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Reviews
Arthur Christmas (2011)
A whimsically brilliant Christmas cheer
The opening MV showcases the annoying Justin Bieber's supremely annoying rendition of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", but once you get past this, Arthur Christmas is a whimsically funny and brilliantly conjured Yuletide tale which successfully fuses traditional and contemporary elements and will remind you, believe it or not, of Monsters Inc, Mission Impossible, Star Trek and The Lion King all at once. In explaining how Santa manages to deliver billions of presents in a single night, the good old sleigh and reindeer that we associate Santa with are discarded in favour of a gigantic sleigh-shaped spaceship equipped with an army of elves and state-of-the-art technology, and this old-versus-new analogy extends to the story's main arc where good old morals are pitted against the technological quagmire we find ourselves trapped in today, and with a cast of voice talents including James McAvoy, Bill Nighy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent and Imelda Staunton delivering the witty script with such aplomb, this is my pick for animated feature of the year.
The Muppets (2011)
A nostalgic ride for the grown-ups, a lack of appeal for the kiddos
While I love Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo and the other muppets of all shapes and sizes because it has been such a loooooong time since I last saw them, and that Amy Adams and Jason Segel are utterly adorable (watch especially for Adams' and Miss Piggy's rendition of Me Party), that the finale "Rainbow Connection" can cause teary eyes, and the cameos by Jack Black, Whoopi Goldberg, Selena Gomez, Emily Blunt, amongst others, are priceless and thoroughly entertaining, one can't wipe off the feeling that The Muppets is going to be no more than a one-off nostalgic ride down memory lane for those who grew up with them, and as much it is a tribute to Jim Henson, is unfortunately largely irrelevant to today's kids who grew up on a diet of CGI, coolness and cell phones. The age of technology, the dearth of nostalgia.
Immortals (2011)
The Ironic Immortals
Immortals is the year's most unworthy and ironic title, one which distorts Greek mythology and turns it into a mumbo jumbo premise sorely for choreographing mindless scenes of graphic decapitation and endless extended versions of A&F ads (with mood lighting and slow-motion close-ups), as well as unintentionally mocking everyone from the Olympian gods to the Oracle to the titans. There is an attempt to be stylistic or aesthetically appealing, but this unfortunately falls short of even the limited success 300 had, where gladiator-style battle scenes had at least got the adrenaline pumping. Mickey Rourke chewed up his and everyone else's scenery, but he did get the idea that this was more camp than high-brow drama, and Freida Pinto continued to baffle with the roles she has been getting in high-profile projects, blowing them all to bits with her stilted acting. The result is an embarrassing and instantly forgettable spectacle that defies the meaning of the title itself; it does, however, give us something to look forward to - Henry Cavill as your next Superman in Man of Steel (2013).
Lan Yu (2001)
Lan Yu... Seething undercurrents; understated emotions
There is always a lot of hype whenever a gay film is released. And the film's burden only gets heavier when awards and accolades come its way. Lan Yu is a fine example of such a film, and a victim at that. Many have watched the Chinese film (winner of 5 Golden Horse Awards) and were disappointed - with the stereotyped plot and characters, with the shallow treatment of gay relationships, with the melodramatic and contrived ending, and perhaps because they have harboured excessive expectations, with a million other aspects that a film can be faulted for.
Indeed, the film breaks no new ground. The characters are stock characters, with Lan Yu (Liu Ye) as the young idealistic architectural undergraduate who is new in his search of love, and Han Dong (Hu Jun) as the worldly-wise businessman whose every sexual encounter is nothing more than a casual fling. Their initial encounter (which was a business transaction of sort), subsequent reunions and everything else that happens in between are the common tools that have been used to propel a zillion other love stories, straight or otherwise. But seriously, how different can a love story of two people whose paths cross time and again get?
That said, Lan Yu's plot cannot really be faulted. It chose to focus on the story of the two men, and made no qualms about it. Some people may think the film's secondary plots have been neglected or too hastily brushed aside. But I think that was a wise move, because in restricting the scope and defining its topic of interest, it steers clear of the pitfalls that plagued many films that attempted to be epics. I don't really want to know about Lan Yu's family background even though he made that one single call to his mother. I don't really want to know what Han Dong's illegal business dealings were even though he did go to jail for a while. I don't even want to know about the three-year marriage that Han Dong had with a brainy woman called Lin Jin Ping (Su Qin), or when it was that Han Dong's family members were so comfortable with his sexuality. Very focused direction indeed.
In addition, Stanley Kwan has shown more restraint and maturity in directing this film than he had in his previous acclaimed movies. Perhaps it's because the subject matter here is much closer to his heart. Centrestage, despite the luminous Maggie Cheung, was picture-perfect but drifted in a million directions, and his Red Rose/White Rose, despite credible technicalities, was all flashy images with no heart. In Lan Yu, much of the dialogue is made up of lines that you and I speak all the time, with little pretension. And given the film's potential to degenerate into mush, Kwan does not spend excessive time on the melodrama or on trying to milk your tear-glands. We get a heartfelt story that is appropriately paced, and sincere in its delivery.
The gem of the film lies in the extraordinarily understated strength of the two actors, both in portraying the complexities of the individual characters and in concocting the intense chemistry that resulted. Leslie Cheung never reached that level with Tony Leung in Happy Together though he had it slightly better with Zhang Fengyi in Farewell to My Concubine. Daniel Wu and Stephen Fung were too preened and pretty to act in Bishonen, and Huang Lei and Yi Zhaode were overwhelmed by the visuals in Fleeing by Night. Here, you could feel Hu Jun's lip-biting vulnerability and loneliness beneath the character's steely exterior as the film progressed, and this is matched emotion for emotion by Liu Ye's delicate demeanour that gradually toughened and matured as Lan Yu promised never to allow himself to be hurt by others again. The latter's Best Actor win was a well-deserved one.
One of cinema's greatest magic is its ability to elicit a gamut of subjective responses to any film, or even down to any scene. A film whose plot can touch in ways others can't deserves compliment. A film whose characters one can identify and empathise with deserves praise. To me, Lan Yu has both, and it deserves both my compliment and praise.