Shanghai Triad (1995)

In 1930’s, a young boy named Shuisheng goes from England to Shanghai to his Uncle Tang as part of the criminal organization as the Triad Boss. In Shanghai, Shuisheng become a servant for a singer named Jinbao. Shuisheng could not do the “simplest” task such as lighting a match for Jinbao, so she gave him the nickname as Bumpkin (as he’ll be called that for the rest of the review). Jinbao’s life starts to get into hazard when Bumpkin’s Uncle Tang and his members were being killed off by the other criminal organization. Jinbao, Bumpkin, and Tang’s remaining member named Song get relocated into a small island with little civilians to be hidden from the public. However, as days goes by, Jinbao is not entirely safe, as the other members of those felonies get close whacking her out.

Bumpkin could be a dull example of a blank slate, but not as bad as Bella Swan from the entire Twilight Series. Yes, the viewer supposed to be in slate’s shoe, but the slate now needs a personality of their own to be interesting that to concentrated to be. When Bumpkin loses his uncle, he doesn’t react with any expression other than the same dull surprise. Jinbao is a singer with a complicated career mostly with the organization, but has retained her childhood with music she used to know. The music she knows and sing with a little girl is the original title of the film, Row to Grandma’s Bridge. Jinbao’s personality is range from calm and collective to a strict prima donna when she doesn’t get her desire. The Crime Organization is criminal organization that’s no different than typical mafia, nothing different from others. They’re kind of threatening to some of the members and Jinbao, but there’s isn’t any investment in any of the other of them. This is in common with the two terrible Baz Lurman films, Moulin Rouge and Great Gatsby; a film stars a witness to record moments with the rich icon with a chance of being killed. The difference with why this film (as well as a bunch of other films) is better than any of Baz Lurman’s film is the music is original and fit the timeline, and most of the scenes last more than five seconds. There’s other body guarding films that’s mostly close in identity. Despite this film came out three years after The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. Shanghai Triad is an interesting take on a young bodyguard to protect a singer, but there’s got to be a better security to be passionate with to raise and take a note. 

Shower

Liu & his mentally challenged son (Erming) run a Shower Station with customers of men and rarely woman and children. Liu’s elder son, Daming has returned from a misinterpreted letter from Erming, but decided to stay around for a while. Daming is trusted to keep an eye on Liu and their daily routine from running the shower station to jogging at night, but lost him. Luckily, Erming found his way back to the Shower House in the morning. 

Daming worries that Liu was starting to lose conscious, until he died in the bath while Erming was playing his game. Daming worries what will happen to Erming on his own in the Shower House, and the business itself.

It’s rare there’s a film that’s set mostly entirely in a shower station or bath house (at least not set in a gay bathhouse. Yet there’s a listing of those films. I don’t understand how specific those films are either.). There are some side characters that may or not contribute to the characters such as Mr. Wu with his cricket fights with others (think cockfight with crickets. Crocket fight. There’s Cricket Crocket from Cricket on a Hearth?), and singer that’s friend with Erming that can only sing under a shower. They may not be important as the main characters, but they’re here to show who actually go there. In the opening scene of the film, there’s a Public Shower Room that you can go in and out, similar to a car wash for people.

This film is similar to What’s Eating Gilbert Grapes, A Simple Plan, Rain Man, etc. Where Rain Man was based on an actual person, while debatable if he can knows Poker well. Erming’s disability of living in a loop has some advantage that he can run the business on his own as he knows the formula, so he’s not entirely helpless and useless. The downside is he can’t work any other jobs and do anything new in life. It’s made worst is when he loses the bath house and his home. Daming is the straight man/ normal man that’s mostly a blank slate to observe everything. Despite the straight man to the “funny” man is usually the boring part of the film as we’re better paying attention to the funny one. I said funny loosely, because Erming isn’t completely funny yet slightly annoying, but has his own interest to be a character. There’s a flashback involving the characters’ mom, but it was shown twice, and it felt like a separated film with different setting and tone that’s barely a footnote.

Shower is an interesting film. It’s not bad that I would scrub myself hard in the shower to get the bad feeling off. While I don’t know any film I would watch while I’m bathing in a shower, pool, or spa. Though there’s a good reason why not watch a film through electrical device in a watery container. The film itself is just a relaxing film to do a cannonball in.

Raise the Red Lantern

                                              

                                                   Raise the Red Lantern

                   

                          “With blood and rage of crimson red, ripped from…”

-                                                                                                      -  Red Lantern Oath from Green Lantern.

      Oops, wrong one! I mistake the comic to the film I’m reviewing.

In the year of 1920s, a woman named Songlian has been forced to become the fourth mistress for her husband aka Master at a temple. The temple raised their red lanterns upon the fourth mistress, as her servants came. Each Mistress gets their privilege when the red lantern it lit at their part of the temple. She meets the first mistress named Yuru (the bitter, oldest one), and then the second mistress named Zhouyun (the sweet one), and barely the third mistress named Meishan (the singer). The next day, Songlian discover a locked room that Zhouyun revealed to be the Death Room. Songlian meet Feipu (son of Yuru) as he’s playing a flute. Songlian thought her servant, Yan’er stole her flute, but reveal upon searching has found a Voodoo doll of Songlian (that was secretly made by Zhouyun). Turns out Feipu has Songlian’s flute (which was her father’s), but he burned it. Songlian starts to “lose” trust in Zhouyun to the point Souglian slip Zhouyun’s ear while cutting her hair. Songlian became pregnant, as the red lanterns lit day and night all through winter, until she revealed she’s faking it to the point that the husband get furious. Souglian reveal Yan’er hidden lit red lantern as they were burnt to ashes. Songlian will soon lose everyone and her sanity.

        

           Songlian spends the majority of film stoic and cries few times. It’s partly understandable that she’s not passionate to be with a man mainly for the money at the cost of freedom, free will, and possibly her sleep with the lanterns on at night. You barely see the husband as he’s unidentifiable, unless he caught an unfocused glimpse at a distance of him. This is an unidentifiable character “mostly” done right as much as Onceler (Lorax, not the recent CGI crap), The Keys (ET), and the Hunters (Bambi). Although we do see some glimpse, it can lose the mystery of the husband, but it’s not as bad as Dr. Claw (live-action Inspector Gadget) and the humans in Alpha & Omega films.

          I don’t get into these melodrama films, mainly because they’re mostly the same with a whiny woman doing the same dating story(ies) range from having or losing a man, and she goes wee-hee happy in the end with rushed conflict, as seen in all Madea films, Mama Mia, and many bad chick flick. What set this film slightly different is the suffering onto the characters, and they’re in real pain and suffering from abuse or isolation, but that’s minor. Any other chick flick would have the main woman wouldn’t have such physical or emotional conflict, thus we wouldn’t relate to them as directors and/or writer would treat them like babies or Stepford Wives (which emotionally wise, they’re about close).   

        

          The temple is nice, and the lighting’s nice, but it gets grating as it’s the only location we’re in, which is the point for the wives. This film is incredibly slow, repetitive, and it does get interesting around the hour mark. If I was in Songlian’s massaged feet, I would go insane from the slow times in this prison. As this is a film I wouldn’t revisit for awhile.

Touch of the Light

Touch of the Light (2012)

Huang-Yu Shiang is a blind man going to a music class in college at Thailand. He’s being guided by his mom and later with his classmates. A woman, named Jie works at Coco (Thailand’s Starbuck) and goes to Dance Class taught by Shiang’s mom. One day, Jie saves Shiang from crossing the street on his own, and they slowly bond with their own goals. Shiang plays music on the piano that would lead him connecting other people and put into the contest with songs such as a remix of Flight of the Bumblebee (not to be confused with Bumble Boogie), Bach music, and As Time Goes By.

The theme is disability, mainly blindness in society and education.

This film was originally going to be a short film based on a real event, but was suggest being a feature length film. That kind of idea can work when done right. Short Stories in books with around 100 pages or less such as The Birds, Shawshank Redemption, Christmas Carols, and (I have to include this for personal reason I’ll do a review in the future after January 2017) Nightmare Before Christmas. These stories may be short, but they were expanded with additional characters that fit the story, explore questions that was asked about the book such as ”Did anyone noticed their Pumpkin King left Halloween?” or “What did they do with the victim and how he/ she escaped?” include music and/ or suspense onto the character(s), and other stuffs that helped the story better. However, there’s a bad way of expanding a short story into films such as Children of the Corn, The Last Mimzy, and recently with Batman: The Killing Joke. In fact, this film is very common with the Killing Joke. A short story that was added with a subplot on a woman (Barbara/ Batgirl and Jie) dealing with a generic life you see in a generic chick flick and an issues that barely connect to the overall story and feels like a separate film. Granted, we would like to see more substance onto the female character, but we want to see something unique from them than to be a love interest, boring, a body count, or a Sex in the City character. One thing that’s unique is a blind person in college, at least in film. 

We’ve seen blind characters in films before. Some blind characters done right such as Toph (Avatar: The Last Airbender), and to name a few, but there’s some done wrong such as Daredevil (the film, not the Netflix show), Garret (Quest For Camelot), and Neil Patrick Harris (Beastly). The kind of blind characters that was written to be blind as an after-thought, yet they have the same slight as if they weren’t blind or (in daredevil’s case) altered visually.

Shiang’s very common with Ray Charles since they’re both blind pianist. The difference is Ray became blind from trauma, got rich, had wife issue, was a singer, and appeared in films, as Shiang got blind from premature birth, won contest dishonorably from the pity of judges, and isn’t on any drugs. We can tell he’s blind as we see his point of view of seeing people as black silhouette in foggy world. The background music sounds nice to listen, and you can see the passion and effort Shiang and his friends when they help him add the remix beat into his piano work. Touch of the Light I would like to watch, but a short story it would work better to focus on.