Okay, I know I'm a little late with writing my monthly film reviews, and I haven't even started on my book reviews yet, but I finally got around to finishing my reviews for films I watched last month. Animation, action, drama, comedies - a variety of films in different genres as usual and from a variety of countries as well. Aside from the US and Japan, this month also features films from the UK, France and Korea as well.
崖の上のポニョ [Gake no Ue no Ponyo] (2008) – Studio Ghibli’s latest flick was finally aired on network television. Of course I had to watch it. With a new Studio Ghibli film being released in July, the networks have been airing some of their other animation films. Title [Ponyo] in the States, this is an original story in which Ponyo, a fish, falls in love with a human and wishes to become human herself. This may not look like other Studio Ghibli films as director Hayao Miyazaki wanted to go back to his roots and make a movie without the use of any computer graphics. This movie was entirely hand drawn and used some 30,000 sheets of paper. By the way, the new Studio Ghibli film is titled [Karigurashi no Arietti]. The story is based on Mary Norton’s book “The Borrowers”, which will probably be the US title (I’m just guessing on that point though). I will be looking forward to seeing that film as well.
TRANSPORTER 3 : UNLIMITED (2008) – I love this series that stars Jason Statham. The screenplay was also written by Luc Besson which is another plus. This starts where Part 2 ends. Frank Martin refuses a job and refers the potential client to a friend of his. But when that friend comes crashing through Frank’s home, Frank unknowingly causes his death. Why? Because his friend has some kind of bracelet device on his wrist and if he’s more than 25 meters away from the car, the bracelet goes boom! Bad guys knock Frank out, he wakes up with the same bracelet and now cannot refuse his next job. The package is some red luggage in the trunk? Or is it? Perhaps, the package is the young Ukrainian woman who also has a remote exploding bracelet on. But once you piss Frank off, there is no telling what he’s capable of. Great action flick. 
CRANK 2 : HIGH VOLTAGE (2009) – I was on a Jason Statham kick and had to watch this sequel as well. Although this is also an action film, the plot is so ridiculous, it’s funny. If you’ve seen the first film then you might know what to expect. To refresh your memory, Chev Chelios (Statham) falls 1000 meters from the sky and goes splat on the pavement. But at the very end of the film, his eyes open. Of course he’s not dead! But this time when he wakes, Chelios finds himself on some kind of operating table and discovers that some quack has surgically removed his heart and has put in an artificial heart. But the fake heart needs to be constantly charged to be effective. So while Chelios gets up from wherever he is and makes the Doc who took his heart out tell where it is, it’s one action scene after another. Just crazy all out action with some sex thrown in for good measure. Hilarious. 
GOODFELLAS (1990) – Joe Pesci won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in this Martin Scorsese directed film based on the book “Wiseguys” by Nicolas Pileggi. It was also nominated for best film and best director as well but I had never gotten around to watching it. My local DVD rental shop has a 100yen rental section and I decided it was about time that I watched this movie. This story is about a guy who wanted to be a gangster, then hung out with gangsters, then became a gangster himself. The movie features an all star cast including Robert De Niro, Ray Liotti (who plays Henry Hill and narrates the story), the aforementioned Joe Pesci (one scary character who seems to enjoy killing people), Lorraine Brocco, Paul Sorvino and more. Seeing how it’s a bunch of mafia hoods who get killed or caught, you couldn’t really feel sorry for a single one of them. But hey, it makes a great flick.
TROY (2004) – Based on Homer’s “Iliad” and stars Brad Pitt as Achilles in one of those Hollywood epics. It was aired on network television and since I had never seen, I decided to watch it. Trojan prince convinces the Helen, Queen of Sparta to leave her hubby. She does. Hubby finds out, gets mad, and declares war on the never been defeated Trojans. You see, it’s either religion or women that cause wars! But I suppose hubby should have been a little nicer to Helen, but Helen of Troy sounds much better than Helen of Sparta. Very cool period piece even though I remember it getting panned by the critics. We mustn’t forget the Trojan Horse as well. 
THE INTERNATIONAL (2009) – Interpol agent and Manhattan D.A. are investigating an international bank for illicit activities such as money laundering, international arms trading and the destabilization of governments, not to mention supporting terrorist activities and war. Not a lot of action and not that great a movie. But the locations are great – New York, Milan, Instanbul, Berlin. Stars Clive Owen as the Interpol agent and Naomi Watts for eye candy – oh, I mean she’s the D.A. from Manhattan. Kind of reminds me of the Nicolas Cage film “Lord of War”. Here’s an arms dealer that although was caught by the FBI, walked free because politicians in high standing cannot afford to lose his service. In this flick the “Lord of War” isn’t one person, it’s an international bank. Ho Hum.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (2008) – When I first read this story which is based on the book “Q & A” by Vikas Swarup, I thought it would make a great movie. Apparently someone in the movie industry thought so as well and created one of the best movies of the year and won the Academy Award for Best Film. The film adaptation stays fairly close to the book, but like most stories, the book is much better. Jamal Malik was an orphan who lived in the slums of Mumbai. However, he finds himself one answer away from winning the grand prize on India’s version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. But the producer thinks he cheated and the police are questioning him on how he cheated. But Jamal never falters – he says he knew the answers. Then we see his life in flashbacks and how he was able to answer most of the questions. I really enjoyed the film, but enjoyed the book even more. With the popularity of the film and with it winning the Oscar, the book was re-released with the title of “Slumdog Millionaire” as well. Even though I recommended the book to a lot of people before I had even finished reading it, I did think that “Q & A” was a rather weak title.
おっぱいバレ [Oppai Volley] (2009) – This cute movie is based on a true story that happened in a small town in 1970s Japan. New junior high school teacher Mikako Terajima has also become the coach of the boy’s volleyball. A group full of losers who only have one thing on their mind – sex! As Mikako tries to motivate them she tells them she would do anything. This prompts the kids into having their teacher make a promise she couldn’t really keep. The promise being, if their team wins a game, she would show them her boobs! It’s a very light-hearted and entertaining film. Its films like this they make me enjoy Japanese films. 
Balieue 13 2 : Ultimatum (2009) – Ooh, I’ve been waiting for this film to come out. It’s a French action film that utilizes a lot of parkour. Forget Hollywood action, the new capital of action flicks are France and Thailand. This picks up where part 1 leaves off. Banlieue 13 is still run by a bunch of gangs and the government can do nothing about it. Well, the new chief of the secret service or something has framed the denizens of Banlieue 13 for killing a cop without any provocation which gives them an excuse to go kill those same denizens. Top guy even talks the President of France into destroying Banlieue 13 for the good of the country – because who’s gonna miss any of the miscreants that live there. Well, the miscreants certainly don’t want to be blown-up and the two main characters find that the real criminals are the secret service guy who were unknowingly filmed on video tape killing the cop. Afterwards, much action and mayhem ensue. God, I love this series. 
ハンサム★スーツ [Handsome Suit] (2008) – Another cute movie with a similar plot to “The Nutty Professor”. Loser guy who owns and runs a popular restaurant is told to buy a new suit for an image change. He goes but does not find anything to his liking. The owner of the suit shop however has the perfect suit for him – the “Handsome Suit”. The owners tells our hero if he wears this suit, he will become a handsome and irresistible to the opposite sex. Not really believing in the hype, he tries it own, and lo and behold – he becomes a different man. He decides to try a few other models of the “handsome suits” which turn out to be other popular Japanese television stars (which had me rolling with laughter), but since most of you wouldn’t know who the heck I was talking about, I decided not to tell you their names. Of course our loser is in love with this gorgeous girl who thinks that all men don’t want to get to know the real her and is put off by loser in his handsome suit. I doubt that you will find this in your local DVD rental store’s foreign film section but I thoroughly enjoyed it. What a hoot! Oh, and much better than “The Nutty Professor” – the original one because I never saw the one with Eddie Murphy. 
突入せよ！「あさま山荘事件」 ～Choice of Hercules～ [Totsunyuseyo! Asama Sanso Jiken] (2002) – Members of the Japanese Red Army are held up in a small mountain cabin with a young woman as hostage in the resort town of Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture during the winter of 1972. This is also based on a true incident. Koji Yakusho plays Officer Atsuyuki Sassa of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police who’s sent to Karuizawa to solve the crisis but runs into a problems with the Nagano Prefectural Police as they are gung-ho in charging in and solving the crisis as soon as possible, not really taking into consideration the woman who’s held hostage. Sassa must also deal with public opinion as well. On top of that, this being winter, everybody has to deal with the forces of nature as the temperature drops to below freezing. 
GO FAST (2008) – This is based on the true story of a French policeman of Algerian descent Marek who works for the crime squad. On an operation against drug traffickers, the police are discovered and the baddies go on a killing spree as they run away, killing Marek’s partner in the process. Later, Marek is recruited and groomed to go undercover in the drug runner’s operation who have been smuggling drugs into France through Morocco and Spain by using fast boats and fast cars. The police have given the group the name “Go Fast”. Not as intense as “Internal Affairs” or “The Departed”, but those movies were fiction. More drama than action but still worth watching.
THE BANK JOB (2008) – And yet another film based on a true story – the Baker Street Bank Robbery in London in 1971. This simple and crazy bank heist flick turned out to be not so simple when the robbers succeeded. A woman named Martine offers some of her friends a foolproof plan on robbing a bank in London. Their goal is the bank’s safe deposit boxes. Over 3 million pounds of cash and jewelry were stolen and most of it was never recovered, and the robbers were never caught. The British government put a gag order on this news piece because along with the cash and jewelry, it seems some government bureaucrats also kept dirty secrets of their own at this bank and they also wanted to keep a sex scandal involving the Royal family out of the press as well. Jason Statham in a more dramatic role where he isn’t bashing people’s heads in. The first hour or so seems like a standard bank heist movie, but the flick picks up when not only members of MI5 (or MI6), a porn king, a black radical, and politicians are involved. Excellent film.
THE GOOD THE BAD THE WEIRD (2008) – One crazy Korean movie, an oriental western that was done much better than the Japanese film [Django : Sukiyaki Western]. It looks like a spoof on Clint Eastwood’s [The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly] but funnier. Do-won Park is The Good, Byung-hun Lee is The Bad, and Kang-ho Song is The Weird. The story, if you can call it that, centers around a treasure map that not only are the three main characters are after (one of them actually has it), but so are a bunch of other Chinese bandits and the Japanese army as well. It’s one action scene after another, not a single dull moment and it will keep you on edge as you try to decide who you should root for.
THE NEGOTIATOR (1998) – Currently there is a Japanese film called “The Negotiator” playing at theaters and starring Ryoko Yonekura. The film being based on a popular Japanese television drama series of the same name. So the television network decided to air the Hollywood version of the film with the same title and had Ryoko Yonekura introducing the film as well. I’ve seen this a couple of times already but when you don’t watch a film for a long period of time, you tend to forget some of the story. Samuel L. Jackson plays a hostage negotiator who’s been framed for the murder of another officer who was investing a retirement fund that was also being investigated by the Internal Affairs Department. In order to prove his innocence, Jackson himself takes a few hostages and says he will only speak to Chris Sabian (played excellently by Kevin Spacey), another negotiator.Now head out to your local DVD rental store or theater and go watch some films!
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