Reviews by Asiana

In 2010 at 1st October, the cinema had 10 movies from mainland of China to celebrate the Chinese national day, so me and my friends went there and watched Last Kung Fu Monk. It's mixed culture movie made by mainland China but filmed in some locations of New York but that's only one third of the movie, the rest seems to be filmed in Chinese locations. Starting more family friendly at beginning but becomes more tougher during half time.



Li Long is a former Shaolin monk who received news of his brother in New York. He learns his brother is dead and the only family member he has left is the brothers son Michael. Li Long choose to abandon all his training and move to America. Sarah the social worker helps him settle in and his pen friend Dave suggest they should open up a Kung fu school together so he can stay and work. But the plan backfire when Dave introduce Li to their school sponsor who turns out to be a Russian Mafia Boss who wants the money back. But when Li knock down some of his goons, the Russian mafia boss see Li Long has potential and want him to fight for him in an underground fight club. But when he refused the boss kidnap one of his students to make him fight.


Is the movie really bad as people said back in 2010?

Absolutely not, but it has a misleading title. As Last Kung Fu Monk it sounds like a stereotype type Kung fu movie, but it's a drama with Kung fu but it's not about Shaolin or any kind of art, it's more of a stranger in a new environment. But the movie does has a lot of flaws and could have told story better.


Actors vs their characters.

Many people said there were bad acting, and yes there are some weak acting but actually not all of them are bad, most them are very good. But it's not the acting that's the problem, it's the character who is written poorly. The boy Michael played by the cute Major Curda, eventhough Curda is a charming boy but his role Michael is more like a spoiled brat in the movie and never a focus eventhough he is suppose to be the reason why the monk is in New York. Dave the pen friend is suppose to be a former student of Li but he seems not to know anything about martial arts nor does he seems to be interested in Kung fu, just an ordinary fan who thinks hanging out with the tough guys to be cool but was probably unintentional. And the girl Kristen Dougherty who play the role of Sarah starts very good as the social worker who is concerned over Michael but then she change to an eye candy person and suddenly becomes a love interest of the movie which seems forced. And then there is the Villain. But I must say the actor Johan Karlberg who play the Russian mafia boss is actually pretty good, he is probably one of the best foreign actor in Chinese movies, but he has so little to do in this movie. Most of the time his character is in 3 scenes, two of them he doesn't say anything, just eather cheering when his fighters win or get irritated if his fighter is losing, but in his 2nd scene he is very cruel, kidnap a student and really show he is not a man to mess with, but we never know the reason why he is like that or why Dave borrowed money from him, and why did he borrow money since he seems to want them back, again the actor who play him is really good but his role just a typical Disney greedy villain. Speaking of the student who got kidnap, that's Mei played by the famous Hu Sang, and this isn't her first role but she is barely used in the movie, the only time one notices her is when she kidnaps, other scenes with her are too quickly if you blink you miss her and same with the brother character who is suppose be over protective of her but he is a no need character, he doesn't develop, he doesn't add anything, he is just there too exist and Mei is just there to be the damsel to be rescued. And the final fighter in the club or the final boss is just there to be the final fight and his character is just Crazy but now reason for it. Only the monk is well developed played by Peng Zhang Li who did the great movie The Resistance, his character easy to follow from the top. But my favorite character is believe me or not but that is Officer Cusamano played by Jonathan Sollis, I love his character, a funny police officer who is there to be a comic relief, his Line What's a monk allways makes me laugh. So all in all, the actors are ok but cannot help the poorly written characters, 1/5.


How is the story?

It's a drama with Kung Fu, the story is interesting about a monk adopting his life in New York City, but then it change to comedy and then it change to serious and bloody when the fight club starts, it's an interesting story but it doesn't if it wants to be a wow movie or a just so so movie, but the good news is there is a Tamil dubbed version of the movie, with more music and better written dialogs and cut differently as less talk more action, plus it's fun to see the third language in Singapore has their version of the movie eventhough the original has more story telling when the Tamil is just martial art. 2/5.


How is the Martial art?

Honestly, the best martial art scenes ever. Hear me out, when you look at Hong Kong movies like Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen and so on most of them perform good but they are not feeling realistic, it's just a wrestling match that you know it's fake. But this movie really feel perhaps too real sometimes, when fight club fights it's really epic martial art and really quickly martial artist specially the final fighter the crazy guy is really quick, but it's not 5/5 because some scenes looks like been used wires, but most of the fight is really good it's a shame the martial art fans has to wait til the half of the movie till the good action starts, but when it starts it's really wow. 3/5


How is the movie all in all.

It's not great as The Resistance movie but it's well done and a great movie all in all despite its flaws, and since now we live in a world with over the top CGI and a lot of explosions and Hong Kong movies that just make Kung fu scenes but no story, this movie actually is a guilty pleasure, and is one of the movies I like to watch from the 2010s so I give it a 6/10.

  

Released in 2008 Flavour of Girlhood introduced the art of Chinese opera and a young girls struggling of reality with her father who started a new life. Filmed in 2006 with a young Hu Sang at age 16 was her debut into acting before she became known for Youth Assembly, The Resistance , Fatal Invitation, and Young Sherlock.

At the school holiday, a young teen Qing Xiang decide to leave the big city and move to her father in the country side. Despite she still missing her mother who has passed away she wants to learn what it's like to be a woman. She befriended a single father police officer who she is a babysitter to his son. While she do well in the country side and feel more happy, she learn the shocking news that her father has moved on and are inlove with a Chinese opera singer and plan marriage. And worse news is it's her best friend He Xiutian.


The movie is well educated about life. Many kids go through when a parent has moved on and has a new lover, many feel uncomfortable about it and which is understandable. But what the movie teaches is parents are human too, and like a human they can't stand single forever because they lost someone. And it also teach how to move on with life if you lost somone. For morale it's 4/5.


Despite its Hu Sang first movie, she perform great. The only thing that one can tell it's her first it's her age, but despite that she is really good. Other actors too is good as well, Jing Kei Liang is convincing as the new wife of father but at the same wants to keep friendship with the daughter. 4/5.


Some youth will maybe find a movie like this boring, its most for education and understanding and not entertaining. But for movie lovers has a lot to love about this movie and I love the environment of the south china countryside. And I love water so the movie is a 8/10.

Awwww the 90s the years of the last epic moments (don't worry some these days still got it but very few) and Greenwater heroes or Splash to Victory brings all those memories back, with colorful telephones, short hairs and awesome outfits. Greenwater heroes was intentionally a commercial series for the Olympic in swimming in Barcelona 1992 but became more and I'm proud to say it's from Singapore.

The story is about two sisters Yan Ni and Pan Pan who are part of a swim competition to one day represent Singapore for the Olympic Games in Barcelona 1992. Their father who is a carpenter only want Pan Pan to proceed this dream and want Yan Ni to stay out of it since she is a has been and out of shape  and want her to find a job instead. But their coach insists of Yan Ni to continue her Dream because he sees she still got potentials. However the rest of the team member bully her and even makes Pan Pan uncomfortable of her continuing. Will Yan Ni quit or will she continue no matter what happens?

What I love about this series is the 90s cliche that I grow up with, the colorful big telephones, the haircuts , the fashion , the music, both opening and ending songs are stunning. It brings back a lot from the 90s all 90s fans will love this.

But the tv Series has a lot of great morale for example when Pan Pan break her legs, she get through it and keep fighting and get rewarded, so the morale is no matter what happens allways keep your spirit up no matter anything. It's a good morale.

Also I love the characters. Eventhough is strange the father is played by an actor who like he is same age as his daughters. It's still believable characters. I specially love the coach, he look tough but he is a nice guy and want to help his team members at all cost.

All in all it's a great 90s series from Singapore and I give it 10/10 hope a new DVD release will come soon.

Space sheriff Sharivan is the tv series sequel of space sheriff Gavan. It first aired first time in 1983 and is the inspiration of robocop but in space.

A space ranger named Den Iga is attacked by a monster called Buffalo Doubler, a member of the Space Mafia Makuu. Den is seriously injured in the attack when he is found by Gavan, who takes him to Planet Bird for medical assistance. Qom, leader of the Galactic Union Police is impressed by Den's courage and he becomes Space Sheriff Sharivan. Sharivan is assigned to Earth and is partnered together with Lily from the planet Bird as he deals with the threat of the Madou Space Crime Syndicate on Earth.


Remember all your robot toys and cartoons like transformers and MASK and defenders of earth and even Bioman or in USA power ranger, Sharivan and Gavan started it all with live action martial art, Star Wars action, mildly violence for kids but can still be seen as an adult age and have also some inspiration to Robocop. If it wasn't For Sharivan and Bioman we wouldn't have heroes like those with robots and for that I give it 5/5.

Also I like Hiroshi Watari as Sharivan, this is his first leading role and he performed very well, usually action actors are not that talent but Hiroshi make the character feel alive and you feel he is Sharivan, for him and other actors and actresses I give another 5/5.


Even though it's early 80s the series has aged well and the custume of Sharivan is really shine like rubies it feels great when everything is real and cgi effect, I salute space sheriff sharivan with 10/10.

This movie is a sad story about never give up. Directed by Yang Yizhi who started with his career as an assistant for the Hong Kong movie "Deadly Target" and was involved with creating great films like "A single child's Story ", "The Resistance ", and "Dream of Love". But in the later years he has been involved with crazy and almost the room feeling horror movies like "The Zombie Village saga", "In Wild", and "The Sly Shadow Records" and also he made a lot of crazy thrillers like "Prostitute Killer" "An Evil Soul", and the two village girl movies. Dumb Child is actually same drama story as his first film. About a young girl who later must learn to be on her own too soon.

A young mute girl named Ya Ya is not allowed to enter school due to she cannot talk and other kids bully her and worry she might be a plague. A young teacher comes to her small town to help teaching despite her boyfriend is against it. She becomes friends with poor Yaya and help her into school. Sadly after a while the teacher start to get sick, and losing her voice. Later she finds out she is dying. Everyone blame Yaya for the teachers sickness but the teacher refuse to give up on Yaya even if it cost her life.


China has a lot of beautiful landscape and rich cities but it also has a lot of poor societies, Dumb Child reflects the poor society very well and also bring good morals to the message. Even though we don't see many mainland movies and it's difficult to find a DVD copy it's still a great movie, I wachted through youku.com and I am glad I saw this film. As a drama 3/5.


However I don't think it was necessary to make the teacher dying, maybe temporarily sick is one thing, but make her dying was a little too harsch, because the importance of the movie was to never give not what background or handicap one has, mixing it with death is untasteful and unnecessary, and also I don't know what's her boyfriend problem is, he seems to love her but leave her as soon he finds out she wants to stay in the small town and then come back again, it was difficult to get the idea from his side and I give it 2/5.

Dumb child is a good movie with a good message and strong story, but not strong executed with some characters and mixing with moral story with dying is a little untasteful, but however it is a good movie all in all 5/10.

Karate kid, beauty and the beast, ghost in the shell, what do they have in common? They were made in the 80s or 90s and in 2010s it get poorly remakes. And what I mean by that is not a remake but exactly same story but not give a damn of respect the first version. This movie is no exception.

A young girl called Major is waking up from a horrible dream only to realize her knightmare has begun. She is now dead, a ghost inside a doll or a robot. One year later she is recruited with Batou with section 9 to eliminate the biggest enemy hacker Kuze. But is her really the enemy?

Is this white washing movie?

Not really, I prefer to call it an Americanized movie based on Japanese manga and anime. But it still doesn't make it a good movie. Specially with comparison to the classic 1994 movie with thyou same title.

What makes it so bad?

It's not bad, just not carefully done. Even though I love Scarlet Johanson as an actress, she is not convincing as a doll, but she not the only one. The whole cast is unbelievable, for a high budget movie like this one can expect at least half good, but no one is doing a good job except Takeshi Kitano but he is alone on the field the rest is mix of bad, not convincing enough or amateurish. My question is what's going in Hollywood? The biggest industry in the world and this I see the best? I hope not.

But still I give it 5/10 because the special effects are stunning and I guess those are the money went too. And it has a lot of action that action lovers will adore but as a ghost in the shell fan, it's not worth it, watch the 1994 version instead and it's sequels.

[Link removed - login to see] Well the goods news is this movie is not white washing as people claimed it was, after all it was only 3 white guys (two Caucasians and one Latin to exact) but it seem to suffer of monster washing instead, or as my friends would call it dynasty warriors vs ailens.


William is a thief looking for gun powder in the east with his amigo Tovar. While searching in the middle of nowhere they get attacked by mysterious creatures some sort of monsters. But luckily they got rescued by the powerful army of the Great Wall. There they meet another foreigner Ballard who is also searching for the powder, will they betray the army who rescued them?


Is it bad as people claim it to be?

Yes it's bad but not bad as people claimed it to be white washing. It's more bad that is a guilty pleasure , but I don't understand the idea with the monsters and the effect was poorly done, if they were dragons I could accept it better, but alien creatures with eyes on the shoulders that is a kindergartner level of script idea.

I give it though 3 out of 10 though because it has it moments but too ridiculously bad story.

If you were a kid in the 1990s then congratulations you were in the street fighter genre that made martial art look cool and mix with Star Wars Jedi force, we played the games with Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Guile, Zangief, Blanka, Honda, Dahlsim and many more in 1992. Two years later came an epic movie based on the games and the genre of Street fighter began.


A 26 year old vagabond Ryu is searching for the good opponent around. One match he fights the muy Thai legend Sagat and accidentally car his chest for life. But what Ryu doesn't know is the battle was a test of his skills calculated by the robots owned by General Vega. Vega wants to find the greatest street fighters and brainwash them to become his loyal soldiers. An interpool agent Chun Li team up with the revengeful pilot Guile to put an end to Vegas plans.


How is the Japanese original?
Superb, the music and songs get the feeling of the 2nd street fighter game world warrior, at the same time it mixes what was known in the 90s background. The voice acting is well chosen for the characters and make them feel alive. A total 5/5.


How is the American dubbing?
Rubbish. No care about what their doing, just add in some stereotyped heavy metal music that's not a jackass about street fighter, voice acting is not well fitted for the characters and the dialogues are changed to kindergarten playground script, avoid this dubbing at all cost. 0/5.


How are the songs?
The Japanese are box office hits. T. Kimuna made the epic battle song between Vega and Ken and Ryu, plus the ending song Good luck is a great 90s ending music as we are use too. T.Kimuna was a big name at that time so it's cool to hear her voice for this movie. 2 extra points.


The infamous shower scene?
Oh yes , back then it was a lot of controversy about Chun Li and her shower scene. In the original version Chun LI's private parts were shown butbwhat people don't know is in Buddha culture including Japanese. And woman's body is shown as a sin but as a natural gift for mankind, that's why they show it a lot in their movies not for perversion but for honor the woman Hood. For example many westerners gets shocked by seeing a naked woman in anime and even more shocked with age difference. But that's because in Japan and some other Asian culture a woman's body isn't a sin but a gift a woman gave life to us and by showing them nude old or young is just an honor it a perversion, same with men's body but nobody cares about men right so no one complaining. Anyhow this scene is however make an epic exiting scene while she shower we feel there is somebody there staring at her or waiting for her to come out and we know something bad will happen then bang an epic fight between her and Balrog, it's an intense scene and get xtra three points.


How is the movie in general?
One of the best, classic 90s and never forgotten. Great Japanese movie that put Japan into the box office map and avoid the American dubbing as a plague, 10/10.

You Ge is in my mind perhaps the most boring actor I have ever seen, but he makes a lot of interesting movies, Sacrifice is heart best story about a father who must do the unthinkable to protect his kingdom.

Chen Ying is a doctor for new born babies and medicine man. He helps princess Zhuang with the birth of their new born prince as his wife give birth to a baby boy. But the princess has a lot of enemies and traitors will reveal itself and his name is Admiral Tu. Tu Kills the princess and her family and In front of Chen he kills the new born prince and Chens wife while she tried to protect it. Years gone by and Chens son has grown 10 years old, Chen ask general Tu to train his son to become a warrior. Many years goes by again and by general Tu surprised Chens son has grown strong and become a warrior and confront Tu, as he is actually not Chens son but the prince who should have died at child birth and the child he killed was actually Chens real son, Tu relies he has been had by a medicine man who made the most heart full sacrifice for his princess and for his kingdom and for his dynasty.

How does this movie holds as a historical telling?
Very interesting, as we have played many dynasty games or watch fantasy movies taking place in dynasty time we see now a film that feels like an European medieval movie, no fantasy just history telling that shows the harsh time of the dynasty, although use of CGI can sometimes destroy the historical feeling for instance when the king try to escape it's obvious the wagon is CGI and the use of CGI explosion to make it epic is just ridiculous. 3/5.

How does it hold with characters?
Honestly I cannot understand why You Ge became a big name in China, his boring character are the same in every movie and this movie is no exception. His son dies same reaction as he is inlove, I guess Hollywood, Hong Kong, and Shanghai has went to same acting, just make money and business and no feel. Same with other characters seems like they don't care, the only one who care is General Tu actor Xueqi Wang, for him it gets 1/5.


How does it hold in general?
Could have been better specially with better actors since they have that a lot in China but the story is interesting enough , 4/10.

A single Child's Story is a tragic but heart feeling Chinese movie from 1995. Directed by a Taiwanese director Yang Yizhi and managed by Guo Li. With a script written from a discovered diary from a young girl tells a story about how it's like to spend with your love one in their last moment.

Ming Ming is a young girl at age 12, starting at her 2nd grade in school. But after she accept her new grade she returns home to find her in sweat with bad news of her cancer decease. Since she already lost her father in a traffic accident, she refuse to leave her mother behind and takes care of her while she study hard to get to 3rd grade. Despite her good will and good heart, she is still a child, is her heart strong enough to rescue her mother?

There is no need to ask if this movie holds for anything, it's a beautiful story telling about a young girl and her struggles for her sick mother and also struggling for her future, it's heart warming and related with anyone who knows how it feels to lose somone. Maybe sometimes the story is mostly concentrated on the sad part and it's very seldom a happy side in the movie except one and that is when Ming Ming get visited from her two friends but that's the only scene that released the audience from the sad story but the movie show a lot of potential to reach the heart of good will and and the child actress Yan Shuqin who play Ming Ming is brilliant for her age and bring her character to life. The movie is a 8/10 in score, and is very educational.