Review – Summer Palace

Long: Over the last decade, there has been a growing underground movement of mainland Chinese film directors who have been creating  films that, in the eye of the Chinese cultural boards, are not “appropriate” and too controversial.  As we all know, the Chinese film rating agencies are notoriously tough on what gets shown in media, no exceptions. Generally known as the “6th generation”, these films are much harsher in their depictions of a modernizing China and it’s people. Does that mean that this is the end of Zhang Yimou and films such as “Heroes” or “House of Flying Daggers”? Not quite. Due to heavy censorship law, most of these 6th Generation directors have either been banned from making films in China or have even been forced out of the country altogether (ie. Li Yang for the absolutely brutal “Blind Shaft” and “Blind Mountain”). Right after “Summer Palace” was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Lou Ye received a 5 year ban from film making. Now with that out of the way…

Shinjuku Incident

Long: I’ve been a few years removed from Jackie Chan. Actually, I can’t remember the last film that I had seen him. Was it “Shanghai Noon”? It’s safe to say that it was around 2002, after all the failed attempts to break through into the American movie scene (along with Jet Li), that I just simply forgot about him. It was a shame but after a string of films which featured “The Tuxedo”, “The Medallion”, and “Shanghai Knights”, I felt some relief that he was refocusing on making Hong Kong Jackie Chan style films in Hong Kong. Good for him, I thought. Allegedly, there had even been plans for a “Soul Calibur” adaption with fellow HK film luminary Sammo Hung. But I had already closed the chapter on Jackie Chan in my life by then.

Carmen: A Hip Hopera

Alvin: I was looking for a movie to review so I decided to glance through my Netflix queue and see what titles stood out to me. The list is schizophrenic to say the least. “The Last Boy Scout” or “They Call Me Macho Woman”? A Damon Wayans and Bruce Willis collaboration can’t be that bad but “Macho Woman” is supposed to be a horrible B-movie from the 80′s. Tough choice. “Superfly” could be a nice cultural retrospective maybe? But no, all of these possibilities were invalidated as soon as my eyes landed on title #73, “Carmen: A Hip Hopera”.