Saving Face (2004)

Wil (Michelle Krusiec) is a modern young american woman in her late twenties. Her work as a surgeon in a clinic is highly regarded. Everything would be fine, if she only had a husband, or at least a boyfriend - or so her mother Hwei-Lan (Joan Chen) thinks. She comes from a very traditional chinese family and lives with her parents, since Wil's father died fifteen years ago. Hwei-Lan constantly tries to set Wil up with eligible chinese men, but her daughter likes none of them. You see, Wil has a secret: she is a lesbian, and she just found her dream girl. And then the young woman finds out, that her mother also has something kept from her family: she is pregnant by a man she won't name. Her self-righteous and extremely conservative father immediatley throws Hwei-Lan out of his house, and so Wil suddenly has to take her mother in.
Wil's life becomes very complicated and nerve-racking all of a sudden: She can't bring her friend home, for mother shall not know of her sexual preferences. This girl, the beautiful ballerina Vivian (Lynn Chen) gets more and more frustrated with their relationship, because Wil is reluctant to show herself with her lover in the public. And the fact that Vivian is the daughter of Wil's boss makes this mess even more complicated...
The debut movie of director Alice Wu (who also wrote the script) draws a very convincing picture of asian americans. The struggle between cultural identity and heritage and the modern life in the USA rings true and is depicted with affection and a lot of humor. Wil is thoroughly americanized, so it seems, but she can't shake off the expectations of her traditional family. Hwei-Lan on the other hand, who came with her parents to America, is steeped deeply in the traditonal chinese family values, but breaks them by having an affair and getting (unintentionally) pregnant. These two women are the core of the movie and the actresses are fully up to their task. Michelle Krusiec is enchanting (and terribly cute) as the self-confident young doctor who becomes quiet awkward when confronted with the emotional problems of her mother or - even more so - her own relationship with Vivian and her demands. And Joan Chen excels in the role of a woman who is ripped out of her quiet life and is confronted with the sin of having a child out of wedlock and at the same time having to accept that her daughter is a lesbian. Two very strong and dominant characters that overshadow Lynn Chen a bit, but that's not her fault. The dynamic between mother and daughter is much more crucial for the movie.
I have seen not enough movies with Joan Chen, who made herself rare in the last years, but I just a couple of weeks ago had a lot of fun watching WHAT'S COOKING (2000) by Gurinder Chadha. In that movie Joan also plays a "normal" asian woman and mother who has to balance traditional and modern values. Quite different from the fighters, femme fatales and villainesses Hollywood has given her too often - even though i enjoyed movies like SALUTE TO THE JUGGER (with Rutger Hauer, one of my heroes). Michelle Krusiec was a new face for me, but I hope to see a lot more of her – and not only because of her looks... I'm quite excited to read that she will be co-starring with the great Michelle Yeoh in her next film, the drama FAR NORTH.

SAVING FACE is a funny and touching movie with a big heart and I enjoyed it very much. Let me tell you my favorite scene to finish this off: Hwei-Lan explores her new neighborhood and goes to a video store. After asking for asian movies she is referred to a small board where she only finds THE LAST EMPEROR (a film Joan Chen starred in) and porn flix with Asia Carrera. In the next scene we see the slightly flabbergasted Hwan-Lei watching the porn movie and then you hear a male voice from her telly shouting "Who's your asian daddy?"
I found myself rolling on the floor.

The Golden Girls (1995)

No, this is not about three old ladies in Miami. These "golden girls" are two young and beautiful actresses who dream of becoming movie stars in Hong Kong: The time are the Sixties and Mei Ball (Anita Yuen) and her friend Lulu (Ada Choi) work as extras for the booming movie industry. The aspiring script writer Chun Wai (Lau Ching Wan) is impressed withs Mei's dedication even for her tiny parts and as well for her strong character. He falls for her and tries to get her bigger parts, but the headstrong and dignified Mei Ball isn't very popular with the directors and so her more beautiful friend Lulu rises to stardom. Now Chun Wai and Lulu try to push Mei Ball's career, but after she chases off a lecherous director with an axe, she is fired. She leaves the country and when she returns after some months, Chun Wai and Lulu are a couple...
This early movie by Joe Ma (LOVE UNDERCOVER, FEEL 100%) is a fine bit of nostalgia from the golden days of Hong Kong's entertainment industry and filled with costumes, hair styles and zeitgeist of the Sixties. A candid and funny look behind the curtain of classic studios like Shaw or Cathay is coupled with a tender love triangle without a bad guy. Anita Yuen is very good as the bold Mei who eventually finds stardom in tomboy roles (a bit like the one she played in HE'S A WOMAN, SHE'S A MAN), and Lau Ching Wan excels (as usual) as the mentor cum lover of both young actresses. His role reminded me a bit of the recent MY NAME IS FAME (2006) that brought him the Hong Kong Film Award as Best Actor.
I really enjoy Joe Ma's movies. He is a gifted author and director for comedies and romances and brings out the best in actors. Pop stars Miriam Yeung (COLOUR OF SOUND) and Charlene Choi (DIVA AH HEY, SUMMER BREEZE OF LOVE) made their best films with him and he nearly always delivers real feel-good-movies. Never overly intellectual or demanding, they make for some fluffy entertainment with a lot of emotions and (usually) a happy end. And I'm a sucker for happy endings.

Shogun’s Samurai (1978)

This will be a bit rambling, because I'm still trying to make up my mind about this movie. But what the heck: this is a blog and not a critical essay...
It's 1624 and the Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada has died. His elder son Iemitsu would be the logical and traditional choice as his successor, but he is ugly and has a bad stammer. The younger son Tadanaga is handsome, intelligent and quite sensibe - a better choice for a ruler, as his parents and quite a lot of the clan leaders and daimiyos think. For Yagyu Tajima, an influential and powerfull samurai and the fencing teacher of Iemitsu however, the rightful and lawful shogun can only be Iemitsu! It transpires, that the old shogun was poisened by the followers of Iemitsu, and a bitter power struggle begins. Yagyu Tajima and his children, among them the mighty swordsman Jubei (Sonny Chiba), attack and assassinate supporters of Tadanaga, but his fraction isn't scrupulous either. And in the background, the nobles of the imperial court fuel the undeclared war between the brothers in the hope that the Tokugawa shogunate will collapse and the emperor will regain his old power.
Director Kinji Fukasaku isn't interested in a classic samurai epic with a good guy fighting the evil doers. Are Iemitsu and his grey eminence Yagyu doing the right thing in killing the supporters of "usurpator" Tadanaga? Or is Tadanaga only guided by responsibility when he tries to become shogun? And are the brutal deeds both sides commit justified bei the goals they aim for? Yagyu is the most extreme player in this struggle: he sacrifices one child after the other, only concerned with making Iemitsu the new shogun. The movie never clearly takes sides in this struggle and the viewer is left alone, with whom he should sympathize. In the end you realize that there is no one to cheer for but only some people to sympathize with, because they are merciless sacrificed by the powerfull.
Kinji Fukasaku (BATTLE ROYALE) rose to fame in the 70s with BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY, a series of Yakuza movies, and that name would fit SHOGUN'S SAMURAI as well. "Kill your brother, if he is in your way, kill your parents and kill even buddha", Yagyu tells the reluctant Iemitsu.

I'm not sure if I liked the movie. Its gritty philosophy and cynicism is quite refreshing after so many tales of the noble samurai fighting for the good of some poor peasants or going into certain death, because honor and loyality demand it. Here it all boils down to power as a motive. But while that may be intellectually satisfying, the distance to the characters makes it hard to feel anything for them. The acting is quite good. Kinnosuke Nakamura is great as menacing, singleminded Yagyu and Chiba plays Jubei (a legendary samurai who was often featured in movies, books and mangas) in his typically gruff but honest fashion. Hiroyuki Sanada and "Sister Street Fighter" Etsuko Shihomi (love these flix!) - both members of Chiba's JAC-team - have smaller but not un-important parts and act them quite well. The fighting is provided by JAC and is up to the high standard of that superb stunt- and action-team

I'm not an expert for japanese history, but I somehow doubted the historical correctness of Fukasaku's movie, so I looked it up: To make it short - the names of the featured people are correct, the whole plot is fake. Even the characters of the rivaling brothers seems to be completely false. Apparently the "handsome and noble" brother Tadanaga was quite a scoundrel and after some crmes and misconducts was condemned to commit seppuku. But, who knows? History is written by the winner...
Kinji Fukasaku probably changed all the historical facts deliberately to make his points more profoundly.

Linda Linda Linda (2005)

Three days until the first gig in a school festival, and desaster strikes a japanese girl band: The guitarrist breaks her fingers and two of the band members have a serious fall out. But Kei is determined to hold the band together and to play on that festival. She and her two remaining friends decide to do some songs by the japanese punk rock band The Blue Hearts, but there is a slight problem: While Kei will try to learn to play guitar in three days, the band still needs a singer. Enter korean exchange student Son. She can barely speak japanese and the offer to sing comes for her and for Kei - who does the offering - as quite a shock, but somehow the four girls stick to it and start working on the songs. So we have a band with a guitar player that never played the instrument before and a singer, who can't really speak the language. If that isn't punk, what is?
All right, LINDA LINDA LINDA hasn't got the most original plot in the world and comparisons to movies like SCHOOL OF ROCK or especially SWING GIRLS are unavoidable. But while the last mentioned flick is the stronger one, LINDA LINDA LINDA has a lot to offer to make that tried formula into a fun movie. First of all there is the music: "Linda Linda" is a very catchy tune by The Blue Hearts, a classic japanese punk rock band, that can be compared to The Clash. By the end of the movie you can't get the refrain ("Linda Linda, Linda Linda Lindaaa") out of your head. Very nice fun punk, indeed.
And then there are the actresses. The headstrong and stubborn Kei is played by Yu Kashii, who recently was seen in DEATH NOTE (btw: Ken'ichi Matsuyama, who plays "L" in that movie has a small part here). Her smoldering and brooding bad girl attitude seems to channel the great Meiko Kaji (LADY SNOWBLOOD and especially FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION) and she even looks a little bit like that fabulous star from the 70s. The second important role is of course that of the korean student Son, played by Bae Du-na. Son is often bewildered about her friends, about japanese customs (and the language) and seems to wonder, what she got herself into. Since she can't speak japanese very good she mostly observes her surroundings silently. Bae is very good in getting her character across without many words, and you can feel the mixture of stage fright, excitement and joy, when she stands behind the microphone and starts singing "Linda Linda". Very fine actress! I didn't recognize her, and when I looked her up in the IMDB I was very astonished to find that she was 26 when she made this film, playing a 15 or 16 years old teenager. She had a role in Park Chan-wook's SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE, starred in the mildly entertainig comedy SAVING MY HUBBY und was the "reluctant archer" in the blockbuster THE HOST, but I consider LINDA LINDA LINDA to be her best work as an actress.
The other actors are also okay, but they haven't enough to do to make them very memorable (for instant bassist Nozomi, played by musician Shiori Sekine in her screen debut). Drummer Kyoko (Aki Maeda, Star of BATTLE ROYALE) has a sweet subplot about first love, but that detracts a bit from the movie's main motive and slows it down. The main fault of the movie is exactly this: in some parts it is just too slow and in the whole too long. Nearly two hours are quite a stretch for a simple story like this. But all is forgotten, when Son finally stands on the stage and the band starts with "Linda Linda"! (So okay, that is a bit of a spoiler, but really: there is only one way, this sort of movie _can_ end).
If you enjoy the movie, check out SWING GIRLS: different music (swing, obviously) but equally fun und an even better film.

Shadow Warriors - Complete First Season (Hattori Hanzo - Kage no Gundan)

I love Quentin Tarantino!
Not (only) because of his own movies but because he opened the floodgates for so many delightful trashy and not so trashy films from the past. Without his enthusiasm for all things exploitation, asian and gleeful gory, there would be much less awareness of the great eras of blaxploitation and japanese violent cinema of the 70s. KILL BILL is not my favorite Tarantino-movie, but it triggered a wave of re-releases of asain cult classics, that have kept me happy for quite some time. The latest offering that can be contributed to that movie is the 7-disc set of SHADOW WARRIORS, a tv-series from 1980, starring the one and only Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba, perhaps the biggest japanese action star of the 70s and 80s.
The Setting is about 1650 in Edo, one of the central metropols of Japan. Some twenty or thirty years ago, the Tokugawa Shogunate was established and a long period of small and bigger wars has ended. Some years ago, the ninja clan Iga was falsely accused of treason and destroyed. The few survivors and their offspring live in hiding or under false names all over the country. Clan leader Hattori Hanzo (the third with this name) poses as owner of a bathhouse in Edo, the central metropole of japan. By day, he is a gambling, playful and slightly bumbling guy, but in the night, he and his small group of loyal helpers change into very cool black ninja-uniforms and punish all evil doers.
This is an absolute amazing series and one of my instant favorites. The production standards are very high - the ancient japan, the costumes: everything looks great. The action is provided by Chiba and his own stunt team, the Japan Action Club, and these guys really know what they are doing. Best of all, of course is Chiba, when he goes in "fighting-mode", by joining his two swords and becoming a killing machine - awesome!
But there is not only action in this series. The episodes also contain a very fine blend of drama, comedy and political intrigue. Occasionally, the episodes get very gritty indeed: whole villages massacred, vile deeds by incredible villains - and don't expect all our heroes to survive until the last episode. But then again you'll find fun episodes with a lot of comedy and of course, since Hanzo owns a bathhouse, there is quite a lot of eye candy for male viewers (there are of course also some quite naked man, but I can't say, if these will be considered hunks by the femals audience).
The love-hate relationship between Hattori Hanzo and Okou, a female ninja from the rival Koga clan, is allowed to change and develope over the course of the series quite a bit, and there are some other story-threads that are continued, in the background over many episodes.
To describe all the other central cast members would be too long, so just let me mention Okiri, the homely hairdresser who is determined to gain Hanzos love, and who provides a lot of comedy relief for the series. She is played by Kiki Kirin and I recently saw her in KAMIKAZE GIRLS as grandmother of the lolita-girl. Nice to see her still going strong.
Ah, yes one last small detail: Guest star in one of the episodes is Shihomi Etsuko - "Sister Streetfighter" herself.
SHADOW WARRIORS has my highest recommendation as one of the best, and most entertaining adventure series I have seen in a long time.