The different faces of Ip Man

Within a short period of 10 years, I have watch more than 5 different movies on the story of 'Ip Man'. Here's a quick recap on who 'Ip Man' is. He is a martial arts teacher and one of his student is the international superstar, 'Bruce Lee'. Movies wise...

'Ip Man'(葉問) This is the start of the trend. And after the release of this movie, there's a big boom of youtube videos titled with 'I want to * 10'(我要*十個). On top of that, it's like the 'Matrix' effect back then where tons and tons of films started remaking a similar scene from the 'Ip Man' movie. Seriously, this is one of the better 'Kungfu' films since the 'Wong Fei Hong'(黃飛鴻) movie series featuring 'Jet Li'(李连杰). Which reminds me, if I'm not mistaken 'Donnie Yen'(甄子丹) was acting as one of the villain in one of the 'Wong Fei Hong' movies back then.

'Ip Man 2'(葉問2) With the success of the first film, they started rolling out the 2nd film. And 'Donnie Yen'(甄子丹) returns with more 'Kungfu' action. In the first film, it's more of this life in mainland china where he started off leading a wealthy lifestyle and due to the war in China, he ended up becoming poor. And due to unforeseen circumstances, he ended up heavily injured in a fight and the whole family decided to settle down in 'Hong Kong'. In the second film, it's more of his life in 'Hong Kong' and the difficulties that he encounter when he tries to setup his Martial Arts School. Though the story is pretty straightforward but it's all the 'Kungfu' fighting that makes the whole film interesting. (Note: I think that the fight between 'Sammo Hung'(洪金宝) and 'Donnie Yen' standing on a round table is the best part which shouldn't be missed.)

'The legend is born - Ip Man'(葉問前傳) A completely different approach of 'Ip Man', the main focus of this film is on the early stage of the life of 'Ip Man'. It shows a younger 'Ip Man' that is much more rebellious. But as compared to the earlier adaptations, this film focuses more on the story rather than all the fighting scenes. But, the scriptwriters have managed to structure the story in an interesting manner which slowly builds up the tension to the last scene, which is a big fight between friends, families and members of the same sect. By the way in order to boost the sales of the movie, one of the incentive would be the actor playing the role of 'Ip Man', 'Dennis To'(杜宇航) was a martial artist.

'The grandmaster'(一代宗師) 'Wong Kar Wai' version of 'Ip Man'. Infamous for creating and producing artistic movies that has deep 'depth', combines with the fantastic acting skills of 'Tony Leung'(梁朝伟) has pretty much explains how powerful this film will ended up to be. Rather than focusing on the story of 'Ip Man' only, it focuses more on the story of numerous Martial Arts teachers during the 20th century. As mentioned earlier, on top of the story, 'Wong Kar Wai' approach of the movie not only makes things interesting, it's artistic and bring depth to the overall action pack film itself. In fact, even the liners that are coming out of the actors are deep. =.=""

'Ip Man: The Final Fight'(葉問：終極一戰) As compared to the earlier films, 'Anthony Wong'(黃秋生) has ended up to be much more plump and much more uncle-like as compared to the other 3 'Ip Man'. Besides focusing on the story of a more emotional 'Ip Man' in 'Hong Kong', this film also brings out the life the 'Hong Kongers' were leading back then. Pretty much similar to the '3rd' film, this film focuses more on story building than all the 'Kungfu' fighting scenes. Anyway, as usual these movies ain't based on the true story of 'Ip Man'. They are just just beautifying the story so that it can interest the audiences like us. :D

* Click here to find out more about the movie 'Ip Man'(葉問).
^ Click here to find out more about the movie 'Ip Man 2'(葉問2).
~ Click here to find out more about the movie 'The legend is born - Ip Man'(葉問前傳).
# Click here to find out more about the movie 'The grandmaster'(一代宗師).
- Click here to find out more about the movie 'Ip Man: The Final Fight'(葉問：終極一戰).
  (In order to make your life easier, instead of pasting the official sites here, I have pasted
  the links to the respective IMDb pages here.)

Movie: Experiencing the Hangover...

I have finally watched the 3 sequel to the movie 'The Hangover'. However, rather than watching it in a numerical order, I'm watching it in the sequence of 2, 3 followed by 1. However, out of the 3, I still find the 2nd to be the best. Anyway...

The main idea behind the first 2 sequel is pretty straight forward. A group of friends calls for a big celebration and they ended up drinking. As they woke up the following day, one of them has gone missing and none of them has a clue and memories of the events that have happened the previous day. Hence, the search of their important memories and their missing companion begins... As for the last sequel, it's interconnected to the first 2 sequel. However, it's not as hilarious as the first 2 sequel, especially when they have dropped the 'Hangover' idea in the sequel. Either ways, this comedy trilogy is worth giving it a shot and it's one of the better comedies over the last few years. :D

* Click here for the official website of 'The Hangover 3'.

Movie: Shield Of Straw

In order to protect a criminal, are you willing to go against the whole nation?

Poster of the movie 'Shield Of Straw' This movie is based on the novel titled 'Shield of Straw'. In order to seek revenge, an important person of the political circle has put up a death notice which is worth one billion yen. Therefore for the sake of the appealing prize money, the whole nation has gone all out trying to track down and murder the criminal. Therefore, it ended up to be a group of policemen going against the entire country sorta situation. Furthermore, even the people around you, can turn against you within the next second... Therefore at the end of the day, who do you think has committed the most unforgivable mistake at the end of the day? Is it the criminal? Or is it the Policemen that have been protecting the criminal? Or is it the civilians that are trying to kill the criminal for the sake of one billion dollars? Or is it the important person of the political circle, who is trying to seek revenge. Well, this would be a good question that is worth giving a thought. :)

* Click here to find out more about the movie 'Shield Of Straw'. (Japanese website)

Movie: Now You See Me....

and Now You Don't. Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not a magician. In fact, I have seen this interesting movie a few weeks back and I suddenly realised that I haven't written about this movie.

Image taken from the official site of 'Now You See Me'. As for this movie, it's like a mixture of a few movies. There's a bit of the magical elements of 'The Prestige' mixed with the 'Police and Thief' sort of story from a typical 'Police' film. The plot is very interesting. Just when I thought that the movie has come to an end, it continued and ended up to be a far more bigger conspiracy than one could have expected. By the way, although it's supposed to be a film revolving around 'Magic tricks', but I personally find the overall plot of this movie to be far more entertaining. :)

* Click here to find out more about the movie 'Now You See Me'.

Movie: Super Hero of the 21th Century...

In the 21th century, what would be the characteristic of a superhero? Does he needs to be a gentleman or does he needs to be a guy with a strong sense of justice? In fact, I have watched a superhero movie a few days ago. And in the movie itself, it has mentioned that one needs to be a pervert in order to fight for justice. And does it really apply in the 21th century? By the way, the name of the movie would be...

'HK FOrbidden Super Hero'. This is a rip-off of a Japanese Manga in the 90s. Being the child of a Police detective and a SM Queen, High School Student, 'Kyousuke Shikijou', has a hidden Identity and that would be 'HK'. He has unintentionally awaken his special capabilities when he has mistaken a mask with a used ladies panties, which marks the starting point of his perverted superhero life. For the sake of love and justice, a new superhero is born... In fact, most of the superheroes movie out there are mostly movies with a serious plot. As for this movie, it's more of a pretty hilarious superhero movie than a serious movie. The way the hero performs his attack, the conversations that all the characters are making, can be pretty stupid and hilarious too.

Anyway, here's an interesting video that teaches us the various movie theatre etiquette by the unlikely type of superhero, 'HK'.

* Click here to find out more about movie 'HK Forbidden Super Hero'. (In Japanese)
^ Click here to find out more about the movie 'HK Forbidden Super Hero' on
  'Filmgarde Cineplex' website.

I want to become a Samurai...

With all the things that I have to do, last weekend was kinda busy for me. However, no matter how busy or how tired I am, I still manage to squeeze a bit of time for the following movie.

'Rurouni Kenshin'
Originated from the infamous Japanese Comics,
'Rurouni Kenshin', comes the movie 'Rurouni Kenshin'.
Probably due to the time constraints that they have,
therefore the script of the movie and the original
story are slightly a bit different. However, the actors have
managed to portray the original comic characters nicely.
And probably due to the fact that the fighting scenes
in the Comics and the Japanese Anime were too magnificence
and too interesting, therefore it kinda make the fighting
scenes in the movie a little bit too dull. :(

* Click here to find out more about the Japanese movie 'Rurouni Kenshin'.(Japanese Website)

This isn't a pornography - 'Thermae Romae'

If an individual has been watching the same genre/type of movie continuously, it tends to become pretty boring pretty soon. Therefore, from time to time, I will try to watch various types of movie.

The above shows a picture of the movie 'Thermae Romae',
which is based on the infamous Japanese Comics.

Regarding the movie
A bathroom designer from the ancient Rome
has dropped into a whirlpool of time and
he has ended up in the modern Japan. He
managed to incorporated the designs that
he has seen in the modern Japan into the
ancient Rome. And at the same time protect
the ancient Rome?

My Opinion
Through the movie, one gets to learn about
the culture of the Japanese bathroom, the
things that they eat, etc... which makes
it pretty interesting, especially when the
script writers can blend the bathroom idea
into the movie in a pretty interesting way.

(By the way, the oldest public bath house isn't from
Japan. It seems that the earliest public bath house
was built and found in Europe.)

* Click here to find out more about the movie 'Thermae Romae'. (Japanese website)

Double Face

Do you have an interest for Hong Kong Movies? Which is your favourite Police Action Movie during the period 2000 to 2010?

As for myself, my favourite Police Action Movie during that
period of time will ought to be 'Infernal Affairs'.
Throughout the whole movie, there's lots of tensions and when you
topped it with the good acting skills by the cast, it has definitely
made it into one of the 'must watch'/favourite movie on my list.

In fact, the original movie was so good that it has managed to catch
the attention of 'Hollywood'. The 'Hollywood' movie 'The Departed' was
based on the story of 'Infernal Affairs'. Despite of the amount of
infamous actors that were involved in the movie, I don't find it
better than the original movie. (In fact I find the ending of
'The Departed' kind of silly, which once again proven that 'Hollywood'
aren't capable in making good replicates of the original movie.)

In fact, Japan TBS TV and WOWOW have collaborate with each other
and they have created this TV Special known as 'Double Face', which
is based on the original story of 'Infernal Affairs'.
The story are pretty much the same, but additional factors have been
added into the story to make it even much more interesting. Besides
for the tensions that you will be getting, the ending of the movie
was pretty interesting too. In fact, I find it as good as the
original movie. (Though I still prefer the original movie. :P)

* Click here to find out more about the Japan TBS TV Special 'Double Face'.
  (Japanese website)
^ Click here to find out more about the Japan WOWOW TV Special 'Double Face'.
  (Japanese website)

Movie: ZA

Take note, I'm not going to talk about the cosmetics brand 'ZA' over here. The topic that I'm going to touch over here would be 'Zombie Apocalypse'. Probably as we move into the future, there seems to be more and more talks on the end of the world and it seems that 'ZA' has become one of the hottest topic nowadays. (Especially when there are more and more infamous games titles based on 'ZA', and same goes for TV series, movies and even books.) Therefore, it have also led me to ...

Poster of 'Resident Evil: Retribution', taken from Cathay Cineplexes Website.

Basically, all the Resident Evil movies have a pretty straight forward
plot. The main female protagonist have to escape from a place and reach
her destination as fast as possible. As the story moves on, she will be
teaming up with different groups of people that will be fighting with all
sorts of zombies alongside with her. So what makes this sequel different?
I guess that would be the ending of the movie where you finally sees...,
and that's when you finally gets to see a possible ending to the sequel. :)
Well, if you have been following the Resident Evil sequel for the past few
years, it's a must for you to watch it. But if you haven't been following
the sequel for the past few years, you don't need to spend a lot of time
looking through the first few 'Resident Evil' movies.

* Click here to find out more about the movie.

Movie: Hope Springs

How would your marriage turns out to be when your kids have grown up and move out of the house? Do you think that your marriage is perfect? Or does your marriage ended up to be a job? And all you need to do is go home, do your own stuff, sleep in your bedrooms, etc...? Though this move has been portrayed to be a Comedy, the plot is so good that to some extent, it has turned out to be pretty meaningful. If you think that your marriage is getting more and more dull, give this movie a try and perhaps it will teach you a new trick or two. :P

Poster of 'Hope Springs', taken from Cathay Cineplexes Website.

* Click here to find out more about the movie 'Hope Springs'.

Movie: the power of a little wish - ted

Be careful of your little wish, it might ended up bringing you both good and bad memories. :P Either ways, this movie has proven the fact that teddy bears isn't just for a kid, when it have been made into a movie, it can bring an adult lots of fun too. I guess no one will ever hate a sociable bear that can brings you lots of fun in your life, but at the same time turn your simple life upside down. :P Okay anyway, though the plot of the movie was pretty straight forward, but you can hear roars of laughter throughout the movie. Sometimes it really doesn't matter how good the plot can be, it's the way you can making and expressing it. (Like the TV-series 'Mr. Bean')

Here's a poster of the movie 'ted'.

* Click here for the official website of the movie 'ted'.

Hiroki Narimiya - An actor that looks like Joker

After I watching the Japanese movie 'Nana' 7 years ago, my first impression of 'Hiroki Narimiya' would be a actor that looks like 'Joker'. Since then, he seems to be appearing in some of the TV dramas and Japanese Movies that interests me. His willingness to try out all sorts of roles and his acting skills just never stop to amaze me.

The above shows the DVD box of the movie 'Gyakuten Saiban'.
It's based on the Japanese game 'Gyakuten Saiban'.
In the movie, 'Hiroki Narimiya' was playing the role of an
inexperience lawyer that believes in justice and at the same
time passionate with what his doing. Out of nowhere, he's
getting himself involve in the murder case of his superior
and the suspect is the younger sister of the decease?
One of the interesting part of the movie would be the facial
expressions that his showing in the movie.
Either ways, with an interesting plot and a amazingly good
group of actors, this is a movie that you should be watching
whenever you are free. O.OV

* Click here to find out more about the movie 'Gyakuten Saiban'. (Japanese website)

Movie: The Silent War

From the same group of directors of 'Infernal Affairs' comes 'The Silent War'. The plot of the movie is pretty straight forward. During the 1950s in China, in order to spy on all the revolutionists in China, Headquarter 701 have been founded to spy on all the revolutionists through telegraph. Everything is going as planned until the day, where all the military channels have been replaced by useless daily news reports and weather forecast. That's where our main protagonist steps in. Being blind allows him to attain a better sense of hearing than average people and with his help, Headquarter 701 manage to recover all the military channels, but things aren't that easy after all. And through the help of Headquarter 701, he manage to recover his eyesight with a price to pay...

Image taken from Google Images.
I think that the story is pretty interesting, but for some reason,
this movie was released in Singapore less than 2 weeks ago and by
the end of this week, there are less than 5 cinemas that continues
to show this movie. Which is kinda... ==""" Seriously, the role that
Tony Leung is taking up and the ploy of the movie are pretty nice
and it's far more better than some of the Hollywood movies out there.
If time permits, please give this movie a try, the results might be
better than what you are expecting.

Movie: The Expendables 2

Once in a while, I don't mind watching all these action movies. To some extent I kinda miss all the action movies back then with all the memorable lines and scenes. Ex: Arnold Schwarzenegger's line in Terminator, Armageddon, Rambo, Rocky, etc... Anyway back to the movie, rather than having merely gun fighting and explosives going off everywhere, this time round I think that the story is much better than the previous round. In this film rather than showing a group of cold blooded killers,, it also portraits a completely the different side of the expendables. On top of that, the producers have also added a few touches of humour into the film too. :D

Here's a poster of the movie 'The Expendables 2'.
Seriously, as compared to the previous one, the looks of
'Sylvester Stallone' looks much more better in this sequal. ==

* Click here to find out more about the movie 'The Expendables 2'.

Movie: A Simple Life (桃姐)

Inspired by a true story, this is a story between the young master of a big family and his servant that has been taking care of the family for more than 4 generations. In the earlier stage of the movie, the relationship between the both of them are pretty much similar to a normal family. But things started to change when the servant gets a stroke and decides to move into an old folk's home. Taking care and visiting the servant tends to play a very big role in the young master's life...

Image taken from the official site of the movie 'A Simple Life'(桃姐)

I think that this movie is pretty touching especially when the part where the young master tend to go all out taking care of the servant, when it should be the other way round. On top of the heart-warming relationship between the both of them, you also get a taste of why some people move into a old folk's home and the life that they are leading inside. Eventually, this still shows that kindness pays. :D

* Click here for the official website of the movie 'A Simple Life'(桃姐).

Movie: The story of a professional craftsman 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi'

This isn't the normal type of movie that has a story. It's more of a documentary. The movie revolve around a 85 years old sushi craftsman, 'Jiro, Ono'. He's also the owner of the Sushi restaurant 'Sukiyabashi Jiro'. Through the movie, you can basically have a better idea of the life 'Jiro, Ono' is leading, the lifestyle of a Japanese craftsman, the making of a good Sushi... etc.

Poster of the Movie 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi'

Note:

• As the movie shows a large collection of indulging Sushi images, therefore I wouldn't recommend you to watch the movie with an empty stomach.(In fact, I was drooling towards the end of the movie... And after spending an hour plus watching the movie, I suddenly have the urge of eating Sushi... =="")

* Click here to find out more about the movie 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi'.
^ Click here to find out more about the restaurant 'Sukiyabashi Jiro'.

Movie: Not another Trilogy

Similar to the title of this post, probably when the first movie was a success, they started to move on with the second followed by the third. I think they should really put a stop to all these trilogy idea. Probably only 2 or 3 out of 10 trilogy really turns out to be pretty good. As for this recent movie, 'MIB 3', I personally felt that it isn't as good as the 1st 2 movies. Although there are parts of the movie that turns out to be pretty hilarious but I miss the serious looking guy cracking a joke or 2 kind of scenes. I kinda miss comedy movies like 'Man of the House (Tommy Lee Jones)', 'Meet the Parents (Robert De Niro)', etc... I hope that we will get more Comedy movies like those listed in the above even much more. :D

Image taken from Cathay Cineplexes Website.

Up Next: I hope its not Spidey...

* Click here for the website of 'MIB3'.

Movie: Dodge Ball - a TRUE underdog story

When you are getting exhausted, one of the best way to keep yourself going would probably be the method of watching a hilarious movie that can really brighten up your day. One of my recommendation would be 'Dodge Ball - a TRUE underdog story'. But why do I say so? Basically, Ben Stiller's role was suppose to go all out to take over everything that Peter LaFleur (Vince Vaughn) has. But the stunts that he have made along the way was pretty stupid and lame. (As for myself, I think that Ben Stiller's disguise was so good that I couldn't recognise him.:P) Oh by the way, if you have sit through the credits, you will be getting a hidden footage that is pretty much similar to a remake MTV video. (If all the MTV are produce this way, probably...) By the way, 'Ben Stiller' and 'Vince Vaughn' will be starring in an upcoming movie 'The Watch' and I hope that it will be as hilarious as 'Dodge Ball'.

Image taken from IMDb Website.

* Click here to find more about the movie 'Dodge Ball - a TRUE underdog story'.
^ Click here to find more about the upcoming movie 'The Watch'.

Movie: The Avengers

Yeah after watching all the movies on marvel heroes, Iron Man, The incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America, finally there's 'The Avengers'. Basically, I love the movie or how should I put it, if you have not watch all the movies on the Avengers yet, you probably want to watch them first before jumping into 'The Avengers'. All those movies are inter-connected to the 'The Avengers', especially if when you have stayed for the extra footage after the long and boring credits. Although this movie revolves around all these Comic based characters and it's suppose to be those serious movie watching super heroes trying to save the world, there are numerous hilarious scene that caught the whole theatre roaring with laughter. :D (By the way, based on relevant resources, there will be an upcoming Thor 2 movie, an Iron Man 3 movie, Captain America 2 movie and another X-Men: First Class 2 movie coming up in 2013 or 2014. Nice~~~ :) )

Image taken from Wikipedia Website.

* Click here to find more about the movie 'The Avengers'.

Movie: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol

I finally have the time to watch the latest MI sequel. Being a MI movie, I think that the gadget are far more interesting than the plot of the movie. But I got to admit that the visual effects of this movie is pretty amazing and breath taking. Especially when you are watching the scene where Tom Cruise was climbing on Burj Khalifa tower, which is the tallest building in the world, you got to admit that it was pretty dangerous and you need a lot of courage to that. (I knew that this is like a impossible task for me, especially I have a fear of heights.)

Image taken from Yahoo Movies Website.

Movie: A group of Super Heroes come together to form ...?

* Click here to find more about the movie 'Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol'.