The Grandmaster

Wong Kar-wai's take on the life of Wing Chun master and Bruce Lee's guru Ip Man. It chronicles his early life in Foshan and his flight to Hong Kong after the Japanese invasion. Tony Leung plays the martial artist maestro with his usual relaxed ease. But other than for that and the brilliant cinematography, the film has very little to warrant an addition to Wong Kar-wai's list of masterpieces. The director has definitely lost his touch and his retirement would be welcomed by his fans.

Rating: * *

"The Grandmaster poster" by this website. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

Happy Together

A friend of mine once told me that in every relationship, there is a giver and a taker. This film is about such relationship with drastic skew. Set in Argentina, Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung play lovers who are constantly starting over.

Christopher Doyle's signature camera work brings to life the gritiness of Buenos Aires. The taxi scene is an echo from "In the Mood for Love" or maybe it is the other way around. In the center is the master, Mr. Cheung. All in all, a masterpiece from Wong Kar-Wai.

Rating: * * *

Ashes of Time Redux

Wong Kar-wai's re-edit of his 1994 Chinese period drama centers around Ou-yang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who lives on the edge of a desert eking out a livelihood by acting as a middleman. He matches his clients with the right type of services, be it a bodyguard or assassin! A wide array of characters sift across his timescape each fleeting as the desert sand. They all seem to project a sense of loss causing them to seek the past and regret the future.  Kar-wai in his usual meandering style, tries to stich the disparate storylines together. It his failure to do so cleanly that makes the film endearing and magical.

Rating: * * +

My Blueberry Nights

Wong Kar-wai's first English feature burns, splutters and slowly dies out. With his regular ingredients of leading men who smoke, mysterious women, fractured relationships, blossoming love and cops; the featured strained to be ethereal, beautiful and melancholic but something was lost in translation.

The casting was poor and the acting was abysmal other than for David Strathairn. The music was listless in spite of the presence of Ry Cooder or rather his absence. But what was missed the most were the saturated hues of Christopher Doyle and that melancholic streak which usually graces all of Kar-wai's flicks.

Rating: * +

Days of Being Wild

This is the second time I am watching the movie and it yet again left me with the feeling of floating in space. Wong Kar Wai is sublime. This was his first movie with Chris Doyle and you can see the beginnings of ITMFL. The movie follows various characters trying to find meaning, purpose and direction to life who are left feeling disconsolate and lost in a world of missed opportunities. The pace is gentle but has a certain panache to it.

Maggie Cheung is ethereal and vulnerable. I think this is the film she looks the most beautiful in. It is interesting to note that she plays a character with the same name in ITMFL and Tony Leung shows up at the end looking very much like our friend Mr Chow.

Rating: * * *

Chungking Express

Couldnt resist putting this one up. its got everything about the movie in it.

Courtesy: a certain Jung-Hoon Seo

Rating: * * * +

Fallen Angels

One of Wong Kar-Wai's earlier and more nosier films. It features Takeshi Kaneshiro as a man who lost his speech because he ate a can of pineapples past its expiry date. :-)

Rating: * *