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k_yohanes
Reviews
May (2008)
Touching performance, lush cinematography
May 1998 riot is one among the darkest tragedy in Indonesian history, and until now the incident remained unsolved muddled beneath complicated political agenda. It takes a courage to make a movie about May 1998 riot, and director Viva Westi has taken her chance to direct it. This is not a historical movie, but a story that takes place during that tragedy and the impact felt by several characters in this movie, who seem to be unrelated but eventually form a beautiful thread of a story about love, passion, and humanity. Though filled with flashbacks the director managed to arrange everything neatly thus keep the audience excited until the film ends.
The cinematography, location selection, art directing, are very good, very realistic. No pretense or over exposure of luxury or dream life as shown in most mainstream Indonesian movie nowadays. This is what you will most likely see in real life everyday in Indonesia and Malaysia, where the story takes place.
All the casts give their best performance, and certainly a great start for a newcomer named Jenny Chang, although I feel she's rather awkward during singing performance, or maybe it's the singer voice (the dubber) that's not really matched Jenny's voice.
However, for a personal reason I feel the ending is rather unsuitable - I expect a bleaker finale due to the severe tragedy all characters have experienced. Nevertheless, the director might have other intention to present this story, so here it is. Despite some other minor technical problems like typos during subtitles or some rather off description of Chinese people, May is still a great Indonesian movie, and strongly recommended. Viva Viva Westi! Bravo.
Genderuwo (2007)
This is not a movie... it's a torture chamber for your brain
I don't know whether the filmmakers of Genderuwo are truly filmmaker or simply a bunch of stupid guys who happen to gain enough capital to create such a disgusting creation. The promotion of this movie is translated, "The scariest ghost in the world, prepare yourself! A different and quality horror movie"... Once you watch it, you will experience a deep torture on your brain, logic, intelligence, everything. Stupid story, stupid acting, crappy picture, crappy sound effect, and the ghost itself is super duper crap! Genderuwo is terrible, horrible, in every aspects in movie-making you can name, just stay away from this junk, it's abomination in Indonesian movie industry, and it doesn't even deserve any amount of rating whatsoever!
Suster N (2007)
For an Indonesian horror movie, it certainly offers different taste
Indonesian movie industry in its awakening period during the recent years have been flooded with mostly horror films, which are mostly, unfortunately, lack of originality, made in a hurry, messy editing, silly script and plot, terrible sound FX (only to shock you with loud bang), and other disadvantages mostly caused by lack of seriousness in making a film, possibly also due to the profit-crazed producers. The recent release "Suster N" provides different taste. While not scary or shock-fest, it gives something that Indonesian horror movie never provides before: suspense and mystery. The plot flows nicely, keeps the audience guessing. We have wonderful young talents here, Atiqah Hasiholan and Wulan Guritno (although doesn't talk much, her presence is already mysterious enough...), along with great cameos made by a bunch of Indonesian veteran actors and actresses like Henky Soelaiman, HIM Damsyik, Ratna Riantiarno, Jajang C. Noer, Ade Irawan, and many others. Unfortunately the male actor's acting (Ben Seven) is rather wooden. The location (a villa with Dutch colonial architecture converted into an old folks' home) is great, giving that eerie Gothic surroundings, like old-school horror movies. Setting in other "mainstream Indonesian horrors" are mostly sloppy and never arranged seriously.
However, among the good things mentioned, it's such a pity that the filmmaker rather failed to show "scary ghost" - and still can't completely release heavy dependence to "The Ring" and "Ju-On" type of ghosts, like other Indonesian horror trash movies. Anyway, I think it's just a minor thing and for me, not decreasing my enjoyment of this movie. Yes, it's a different Indonesian horror movie, and I recommend at least to watch it once and judge it by yourself.
Windtalkers (2002)
Boy, they really hate John Woo, don't they?
There's only one word I'd like to describe regarding the majority of user's comments of Windtalkers: Unfair! I absolutely agree to Jimmy Lo Santo's good review. This is a great war movie, great John Woo movie, and certainly a great action movie. This is John Woo's expertise! I should admit that the plot is a bit weak, and the film should have exposed more about the Navajo code system communication, but the dramatic moments and moral of the story do exist! Windtalkers is only for war and action movie's buffs, otherwise don't write any comment about this movie because it would spoil the view of other people who haven't seen Windtalkers! Saving Private Ryan has good war action sequences but the basic story is stupid! Thin Red Line is too complicated and somewhat ultimately boring, so why comparing this movie to those? Believe me, if you're war action film fans, Windtalkers should be one of your movies!
Do san 3: Siu nin do san (1996)
Don't relate this to the original God of Gamblers
God of Gamblers series (Stephen Chow not included) are always fascinating, but this prequel? I must admit the idea, tricks, strategy used by the characters here constitute good plot but the characters couldn't portray the original ones. Jordan Chan is certainly no Siang Hua Chiang. The character Lung Wu should not be in this film because he never met Koo Chun until he was recommended by the Japanese boss in GOG 1. Leon Lai doesn't have Chow Yun Fat's charm and the idea of why Koo Chun applies wet-and-set hairstyle is ridiculous. Anita Yuen doesn't have any similar face pattern to Cheung Min. However, as long as you don't know GOG, this is quite entertaining.
The Anarchists (2000)
Definitely excellent!
This is the first Korean title in my movie collection. Although I wasn't sure when buying the VCD, I finally found out that I didn't make a wrong choice. This film has everything an entertainment needs: strong and cool characters (triad style!), excellent location, costumes, setting, dialogues, story, and action scenes (gunfight: John Woo style, super cool!). Interesting point in shooting scenes, where Seregay charged the enemy's house with automatic pistol, reminding me of Chow Yun Fat in Woo's film. The good thing is, he also ran out of bullets! Drama, action, historical setting mixed excellently by director You Yung Sik, makes this China-Korea movie a good time, also for art film viewers. Highly recommended! Boy, those Koreans sure know how to make good movie!
The Last Marshal (1999)
C'mon, it ain't that bad
B-movies should be treated as B-movie. If you watch the previous condemning comments, well, I can agree to them at some extent but it should be noted that this movie offer a good characterization of the Marshal. A rough, tough, macho, reckless lawman whose approach to handle crime is out of date but proves to be effective, just like Dirty Harry's approach. However, he's also thoughtful, he feels uneasy for getting caught by a lady for uttering swear words. But Scott Glenn truly portrays this character convincingly, a man who's bold enough to assert himself as he is (of course by wiping out his enemies with style). Action scenes are mediocre, but what else do you expect? I think it's still not that bad.
Oi gwan yue mung (2001)
Poor female cast
Another romantic materials starring Hongkong super star Andy Lau. Such a pity that the co-female stars are Anita Mui and Sandra Ng, who are definitely not knockouts, unlike other romantic Andy Lau's movies which usually use beautiful female actresses. It would've been better if the actresses are funny & cute-face or innocent types, such as Anita Yuen, Maggie Cheung, or maybe Vicki Zhao. Alas, although the leading female casts are poor, the supporting actresses(the dance class students and co-worker) are quite gorgeous! The script is OK enough, though, just to spend time relaxing, at best. Otherwise it's just a waste of time. 2/5
The Dogs of War (1980)
Poor adaptation of the novel, but still enjoyable
Since I've read Dogs of War novel, I was rather disappointed to watch the adaptation. However, one should realize that a detailed adaptation of the novel would result in maybe 3 hrs duration! However, good improvisation should be credited here, especially in weapons, Schmeissers is replaced by Uzi, and bazookas are replaced by rocket launchers and light grenade launchers with drum magazine, cool stuff! Anyway, if you haven't read the novel, it's still enjoyable and recommended.
Lat sau san taam (1992)
Monotonous bloodshed
This is one of John Woo's masterpiece of heroic bloodshed genre. The dramatic aspect is good like usual, but I wonder how come so many comments praised the final action scenes. They're indeed brutal and never appear in any Hollywood movies before. However, one word is enough to describe it: MONOTONOUS. Chow Yun Fat and Tony Leung only run from floor to floor, shooting the gangsters 2 or three persons per floor then move to next room/floor, shoot again and again. Such a pity. Anyway, in general this movie is recommended.