New Site Up

I have set up a new website at Asia Movies and TV Shows to combine the work of my 2 blogspot blogs. This is to better utilise my time and resources in maintaining the site as well as make full use of Wordpress' potential to provide a rewarding experience to site visitors.

I wish you all Well and hope you will visit my new site as I will be doing all the updates and adding videos there. No further work will be done on this site.

Regards

The Host

The big Korean monster smash hit of 2006 by Bong Joon Ho swept the Korean box-office in a tidal wave. It then went on to draw large audiences throughout Asian cinemas.
A monster creature rosed from the polluted Han river and caused much chaos as it rampaged through the gathered crowd, killing and maiming it's way. Finally, it snatched a young girl with its tail and took her away.

The young girl's family was frustrated by the authorities lack of belief in the existence of such a monster; and thus, lack of action in attempting to look for the missing girl.
The desperate family scoured the tunnels beneath the city hoping against hope that their youngest is still alive.

More info.....


Cast:
Song Kang Ho as Gang Du
Park Hae Il as Nam Il
Bae Du Na as Nam Joo
Ko Ah Sung as Hyun Seo

Ratings: 4 out of 5
What made this movie different is that there are no beautiful plastic faces in this show. Everyone is pretty much of the average-joe looks. And this is what made the whole movie believable and kept the viewers rooting for this very ordinary family.
In the end, we feel sympathy for the monster who must die as in all monster movies. It did not choose to be a monster but was created by Man's polluting. It killed not because it enjoyed killing but because of food. It captured humans not because it enjoyed torturing but because it must prepare for its offspring.

My Wife is a Gangster 3

Latest installment in the series, this movie has no relationship with the 2 earlier movies as the main actors and actresses are all different as well as having a different storyline.

The story starts in Hong Kong at a dinner attended by 2 rival triad leaders, one of them is acted by Ti Lung. The rival leader requested Ti Lung's daughter, Lim Aryoung, to perform a sword dance for which she is noted. During the dance, a henchman of the opposite faction threw glass onto the floor to humiliate Aryoung. She exacted her punishment by piercing his hand with her sword. A fight was barely averted by her father.
The next day, Aryoung assassinated the rival gang leader and Ti Lung hurriedly packed her off to Korea for her own protection.

Arriving in Korea, she was placed under the care of a small-time hood, Ki Chul, under the impression that he could speak Chinese. A female Korean translator, Hyun Young, was brought in to help but she was so terrified of offending the hoods she deliberately gave pleasant translations that was opposite of what Aryoung actually said. These mistranslations formed the bulk of the comedy moments of this movie.
The HK triad sent killers after Aryoung but Ki Chul thought they were after him, not realising Aryoung's actual background and fighting skills. It was only when a rival Korean gang leader had captured his underlings and almost beaten him to death that Aryoung showed her true abilities to Ki Chul. From that moment his attitude towards her changed and mutual affections rose between them.
A highlight pf this movie is a car chase with Aryoung sitting in Ki Chul's laps and driving the car in an attempt to escape killers sent from Hong Kong. Ki Chul was aroused and both became excited when the car hit various bumps on the road and a final drive down a stair case.

The show's last part was where Ti Lung was injured by a rival and Aryoung returns back to Hong Kong to take revenge. Ki Chul follows her with his gang to lend support.

More info.....

Cast:
Shu Qi as Lim Aryong
Lee Bum Soo as Ki Chul
Hyun Young as the mousey Korean interpretor
Ti Lung as Lim Aryoung's HK triad father

Ratings: 3.5 out of 5
This show's interesting and watchable. Both Shu Qi and Lee Bum Soo are competent actors but Hyun Young was hilarious with her mis-translations in the first half. The fighting is good even though Shu Qi obviously used a stunt double but that was not so noticeable.

Letters from Iwo Jima

Letters from Iwo Jima is a retelling of the Battle for Iwo Jima during WW2. The island is a volcanic rocky island that hold the strategic location being the door leading into the heart of the Japanese home islands, and thus became the prime target for US forces.
The film is based partially on 2 Japanese novels of that battle and partly fictionalised.

Produced by Clink Eastwood as a two-parter WW2 opus telling the battle from both the US and the Japanese perspectives. Although it is an American director's effort I decided to put this review into my Japanese-Korean movie review blog as the language of that film is in Japanese.

Where Flags was a great disappointment, Letters hit the jackpot.Eastwood did not bring any western emotional baggage into his story telling of Letters from Iwo Jima, but was able to look at the battle from the Japanese perspective. No one, US nor Japanese, was perfect but so very human; capable of great bravery in the face of withering gun fire, as well as utter cruelty
Ken Watanabe as General Kuribayashi is the perfect General, able to command the respect of the lowly infantryman, as well as a masterly tactician and strategist. His plan was not to stop the invading US forces from landing, which he considered impossible to achieve. Therefore, his plan was to stop the US forces from moving inland away from the beaches, making the landing zone a death trap where his artillery and mortars were zeroed in.
He also abandoned the past infantry tactics that the Japanese forces had used, namely the senseless banzai charges that causes needless deaths in the face of machinegun fire. He also forbiddened his soldiers from committing suicide.

Letters from Iso Jima is a sensitive story from the point of view of a young Japanese drafted to defend the island.
He left behind his wife and does not want to die. His fellow soldiers were similarly like him and caught in a situation beyond their control and want nothing more than to get out of it with their lives intact.



Cast:

Ken Watanabe	Army Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
Kazunari Ninomiya	Army Private First Class Saigo
Tsuyoshi Ihara	Army Lt. Colonel/Baron Takeichi Nishi
Ryo Kase	Army Superior Private Shimizu
Shido Nakamura	Navy Lieutenant Ito
Hiroshi Watanabe	Army Lieutenant Fujita
Takumi Bando	Army Captain Tanida
Yuki Matsuzaki	Army Private First Class Nozaki
Nae Yuuki	Hanako (Saigo's wife)
Nobumasa Sakagami	Admiral Ohsugi
Akiko Shima	Lead Woman (Patriotic Women's Assoc.)
Lucas Elliott	Sam (wounded American Marine)
Mark Moses	American Officer (in a flash back)
Roxanne Hart	Officer's Wife

More info.......

Links:
Wikipedia - About Iwo Jima
Wikipedia - The Battle for Iwo Jima in WW2
Wikipedia - Letters from Iwo Jima

Rating: 4 out of 5
Clint Eastwood did not make a mess of this movie. It is sensitive and moving film of young men caught in a war not of their making and wanting nothing more than to live. Instead they were forced to fight; kill or be killed. Most of them died......

Shinobi (Japanese Movie)

A ninja movie about how the Shogun made use of 2 ninja clans to fight and destroy each other in that act by making promises that whichever clan succeeds would influence which of his sons would succeed him as Shogun.
He views these ninjas as a serious threat to his rule now that he has unified all Japan under him. He feared their special skills and thus seek to turn them against each other to their own destruction.

Unknowing of his true intentions, the Iga and Koga clans picked their own 5 best warriors to fight the other clan to the death.

Gennosuke of the Koga clan had earlier met and fallen in love with Oboro of the Iga clan earlier and when he learned of this duel, he refused to fight and insist on going to see the Shogun to find out the real reason for this duel.

Oboro is forced by her group to chase after Gennosuke and thus, the fight takes place despite Gennosuke's refusal to fight.

More info......

Cast:
Nakama Yukie as Oboro of the Iga clan
Odagiri Jo as Gennosuke of the Koga clan

What is a Shinobi?

Rating: 2 out of 5
I love a ninja movie as much as the next guy but I do so hate sad endings. This movie has pretty good CGIs as well as unusual ninja characters and their special skills.

Jumong (Korean Series)

I've long looked for a worthy successor to the great Korean tv epic Dae Jang Geum and found it in Ju Mong.

The story starts around 50BC in the Korean peninsula dominated by a economically large and technologically advance China. At that time Korea was divided into many small kingdoms at odds with each other.

A princeling of the state of Buyeo was trying to rescue citizens from Buyeo and other Korean states from the grasp of a Chinese-allied kingdom which had annexed some of their territories. The princeling was assisted by an able and skilled tactician by the name of Hae Mosu who led his own elite soldiers.
Both the princeling and Hae Mosu fell in love with the same woman but she chose to return the affection of the tactician and became pregnant with his child. Before the child is born, the father was ambushed and taken prisoner by the enemy. He was tortured and blinded.
His child, Jumong and his wife, Yuhwa, was taken in by the princeling as his family. Soon, the princeling became king of Buyeo and Jumong as raised as a prince.

As Jumong was the favoured of the king, his step brothers plotted his "accidental" deaths many times. Unwilling and unable to step up against these elder princelings due to his lack of martial skills and his more pacifistic mindset.
Jumong was left to die by the princelings on one mission and he was saved by the daughter of a commercial house.

Jumong met his father and was taught swordsmanship and archery by him who'd suspected Jumong's true identity early on. Jumong was unaware of his father's identity until it was too late and his father was ambushed and killed by the princelings.

Realising his true identity at last, Jumong was determined to leave Buyeo and found his own kingdom, Goguryeo. This sets the stage for conflict with his adopted father who viewed Jumong and his new kingdom as a direct threat to him.

Cast:

• Song Il Gook(송일국) as Prince Jumong(주몽)
• Han Hye-jin(한혜진) as Lady Soseono(소서노)
• Kim Seung-soo(김성수) as Prince Daeso(대소)
• Jeon Gwang-ryeol(전광렬) as King Geumwa(금와)
• Oh Yeon-soo(오연수) as Lady Yuhwa(유화)
• Kyeon Mi-ri(견미리) as Queen Wonhu(원후)
• Kim Byeong-ki (김병기) as Yeontabal(연타발)
• Jin Hee-kyeong(진희경) as Sorceress Yeomieul(여미을)
• Lee Jae-yong(이재용) as Prime Minister Budeukbul(부득불)
• Heo Joon-ho(허준호) as General Haemosu(해모수)
• Song Ji-hyo(송지효) as Lady Yesoya(예소야)
• Won Ki-joon(원기준) as Prince Yeongpo (영포)
• Bae Soo-bin(배수빈) as Sayong (사용)
• Park Tam-hee(박탐희) as Lady Yangseolran (양설란)
• Lim So-yeong(임소영) as Buyeong (부영)
• Yoon Dong-hwan(윤동환) as Yangjeong (양정)
• Ahn Jeong-hoon(안정훈) as Mari (마리)
• Lim Dae-ho(임대호) as Hyeopbo (협보)
• Yeo Ho-min(여호민) as Oyi (오이)
• Jeong Ho-bin(정호빈) as Wootae (우태)
• An Young Jun as Yuri

More info......
(This is an edition with English subtitles)

Video Caps:
Opening Theme
Battle for the Han-allied Korean city
Fight to clear ambush point
Defeating the pro-Han forces on the battlefield

Links:
Jumong the tv series
Jumong the wikipedia

Forum:
SPCNet Forum

Rating: 4.5 out of 5
I chose not to watch Song of the Prince nor Goong as they are nothing more than soap operas appealing to the fanboyz and fangirls. I prefer something more substantial and meaty like Dae Jang Geum.
This Jumong is a very long series of 82 chapters but I can assure you that each chapter is not boring as it has good storyline as well as action.

Sympathy for Lady Vengence (Korean Movie)

This Korean movie is by Director Park Chan Wook and concludes his Vengeance trilogy. It stars Lee Young Ae as Geum Ja, a fun-loving student who became pregnant and left home to seek shelter with her teacher Mr. Baek acted by Choi Min Sik of Old Boy fame.

Unknown to her, Mr Baek is a serial kidnapper and murderer of young children, for ransom and for thrill. Geum Ja was caught by the police and took the blame after a young boy was kidnapped and killed, and she was found guilty of the crime . As a result she spent 13 years in prison. She survived those years by being nice to all the inmates, even to the biggest bully in her cell block. She made friends with all and as a result, made many friends there wiling to help her at a later stage.

Released from prison, she was no longer the same naive girl of her younger days nor was she the sweet helpful girl her prison mates knew. Geum Ja became cold and calculating, plotting her revenge on Mr Baek who'd left her in prison.
Calling in the debts owed her, she managed to obtain plans for a gun, got it made, tracked down Mr Baek.
Geum Ja was reunited with her daughter who was adopted while she was in prison.
The end justified the means, and justice from Geum Ja's view was served. The parents of all the children that Mr Baek had kidnapped and murdered were able to be part of that justice.

More info....

Cast:
Lee Young Ae as Geum Ja
Choi Min Sik as Mr Baek

Rating: 4/5
This is a side of Lee Young Ae that is totally new. No more the sweet innocence but the cold, calculating and vengeful demon woman. This, alone, makes Sympathy for Lady Vengeance a definite must-see. Young Ae showed why she is so highly regarded in the Korean entertainment scene. When Korean movies are good, Korean movies are very good.
They don't believe in half measures.