A Bold Family
A Bold Family, Super Family, Gan Keun Gajok
Genre: Comedy.
Date: 2005
Parts: 2
Language: Korean
Subtitle: English
Synopsis: From director Jo Myeong Nam comes A Bold Family, a winning comedy about the crazy lengths people will go just for the sake of money. Also known by the title Super Family, the film tells the story of two brothers, Myong Sok and Myong Gyu. When the elder brother Myong Sok becomes plagued with debt, he soon realizes that his terminally-ill father holds the key to resolving his financial woes. Sometime in the past, Mr. Kim bought some property that is now worth 5 billion won. However, any dreams of inheriting that land seem moot when Kim’s future plans are revealed. It seems the old man was separated from his first family in North Korea, and desperately wishes to see the wife and daughter he left behind. Thus, if the Koreas are not unified by the time of his death, Kim plans to give over the land to the Unification Ministry! This turn of events leads Myong Sok to hatch a plan with his younger brother, a B-grade erotic film director, to trick their father into believing that North and South Korea are unified, hoping such news will put them in a position to inherit the vast family fortune. So with the help of the rest of the family and Myong Gyu’s guerrilla film crew, the two brothers start faking North Korean television broadcasts in order to dupe their father! But what starts out as simple plan becomes increasingly complex and out-of-hand, leading not only the family, but everyone around them to participate in this elaborate charade! Will the two brothers succeed? Cast Shin Gu Gam Woo-Sung Kim Su-Mi Kim Su-Ro Shin Yi Seong Ji-Ru Lee Kan-Hee
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A Boy Who Went to Heaven
A Boy Who Went to Heaven, Sonyeon, Cheonguk-e gada
Genre: Romance.
Date: 2005
Parts: 4
Language: Korean
Subtitle: English
Synopsis: A young boy living in 1980s Korea falls in love with a woman who resembles his recently-departed mother. After a near death experience, he is allowed to come back to earth briefly as an adult? Cast Seo-won Cha Kwang-rok Oh Hae-il Park Jung-ah Yum
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A Cheerful Gang Turns the Earth
A Cheerful Gang Turns the Earth, Y?ki na gyangu ga chiky? o mawasu
Genre: Comedy, Crime.
Date: 2006
Parts: 1
Language: Japanese
Subtitle: English
Synopsis: “”Where’s the romanticism?”" Kyono, Yukiko, Naruse and Kuon were complete strangers until one day, when a bank clerk attempted to rob his own bank with them in presence. It should have been simple enough for the man, but these four individuals weren?t just average Joes, they had talent and enough of it to see through his plan. Together they foiled his attempt to scarper with the cash: Kyono with his smooth talking, Yukiko and her biological clock, Naruse with his ability to detect lies and Kuon with his pick-pocketing skills. It soon dawned on Kyono that there?s no romanticism in crime these days, but that it was something to be easily remedied. Soon enough they form a gang and take to robbing banks all over Tokyo; each one a perfect crime, with the police and media left scratching their heads. But their latest robbery has gone sour. After escaping with the loot they?re jumped by a masked gang who steal the money and disappear. Obviously someone had to know what they were up to. Could it be someone within their own ranks? Now they?re placed in a tricky situation: should they disband or carry out one last robbery attempt? If they?re going to do it then they?ll have to tread carefully to succeed and hopefully unmask whoever set them up. Based on Isaka Kotaro’s novel. Koichi Sato – Kyono Kyoka Suzuki – Yukiko Takao Osawa – Naruse Shota Matsuda – Kuon
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A Chinese Ghost Story I,
A Chinese Ghost Story I,
Date: 1987
Parts: 1
Language: Chinese
Subtitle: English
Synopsis: Ning Tsai-Shen, a humble tax collector, arrives in a small town to carry out his work. Unsurprisingly, no-one is willing to give him shelter for the night, so he ends up spending the night in the haunted Lan Ro temple. There, he meets Taoist Swordsman Yen Che-Hsia, who warns him to stay out of trouble, and the beautiful Nieh Hsiao-Tsing, with whom he falls in love. Unfortunately, Hsiao-Tsing is a ghost, bound for all eternity by a hideous tree spirit with an incredibly long tongue that wraps itself round its victims and sucks out their life essence (or ‘yang element’)…
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A Chinese Ghost Story II,
A Chinese Ghost Story II,
Date: 1990
Parts: 1
Language: Chinese
Subtitle: English
Synopsis: Surprisingly, for the commercially savvy Hong Kong film industry, a sequel to the 1987 Hong Kong smash and crossover Western favorite A Chinese Ghost Story was three years in coming. By comparison, producer Tsui Hark made five Once Upon A Time In China films in four years. Scheduling problems may have been a factor, as A Chinese Ghost Story II reunites most of the major players. Although more expansive and politically pointed than its predecessor, unfortunately this sequel is not the ghost with the most. In prison, the elderly, iconoclastic Chu wryly notes how shifting political sands alter the meanings of his works, labeling him subversive, disrespectful or dangerous. Who is Chu? Perhaps he is Pu Songling, the seventeenth-century author of Liaozhai Zhiyi, on which A Chinese Ghost Story was based. Or maybe this batty scholar is the Hong Kong film industry, whose irreverent movies seemed threatened by the 1997 Chinese handover. Pre-97 worries also informed Tsui?s Once Upon A Time In China a year later, and a fearful distrust of government lies at the center of A Chinese Ghost Story II. The corrupt government is presided over by despotic demons. Windy?s father faces death for criticizing the ruling group and Lau Shun?s High Priest, a genuinely unnerving monster amidst the rubber ghouls, enchants his followers with devilish incantations and uses visions of the Golden Buddha to mollify the protagonists. But despite such grand ambitions A Chinese Ghost Story II fails to successfully dramatize its political allegory. A surplus of poorly developed characters and plot threads leave the film disjointed and less than the sum of its glittering parts. Windy?s father (Lau Siu-ming, a Tsui Hark regular since The Butterfly Murders) is a blank catalyst for the adventure, and only Michelle Reis? plucky performance as Moon rescues her character. Too much time is given to broadly played monster moments (a better title would have been A Chinese Monster Mash), highlighting Dr. Who-style creatures and freewheeling comedy. Farcical contrivances with a semi-clad Windy, a bashful Ning and Windy?s fellow revolutionaries, involving stolen kisses and accidental groping, are also fun but lack the flamboyant precision of, say, Peking Opera Blues? (1986) acrobatic bedroom farce, where characters swung in the rafters to avoid the roving eye of Sally Yeh?s father. Compensation comes from Jacky Cheung and Wu Ma?s spirited performances as Taoist ghostbusters and from the late Leslie Cheung and Joey Wong who rekindle the passion they shared in the first movie. But once more a weak script dulls great moments: Ning and Yen?s reunion occurs off screen and Wong returns as a different character entirely, her resemblance to Sian written off as coincidence. Cheung and Wong share one memorably-charged moment, their freezing bodies pressed together for warmth, but flashbacks to the original A Chinese Ghost Story remind the audience what is missing. This leaves the action scenes and with Ching Siu-tung directing, the action is off the wall and off the ground. The director also includes one magical moment, as Sian and a wounded Ning flee through a pink-lit forest, pursued by the High Priest?s levitating handmaidens. The moment is brief, but lingers longer than the comedy monster sequences. The action highpoint is when Hu (Waise Lee), a captain charged with returning Windy?s father for execution, becomes born again good, battling invisible handmaidens and splashing a puddle of his own blood to reveal his foes. The film closes with a climax of Zu-inspired lunacy, as the protagonists battle a giant centipede, the demon overlord’s true form, and surf on an arsenal of swords into battle. With nonchalant bravado, the climax sees Autumn and Yen venture into the centipede and transmigrate their souls to leap to freedom. Despite Autumn?s soul overshooting his body Leslie Cheung manages to return for the sequel. By virtue of its allegorical ambitions and moments of visual magic, A Chinese Ghost Story II avoids the disappointing sequel tag. But, Tsui Hark would better marry political intrigue and spectacle in the landmark Once Upon A Time In China (1991).
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A Chinese Odyssey I: Pandora’s Box
A Chinese Odyssey I: Pandora’s Box, Sai yau gei: Dai yat baak ling yat wui ji – Yut gwong bou haap
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy.
Date: 1994
Parts: 2
Language: Chinese
Subtitle: English
Synopsis: An ambitious, highly-produced costume fable based upon the folk legend “”Journey to the West,”" which finds the playful, once-divine Monkey King reborned as a human as a punishment for trying to betray his master. He will now learn the meaning of life, and in the meantime, learns about his old self, and ways to regain his powers as the monkey king. Cast Stephen Chow – Joker / Monkey King Kit Ying Lam – Spider Woman Athena Chu – Lin Zixia Jeffrey Lau – The Grapes Kar-Ying Law – Longevity Monk
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A Chinese Odyssey II: Cinderella
A Chinese Odyssey II: Cinderella, Sai yau gei: Daai git guk ji – Sin leui kei yun
Genre: Comedy, Romance.
Date: 1994
Parts: 2
Language: Chinese
Subtitle: English
Synopsis: When we last left Joker (Stephen Chow), he?d just used the Pandora?s Box to go back in time five hundred years, finding himself in the company of Zixia the immortal (Athena Chu). Zixia steals the box from Joker and then makes his life hell by playing ?Cybil? with him; she switches personalities between herself and her sister, who hates Zixia. As if that weren’t bad enough, Joker wants to go back to the future to find his wife (Karen Mok, who he married in Part 1), because bad things were happening before he time jumped. But no go. He?s stuck with Zixia until he runs into all sorts of strange and weird characters including his old master, the Longevity Monk. Now he can regain his Monkey King form and complete his quest, except he must cast off all human desire, which is harder than it sounds when Athena Chu is throwing herself at you. (lovehkfilm.com) Cast Stephen Chow – Joker / Monkey King Ada Choi – Princess Qishan Athena Chu – Lin Chiha Kit Ying Lam – Spider Woman Kar-Ying Law – Longevity Monk
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A Cruel Attendance
A Cruel Attendance, Janhokhan Chulgeun, Educating Kidnappers
Genre: Thriller.
Date: 2006
Parts: 4
Language: Korean
Subtitle: English
Synopsis: The story seems familiar. The average salaryman loses money and resorts to borrowing from loan sharks; then the crazy interest and threats to his life push him to crime, in this case kidnapping. The twist? There are two kidnappers, Dong Cheol and Min Ho, who just so happen to choose the same target at the same time. Forced to become partners, the bumbling pair encounter yet more problems when the victim?s father doesn?t pick up the phone. After 108 unanswered calls, they have little choice but to give up. For their second try, they ambitiously decide to kidnap Tae Hee, the daughter of a rich family. But this time it seems like their target is trying to get kidnapped on purpose? Cast: Kim Su-ro – Dong Cheol Lee Seon-gyun – Min Ho Kang Kyeong-heon Kim Byeong-ok Kim Eung-su – Tae-hee
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A Day with My Son
A Day with My Son, ??, Adeul, My Son
Genre: Family.
Date: 2007
Parts: 2
Language: Korean
Subtitle: English
Synopsis: Lee Kang-sik is serving a life sentence for murder. For the last 15 years, he has been on his best behavior, and now his wish has finally come true. Kang-sik has been granted a one-day leave to visit his family. As the day draws closer and closer, he is filled with both excitement and nervousness. There is so much he wants to say to his 15-year-old son whom he hasn’t seen since incarceration, but the feeling isn’t exactly reciprocated. Forced to grow up at an early age, his son has had a tough life, taking care of his troubled mother on his own. In his eyes, he sees not a father, but a stranger and a criminal. How can Kang-sik make up for 15 years in just one day? Cast Cha Seung-won – Lee Kang-sik Ryoo Deok-hwan – Lee Joon-suk Kim Ji-yeong Lee Sang-hoon Lee Moon-soo Lee Han-wi Lee Cheol-min Jin Won Woori Jang Young-nam
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A Dirty Carnival
A Dirty Carnival, Biyeolhan geori
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller.
Date: 2006
Parts: 5
Language: Korean
Subtitle: English
Synopsis: Byung-du is a 29-year-old career criminal, working for the middle-rank enforcer Sang-chul. Burdened with a terminally ill mother and taking care of younger siblings, Byung-du is feeling financial pressure as a substitute patriarch. When the big boss President Hwang is cornered by a corrupt prosecutor, Byung-du volunteers for a whack job and wins the big man’s trust. However, his real trouble begins when friend Min-ho, an aspiring movie director, asks him to be a consultant for the latter’s debut film. In-jae Heo Yoon Jae-Moon – Sang-chul Ho-jin Jeon – President Hwang Ku Jin – Jong-su In-seong Jo – Byung-du
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