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Reviews
Siu Lam juk kau (2001)
Not a kung-fu flick - well, more than one anyway.
In a town where doing 3 to 6 films in a year can be the norm for a star, and Stephen Chow is unequivocally the star amongst the stars of Hong Kong (I counted 10 films with him in it for 1991), quality is generally not a consideration. From some brilliant comedy in his earlier days, the Hong Kong audience had to suffer the low quality output of Chow's films over recent years. Then all of a sudden, there was a two-year drought of his creations. But now, lo and behold, the comedy king is back!
First and foremost, Shaolin Soccer is NOT a kung-fu movie. So to all you martial arts buffs out there drawn by the `Shaolin' brand name, be warned! Oh sure, there's fighting and a whole lot of talk about mystical Shaolin styles, but it's all a backdrop to what the movie is all about. And so what IS it about, you say? Well, it's really about taking a poke at movie clichés (especially martial arts movies) with very clever usage of well-known cinematic moments. So if you're well up on your Hong Kong kung-fu flicks and Steven Spielberg type blockbusters, then you'll find this movie a hoot.
Stephen Chow's brilliance not only shines through via his visual display of some fantastically repackaged slapstick, but also his dialogue is some of the cleverest I've ever heard from him. And how does one translate a country bumpkin Cantonese accent? So those of you who have to suffer the atrocious subtitling, sorry, cause you're missing half the film. A fellow moviegoer mentioned that he felt Stephen Chow's directing has matured. Well, Chow certainly matured by taking his time with this movie.
I took my parents to watch Shaolin Soccer (they usually prefer Trois couleurs: Bleu types or the latest at the theatre) and guess what!. they thought it was the best movie that they had seen in 2001 - same for me!
Qingse ditu (2001)
Thumbs up to the cameraman ... only.
A ruthless editor would have done the film far more justice as it was really much longer than was needed to get the story across. Not wanting to give anything away, I have to say that the angle on Nazi gold (this comes up halfway through the film) seems totally out of context to the exploration of a part of the Hong Kong homosexual lifestyle. Although the story tries to put justification to it, I'm really not convinced - but then, maybe I just didn't get it. The acting left a lot to be desired, but they were apparently amateurs and so hence the result. It was particularly embarrassing when Cheri Ho delivered a long monologue that would have been difficult for the most seasoned actor to play. The director was really asking too much from the talent. There were rare clever comical moments that raised some laughter and appreciation from the audience, and I was impressed with what can be achieved using a DV Camera, so my hat off to the cinematographer.