Gear yourself up for an international line-up of movies!

From a Hollywood chick flick to a Chinese costume drama to a Japanese superhero flick to a Swedish vampire romance, the cinemas offer a delectable smorgasbord of surprises this week.

Our favorite of the week is the Swedish moodpiece Let The Right One In, which tells a chilling and unforgettable tale of a 12-year-old boy who falls in love with a vampire girl. Boasting elegant visuals and equally elegant direction, this horror movie is one of the best films of the year.

Also recommended is Takeshi Kaneshiro’s terrifically entertaining K-20, which casts the heartthrob as a circus performer fighting to clear his name after being framed for crimes he did not commit. Based on a popular manga, K-20 is filled with thrills and spills.

Meanwhile, those of you who can’t get enough to Valentine’s Day flicks might want to catch He’s Just Not That Into You, a predictable but ultimately likeable chick flick about – what else? – falling in and out of love.

Chinese director Chen Kaige also weighs in with his highly-anticipated Beijing opera drama, Forever Enthralled, while Hollywood comedian Steve Martin tries to get cash registers ringing again with the sequel to his 2006 hit, The Pink Panther.

Meanwhile, in case you didn’t know, the stage is set for the Oscars ceremony on 22 February (23 February, Singapore time). Don’t miss the glitz and glamour!

Let The Right One In

The must-see movie of the week is a Swedish vampire romance between a 12-year-old boy and an undead girl. Doesn’t that spell “must-see” already?

A critical and commercial hit in its home country, Let The Right One In tells a deliciously dark tale in a cold and conservative Swedish suburb in the 80s. Here we find 12-year-old Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) who lives with his single mother. Oskar is extremely shy and lonely, and he is often the target of school bullies.

He falls in love with another shy youngster Eli (Lina Leandersson) who is also 12, “more or less”. But he soon realises that she is not like any other girl. She is black haired, doesn’t go to school and walks barefoot in the snow. More significantly, she’s biologically dead but can remain undead if she feeds on the blood of other people.

How do you love a vampire who kills people, but who also happens to be your only friend in the world?

Directed by Tomas Alfredson, Let The Right One In is elegantly macabre yet moving, genuinely scary yet also sweet. The script by John Ajvide Lindqvist is exceptionally fine. And the performances by the child actors are simply heartbreaking.

Hollywood has already acquired the rights to remake it in English. But with the exception of Quarantine (remade from [REC]) and The Ring (remade from Ringu), we can’t recall any good adaptation of a non-American horror hit. Don’t miss this moody masterpiece.

If you’re going to watch to just one Oscar nominee this year, let it be Slumdog Millionaire. (If two, then catch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button too.)

K-20

Anyone who thinks only Hollywood makes good superhero movies have got to see K-20. Directed by female helmer Shimako Sato, this Japanese flick dazzles with its inventive storyline, slick camerawork, superb action choreography and solid special effects.

Takeshi Kaneshiro, who may be the most beautiful man in the world, plays a nimble circus acrobat who is hired by a gossip magazine to climb up a glass rooftop and secretly take photographs of the celebrity wedding between a famous detective and an heiress.

Little does he know that the assignment is a setup. He is discovered on the roof, arrested and accused of being the notorious K-20, a prankster villain who is an enemy of the detective. Using his acrobatic skills, Takeshi must now escape prison, find the real K-20 and clear his own name…

With a manga-fantasy storyline that’s typically replete with twists and surprises, K-20 will keep you engaged right through to its excellent conclusion – even though the movie is 2hrs and 15min long. Director Shimako Sato wisely peppers the film with humor and gets some wonderful moments of pure slapstick now and then.

Guaranteed to entertain, even if your butt is sore by the time the credits roll.

There have been so many books, songs and movies about the romantic rituals of men and women that one wonders what a new romantic comedy like He’s Not That Into You has to offer. The answer is not very much at all.

He’s Not That Into You began as a catchphrase in a Sex & The City episode, which spun off a bestselling self-help book written by Sex & The City writers Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo. Now the book has spun off a movie that stars some of the most beautiful and gifted Hollywood actresses. Yet it says almost nothing about contemporary romance that hasn’t already been said in Sex & The City.

Set in Baltimore , the story follows the romantic fates of five women and their hopeless men. The actresses (Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly and Ginnifer Goodwin) are all very appealing, as are the actors (Ben Affleck, Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper and Justin Long). But all their characters do is talk and talk about love, as if these are the only things that preoccupy them.

The strong third act miraculously manages to save the mediocre first and second acts. So if you’re easy to please, then maybe you’ll enjoy this.

Director Chen Kaige has had several hits and misses in his career. From the heights of Yellow Earth (1984) and Farewell My Concubine (1993) to the dreary depths of Killing Me Softly (2002) and The Promise (2005), his movies have ranged from the marvelous to the mediocre to the miserable.

His latest costume drama Forever Enthralled ranks slightly above his mediocre ones. It tells a fairly captivating, if uneven, story of one of the most important figures in Beijing opera, Mei Lanfang. Born in 1894 to a family of opera performers, Mei had found fame and fortune playing women roles.

Taught by the dedicated Qiu Rubai (Sun Honglei), Mei rose quickly in the opera world, incurring the wrath and jealousy of rival singer Shi Sanyan (Wang Xueqi). Mei would eventually eclipse his rival, achieving recognition all over Asia . A joint performance with Meng Xiaodong (Zhang Ziyi) who’s made her name performing masculine roles sparkled off an affair that were disapproved by Mei’s entourage, as they felt Meng was interfering in his sparkling career.

Just as he did in his previous opera drama Farewell My Concubine, Chen Kaige delivers all the requisite pomp and pageantry to make Forever Enthralled a visual treat. Unfortunately, the film suffers from structural deficiencies such as uneven pacing and lackluster editing, causing parts of the movie to dip and drag.

Leon Lai is also not the most riveting of actors, despite strong support from Wang Xueqi, Sun Honglei and even Zhang Ziyi.

If you thought the first Pink Panther movie was bad, wait till you see the sequel. Actually, if you’ve seen its trailer, you already know how awful it is. Why this movie got made is a question the box-office has a ready answer for.

Once again, Steve Martin plays the bumbling French Inspector Clouseau – a role made famous by the legendary comedian Peter Sellers in the 1970s. In his efforts to catch a thief who has stolen the Pink Panther diamond, the Shroud of Turin, the Magna Carta and the Imperial Sword of Japan, the Inspector once again trips over crime scenes, mispronounces English words and destroys precious objects.

Want a taste of the jokes? Sample this: Boss tells Clouseau, “You fly to Kyoto in the morning.” Clouseau rebuts: “But I can't fly!” Are you laughing? That’s what we thought…

^ back to top

19th Melbourne Queer Film Festival

Terence Davis

Date: 27 Feb to 1st Mar 2009

Organised by: The Bitish Council and the National Museum of Singapore

More>>

7th Q! Film Festival Indonesia

2009 Mardi Gras Film Festival

Date & Venue: 13 Feb to 5 Mar Sydney

More>>

^ back to top

22nd Singapore International Flim Festival

^ back to top