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Reviews
20-seiki shônen: Dai 2 shô - Saigo no kibô (2009)
Not as good as the first part
Whereas the first movie was very faithful to the Manga series, the plot in this part is quite different. This is not a bad thing per se, but I was a bit disappointed that Manjome and dream navigator Tagasuki were represented as 1-dimensional characters who are aware of all of friend's plans. Also, there a scene where Maniome basically says what is going to happen next that totally spoils the movie's climax. I believe a lot of people who are not familiar with the Manga series will either not fully understand what is going on or find the movie boring.
My friends and I agree that three movies are simply not enough to retell the complex story of the Manga series. A TV show would probably have been a better approach.
Overall, I still give this movie 5 stars, because it is entertaining and the few more exciting scenes are well executed.
The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
Will mostly appeal to Western audiences
I watched this movie in Hong Kong with a couple of Chinese friends who all disliked it for the same reason. In their opinion it is basically a dumbed down Westernized Kung Fu movie with some elements from "Journey to the West" here, re-hashes of several scenes from old Jackie Chan movies there, lots of action, little story and depth, and above all a "hero" you just don't care about.
I (a "Westerner") on the other hand rather liked the movie, because i thought it was a fresh change from the usual story line of recent Chinese martial arts movies. Even tough I also had issues the "hero" and story (especially the ending), I loved the action, the references to campy old Kong Fu movies, the sets, and above all the female leads.
Out for a Kill (2003)
27 thumbs up
"Spoilers ahead". However, I doubt it is possible to spoil this amazing movie. I absolutely loved it. Here are the reasons:
1.) The Professor's Background.
OK, so we have this thief turned prisoner. In prison, he manages to get a PhD from a correspondence school. After he is set free, he immediately gets a tenure as professor AT YALE. If this happened any other movie I would think "garbage", but since our hero is Dr. Seagal (or was it Burns?), I can accept it without questioning.
2.) The Professor's Language Skills.
In a nutshell: Amazing. Dr. Seagal mixes 2 Chinese dialects in every other sentence (Cantonese and Mandarin). This is like someone staring a sentence in English and finishing it German. However, this just shows that the other characters in the movie have a poorer education background.
3.) The "brother" who shares the Dr. Seagal's jail cell in China.
That was confusing. I'd expect a Chinese prison to have Chinese prisoners and not some drug smuggler from the east coast.
4.) The triad boss.
There are like 8 scenes of meetings in which we can admire the triad boss complaining about that Gwailo professor who causes so much trouble. Amazingly, the boss comes to the same conclusion in each meeting: Get rid of the Gwailo professor. After I watched this movie with a couple of friends, we went to a bar and acted out these scenes over and over again, because we just could not get enough.
5.) Other
The tattoo shop, supporting actresses and fight scenes are all incredible as well.
All in all this movie is an excellent. Second only to On Deadly Ground...