February 21, 2006

  • Movies I've recently seen...

    Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)  B-

    This was another beautiful movie to watch, both in the cast of actors
    and the reproduction of a Japanese city. The story itself is rather
    your standard drama that isn't so far off from a Cinderella story, that
    kinda makes the movie more or less a "chick flick" (for a story written
    by a western man). I'd like to also say that the main romantic story is a
    little on the far fetched side. With a rich cast of Asian actors /
    actresses, I found some of their accents thick enough that I actually
    wished for closed captioning. I should also mention that a good
    significant chunk of the story focused on the young Chiyo (wonderfully
    acted by Suzuka Ohgo), that it made me question how much screen time Ziyi Zhang (later named Sayuri)
    would be getting at the end. So while Memoirs of a Geisha isn't exactly
    perfect, I found the story engaging enough to be captivated until the
    end. I'm a little disappointed though that while this is about a
    Geisha's life, I felt that I
    didn't learn too much about the intricacies of what a Geisha really is.
    Besides, Ziyi Zhang is still one of the most beautiful actresses I've
    ever seen on film.

    The Matador (2005)  A

    This is a great and quirky story, about a lonely assassin who befriends
    a businessman who is losing hope. From the dialogue and some neat plot
    points, this movie kept me grinning all the way through. Pierce Brosnan
    is exceptionally good in his role as Julian Noble, who seems very happy
    go lucky for an assassin, until he starts having an emotional crisis
    when he realizes that he has no friends. Greg Kinnear
    is a down on his luck businessman who finds some excitement in meeting
    a hitman, but would rather not get involved in that business. Ofcourse
    when watching this film, you first have to believe that an assassin can
    be a
    nice guy, or that a suburbanites can be friendly to a man who kills
    for a living. The movie however doesn't try to be anymore important
    than what it really is though, a movie about friendship. As unlikely as
    the friendship between the two is, it's enjoyable to see how different
    they are from each other. At the same time though, you understand how
    they are there to help each other. If this is the kind of movie and
    role that
    Pierce Brosnan is going to be getting after his stint as James Bond,
    then I support him wholeheartedly. In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing
    another movie about his character here.
    *this film has been added to my top 20 films of 2005*