LaimingLuo

模仿游戏(有好演员还差好故事)

超能陆战队(有温情有特效漫威大片)

有一个地方只有我们知道(无视情节看风光罢)

February 14 2015, while the world relished director Sam Taylor-Johnson's erotic drama "Fifty Shades of Grey" on Valentine's Day, Chinese lovers had to settle for a tourism marketing video in the guise of a love story. "Somewhere Only We Know", or "'You Yi Ge Di Fang Zhi You Wo Men Zhi Dao", is a romantic story with minimum nudity. It is about the encounters of a young Chinese woman who has been dumped at the altar. In order to calm her nerves after the traumatic experience and also to revisit on...

狼图腾(诚意之作发人深省)

To think outside the box is an exceptional ability and one that few people can claim to possess. Just to capture an occasional spark of that creative enlightenment, we often have to break away from the confines of existing norms. For most Chinese and other descendants of agrarian societies, Lv Jiamin's semi-autobiographical novel "Wolf Totem", which he wrote in 2004 under the pseudonym Jiang Rong, was a real eye-opener about life on the Mongolian grasslands. Now a decade has passed, Jean-Jacques...

歌曲改变人生(Once导演卷土重来)

To recognise a chick flick requires two simple steps. First you look at the colour of the pictures, if the images scream of loud, warm and dreamy colours, you can be 80 percent sure. Then you look at the story, if it deals with heartbreaks or unrequited love, it is no doubt a chick flick. However there are distinctions within the genre should you care to look closer. If the characters quote a dead poet or a dead writer, or try to speak like one, you are watching a Woody Allen film; but if someon...

霍比特人3(谢天谢地你完了)

一代宗师3D(憋两年才出的成品)

智取威虎山(国产漫威大片)

When I was just a little boy, I always fancied Chinese epic war films, like "The Tunnel War", "The Mine War" and the "Three Great Campaigns" franchise. These films provided enough fanfare, action and heroism that a small boy desired. But when I was a bit older, I began to reflect on their storylines, which were based on Chinese people's struggle in the first half of the 20th century. I recognised their rich historical and ideological contexts and thought perhaps these films were uniquely made in...

一步之遥(影评人情怀的试金石)

In 2010, Chinese director Jiang Wen released an action comedy film “Let the Bullets Fly” which rocked the country’s movie market. Its huge commercial success made everyone believe Jiang had found the way to dominate Chinese cinemas. In fact, his grip on the audience was so firm that even critics refrained from pricking, or if they did whine their voices must certainly have been drowned in the deafening sound of adulation. But with the advent of his new film “Gone with the Bullets”, the previousl...

少年时代(安静忧郁美少年的12年养成计划)

When people talk about Richard Linklater's ground-breaking film "Boyhood", they always speak of the 12 years the project has spanned, as if time when it reaches certain scale acquires a magical ability to amplify the nature of things. In certain sense it is true. For example, solitude can be kind of sad, but if you add 100 years to it, you get the inconsolable sadness of a literary masterpiece. But it is not always the case, a lot of us live to the age of 80 without achieving anything but sustai...

万物理论(理科男与文艺女的爱情故事)

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. There is one point missing in William Shakespeare's romantic tribute to great persons, they are not always immediately appreciated. Some historical figures like Vincent van Gogh wait for decades, patiently in their deaths, before their names receive world acknowledgement. Stephen Hawking is lucky in this sense, the scientist's best-seller "A Brief History of Time" has allowed us - his contemporaries - to reali...

星际穿越(地心引力的姐妹篇)

Despite Christopher Nolan's conscientious efforts in keeping his filming projects secret, what he cunningly gave out to feed the press was enough to indicate his latest outing would be a very simple story. Months before the release date, I was looking forward to something similar to Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity". I knew it would be spectacular, but never expected it to be so phenomenal. At least in China, the space epic stirred up huge ripples. Comments about the film were flying all over the inter...

忍者神龟(卡通的龟才是可爱的龟)

The latest “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie is directed by Jonathan Liebesman, but the smell of producer Michael Bay permeates the stereotypical popcorn flick. Based more or less on the 1980s franchise of the same name, the film introduces a somewhat different origin story showing much closer connection between female journalist April O’Neil and the four humanoid reptiles. The team is still up against Foot Clan leader Shredder, who threatens to release a deadly virus to the New York City. No...

超体(内涵嗨片)

French director Luc Besson must have allowed his imagination to go wild when he wrote the story for sci-fi action film “Lucy”, although the effect of such wildness is hard to determine. Scarlett Johansson plays the titular girl named Lucy, who is forced by a brutal gang to become an involuntary drug mule. During a violent encounter with a gang member, the small package sewn to her abdomen is broken and the leaked content is absorbed by her body immediately. This new type of synthetic drug unlock...

蓝色骨头(淘金时代的跨界良心)

When I heard about rock star Cui Jian's first feature film "The Blue Bone", my first reaction was to dismiss it as just another piece of amateur nonsense by someone trying to cash in on China's fast expanding film market. Heaven knows we've had enough of those recently. But before I even finished the film, I had begun to regret my narrow-minded assumption, "The Blue Bone" is one of the best directorial debuts in years, or at least it is better than the products of some who label themselves profe...

银河护卫队(小心中了原声的毒)

Three days after watching "Guardians of the Galaxy", I still haven't quite shaken off the tight grip of its original soundtrack. "Hooked on a feeling", "Moonage Daydream", "Fooled Around and Fell in Love", "Cherry Bomb" and "Come and Get Your Love" have been looping non-stop in the background as I tended to domestic chores over the weekend. The smoggy weather of Beijing made it almost a suicide attempt for people to venture outdoors, but thanks to "Awesome Mix Vol. 1", I didn't feel the least co...

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Before seeing Chinese director Ann Hui's latest offering "The Golden Era", I was compelled to do a bit of homework, because this biopic of Chinese writer Xiao Hong seemed pretty daunting to anyone who is not familiar with Chinese literary circles in the early 20th century. However, after a grueling three-hour-long screening, I found these efforts totally unnecessary. "The Golden Era" is along the same line of the director's usual creative impulse of telling stories from a feminine perspective. H...

心花路放(宁浩也走出阴影了吗)

For Chinese cinema-goers, the 2014 National Day Holiday is perhaps all about Huang Bo. In Peter Chan's "Dearest", which hits the cinemas on September 25th, the Chinese actor plays a divorced father traveling all over the country looking for a kidnapped son. It is a tear jerking semi-documentary based on a true story, yet Huang is not able to deliver his knock-out punch, due to the film's unsatisfactory narrative. But that's okay. Since September 30th, he also appears in Ning Hao's road trip come...

猩球黎明(新侏罗纪版教父)

Why launch a reboot of the "Planet of the Apes" series when the storyline had already been exhausted by filmmakers in the 1970s? Or to put it in another way, why would viewers of our times welcome a remake of the classic science fiction story? The most obvious reason is, they didn't have the adequate technique back in those days to present a planet of the apes. The crude idea of letting human actors wear a mask to pass as apes can no longer appeal to modern day viewers. The images in Charton Hes...

亲爱的(值得一看的导演创新之作)

About a quarter of a century ago, when Taiwan movie "My Beloved" was aired in cinemas, viewers were advised to bring a handkerchief, because the touching story was supposed to induce massive and unstoppable weeping. Now, 25 years later at the previews of Peter Ho-sun Chan's recent big screen product, the guests find small envelopes on their seats containing a tissue. That, combined with earlier news releases about the movie, is enough to inform the viewers that they are in for a weeper. But Pete...

敢死队3(良心发现的系列最佳)

I've never been impressed by a film that stars Sylvester Stallone, because I find it difficult to accept the utterly unrealistic action style. I mean: are you kidding me? Delving into a shower of bullets and shrapnel and emerging without a scratch, waving a handgun around casually and killing ferocious-looking enemies by the dozen. That's not heroic, it's divine intervention. And if it is miracles that I seek, I would read the Bible, rather than watching an action film. Since the veteran actor c...

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"How to Train Your Dragon 2" is the most popular film in China this week. The 3D animated feature centers on a Viking village Berk where people keep dragons as pets. With the grace of a cat, the loyalty of a dog and the merit of a flying ride, the imaginary beasts in the movie have won the hearts of many animal lovers. Like its 2010 prequel which gathered almost half a billion dollars from the global market, "How to Train Your Dragon 2" shows the same prospects in sales. Just a fortnight after h...

绣春刀(真正有诚意的古装运作片)

"Brotherhood of Blades" is the best Chinese historical action film since "New Dragon Gate Inn" and Tsui Hark's "Once Upon a Time in China" series. Set in the final years of the Ming Dynasty, the movie tells the story of three secret police whose lives are changed after being tapped to assassinate a runaway, corrupt eunuch. Unlike other historical action films made in recent decades, director Lu Yang's product is characterized by realism and attention to detail. First of all, there are not as man...

白发魔女传(范爷的脸修成那样想必很贵吧)

If you decide to watch Chinese wuxia fantasy film "The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom" or Baifa Monü Zhuan, make sure you've read the original novel by Liang Yusheng, otherwise you'll have to use your imagination to sail through the film's problematic storyline. Liang Yusheng is one of the three most important wuxia-story writers in China. His 1957 novel Baifa Monü Zhuan tells of the romance between a young swordsman Zhuo Yihang and his lover Lian Nichang. Set near the end of the Ming Dynas...

后会无期(公路片的意思就是请您走马观个花)

Having dominated China's box office rankings for about a week, the notorious teen fantasy film Tiny Times 3 gave way to yet another controversial Chinese movie. But to be fair, first time director Han Han's film-making debut is not marred by low taste. The criticism mostly comes from a demanding audience with high expectations. In 1999, Han Han shot to fame after winning a national writing competition, one year ahead of Guo Jingming, the director behind the Tiny Times franchise. But it seems tha...

小时代3(能别残害无知少女吗?)

The last time I got angry in a cinema was when Wong Kai Wai released his incomplete martial arts drama film "The Grandmaster". He showed no respect for cinema-goers and the movie business as he peddled an unfinished product. But that sentiment was nothing compared to what I felt while watching Tiny Times 3. The latest outing by novelist and businessman Guo Jingming witnessed a catastrophic downgrade from the previous installment, which itself barely breached the level of mediocracy in the first ...

分手大师(二人转走出大城市登上大荧幕)

The Breakup Guru is the latest example of how one-man's license can backfire, and how twisted China's upstart movie industry can become. Among all the Chinese celebrity couples that I know of, none is more odd than the combination of Deng Chao and Sun Li. 32-year-old Sun has recently shot to fame after her appearance in soap opera "The Legend of Zhen Huan" captured the attention of countless men and women who worship the sort of earthly sophistication known as court intrigue. Her composed and gr...

了不起的狐狸爸爸(相比之下所谓大片都是渣)

After watching "Grand Budapest Hotel", I find myself deeply obsessed with Wes Anderson films, which are endowed with a unique style, quite different from the ordinary stock that average Hollywood filmmakers can offer. This week, I'd like to introduce one of his previous works. The 2009 "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is Anderson's first adapted film; it is based on the work of Roald Dahl, who also wrote "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Anderson's story is about a series of adventures involving a family ...

变形金刚4(想去厕所可以随时去不用等尿点)

One important criterion we Chinese use to evaluate blockbusters is something called a pee-point. It describes the part of a movie where nothing exciting happens and therefore the viewers could safety embark on a journey to the lavatory without missing anything significant. Often some nice amateur critics online would kindly pinpoint these pee-points so other viewers would know when to visit the loo. And of course, the more pee-points there are in a film, the worse it is considered to be. "Transf...

布达佩斯大饭店(神经质文艺范喜剧)

I've always enjoyed the irresistible charm in movies that reflect a specific period of time: They are a good way to pass down history, sentiments and even techniques--"Grand Budapest Hotel" is one of the best examples. Based on the works of Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig, the movie tells the story of a hotel concierge at the Grand Budapest Hotel in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka. The popular and well-mannered concierge, Gustave, finds himself implicated in a murder case of his friend and for...