Tag: romance

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

Street Wanderers
(Los Caminantes
de la Calle)

Director – Juan Martin Hsu – 2025 – Argentina, Peru – 90m

*****

Argentinian cops and robbers procedural is set largely in the world of Mendoza’s immigrant Chinese community – premieres in the Critics’ Picks Competition of the 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

2010. Mendoza, Argentina. The family-run, Chinese restaurant of Dageng (Kon Yam Pin) receives telephone threats for protection money. When they don’t pay up within 24 hours, a motorbike with two riders pulls up on at their door which opens onto the main street and fires four shots. So Dageng’s son (Willy Kon Chin Yi) delivers a rucksack containing $50 000 to the gang. But later, the riders complain there was only $30 000 and demand another $20 000.

Lots of similarly threatening phone calls overlap on the soundtrack as we see numerous yellow cables plugged into a telecoms hub, recalling similar motifs in movies as diverse as Three Colours Red (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1994) and Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock, 1953).

The prosecutor’s office is monitoring phone calls, but faces challenges. One such is that the calls are in Cantonese so require an interpreter to turn them into intelligible Spanish. Another is illustrated when the current interpreter quits, terrified what might happen to her family if word about the nature of her work gets out.… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

China Sea
(Kinų Jūra)

Director – Jurgis Matulevičius – 2025 – Lithuania, Taiwan, Poland, Czechia – 96m

*****

A former champion kickboxer whose career has been destroyed by his poor anger management attempts to find direction in life – premieres in the Critics’ Picks Competition of the 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

World champion kickboxer Osvald Gurevicious (Marius Rapsys) has it all, but unfortunately is a bit too full of himself, accidentally clobbering a woman who is standing in the wrong place during a bar room brawl. We see him at the height of his success, playing an opponent in a tournament in Japan, but we never see the incident which destroys his career. Instead, he goes on TV back in Lithuania explaining that it was all a terrible accident which he regrets, but sadly that doesn’t seem to cut any ice.

Discussing the situation with his coach (Marius Misiūnas), he resolves to make the best of the situation by opening his own gym; his coach, however, isn’t sure that Osvald has what it takes and suggests he work at the gym as an assistant to see if he has a feel for coaching. Among Osvald’s new kickboxing charges is the promising Angelika (Samantha Drilingate), who he helps to learn how to defend herself in the ring when she comes in one day with a massive torso bruise from a bar fight that got out of hand.… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

YMCA Baseball Team
(YMCA Yagudan,
YMCA야구단)

Director – Kim Hyun-seok – 2002 – South Korea – Cert. – 104m

***

In 1905, as the Japanese take over the running of their country, a small group of Koreans form a baseball team to defeat the Japanese – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2025 which runsin cinemas from Wednesday, November 5th to Tuesday, November 18th

A lightweight sports comedy loosely inspired by historical events, this is set in 1905, by which time the Japanese were moving to occupy Korea. Lee Ho-chang (Song Kang-ho) is playing soccer on a local plateau when the ball goes off the edge and into the local YMCA missionary compound below. While retrieving the ball, he is confronted by US-schooled baseball enthusiast Min Jung-rim (Kim Hye-soo).

Much comedy is derived (albeit not that successfully for Western audiences) from Ho-chang’s taking a romantic liking to her, even though she has not the slightest interest in him, preferring (when he turns up later in the narrative) Japanese-schooled Oh Day-hyun (Kim Joo-hyuk) who is already highly skilled at baseball, which arrived in Japan in 1872, some 30 years before it came to Korea. Also in the team is bespectacled Ryu Kwang-tae (Hwang Jung-min), whose bureaucrat father is collaborating with the Japanese administration.… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

Hard Boiled
(Lat Sau San Taam,
辣手神探)

Director – John Woo –1992 – Hong Kong – Cert. 18 – 128m

*****

One of the greatest action pictures ever made – back in a 4K Restoration for the Opening Gala screening of  LEAFF10 (London East Asia Film Festival 2025) on Thursday, October 23rd 2025

Woo’s directorial valediction to Hong Kong, at least for a time as he attempted to break Hollywood, rehashes his now familiar territory of brotherhood, loyalty and betrayal, etched in trademark bullets and blood with grander and greater operatic flourish than his earlier efforts. On-screen alter-ego Chow Yun-fat (The Killer, John Woo, 1989; An Autumn‘s Tale, Mabel Cheung, 1987) is cast for the first time in Woo not as gangster but cop, bonding with a ruthless triad hit man Alan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai from Bullet In The Head, John Woo, 1990, In The Mood For Love, Wong Kar-wai, 2000; Lust Caution, Ang Lee, 2007; Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, Destin Daniel Cretton, 2021). For good measure, Woo throws in therising, young gangster killing the old leader to take over the mob from A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986) (here played by Anthony Wong and Kwan Hui-sang respectively).… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

Paul & Paulette
Take a Bath

Director – Jethro Massey – 2024 – France – Cert. 15 – 109m

****

A young American photographer in Paris runs into a girl obsessed with the darker side of French history – out in UK cinemas on Friday, September 5th

Opening with sepia-toned engravings then photos depicting the last couple of centuries of Paris, this switches to an image of a girl walking and kneeling and a male “Once there was a girl” fairytale voiceover about a girl who would immerse herself in history, who was drawn both to the stars and the gutter, who liked Bad Things. Immediately, it’s juxtaposed with a female “Once there was a boy” voiceover about a boy who came to Paris with a camera around his neck. He photographs the girl. She confronts him. He points out that before her execution (on which site the girl has been kneeling, as if awaiting execution) Marie-Antoinette would have had her hair cut so as not to impede the blade. The girl has long, black hair.

In voiceover, she talks about how a spoon’s meaning changes once you know that Marilyn Monroe ate ice cream with it on the last day of her life. They visit a church which appears to contain the site of Marie-Antoinette’s cell.… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

Dangerous Animals

Director – Sean Byrne – 2025 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 98m

*****

A free-spirited girl surfer must outwit the shark tour operator who has kidnapped her and whose idea of looking after customers is feeding them to the sharks – out in UK cinemas on Friday, June 6th

Greg (Liam Greinke) invites Brit backpacker Heather (Ella Newton) to join him on a shark swim. So, off they go to Tucker (Jai Courtney), who runs shark-seeing tours using his boat. As in Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975), you go in the cage, the cage goes in the water, the sharks are outside the cage. Heather has second thoughts, but the couple go for it, which turns out to be an amazing experience. You won’t believe what happens next. Greg certainly doesn’t. (Be advised: some online trailers give the game away. Thankfully, Vertigo’s teaser trailer, below, doesn’t.)

Free-spirited surfer Zephyr (Hessie Harrison) lives out of her van and one night indulges in passion there with yuppie Moses (Josh Heuston) parked outside his house, swiftly driving off afterwards before he has had a chance to take their relationship further, which is a pity from his point of view since he feels some sort of deeper connection.… Read the rest

Categories
Animation Features Live Action Movies

Karate Kid
Legends

Director – Jonathan Entwhistle – 2025 – US – Cert. 12a – 94m

*****

Latest franchise entry plays by all the rules that you would expect, yet somehow manages to completely break the mould and come up with something fresh and original – out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, May 28th

All a Karate Kid movie has to do is put a boy in peril from a bully or similar, then have him schooled in martial arts by a trainer to discover his inner strength and ultimately overcome the bully in combat. This is facilitated by a fight competition at the end, in which the two come face to face with one another. While the original The Karate Kid (John G. Avildsen, 1984) clearly struck enough of a chord to spawn more films, some entries, such as The Karate Kid Part III (John G. Avildsen, 1989), have felt worn, tired and clichéd.

That changed with the genuinely brilliant idea of introducing Hong Kong’s clown prince of kung fu Jackie Chan as the trainer in the two decades later remake The Karate Kid (Harold Zwart, 2010), which breathed new life into the big screen franchise (there have also been live action and animated spin-offs made for television).… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies Music

Once

Director – John Carney – 2006 – Ireland – Cert. 15 – 90m

*****

Two musicians fall for each other on the streets of Dublin… – review originally published in Third Way magazine, October 2007

UK release date 19/10/2007

This brilliant film is a reviewer’s nightmare because a thumbnail synopsis on paper sounds incredibly bland and clichéd – something the actual film isn’t. A busker meets a girl on the street in Dublin. He fixes her vacuum cleaner. Being a pianist, she gets involved in his newly formed band. Romantic entanglements might ensue, but they don’t because she has a husband. The band’s demo sounds impressive, and the former busker departs for London to seek his fortune – without the girl. And that’s it.

However, the above outline doesn’t tell you two things.

One, there are a lot of songs. As in, the narrative stops so a character or characters can sing a song. This is not the case of, as in the classic movie musicals, the invisible orchestra swells and the character or characters can sing, but something more naturalistic. For instance, the first song occurs when the busker, on the street, picks up his guitar and sings a song.… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

The Karate Kid
Part III

Director – John G. Avildsen – 1989 – US – Cert. PG – 112m

*

Review written on spec at the time of the film’s UK release and never previously published. The first film I saw in this franchise, and clearly not the place to start, since it had reached a low ebb by this point.

The third in the series, this one has the annoyingly good-natured Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) back in the title role and is punctuated throughout its running length by inane music and image sequences in which Daniel LaRusso imitates his mentor Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita) undergoing various physical slow-mo karate exercises. These are suitably shallow as to offend any true karate fanatic with half an ounce of brain; any other viewer is liable to be terminally bored by them.

The plot concerns the defeat of stereotypically evil Karate School owner/instructor Kreese (Martin Kove) being defeated in combat by Mr. Miyagi and becoming bent on revenge, i.e. by making his pupil LaRusso taste physical pain during defeat at a big karate tournament. Only trouble is, Daniel is persuaded by Miyagi not to take part. The film travels an utterly predictable route through various attempts by the baddies to get LaRusso to change his mind.… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

Blue
is the Warmest Colour
(La Vie d’Adèle)

Director – Abdellatif Kechiche – 2013 – France – Cert. 18 – 180m

UK release date 22/11/2013;

Review originally published in Third Way magazine, November 2013.

A loose adaptation of Julie Maroh’s graphic novel Le Bleu est une Couleur Chaude, this is one of the most touching films about romantic love (and physical passion) ever. Be warned, it contains some pretty explicit, real rather than simulated, sex scenes (there’s good reason for the 18 certificate) but these appear in a wider, character-driven context.

Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and her mainly girl peer group at school spend much time discussing boys. She sleeps with but feels no real connection to a boy who’s a “sure thing”. While this romance is going nowhere, she exchanges glances with an unknown blue-haired girl on the arm of another woman on the street and is completely smitten. Seeing her emotional turmoil, she’s dragged off for a drink by her confidant, a boy she’s unaware is gay until they’re together in a gay bar, from which she makes her excuses and somehow winds up alone in an all-girl bar where Emma (Léa Seydoux), the girl with blue hair, chats her up. From there, to the confusion of her straight peers, a relationship slowly blossoms into full-blown passion.… Read the rest