Hong He - Red River

2009 by Zhang Jiarui - Chinese movie

I think I was very lucky to watch this movie. It didnt have much of a media backing and one must be lucky to go by this movie and still to decide to watch it. I feel lucky that I trusted the opinion of a Chinese blog and decided to look for this movie.

The war with America also left lots of mine fields in Vietnam. A Tao, a young Vietnamese girl living by the Chinese border is shocked and become mentally challenged by witnessing her father becoming prey to land mine. Like many other Vietnamese girls, she too has to cross out to China and starts working in a massage parlour run by her dead father's sister, as a cleaner. A Shao, a road side karoake operator finds out that, though retarded A Tao sings beautifully and hence hires her. A Tao is attracted to A Shao. A local mafia goon had liked the innocence of A Tao and is after her too.

I would call this as one of the best love tragedies I have ever seen. The movie does not have any ingredients of a normal entertainer, in fact it progress more like an art house movie. And the first few minutes are quite slow. However, the mine blast comes in as a terrible shock and soon we meet the grown up A Tao, the mentally challenged young lady. Here after, the movie is so engaging and brilliant. The large, innocent and expressive eyes of A Tao will attract us and will make us feel for her. We will laugh, sing and cry with her. What a brilliant character.

As the love plot is formed and as the villain arrives, A Tao alone is required to move us on to the edge of our seat. The second half of the movie is really like a thriller and we wish for this strange couple from the bottom of our hearts. I really felt worried for them. And the end, which takes us to a strange feeling is tragic. I mean, there is some hope somewhere, but it is still very sad. I had a similar tragic feeling many years back, watching a Malayalam movie Bhootha Kannady. I would say, the ending of Hong He was similar. You know that it is a big tragedy, but there is a probable may be....

Absolutely, a brilliant performance by Jingchu Zang as A Tao. I have seen her in some other movies too. But this must be her best, for me at least. For me, this is one of the best performances from a female actor, ever. Everybody were good, but A Tao's eyes are haunting me.

It is such a pity that any movie, even with a slight hint at problems caused by America, is somehow pushed away from the main stream even in the internet world. Even other Chinese movies, which are not half as good as Hong He gets better reviews from West. I, hence, find it difficult to fathom the state of this movie.

A must watch movie, for sure. And anybody has any doubts on Chinese movies, please watch this.

The Sorcerer and the White Snake

2011 by Ching Siu-Tung Ching - Mandarin movie from China.

I am not a fan of these kind of ultra fantasy movies but one wrong review pushed me to get this dvd. And it turned out to be exactly that kind of a movie that I didnt want to watch.

A movie on the Chinese myth of a snake woman who falls in love with a human. There is a sorcerer who is trying to capture demons and is after the snake woman.

When there is too much of CG, than important cinematic aspects, it is quite difficult to watch a movie. I doubt, if this movie was made trying to reach the levels attained by Avatar. May be.

Whatever, I didnt like it, even if there are some amazing CG work, not consistent though. However, an element of love is quite good. 

Xin Shao lin Si - Shaolin

2011 by Benny Chan

I am becoming more and more like a fan of East Asian movies. Some of the Chinese, Korean and Japanese movies I saw in the recent past were more than a revelation. They can match and compete with the best from around the world. Watching Shaolin, I desperately wished for an Indian release for movies from China, Korea and Japan.

There are many feuding war lords in China. One such war lord faces a surprise defeat, he takes refuge in Budhism and its non violence. 

In many ways, this block buster from China is preaching non violence through violence.

It is an excellent action film actually and many of the action sequences can match or beat many Hollywood flicks. But why this movie is special is due to the underlying message, which is propagated through its main character. General Hou turns a monk at Shaolin and he still has to face some duels and hence there is lots of action even after the major character turns Budhist. But it is still compelling as a movie on non violence. The movie is an epic drama with brilliant action sequences. But couple of the scenes were stunning and stood out really. I am not saying these were the only brilliant scenes. But they were special.

- there is a shot which looked like many wooden statues of men practising kungfu - standing/balancing on one leg, with the other raised towards the shoulders, on wooden poles. I thought oh thats an amazing peice of art. And then the camera goes into details and I was shocked. That isnt any statue, but real men, the characters we know as Kungu practising monks from Shaolin, who are balancing themselves on the wooden poles. I will give a 10/10 for that single initial shot. Moments when you really feel like falling at the legs of a Photographer, to make such sur-realistic imagery in this modern day of digital photography, when photography is no more an art, is truly brilliant.

- The villain has a body guard who is like an absolute warrior. Nobody seem to match him in any duel. In a final fight with a Shaolin monk, monk goes in for a very special sacrifice (he is already fatally injured) in a momentary brilliant action, which was truly brilliant.

A very important point in this action drama is that the villain lives, not even hurt actually. But his defeat is ensured by his understanding of the devastating results of his decision making. That final scene was really excellent.

And finally I saw Jackie Chan once again in a completely different role from what we expect of him. He is a cook who does not know any Kung fu and I must say, Jackie Chan is a real good actor.

This is a really good action drama, with an excellent message. It does have some faults here and there, but I wont mind ignoring them at all. 

Tangshan Dadizhen - Aftershock

2010 by Xiaogang Feng - Mandarin , from China

Watching a nicely captured emotional moment, occassionally I can feel tears in my eyes. But it is rarely that the tears flow down. Watching this epic disastrous family saga, I was not feeling tears, but I could feel tears flowing down like rivers. I dont remember the last time when this occured to me. A hand kerchief is a must watching this movie, I bet even the ultra hard hearted would cry. It is actually Hollywood who makes the most movies on disasters. In fact it is their best selling plot. They are the masters in inducing fear and making money of it. But I can hardly pick a Hollywood disaster movie with a real heart. Of course, there was a Titanic. But after watching T D, I could not think about a single movie which can match this one. A family saga out of a disaster.

The 1976 Tangshan earthquake had killed more than 2,40,000 people. A young mother lost her husband and soon has to chose between her twins, as only one could be saved from the rubbles and finally chose for her son and soon moves to the refugee camp. The girl, who could hear very well the decision of her mother, however is alive and is adopted by a military couple who were in the rescue team. The movie is about the next 32 years, when the girl and the boy grows up, seperately. The girl with a real hatred for the mother who chose to not have her, and the boy with lots of love for the mother who though alive, mourns her husband and girl every day.

'God - You Bastard' - screams out the mother towards the skies, in a brilliant shot, when she finds her husband and daughter dead. If I have to chose the best heart felt moment from all the movies, I might chose this one. That was such a stupendous moment and is like a pre cursor of an epic movie. The first 20 minutes is all about the 1976 earth quake and this has been so brilliantly captured, as good or even better than any Hollywood movie. But therein, starts the real movie and it is all about a family.

Of course, even in that first 20 minutes, there are so many moments which are so brilliant, emotionally. But what follows is a like such a beautiful family story. A mother who has lost everything except for a young boy who lost his hand. A little girl, who is adopted by a loving couple from the People's Liberation Army, who finds it impossible to forget the words of her mother - save my son - and hence decides to not go back to Tangshan any more, inspite of the insistence of her foster father. The son, who grows up with the mother and the foster parents of the girl are there too, but its the two female characters, the mother and the girl who makes this movie a real family saga. And the love for the family is so much an important factor in this movie, from all the characters except the girl who have this hatred for her mother. The son's love for his mother trying to get her the best of comforts at the old age, the love of foster parents to the girl and vice versa and especially of the mother who does not want to move out of Tangshan, in the belief of her husband and daughter's soul finding it difficult to find her is so beautiful. The latter especially is so touching.

As the movie progress, all would definitely wish for a reunion of the family and the movie does exactly the same. But the journey towards it goes on like a real family epic. And that final reunion is so moving and emotional that I am sure, I will cry, even if I watch it again. I am sure I am going to watch this movie again.

The whole 32 years is told in a fast pace and it definitely looks like the director asked for some extra work from the editor. I sincerely felt, some scenes could have been more elaborate. How many movies can give us this feeling actually. In TD, there are more than a couple of scenes where we wish we could have had little bit more. The meeting of the brother and sister after 32 years, for one example. I specifically liked the idea that the reunion of the brother and sister happened at another earth quake site, in 2008.

Just because of the above, I am sure, there might be many who would argue this movie could have been much better as an epic movie. I too think, this movie could have been lengthier, but I am extremely satisfied with what I saw. The beauty and the epic nature of the story is so brilliant and beautiful that it can help us forgo any negatives. For me, there are hardly any negatives. Brilliant script and director, brilliant in the technical aspects including the CG which is pure world class and top brilliant performances by all in the cast except the white guy who came as the husband of the girl. It is ok, because he hardly has two scenes.

Just another moment, when I sincerely wish India starts releasing movies from across the world. Right now we only go for Hollywood. I know so many people who boast about watching international movies, but actually hasnt seen anything out of Hollywood. And for many Chinese movies means the Jackie Chan movies of the 80's. I am confident now that China has made a big leap into the modern world of movies and are right now making world class movies, may it be entertainers or artistic ones. For all movie lovers of India, I hope India will soon globalize as far as Cinema is concerned and start releasing movies from across the world. It is such a pity our people dont get to see such epics as Tangshan Dadizhen. 

Rang Zi Dan Fei - Let the bullet's fly

2010 by Jiang Wen - Chinese movie

This movie came highly recommended. I was told it has broke all records for a Chinese domestic production and is still running to packed crowds. I naturally expected a full fledged entertainer. Of course, it is an entertainer packed with comedy and action, a different kind of heist movie, but this is one movie which has lots of brilliance and class all over, yet churning out an entertainer.

1920's China. Pocky Zhang, an infamous bandit arrives into Goosetown, impersoned as the new Governor, just to make as much money out of the town, which is controlled by a local chieftain Master Huang. Pocky Zhang and Master Huang then go through a clever and brilliant battle of ideas and actions to take control. 

Simply put, it look like a Chinese version of Robin Hood for me. Pocky Zhang steals money, but just distributes them to the poor and his only aim is to free the local people from the tyranny of Huang. But how this is brought about is quite brilliant. We go through an interesting and brilliant war of master plans by the two groups of bandits, packed with action occassionally. Well, humour is like an under ground track through out, is what makes this bandit war even more excellent. All together, especially because of the intelligence factor, Pocky Zhang turns out even better than Robin Hood.

There are many scenes where Pocky Zhang and Huang come face to face and the scenes go on like a teasing drama. These are wonderful duels actually and these scenes, including the one in the climax, I would say, is the hall mark of this movie. I cannot remember another movie which has executed this kind of brilliance bringing in two enemies, who seems to respect the other for their bad talents, face to face offering us brilliant dramatic excellence. There is a duplicate for Huang, who is used brilliantly by the script, which adds to the entertainment.

The story is definitely brilliant, but the script and the director has put together a movie which is full of fantasy, surrealism and voluptuous imagination for visual and mental pleasure. There were moments which got me absolutely stunned, wondering about the imaginative talents of the script and director. Both this is done by the same guy, Jiang Wen, who also plays Pocky Zhang wonderfully. Two other characters who stands out are Huang, played by Chow Yun-fat, and Counselor Tang played by Xiaogang Feng. Owing to the original and duplicate, one a mobster and the other a comic actor, of course it is Chow Yun fat who seem to have done a life time performance here. From all the movies I have seen, I definitely think this is his best performance. I have never seen him do this kind of light hearted role.

I would definitely consider this movie as a classic entertainer, albeit the movie being a bit too long. This we realise only when the show is over though. Because scenes are so nice that we forget the fact that these detailed scenes are dragging out the length of the movie. But still, there are many moments in the movie, including some in the climax, which would want us to think about this movie not just as an entertainer, but something higher.

I would salute this director for two reasons. Not just for making an amazing cinematic idea into script, but also for acting a main role at the same time. That definitely is a hard job to do, considering that this is no ordinary story and setting.

Watching this movie I was sure that I was not able to understand completely many things, to the fullest. I wonder if anybody who is not used to Chinese culture will understand this movie completely. I wish I could, it would have been more enjoyable, for sure.

I really wish, every body see this movie well before it is remade by Hollywood. Probably most of the developing world, barring the film festival audience, would get to see only the hollywood version of this movie and all the credits would go to the west. Most will not even know the original was a Chinese production, just like it happened with Internal Affairs (The Departed). 

Zuotian - QUITTING

2001 by Zhang Yang

I am not sure if I have ever seen something like this. We do get to see documentaries where real life characters enact their own life. But a whole movie?, that too enacting the whole trauma a family experienced? I do not know about any others.

Jia Hongsheng, graduated from Drama school in 89 and slowly built his acting career. He had couple of good films and during the rehearsal for a movie, he took into the practise of Marijuana and gets addicted. He quits acting and ends up in the apartment of his young sister, slowly becoming a complete introvert having hallucinations, living on his sister. His father, a peasant takes premature retirement and comes to the city with his wife to take care of their son. They really go through a terrific struggle before they will have their son back as normal. 

By 97 Jia is free of drugs and Mr. Yang made this movie using the same actor, his parents, sister and even the hospital staff. In fact it was during the rehearsal for Yang's movie that Jia first took drugs. What a great way to pay back for that small sin. Let me admit, I have seen so many movies which were all termed as movies for the family or family movie or about a family. But 200%, this is what a real family movie is.

Quitting is not shot in a typical movie format. Its beginning is quite different and we see that we are going to be taken through the lives of some people, as we are introduced to them. It really starts off as a movie with the arrival of his parents in Beijing. They know that their son is a drug addict and are shocked to see how he treats his own parents. But they have this brilliant will and are dedicated to suffer to any extent to get their son back to normality. So many scenes, honestly I must say, are difficult to bear. There is no vulgarity or blood shed or abuse or anything. But if one attaches any importance to family or your parents or your brothers or sisters, it is quite shocking and difficult to see how Jia treats his family. It is all the more difficult to bear the pain of his parents to go through the horrible treatment they receive from their son. But what comes through is the sheer love and dedication of a family, to suffer anything to get their son back to normality.

But, it is not all very painful and sad. Some of the scenes are genuinely simple and funny. Like how Jia's father wants to buy a music cassette of Beatles, for his son. But he doesnt have any idea about Beatles or Lennon, who Jia considers his idol or even his father. So many scenes carry a kind of fun, but at the same time carry a kind of sadness behind.

This movie does a brilliant service against drugs, I think. The whole family of Jia deserves applause and recognition for what they have done. For youngsters and parents alike, it must be an eye opener. It might be accused that it was easy as they really went through all this, but the performances have been brilliant. Especially Jia Hongsheng the actor and Jia Fengsen, the father.

This is a brilliant and touching movie, the best family movie. A must watch.

There is something though. A lot of scenes in this movie happens in the sisters apartment. And couple of times the camera zooms out, and we can see that its actually a set on a stage, each and every room designed on the stage. As and how the movie is told, this is not particularly relevant. But that was quite surprising, when it was done the first time. I am still not sure, what the director meant here. May be, just reminding us that its the same people acting out their real life once again, may be!

Wong Fei Hung - Once upon a time in China

1991 by Hark Tsui

Sometime in the mid 80's when VCR's started appearing in Keralan homes, thanks to those working in the middle east, one of the first heroes who came with it was Jackie Chan. All video libraries tried to stock each and every Jackie Chan movie which became terrific hits, even in villages. For us Chan movies were the first international movies we were exposed to as school students. Of course, there were movies like Gandhi and Beautiful people, which were international movies too, but those were more of educational ones for us. I remember watching Jackie Chan movies with all the neighbour hood in our family home, mostly containing boys and men who were amazed by the powers of the martial art star (Apparently there were bigger crowds only when the '86 world cup was shown live by Doordarshan and Maradona lit the scene). As news came in that Jackie Chan performed his own stunts and gets operated at least once during each of his film shoot, his fan base increased. We used to watch those movies again and again and again. Watching them now, for eg a movie like Drunken master or Protector, I still admire and appreciate him as an ultimate action star. But the comic scenes of those movies looks a bit oldy now. But I still like to watch those earlier movies of Chan than his modern flicks with Hollywood. Wong Fei Hung or the movie famous as Once upon a time in China, came highly reccommended, but while watching it I thought this movie was still in the early 80's.

Wong Fei Hung, a martial arts maestro has to set up a local militia to protect his town from the increasing number of foreign invaders including the Americans and the French. He faces opposition also from another local gang and a brutal martial art master. 

The movie starts quite slowly and its pace varies, sadly though, many times until it enters the final third. Therein, it is excellent. There is something wrong with the basic script and especially how it is edited, I thought, was the reason for its varying pace. Also as in the case of the earlier Jackie Chan movies, its comic scenes are a bit oldy for now. May be if I had watched it in 90's I would have felt different. And technically too, it is only slightly better than the Chan movies of 80's.

Whatever, the fight scenes are brilliant and that is all what matters finally. Wong Fei Hung was a legendary martial art hero. There should be hundreds of movies made upon this man and every Chinese must be proud about this legend. What a life it must have been for this hero. Even a century later, he is a hero not just in his country, but through cinema, his stories are flying high to the nook and corner of this world.

Red Cliff 2

2009 by John Woo

Rafeeq managed to find the part 2 and thanks to him I was able to watch it yesterday itself.

Based on the Battle of the red cliffs in 208 - 209 AD, at the end of the Han dynasty, with the emperor on one side and two local war lord who have formed an alliance, not against the empire actually, but against his war mongering chancellor. Part two is the final part of this war at the red cliff.

I have nothing more to say from what I did yesterday. As an out and out war movie, this is brilliant. I cannot remember a single movie in which the war strategy is so much detailed and executed with lots of details for the viewers.

And it is brilliant. Each and every aspect is brilliant. It is just a bit disappointing that the music is slightly western influenced. The same too, if it was purely Chinese, it would have been even better.

The end of the movie claims there are no winners. How true. Nobody wins at the end of a war.  And most wars are unnecessary. Here too, it is frightening to know that all this was actually for a woman.

John Woo should be a proud man. He must have taken a bit of fictionalised history for the script, but still.
I had rather measure it on what I get to see and how it is told. There are moments which can only be told poetic. This is an epic war movie in all its sense and am sure many directors must be jealous of him.

Red Cliff

2008 by John Woo

A friend who runs a small cd shop, in the same building where my office is, sometimes takes a lot of pain to get me the dvd's I ask for. He says normally people only ask for hollywood blockbusters and some people just pick cd's based on the pictures on the cover - of war or explosions or guns etc. It is not feasible for him to buy just a couple of copies of a non English movie, but he still does it for me. He says whenever he comes across such CD's he just picks them for me. There are also a couple of other guys who occassionally turn up in his shop for European or movies from other regions than Hollywood. I am very grateful to this guy for giving me dvd's for a small price, keeping only a bare minimum profit for himself. I do understand, Rafeeq has only some basic education and all, but he is immensly helpful. Well he called me yesterday to say about this new Chineese movie and I liked it immediately when I saw the cover design.

A movie about a real war at the end of the Han dynasty in the 208 - 209 AD.

It is such a brilliant movie, BRILLIANT I must emphasize, and is so detailed in its description of war and its preparations, chequered with some wonderful imagery. When a part of this amazing war was over and we are looking for that final , the screen says - to be continued..... -- I really got mad. I looked the cover again and there is no sign at all about this dvd being a part 1. Except for the name Red Cliff, everything was in chineese. It was so disappointing. Even if it meant the second pat was another 2 hours, I would have continued watching it, even if it was 0130 in the morning. Oh what a pity.

I spoke to Rafeeq and he has promised me to get the second part, if its available in Kochi. So eagerly waiting for this part.

In fact, the part I show was released by itself and still went to break all box office records in East Asia. The second part was released a few months later and that too was a historic success.

Once again let me say, this movie is bloody brilliant. It is all about this epic war, but goes into details as to its preparations and strategies, through some characters. It can match or overrun any of the best epic war movies from the west in its production and all other values and is even better as to some ways it details some war techniques and some interspersed imagery, which makes this movie to tilt it to the artistic side of scale. As a whole movie, I might still consider Mongol - the rise of Chengiz khan slightly above, but as an out and out war movie, this is brilliant.

Se, Jie - Lust, Caution

2007 by Ang Lee

1938, Shanghai is occupied by Japan. A group of University students in Hong Kong wants to contribute to the war for their mother land and stages a drama, which is successful. Then Kuang, the leader decide to take their support to another level, by killing Mr. Yee, a special agent for the Japan government. As per their plan, young and beautiful Wong Chia Chi will play Mrs. Mak. Mrs. Mak gets into the social circle of Mr. Yee's wife and earns their company. Very gently she does lure Mr. Yee as well. Chia Chi is successful in luring him, but is sure that Mr. Yee cant be fooled that easily. She tells her group, who are all staying in the supposed residence of Mrs. Mak, that it has reached a stage where she will have to show her bed for Mr. Yee to clear any doubts. Chia Chi, a virgin, has to reluctantly agree to share the bed with a boy in the group, who has been to a whore house,  to know something about sex. This she has to do in front of Kuang, both of them sharing some mutual likeness for each other. But all of a sudden Mr. Yee leaves to Shanghai and the plan has to be dropped. When they are ready to clear out their apartment, a subordinate of Mr. Yee turns up and the group, have no other option, but to kill him.

After three years, Chia Chi meets Kuang again in Shanghai. Kuang is now an active member of an organisation working against the Japaneese and Chia Chi too wants to do something for China. Just that, now she will not be working for a group of University students, but for a prominent organisation who are more ruthless. She reintroduces herself as Mrs. Mak and cheks in as a guest in Mr. Yee's home. Soon Mr. Yee organise to meet her in a hotel room. But here he brutally rapes her to her utter shock. She is still compelled to continue their sexual relationship. She breaks down in front of Kuang and her superior, that each and every time she has sex with Mr. Yee, she hopes for her friends to arrive and kill him, that she cannot take it anymore. Mr. Yee sends her to an Indian jeweller to select a special diamond for a ring for her. Chia Chi informs her friends about this place as a possible place to kill Mr. Yee, if she manages to take him there as he wont have much security. She takes him there and can see many of her group members, strategically located around. But, when she finally sees the exquisite diamond ring, which is ready, and when Mr. Yee insists her to wear it, she is torn between her duty and her love and in a tender moment whispers him to leave immediately. Mr. Yee understands this clue and rushes towards his car and saves himself. Soon all the group members inlcuding Chia Chi are arrested and Mr. Yee, who by now is the head of Secret Police, signs their execution order. All of them are executed in a quarry. Mr. Yee is emotionally affected, and is looking at the vacant bed in his guest room.

This movie is an Espionage thriller, but for me it is more of a love story between a man and a woman. The man have doubts on the woman , about her identity and her intentions, but is still drawn to her. The woman is in a plan to kill the man, but is reluctantly drawn to him because of their long sexual affair. In fact, it is a triangular love story, because we know that Kuang and Chia Chi liked each other during the first part of their plan, in '38 but they never did anything about it, as they were busy with their plans. When she breaks down in front of her superior about the difficulty of having sex with Mr. Yee and later Kuang tries to kiss her, she clearly tells him, he should have tried this 3 years earlier. If so, they would have been in love and may be Kuang might not have pushed her to the second part of their plan, ie in '42. Or if they were in love Chia Chi, would have still continued her physical relations in wooing Mr. Yee, but she might not have lost her mind and heart in doing so. Chia Chi falls into the University drama project quite accidentally, but she turns out to be the best actress even in the drama outside the stage. She is so successful in luring a strong and shrewd guy like Mr. Yee, quite easily. Inspite of him brutally raping her in their first meet, she still manages to seduce him and act out as if she likes him very much. Just that the repeated sexual meetings slowly draws her mind closer to Mr. Yee and she even sings a song for him, in private, in the Whore house. That scene I thought was really beautiful. This was also only the first scene where we felt the humaneness of Mr. Yee. It is here, I first felt that Mr. Yee is in love with Chia Chi and he is not seeing her as just another woman for sex. And then when he offers the diamond ring, Chia Chi might have strongly felt the same that she deceives her duty.

The character of Mr. Yee looks so one diamensional for most of the movie, but by the restaurant scene it changes and he grows further. I also felt a lot of pity for Kuang who has to see his love, at this point he is definitely thinking about Chia chi as his future love, taking another group member to her bed, and later has to listen to the painful description of Chia Chi about serving her body for Mr. Yee.

The movie has a pace which is slightly slow, I am afraid. The script takes its own time in getting into the characters and the plot, but boldy, it sticks to this pace until the end. And this has helped in going into a lot of detailing which is of course nice. But this would deter at least a few from appreciating this movie (length and pace). And this detailing nature goes even into the relationship between Mr. Yee and Chia Chi. May it be their conversations or their sex. In fact, the first rape scene was a shock and horrifying. I simply didnt understand why Mr. Yee was so sadistic in their first meet, especially since he is not the same thereafter. In the later sex scenes, which are detailed too, he is just a normal man. There were scenes in this movie which I thought could have been shortened, but I must say, I didnt think so about the sex scenes and it was important as it was lust which slowly paved way for their love. Good sex will always strengthen a relation. To see that Chia Chi was pushed into a kind of learning about sex, to have sex with Mr. Yee is the strange but shocking point. And I am sure there was strong love between Mr. Yee and Chia Chi, by the time she tries the new diamond ring.

Great performances by Tony Leung, Mr. Yee, and Tang Wei as Chia Chi. I especially liked the way she subtly lured and seduced Mr. Yee with a very light smile, but with a bigger invitation in the eyes. Some people might consider Mr. Yee has the same expression through out, but I think there is much more in his eyes. And at that final moment, when she ask her to leave now immediately, his face was brilliant.

Three major factors, for this movie being what it is, are music, Cinematography and of course the director. I would rate this even better than Crouching Tiger.. from Ang Lee.

A Brilliant movie but hard, must watch may I say. 

Da Bing Xiao Jiang - Little Big Soldier

2010 by Sheng Ding

Before the unification of China by the Qin dynasty, smaller states and warloads engaged in frequent battles. States of Liang and Wei are on war and in the battle ground there are only two alive. A middle aged soldier (Liang), just because he pretended to be dead and a young general (Wei) who is wounded. The soldier, who actually loves nature and farming, is on the field only because its compulsory to serve the military. He is aware about a reward by his king, by which, if he captures a Wei general he can have some land for farming and can evade the military service. He makes the young general his captive and sets out on a journey to his home land. He always sings a song which is all about being back in home and doing some farming. There are some others, another young prince and his warrior teacher assisted by many soldiers, who are also searching for the general. The general is also aware that there was something going on behind his back, leading to his present state. There are also other tribal groups and warlords on the road making their journey difficult. Our poor soldier and general are from two ends of the world but they reluctantly have to form a team. But through the hardships there is a strong, out of the world friendship between these two men, one a farmer who loves everything about nature, and the other a very young soldier, whom we later find out is a Prince, who dreams about a unified China devoid of any battles. The movie take us through their journey, facing many obstacles, until they finally reach Liang.

I am really not sure if I must complete the story. Not because there are lot of surprises but it would be nice to watch this movie without knowing its end (if ever anybody feels like watching after reading this), I found the end really touching and beautiful.

The story is by Jackie Chan himself, who wanted to do this movie long back and he had thought about playing the role of the young general then. 20 years have past and his age now suits the character of the soldier and he have done it so well. In the 80's when video cassettes of Jackie Chan movies were big hit in India, I watched almost all of his movies. Those were not techinically brilliant or aesthetically beautiful or great movies. But they had lot of fun and exciting action, the only action hero who did most of his stunts by himself. Once Jackie Chan went into Hollywood, such movies were not there anymore and it has been quite long, more than a decade may be, since I found our Old Jackie Chan. He is here again at his witty best and also does some of his trademark fast action bits. But he is not a super hero at all. He is a simple farmer, who manages to be alive just because he had some gadgets with him to make him look dead. He loves birds and trees and sings simple songs and is always funny. He does not understand the complicated reasons for states to war among themselves. Jackie Chan is excellent as this Soldier. I cant remember any other movie in which he had to play such a deep and warm character.

The movie is brilliantly shot and edited. It can embarrass any Hollywood flicks in all the technical departments. It is not a war movie, nor is it a comedy or drama. For me it was more like the story of two men on a journey discovering each other.

I know many Indians who consider everything from Hollywood as great. Some consider only the art house movies from East are good and the popular ones are ignorable. I wish they will watch this movie and understand Asia is up there with Hollywood in the techinical aspects. There are so many beautiful frames and scenes in this movie, backed up with some excellent background scores and sound recordings.

Just like ' Internal Affairs' was remade into a world famous movie 'The Departed' (I know so many Hollywood fans who still do not know about this adaptation), I hope once Da Bing Xiao Jiang will be remade in the west. At least then some more people will realise that there are excellent movies from the East too.

I understood, even for Jackie Chan who is like an institution, he had to wait 20 long years to make a movie from his heart. But Jackie Chan must be proud about this movie, a gem.