Para Para Sakura (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

For those familiar with “para para” dancing and enjoy it, you’ll dig this movie.  Otherwise, if you are not into dancing films, especially one with a shallow plot, this film is not for you.

PARA PARA SAKURA (2001)
CAST: Aaron Kwok, Cecilia Cheung
DIRECTED BY: Jingle Ma
TYPE OF MOVIE: Dance, romance
DURATION: 111 minutes
Note:  Viewed Golden Harvest Entertainment DVD version with removable English subtitles.

Movie Synopsis:

Wong Kam Sing, who runs one of Shanghai’s major aerobic dance centers, was born with a wak sense of jcolor. He has always been living in a clorless gray world and finds himself reluctant to love. Wong meets Lok Yee when he is performing a dance on the streets. What is most amazing is that, in Lok Yee, Wong senses ‘Color’. The joyous and fun-loving Lok Yee brings color into Wong’s dull world. Unfortunately, Lok Yee decides to return to Japan and get married. Wong, having descended once again into his black-and-white world, determines to go to Japan for a passionate reunion…

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DVD EXTRAS:

- Trailers

- Making Of Featurette

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): None that I know of

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DVD REVIEW:

I don’t know how to describe this movie but to say that this movie is like a mix of “Billy Elliot”, “Beat Street”, “Grease”, the Para Para training tapes and a musical together with a HK romantic storyline and you get “Para Para Sakura”.

“Para Para” is a popular dance in Japan which involves the use of hands and arms. “Sakura” is cherry blossom which is an important symbol in the movie.

Phillip (Kwok) plays a color blind dance instructor. He only sees things in black and white until he literally bumps into Yee (Cheung) in which he can see colors on her (the color of pink – Cherry Blossoms).

Yee is trying to hide from her bodyguards and hires Phillip to protect her. Her bodyguards want to take her back to Japan to marry a rich businessman whose father is merging corporations with Yee’s father. By going on this interesting trip of evading the bodyguards, this leads to a budding romance between the two.

Unlike Jingle Ma’s “Fly me to Polaris” in many ways, this movie is like watching a dance musical. When you think the story starts to get serious, like “Billy Elliot”, Phillip does his angry dance routine. Also, there is a dancing number where everyone in the street and the cops join and dance. Fortunately, I watched this on DVD, so I can fast forward.

Now, what saves this movie is the two actors. Aaron Kwock plays a very good nerdy, shy dancing boy. Unlike his other films, he plays the unsuspecting hero. As for Yee, It’s typical Cecilia that you either love or hate. In my case, I can never get enough of her. That’s how talented I think she is (although her raspy Demi Moore-like voice is more apparent in this movie).

If you are an action fan and have no desire to watch dancing movies, this is definitely not for you. All in all, an ok film but I was hoping for a better movie and collaboration between Kwok and Cheung.

THE MOVIE: C+
THE DVD EXTRAS: C+
THE DVD OVERALL: C+

 

Love on a Diet (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

If you are open-minded and want too see a different kind of romance story, “Love on a Diet” with a blend of comedy and romance may be a movie that you want to check out.

Love on a Diet (2001)
CAST: Andy Lau, Sammi Cheng
DIRECTED BY: Johnny To, Wai Kai Fai
TYPE OF MOVIE: Romance, Comedy
DURATION: 94 minutes
Note:  Viewed China Star HK Entertainment DVD version with removable English subtitles.

Movie Synopsis:

Mini (Sammi Cheng) is an expatriate Hong Konger in Japan with a weight problem – all of 300 over pounds. It turns out that she is the long lost love he broods over, inflicted with an eating disorder as the result of their parting, so much so that she becomes unrecognizable to him. The only way is to lose 200 over pounds in 2 weeks. This is where Fatty (Andy Lau) comes in?

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DVD EXTRAS:

- Trailers

- 25-minute Making Of Featurette (with English Subtitles)

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): None that I know of

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DVD REVIEW:

“Love on a Diet” would probably be one of the most difficult characters for Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng to play. Sure we saw Monica on “Friends” play her overweight self when she was younger but in this case Andy and Sammi play overweight characters Fatty and Mini.

Now the movie is not taking aim against very obese people but the movie is about a woman named Mini who goes through withdrawals when her boyfriend becomes a professional musician and travels around the world. To cope with her depression, she eats.

She becomes so overweight that when she goes to see her boyfriend at the piano concerts, even he doesn’t remember her.

But he promised and kept his promise to be with her even though he hasn’t seen her for many years. He is engaged to a new woman but still wants to see Mini and keep his promise to her.

Unfortunately, she is depressed because she is overweight and the only person to accept her is another overweight person named Fatty (Lau). After getting to know each other, Fatty will do whatever it takes to get Mini back to her slender self and that means going through certain sacrifices. But during the process, Mini and Fatty become attracted to one another. What will happen next?

The movie is unlike any romantic story I have seen before. You literally see the transformation of Mini through her obese->overweight->slender done by makeup which the directors brought over from the United States.

The actors had to be in makeup for 3-6 hours and had to learn to behave as one would that heavy. Special bags were put inside the costumes to limit their movement as if they were overweight.

The storyline is very cute and although not as great as “Needing You” starring both Lau and Cheng, this movie deserves a chance to be watched. Some may think it’s un-P.C. but if you are open-minded and want too see a different kind of romance story, “Love on a Diet” with a blend of comedy and romance may be a movie that you want to check out.

THE MOVIE: B+
THE DVD EXTRAS: B+
THE DVD OVERALL: B+

 

Killing Me Tenderly (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

An enjoyable, yet humorous film and a not so serious take on the American film “The Bodyguard”.

DVD FROM: MEI AH LASER DISC CO. LTD.
TITLE: Killing Me Tenderly
CAST: Starring Leon Lai, Sammi Cheng, Sandra Ng, Wyman Wong, Lai Yiu Cheng and more.
DIRECTED BY: Directed by Lee Lik-chee
PRODUCED BY: Joe Ma
TYPE OF MOVIE: Romance, Drama, Comedy
DURATION: 102 minutes

Movie Synopsis:

Cindy Chu (Cheng) is a popular singer. Her agent, Dan (Wong) receives a threatening message of death to Cindy. Lai Shu-kan (Lai) is sent by the police to protect Cindy. Dan requests Kan to pretend to be gay and be the pesonal assistant of Cindy, in order to hide the truth, hmor is of course resulted. In fact, the threat is froma magazine reporter. Unfortunately, the real crazy fans is engagin ing a largescale kidnap to Cindy. (From back cover).

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DVD EXTRAS:

• Removable English subtitles / Otherwise….nada!

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): None that I could find.

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DVD REVIEW:

This is the “Bodyguard” movie of Hong Kong (moreso than “Bodyguard from Beijing”). The only difference from the Costner/Houston film from this movie is that this movie balances humor with drama and also it’s not as serious.

I found this movie to be enjoyable and the pairing of Leon and Sammi a real treat. The two do well on screen with each other and they play their characters so well. Leon plays a country side policeman (or Chief of the Village) moving to the urban area and his first gig is to protect Cindy Chu. Sammi does a great job of playing Cindy, an up-and-coming singer with her gay entourage.

There are other well known actors in this movie but their parts are very minimal. Wong plays the bi-sexual manager, Sandra Ng plays Lai Shu-kan’s cousin and more.

But with this humor, although the movie is enjoyable, it has quite a few faults. With one crazed fan named Jelly stalking and acting weird towards Cindy, you would think Cindy would of told her entourage about it. Then of course, there is the ending of the confrontation which had an extra slop of cheese to the storyline. But this is common in many HK films, so I’ll let it slide.

As for the DVD, this DVD is one of the oldies and one of the first to start using removable English subtitles. Back then you got menu-less DVD’s with burned in subtitles. During this time, Mei Ah released the DVD with ugly menu’s but with removable English subtitles. No special features though. But again, this was years ago and the company has since improved with their DVD releases.

All in all an enjoyable humorous film, but if you are expecting a serious drama like the American based “Bodyguard” film, you won’t find it here.

THE MOVIE: B-
THE DVD EXTRAS: F
THE DVD OVERALL: C-