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Reviews
Yûnagi no machi sakura no kuni (2007)
Not bad, but could be worse.
Last year I was browsing through a store in Hiroshima and came across a manga called Yuunagi No Machi, Sakura no Kuni. I flipped through it and the story appealed to me. On the train ride home i read it and got my phone out for some additional info and found that this movie was made.
After seeing it I was first pleasantly surprised and then unpleasantly shocked.
While the first part stays pretty close to the written story, with excellent acting, good casting and a deep meaning and feeling (pro- Japan, anti-war etc) the second part was terrible. The book itself consists of three parts where "Town of Cherry Blossoms makes up 2 parts). The first part is mainly the "flashbacks" from the movie, playing baseball, giving her Nagio a cherry blossom shower etc. The second part is the "chase dad on his crazy hyjinx" part.
I found the second part of the movie quite bad, the casting was off, the acting was cheesy and the setting was odd (although accurate, having been there just a day earlier).
The 7 I gave this movie comes from a 9 for the first part, and a 5 from the second part.
I will not go in on the political message too much. I think it's fine, the comic book is even harsher, roughly translated they say "It's been 10 years. I wonder if the people who dropped the atomic bomb are pleased with themselves- Yes! Got another one!"
I think the movie raises a valid point about the American atrocities done to the Japanese people (hello Russia, this is Yankee doodle, look at what we got!).
As a final word, good movie, go get it. Buy the DVD and watch it.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009)
Holy shi-- what was that?
As a big fan of the Street Fighter franchise from it's original conception I had high hopes for this movie. I expected it to provide a cinematic version of what I already knew of the Chun Li persona, and it failed to provide in every way.
First off, Kristen Kreuk as Chun Li. What where they thinking! There are hundreds of highly skilled Asian actors that could have been casted in a better fashion. Bison/Balrog (lol confusing) kept reminding me of the Green Mile, the death sentenced good guy with a heart of gold. Now he is some buffed punchbag, mmm. This leads to the horrible, horrible accents that the actors had when they were talking in an Asian language. Seriously, UGH!.
The story itself was shallow, bad bad special effects. (Spinning Bird Kick in the club scene, are you serious? 20 years ago they were able to make it look better in a video game. 30 years ago they made it look better in a Kung Fu movie, get real.
The story about her revenge on Bison is shallow. She gets her revenge in a way, but it's not satisfying at all.
Top it all off with cheesy one-liner upon one-liner, bad acting, bad casting and you got yourself a turdcake that the entire audience has to take a bite off.
F--, see me after class.