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koalathebear made me do it.
The first thing she made me do was watch the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. She has professed her love for this film on numerous occasions, saying that if you only ever see one film from Hong Kong, it should be this one.
And as usual, she was right. Despite the language barrier and thus the whole have-to-read-subtitles-thing this was one of the most enjoyable films I have seen in a long time. It's smart, tightly paced, beautifully shot and well acted.
This is Tony Leung Chiu Wai (generally credited as Tony Leung). He played Broken Sword in the Yimou Zhang film Hero. Here he plays Yan, a cop who has been working undercover for so long he's close to losing himself.
This is Andy Lau (one day I would very much like to marry him and his cheek bones).He's also been in a Yimou Zhang film, House of Flying Daggers. He (and his cheek bones) plays Ming, a Triad mole sent to infiltrate the police force. But he's been a cop for so long that he's gotten comfortable with his good guy life. He's a rising star with in the force and he's set to get married. He wants to cut his ties with the Triad and be the good man he's pretending to be.
So we have the good guy pretending to be a bad guy and a bad guy pretending to be a good guy. When it becomes obvious that both the police and the Triad have informers in their midsts, Ming and Yan attempt to discover each other.
I won't spoil the movie for you because really, you should see it for yourself. But don't expect a martial arts flick - there is no Kung Fu. Only Jung Fu*.
*psychological attacks.
Because the film is so good, it is of course being remade for western audiences. Before seeing Internal Affairs, I had high hopes for The Departed. The talent involved is certainly impressive: Martin Scorsese directing, Leonardo DiCaprio in the Yan role, Matt Damon in the Ming role, Martin Sheen (Jed lives!!!), Jack Nicholson, Ray Winstone (if you havn't seen him in The Proposition you must!). But now, I don't see how that version could build on this one.
I was thrilled to discover that Tony Leung and Andy Lau (and his cheek bones) might be teaming up again for The Battle of Red Cliff to be directed by John Woo and also starring Yun-Fat Chow (Chow Yun-Fat might be the more familiar way of saying his name to westerners :-)) and Ken Wantanabe.
*crosses fingers*
Secondly,koalathebear directed me towards these gorgeous caps of the film Finding Nemo. I'm not really a fan of complete CGI kids movies but I love Finding Nemo. It's beautiful but that is secondary to the story. Soooooooo icons! Use them as such or for bases - I don't mind ;-) When my computer isn't acting so funky, I might edit them a bit more.
koalathebear made me do it.The first thing she made me do was watch the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. She has professed her love for this film on numerous occasions, saying that if you only ever see one film from Hong Kong, it should be this one.
And as usual, she was right. Despite the language barrier and thus the whole have-to-read-subtitles-thing this was one of the most enjoyable films I have seen in a long time. It's smart, tightly paced, beautifully shot and well acted.
This is Tony Leung Chiu Wai (generally credited as Tony Leung). He played Broken Sword in the Yimou Zhang film Hero. Here he plays Yan, a cop who has been working undercover for so long he's close to losing himself.
This is Andy Lau (one day I would very much like to marry him and his cheek bones).He's also been in a Yimou Zhang film, House of Flying Daggers. He (and his cheek bones) plays Ming, a Triad mole sent to infiltrate the police force. But he's been a cop for so long that he's gotten comfortable with his good guy life. He's a rising star with in the force and he's set to get married. He wants to cut his ties with the Triad and be the good man he's pretending to be.
So we have the good guy pretending to be a bad guy and a bad guy pretending to be a good guy. When it becomes obvious that both the police and the Triad have informers in their midsts, Ming and Yan attempt to discover each other.
I won't spoil the movie for you because really, you should see it for yourself. But don't expect a martial arts flick - there is no Kung Fu. Only Jung Fu*.
*psychological attacks.
Because the film is so good, it is of course being remade for western audiences. Before seeing Internal Affairs, I had high hopes for The Departed. The talent involved is certainly impressive: Martin Scorsese directing, Leonardo DiCaprio in the Yan role, Matt Damon in the Ming role, Martin Sheen (Jed lives!!!), Jack Nicholson, Ray Winstone (if you havn't seen him in The Proposition you must!). But now, I don't see how that version could build on this one.
I was thrilled to discover that Tony Leung and Andy Lau (and his cheek bones) might be teaming up again for The Battle of Red Cliff to be directed by John Woo and also starring Yun-Fat Chow (Chow Yun-Fat might be the more familiar way of saying his name to westerners :-)) and Ken Wantanabe.
*crosses fingers*
Secondly,
koalathebear directed me towards these gorgeous caps of the film Finding Nemo. I'm not really a fan of complete CGI kids movies but I love Finding Nemo. It's beautiful but that is secondary to the story. Soooooooo icons! Use them as such or for bases - I don't mind ;-) When my computer isn't acting so funky, I might edit them a bit more. | 001 | 002 | 003 |
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| 004 | 005 | 006 |
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| 007 | 008 | 009 |
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| 010 | 011 | 012 |
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| 013 | 014 | 015 |
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| 016 | 017 | 018 |
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| 019 | 020 | 021 |
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Eeee!! :)
Date: 2006-08-22 01:21 pm (UTC)Also I love this icon. I've needed an emo icon so have taken it and have credited you (of course :) *pets icon*
Re: Eeee!! :)
Date: 2006-08-22 01:57 pm (UTC)I felt the same. Tony Leung did such a fantastic job in the film - he has those huge eyes that make you want to hug him. I have to get the film on DVD - SBS doesn't record well I'm afraid.
Re: Eeee!! :)
Date: 2006-08-22 02:11 pm (UTC)*laugh* People are always making fun of me because I'm always going on about Tony Leung's soulful eyes ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-08-22 01:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-22 05:56 pm (UTC)There are two more in the series: Infernal Affairs 2 and 3. Two is a prequel and follows the two men when they were younger, and also explains the bitter rivalry between the gang-leader and the police chief. I haven't been able to watch 3 yet, so I can't give you a plot synopsis on that one.
As to the Scorsese remake- I'm a little peeved about this; the Hong Kong version is and should continue to be unique. I'd hate to see a famous Am. director take all of the credit for something that's already been done so well. Plus... Leonardo DiCaprio? I so can't see him in that role. But I'm not particularly partial to him, anyway, so maybe I'm biased.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-23 06:28 am (UTC)I'm getting more and more irritated at the remake because really, they can not do better than this and Scorsese will just get the credit the original deserves.
Though I don't like him terribly much, I don't think DiCaprio is too bad an actor - though would it be too much for Scorsese to find another actor to collaborate with?
no subject
Date: 2006-08-22 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-23 06:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-22 09:35 pm (UTC)Hey, BTW, now that the press release is finished for the DVD Drive--finally--I can put some effort back in
no subject
Date: 2006-08-23 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-22 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-23 12:20 am (UTC)Infernal Affairs 2 and 3 are also good, but different and one day I will post pic spams for those 2.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-05 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-05 08:42 pm (UTC)nemo one!