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Chun gwong ja sit (1997)
Decent film
Happy Together review
Happy Together has a pretty basic plot, but gets more twisted and heartbreaking as it goes along. It tells the story of Fair and Po, gay couple who go on a 'getaway' into the urban life of Argentina that on the way discovers the deep emotions obetween one another. Basically, Yiu- Fai and Po-Wing arrive in Argentina from Hong Kong and take to the road for a holiday. Something is wrong and their relationship goes adrift. A disillusioned Yiu-Fai starts working at a tango bar to save up for his trip home. When a beaten and bruised Po-Wing reappears, Yiu-Fai is empathetic but is unable to enter a more intimate relationship.
Lost souls, lonely, longing, and lovelorn, are staples in the Wong Kar-Wai universe. His best works uncannily portray the beauty and misery of being struck by love and its multiple variations and illusions. His fluid, script-free, improvisational style of work is now legendary and applies well to the unpredictable nature of this subject matter while giving his works a raw, open-ended quality. "Happy Together" is quite probably his rawest work to date and, as a result, one of the most difficult to watch The rawness makes it seem organic. It feels as if it's an ever-evolving creature which hides and exposes its multiple facets with each different viewing.
Wong successfully created this tension by hiring some of Hong Kong's best actors. They carried themselves with the greatest of comfort and control. I felt as if I knew these characters by the end of the film. I felt as if I had gone through a similar struggle as they did. These two men challenged the idea of "normal" relationships, yet kept their personas simple, human, and intense. You could not help but feel emotion for these two, even if you did not like the story. They kept the tones light when they needed to be, then brought you deep within the rabbit hole when the darkness erupted. The final scenes of this film are fascinating to watch, and I had to see them again. The downfall of Yiu-fai into a role similar to Po-wing was heartbreaking, yet stunning. Here we have two men who I thought were complete opposites from the beginning, yet somehow, to quote Wong, "Turns out that lonely people are all the same."
"Happy Together" is one of those films that I do not really enjoy watching. It is actually physically painful to watch because it hurts the eye as much as it hurts the soul. The films style blends perfectly with the characters performances and the situations they have to undergo. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys the surreal style of film which Wong crafts successfully. 7/10
In Fear (2013)
Meh
In Fear involves of what it seems as a bland storyline, a young couple celebrating their two week anniversary (as ridiculous as it sounds) with a trip to a music festival. However the lead character Tom books a hotel in advance for the two of them instead. There is something strange in their guides behaviour and abandons them during the journey, leaving them with the choice to pass through a chained up gate. Its pretty clear that the gate doesn't exactly lead to a promise land. In Fear takes a different approach to the horror genre, and has many similar features to the 2008 horror Eden Lake. In Fear is a film that plays mind games with the audience. It's an intriguing concept indeed, it goes a lot of fun when it presents its plot, but it eventually falters when it hits to its twists and turns. In Fear has a great potential at first. The last act may be pretty senseless, but throughout the film is a watchable cinematic perplex. Pov shots are a standard feature in the film, as it takes the audience on a journey with the characters as they travel through this 'wrong turn' style landscape, with the true horror lurking around each bend, in the road or potentially even In the car at times. The film mainly takes place in a car. But it ends up being the car that is their only source of safety or protection. The car is where the characters stay in majority of the film with both of them most of the time talking about their relationship. Nobody knows about their fate as they drive around the woods, which lets their emotions toward the situation manifest the fear. Everything is a mystery, and getting exasperated by the lack of knowing what the threat is what makes the set up pretty exciting. The films plot up to the hour mark is clear and to which you feel it could develop into something truly terrifying, sadly this isn't the case. Up to where they finally meet the 'villain', storyline and shape of the structure of In Fear just breaks down. It's so confusing after this point and you won't even realise that the actual bad guy in the movie is with them in the vehicle, as you are made to believe he is simply one who has been attacked or someone who is working with this psychotic freak chasing them. Which turns out it is just the same guy driving the RV. I found the film then dragged after this point, and truly lacked the substance that existed in the first hour of viewing. The characters performances are strong and due to the fact they had such a short period of time with each other before filming and actually improvised through the entirety of the movie, credit where credits due the acting was believable. The film as a whole is gripping and is fairly scary but just loses its flow completely. Nevertheless it does invite the audience on an unpredictable roller coaster ride with horror awaiting to attack. I would recommend In Fear to any horror fan but you may be left slightly disappointed towards the closing scenes.
Iron Man Three (2013)
Good but its no Maggie Weller
Iron Man 3 is the final instalment of the Iron Man trilogy and in general, a decently crafted film, from a non-marvel fan perspective but proved itself at the box office and became the most popular film out of the series: making over 1 billion dollars. After watching both Iron man and the sequel, I didn't know what to expect from the third and what more they could add to it, non the less the idea of a third film got me very excited. It features all of the actors playing main characters from the previous films such as Robert Downey Jr as 'Tony Stark', Gwenyth Paltrow as 'Pepper Pots' e.c.t. In general, it was a film of high expectations to the world and all marvel fans particularly. It took a different approach to the other Iron Man films, taking to the idea of a thought to be huge terrorist threat, acted by Ben Kingsley to in fact a drunken, idiotic actor just as the distraction, which replaced the typical huge marvel villain of the film. Personally, I thought it was enjoyable, thrilling but also funny which from the presence of Robert Downey Jr, humour was beforehand expected in the film. I wasn't very impressed with the idea of the villain as I felt the Mandarin in the film had little meaning and took the traditional 'marvel story' out of the equation. Moving on to the action side of the film, as you would expect in a Marvel production the action scenes were both explosive and high paced, edging you further and further off of your seat the longer it went on. Next, the main character which makes the film what it is, Tony Stark played by Robert Downey Jr, once again his role as Iron Man brings the edge of humour and brings another outstanding performance, his classy one liners never fail to impress however throughout the film, he is never really in the Iron Man suit, which in my eyes is a big disappointment as the action in the Iron Man suit is what I look forward too. Some of the audience would agree with me when I see you pay to see the suit. Another issue I had with the film is the fact that a majority of the characters just vanish at certain moments in the film, for example the kid that name no one actually remembers is introduced towards the middle of the film, 15 minutes later he doesn't appear again until right at the end. This also outlines the Disney side of the film involving a child that actually saves Tony's life at one point, but that isn't very important. Besides these small problems, I thought it was funny, action packed and a very enjoyable film. In conclusion I felt this film was extremely good, a tad confusing because of the story line, but in as a whole, a really enjoyable production. Unless you are a die-hard Marvel fan this film should be to your expectations of an action film. I fully recommend this film to anyone who liked either the first or second, or any of Marvels films for that matter.