Red Cliff, Part II (2009, China)

Overall, a much better film than Part 1, although this movie had the distinct advantage of standing on the shoulders of the first one, which, if I recall correctly, I described as a "self-indulgent, overblown mess".

With Red Cliff, legendary Hong Kong action film director John Woo appears to be shooting for his magnum opus. In Asia, the film has been released as 2 films at almost 5 hours total in length. Outside of Asia, the movie will be cut down into a single film of over 2 hours in length, and most likely to be close to 3 hours, I shouldn't wonder.

So I gave the first film a rotten rating of 5 out of 10 tomatoes, not because it was terrible, but it had parts of it that were pretty god awful. Mostly attempts at delving into characters, which is not a John Woo forte. However, with the help of the good bits of the first film and having worked through who was who which made it flow much more evenly, Part 2 gets a fresh rating. The annoying character development scenes are still there, but much more contained and not hard-boiled.

Another thing I realized from this film is that despite calling John Woo a legendary action film director, which I think is now more fact than opinion, I think I can state that I am not a John Woo fan. He has the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and he doesn't do narrative or suspense very well, and therefore his storytelling is generally heavy-handed, one-dimensional and uni-directional.

What he does well is grandeur and in-your-face, and he puts together a very good action film. This is a good John Woo film. And in the ranks of Chinese period battle films, very distinct from the kung-fu brand of martial arts film, I'd say Red Cliff, part 2 ranks pretty high. I've seen some pretty weak ones. This film does have some very good moments.

I still think the abridged international version will be killer, as long as he cuts out those horrible character insight scenes and sticks to an action film pace. I'm going to give this a fresh 7 out of 10 tomatoes rating, taking into account that I realize I'm not a John Woo fan, and in anticipation of a much better international version that I'll likely give a higher rating.



Linda Linda Linda (2005, Japan)

I'm giving this movie a qualified perfect 10 out of 10 tomato rating. It's totally subjective, I loved this film for many biased subjective reasons, although objectively I would probably give the film no less than an 8.

The movie is about a Japanese high school all-girl punk band that finds itself in crisis at the beginning of the film: personnel problems right before a high school festival performance. The movie is about how they strive to accomplish the performance, and I'm not saying whether they do or not, given this crisis.

My biases include an appreciation for Japanese film and the characteristic of characters not openly expressing themselves, but just sort of "vibing" what they feel on-screen. Sometimes really annoying, sometimes successful in conveying the complexity of human emotions.

Another bias is from the Korean exchange student as the lead singer, because I totally relate to her experience as a foreigner struggling with a language. Also that she's Korean, as my appreciation for Korean culture has grown recently, despite being overshadowed and degraded by Chinese and Japanese culture. In this movie: "I'm . . . Korean", "An exchange student? . . . cool".

Lastly, I'm a musician. And punk rock is well-portrayed in this film. It's not about technical proficiency, it's about "just going for it": "You wanna join our band?", "OK", "Can you sing?", " . . . Sure". The Ramones couldn't be prouder of dialogue as that.

To dispel some confusion of the band problems at the beginning: the bassist and drummer, Nozomi and Kyoko, are the steady, reliable fixtures in the band. At the beginning of the film, Moe, the guitarist is injured after jamming her finger playing basketball. So she's out. Original member Rinko, singer, immediately tried recruiting a guy friend on guitar without telling the others, but that was not cool with keyboardist, Kei. Rinko and Kei have a history of tension.

So at the beginning of the film, Moe is out, Rinko is . . . probably out. Kei, one of the band's founders stubbornly decides that they will perform, but realizes they need a new singer to replace Rinko who she's seriously mad at. And that she herself will have to fill in for Moe on guitar, even though it's not her primary instrument.

Action!