kergillian

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Min is, in my opinion, one of the best films of the last few years, so when I found out this was his film, I became much more excited and made sure to catch the premiere. It didn't disappoint me - the film's melange of surrealism and realism, of sleep and 'reality', of life and waking life.

This film takes the eXistenZ examination of virtual reality and really real reality and moves it one step further, where dream becomes real, and where the lines between sleep and not- sleep become blurred. At times this led to a bit of confusion, trying to grasp exactly what was happening - and there were little leaps here and there where things were happening that seemed not to make sense based on what we had seen - but in general, not knowing whether Stephane was dreaming or not - or whether, indeed, the entire film was actually a dream - heightened the fantastic aspect of the film, and made the story more enticing.

Bernal put on an expectedly strong performance, and Gainsbourg gave us nothing to frown about - their chemistry and, at times, lack of chemistry made the bizarre non-relationship between them perhaps the most real aspect of the film - and some scenes, like the scene where she finds the note, and the scene where they're 'married' on Stephane TV, are truly magical. But what truly stole the show was the stop-motion animation - especially the toilet paper roll city - and the very clever 'machines' like the 1-second time travel machine, which were magical to watch and compounded the dream sequences in an NFB meets Keith Haring kind of way.

Bernal's character, however, was immature to the point of being mean - which weighed down whatever sympathy one might have had for him. At some points his selfishness, and his cruel insults, started to grate on me. It didn't hurt the story so much, but it made me roll my eyes more than the film's surrealism ever did.

All in all, even with the moments of confusion and the character flaws of Stephane, the film was magical in all the right places. Fans of Eternal Sunshine will definitely approve and applaud. 8.5/10.

Fans of Jet Li will not be disappointed, but don't expect a socio-political epic like we found in Hero. For Jet Li's martial arts swan song, we instead go back to his roots, and get a Shaolin Temple/Fong Sai-Yuk style martial arts film, complete with the same dazzling skill and boyish charm that Jet Li provides with every film he stars in.

The evening of the premiere in Mntreal started out with a nice moment as a Make-A-Wish kid got a personalized message from Jet Li himself, and it kind of set the tone for the story to follow - learning through hardship that certain paths are simply superior to others. That may sound oversimplified, or even saccharine, but that just reflects the extremity of the film's 'message'. On the flip-side, even with a bit of over-emoting, and over-dramatization, there are moments of such profundity that you have to take pause and smile. The scene, for example, between Huo and Tanaka taking tea, was my favourite in the film. Partially because it was nice to see an HK film feature a pleasant and sympathetic Japanese character - who was actually, in my opinion, the best (and best-acted) in the film - even outshining Jet Li (though nobody could touch Li's fighting style).

In the end, the irony of the message of achieving peace, unity and honour through fights that often lead to death, is only surpassed by how one starts believing in Huo's ability to pull it off. From the shock of his death-punch, to the murder of his family, to his recovery through Moon and Huo's swansong in the film which says as much about Jet Li as anything else, any weakness in the film is always outweighed by the film's ability to suck you in and keep you there throughout, always on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what Jet Li would do next.

Not an epic, and hardly his best ever, but still a top notch film, and while we could have hoped for Li to make the greatest film of his career for his last, this is certainly one he should be proud of. 7/10

While more humorous than Ong-Bak at times, Tony Jaa's impressive agility and athleticism grows less impressive this time out - and this is more than simply having seen it all before (and any fan of Jackie Chan - who makes a humorous cameo here - and Jet Li will have seen it all before) but also a lack of anything to back up the fancy stunts and raw fighting prowess.

The simple problem with Tony Jaa is that he has the shiny film martial arts stardom down pat, but he has absolutely no charisma. One thing that all of the action and martial arts superstars to come from China and Hong Kong have in common is that element of charisma - be it Jackie Chan's buddy-next-door act or Jet Li's handsome hero, Lau Ching Wan's 'my father the cop', Shieu Shek's rock star or Chow Yun-Fat's tragic hero - they all really make you cheer for them, and draw you into their character. This Thai warrior needs a major lesson in on-screen performance -all he does is show off his Mui Tai skills, which can carry a film only so far.

I'm all for Tony Jaa breaking into the realm of martial arts stardom, but only when (and if) he can step up and bring us an actual PERFORMANCE first... 6.5/10.