Showing posts with label DANIEL WU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DANIEL WU. Show all posts
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Friday, April 25, 2014
MOVIE REVIEW: “THAT DEMON WITHIN” 魔警
“THAT DEMON WITHIN” 魔警
PRESS REVIEW
“That Demon Within” packs in a punchful of shocks:
It is an artful blend of crime thrills and psycho horrors and (surprise) …Daniel Wu plays the ultimate tortuous hunk battling between bouts of schizophrenia and reality.
Daniel delves further into this Neo Noir actioner with a stoned glaze that’s bound to send shivers down your spine.
“Who’s the victim and who’s the hero and the motive for the killings” will be left entirely to your imagination.
The plot twists are aplenty. You have to seek out the red herrings. You have to concentrate to stay within the plot.
However, this film has the dressing of a psychodrama, much less an action thriller.
Initially the focus is on Hon Kong (Nick Cheung), a ruthless Demon King masked gang leader, but in a grisly failed diamond heist shoot-out, he staggers half-dead into a hospital to fight for his life. He is given a blood donation by security cop Dave Wong (Daniel Wu) who is clueless that he is a robber.
The focus peremptorily shifts over to the latter, a listless demented “zombie” acted brilliantly by Daniel Wu.
We soon learn that he harbors the secret of an unhappy past, of a loveless upbringing under his cruel father,and of a caring relationship with his granny. But what we fail to learn is whether Dave and Hon blended personalities during the initial blood transfusion.
There are confusing and conflicting issues as the movie progresses and the film director opens the gap for the viewer to imagine.
This one is a shocking and expertly made thriller by DANTE LAM. There are plenty of his trademark shoot-outs and explosions.
I like the movie poster showing a close up of Hon Kong (Nick Cheung) with a sneering smile. (smirk)
But the one who overpowers in this film is Dave Wong (Daniel Wu) and this may be his best acting role to date.
Don’t miss it!
RATING: 4 out of 5
Friday, December 20, 2013
MOVIE REVIEW : “CONTROL” (HONG KONG) 控制
STOP PRESS!
Film Director KENNETH BI in his own words:
“Control” is a thriller about strangers preying on us in the city, using all the latest surveillance technology available. I wanted to make a cool taut suspense thriller using visual effects to build an eternal sin city. It’s never been done in Asia. Mark (Daniel Wu) is controlled and forced to commit crimes for a mysterious stranger. He meets other strangers along the way. Some are foes and some become fast friends. You never know who is lurking around the next corner. To achieve the best visual effects, we worked with Academy Award winner, Nickson Fong, who is originally from Singapore but had worked in Hollywood for many years on films such as Godzilla and Matrix 2 & 3.
“CONTROL” Press Review
Riddle: Said the Spider to the Fly, welcome aboard this Guessing Game.
控制
CONTROL is one giant word. Who’d like to be controlled?
In this fickle business of film making where I am from, consumers’ perceptions are perpetually being challenged by the relentless media, notwithstanding the shift of perplexing opinions all the time.
Therefore, you can expect a contradiction of mindset every other minute.
What’s sauce for the goose in the initial phase may not be sauce for the gander later.
To this Reviewer, “CONTROL” is assuredly, one of the best entertaining whodunits to emerge from Hong Kong in recent years. I enjoyed the time spent.
This one’s a taut, gritty neo-noir thriller with an abundance of shocking twists.
The gripping feature is fearlessly directed by Hong Kong director KENNETH BI and his treatment is both bold and moving, with stunning visuals and splendid effects.
It will keep you on edge and have you transported into a realm of good guys, baddies, mobsters and hey-preso! the return button will transport you back to your reimagining mode.
Who’s the mastermind behind this, you beseech.
The film wastes no time with the action reeling from the first frame when lead character MARK (DANIEL WU) flees for his dear life from the mob.
You watch the hapless guy go tearing down lonesome alleys only to be trapped and tortured minutes later.
The mood-and-tone is grim and desolate, and you can detect a fair amount of poetic depression here.
The film director KENNETH BI has painstakingly handles one of his best movies to date and the same can be said of actor DANIEL WU. And who’s to say that this dude can’t act?
This is DANIEL’s show and you are treated to close-ups of him in terror, angst, pain and frustration when the camera zooms in, and he is in this stellar performance like none he has done before.
And his is a refreshing take from the regulars acts of veteran smarts such as Sean Lau, Nick Cheong and Louis Koo.
“CONTROL” expounds a fantastical, futuristic premise leaning on an explosive action-thriller trope. Co-producer DANIEL WU is Mark the insurance salesman who is embroiled in a battle of wits with “the Voice” who’s out to get him to perform illegal tasks with a few other victims.
A deadly game of cat-and-mouse ensues.
At the end, “CONTROL” exposes the Villain and the truth is out about how Mark and his companions fit into the mysterious villain’s grand scheme.
This is a definitive thriller with gudges, gore and a whole lot more. It’s also an intensely human drama at its best.
You can rate the film director’s aesthetic dressings of expressive film making, and the ensemble cast’s impressive performances as “two thumbs up”. For the record, the line-up includes DANIEL WU, YAO CHEN, LEON DAI, SIMON YAM and KARA HUI.
“CONTROL” is a poetic celebration of the intense and ephemeral and is raw and honest in the search for redemption amid tragedy.
Let it be said that KENNETH BI is an under-utilized treasure of the CHINESE CINEMA with his capabilities to handle various genres.
Now sit back, harness your seat belt for “CONTROL” and brace yourself for an addictive ride.
Welcome aboard!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
“DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART” (單身男女) Movie Review. True LOVE is always FIZZY, FROGGY and BITTER-SWEET. Right?
“DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART” (單身男女) PRESS PREVIEW
“DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART” tries, unashamedly to extol all virtues of what a true love should be. It does work, to a point.
It also brandishes an emotive title that’s typically “old school”.
This is the film’s positioning.
We are led to believe that love is often precariously sweet, yet saccharine baffling.
The path of true love does not run smooth.
Enter-as-you-dare and as everyone would surely do at some point in life, love is addictive, liken to fornicative sex where each participant shares his pleasurable form of connecting.
See, you now have your cake and eat it.
This long-anticipated Mandarin feature bills Hong Kong heart throbs DANIEL WU, LOUIS KOO and introduces unknown doe-eyed mainland actress GAO YUAN YUAN to the rest of Asia.
JOHNNIE TO and WAI KA-FAI grills this loving piece on the BBQ pit with such tender care that’s bound to leave you with a thin coat of tangy aftertaste, long when the credits are rolling and the lights are up.
So is it any good?
Come on, it’s time to move in with the flow.
Let’s start with love is “fizzy”. Daniel Wu is Fang, a disillusioned architect who hits the fizzy bottle once too often to free himself from reality. He sports a disheveled demeanor, is bearded and shaggy.
He saves Zixin (Gao Yuan Yuan) from being run down by an oncoming vehicle and they become fast friends. With the utmost gratitude, Zixin presents Fang with an ugly pet frog, courtesy of her ex boy friend who had dumped her.
So love is “froggy” here. The puffy pet frog becomes their “symbol” of a growing bond.
Zixin has her dreamy moods, on days when she cannot focus on her work. She “interacts” with her “opposite” neighbor Cheng (Louis Koo) from across the opposite building on the same level , using colourful Post-it notes affixed on their respective windows.
The gentle art of window communication, a la ‘seduction’ goes on … and on.
Cheng is a financial whiz kid, a cad, a dandy, a playboy who’s attracted to the ever-silly Zixin, simply because she’s “different” from the regular brood of gals he brings easily to his bed.
He’s rich and he stashes a colorful assortment of condoms in his car "just-in-case".
One fine day the entire global market crashes and things take a different toll.
Cheng moves out of the opposite building and Fang quietly disappears from the scene, and with everybody gone, life for Zixin hits a rut.
Fast zoom to three years later when Cheng returns abruptly to become Zixin’s boss and Fang also does a popping up exercise. This is at the convenience of the scriptwriter.
Our lovey-go-round commences once more, this time on a more heated plateau.
The plot tarries back and forth expanding on this exasperating love triangle with both Cheng and Fang each trying to convince Zixin of their undying devotion.
Which guy bags the gal in the end?
Zixin starts as a loser in love and ends up ensnaring two rich and successful suitors. Her star shines.
Cheng is a bad boy who’s self-assured, conceited and has the perpetual roving eye. He’s a wolf and will alway be one.
Fang is down-to-earth, wears his heart on his sleeve, has a steely presence, and would be the type every gal would love to bring back to mama.
Let’s say it’s simple to put someone on a weighing scale and measure him.
But it is impossible to measure this human quality we call the heart.
Metaphorically speaking, it’s not just the size of the man in any fight. It is the size of the fight in the man.
The one lesson this film tells us is that being in love doesn’t mean that everything in that person has to be perfect. It means you have to look beyond his imperfections.
Having drawled on this, it’s easy to deduce who’s the eventual guy who will win the fair lady’s heart.
To sum up this building-to-building office romance, it will be apt to use this line:
“The most beautiful view is the one I share with you.”
I’ll honestly vouch for this one.
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