(1990)
Dir - Ching Siu-tung
Overall: GOOD
Identically structured as the first A Chinese Ghost Story with most of the cast and creative team returning, the aptly named A Chinese Ghost Story II is a rudimentary sequel that tells a mere variation of the same story while trying to up the circumstances. Leslie Cheung's Ning Choi San undergoes another arc where he starts at rock bottom, (this time being wrongly imprisoned and nearly executed), and through a series of characters being mistaken for other characters, then reunites with a woman who looks just like the ghostly one that he fell in love with before, whom he now falls in love with again of course. Plus lots of kung-fu battles that defy the laws of physics, giant demons who make people gooey somehow, and one random musical number that is just as jarring as the one in the previous film. Funnier and more inventive though, the characters are well-drafted, with actor Wu Ma even getting shoehorned back in and providing the movie with is most potent line "Good deeds fade like the wind. No matter what you've done, it's soon forgotten". So, just as this could be its own beginning apart from the entry proceeding it, the characters once again set off anew for another trial of ghost hunting shenanigans at the end of it that will leave the events here as a distant and romantic, supernatural-battling memory.
(1996)
Dir - Herman Yau
Overall: MEH
What stands out the most in Herman Yau's unapologetically exploitative Ebola Syndrome is how pokerfaced the presentation is. Not once does the film give a knowing impression that it is in on its own ridiculousness, but the level of unwholesome sleaze displayed throughout can only be intentional. From the opening, vile scene, it is clear that this is not going to be a virus outbreak movie in any conventional sense. It ends up instead being a depraved look at Anthony Wong's deplorable antagonist who rapes and murders on repeat until going out in a Scarface-worthy manner that perfectly fits his unflinching wickedness. The film makes a couple of plot mistakes like said main character randomly seeming interested in settling down with a former fling and her kid after he has been nothing but a reckless lunatic for a full hour beforehand. Also the occasional English dubbing is even worse than it usually gets. Besides that though, the film works with all of its trash components in place and the very unschlocky tone makes it all seem more horrific than silly, even if it is in actuality much more the latter. It is still a bit too harsh of a watch to honestly recommend though, with more than several scenes being highly unnecessary for anyone but the most devout connoisseurs of bad taste.
(1999)
Dir - Shinya Tsukamoto
Overall: GOOD
Nearly everything going on in Shinya Tsukamoto's Gemini, (Sōseiji), works on an intriguing level. This is in part because it is such an unmistakably different movie coming from the filmmaker behind the Tetsuo: The Iron Man series, but also because the director's unpredictable quirks still find their way into something that is otherwise calmly dark and gradual. There are just as many slow, nearly silent, dread-building moments as there are outright disorienting hand-held camera ones being cut at a hectic pace. Throw in some perplexing soundtrack choices at times and some characters even breaking into dance routines, and it is clear that Tsukamoto still favors the bizarre in place of conventional, movie-making mannerisms. Helped by a strong, dual performance from former boy band-turned actor Masahiro Motoki, the story works either in spite of or because of the peculiar presentation as we get more insight through an increasing number of flashbacks about how one can become a monster depending on the circumstances granted them through a problematic class system. Or that could be more of a secondary concern to just making a weird, clashingly atmospheric horror tale. In any event, with the strangeness comparatively toned-down, (or at least recalibrated), it is still hard to tell where Tsukamoto is concerned.
No comments:
Post a Comment