Now, let’s say that BLACK RANSOM is one hell of a Hong Kong police flick.
It’s all about the GOOD (cops), the BAD (kidnappers) and the UGLY (triad gangs).
When we diligently mix these three elements, we get a story on bloody mayhem.
BLACK RANSOM is one stylish film directed by KEUNG KWOK-MAN with a lot of heart, some soul and plenty of shoot-outs.
It focuses on kidnap and ransom, though strangely, the victim is not the heir to some billionaire, but an important triad member.
We’ve a good cop played by SIMON YAM.
Now throw in a bad cop (MICHAEL MIU) who’s helming a small bunch of hard-boiled ex-cops who kidnap not just for money, but to act as self-imposed vigilantes to eliminate the baddies – those who manage to escape judicial justice.
Charismatic actor SIMON YAM leads a great cast in the role of a middle-aged cop and doting father, whose life takes on a sense of forlorn loneliness, after his wife was killed in a car accident and that he has now to fend for his teenage daughter.
‘Tis the season of Hong Kong TV land thespians crossing over to the big screen.
Ex-TVB actor SIMON YAM pitches acting skills with current TVB artistes MICHALE MIU and FALA CHAN, proving that there’s life after the TVB banner.
After all, A-listers CHOW YUN FAT and TONY LEUNG rose to fame from acting in TVB dramas, in the long years before.
In BLACK RANSOM, we find a sombre theme about the violent life that brings the cops and robbers together and the end result that takes a toll on both.
The tension is excruciating when the heat comes down on the hoods.
The cat-and-mouse challenges between the cops, robbers and triad gangs are fast-paced and clever.
It’s one of the few absorbing Hong Kong police flicks to come out in the flurry of police thrillers in recent years.
For pure entertainment value and to let your hair down, go watch BLACK RANSOM.
Some scenes may be brutal but you will get this sense of reality that will not seem contrived.
And oh yeah, all the actresses in the film are gorgeously stunning.
It urges you to take a walk “outside of yourself” ….
and assess your exterior image.
Don’t you like what you see?
Aren’t you a prick?
So you don’t like yourself very much?
What if you are placed in this situation:
you are a sick dog thrown in one corner and your psychotic master is brutally kicking and maiming you ..
Would you snarl, bite and fight back ….the animal instinct in you that demands you stay alive …to survive?
Bet you do.
Take a simple plot of survival, amid a chaotic world that is infested with the deadly viral pandemic.
Throw in 2 eye candy couples.
Put these anti-heroes in a car and send them on a journey of survival because the entire world is dying from a deadly, unexplainable virus assault .....
put on your breathing mask and along the way, trust no one, help no one.
This is the name of the game, a horrific one, if you want to stay alive because everywhere, most infected people are already dead.
CARRIERS picks up after a contagious unnamed disease has wiped out most of the world’s population.
In the hope of finding someplace isolated, four friends are making their way to Turtle Beach where two of them, brothers Brian and Danny, spent their summers growing up.
They abide by a set of rules that is supposed to keep them all alive and uninfected.
But the rules aren’t perfect, trust me, especially when you break them.
The SURVIVAL RULES are simple:
Mind your own business. Don’t be kind.
Pick up a stranger along the way, and you stand a good chance of confronting a possible carrier.
Even when your girlfriend is infected, you best dump her out in the desert to lessen the burden.
Even when your own brother is infected, you must shoot him in order that you stay alive.
This is the name of the game.
Kill or shoot if you wanna live.
No regrets, as it is the survival of the fittest.
There, I have told you all.
You won’t like yourself very much, after the show.
In most of us, there’s this mean streak, applicable in all situations.
I stab you, you stab me.
Is there such a word in this selfish world called REAL FRIENDS, much less DEVOTED BROTHERS when you have only one choice to stay breathing?
You live, I die.
You die, I live.
CHOOSE.
(Now go watch this gritty, fast-paced and brutally shocking thriller directed by ALEX and DAVID PASTOR).
This Review is specially written for www.bookmarqc.com
It’s being touted as the “Biggest Indonesian Action Movie of the Year”.
Not Wushu, not Muay Thai but the Silat martial arts.
Does it live up to this claim?
Way back in 2005, in Bangkok, I attended the preview of the MUAYTHAIblockbuster TOM YUM GOONG starring TONY JAA.
I vividly recalled this scene where a dishevelled KHUN JAA rushed into a building in Australia and screamed frenziedly “Where the hell is my elephant? Where is my elephant?”
The audience broke into absolute hysterics and some even shouted “Boo!”
That’s the name of the game.
Yeah, we all that TONY JAA can fight, but act he can’t.
Home-bred blockbuster or not, TOM YUM GOONG’s Thai box office takings may be phenomenal, given a generous film budget allocation of over 200 million Thai bahts, but it also earned scathing reviews.
TOM YUM GOONG has a lame plot. It’s focuses on a stolen elephant and for that reason,TONY JAA goes all the way to Sydney to rescue his pet. And in doing so, he must face his opponents one by one, back-to-back and takes them all to task.
Now, years later MERANTAU WARRIOR a martial arts venture from INDONESIA,dogged closely on the footstep of TOM YUM KUNG, but tailing at a much lesser pace, in terms of context, budget and experience.
Duplication or pure coincidence?
The hero is IKO UWAIS who bears an uncanny resemblance to TONY JAA, but this Indonesian actor has a fresher face, better complexion, and an a more amiable persona.
MERANTAU WARRIOR is helmed by director GARETH EVANS and it’s his second feature so far and his first venturing into the foray of martial arts genre.
It’s a commendable effort but not without flaws.
GARETH EVANS’s attention to details is admirable, but don’t you think that when every single piece of attire worn by the actors seems to be so meticulously pressed and clean in very fight scene or otherwise – this becomes unreal?
That when the rural settings are so darn neat and painstakingly arranged, the film reeks more like an elongated television commercial instead?
MERANTAU refers to a century old rite-of-passage where every young man leaves the comfort of his village and trudges to the city to “make good” as our leading man IKO UWAIS does here.
Endless problems ensue when he attempts to save a damsel-in-distress from being a pawn in human trafficking.
Thereafter there’s plenty of running, jumping, kicking and acrobatics in dark alleyways and congested side streets ….
Mind you, the plot is paper thin as the bone-crunching action triumphs over story and character development.
The acting in some parts is laughable with a banal script, and the delivery is a tad off putting, to put it mildly.
Yeah, there are some impressive fight scenes more like a watered down version ofTOM YUM GOONG where the hero faces a multi-tier layer of obstacles to confront his opponents, with a dash of caucasian rogues thrown in for good measure.
You either love or loathe MERANTAU WARRIOR.
For me, I have mixed feelings.
It’s often easy to “dress” a film down, bludgeon it to death, but when you are behind that camera, it is a totally different story.
We have to look at the film told through the director’s eyes.
Like everything else, MERANTAU WARRIOR deserves a second chance.
There has always been a deluge of kung fu, chinese wushu and muay thai films that has been done to death.
A subject on the SILAT martial arts can break new grounds.
Therefore, please go and check MERANTAU WARRIOR out.
This Review is specially written for www.bookmarqc.com
How stark can it be when, during the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, 3 million Afghans, mostly illegals, flooded into Iran, causing enormous problems for the Iranian society to accept them?
In director SHALIZEH AREFPOUR’s maiden effort at helming this feature film “HEIRAN“, she takes us on an eye-opening journey exploring the plight of the Afghan immigrants, whose rights are crushed along with the rights of the Iranian women.
It’s life itself unfolding before our eyes and it’s kinda sad, you know?
SHALIZEH AREFPOUR assures us that love transcends all boundaries, creeds and religions.
She draws a fine line between reality and art showcasing fragile bonds tenuously holding individuals, families and religions together.
For real?
We watch with sympathy when it is apparent that the universe that she has created is a troubled one and is threatening to swallow everything along with it.
You take this headstrong and stubborn 17 year-old Iranian girl, a college student.
A brilliant student, she has everything going for her until …
she meets this strapping young Afghan migrant worker on a bus.
They have the hots for each other.
They fall in love … at a wrong time, in a wrong country.
Ignoring parental objection, she flees to Tehran, marries him and bears him a child.
Her discovery that life is not a bed of roses and love is not just about fresh air throws her immediately into premature adulthood.
The issues of love and family ties will surely strike an emotional chord in us.
They always do.
But we are talking here about hopes lost, renewed and then dashed.
This is one gem of a movie from IRAN, a complicated family drama steep in simplicity in the “treatment” when it comes to a fine director’s touch.
A pitch-perfect ensemble of professional Iranian actors lends credence to the story.
Baran Kosari (female lead), Mehrdad Sedighian (Heiran) and Khosro Shakibaei (grandpa) put on compassionate performances as they chronicle the desperate journey of love and survival across troubled Iran.
You don’t need a super duper budget and a great cast to make you sit on the edge of your seat and take stock of how lucky we all are, and that we tend to take a lot of things in life for granted.
HEIRAN is one compelling, unforgettably moving film.
With excellent true-to-life acting and a sincere script, it makes for exceptionally, intelligent entertainment.
Truth piques our minds, shall we say?
HEIRAN is didactic in approach, and at times we tend to confront our own pain and guilt hoping for a healing process,
Somewhere along the line, through certain poignant moments depicted in the film, I cannot help but feel that there’s a touch of YASMIN AHMAD, the late Malaysian director in the treatment.
It's this economic tsunami that is mercilessly crippling many thousands of industries and businesses all over the world now.
It's crunch time, the bubble has burst - and if you have contingency plans in your stead to weather this storm, then God bless you.
If you've faithfully taken your mother's advice "to save for a rainy day", then you're pretty much in safe hands.
Because this smart belief is a good bailout, albeit a viable turnaround plan.
An old friend once told me that "to live life happily does not require a lot, but I wouldn't want to worry about money".
You need to hoard some spare cash away somewhere.
It's useful in a time like this.
But what if you're the type whose expenditure always exceed your earnings?
Then woe betides you.
Every lifestyle has a number. What's YOURS?
I have read reports from the USA that this one's going to be one of the worst recessions ever.
Maybe.
Just be mentally prepared.
AND WHAT of the ENTERTAINMENT industry?
In the past, recessionary times used to spell good news for the movies.
But times have changed.
Let's take a close look at the ASIAN FILM LANDSCAPE amid the throes of RECESSION.
No doubt about it, as far as film production is concerned, ASIA TINSEL TOWN is going to tighten its belt in the face of this global economic meltdown.
Firstly, it's common sense that cinema goers prefer to hold on to their hard-earned cash.
Secondly, corporate backers or investors will look for guaranteed returns for their money.
As one of my producer friends has pointed out, you do not produce films to tank at the box office - and then have them converted into DVDs to sit pretty amongst your library collections.
Movie making is a business and a damn risky one, at best, even during the good times.
It's a fact that many corporates had suffered huge losses and are reeling from the cash crunch now.
Coupled with the recession, the practices of paying unjustified prices to A-lister stars and producers and of trading in films are likely to come to an end.
According to marketers, the key factor for film makers to stay afloat in these times is to explore and focus on other inexpensive avenues to reach the mass audience.
The focus will now shift to new technologies like mobiles, broadband networking, DVDs, watching television and videos on websites such as YouTube.com, playing online games, and the new entrant DTH.
In the past, you didn't have all this new technology and distractions for the simple movie goer.
Well, circumstances are different.
THE INTERNET IS FAST CHANGING THE SHAPE AND SIZE OF THINGS TO COME.
And this phenomenon has assailed all forms of media in entertainment, information technology and advertising.
ASIAN FILM MAKERS seem to show vulnerability to RECESSION.
The sum of it all is that consumers are more discerning and are likely to check out less expensive forms of entertainment now than ever before.
Especially in the face of a global economic slowdown.
AND THIS ONE IS FOR REAL.
Feeling blue? The Recession getting you down? No worries. Let the charismatic voice of JUDY COLLINS soothes you with her famous cover of a once-upon-a-time hit BOTH SIDES NOW. All these years, and this song never fails to leave an indelible impression on me. It may even bring a tear or two with these lyrics:
BOWS AND FLOWS OF ANGEL HAIR,
AND ICE CREAM CASTLES IN THE AIR,
AND FEATHERED CANYONS EVERYWHERE,
I'VE LOOKED AT CLOUDS THAT WAY.
BUT NOW THEY ONLY BLOCK THE SUN,
THEY RAIN AND SNOW ON EVERYONE,
SO MANY THINGS I WOULD HAVE DONE.
BUT CLOUDS GOT IN MY WAY
I'VE LOOKED AT CLOUDS FROM BOTH SIDES NOW,
FROM UPS AND DOWNS, AND STILL SOMEHOW,
IT'S CLOUD ILLUSIONS, I RECALL,
I REALLY DON'T KNOW CLOUDS AT ALL.
MOONS AND JUNES AND FERRIS WHEELS,
THE DIZZY DANCING WAY YOU FEEL,
WHEN EVERY FAIRY TALE COMES REAL,
I'VE LOOKED AT LOVE THAT WAY.
BUT NOW IT'S JUST ANOTHER SHOW,
YOU LEAVE THEM LAUGHING WHEN YOU GO,
AND IF YOU CARE, DON'T LET THEM KNOW,
DON'T GIVE YOURSELF AWAY.
I'VE LOOKED AT LOVE FROM BOTH SIDES NOW,
FROM WIN AND LOSE, AND STILL SOMEHOW,
IT'S LOVE ILLUSIONS, I RECALL,
I REALLY DON'T KNOW LOVE AT ALL ......
TEARS AND FEARS AND FEELING PROUD,
TO SAY "I LOVE YOU" RIGHT OUT LOUD,
DREAMS AND SCHEMES AND CIRCUS CROWDS,
I'VE LOOKED AT LIFE THAT WAY -
BUT NOW OLD FRIENDS ARE ACTING STRANGE,
THEY SHAKE THEIR HEADS, THEY SAY I'VE CHANGED,
WELL, SOMETHING'S LOST, BUT SOMETHING'S GAINED.
IN LIVING EVERYDAY,
I'VE LOOKED AT LIFE FROM BOTH SIDES NOW,
FROM WIN AND LOSE AND STILL SOMEHOW,
IT'S LIFE ILLUSIONS, I RECALL,
I REALLY DON'T KNOW LIFE AT ALL -
IF you've come this far, let me say this:
Beautiful lines that can fill your heart with hopes or maybe, disdain!
