Tag: bomb disposal

Escape
(Talju,
탈주)

Director – Lee Jong-Pil – 2024 – South Korea – LEAFF Cert. 18 – 94m

*****

An army sergeant is caught attempting to escape from North to South Korea, but then a second chance presents itself – played as the Opening Gala at the 2024 London East Asia Film Festival (LEAFF) which runs from Wednesday, October 23rd to Sunday, November 3rd

North Korea. Sgt. Lim Kyu-nam (Lee Je-hoon) is stationed at the edge of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North from South Korea, a smart but frustrated soldier who knows he’s never going to rise up the chain of command riddled as it is with nepotism and privilege. Nights, when the rest of his unit is asleep, and inspired by his treasured book of the explorer Edmund Amundsen, he sneaks out of the barracks to map a section of the minefield in the DMZ.

His plan is to escape through that minefield and reach South Korea to defect before the monsoon arrives in four days time and the water moves all the mines around, making his map useless. Then he learns that the bad weather is coming two days earlier than expected. So he must move the date of his escape forward.… Read the rest

Tags alleged heroism, Amundsen, army, bad weather, blood, blown up, bomb disposal, book, captured, cat and mouse, caught, chain of command, checkpoint, childhood friends, classical music, concert, cover, dance, defect, defector, demarcation line, deserter, dig, DMZ, dress uniform, drive, drunk, edification, effect of monsoon, elegance, escape, escape attempt, escape tunnel, explorer, explosion, explosive, fake death, freedom, from the lavish officer’s mess ball, gay, gender balance, hazard, head for the border, headquarters, Hero of the People, heroism, Hong Xa-bin, imprison, intimidation, investigate, Koo Kyo-hwan, Korea, Korean Demilitarized Zone, ladies; off-grid, LEAFF, LEAFF 2024, Lee Je Hoon, Lee Jong-pil, London East Asia Film Festival, London East Asia Film Festival 2024, malnourishment, map, military, military aide, mine clearance, minefield, monsoon, move date forward, music, national security, nepotism, North Korea, officer, officers and men, passenger, perimeter fence, piano, privilege, propaganda, rain, rainfall, rank, reschedule, scrubland, self-serving, sergeant, slogan, South Korea, speech, spotted, superior officer, survival, Tannoy, the great and the good, thriller, torture, under fire, uniform, well dressed, well groomed, wild boars, wilderness, wildlife

Features Live Action Movies

The Small Back Room

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 28 May 2024
No Comments on The Small Back Room
Sticky post

Directors – Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger – 1949 – UK – Cert. PG – 106m

*****

In London during World War Two, a back room boffin and bomb disposal man struggles with alcoholism – 4K restoration played at BFI Southbank on Tuesday, May 28th prior to release on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital on Monday, June 3rd

This black and white, post-war era drama isn’t the first film that comes to mind when people think about Powell and Pressburger – it was made immediately after what today are regarded as three of their best colour features – A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and their arguable masterpiece The Red Shoes (1948). And that was preceded by one of their finest black and white works, “i know where i’m going!” (1945).

In many ways, The Small Back Room couldn’t be more different. There’s a marvellous sense of whimsy about those films, even if the later ones are intense and savage in places. Like Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes – and, for that matter, Powell’s late solo masterpiece Peeping Tom (1960), an intensity lies at the heart of The Small Back Room.

Gone are the light, airy spaces of the earlier films, their sense of the outdoors expanse (and, in The Red Shoes, the expanded landscapes of the eponymous ballet sequence within the film).… Read the rest

Tags across the hallway, advertising, alcohol, alcoholism, Allies, ATS, barman, black and white, bomb, bomb disposal, booze, boss, carriages, Chesil Beach, Christopher Challis, Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds Of Powell + Pressburger, cinematographer, civil servant, claustrophobia, clock, colleagues, conference rooms, corporal, Cyril Cusack, dance, dancehall, dancehalls, David Farrar technical, department, drama, Emeric Pressburger, explosion, faces, false leg, field radio independent producers, flat, flats, German, German expressionism, girlfriend, government, hands, head of department, indulge, interiors, Jack Hawkins, jazz band, Kathleen Byron, lab, leisure time, local, London, London Underground, low, Michael Gough, Michael Powell, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Milton Rosmer, minister, Nigel Balchin, novel, office politics, offices, pain, partner, pebble, post-war, Powell and Pressburger, pub, pubs, relationship, Renée Ascherson, research, research lab, restaurant, Salisbury Plain, scientist, secretary, self-worth, Sid James, stoic, Ted Heath’s Kenny Baker Swing Group, temptation, test, thermos flask, ticking, tools, tube, UK, wartime, welfare, whisky, Whitehall, window, working life, workmen drilling, World War 2, World War II, World War Two, wrenches, WW2

Features Live Action Movies

Shock Wave 2,
(Chai Dan
Zhuan Jia 2,
拆彈專家 2)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 10 May 2021
No Comments on Shock Wave 2,
(Chai Dan
Zhuan Jia 2,
拆彈專家 2)

Director – Herman Yau – 2020 – Hong Kong – Cert. N/C 15 – 120m

****

A former bomb disposal expert suspected of a terrorist atrocity must prevent a terrorist organisation from destroying the Hong Kong International Airport and taking numerous innocent lives in the process – now available to rent online in the new Chinese Cinema Season 2021 in the UK & Ireland as part of the Hong Kong, Reimagined strand until Wednesday, May 12th

If you’ve seen Shock Wave (Herman Yau, 2017) you’ll know that a sequel with Andy Lau reprising his character wouldn’t be possible. Both director and star clearly wanted to capitalise on the first film, however, so they’ve simply dumped character names and most of what happened in the first film, reinvented the main character and started all over again with a completely different story. This has the effect of making the audience feel that they’re seeing another film in the series but at the same time seeing something that’s brand new, not at all a carbon copy.

Except that in the broadest outline it IS a carbon copy: once again, Andy Lau plays an heroic member of the Hong Kong Police’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau (EOD) with Philip Keung as a friend and colleague in the force, this time round named Lee Yiu Sing, while the plot involves the potential huge bombing of an important Hong Kong landmark – here the Hong Kong International Airport which is blown up at the start only for a voice-over to explain that this terrorist atrocity has been prevented thanks to one man.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Shock Wave
(Chai Dan
Zhuan Jia,
拆彈專家)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 7 May 2021
No Comments on Shock Wave
(Chai Dan
Zhuan Jia,
拆彈專家)

Director – Herman Yau – 2017 – Hong Kong – Cert. 15 – 118m

****

A bomb disposal expert must prevent a bomber from destroying the Cross Harbour Hong Kong Tunnel and taking numerous innocent lives in the process – now available to rent online in the new Chinese Cinema Season 2021 in the UK & Ireland as part of the Hong Kong, Reimagined strand until Wednesday, May 12th

Undercover police bomb disposal expert JS Cheung (Andy Lau – Infernal Affairs, Andrew Lau, Alan Mak, 2002, Days Of Being Wild, Wong Kar-wai, 1990, As Tears Go By, Wong Kar-wai, 1988) of the Hong Kong Police’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau (EOD) blows his cover during a daring operation by a gang of criminals to kill as many cops as possible using car bombs. The car chase mayhem ends with the arrest of Biao Hong (Leo Wang Zi-yi) the explosives nerd and little brother of gang leader Peng Hong (Jiang Wu – Wrath Of Silence, Xin Yukun, 2017; Monster Hunt, Raman Hui, 2015). Some time later, Peng Hong Blocks traffic in the busy Cross Harbour Hong Kong Tunnel running from Kowloon to Hong Kong, trapping motorists and passengers as hostages and threatening to blow up the tunnel unless his brother is released.… Read the rest