REVIEW : Helios - 赤道 (2015)

The one thing that sets Helios apart from other Hong Kong action movies is how big it is. Spanning half of northeast Asia and boasting an impressive multinational cast, director duo Longman Leung and Sunny Luk return from their 2012 film Cold War with something extremely big and incredibly loud. Helios is nothing if not ambitious; some might even argue it’s overambitious.

The Koreans have built he world’s smallest nuclear weapon in the form of DC8 but all hell breaks loose when it is stolen be the infamous criminal, Helios (Chang Chen 张震) and his sidekick/assistant who is never given a name (Janice Man 文咏珊). Ji Jin-hee and Choi Si-won enters the game as two agents from South Korea tasked to retrieve the WMD that has been brought to Hong Kong. The two are joined by Counter Terrorism Response Unit inspectors Lee Yin-ming (Nick Cheung 张家辉) and Fan Ka-ming (Shawn Yue 余文乐) to track down and recover what was stolen. Physics professor Siu Chi-yan (Jacky Cheung 张学友) joins the ever growing team as a consultant.

And then there are also Chinese official Song An (Wang Xueqi 王学圻) and his assistant Yuan Xiaowen (Feng Wenjuan 冯文娟) who play the part of Great China, the wise big brother that swoops in and cleans the mess up, all with the greater good in their thoughts, even if their methods might not be everyone's favourite.

I hope I haven't lost you so far.

Eye-candies from Korea cast for very obvious reasons.

It’s hard to say who the main focus in this movie is since there are so many characters to juggle in the span of around two hours; it’s easy to say that the producers of this film have obviously bitten off much more than they could chew. The cast is huge with each name carrying a heavy bit of weight, filming locations are spread out in numerous countries, more twists and turns and plot points were added as the story progressed. The plot gets tangled up and it becomes convoluted very fast, and it doesn't help that there is almost zero character development since everyone's fighting for screen time. The big names are useless here as everyone plays stock characters with stock personalities that are as two-dimensional as characters get. You can easily replace the two Cheungs with someone of lighter credentials and it probably wouldn't change much.

Except losing the fame and attraction that comes with the big names.

Highly replaceable in terms of acting; not so much in terms of fame and popularity.

I’m not going to lie: I personally enjoyed Helios, even if it is loud and flashy. I think this is largely due to the well-choreographed fight scenes by Chin Ka-lok, especially the one between Nick Cheung and Janice Man. Girl can seriously kick some ass while Cheung fights back with the skills learned from his 2013 MMA film Unbeatable. The action sequences in the second half of the film is riveting once you learn to ignore and forgive the incredulity of everything—such as robbing a nuclear plant and smuggling the weapon into Hong Kong by commercial flight. Fighting in Helios, whether it be with fists or with guns, is rapid, it's brutal, and it can get very gory for a Hong Kong action movie.

For someone with no name and little to no dialogue, Janice Man(Left) is the perfect kick-ass sexy-hot babe who is not to be trifled with.

There's a little bit of everything in this movie: robbery, nuclear warfare, epic gunfights, political bickering, and the likes. Of course, no Hong Kong crime action film will be complete without some treachery, But I won't spoil that bit for you.

Helios probably won't win any points in the writing department, but it is highly entertaining. I will probably be anticipating the sequel promised by how the ending is set-up . As said in the epilogue, Helios is only the beginning.

As they say in Chinese: better to offend a villain than a woman. Things get even worse when that person is both.

I rate it : 8/10 stars

THE GOOD : It's pretty high on the entertainment factor; fight scenes are sleek and well-choreographed

THE BAD : Zero character development; things get real complicated real quick, quite unnecessarily might I add.

WATCH IT IF YOU...

• ...fancy a good, new Hong Kong film of the genre.
• ...want to watch Nick Cheung gets his ass kicked by a very pretty (read:hot) girl.
• ...are not going into JUST for the Korean actors -coughSiwoncough- Things will not end well for you emotionally. 

HELIOS - 赤道  (2015)

Genre : Action Crime

Runtime : 118 mins

Director : Longman Leung, Sunny Luk

Cast : Jacky Cheung, Nick Cheung, Choi Si-won, Ji Jin-hee et al.

REVIEW : Lost and Love - 失孤 (2015)

At it's core, Lost and Love is a heartwarming, moving film that deals with the abominable crime of child trafficking in China. When a trafficker (cameo by Sandra Ng 吴君如) tries to sell off the abducted child in her arms, the conversation that takes place is nothing but chilling as she tries to coax the client to opt for a girl instead of the boy he is looking for. As if the child was livestock to be traded, she slashes the price for her and tells the man that girls can be a profitable investment as "girls can be sold off in the future". Whether by that she means marriage or prostitution, it's hard to say.

Lei Zekuan (Andy Lau 刘德华) is a father looking for his son who was abducted 14 years ago. With a flag that has a picture and details about his missing son attached to the back of his motorcycle, he travels all across China in hopes of finding him. Zeng Shuai (Jing Boran 井柏然) is looking for the family he was separated from when he was four, and like Lei's lost son, he was abducted. Their paths cross when Zeng helped Lei to get his bike fixed, before they head off as a two-man team to find what was originally theirs.

On the side, a mother (Ni Jingyang 倪惊阳) is distraught after losing her daughter, the same girl mentioned above who is being peddled by Sandra Ng's character. I wish I could say it ended well. Spoiler: it doesn't.

Totes adorbs.

Andy Lau might be the big star who would draw viewers to watch this film, but his acting pales in comparison with Jing who, relatively speaking, is a nobody. It is Jing as the troubled but charming Zeng that makes the movie memorable. But when they duo are paired together, the father-son relationship plays out convincingly. One thing that stands out the most for me was the panic attack that took place when each of them thought they've lost each other, and the annoyed berating that loosely masked their relief when they were found.

I blame Andy Lau's stiffness on his Mandarin

According to the director Peng Sanyuan (彭三源), the story for Lost and Love is based on a real life incident in China whereby a child was reunited with his parents when someone recognised him from a post on the social media website Weibo. That's what a part of this movie is about: searching for missing children by using the internet. While I understand the scenes where messages of missing children would be sent and shared throughout the Internet is the crux of the story, I can't help but feel that they are a little jarring.

There isn't much drama considering the subject at hand. There's no standing under the rain and making confessions while crying, it's by no means a soap opera. There's crying sure, and some screaming, but it's never really the focus here. Lost and Love is slow, it is mild to the taste. But it is also beautiful, it is graceful, it is poignant. Sometimes, movies like these are the ones that will leave the strongest impression after the credits have rolled, and they tell the best stories of life, love, and lost.

Like The Journey, but with more heartbreaks.

I rate it : 7.5/10 stars

THE GOOD : Picturesque landscapes of China's countryside; Andy Lau and Jing Boran have really good chemistry together.

THE BAD : The ending is honest, but not exactly what I'd call satisfying.

WATCH IT IF YOU...

• ...are a parent. 
• ...want an honest, slice-of-life-esque film. 

LOST AND LOVE - 失孤 (2015)

Genre : Drama

Runtime : 108 mins

Director : Peng Sanyuan

Cast : Andy Lau, Jing Boran

REVIEW : Insanity - 暴疯语 (2015)

You want to know what was the funniest thing in a movie that is pretty un-funny in general?

The director is named 李光耀, the English name David Lee might not ring any bells, but the Chinese name should.

Okay, that was not funny. I apologise.

Insanity opens with Fan Kwok-Sang (Sean Lau 刘青云) who is unemployed and bitter, not to mention paranoid with bouts of schizophrenia which lead to him throwing his wife out of the window and to her death. Three years later, under the care of Dr. Chow (Huang Xiaoming 黄晓明), he is deemed to have recovered from insanity and is released from the mental institution to reenter society as as normal person. But when something goes terribly, terribly wrong for Fan, it is up to Chow the perfectionist to pick up the pieces and to do whatever it takes to maintain his reputation

The Doctor and his Patient, or is it?

Psychological thrillers almost always share some similarities; they almost always have some sort twist that would make the audience go GASP at the grand reveal. You can say a psychological thriller would not be labelled so if there wasn't some sort of plot twist in it. There is one in Insanity, but early on in the movie we're already given little bits and pieces, hints that would lead us to draw our own conclusions ourselves on how the end would turn out to be. There won't be gasps in the cinema, but merely a couple of 'ooh's and 'ahhs'.

However, I do enjoy what occurs after the big reveal, when they uncover the inconsistencies, revealing the truth behind the illusion. It was that part where I found some pleasant surprises in a largely predictable film.

Sean Lau is excellent here; one moment you hate his guts, the next you're hoping nothing bad befalls him.

Insanity might not be the one film that will rewrite the genre, but it's still pretty good for a Hong Kong movie. (Lord knows when was the last time I've watched a good Hong Kong production) The tight cinematography constantly makes us question what is real and what isn't. The sound effects and music do a job of keeping you on the edge of your seat, and sometimes you can't help but wonder if Insanity was a horror movie instead. Paw Hee-Ching's portrayal as Fan's creepy mother-in-law helps keep up with the slasher-like quality of the movie.

People say that mother-in-laws are scary, I don't think this is what they had in mind.

I rate it : 7/10 stars

THE GOOD : Sean Lau as Fan Kwok-Sang is awesome

THE BAD : There's a couple of plot points that aren't resolved; it's predictable and there are no big surprises (although some might argue that to be a good thing, oh well)

WATCH IT IF YOU...

• ...fancy yourself a good Hong Kong thriller. 

INSANITY - 暴疯语 (2015)

Genre : Psychological Thriller

Runtime : 99 mins

Director : David Lee

Cast : Sean Lau, Huang Xiaoming, Alex Fong

REVIEW : ATM - 提款機 (2015)

I wish I could say that there was at least one Chinese movie that I've watched during CNY that's good. I was hoping for ATM to be that movie.

Unfortunately, no such luck.

L-R : Ah Lok, Ming Ming and Bo Zai

Ah Lok aka Rock (Kelvin Kwan 关楚耀) graduated with an engineering degree but instead of pursuing a career in what he majored in, he's out on the streets, busking for a living; Bo Zai (C-Kwan C君) dreams of being able to afford his own house so that he would be able to please his girlfriend; and all Ming Ming (Joanne Yew 尤凤音) ever wanted was to amass great wealth. All three of them face the issues faced by most people in their 20's: the rising cost of living. So when a heist to steal an entire ATM goes wrong, the three post-80's find themselves working in a nursing home in order to search for the lost machine. 

Essentially, the main point of ATM is to tell a story about the relationship and the generational gap between the elderly and and the younger generation. 

While many scenes in the movie that portrays what everyone who's up-to-date is doing these days (being constantly on the phone, selfies anywhere anytime), it feels fake. It felt forced, like it was done on purpose. (Which I realise is a rather oxymoronic thing to say since this is a movie.) Maybe it's the writing, the directing, or the acting. I'm not too sure myself. Nonetheless, even thought these things  happen in real life, in the movie it just feels like a not-so-subtle plot device. It feels clichéd. 

And to be completely honest, the entire plot feels weak. I get where the director is going with it, but it's just not there. Sometimes things just feel rushed, and it did surprise me when the movie ended on an abrupt and unsatisfying end. (Although I guess I should have anticipated it seeing how they pretty much resolved most of their subplots on an unsatisfying note.) I wish I could say that I felt the feelings they were intending to convey to the audience, but I didn't because I couldn't feel the connection with the characters, Perhaps they should have spent some time fleshing them out, showing us actual personalities that feel real and not just another face with a fictitious name. 

There's a sad reason behind all the photos and post-its. 

The acting by the younger generation felt stiff and rehearsed. Although I must say C-Kwan was truly the standout; he did well as the comic relief of the group, if not the entire movie. It shouldn't be a surprise that the older generation actors were much better, since they are all familiar faces and veterans in the Hong Kong film industry, whether it was Ha Yu (夏雨) as the educated Kam-seng, Stanley Fung (冯淬帆) as the typical grumpy grandfather, or Lo Hoi-Pang (卢海鹏) who still thinks he rules the place. Bowie Wu (胡枫) makes a cameo, one of many cameos, in this film and his scene was adorable. 

Overall, ATM is an okay movie that tries to tell a story with an intent to send a message and tug on our heartstrings. Sure the message is clear, it's obvious; but it goes to the mind, not the heart. And sometimes you are just left confused with all the plot devices they threw into the film that make no sense. Besides, it's not exactly something you've never watched before, 


I rate it : 5/10 stars

The GOOD : The older actors were great, C-Kwan was great; sends an important message

The BAD : Clichéd plot that felt rushed at times; unsatisfying resolutions; the BGM was sometimes too dramatic

WATCH IT IF YOU...

• ...want a decent family-friendly film for any generation.
• ...are someone that is not to critical of a movie when certain things end up being illogical.

ATM - 提款機 (2015) 

Genre : Comedy, Drama

Runtime : 100 minutes
Director : Kenne Yam

Cast : Kelvin Kwan, C-Kwan, Joanne Yew, Paw Hee-ching, Lo Hoi-Pang, Stanley Fung, Ha Yu