The Haunted Cop Shop
The Haunted Cop Shop is a horror comedy that stars Jacky Cheung and Ricky Hui as two bumbling cops that run afoul of a Japanese ghost/vampire. Wacky, sometimes hit or miss, comedy highlights The Haunted Cop Shop. If you're into films like Mr. Vampire or Fright Night, odds are you'll like this as well.
Demi-Haunted
Scares, comedy and drama all take turns popping up in Demi-Haunted. Unfortunately, they don't always pop up at the appropriate times. Eason Chan stars as a low level actor in a theatre troupe that befriends the ghost of a former actress looking for her long lost love. All in all, there are worse ways to spend an hour and a half, and you probably won't go away from the film hating it.
Bakery Amour
Pretty much your standard rom-com, guy meets girl, stomachs fill with butteflies, and something happens that interferes with their budding romance until they realize the depth of their love. Inspite of this overdone genere's formulaic plotting, Bakery Amour manages to entertain and even charm. Most of this is due to stars Francis Ng and Michelle Reis, who are both immensely likeable.
Beijing Bicycle
A great film about a country boy that goes to work in Beijing as a delivery boy. Bicycle beneath him, he flies around the streets of Beijing making deliveries. Unfortunately, just as he is about to have enough money to own his bike outright, it is stolen. Devastated, he searches for his bike in hopes of regaining his job and his feeling of freedom. An excellent film that affects and engages. By the end of it you'll be on the edge of your seat rooting for him.
God of Cookery
King of Comedy Stephen Chow lampoons the TV cooking craze. Needless to say, it is hilariously funny. I guess it wasn't needless to say, since I stated it, but you get the idea.
Perhaps Love
Peter Chan (Comrades, Almost a Love Story; The Warlords) directs this musical drama about dysfunctional actors in an intricate love triangle, searching for pieces of themsevles in their pasts. It stars HK heavyweights Jacky Cheung and Takeshi Kaneshiro alongside mainland Chinese actress Zhou Xun. Perhaps Love is so well acted and directed, that it draws one in, and very quickly you forget that you're even watching a musical. The song and dance numbers fit so well within the characters' lives that they never distract or take one out of the film. Beautifully shot, with great music, acting and direction. Perhaps Love is not only worthy of a viewing, it deserves it.
Secret
Some might think that following up Perhaps Love would be nigh impossible, and they would be correct, unless they popped Secret into their dvd players. Directed by, written by, and starring Jay Chou, Secret is a story of young love. To say much more about the plot would give away the secret. Stars Jay Chou, Anthony Wong, and the incredible Kwai Lun-Mei, admirably portray the angst and longing of their characters that, if played by lesser actors, would cause the film to sink faster than a bottomless canoe. Though some of the aspects of the secret fail to convince, the beauty of the story and the music of the film manage to make Secret pretty great.
From Beijing with Love
King of Comedy Stephen Chow lampoons James Bond. Like in God of Cookery, Chow is impossibly funny. If you like James Bond films, and even if you don't, you should see it, because Stephen Chow would like you to.
Love on a Diet
Directed by Milkyway Image greats Johnnie To & Wai Ka-Fai, Love on a Diet stars Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng in fat suits. Cheng plays Mini, a rotund woman that seems to be the biggest (no pun intended) fan of Japanese sensation Kurokawa. Before he became a hit, Kurokawa was a small time artist in love with Mini. As his skills progressed, he left to study in America, and Mini fell into a state of depression, trying to fill the void left by Kurokawa's departure with food. Years later, Mini meets Kurokawa after a concert, but he doesn't recognize her, and mentions that she and his lost love share the same name.
A further depressed Mini then crosses paths with bitter loner Fatso (Lau). Fatso eventually befriends Mini and reluctantly agrees to help his new friend reach her goals. Along the way, Fatso goes above and beyond the call of friendship for Mini in every way he can. As she nears her goal, they to begin to fall for one another, and Mini must chose between the dream she has hoped for, and the love of the man who would do anything for her.
Filled with humor and heart, Love on a Diet is slightly off putting because of the slim is better attidues of the main characters. However, it is never said that thinner is truly better, and the fact that they can see past their distaste of their respective weights to find love shows just how good Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai are as directors. Slightly silly, and less-than-PC, but still a thoroughly entertaining and touching film.
Nightmares in Precinct 7
Directed by Herman Yau, Nightmares in Precinct 7 stars Andy Hui as Fong, a cop that gets shot in the head while on the job. Two years later, he awakens from a coma to find that two of his colleages died in the same incident, his mother passed away, and his girlfriend has moved on. And you thought your day was bad.
Luckily for him, he has super-cute nurse named Oscar (played by Loletta Lee) that fancies him, and a neat new sense in the form of seeing ghosts. After rehab, Fong returns to duty and is given lead on a rape-murder investigation. As he struggles to return to normal, Fong is aided by the ghost of a psychologist (played by Cheung Tat Ming) with both his investigation, and his budding romance. When the killer seems to begin eyeing Oscar, Fong must confront his fears to save her.
Not too scary, but filled with dark humor and wonderful performances from Hui, Lee, and Cheung, Nightmares in Precinct 7 proves to be a thoughtful and affecting horror drama. Besides being one of the best horror films I've ever seen, Nigtmares in Precinct 7 also has the best, most shocking ending I've ever seen. As jarring as the ending is, it also feels wholly appropriate, and gives a great end to a great film.
A Chinese Ghost Story III
Stars Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung and Joey Wong. Same as the first two films in the series, A Chinese Ghost Story III follows a young man's journey as he falls for a kind ghost that is controlled by a not so kind ghost. With the help of a swordsman-for-hire, the young man frees his love from the clutches of pure evil.
Not a scary film by any means, A Chinese Ghost Story III is heavy on humor and romance. Though there are scarier and funnier films, A Chinese Ghost Story III is not without charm, and is definitely worth seeing as Leung, Cheung, and the beautiful Wong make a good comedic team. That being said, if you haven't seen either of the preceeding films in the series, A Chinese Ghost Story and A Chinese Ghost Story II, I would recommend watching those first.
The Foul King
A supremely funny Korean comedy that stars Song Kang-Ho as an unlucky guy that finds inner strength, friendship and love after becoming a wreslter. Though it is easy to compound the film's plot into a simple sentence, it is much more than a simple comedy. Song Kang-Ho's ability to play an affable, unfortunate character is astounding, and the dramatic undertones allow the actors and the comedy to have more weight than one would expect.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
After the first Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo Del Toro had endeared audiences, critics and producers enough to make a blockbuster follow up to Hellboy. In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, and Jeffrey Tambor are back, brining the B.P.R.D (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense) to life. Unfortunately, the story is mired by unnecessary subplots, and an unsympathetic, angsty antagonist.
Hellboy II fails to live up to it's predecessor, and feels very much like Guillermo Del Toro's Greatest Hits, as the director utilizes tones, themes, actors, and even storylines from his previous films. A big disappointment, for a film that should have been a slam dunk. Perlman and the other actors, with the exception of Jones (reprising his role as Abe Sapien in body, and replacing the far superior David Hyde-Pierce as Abe Sapien in voice), manage a fine job with their characters, but the film feels like a scattershot of things that worked well in other films, but without the setup and followup in those respective films, the ideas put forth in Hellboy II fall far short, though audiences will still flock to see it, and fanboys will still love it.
Next time: Hong Kong horror thriller Gong Tau: An Oriental Black Magic, Korean rom-drama My Girl & I, HK dramedy Trivial Matters, and more.
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