Chonmage Purin

[Rating: 7/10]

A single mother and her son find themselves sheltering a young man, Kijima Yasube, who claims to be a samurai from the Edo period. During his stay with the family, Kijima finds that he has a knack in making pastries and decides to work as a patissier…

First impressions from the synopsis had me thinking this show is a sort of romantic comedy with a time travel twist, think Kate and Leopold, but it was actually more of a family drama with a time travel twist. Romance takes a backseat in this movie, the story focuses more on Kijima’s growing bond with the Yusas, especially young Tomoya, and how his time in the modern world gave him a chance to be inspired and dream bigger than what he would have faced as a young man in the Edo period. The characters themselves weren’t particularly stellar, but the show had the earnest family drama feel to it. The father-child cake making contest was very epic, especially the final round and how Kijima solved the problem. I would have liked to see more baking scenes, especially of him at the patisserie. Also, the ending actually managed to surprised me a bit, but it was no less heartwarming.

If you don’t mind a rather formulaic family drama then I recommend this, as a short movie you won’t have much to lose.

[Rating: 7.5/10]

The village of Daggerhorn is being terrorized by a killer wolf on a rampage. After it claims the life of an innocent maiden, the villagers decide to organize a hunt to stop the monster once and for all. However, the arrival of an infamous witch hunter brings even more alarming revelations about their supposed foe, who may be closer than they think…

As children we’ve been brought up by many versions of retold fairy tales and here is not only ‘yet another one’, but the trailer might make one think of that teenage series with the sparkly vampires, aka Twilight. I must admit that the trailer while looking interesting for it’s mystery/suspense element, put me off a little because of the obvious similarities (young people in a paranormal romance) but I ended up watching it because I am a fan of story retellings.

The story is set in a medievalesque looking village in the middle of a forest, setting up the dark and foreboding atmosphere for the show. One of the first scenes we encounter if of our main heroine as a child with her friend, trapping a cute rabbit for the purpose of making it into a fur coat. You may say that this is animal cruelty, but given the period setting of the story, this is what people would have done, even children. It was this scene which made me think that this movie was going to be different from the usual fairytale retellings. The essence of Red Riding Hood is kept, yet filled with enough new twists and turns to make it more than what I was expecting from the show. Yes there is a village plagued by wolf attacks, yes, there is a girl who will come into possession of a red cape at some point, but everything is played out in the form of a mystery. The appearance of Father Solomon, played by Gary Oldman brings us a step back in time to a Europe (presumably) plagued by the aftereffects of the Witch Trials, the villagers of Daggerhorn have to face a threat larger and more human than they imagined, and from this revelation we are plunged into a tale that could have happened during that period of history. Of course, this is no historical film neither does it claim to be, the village is fictitious, but if you’ve read any material about that period of persecution, you can imagine a similar story in source material. People who did not want to be incriminated and pointing fingers are others, spinning strange rumours of friends, family and neighbours they have known for ages due to this fear, creating a mass-havoc induced belief of devilry and supernatural craft from where there used to be none. This really happened, and this is what made this adaptation stand out from the rest.

This story is told from the view of Valerie, our main heroine whose family becomes the center of unwanted attention because the girl murdered by the wolf was her sister, who died whilst supposedly going to a secret rendezvous with the young man our heroine is pledged to marry. I do admit that I did like the tension between the two men interested in Valerie, even had their own strengths and weaknesses and honestly either would have made a good match for her. I liked that both guys weren’t totally cardboard cutouts, especially with Henry, the betrothed, who started out a bit flat and eventually proved he was a worthy candidate. The entire mystery atmosphere worked well in that I kept trying to figure out who the ‘wolf’ was. Even old grandmother wasn’t spared from being cast as a possible suspect herself. In the end, the answer was painfully obvious when I looked back at all the clues, but the slow revelations of each character constantly cast room for the slightest bit of doubt.

Is this film for everyone? Well, I think this would be a lukewarm hit or miss for most cases, while I enjoyed it, there is no denying this is Red Riding Hood with that teenage romance element that  other viewers might find unnecessary, especially for those wanting a purer adaptation of the tale. As I said before, after watching the trailer I did have my reservations as I’m not exactly into the current teenage paranormal romance craze, but I did like the unique twist to the story and turning it into a  mystery.

[Rating: 6.5/10]

Throw in and mix a messianic prophecy, an age old war between light and dark, and a bunch of people in a diner in the middle of nowhere and you get Legion.

The main reason I went to watch this movie is because I have an interest in angel/demon lore. I had read extremely mixed reviews on it, most of them were not very good I must admit, but I’m not one for turning down a movie just based on reviews so I decided to give it a go. After watching it, I have to say the premise actually had a lot of potential and there were some memorable bits, some good and not so (the old woman in the trailer was the creepiest thing in the whole film, do not like…). Okay, so let’s start with the positive: I liked the character of Michael, who was probably the saving grace of them film, that and his epic battle with Gabriel, who in contrast was rather disappointingly portrayed. I also like the image of archangels being war hardened soldiers who are still beautiful at the same time but in the chiseled, powerful way. I mean, while pretty boys are not a bad thing, in reality I think god’s army would be pretty well-formed from constantly fighting over the centuries. The bullet proof wings were very awesome. So in that aspect I think the producers were on track.

However, the main thing that griped me about the angelic host… why are only the archangels human-like and the rest of the army like some demonic spawn with no form of their own, not to mention horribly ugly and shrieky. They more reminded me of one of those zombie hoardes more than anything else, especially how they attacked their victims and their vacant walk and expressions. Also what was with the expandable limbs… I guess the people who made this film wanted a somewhat shock-and-awe-bending-convention thing going on but it just did not work for me at all. Also with regards to Gabriel and Michael, it would make more sense if their positions had been reversed. Another this that irked me was the overuse of the story of Jesus and the portrayal of God… While I consider myself a fairly religious person, poorly adapted plotlines of religious stories that don’t show any research are what make people get the wrong impressions of the religion, no matter what religion it may be. I quote this review that sums up how I feel about this aspect
Here’s the thing about God. He either needs to be treated with reverence or lampooned without mercy. Either he’s entirely responsible for all we hold dear or a goofy figment of fairy tale bamboozlement. There’s no middle ground. There can‘t be a middle ground. Legion‘s attempts to be both a goofy, foul-mouthed, cliché-ridden horror film and a judgmental, humanity-has-ruined-itself-with-free-will epic. Legion’s portrayal of a God who has totally given up hope and wants to destroy everything he has created is rather unbelievable. I also don’t like portrayals where God is all angry and wrathful. The show seemed confused as to whether it was horror or fantasy as the trailer made it look more horror.

Another reeding feature would have to be the secondary cast, as to tell the truth, Jeep had totally no personality, even his father, Bob was more developed, as well as the other patrons of the diner. Charlie, the heroine was a little better a but she didn’t do much as everyone was more or less just protecting her. I also quite liked the relationship between the Anderson family, in particular between the mother and daughter. They gave the show some psychological depth at least. I was sad at Audrey’s death. I don’t believe that they needed to kill off everyone just to get the obvious story’s point across.

Anyway, this show had quite a bit of potential but too bad it didn’t deliver as I hoped. Still, it wasn’t as bad as to sink into my list of movies I wish I didn’t spend my time on. My wallet just cries a little at paying full movie admission as I would not have minded watching this on rental dvd or as flight entertainment.

[Rating: 7/10]

Dastan is an orphan whose courageousness leads the king of the Persian Empire to adopt him into the royal family, raising him as a prince. Fifteen years later, Dastan and his brothers attack the holy city of Alamut, believed to be arms dealing with Persia’s enemies. This sets of a series of disastrous events, all seemingly linked to a mysterious dagger said to have magical powers.

This movie is one that has had quite a bit of hype to it from when it was announced. Not only because it was a film adaptation of a popular console game, but also that the cast was not ethnically authentic. The latter is an issue surrounding most movies that have ethnic groups, such as Memoirs of a Geisha, Dragonball and The Last Airbender. Admittedly in many to most cases, the cast chosen for the movie tends to fail rather spectacularly, but for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, I felt it was one of the better attempts. One area this movie really delivered in for me were the stunning backdrops and sets. The music score was also fairly decent and costumes were appropriate for the theme. The characters were actually likeable and had bits of personality in them that kept them from being cookie cutter hollywood fantasy characters. I was also plesantly surprised the script did not suffer from annoyingly cheesy lines as with the Dragonball movie. Gemma Arterton put up a good and spunky performance as Princess Tamina, and there are all these little elements that made the show more interesting and quirky, like the epic ostrich race – Alfred Molina’s character, Amar brought some nice comedy into the story and Amar’s bodyguard/friend, Seso was rather intriguing, being an assassin/knife thrower with a conscience. While I have not actually played the original games, I rather enjoyed this film and thought it was a good piece of family fun, certainly not as terrific as Pirates of the Caribbean but probably one of the better fantasy films I’ve seen since that trilogy.

[Rating: 7.5/10]

It is the late 12th century an archer in Richard’s army makes a promise to a dying knight, only to find himself saddled with a task that will seal his fate.

This is the beginning of the outlaw known as Robin Hood.

When one who is familiar with movies and english folklore and asked to picture Robin Hood, what do you think of?

Lush green forests, a group of men making merry, clad in brown and green? Robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Maybe singing at every opportunity and wearing tights. Perhaps not even men, forest animals (ala Disney). We think of an evil and sly sheriff. We think of an innocent young maiden who falls for the outlaw.

Well, all I can say is that is not that Robin Hood you will be seeing in this movie.

Here he is a simple  archer who has an adventure thrown upon him because he decides to assume the identity of a dying knight (Sir Robery Loxley) and escape safely back to England – sure he made the promise to take the sword back to said Knight’s family and such, but on the whole, he was just doing what he needed to survive. Here Robin Longstride is a middle-aged battle-worn soldier who has apparently lost the memories of his childhood. His ‘merry men’ are the band of fellow soldiers who have escaped with him, later including a group of orphans in the forests of Sherwood. Maid Marion (Lady Loxley) is a headstrong woman who has been left in charge of her war gallavanting husband’s estate; and England is bleak and gloomy yet enchanting at the same time, but definitely not all green fields and clear skies. Of the versions of Robin Hood I’ve seen, I have to admit this is probably the most realistic and believable, should there have been such a figure in history.

I feel an important thing to note is that this movie is not about Robin Hood the Outlaw, but rather how he came to be an Outlaw, for he is only exiled right at the end. It may not be clear from the trailers (though I haven’t seen all of them), but this movie focuses on the French vs. English conflict and the Crusades. There is a whole host of new characters and Prince John plays a more active role as the main villan as opposed to the Sheriff of Nottingham, who hardly appears, and everytime he does, he’s pretty much a spineless coward. Which could be quite disappointing if you were expecting a character similar to the one Alan Rickman played in the past. He is assisted by Sir Godfrey, a fictitious English knight who is secretly plotting with the French King. Interestingly, Richard also dies pretty much near the start of the film so this plot point veers quite drastically from other versions where Richard was in hiding as a mysterious knight and emerged to claim his throne back later.

The cast was really good, and while I’m not a huge fan of Russell Crowe, his chemistry with Cate Blanchett who played Marion was simply electric and built up nicely (ie, they did not fall for each other immediately and it actually had time to develop).  I really like Marion as an independant widow rather as it gave her more depth and added to the more realistic tone of the movie. Blanchett always has this wonderfully poised sort of air about her and her figure just commanded presence even though dressed in simple gowns and often caked with dirt due to the farm work and labour Marion had to do. She balanced the survivor traits and shyness of Marion very well. I like how everyone had to help out in the fields. Prince John’s character was also given a whole new angle as while he was generally as a spoiled and arrogant  bastard, he did have the odd moment where you felt nearly pitiful towards him, and when he led the army into battle against the French for a moment, I did wonder if the script would go a different way (as it already had taken a direction I had not expected from the start) , and perhaps there might be a very slight chance than he might change… Unfortunately not, but it was expected. Still, to feel something for his character after his rather standard cookie cutter versions in other adaptations, I’d say it wasn’t a bad thing. The female cast was quite strong, with John’s mother,  Queen Eleanor and his first wife, Isabella being notable. I would’ve liked to see what happened to his first wife but she disappeared after he remarried. The plot also had a lot going on to keep one interested, even without the storyline about Robin’s past, I really enjoyed the efforts at merging it with historical events and feel it would have been quite substantial.

That said, a fine adaptation of this tried and tested story. I was debating on whether to say this is ‘family friendly viewing’ as it has themes like death, war and betrayal in it, but considering movies like Harry Potter, I think it would be fine for older children as well. Probably not for you if you prefer something more ‘merry’. For History buffs and period movie fans, it is a good piece of entertainment.

2011
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

2011

After School
Antique Bakery (korean drama)
Black Swan
Burlesque
Captain America
Centurion
Chonmage Purin
Green Lantern
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2
Hello Stranger
How To Train Your Dragon
Kokuhaku/ Confessions
Koukou Debut (drama movie)
Lover’s Discourse
Never Let Me Go
Norwegian Wood
Paradise Kiss (drama movie)
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Pom Poko (anime)
Priest
Red
Red Riding Hood
Sayonara, Bokutachi no Youchien
Sucker Punch
The Jade And The Pearl
The 3 Musketeers
The Immortals
The King’s Speech
The Lost Bladesman
Tintin
Thor
Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (drama movie)
Toilet
Tron Legacy
The Ramen Girl
Women Play Twice
We Bought A Zoo
X-men First Class
Your Highness

In cinema 2010

Alice in Wonderland
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Legion
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1
Robin Hood
Sherlock Holmes
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Summer Wars
Tangled
The Prince of Persia

Other:
10 Things I Hate About You
Akakage
Billy Elliot
Caligula (1st half)
Dare
Despicable Me
DOA: Dead Or Alive
Dorian Gray
Emma (Kate Beckinsale, 1996)
Emma (Gwyneth Paltrow, 1996)
Enemy At The Gates
Falling For Grace
Hana Yori Dango (1995)
Hansel and Gretel (Tim Burton, 1982)
Happily N’Ever After
Inception
Lady Jane
Lalapipo / A Lot of People
Mansfield Park
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Mulan 2009
My Darling Is A Foreigner
Tenshi no Koi / My Rainy Days
Northanger Abbey
One Night With The King
Perfect Blue (anime)
Persuasion
Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva
Red Cliff 1 & 2 (prev. seen Australian cinema release/ condensed ver.)
Rough
She’s All That
St Trinians
Suburban Girl
The Fall of The Roman Empire
The Jane Austen Book Club
The Island
The King And The Clown
The Last Legion
The Lion King 2 – Simba’s Pride
The Pillow Book
The Princess & The Frog
The Queen
Tonari no Totoro / My Neighbour Totoro (anime)
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Watchmen
Zoolander

In Cinema 2009

2012
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Gake no Ue no Ponyo / Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
He’s Just Not That Into You
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince Part 1
Julie & Julia
Kamui
Let the Right One In
Mao’s Last Dancer
Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian
Red Cliff
State of Play
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Ugly Truth
The Young Victoria
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
X-Men Origins – Wolverine

State of Play

[Rating: 8.5/1o]

Genre: Political Thriller

Many were stunned when Congressman Stephen Collins displays a sudden fit of emotion on public tv regarding the death of his lead researcher, Sonia. It turns out that the congressman had been having an affair with her. Collins enlists his old friend Cal McAffrey,  a reporter, to assist him with investigating her death, and it is slowly revealed that Sonia’s death was linked to something bigger and more sinister than anyone could have imagined.

Wow. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a political thriller, and even longer since I’ve watched a thriller that totally captivated me from start to end, and not just in a ‘I want to see what happens’ way. Here we have a pretty powerful cast, and admittedly they were much better than I thought they would be. My favourite characters were Congressman Collins, Della Frye (the blogging reporter assistant McAffrey) and Cameron Lynne (the iron-fisted editor of the Washington Globe).  Collins, despite what he had done still managed to be sympathetic – for once I’d say it wasn’t really the guy’s fault for the affair – and I have a new found respect for Ben Affleck who carried out the role with unexpected finesse. I have been an Affleck fan for awhile, but was a little doubtful about him playing this edgier and meatier role… oh well, I’d say this movie, coupled with his performance in He’s Just Not That Into You made a strong comeback for him this year. And Della Frye was also a rather likeable character, she’s focused and driven and thankfully wasn’t cast as the annoying assistant. It was nice to see that there was someone to represent the world of blog reporting. And Helen Mirren was just delightful to watch. She has this understated presence and her character, Lynne had this dry straightforwardness, which held me from the moment she compared the pros of hiring Frye to McAffrey (she said something about Frye being cheaper but able to churnout new content every hour). In this show, characters are neither absolutely good or bad, which made it all themore enjoyable. Recently I seem to be liking shows with characters like these.

Also the show was not too long-winded and the action/dialogue scenes were well balanced, which something I find rare in political shows – the dialogue/political bits tend to be complicating, dry and wordy for me, but I didn’t have much trouble understanding what was going on in State of Play. The interesting twist at the end was good, even though it left me a little sad. Something else that held my attention, was that despite the main story being political thriller, it was also very much an insight into the process of publishing a newspaper article, from the first sparks of idea to the final product getting churned out by printing press machines. I wonder if that was deliberate, or if it’s it’s just me who thinks that. Anyhow, it was interesting since I just did a course on publishing and editing. The story also raised a bunch of interesting ethical issues about how decisions are made as to what goes into the article and how a investigations should be carried out.

A solid, well-paced political thriller that isn’t too heavy on the politics and can be enjoyed by the general mystery fan as well.

Let The Right One In
[Rating: 7/10]

Oskar is a meek twelve-year-old boy who often gets bullied. Secretly he’s into macabre and violent things. One day a middle-aged man and a young girl move into the apartment next door around the same time a string of bloody murders happen in the neighbourhood, and as Oskar befriends the girl, he comes to know out the dark secret she habours.

First-off, let me say that this film is not for everyone. It is about vampires but it is not your typical vampire story, and secondly some of the violent scenes involve kids and may be disturbing to some people.

This is the first swedish film I’ve watched to my knowledge, and it was actually pretty good. The setting of the show is very bleak and dark, but it’s given since it’s a perpectually wintry sort of place and it sets the right mood for the show. It is not action-packed but very subtle in the way information is revealed. For example I have a suspicion that Hakan used to be in Oskar’s shoes a long-time ago, except that time has caught up with him and he has aged whereas Eli remained a child. Vampires are not portrayed here as an evil race but there is no sweet-coating the fact that they have to drink human blood to survive or they’ll start to get druggie-like withdrawal symptoms. Also I think that this is the first time I’ve seen a movie deal with the question – what happens if a vampire sets foot into a place they’ve not been invited into? As a character I found Oskar rather disturbing on many levels, even compared to Eli, Hakan and the bullies. I did not understand his ‘die you pig’ scene or macabre obsession, although it may be that he’s just supressing his anger towards the bullies. He took the fact that Eli was a vampire very nonchalantly, too nonchalantly I think, although it could be due to his strange quirks and the fact that children are probably more willing to believe in fantastical creatures rather than adults, who’d think it was a lie or just freak out (going in vein of other types of similar stories). And ooh, the scene where Eli savagely attacks the bullies at the end was very brutal even though they didn’t show what happened – I guess I got squicked since they’re still kids. I expected her to attack Jimmy at least, but the others? Hm, I’d say this show plays on the what is right and wrong issue quite a bit.

That said, the cast was pretty outstanding, especially the two main actors. Eli was probably my favourite character of the lot. I could feel her convinctions clashing as she ended up reluctantly letting Oskar befriend her and the scenes with the Rubik’s Cube were cute, so were the scenes in their budding relationship that provided a nice balance with the gloominess and murders. Honestly I thought this would be more of a horror show because of the promotional material (the posters mostly) and generally horror where kids are involved seem to be much more sinister so I avoid them. But I’m glad that I actually caught it because it was more of a normal drama with a mystery element rather than horror. Also it was quite unique to what I have seen so far. I don’t watch a ton of arthouse or european films although this hasn’t really converted me yet, but it was definitely something different.

[7/10]

Genre: War, Drama

Seita is a teenage boy who loses his mother to an air-raid that destroys their home as well.  As a result he is forced to look after his kid sister, Setsuka on his own. The pair end up staying with their distant and widowed aunt who is struggling to survive as well, but she has her own agenda…
Firstly I’m quite glad I have yet to see the original animated film version because hearing how good it is, I bet my view on this 2008 live action remake would be coloured by opinions on the anime as well. Though it’s a rather slice-of-ww2life show, the pacing is good and the character interactions are pleasant enough.The scene where Seita finds out his mother has died and hides his emotions from his sister by running around in circles pulling the cart was very poignant. Seita is a heartwarming character who manages to put up a rather calm and collected front despite his situation and his asthma problem.   Another scence that tugged at the heartstrings was when Setsuka sees a dead body on the beach and thinks the man is asleep, and Seita just tells her to look away and continues cleaning her body.

About the aunt, although she is just another person trying her best to survive in the worn-torn country, I couldn’t really stand her. She did refuse to take in Seita and Setsuka at first, but only changed her mind when she saw they were carrying some hard-to-get foodstuff and materials with them. And she blatantly lied about not knowing their mother, and even tried to sell their mother’s things. Even though she had her reasons, she should have just discussed the situation with Seita first, out of respect for his mother. I can’t say much about Setsuka because she is too young to understand what’s going on but Seita displays lots of patience with her. The scene with Setsuka pretending the stones were food was really sad… it was so harrowing to see her wither away like that… The two sibling’s little hidey hole was rundown but quaint. And the fireflies were very pretty.

For the length of the film it was a good watch. I recommend it to people who like war films without it being too bloody and violent and want more of the common people’s perspective. I’d have liked to see what happened in the end though. Maybe I’ll watch the anime version sometime since this was not bad.

[Rating: 8.5/10]

Genre: Romantic Comedy

While the movie revolves around the romantic entanglements of nine individuals, the main story is about a woman who is unlucky at finding love and ends up getting a dose of reality from an unlikely source.

The first thing that comes to mind as I search for the right words is Love Actually. Why? Because all of the nine main characters are connected to each other in some way, although I must commend that the connections were much better established than in Love Actually. I didn’t expect there to be more than one story when I heard about the movie, but I’d glad it turned out that way, because I loved the other stories much more than the main one. It was just that the ‘main girl’, Gigi, was pretty annoying. Clingy and in denial of being clingy, and at times she was a little stalkerish. But let’s not dwell on what I didn’t like~ My favourite story was of Beth and Neil. The proposal at the end was so cute, and Neil was just the perfect boyfriend… the scene at her family home was so touching! If I were Beth I think I wouldn’t mind not getting married. He was just so comitted to her and sweet, and it was one of Ben Affleck’s best performances ever~ My other favourite character was Conor, Anna was just so selfish I was so glad she didn’t end up with him or Ben, even if Ben is a jerk. It was quite disappointing because at first I was hoping he’d patch up his marriage with Janine. Janine was probably my favourite female character after Beth. She remained collected and strong after what Ben put her through (the scene with the poor construction worker was funny), and I was glad the script let her remain a single mother instead of matching her up with someone at the end. The scene where Janine shifted all of Ben’s clothes downstairs was kinda epic. You go girl! I found the movie was actually pretty realistic in depicting relationships. It was a romantic comedy yes but rather toned down for one (didn’t really exaggerate things) and was steering more towards a drama about relationships with romance intwined. The script was also very sharp and funny. Drew Barrymore had some of the best lines in the film, but it was a pity her character didn’t get enough screen time to develop. I’d be interested to see what became her meeting with Conor~ One of the best romantic films for the year I reckon~