The story for Bichunmoo (비천무) is nothing new. A lower-class man falls in love with an upper-class woman and everything seems to be against them being together. The man's parents were killed by her father, and in typical martial-arts movie fashion, the lower-class man knows a , "strong, secret martial-art". The film stars Hyeon-jun Shin as Yu Jinha, who later becomes Jahalang, and Hee-seon Kim as Sullie. They story also follows the typical, "hero's journey", meaning that Jinha starts off being ignorant, yet possessing great power, and after suffering the loss of his parents, he gains the wisdom he so desperately needed. However, Jinha himself dies after Sullie's father sends out a "kill order" on him. Jinha crosses water, having fallen from a waterfall, and is re-born as Jahalang. He seeks revenge on all of those who have wronged him and vows to be with the woman he loves.
First off, the fighting in Bichunmoo is actually pretty good. They do a lot of original things that are normally not seen in live-action movies, such as hitting their swords on the ground resulting in the earth splitting. I'd also like to point out the costumes used in the film, as they seemed to blend in a way that gave the film a slightly cartoon-like feel, yet seemed to fit the era being depicted. The love story angle is often too dominant in the overall story, and to be honest, it isn't very engaging. In fact, I'd say it's better to just ignore the love story since Hee-seon Kim, as Sullie, doesn't give a very strong performance anyways. Hyeon-jun Shin, on the other hand, does a fine job playing Jinha, even if Hyeon-jun probably wasn't the best fit for the films lead. Even though there's not a whole lot or originality in Bichunmoo, I'd recommend it to martial-arts fans based on the fight scenes alone. (CBDustin)
City of Glass (玻璃之城) has two love stories happening in two different time periods. The first love story is set in the colonial 70's, and centers around Raphael (Leon Lai) and Vivian (Shu Qi). Why they have such unattractive English names, I do no know. What I do know, is that they die in a car accident on New Years, at a time when Britain was handing Hong Kong over to China. So, now that they're dead, their kids meet each other for the first time. Raphael and Vivian weren't married to each other, but they each had children with their significant other. The kids are at the reading of the will, since the spouses Raphael and Vivian left behind want nothing to do with them. The first three scenes make City of Glass incredibly hard to watch, and I understand why. Trying to get that plot line established within the first ten minutes must have been a nightmare for the screenwriter.
Now, City of Glass isn't great by any means, but the premise is quite interesting. If you've ever had a first love (and almost everyone has), you'll probably be able to relate to Raphael and Vivian, who even though their lives drifted apart, managed to find each other and hold onto their love the entire time. After the kids have dealt with the will, they both end up inheriting the house that their parents, Raphael and Vivian, shared their secret lives; the life they always wanted have with each other. As the kids delve deeper into their parent's secret love life, they begin to fall in love with each other. Of course, they start off hating each other, blaming the other's parent for this or that happening, and hating their remaining parent for not handling matters of the will themselves. However, after learning more and more about this undying love each of their parent's had for each other, they begin to find that same love between themselves. To be honest, the story is much more about the children than it is the parents, as the parents are just used as the catalyst to drive the kid's story forward. If anything, it teaches us that sometimes, no matter how hard we try, love is unpredictable. Love might not be able to keep you together forever, but it may just be enough to lead others to find love together. (CBDustin)
And I Hate You So (小親親) is...difficult to explain at first, because it's a romantic comedy, but in order to get the ball rolling you can't just introduce the main characters and explain the difficulties they have with one another. It starts with Luna Ng (Kelly Chen) who is having a hard time writing her popular social article for one of the major newspapers. Now, I'm assuming it's a major paper since so many people are seen reading it throughout the movie and the column lands her an audition as host of a brand new talk show. She finds her way into a struggling antique store run by Cat (Teresa Mo) who's looking for love. Luna finds a record that she had given her first love as a show of her devotion, but apparently this guy ended up selling the record to Cat, which of course infuriates Luna. She decides she's going to buy back the record from Cat and find her first love so she can give him an ear full. Now here's the catalyst for the story! Cheung Yung (Aaron Kwok) has already placed the record on hold so that he can pick it up for his nightly radio show, and since his show plays jazz and oldies, the record fits the bill perfectly. Cheung doesn't want to give Luna the record, which ticks her off even more, and to make matters worse, he decides to give Luna a lesson on purchasing gifts of the heart on the air. Insert dramatic music here!
Eventually, they figure out who the other person is and begin a feud by their two professions. Luna attacks Cheung in her column and Cheung attacks Luna on his radio show. As their battle continues on, Cheung becomes increasingly interested in Luna until he finds himself reading every article that she puts out. Cheung reads an nice story on umbrella's that Luna wrote, and afterwards the two make amends and even seem to set off some sparks. They decide to go out for lunch as friends, but they run into Luna's current boyfriend who happens to be out cheating on her with another woman. Luna feels like Cheung set her up to see this, and begins to hate him more than ever. Long story short, Luna hooks back up with her first love after he makes up some lame excuse about why he got rid of the record. The rest of the film is left for you to watch, but I will say that the main stars play off each other incredibly well, and Kelly Chen is just cute as hell. Also, the wardrobes used throughout the film are worth pointing out. It's not that everyone is dressed super nice, but they all have a similar look going on and it works. Eric Tsang has a cameo in the film playing a guy named Mo, but unfortunately it's an awkwardly placed love story with Teresa Mo's character Cat. Mo and Cat both own the same dog and are trying to date other people while dating each other. Confused? You should be. That's because they both have too much screen time throughout the movie and it's seems they're mostly used as filler to keep the clock running over the hour and thirty minute mark. Overall, And I Hate You So is a good looking movie, and everyone, side characters included, put in strong performances making for an entertaining movie. (CBDustin)
The Host (괴물) is a return to the classic monster horror movie, and frankly it hits the nail right on the head. Put Godzilla 2000 and any other failed attempt at CG monster horror out of your mind. Going into this movie I didn't even know what it was about, which probably made it all the more enjoyable for me. Too bad for anyone reading this, because you've already ruined your chances at doing the same. In a nutshell, the movie is about one monster created from hundreds of toxic chemicals poured the water system, which is honestly a very unnerving first scene. This creates our monster and there's not a whole lot of detail on how it happened and really there's no need for it anyway. Too often, movies get caught up explaining every little detail resulting in nothing being left to the imagination, so I was glad when a very brief origin story took place. Then we have our family, the stars of the movie, the group that will drive our story forward and not make it a mindless movie with a shallow plot.
The family is made up of the grandfather; his unsuccessful son that runs his river shop with him, the son's daughter (sweet, but spoiled), the medal winning archer daughter, and finally the college graduate son with no job. Yes, yes, I know they all sound pretty cliche', but they work well as a family unit and through all their dislikes of each other, they truly have heart throughout the movie.
So, the monster appears in the river where the family runs a riverside food service, there's really nothing I can compare it to, it's like picnic food delivered to you in a rented space alongside the river. I desperately wanted to try it after watching this film. Anyway, after attracting a crowd, the monster comes out of the water and starts charging down civilians, resulting in one of the best reveals in a monster movie I've ever seen. The monster just chases and beats people down and really you can't hide from it. In one scene, a bunch of people run into a semi-truck trailer and the monster follows them right in. The next thing you see is blood spilling from the truck. I could go on, but I won't ruin what could be my favorite scene of the entire film. Basically, the monster is swallowing people to eat them later and he takes the granddaughter after the screw-up son grabs the wrong girls hand. The problem is, the government is saying that everyone at the beach was infected with a "virus", which prevents the family, or anyone else from leaving. They're basically using it as an excuse to try a chemical weapon on the monster. The daughter calls her dad and tells him she's in a sewer, but nobody believes the dad and our family must find a way to save his daughter before it's too late.
Overall, I really like The Host, but it wasn't without it's flaws. Sometimes the acting was too over-the-top, like when the family comes together for the first time and they all think the daughter is dead. They're literally rolling on the floor, crying, screaming, and this is the very first meeting with the Aunt and Uncle! The government parts were a little too much, yet I can totally believe something like this happening in real life. However, it really made me feel sorry for the dad and everything they were putting him through, which was probably the point, but it almost broke off into another story of it's own. Some of the pacing wasn't very good. Without ruining too much, the family divides and too much time is spent with each character and an unbelievable amount of time is spent before they all finally get their acts together to make the final rescue attempt for the little girl. I do hope Korea will continue to put out more films like this since it is a genre that needs a lot of help getting back on the right track. I would even like to see a sequel to The Host, with a different looking monster that needs to feed on unsuspecting picnickers in order to survive. A good movie to add to your collection with special features making it all the more worthy of a purchase. (CBDustin)
The story for Bichunmoo (비천무) is nothing new. A lower-class man falls in love with an upper-class woman and everything seems to be against them being together. The man's parents were killed by her father, and in typical martial-arts movie fashion, the lower-class man knows a , "strong, secret martial-art". The film stars Hyeon-jun Shin as Yu Jinha, who later becomes Jahalang, and Hee-seon Kim as Sullie. They story also follows the typical, "hero's journey", meaning that Jinha starts off being ignorant, yet possessing great power, and after suffering the loss of his parents, he gains the wisdom he so desperately needed. However, Jinha himself dies after Sullie's father sends out a "kill order" on him. Jinha crosses water, having fallen from a waterfall, and is re-born as Jahalang. He seeks revenge on all of those who have wronged him and vows to be with the woman he loves.
