Sparrow [C-Movie] (Simon Yam, Kelly Lin, Lam Ka-tung, Lam Suet, Kate Tsui)
Directed by: Johnnie To (this is all you need to know before watching)
Starring: Simon Yam, Kelly Lin, Lam Ka-tung, Lam Suet, Kate Tsui
Johnnie To woke up in love one morning. It’s the only explanation for SPARROW: three years in the making it’s as lighthearted as a birdsong. Pickpocketing is the ultimate high art in this flick, as precise as pointilism and as graceful as ballet (and, in fact, a dance choreographer was on hand to give rhythm and dash to the pickpocketing scenes). Simon Yam plays the dapper leader of a band of fingersmiths working out of Hong Kong, and when a mysterious femme fatale starts playing games with them, the delicate balance of their lives suddenly falls out of synch.
More of a musical than anything else, SPARROW is full of grand entrances, intricately choreographed scenes that unfurl like dance numbers and a 60’s Euro-cool soundtrack full of marimba glissandos, crooned whispers and sparkling jazz pianos. Oddly enough, while American reviewers have grumped that the film wasn’t a typical Johnnie To action picture and therefore wasn’t satisfying, the European press have been hailing it as his greatest achievement yet. The Berliner Morgenpost says that SPARROW resembles the innocence of the Nouvelle Vague, and even argues that Johnnie To has been unfairly criticized for aspects Wong Kar-wai is frequently lauded for. Popular German film website Film Starts argues that SPARROW is OCEAN’S ELEVEN done better and Kino-Zeit calls it a lovely homage to French gangster comedies of the 50s. Both Kino-Zeit and Film Starts claim that SPARROW deserved the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, but that it was too easy-going and apolitical for the jury to give it their highest honor.
SPARROW is a love letter to Hong Kong, which is finding its arteries increasingly clogged with Starbucks and bank branches, while its charm is bulldozed to make way for more steel and glass luxury condominiums. Celebrating the city’s cha chaan tengs, its trams, its ladder streets and even its uniquely noisy “Walk/Don’t Walk” signs, SPARROW will resonate with every New Yorker who’s seen a favorite local business replaced by a Chase Manhattan ATM. In the tough summer months when the sun is frying your brain, SPARROW is like a gentle spring breeze that’ll leave you refreshed and feeling like your soul has just been dipped into a giant, sparkling glass of cool, bubbly champagne.
Love on a diet [Cmovie] (Andy Lau, Sammi Cheng, Lam Suet)
Love on a Diet (traditional Chinese: 瘦身男女) is a 2001 Hong Kong romantic comedy film produced and directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai, and starring Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng. The movie’s main attraction was that the two leads played characters who are obese. For their roles, both actors had to wear prosthetic suits. Read more
Eyes in the sky [C-Movies]
Eye in the Sky (Simplified Chinese: 监视; Traditional Chinese: 監視 Literal Title: Surveillance) is a 2007 Hong Kong film starring Tony Leung Ka Fai, Simon Yam and Kate Tsui. The film marks the directorial debut of Yau Nai-Hoi, a long-time scriptwriter for films directed by Johnnie To, who produced the film with his company Milkyway Image.
Eye in the Sky premiered as an Official Selection at The 2007 Berlin Film Festival, and as an Opening Film at The Hong Kong International Film Festival.
Plot
Eye in the Sky follows the surveillance unit of the Hong Kong Police Department as they tail a gang of suspected robbers, led by the elusive Shan (Leung). Wet-behind-the-ears new recruit Piggy (Tsui) is plunged in at the deep end in her first assignment working alongside her mentor, Sergeant Wong (Yam) as they get closer and closer to exposing the gang’s identity.
Cast
- Tony Leung Ka Fai - Chan Chong Shan
- Simon Yam - Sergeant Wong Man Chin (’Dog Head’)
- Kate Tsui - Constable Ho Ka-Po (’Piggy’/'Bobo’)
- Lam Suet - Ng Tung (’Fatman’)
- Maggie Siu - Madam
- Cheung Siu-Fai - Chief Inspector Chan