliminated, Lung catches up to Soso whom he refuses to kill, after she expresses her unhappiness working under Lung's wing. She is later arrested by the police.

Lung hides in an abandoned warehouse, where Tin-Hung challenges him to a fight. Lung kills Tin-Hung by impaling him with a pipe. Tin-Hung forgives him, hoping that his boss will soon join him after he dies. Refusing to surrender to the police, Lung walks out of the warehouse armed with machine guns. He intimidates the police by firing the weapons, and is shot to death.

As Soso is serving prison time, a masked woman, presumably Tracy, attacks her by slitting her throat; Tung attempts to flee with his girlfriend. They spend a night out on the beach, when his girlfriend disappears. The ending is left ambiguous as the last shot of the film is a silencer being aimed at Tung.

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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Ip Man



"Ip Man "

The film is set in the 1930s in Foshan, a hub of Chinese martial arts, where various schools actively recruit disciples and compete against each other. Although the Wing Chun expert Ip Man is the most accomplished martial artist in Foshan, he is unassuming and keeps a low profile. As an independently wealthy man, he feels no need to accept any disciples and instead spends his days training, meeting with friends, and spending time with his family--although his wife is often resentful of the time he spends on training and discussing martial arts with friends and colleagues. Though not a professional martial artist, Ip is respected due to skills he displays in friendly, closed-door competitions with local masters. Ip Man further enhances his reputation in the beginning of the movie when defeats an aggressive, rude, but highly skilled Northern master, Jin Shanzhao, thus upholding the regional pride of fellow Southern Chinese stylists and others in Foshan.
The Japanese invasion in 1937 adversely affects the life of everyone in Foshan. Ip Man's house is overtaken by the Japanese and used as their headquarters in Foshan. Ip Man and his family lose their wealth and are forced to live in a decrepit house. Desperate to earn money, he accepts work as a coolie at a coal mine to support his family. The Japanese leader General Miura turns out to be an enthusiastic martial artist and sets up an arena for Chinese martial artists to compete with his Karate military trainees. Rice is offered as a reward if the contestant wins. When one of his friends goes missing, Ip Man investigates and discovers the matches. At first disturbed by the spectacle, he is further enraged when he sees a Chinese martial artist executed after he loses such a match. In response, he demands a match with 10 Japanese martial artists at once, and defeats them with ease. His skill arouses the interest of Miura, seeks to learn more about Ip Man and see him fight again.

Ip Man visits his old friend Zhou Qingquan, who owns and runs a cotton mill. Zhou tells him that a highway robbery gang led by Jin Shanzhao often harasses his workers and extorts money from them. Ip Man teaches the workers Wing Chun for self-defence. Meanwhile, Miura grows impatient when he sees that Ip Man has not returned to the arena. He sends his men to find Ip Man. Ip Man takes down the Japanese soldiers who harassed his family and goes into hiding. The robbers return to the cotton mill to demand money. The workers fight back using the self-defence techniques they learnt. Just then, Ip Man appears and defeats Jin Shanzhao, telling him never to return and harass the workers again.

The Japanese soldiers eventually find Ip Man at the cotton mill. Miura tells Ip Man that his life will be spared if he agrees to instruct the Japanese troops in martial arts. Ip Man refuses and challenges Miura to a match instead, which Miura gladly accepts--both because of his love for the martial arts and because he realizes that refusing the challenge will mean a loss of face for the Japanese and an enormous boost of morale for the occupied Chinese. The match between Ip Man and Miura is a public one in the town square. After an intense fight, Ip Man defeats Miura. Just then, Miura's deputy Sato opens fire at him. This sparks off a scuffle between the Chinese citizens watching the match and the Japanese soldiers. Ip Man is taken away amidst the chaos. It is later revealed later that Ip Man survives and manages to escape to Hong Kong with his family. Ip Man sets up a martial arts school later and teaches Wing Chun to several students, among whom include martial arts film superstar Bruce Lee.

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Monday, June 29, 2009

The Sniper



"The Sniper "

Fong (Richie Ren) is renowned as the top shooter in the police force. But behind the legend lies a skeleton in the closet: his former teammate and superb marksman Ching (Huang Xiaoming), who was jailed for accidentally killing a hostage, has just been released. With only vengeance in his mind, Ching determines to take on Ming and the police, believing they are the real culprits for his downfall.[3]

This movie starts with a scene of two rookie cops getting involved in criminal shootout. One of them is OJ, who manages to stay calm and kills a criminal. Ming sees potential in this youngster and decides to take him under his wing. Yet when OJ becomes fascinated by Ching and determines to top his shooting skills, he becomes another wild card on the loose.

When a high-security prisoner transfer is sabotaged by a mysterious sniper, and when a major convict escapes, Ming and his team are dispatched to profile the suspect. OJ (Edison Chen), the hot-headed rookie on the team, surprises everyone by accurately replicating the suspect’s impossible shots. He manages to do this because of advice from Ching.

Meanwhile, Ching continues his plan of revenge. Believing that Fong had withheld key evidence which could free him, Ching decides to lure him by ganging up with a triad leader and kills many cops, leading to the ultimate showdown amongst three expert snipers.

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Legend of Brown Sugar Chivalries



"The Legend of Brown Sugar Chivalries"

The story took place at West Side High School, during a time when the Jianghu was still the goods against the evils. For the two legendary martial art books which is hidden in 4 different schools, both of the groups uses all their power to get it. The ones who gets it will have the power to rule over Jianghu. People from all over the place whether it's male or female gathered together to search for it.

Amongst the students of West Side, Linghu Cong is the most powerful. A person who doesn't care about fame and wealth, who just wanted to be with his Lu Jian Ning. Meanwhile, he slowly developes a friendship with Ren Yin Ying, the seemingly-cold daughter of leaders of the Evil Clan. Later on Guo Jing has caught up to him in martial art and also develop feelings for Ren Ying Ying. Because of saving someone he lost all his internal power. In the end he learned "Gudu Swordfight" and "Yijingjing".

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Legendary Assassin



"Legendary Assassin "

Wu Jing stars as Bo, who after killing a crime boss, tries to leave the island where the crime took place. However, Bo’s escape is stalled by a typhoon which is set to hit the island. During his wait on the island, Bo strikes up a relationship with a policewoman after saving her, and is also being pursued by gangsters who work for the wife of a dead crime boss.

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Kung Fu Hustle



"Kung Fu Hustle" is Stephen Chow's follow-up to SHAOLIN SOCCER ups the over-the-top action quotient by about three zillion percent.

The story is set in 1930s Hong Kong, with Chow as a shaggy-haired, would-be bad guy named Sing, who gets caught up in the middle of a war between the top-hat-wearing Axe gang and the hard scrabble inhabitants of Pig Sty Alley. Chow--who wrote, produced, and directed--doesn't step in as the star here for quite a while, letting the comic duties fly in a myriad of directions: a landlady in curlers (Yuen Qiu) has a yell that can flatten buildings; people get kicked across courtyards and through walls; musician assassins whip ghost sabers from lyre strings, and a mental patient in pink flip-flops named "the Beast" (Leung Siu Lung) catches bullets in his fingers. Buoyed by SOCCER's box office success, HUSTLE uses bigger production values and a dizzying amount of CGI-enhanced martial arts (imagine Bruce Lee vs. Bugs Bunny in THE MATRIX). It's full of references to other films and filmmakers, revering spaghetti westerns and '70s Shaw brothers movies a la Tarantino's KILL BILL (fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping worked on both films). It also pays sly homage to the works of Wong Kar Wai, D.W. Griffith, Sam Raimi, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick, and Akira Kurosawa. Raymond Wong's inspired score matches each cinematic reference with the appropriate cue as the camera circles and swoops around the sprawling sets. This is a real treat, more than a great action film or comedy, it's a great film period, and one that set box office records in the East.


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Sunday, June 21, 2009

She's On Duty



"She's On Duty "

Chun Jae-in, an orphan-turned-police detective, is assigned a job to go undercover in a high school to befriend Seung-hee, the daughter of notorious gangster Cha Young-jae, and protect her from any of her father's enemies who may want to use her as bait to get Cha Young-jae to do what they want, as well as get information about her father's work from her. At first, Jae-in is very reluctant to accept the job; however, her uncle, also a detective, pushes her at the last minute to take it. Jae-in is considered a loser when she first steps into her class, and the gang girls confront her afterward and challenge her to a fight at the backyard of the school. Jae-in, being a policewoman, easily beats them up. This earns her some sort of respect, although what Jae-in really wants is Seung-hee's friendship. She eventually gets this with the help of Kang No-young, a handsome classmate and next-door neighbor who she starts to like; however, Jae-in thinks her crush is wrong because of their age difference.

Meanwhile, a new teacher arrives at their school. Jae-in later is informed that he is also an undercover agent, working on her side. She becomes slightly suspicious of him and vaguely recognizes his face.

One day after school, Jae-in and other policemen spot Cha Young-jae outside an airport; they rush to catch him, but his rivals are also on the chase. They meet up in the parking lot, where Cha Young-jae is trapped. Suddenly a mysterious motorcycle rider speeds into the middle of the group and his motorcycle produces white smoke, therefore allowing Cha Young-jae to get away. Jae-in and other police go after the motorcycle driver, since Cha Young-jae has already gotten away. The undercover teacher also happens to be at the event and shoots at the motorcycle driver, but the driver gets away. Jae-in rushes after him, but the undercover teacher puts a gun to her head. She assumes it is not serious and runs after the driver, but all she finds is a watch strangely identical to that of No-young's. When she gets home, she knocks at No-young's door and confronts him about his watch. No-young shrugs it off and is playful; however, once he gets inside his apartment, he takes off his shirt, revealing a bullet wound to the camera. Jae-in does not know of this, but she suspects that No-young is also undercover as a spy.

Jae-in increasingly becomes more suspicious of No-young, although she is still head-over-heels about him. One day she challenges him to a taekwondo match during a physical education class at school. During the match, they vocally argue, although none of their classmates or the teacher seems to notice; by the end of the match, they both know of each other's real position as undercover agents. Jae-in thereafter confesses to Seung-hee that she is not really a schoolgirl, which in turn gets Seung-hee very upset.

Jae-in then receives news: her beloved uncle has been stabbed by an unknown person. She sobs, overcome with grief at the loss of her only family. The camera then shows her with Seung-hee in a car with a fellow policeman. The policeman betrays Jae-in and Seung-hee and leads them to the site where Cha Young-jae has been captured and is meeting with a rival gang leader. No-young arrives, and Jae-in teams up with him to fight off everyone. Jae-in goes to capture the rival gang leader; however, as she is handcuffing him, a gun is put to her head. She turns to see the undercover teacher, who was supposed to be on her side. He reveals to her that he was the one who stabbed her uncle, and she becomes overcome with rage. Meanwhile, No-young is wounded and running out of energy; as an undercover spy, he cannot reveal himself, for he would get caught. He slips away quietly as Jae-in punches the undercover teacher again and again. A police officer finally handcuffs the undercover teacher and leads him away. Cha Young-jae is sent off to an emergency room in an ambulance with Seung-hee, and Jae-in receives news that her uncle will get better.

The movie then cuts to a scene where Jae-in is undercover once again. It has been some time since the Cha Young-jae case, although the movie does not specifically say how long. This time, Jae-in is undercover as a singing nun. She bolts after a criminal down alleys and streets; finally, when she catches up with the criminal, she realizes he has already been knocked out by someone. She looks around and discovers No-young. She starts to punch him, but he blocks it. They reconcile and kiss.

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