Karma Kula Mystic Warrior is a new martial arts web series that has great action and adventure, and especially the third episode blew me away with Rena Owen's part. It rocks and it keeps getting better. I think you guys will really like it. Check it out, trust me, it's good

So today I went to the cinema to see Johnnie To's latest offering, Exiled. Given the pretty unanimous praise for this film, and my general love of To, I was expecting plenty of good things. However, I have to say I was thoroughly disappointed in this movie.

To me, the film is just a mess. For starters it goes on far too long. When they ended up at the beach I thought it might end (and dear lord wasn't it convenient where they ended up!); after the van raid I thought it might end; but it kept on going. The final third could have been trimmed down substantially and the film would have been a hell of a lot better for it.

What surprised me most about this film was the startling way that this film was so UN-Johnnie To-like. The high amount of action isn't something To usually goes in - almost all of To's films are relatively light on the action front until the climax, and are the better for it. Johnnie To is not Hong Kong era John Woo. Action choreography isn't his strong point. Gripping storylines, such as The Longest Nite or Election are his real forte.

He can do action set pieces well, no doubt - Beyond Hypothermia and Breaking News prove that. Yet again though, the real big set pieces are limited to the beginning and/or climax. In Exiled I think To tries to have too much action and he simply can't do enough of it to a decent standard. What's truly bizarre is the way To eschews his usual, relatively realistic approach to gunfights for a much more over the top, unrealistic style - the shooting of the can and the door at the start for instance. I never thought I'd see something so dumb in a serious To film.

The editing seemed atrocious too. At the doctor's I swear I've never seen a film where so many people shoot at nothing. A vast majority of the action in this film tended to be the viewer just seeing an individual shooting - we don't who or what they're shooting at - they're just shooting and it really did not make for exciting viewing. The entirety of the cinematography seemed incredibly false too. It's as if To deliberately thought, "I want to make this appeal to Western audiences, so lets have lots of night time, low light shots that will make the action difficult to see." I was not impressed by the cinematography at all (which is a shame because Too Many Ways To Be Number 1 is full of inventive shots).

The red mist - that was supposed to be blood - was also terrible. Why Johnnie? Why? Why did you feel the need to add this? It looked stupid and you've never had a need for it before. I have no problem with people bleeding buckets - I love the bloody hallway from A Better Tomorrow II's climax for instance - but this red mist everyone sprayed was just lame.

Allow me to get into spoiler territory here. Another hugely unrealistic part of the film, and which again was so very unlike Johnnie To, was Wo's death. The guy has already been shot a couple of times by the time the group goes to the doctor. Then he's dumped out the window and falls five, six, seven, maybe more, stories down to the concrete below, is then shot a further three or four times, and he's still alive after all that? Oh, and someone please tell me the bit with him the car after all this wasn't real because that was really dumb too.

Other dumb bits - the incredibly lame attempts to make our guys look macho? Why did... whoever he was, always have to YELL whenever they were all in the car? Every scene in the guy he did it and it just did not seem justified. Then there was the smoking after the van raid, and then there was the excessively chugging of spirits near the end. Was that all just a sad attempt to show that our heroes are REAL MEN? It seemed so forced and unnecessary to me.

My biggest complaint in this film is the writing. Did To think having his characters say so little would make them appear deep or something? I did not give a toss at the end because I really didn't feel anything for a single character throughout the entire film. The writing gave me almost no reason to feel for anyone. Two of the five "good guys" have zero personality apart from "I like whores" and "I like guns" and the other three barely had more than that. The Longest Nite did an excellent job in establishing characters and sympathy for our not-too-likeable leads, Tony Leung, and Lau Ching-wan. It's knowing what To is capable of, and seeing how desperately he fails in this film, that makes Exiled such painful watching.

I guess that brings me on to A Hero Never Dies which Exiled felt like some poor rip-off of. AHND is my second favourite HK film (WKW excluded) and it's an awesome heroic bloodshed film, which is more John Woo than John Woo in its themes. It does everything right. It has a real good final shoot out, thrilling small scale actions pieces - the sniping bit for example; there are heroes we care about, partners who share a genuine bond, and a simple coherent plot. Exiled just felt like the complete inverse of this. Johnnie To returns to heroic bloodshed and just makes a complete mess of a film.

There are more minor details I could get into but I've ranted enough. I did like the final bit of the film with the photobooth picture - I finally thought "Nice idea, Johnnie" - but so much of this film just wasn't very good. It wasn't as bad as the terribly nonsensical Election II but it was bad enough and both are films I wish To hadn't made.

Yet I know everyone else seems to love Exiled so flame away or let me know why you think this film happens to be so great.

By the way, I went and saw The Departed last night (it's based on Infernal Affairs, if any of you haven't been paying attention) and it was pretty damned awesome. Has anyone else seen it? How do you think it stacks up to the source material?

I'm selling a copy of Iron Monkey on ebay, if anyone's interested.

This is one of the funniest "so bad ,its good", movies i have ever seen in my life .
Its also dubbed into English ,which normally i hate ,but the translations are also, so bad ..
I mean hysterical ...

http://www.kungfucinema.com/reviews/deadlysnailvskungfukillers.htm

Yet another reason to buy the Xbox 360.


Chow Yun-Fat continues his role as Inspector Tequila in Stranglehold, due out this fall.

Check out your local video game store for the new issue of Game Informer for more screenshots and details.

Oi mates. Could everyone do me a favor and reccomend to me some movies about one armed swordsmen? (I guess it could branch into other physical defects too, but I'm most interested in the one armed swordsman archetype.)

Hello, minna-san. I am newish here, been a lurker for a while. I am a huge fan of the asian-trash scene, and have been for quite some time now. I got into it with a bunch of bootleg VHS tapes from HK with Chow Yun Fat (The Killer, A Better Tomorrow, etc.) as well as a bunch of the "Young and Restless" VCD's. My first DVD I ever purchased was The Killer. From there it blossomed, and I introduced as many people to it as I could, being a lesser-known medium back then. Current favs are Ichi the Killer, IZO, the new Zatoichi (Asano and Takeshi), Stormriders, the new Zu Warriors, Old Chow Yun Fat movies, My Schoolmate the Barbarian, most Nicholas Tse flicks, and more. Of course, I own all the prerequisite Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Sonny Chiba and Gordon Liu flicks (just found a SUBBED version of the BIG BOSS, rad!)Just wanted to drop a line and say hello.

Hey there

thought you guys might be interested in this Green Destiny replica on e-bay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6583601101&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1


I have a Honzo replica up for auction too



if this kind of post isn't allowed here, I apologize

Help yourselves, I'm flattered if you like them! Keyword credit is always appreciated.

Dandie

It's a Korean film but it kicked serious ass. It's fairly recent and I had to get the Region 3 DVD but totally worth the $29. Great action, extremely sad but emotional story and awesome music. Tons of gore too, highly recommended.

In case any of you haven't heard, John Woo and Chow Yun Fat are working with Midway Games to create a videogame that will effectively be the sequel to Hard Boiled.

Midway and John Woo Announce Stranglehold

This one is from "A Better Tomorrow"



As always, feel free to use, comments/concrit appreciated! :)

Dandie

Hey there!

I made a couple of mini movie icons of CYF. One is from Peace Hotel, the other is from A Better Tomorrow. These are my first ever mini movies, so constructive crit is welcomed. Please help yourselves if you like them. Credit is always appreciated in your keywords/icon comments so others can find me for icons.

Hi.. I'm new to the community :D I love action movies, martial arts, etc.. I was wondering what new releases there are now in Canada preferably that's really good.. I have House Of Fury and loved it.. I have the New Police Story, The Twins Effect II, Hero, Initial D, Leave Me Alone, Infernal Affairs I, II, III, didn't really like Kung Fu Hustle and I think those are all the new movies I have.. I'm just wondering if there is anything else that was really good that I missed out on that I could check out.. Thanks in advance for all your help :D

all right.

Infernal Affairs trilogy. Favorite one and why? I go for 2, because of how emotionally wrenching it was.

Hello! im new to the community! but surely not new to hong kong cinema. I've got a HUGE collection... I'd have to say my favorite movies by far must be...

Dreadnaught
Millionaire's Express
FireDragon
Bride with White hair
Iron monkey
Ah Kam
Crouching tiger Hidden Dragon
Cop on a mission
Executioners *long live Anita Mui*
Theres more im sure, just gotta re think em :)


Im not a huge hero fan, it was okay, but no crouching tiger hidden dragon. Im not chinese so i dont feel the patriotic feel that the chinese may have felt at the end of the movie. It reminded me SOOO much of Tai-Chi Master... *god bless the return of maggie Cheung*

So anyways Hi!