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E D I T O R I A L
Monday, February 12: Bronchitis on the Brain
Nobody wants to hear detailed stories about somebody else's illnesses, but that's why I have no new full reviews this week. The problem is that I was too sick to even lie down and watch any movies, which is truly pathetic. Saturday night I fell asleep watching Fallen Angels on cable, and then woke up Sunday morning and watched the rest of it. Fallen Angels is a movie I can admire without really liking. To me, the characters are more pathetic than endearing.
Next I watched the Winstar DVD version of The Killer. Still having the bitter taste of A Better Tomorrow II in my mouth, I was ready to revise my strong feelings about the film, but happily for me it held up even better than I remembered. I need to watch it again to explain why. Simply on the level of technique, it exhibits the same slow-motion and freeze frame displays from ABT and ABT II. But it functions again as a memory piece, like A Better Tomorrow, unlike A Better Tomorrow II, which existed simply as a money-making vehicle. At this point maybe I can make the comparison to certain music that I respond to in an emotional way without regard to its relative merit. What was extremely fascinating to me, though, was watching the English-language trailer for the American theatrical release -- in which the film is described in the tag line as a comedy thriller. I was aware that some audiences have laughed at the film in the past, but this is a difficult concept for me to wrap my mind around.
The cable channel Sundance was showing Chungking Express again, so I watched that for about the sixth or seventh time. After all that Wong Kar Wai and John Woo, I needed to flush my system with something a little different, so I popped in Task Force. I hope to write up a more thorough review, but what a pleasant and enjoyable film! Frankly I thought it would be a pure action flick, but it's more a slice-of-life comedy/drama about several members of a police Task Force unit. It's the exact opposite of slick and predictable. I recommend it.
Finally today I received a package of eight movies on disk, including Perfect Match, which I watched today. The film received a brief HK release in December 2000. It's a low-budget, earnest attempted romance movie. It's lethargic on the whole yet earned a few smiles. A few inventive ideas show promise but are lost among the generally bland goings-on. Hopefully more reviews will be forthcoming this week.
As usual, feedback, whether positive or negative, is always welcome.
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