Line Walker Review

Title: Line Walker

AKA: The Apostle

Genre: Crime, Action, Thriller, Police, Undercover

Episodes: 31

Broadcast period: 2014-Aug to 2014-Oct

Cast: Michael Miu, Charmaine Sheh, Raymond Lam, Sharon Chan, Benz Hui, Sammy Sum, Elena Kong, Oscar Leung and Toby Leung.

Cheuk Hoi (Michael Miu) is the chief inspector of CIB and a handler for undercover cops. One evening he gets a call from his friend and the superintendent Hong Sir, to meet him at a rooftop in downtown Hong Kong, only to witness Hong falling of the building. In his last breath, Hong Sir utters that there is a corrupt cop in the police force and that Cheuk Hoi must save his five undercover agents – whom he was a handler for.

Back at the CIB Cheuk Hoi notices that the computers had been hacked, but fortunately the information of the undercover agents had been deleted by Hong Sir. Unfortunately, this makes Cheuk Hoi’s job even harder.

By luck he manages to find one: Ting Siu Ka “Ding Jie” (Charmaine Sheh), an undercover cop working as masseuse. She collects intel from the customers: some of them are the girlfriends of goons.

After noticing that she has weird friendship with a lowly goon, Sit Ka Keung “Bao Seed” (Raymond Lam), he puts her on the task to become his underling as Hong Sirs agenda for his five undercover cops is to catch the famous Chum Foon Fei ”Foon Hei Gor” (Benz Hui): a mafia boss owning most of underground Hong Kong.

Now Ding Jie must find out where her fellow UCs are, and together with Cheuk Sir keep her and the UCS from being exposed…

It’s been a while since I’ve watched Cantonese dramas. Generally, it is because I have low expectations in terms of quality, which in my experience I have seen several of. This drama however is so good and intriguing that I didn’t care. In the first 20 episodes, I really didn’t care if things were badly made, everything else was so good! The characters were well written, the storyline was thrilling and the entire screenplay was believable. Yes. there was bad acting here and there, weird “coincidences” and there were some stupid things I couldn’t get my head around, but that didn’t ruin the overall drama. After episode 20, the drama gets confusing a bit, yet you want to continues – kind of a charm if you will. So, it doesn’t necessarily get bad, just unnecessarily long or ‘extended'.

I think I will always remember Line Walker as a drama I really enjoyed, so yes, I think I would recommend it.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts

A Chinese Odyssey Part 2: Cinderella Movie Review

Title: A Chinese Odyssey Part 2 Cinderella

AKA: A Chinese Odyssey Part 2

Genre: Fantasy, Folklore, Action, Comedy

Origin: Hong Kong (China)

Release date: February 4, 1995

Cast: Stephen Chow, Ng Man Tat, Law Kar Ying, Yammie Lam, Athena Chu and Karen Mok.

After opening the Pandora’s Box and traveling back in time, Joker (Stephen Chow) has lost the Box to Zixia (Athena Chu) an immortal fairy. After becoming her servant, he by accident removes her sword out of its scabbard, and the fairy falls in love with him due to her promise to marry the one that pulls it out. Joker on the other hand refuses to accept his fate to become the Monkey King as he only wants the Box back so he can save Bak Jing Jing (Karen Mok). Him refusing her makes her leave him – with a broken heart.

In the past, he manages to interrupt Guan Yin’s judgment by saving his master (Law Kar Ying), and unfortunately send him through time. Now with no Box he tries to hide from the upcoming storm, and meets the Longevity Monk again – who has been travelling through time. Unfortunately, he has lost Pandora’s Box, and they get caught by the Bull King, also a demon, wanting to become immortal by eating the Monk. Now Joker needs to save himself so he can find the Box, but can he defy his fate of becoming the Monkey King?

This second part is a direct continuance from the first movie. The difference is that it introduces new characters, and focuses a bit more on the overall story rather than the characters. Not that it is a bad thing, but the characters become second to the story, which the first movie didn’t do. Though it felt more like a movie rather than an introduction. So, it progressed as a chronological story.

I did not mention in the other review about the acting as I didn’t know whether their acting was bad or good, due to the comedy and weirdness of the movie. But seeing this one I realized the acting was quite good. Even though the subtitles I had for the movie were horrible, I understood each character because of their movements. They were acting with their entire bodies! This made me enjoy the acting more.

The bad part of this movie which I didn’t notice in the first (I rarely notice things though), was the wires. I noticed the wires used to pull the actors in the air. The ones they use when the actors are supposed to jump really high (superpowers) or fly (again superpowers). It’s only a little part of the movie though, but still it made me facepalm myself.

So all in all: a funny and well-acted movie, with few technical issues.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

A Chinese Odyssey Part 1: Pandoras Box Movie Review

Title: A Chinese Odyssey Part 1 Pandora’s Box

AKA: A Chinese Odyssey Part 1

Genre: Fantasy, Folklore, Action, Comedy

Origin: Hong Kong (China)

Release date: January 21,1995

Cast: Stephen Chow, Ng Man Tat, Law Kar Ying, Yammie Lam and Karen Mok.

500 years ago, the Monkey King (Stephen Chow) commits a sin by stealing Pandora’s Box. He is punished by the Goddess of Mercy Guan Yi, and is caught to be executed. His master the Longevity Monk (Law Kar Ying), sacrifices himself to save his soul.

500 years later a lowlife outlaw leader called Joker (Stephen Chow) who lives with his group of robbers in a small hideout in the desert. When a young woman (Yammie Lam) arrives at their hideout, the men are shocked to find out that she is capable of martial arts, and she demands to stay at the hideout. Soon her equally strong sister Bak Jing Jing (Karen Mok) arrives, and they realize that they are surrounded by demons. Unaware that the two women are the demons, Joker falls in love with Bak Jing Jing. The two demons want to feast on the flesh of the Longevity Monk, as they become immortal if they do so.

Soon more demons arrive as they all have heard about the soon to come arrival of the Longevity Monk, who has been incarnated and is to meet the Monkey King, somewhere close to the robber’s hideout. Little do they all know, including Joker, that the Joker is the incarnation of the Monkey King and that fate has other plans for him…

As far as folklores go this movie is rather on the creative side. I am not the usual fan of folklore, but I do know my folklore as they do represent the culture of different times in history. The monkey king is one of those stories that go across Asia, where most Asians know the story. I don’t really remember the Monkey King becoming human at all – which I guess this movie tried to do so that there would be less dressing up as a Monkey and/or using the supernatural powers of the monkey king. Aside from the twist in the story, the other confusing thing is that the characters suddenly pop up. I got confused a few times, but then again, the characters are known to the folklore so if you know your creatures/monsters/ghosts, it won’t be that complicated. But if you don’t, you would be shaking your head and massaging your temples.

Besides that, the humor was so bad it was good. I mean I laughed at the ridiculousness and the silliness. I don’t usually enjoy movies like this, but it was okay to watch.

To sum up: a funny movie, with a hint of creativeness to an old folklore.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Love Me If You Dare Review

Title: Love Me If You Dare
AKA: Close your eyes, and Close to me
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Romance
Episodes: 24
Broadcast Period: Oct-2015 to
Cast: Wallace Huo, Ma Si Chun, Edward Zhang, Wang Kai, Andrew Yin,

This drama is about the romantic relationship between a criminal psychologist, Professor Simon Bo, (Wallace Huo) and his assistant Jenny Jian, ( Ma Si Chun), while they work on solving some mysterious and violent criminal cases, based on the study of the wills, thoughts, intentions and reactions of criminals to resolve the cases. Simon Bo works as the analysts/advisor of the serious criminal cases in the police department. He lost his father at an early age and moved to the United States with his mother. He has a high IQ but low EQ, as he is not good in socializing. Jenny is deeply influenced by her father, a veteran police officer on criminal investigations who died on duty. She has a great sense of justice and very observant. She works as Simon's assistant and his translator who ends up helping Simon in the criminal investigation.

My first Chinese mainland drama in a looooong time. It wasn’t bad, but not good either. I guess you can say it’s in between. I only watched 2 episodes pr. Week. So I didn’t feel like I got too much of it, or tired from it, neither did it get me excited or looking forward to the upcoming episodes. Apparently, there was a big fuzz before the start and lot of people were looking forward to Wallace Huo’s return to the small screen, so this drama had attention from the beginning. Overall it felt like a bad imitation of NCSI, the cases were really bad, and the police force in China is so messy, I really couldn’t understand that part. The only interesting thing in this drama were the relationship between Wallace Huo and Ma Si Chun, there were not really that much romance, just a little bit to keep you in the seat. Although the interesting thing about them were that weird and psychopath aura around them. They were both really weird I guess, but in an exciting way :b. All in all…. I don’t know. In between !

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Bunji's verdict

I had seen this drama before as I was looking for something to watch, but didn’t want to watch since it wasn’t finished airing. When I did pick it up I really felt like I had found a good drama, though I was confused a lot of times. I am not very familiar with the Chinese actors/actresses besides the idol ones, so these actors in this one were all pretty new. I have to say the male lead, Wallace Huo is a darn good actor, but the female actress was a letdown ALL the time, and I really didn’t enjoy her on screen. It felt like one actor was trying real hard, but she just stood there awkwardly and tried to look pretty. Pretty annoying. The best friend was better at showing emotion than she was, so I was hoping those two would kick her off the team and make their own ‘kick-ass-crime-fighting-duo’-thing. I know mean, but seriously so many episodes with a dull face is just boring.

Besides that, I liked most parts; the real psychology and stories behind them, as well as the backstories. Though I found the involvement with America pretty unnecessary.

So recommendable? Yeah! Though just pretend you like the girl, worked for me.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Odd Perfect Match Review

Title: Odd Perfect Match

AKA: Dan Shu Jue Pei

Genre: Idol drama, Romance, Comedy

Episodes: 21

Broadcast period: 2011-Sep to 2012-Feb

Cast: Godfrey Gao, Alice Cheng, Chen Zhi Kai and Xiao Man.

Ying Kai Tai (Godfrey Gao) is the son a multi-millionaire CEO, and the sole heir to that very firm. His entire childhood has been strict to the point where he wasn’t allowed to do anything even remotely close to his interests, but has been trained to become a heir and that involving learning bossiness from a very young age. This has led him to become cold, arrogant and selfish. When he returns from Switzerland he is confronted by his father about a book he has published, but finally fed up with his father’s ways Kai Tai decides to leave home and become a writer.

Yuan Huai Zhen (Alice Ceng) is a mathematician and a math teacher at a college where Kai Tai’s father had been sending donations. Her entire mind is wrapped up in logic, but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming empathetic. She has a taboo word that she hates and fights everyday: that is being left alone or “unwanted”. So she collects everything that can still be used or reused.

The two completely different people meet at an airport by accident, and as different as they are their personalities butt heads. Huan Zhen accused by misunderstanding Kai Tai to be a murderer, leading Kai Tai to be arrested and detained at the airport. After clearing everything up, fate brings them together once again, this time at the college where Huan Zhen works. And after she disses his book, Kai Tai decides to make the silly Huan Zhen his main lead in his book. Mission? To make a fool out of Huan Zhen, and let the entire world know. But after spending time together, the two become closer and closer, eventually each other’s best friends. Leaving Kai Tai in a confused state about whether or not to finish his book…

I heard about this drama a while back, but it had the most typical problem of all: no subs. But when I one day it was subbed, I finished it in a matter of 3 days. I might have had high expectations because it didn’t really go the way I thought it would, and the cast were a bit awkward: or at least some of the supporting cast and the main actress were so annoying to look at. Godfrey was great, really trying, but yeah he sort of lost his quality along the way as he was acting with everyone.

The storyline was quite brilliant, might be because I am a mathematician myself, but the idea of the “odd perfect match” and making it of two odd people, instead of two odd numbers was great. I kind of felt they kept it going through and through the entire drama,

So to sum up: good story with bit of lacking actors, but okay watch.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥ ♥ ♥ ½/ 3½ out of 5 hearts

Shaolin Movie Review

Title: Shaolin AKA: The New Shaolin Temple
Genre: Martial arts, action
Origin: Chinese
Release date: 19 January 2011
Cast: Andy Lau, Nicholas Tsu, Fan Bing Bing, Jackie Chan and Wu Jing

“While the young Republic was in danger of being invaded by foreign powers, turf wars raged among warlords, creating purgatories as their own people suffer…” (Taken from the movie intro)

Hou Jie (Andy Lau) is a warlord fighting for territory of Tengfeng. After almost vaporizing the armies of Hou Long, the war lord of Tengfeng, Hou Jie sends his best man and right hand Cao Man (Nicholas Tse) to find the fleeing warlord, who has found refuge in the closest refugee camp - near a Shaolin temple. Cao Man hunts him down, but Hou Long manages to run into the temple, where he is protected by the Shaolin monks. Hou Jie enters the temple, kills Hou Long, and patronizes the monks.

Back at home, he meets his sworn brother, who wants to talk arranged marriage with his son and Hou Jies daughter. Being paranoid, Hou Jie commands Cao Man to assassinate his sworn brother, but he is betrayed by Cao Man. Hou Jie manages to run away with his daughter in his arms, to the Shaolin temple, but unfortunately the monks aren’t able to save her and she dies. Enraged, Hou Jie attacks the monks, who quickly subdue him. At the same time Cao Man takes all of Hou Jies belongings and kills all of Hou Jies loyal men, and put out a wanted poster of him.

After his daughter is cremated, he begs the monks to take him in so that he can pay for the sins he has made. Soon he comes to understand the principles of the Shaolin, and decides to be part. But the Cao Man is informed about Hou Jie being alive…

First of all, sorry about the review, I know it spoils a lot. Secondly, I have been wanting to express this movie with amazing words and just give you something wow to read, but I find myself mind blown so I probably will only blabber for the next 200 words.

This movie is one of my favorite Asian movies, which I have to say I somewhat of an accomplishment, since I am very rude to Asian movies, mainly because I prefer dramas and I rarely see a 5 star movie (Some other Asian movies I love: 71: Into the Gunfire, Blind, Never Ending Story, Secret Reunion, Silenced and now Shaolin). Tbh, I really expected a lot from this movie, and it didn’t let me down, in any way. The most brilliant storyline, mixed with the greatest material arts makes this movies unique and awesome!

It doesn’t have romance, not really, but the tiny amount it does have, is more than sufficient. Now the main part of the movie: the fights. I’ll sum it up in three words: oh my god. Even for a “material arts blind” person like me who doesn’t really bother with those, or really cares, I was out of my mind. Like damn!

I 100% recommend, go watch it! NOW!

☆☆☆☆☆ / 5 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

The Thieves Movie Review

Title: The Thieves

Genre: Crime, action

Origin: South Korea

Release date: 25 Juli 2012

Cast: Kim Yoon Seok, Lee Jung Jae, Kim Hye Soo, Jeon Ji Hyun, Kim Hae Sook, Oh Dal Soo, Kim Soo Hyun, Simon Yam, Angelica Lee, Derek Tsang, Ju Jin Mo, Ki Gook Seo, Choi Deok Mun, Yeh Soo Jung, Chae Gook Hee, Shin Ha Kyun . . .

Popeye (Lee Jung Jae) is the leader of a small professional group of thieves consisting of Chewing Gum (Kim Hae Sook) a middleaged woman, Anycall/Yanicall (Jeon Ji Hyun) a young mischievious burglar and Zampano (Kim Soo Hyun) the youngest of them and Popeye's associate. The four of them fraud people with acting, getting close to them with the purpose of stealing from them where after they sell on the black market, earning their living. They are later joined by Pepsi (Kim Hye Soo), Popeye's old partner and the woman he likes. The team is offered a new deal. To help Macau Park, an thief who in the past had ran away from Popeye and Pepsi with gold bars they stole. Now Popeye and Pepsi see this opportunity to get their revenge on Macau Park and so the team is headed to Hong Kong where they meet another team they will work with, to steal the Tear of the Sun, the diamond worth 30 million US dollars.

I definitely understand the popularity of this movie, it has pulled up the standards of Korean action movies and is really a class higher. It was very professional and that is why I enjoyed it. I am pretty good at spotting stupid NGs and that often ruins movies/dramas for me. But this was decent, I only noticed one thing but it didn’t ruin anything. So it was very clean and pro. It had a long story, it doesn’t just end with them stealing the diamond but continues. Though I wished for a liiiiiittle bit different ending this was alright. And what I really liked was that even though they speak in Korean, Chinese and English, we didn’t have those awkward accents and weird talking, the actors had definitely practiced very hard and did a great job. I think its hilarious with the names actually, I can just imagine the writer sitting at his desk and wondering what to name them and he sees some Pepsi, some chewing gum and maybe just ate spinach so he thought of Popeye and then he received a call from a hot lady and named one of the characters Anycall. There was one scene I thought was way too long and that is the one where I spotted a stupid ng, but overall it was good, especially for a long movie like this one.

☆☆☆☆☆ / 5 out of 5 stars 

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts 

Bunji's verdict
I don’t get this movie. Like yeah I get it, but what… Like yeah, good idea whatever, and interesting storyline. But I seriously wonder how many people wrote this movie together - like nothing was cohesive, except the plot. Like none of the actors acted together, and when they did the script was stupid. I just felt like it was a imitation of a Bollywood movie I once watched, except - besides that the story is different - the writer (most defiantly more writer that didn’t talk with one another) didn’t really bother to make sure that the characters gave a damn about what they were doing. It felt like a group of random thieves that have connections with one another, but barely. And it all makes me go like: how on earth do you trust each other. Which I later on realized they should have thought of. Okay I bet you don’t get anything of this, but to sum up: I wasn’t fond of it, bad wanna-be American action movie, but made decently with the exception of constant revenge/betrayal. But some people (most people honestly) might like it, I just didn’t. 

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars


♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

He Was Cool (Drama) Review

Title: He Was Cool
Also known as: Cool Boy / The Cool Guy
Genre: Romance, comedy
Episodes: 21
Broadcast period: 2008-Feb to 2008-Jun
Cast: Yang Lei and Lou Bin.

Han Qian Hui (Yang Lei) is a somewhat dumb, but nice girl; she lets her family take advantage of her by making her do all the chores at home, and she does it, because she tries to avoid any conflict, even comes up with stupid ides to do so.
She one day, by accident, throws a bottle and hits the school beauty, raging a lot of guys. Fleeing from the mob, she is corned, but saved by her senior / Mr. popular, whom she instantly falls for. To make things complicated, Mr. popular happens to be the school beauty’s brother.
He is the head of the schools dance groups; several groups try to challenge them, including a trio called ‘The Three Musketeers’ with Zheng Yin Sheng (Lou Bin), who has a grudge against Mr. popular, as the leader. Yin Sheng is known to be rude, vicious and arrogant, which Qian Hui experiences first hand, as she by accident yells out his name wrongly, when she wanted to root for him, and ends up on Yin Shengs blacklist…

This drama is what I would call a ‘space-drama’ cause it fills the space when you are fed up with melodramas or said long: “drama-you-want-to-watch-so-that-you-don’t-have-to-use-your-brain”. Lol, it ain’t bad, well yeah it is, but somehow a feel-good drama, like I didn’t hate it. The cast, most of it, can’t act, the filming was bad as well and not to mention the odd screenplay. BUT the storyline was good, inspired by one of my favorite Korean movies, He Was Cool. It doesn’t really remind me much of the movie. I actually think it was original in its own way. A Sweet / Awkward / Silly / Tacky drama : )

☆☆ / 2 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out 5 hearts