Rate the last Asian movie you watched

[MR. SNE]

Originally Posted by Yugo

Chanbara Beauty.
Hot asian women in little clothing plus zombies well what else needs to be said? Okay okay its pretty good just lacks well pretty much ever thing. Ever thing is just rushed they try to get backstory for charter into the film and then bring some conclusion to each as well. And there just isnt enough time to make you really care what happens. Its pretty low budget but hey it has hot women and zombies like I said and the story is intresting what little there is. And the backstory's are also intresting of what little you see. 6/10.

I especially "liked" the double barrell shotgun that manages to fire at least 12 shots between reloads.

I tell myself all the time that I shouldn't watch this rubbish, but time and time again I find myself purchasing such films (see Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police & Girls Rebel Force Of Competitive Swimmers as examples).

[dapprman]

I've just watched The Taste of Tea which a friend bought me for x-mas. it's the sort of movie you have to be in the right frame of mind to watch, especially as its 143 minutes long.

The first 45-50 minutes I found to be quite hard work as they were disjointed and lacked cohesion, however after that it started to flow and gel at which point the time flew by. It is some what surreal and gentle in nature, plus very hard to describe, especially as some early parts are only explained towards the end (also making it hard to say much with out potentially spoiling it).

Would I recommend it ? still not sure.

[BtoFu]

Taste of Tea is a really really good movie to fall asleep to. Doesn't really sound like the kinda plaudit a film is looking to have lavished upon it (yeah you do hafta be in the mood for it I agree) but it's such a quiet movie you can let it hum in the background while you doze off. I did it a mere few nights ago!

[Yugo]

Lmao I was just about to make that point. Its a flippin shot gun but some how it fires 10 times without having to be reloaded and it can hit a kill a zombie from like a mile away, its not a rifle or a machine gun its a flipping shotgun!

[MR. SNE]

Just likeTHIS, I'm going to keep it brief.

Mother - Bong Joon-ho's return is certainly a change of pace from The Host and more in the mood of Memories Of Murder, which is a good thing. Really good, arguably better. Twists and turns aplenty and the more I think about it the more I like. Not quite perfect, but damn close. 4.75/5

Take Off - As suspected, Korea's answer to Cool Runnings, overtly sentimental but genuinely endearing and entertaining. Funny and made with such heart that it is obvious they care. Enjoyable enough and all the ingredients for a good Sunday afternoon film. 4/5

Please Teach Me English - I wasn't expecting much from this but was very pleasantly surprised. A quirky Rom-Com that has enough of the Com to forgive the Rom. 4/5

Friend - One of the biggest Korean films in Korean Box Office history (right behind D-Wars, which doesn't say much) and another steal for Third Window films. I can see the appeal to a Korean audience, but some things are lost in translation making this a good rather than great film. 3.5/5

Love, Exposure - I won't say too much as I really want to do a proper review for this as there is so much to cover. Very good, loses its way towards the end, but for a film that is just under 4 hours long it really didn't feel like it. 4.25/5

Come, Come, Come Upward & Seopyeonje - Two films from Im Kwon-taek that again I would like to go into more detail when I have time (not saying I will, but I would certainly like to). Beautifully shot and coming out a very turbulent time for the Korean film industry that both have a lot to say about the changing world at that time. 4/5 and 4.5/5 respectively.

[Yugo]

Kintaro
Well just bought the double pack on the off chance and it was a bad buy. Its a film for kids but as we know that dosent mean its going to be bad right? Well in this case it is it's quite orignal and the japanese type monsters are of course intresting and insightful if your into that kind of thing. But the CG effects arent to bad but just feel not quite right. The story is about a magic stone and evil people are after it thats about it. There are some quite good moments here and there if you can look past the kinda bad acting. 3/10.

Kintaro the millenniun curse.
The neo review pretty much says what I think of this film. But its better than the first a bit darker but pretty much all the flaws from the first follow into the secound. 4.5/10.

[Spoonmage]

Teenage hooker became a killing machine.

This has to be the single most disturbing thing I have ever come across. I had no idea what was going on, and to be honest it made absolutely no sense. I have since locked it in a box and dropped it in the middle of the ocean...

[Yugo]

Sounds good to me lol.

Big Man Japan.
Well this is one the best films iv seen of late. Just very very funny and odd will really hit home for anyone whos ever seen godzilla film or Ultraman. Its just about a middle aged superhero that no one likes. The ending is very funny but quite anit-climtic so that was the only down side really. 9/10.

[DanteDelacoix]

Got three kingdoms the other day, only worth a 3/5 imo as the film was all over the place. Was still nice to watch, but passable imo.

Just bought thirst and red cliff today (the full 4.5 hour version not the blasphemous one we were given initially) so im looking forward to these

[MR. SNE]

My Sassy Girl - This film doesn't half carry a reputation with it. Considered by many to be one of the finest examples of just how well a East Asian Rom-Com can be, and for a genre that is usually ridiculed beyond any reasonable argument, this is a tall order.

Perhaps it was the weight of this reputation that I found it a little under whelming. Sure, it is a charming enough story, boy meets girl, girl has "bunny boiler" written all over her but manages to stay on the right side of the sanity line to make their "relationship" work. However, the execution missed the mark for there to be the lingering, heartfelt emotional interest promised by so many reviews.

Having said this, perhaps one of the issues I had was the version I watched only had the 'Hard of Hearing' subtitles, thus everything was described, even the sound a gun makes (which is BANG!, according to the subtitles). This did detract from what was going on, but not to the degree that I felt in any way, shape or form emotionally connected to either Kyun Woo (Cha Tae-hyun) or The Girl (Jun Ji-hyun).

This isn't to say that My Sassy Girl isn't a good film, far from it, however, as an example of an original idea in a very over exposed genre this seemed a little flat and run of the mill. Kim Sung-su's Please Teach Me English comes to mind as one film that I saw recently that really takes a tired genre and puts a new spin on it. The Kim Ha-neul starer Almost Love is another that takes things in a more conventional but ultimately different direction.

As I have already stated, the film itself is sweet enough, the idea is sound and has enough of a grip on the viewer to warrant repeat viewings. This maybe a case of a popular choice being over exposed, but it didn't hit the giddy heights with me that it has with many others.

3.5/5