Monkeypeaches' The Best and Worst of 2005 (MonkeyPeaches Exclusive)
December 31, 2005
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Best and Worst Films of 2005 |
The time has come for another round of best and worst of Chinese language movies. I intend to do it every year because some people around the world sometimes visit this site for reference, reference for which movies to get and which movies to avoid. The ranking does not really means one is definitely better than the others, but I do it anyway since it is such a common practice to do the lineup. Most of them will not be available to a theater near you and all of them will be available on DVD. Here you go:
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1. Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles / Qian Li Zou Dan Ji
After two back-to-back martial-art epics, Zhang Yimou returns to his root to make this small production about a very touching story of a Japanese fisherman traveling to a remote region in China to win back the heart of his dying son and discovering a young local boy who hates his father, like mirror reflection of his own son. Zhang Yimou wanted to make the film just for working with veteran Japanese actor Takakura Ken, whose natural performance really makes this film work. Thanks should also go to writer Zou Jingzhi, who is responsible for transforming a simple idea director Zhang Yimou came up to a very original story. Like in The Story of Qiuju and Not One Less, a large number of none professional actors were hired to basically play themselves to make this film somewhat looks like a documentary.
Directed by ZHANG Yimou, written by ZHANG Yimou and ZOU Jingzhi.
Starring Takakura Ken, YANG Zhenbo, QIU Lin, LI Jiamin, HE Zezhou, CHEN ?, JIANG We, Shinobu TERAJIMA and Kiichi NAKAI.
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2. The World / Shi Jie
At a gigantic scene park outside of Beijing, famous wonders around the world are recreated to entertain the tourists and everyday workers migrated from other places, either the less developed China or the less developed Russia, put on fancy costumes to pretend to be people they are not. They works in a booming city and they earn more than they could dream about back home, but their jobs are boring and their life is bitter. Young director Jia Zhangke masterfully tells a very sad story of two migrant worker, a dancer and her boyfriend, whose life have forever changed by the modernization of China one way or the other.
Written and directed by JIA Zhangke
Starring ZHAO Tao, CHENG Taishen, JIANG Zhongwei, JING Jue, WANG Yiqun.
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3. Sunflower / Xiangrikui
(Selected for this year's Toronto International Film Festival.)
This is another story about the relationship between a father and a son, by director Zhang Yang, who wrote it partially based on his relationship with his own father. In this story, pieced together with a series small events, we see the son grows from a young boy to a father of his own over three decades. The father always loves his son and the son always finds it is painfully difficult to communicate with his father. Until one day, the father quietly leaves his home to do something of his own, the son finally realizes he has missed something in his life for so long. Like what he did
Shower, Zhang Yang once again depicted several very interesting characters, who might just live around you, and one of them could even be you. Credit should also be given to Sun Haiying, who played the father, and Joan Chen, who played the mother.
Directed by ZHANG Yang; starring SUN Haiying, Joan CHEN.
Stills:
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4. Shanghai Dreams / Qing Hong (literal: Blue-Red)
The Prix du Jury winner of Cannes 2005
Young director Wang Xiaoshuai incorporated his own childhood memory into this story set in a factory community in a remote Chinese province during the 1980s. Qing Hong, a teenage girl has a taste a forbidden romance with a local man and his father, after been relocated from Shanghai a decade ago, tries desperately to move his family back. Wang Xiaoshuai realistically tells the story of how the daughter and the father are being slowlly crashed by the world they live in.
Written and directed by WANG Xiaoshuai
Starring GAO Yuanyuan, LI Bin, QIN Hao, YAN Anlian, WANG Xueyang.
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Musical is a rare thing for Chinese cinema and Hong Kong director Peter Chan has proved he could master the genre every well. Perhaps Love is about a love triangle involving the leading man, the leading woman and the director of a movie project, which is about another love triangle set in a different time - a musical within a musical in fact. Three leads play, sing and dance skillfully in this fairy-tale like feature, and all aspect of the film, the costumes, the sets, the choreography, the scores and the camera tricks, help to make it wonderfully entertaining. The ambiguous ending offers no solution to the triangle and a lot of perhaps in life, which is very clever way to end a story.
Directed by Peter CHAN, written by LAM Oi-Wah and Raymond TO.
Starring Takeshi KANESHIRO, ZHOU Xun, Jacky CHEUNG and JI Jin-Hee.
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6. Dam Street / Hong Yan (Literal: Woman)
(Selected for this year's Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival.)
In a small Chinese county town in the early 1980s, a teenage girl was pregnant and is expelled from school along with the father of her unborn. She knew her baby was dead until, ten years after, she meets a young boy, who is exact ten year old. Including the film's director Li Yu, women are probably the best tellers of stories about women. A school girl having a child without marriage, was considered unforgivable according to the moral standard and ten years after, she was still alienated for her sin. Such tragedies are still happening every day, not only in China but also, in many other cultures, even though the world is changing everyday.
Written and directed by LI Yu; starring LIU Yi, HUANG Xingrao, LI Kechun, WANG Yizhu.
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7. Waiting Alone / Du Zi Deng Dai
This is a very unusual film with the usual subject of how a guy are going to get the girl, or girls in this case. It mixed tons of Beijing slangs, jokes and humors with distinctive Western cinematic styles. The result is a fast paced comedy, which offers nothing but fun. In a year, many directors are making movies with dark and series subjects about their painful memories, director Dayyan Eng presents us a refreshing alternative. Just like the movie, the director himself is a mix of different cultures. He is an American citizen, graduated from Beijing Film Academy, and now lives in China. Ethnically, he is a half Chinese, a quarter Scott and a quarter Persian.
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8. S.P.L. / Sha Po Lang (literal: Killing, Obliteration, Avarice)
This a rare and breathtakingly beautiful martial-art film, even by the Hong Kong standard. For many years, the big screen is filled with actors and actress, who never did any decent martial-art training but still managed to get leading roles again and again, largely thanks to wires, CG effects and editing tricks. But if you really believed martial-art films should only be played by real martial-artists, S.P.L. should not be missed. The 50-something Sammo Hung, veteran fighter Donnie Yen and the relatively less known Wu Ji, who shared the same trainer with Jet Li, plus Helmer Wilson Yip's stylish touch, made this film a true wonder.
Directed by Wilson YIP; written by NG Wai-Lun and SZETO Kam-Yuen.
Starring Donnie YEN, Sammo HUNG, Simon YAM, WU Jing, LIU Kai-Chi, Danny Summer, Ken CHANG, Austin WAI, Timmy HUNG and Kenji TANIGAKI.
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9. Three Times / Zuihao De Shiguang (literal: The Best Times)
Chang Chen and Shu Qi play three couple of young lovers in three unrelated stories set in 1911, 1966 and 2005, in the newest film by director Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Hou is known for only making movies about the everyday life of ordinary people of Taiwan, more specifically Taiwan in the past. Even though these three stories are developed a bit unevenly, Hou still shows us why he is called a master. Chang Chen and Shu Qi are not only good looking people, but also good actors capable of handle any role.
Directed by HOU Hsiao-Hsien, written by HOU Hsiao-Hsien and CHU Tien-Wen.
Starring CHANG Chen, SHU Qi, MEI Di, LIAO Su-Jen, FANG Mei.
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10. Seven Swords / Qi Jian
Seven sword masters leave Mt. Heaven to rescue villagers threatened by a gang of bandits working for the new dynasty. Veteran action director Tsui Hark adapted the first two chapters of wuxia novel Seven Swords Leave Mt. Heaven to the silver screen, and possibly, he will finish the story will a series of sequels. What makes the flick interesting is not the fight scenes, though nicely crafted, but rather dozens of characters portrayed by a very strong cast. Also because Tsui Hark is busy on building up characters with small stories, he somehow sacrificed the main story. However, Seven Swords should still be considered as a success as the first installment of a series.
Directed by TSUI Hark; written by Cheung Chi-Sing, CHUN Tin-Nam and TSUI Hark; based on the novel by Liang Yushen.
Starring Donnie YEN, SUN Honglei, Leon LAI, Charlie YEUNG, LIU Chia-Liang, KIM So-Yeon, ZHANG Jingchu, LU Yi, DAI Liwu and Duncan LAI.
Worst Film of 2005
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Dragon Squad / Meng Long
A brainless and cliché story serves no purpose except to letting the cops and the baddies to shoot at each other, a cast serves no purpose except showing how noisy guns could be, a series of shootout sequences serves no purpose except covering the ground with millions of empty shell casings and a movie serves no purpose except luring me into the theater to be tortured for two hours at my own expense with no refund.
Written and directed by Daniel LEE.
Starring Vanness WU, Shawn YUE, XIA Yu, HUANG Shengyi, Sammo HUNG, Michael BIEHN, HEO Jun-Ho, Lawrance CHOU, Maggie Q, Simon YAM, LI Bingbing and Andy ON.