Night488

I'm not going to lie, I admit that this film is the typical "high school gangster" film. The films that come to mind when I say "typical high school film" are probably Once Upon a Time in High School and Volcano High. But I guarantee you, this film is MUCH more violent and MUCH darker than both those films.

Park Ki-Hyung made his directorial debut with one of my favorite horror films of all time, Whispering Corridors. He also went on to film horror/thriller films like Secret Tears and Acacia. Now he has jumped on the bandwagon of Korean Cinema; violence.

In a VERY simple summary, this film is about a group of friends form a "gang" called Tigers, which was originally intended for soccer. But then, they start fighting and are being recognized as "fighters". Soon, a rival gang from a rival school starts picking on them. Not only that, but the main head of each gang is in love with the same girl. Typical, ain't it? But what made this film so great was:

1. Acting. The acting in this film was remarkable. Truly brings the emotions of the characters on screen, which is rarely seen in "high school" movies these days in Korean cinema.

2. The action scenes were well-choreographed, and there is plenty of action to keep the watcher satisfied.

3. The setting and atmosphere is almost PERFECT. From the very first scene in the film, the watcher will known in a *snap* that this film is dark.

So basically, this is a typical film that's very violent and dark with plenty of action. This film shows how a typical film can turn out to be very entertaining. Recommended to fans of action, but not recommended to the softies who can't take violence.

Curse of the Golden Flower reunites Zhang Yimou and Gong Li for the first time in eleven years. Boy, was I excited, but then, this movie started to receive negative reviews. I went to see this movie myself and I was blown away..

This movie has been described as a martial arts epic. It is not. It's simply a story about a dysfunctional imperial family, nothing more. I think one of the primary reasons why people thought this was disappointing is because they expected A LOT of action. The trailers are a bit misleading, because there really isn't all that much action in this movie. Zhang Yimou is a master at storytelling, and he does it exceptionally well in this film.

Acting. Jay Chou's performance disgusts me. This boy needs acting school, and how he got cast in Curse, I do not know. Not only was his performance bad, but his appearance was ridiculous. The audience in my theater laughed when Chou made his first appearance. The acting in this movie was overall good excluding Jay Chou. Gong Li delivered an amazing performance, as always, as well as Chow Yun-Fat, Liu Ye, and Li Man.

Action. Like I have stated earlier, there isn't much action in this film and with the very little action that exists, it wasn't really all that impressive.

Overall, I give this movie a 9/10. One star deducted because of the lousy action and Jay Chou's performance. Ignore the action in this movie and you will not be disappointed.