Monday, December 14, 2009

Watching Movies

Last Friday, me and my colleague went to Pavilion to catch The Storm Warriors...

It's the sequel to The Storm Riders, which was shown years ago. It is based on a comic (which has been translated into Malay - Pedang Setiawan)...


This time around, evil Lord Godless has taken over China. Cloud (Aaron Kwok) and Wind (Ekin Cheng) are not strong enough to fight him. So they went to seek more power. One decided to go evil for a power upgrade while the other did it the hard way, with the help of a martial arts master.

Of course the heroes would defeat the bad guy... but then, who's gonna stop the good-guy-turned-evil? Looks like it's gonna be a battle to the death between the two heroes...

I enjoyed watching The Storm Riders. Technically, The Storm Warriors is the better film. It obviously has a bigger budget because the film looks fantastic. The effects are great and there are even sequences that are reminiscent of 300. For a minute, I thought I was in Sparta, not China... very stylized...

But that's all there is to it I guess. I did enjoy watching the movie but something's missing. Maybe it's the fact that the main villain is disposed of half way through the movie? Maybe it's because the heroes' upgrades are too easy? Maybe it's because the female characters are not substantial enough? Anyway, now I know why Cloud's sword has a hole near the hilt... :)


On Saturday, I went to see Jump at Pavilion. It's a Chinese movie directed by Stephen Fung (Gen-X Cops) and is backed by Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer).

It stars Kitty Zhang as a village girl going to the city to follow her dreams of becoming a dancer. She and her friends got a chance to go to the city to work in a factory, while she moonlights as a cleaning lady in a dance studio. But of course, it's not that easy for her because the city folk all look down on her because she's a cleaning lady and from the village...

The movie's nice enough but there's something wrong with the dubbing. It doesn't seem to tally throughout the movie. It appears that the actors are not actually speaking the lines properly...

And, just for your info, Leon Jay Williams came in to replace Edison Chen in this movie. All of Edison's scenes had to be reshot and edited out. Yup, because of his erotic photos scandal.


Leon Jay Williams

Stephen Fung, Kitty Zhang, Edison Chen

And then, on Sunday, I went to Pavilion with a friend to catch The Princess and the Frog, a Disney traditional animation film.

It's nice to see Disney going back to its r oots. Iremember the day when Disney movies were all that and a bag of chips. Remember Aladdin? The Lion King? Beauty and the Beast?

Those were the days... TPATF is a throwback to those times when characters would break into song and dance around and stuff.

TPATF takes place in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the 1920s during the jazz age. The princess (Anika Noni Rose of The Dreamgirls fame) kisses the frog but instead of him becoming a prince like in the fairy tale, she becomes a frog! To get changed back they have to go through bayou country to find Mama Odie, a good voodoo priestess. They are, of course, guided by a firefly and an alligator who plays jazz.

This movie is a lot of fun. Nice enough to take the kids, although there are some creepy parts in it... but still, pretty entertaining... :)

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