2 asian movies i saw recently:
a) failan (korean)
this a sad and touching love story from korea starring cecillia cheung and min-sik choi. its the story of a petty small time gangster who wastes his time doing small errands for his boss; and a chinese immigrant girl who comes to korea searching for her only living relatives. she is unable to find them, and since she has no one to go back for, she decides to stay and work in korea. to arrange for that the hero "marries" her for some petty cash by basically signing a legal document. so she goes to another town and starts working in a laundry shop. she feels very lonesome and sad and keeps looking at the picture of her supposed husband and soon falls in love with him. she imagines him to a caring and generous person. soon she falls sick and dies. the hero then gets news of her death and has to go to her town to complete some official formalitites. then he sees her picture for the first time, and also reads a letter written by her, where she calls him the kindest man she's ever known. the hero finds himself changing and having feelings for her and towards the end falls in love with her. the story is told in flashbacks, moving between their respective tales. the only negative thing about the movie is that the first 20 or 30 minutes its a normal gangster movie and the heroine doesn't enter into the picture till then. overall the movie is well shot, the acting is good and you can't help feeling quite sad for the two lonely lovers who never even meet each other.
b) the road home (chinese)
another beautiful movie by the veteran director yimou zhang, starring zhang ziyi and honglei sun. this was before zhang ziyi shot to international stardom with "crouching tiger and hidden dragon". she was still quite young and had an innocent and angelic face. the story, told in flashback, is set in a small chinese village where a young teacher from the city comes to teach in the village school. zhang is the prettiest girl in the village and she instantly falls in love with the teacher on seeing him for the first time. the love between the two is told more through glances and gestures and not with so many words. then one day the teacher has to leave for the city and she waits longingly for him everyday on the only road leading to the village. before leaving they don't even fully express their love for each other, yet know that he's going to come back and she's going to wait for him. the locales in the movie are very beautiful, the camera moves lovingly through the scenes, and the background score is simple and apt. the story is very simply told, no exciting moments and stuff and still manages to capture the essence and depth of human love and emotion. zhang ziyi's effective portrayal of the character's innocence, simplicity, longing and love is the highlight of the film. highly recommended.
a) failan (korean)
this a sad and touching love story from korea starring cecillia cheung and min-sik choi. its the story of a petty small time gangster who wastes his time doing small errands for his boss; and a chinese immigrant girl who comes to korea searching for her only living relatives. she is unable to find them, and since she has no one to go back for, she decides to stay and work in korea. to arrange for that the hero "marries" her for some petty cash by basically signing a legal document. so she goes to another town and starts working in a laundry shop. she feels very lonesome and sad and keeps looking at the picture of her supposed husband and soon falls in love with him. she imagines him to a caring and generous person. soon she falls sick and dies. the hero then gets news of her death and has to go to her town to complete some official formalitites. then he sees her picture for the first time, and also reads a letter written by her, where she calls him the kindest man she's ever known. the hero finds himself changing and having feelings for her and towards the end falls in love with her. the story is told in flashbacks, moving between their respective tales. the only negative thing about the movie is that the first 20 or 30 minutes its a normal gangster movie and the heroine doesn't enter into the picture till then. overall the movie is well shot, the acting is good and you can't help feeling quite sad for the two lonely lovers who never even meet each other.
b) the road home (chinese)
another beautiful movie by the veteran director yimou zhang, starring zhang ziyi and honglei sun. this was before zhang ziyi shot to international stardom with "crouching tiger and hidden dragon". she was still quite young and had an innocent and angelic face. the story, told in flashback, is set in a small chinese village where a young teacher from the city comes to teach in the village school. zhang is the prettiest girl in the village and she instantly falls in love with the teacher on seeing him for the first time. the love between the two is told more through glances and gestures and not with so many words. then one day the teacher has to leave for the city and she waits longingly for him everyday on the only road leading to the village. before leaving they don't even fully express their love for each other, yet know that he's going to come back and she's going to wait for him. the locales in the movie are very beautiful, the camera moves lovingly through the scenes, and the background score is simple and apt. the story is very simply told, no exciting moments and stuff and still manages to capture the essence and depth of human love and emotion. zhang ziyi's effective portrayal of the character's innocence, simplicity, longing and love is the highlight of the film. highly recommended.
posted by teks at 9:05 AM
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