Exodus (Hong Kong 2007)

"Women are planning to kill men all the time".

You can call it a war of the sexes, a conspiracy theory gone awry, over the top, or even a little silly, but it would be more accurate to call it one of the most interesting movies to come out of Hong Kong in a long while. Exodus takes itself very seriously, and with a mix of fine performances and cinematography, you'll feel the same way.

Tsim Kin-Yip (Simon Yam), is a low-ranking cop with twenty-years on the force under his belt who is handed a suspect by the name of Kwan Ping-Man (Nick Cheung). Yip begins to take Kwan's colorful statement about how he was in a woman's bathroom video taping and peeping in on them. While doing this, Kwan explains how he overheard a couple of women plotting to kill men...all men, and he was gathering evidence to prove it all. Yip takes it as the ramblings of a crazy man and pays Kwan no mind by wrapping up the paperwork in order to let him go as soon as possible. Yip heads back to his life with his wife Ann (Annie Liu), and the task of helping with the renovations of their new place. Among other things, Yip also has to deal with Ann's mother (Candy Yu), and her always harping about his age and his time spent on the force. She's constantly complaining that he should own his own business and be doing something more with his life. Yip's bored with his position at work and and he doesn't give his wife very much attention at home, which results in her acting out in a variety of different activities. But when Kwan changes his statement to a simple peeping story, and nothing related to a "women killing men" conspiracy, Yip is interested in finding out why his story suddenly changed. He finds out that his superior officer, Fong (Maggie Siu), spoke with Kwan and that's when his story changed. Yip decides to dedicate all of his time to the case and finds out that a string of men have died in unexplained ways. While looking for Kwan, Yip finds Kwan's ex-wife Pun Siu Yuen (Irene Wan), snooping around Kwan's apartment. The two form an interesting relationship that seems to do nothing more than distract Yip from his investigation. Is Yip just looking for something that isn't there or just lost in the idea of making a difference?

The way Pang Ho-Cheung handles the subject matter in Exodus accounts for the reason you will either enjoy this movie or dislike it. I, on one hand, thought that it didn't come across as funny or a black-comedy in any way. I was there the whole time with Simon Yam questioning, "is this real? are these things happening?". I genuinely wanted to know the entire time and wished that Yip was a better cop to figure out the, "murder of men" scheme. I lost myself in the hunt for the answer and not so much in the answer itself. Yam's performance as Yip was a great spin on the usual police affair, because Yip is just an ordinary, curious guy who just happens to be a cop. He's not a super-cop or detective extraordinaire and that makes for a refreshing change. There's also no explosion-laced gunfight with a ring leader face-off at the end either. It's really just a man that wants an answer for himself. He's removed himself from his boring life of dealing with his wife and mother-in-law in order to dive head-first into a shallow case that just happened to be bigger than him. Does that account for boring cinema or boring story-telling? To some, I could see where it would feel as if nothing gets done and no questions get answered, but maybe nothing is all that's meant to happen. (converter)



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My Boyfriend is Type-B (Korea 2005)

"All I wanted was a boyfriend I could lean on while riding the bus".

The simple idea behind My Boyfriend is Type-B (B형 남자친구) is that blood-type dictates the way a person acts and how compatible they are with another person. Now this is a weak premise for anything, let alone a movie. So with no strength to hold up an hour and a half of so-called entertainment, a shoddy movie experience is indeed on the horizon.

Young-Bin (Lee Dong-Geon) is a young heart breaker (and also happens to be type-B), that starts things off by leaving his girlfriend in the car so he doesn't get a ticket while hanging out with his boys. She naturally puts up a bit of a fuss and he has no problem with dumping her right on the spot. When he's not kicking them to the curb, he's off trying to sell his ideas for different types of phone jingles and sound effects. After a meeting with hopeful clients, he receives yet another rejection. While leaving in a huff, he runs into Han-Mi (Han Ji-Hye), a young and timid college student (who just happens to be type-A), just coming off the bus and longs for a boyfriend and romance in her life. They both spill onto the ground and their cell-phones get mixed up. Han-Mi's phone gets destroyed in the process and after a little bit of cat and mouse, and who has who's cell-phone, they two end up on a lunch date. Upon returning home, Han-Mi tells her cousin Chae Young (Shin Hee) about her exciting day. Chae Young demands to meet with this Young-Bin to see what kind of a guy he really is. See, Chae Young just happens to deal in the realm of match-making with the aspect of blood-types being a major factor. With Young-Bin being type-B, a cold, hardheaded, arrogant, jerk, douche bag, etc. Han-Mi, being type-A is a timid, soft-spoken, delicate young woman. This is clearly why Chae Young believes the two to be incompatible. However, Han-Mi believes it's destiny that they met and promises to give it her all, despite what her cousin friends might say, because she thinks she may have found the man she's always wanted. Will these too be able to make it through all the ups and downs? Or is there something to be said about a person's blood-type?

The romantic comedy is one of the tried and true hallmarks of cinema. Sure it's been done a million times, and thus should be a well-oiled machine by now, but My Boyfriend is Type-B seems to miss the point each and every single time it tries to execute anything from the genre. The two leads, the very beautiful Han Ji-Hye and Lee Dong-Geon, try to fill the screen with that campy kissy-kissy goodness, but Lee Dong-Geon's character is such an overwhelming prick that you don't care anything about him and you pray for the second that Han Ji-Hye's character stops acting like a doormat and tells this guy to get lost. The story does a poor job of giving us any incite or background on him and why he acts this way. I mean blood-type can only go so far right? One second he's treating Han-Mi like she's the only girl in the world and in the next scene he's reprimanding her like a child and speaking down to her. It just creates a situation where there is no real threat of love loss for Young-Bin when things don't goes his way or when he's "misunderstood", because it just turns into Han-Mi trying to figure him out while he pushes her away. She has endured a series of terrible crap coming from this guy and is ready to call it quits forever, and rightfully so, but this is a romantic comedy right? Maybe? Kinda?

The main piece missing from My Boyfriend is Type-B is an essential one; balance. This makes experiences of funny, silly, light-hearted mishaps with like-able characters a treat. Next time, let the couples work things out, be different, and slowly find out they have things in common, and yes, even need each other, or hell, want each other. That's what people want to see. It's something that warrants a smile, a chuckle, or sometimes even a tear. In short, balance is a simple trait that every romantic comedy needs to have in some degree. No excuses. (CBKevin)

 

Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust (Japan 2007)

Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust is a time-traveling comedy that looks no further than to entertain the audience. It isn't going to blow anyone's mind, but Bubble Fiction is cute, funny, and at times incredibly campy. I love it when a movie is honest about it's intentions and comes through in it's delivery.

Nothing seems to be going right for Mayumi Tanaka (Ryoko Hirosue), a young woman who has not only recently lost her mother Mariko (Hiroko Yakushimaru), but is constantly avoiding Tajima (Hitori Gekidan), a scuzzy loan shark who's trying to collect his dues. Deep in debt and completely alone for the first time in her life, Mayumi works at a hostess club to pay the bills, all the while being observed from a distance by a mysterious older man by the name of Isao Shimakawaji (Abe Hiroshi). After approaching Mayumi, Isao informs her that he works for the Finance Ministry, and it turns out that her mother isn't really dead! Isao helped "orchestrate" Mariko's death so that she could travel back to the year 1990 and stop the then director of finance Serizawa (Masato Ibu) from passing legislation that could devastate the economy of Japan. Obviously bewildered at the news she's hearing, Mayumi wants to know what her role is in this whole situation. Isao tells her that he, and the rest of the ministry, need her help in finding Mariko as they haven't heard from her in days and fear the worst. With the incentive of having all of her debt paid in full, Mayumi agrees to help Isao. Isao takes Mayumi to her mothers basement laboratory and shows her the time machine that her mother built and that she'll be using to travel back to the year 1990.

After gearing up to take a spin in the washing machine, Mayumi emerges in 1990 Japan and immediately knows it by the fact that Rainbow Bridge (the main bridge crossing northern Tokyo bay) hasn't been constructed yet. More upsetting however is the fact that she can no longer use her much beloved cell-phone as they haven't become a staple in everyday life yet! Mayumi begins her search for her mother by going straight to Serizawa's office and naturally, he says he's never seen her. She then bumps into 1990 Isao and this version of Isao is instantly taken with Mayumi and is willing to do and agree with anything she says in hope's that he'll have a "chance" with her. Isao shows Mayumi around 1990's Tokyo and along the way she sees some familiar faces and hears music that is thankfully now a part of everyones past. Eventually, Isao comes to believe Mayumi's far-fetched story of time travel and agrees to help her find her mother and stop Serizawa from making the big legislation announcement on television. Isao also enlists the help of his TV reporter friend Kaoru Miyazaki (Kazue Fikiishi) to check the police stations for Mayumi's mother, as Serizawa has been having anyone acting suspicious or snooping into his business arrested. It's obvious that Serizawa is up to something, and Mayumi and Isao are the only one's that can find out the truth. Many surprising things come to light along their journey, but business has to come first. Saving Mariko is one thing, but can they really save the economic future of Japan?

Bubble Fiction is definitely one of those silly comedies that asks it's audience to suspend disbelief in order to really get the most out of it. The very idea of time-travel alone should be enough to make you realize that, but in case you take things too seriously, the fact that the time machine is a washing machine should give you a heads up. It's also a heads up to the type of humor one should expect upon watching Bubble Fiction, but at the same time, my major gripe about the movie is that it sometimes acts as if it wants to be taken more seriously. The story, revolving around Japan's debt and the downfall of the economy is definitely a major issue, but the movie puts more emphasis on being a comedy making it all feel a bit unbalanced. When things do get wacky however, they get really wacky and the action scene in the final act is proof of that. The "recreation" of 1990's Japan is interesting and amusing enough, but this aspect is clearly geared more towards Japanese people in what is sure to make them say, "Ah! Natsukashii!". (Ask me if you don't know!). I've complained about it before, but somehow, even with a running-time of nearly two hours, Bubble Fiction doesn't seem to drag on and has it's joke spread out well enough to keep you interested throughout. Kudos for that.

Make no mistake, Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust is a "popcorn movie" with a story better served in a dramatic format. However, even with it's short-comings it stills manages to be a successful comedy thanks in large part to it's engaging leads and an often hilarious look back in time. So put your brain on auto-pilot, sit back and enjoy the ride. (Lee)



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