Ip Man 2

Personally when I watched Ip Man 1, I felt the story was way too cheesy and over the top. It took itself too seriously when it is at best a well crafted action flick. But of course the collaboration of Donnie Yen and Samo Hung (as martial arts choreographer) can't go wrong, except maybe for the disastrous 14 Blades. Watching Ip Man 2 is very much like going to the General Election, there will be some contest but we always know what to expect!

Ip Man 2 succeeded better than part 1 as the producers scaled down the national hero theme for a more ordinary Ip Man who is struggling to start a martial arts school as he settles down in 1950s Hong Kong. The story felt more believable and empathic this way. And as he realizes, trying to be ordinary is never as simple as it seems. He gets challenged by other martial arts school and becomes embroiled in the politics of the system. Samo Hung plays Master Hung, the leader of the martial arts clan who stands in the way of Ip Man's establishment. In order to 'earn the right' to start a school, he has to challenge all the other masters in Hong Kong and not be defeated within one joss stick's time.

That premise itself is an action flick fan's wet dream. Seeing Ip man take on various masters of different school will be a feast for the eyes. And when the showdown came, it did not disappoint. Hong Kong film makers have certainly mastered the art of action cinematography over the years. They can instill humor and suspense into the action, drawing audiences to submit to the different moods before the grand confrontation between Donnie Yen and Samo Hung. The two of them are not only portraying the grand masters of their school, but these two men represent the only two pinnacle action masters left in the Hong Kong film industry. Their first on screen duel was in 'SPL' years ago, but this time in Ip Man 2 their fight sequence is one of the most intensely choreographed scenes I have seen in a long long time. Both actors have so much experience and chemistry with each other that you can literally feel the energy and wind blowing across your face with each punch thrown. The showdown between the two of them alone is worth the ticket price!

Unfortunately for most action flicks the script is always the collateral damage as immediately in the second half of the movie, the story tumbles into yet another stereotypical racial battle between the Chinese and Western, which has been done to death since Bruce Lee's time. Again the westerners, in this case the British, are the arrogant and conniving group who picks on and bullies the Chinese population. And as usual the Chinese will have to restore their honor and dignity through no other means other than to kick their sorry white ass in a boxing tournament with their resident champ, who surprise surprise, is an even bigger snob!

But still a few things worked in their way, this time the main English actors put up a much more decent and professional display of acting to their characters, and they don't sound 'weird' when they speak. Thus the later half of Ip Man slowly transforms into Rocky like mode, you could almost hear the Rocky trumpet theme blowing when Ip Man trains hard for the challenge and the whole of Hong Kong is throwing in support for him as he walks down the street. It is plagiarism on an unprecedented scale, but at least it is shameless fun! Ip Man 2 is an action movie, nothing more nothing less. Story in such films has always been inconsequential when all we want is to see are punches and kicks that takes our breath away. So just go watch Ip Man 2, relax your mind and let the energy on screen indulge you. This at least is what movie entertainment is about!

CLash of the Titans

Comparison to the original 'Clash of the Titans' will be inevitable as it is one of the most beloved movie classics to be released in the 80's. Given the technological deficiencies back then, the original 'Clash' is a masterpiece collaboration of great (yet simple) storytelling and innovative stop-motion effects by the late Ray Harryhausen.

So when Warner Bros decided to do a remake, expectations will naturally be high. But the greater the hopes the bigger the disappointment. It is not just that the new 'Clash' was poor compared to the old version, but by itself it was a messy piece of cinematic production that neither has much direction or story to compel the audiences. Several rewrites are made but I feel it is done just to differentiate itself from the original version, without adding much sense to the plot. Sam Worthington play Perseus, only this time his character is much darker as he attempts to seek revenge against Hades for murdering his foster family. Interesting when you analyse how a person can actually contemplate killing a God???

The new story drags itself in the 1st 15-20 mins as it attempts to set the mood and pace of the story, but amazingly once it does that the director abandons it for an orgy of monster mishmash special effects. There is absolutely no development of the story, just poorly edited scenes to indicate the progression of the quest that Perseus and the company takes. The director did try to flesh out certain characters in the story but the attempts does not seem to create any significant linkage to the story and was again dropped halfway. At least the original 'Clash' understood that the extra soldiers are there for 'sport' by the monsters and thus did not even bother with it.

One of the main highlights that had people talking about 'Clash' was the Medusa scene. The original was a brilliant combination of mood, sound, eerie music and clever editing, it had people talking about that scene even before audiences watched it. Advances in special effects really does overkill the magic of storytelling. There is no tension or atmosphere to the new Medusa scene, like many of the scenes in the new 'Clash' it was rushed and overshown killing any sense of fear and anticipation. The other scene stealer was obviously the Kraken. Why the new 'Clash' failed again here, is in the original the Kraken appeared early on in the show as it destroyed a major Greece city as punishment by the Gods. It told audiences that the Kraken is one mean mother and the carnage it can unleash is Godlike. In the new 'Clash', the Kraken appeared only at the end of the movie, though it did a good job in scaling it to be the colossal beasts it was supposed to be sadly it was 'turned to stone' before it could lay even the slightest damage to the City of Argos it was summoned to destroy. What a lamer!

With enough bad comparisons to the old version, enough is said to show how great my disappointment at the new 'Clash' movie is. Not surprisingly as a feature film released in March, it obviously had a lesser budget compared to the upcoming summer release movies. Maybe studio executives hoped that the title of the movie would conjure enough nostalgic affections for audiences to pack the theaters once again, thus compromised all storytelling concerns hoping to rake in a quick profit. And from what I have seen in 'Clash' it certainly proves to be the case.