Lan Kwai Fong 3

The 3rd installment of sexy Lan Kwai Fong film series, Lan Kwai Fong 3 (喜愛夜蒲3), is in theaters now. Set amid Hong Kong’s most vibrant nightlife hub, Lan Kwai Fong is about partying, boozing and promiscuous lifestyle and thanks to its actresses generous display of their assets has been quite a hype in Asia.

All 3 Lan Kwai Fong movies have relatively unknown cast and low budget. The first movie, Lan Kwai Fong (2011) just costed 750,000 USD to produce but generated twice that in just a month only in Hong Kong screening.

Set in Hong Kong’s nightclub and bar district, Lan Kwai Fong, the film follows three couples as they act out their desires. Jason Chan (陳柏宇), Whitney Hui (許亦妮), Jeana Ho (何佩瑜), Alex Lam (林德信), Ava Yu (雨僑) star and Celia Kwok (郭穎兒). Michael Tse (謝天華), Christine Ng (伍詠薇), Kelvin Kwan (關楚耀), and Ronan Pak (白健恩) make cameo appearances.[1]

You can watch Lan Kwai Fong 3 trailer here. Do not get so exited about the lingerie and French kiss scenes of Whitney Hui in the trailer. Whitney is managed under TVB, who fiercely protects the images of its artists, and there are very limited number of explicit appearences of the starlet in the movie.

Dada Chen, big boob Hong Kong starlet, was supposed to have a lead role in Lan Kwai Fong 3 but she has quitted showbiz before the cameras rolled for the movie (Dada Chan had a lead role in the first movie). The replacement was 2011 Miss Hong Kong second-runner up Whitney Hui, who boasts an impressive 35D bustline (seems like a must to take a lead role in a Hong Kong erotic movie) took on Chen’s role.

Lan Kwai Fong 3

With this installment, director of all 3 movies, Wilson Chin (錢國偉) released a new installment each year.

[1] - “Lan Kwai Fong 3″ Releases Official Trailer

DBS Movies by the Bay December 20 21 2013

DBS Movies by the Bay will be next Friday 20 December and Saturday 21 December at 7.30pm @ Marina Bay (The Shoppes next to Marina Bay Sands)! Don’t forget to download the coupon at www.dbsmoviesbythebay.com to enjoy free popcorn!

DBS is bringing an unforgettable, blockbuster movie extravaganza under the stars every third Friday and Saturday in October, November and December 2013. “The Dark Knight” was shown on 18 October and “Avatar” on 19 October. Movies are free!

Blockbuster movies of this weekend are loveactually and Thor. So if you want to catch a free movie under the stars, do not miss this.

Baned in 2012 back in 2013: Sex.Violence.FamilyValues

The award-winning film Sex.Violence.FamilyValues was banned by the Singapore government in 2012 for its allegedly "racially offensive" content. But following a successful appeal by its producers, the film was released in Singapore on March 14, 2013. According to yahoo.sg, the 47 minutes long made-in-Singapore anthology of 3 short stories has already chalked up a healthy S$10,000 on its opening weekend:

Previously banned, the local film sparked debate when the Media Development Authority (MDA) revoked the licence of the film less than a week before its original release last year. Now it will now get an extended run at Cathay for one additional week following sturdy box-office sales. 

“The fact that the number of audiences has made Cathay expand screenings is obviously nice to me as a filmmaker,” Kwek told Yahoo! Singapore over the phone. 

“But the film being 3 short stories coming in under an hour, it’s a weird thing, an unusual product,” the 33-year-old added.
Source : Director Ken Kwek pleased with success of Sex.Violence.FamilyValues ‘experiment’

 Several scenes in the movie prompted Media Development Authority to review and ban the movie. In one of them, in short movie named ‘Porn Masala’, a scene shows a Chinese director played by Adrian Pang lets loose racial jibes at an Indian actor played by Vadi PVSS.

Below is the theatrical trailer of the movie.

BANNED in 2012. BACK in 2013. Sex.Violence.FamilyValues - theatrical trailer from Ken Kwek on Vimeo.

Singapore IMAX Movie Schedule 2012

Singapore currently have 2 IMAX screens, one in Lido Theatres on Orchard Road and one in JCube at Jurong East. A third is on its way to be opened in 2014 at Waterway Point in Punggol. IMAX cinema technology is quite unique and if you have not experienced it yet, it is one of the great things to do in Singapore and you should catch one of the popular movie screenings in this unique technology.

 IMAX format can record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems. This way, it offers a far greater movie experience than conventional movies. If you are planning to visit Singapore and looking for a unique activity to do in Singapore, you should check IMAX experience out if you do not readily have it in your city or country. Here is a list of the current and upcoming movies which can be watched in IMAX cinemas:

Avengers (Now showing)

Marvel's dream Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

Men in Black 3 (24 May 2012)

The third installment of Men In Black will be in Singapore IMAX screens by May 24th 2012. This 3D science fiction comedy film starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will be released as the sequel to the 2002 film Men in Black II.

Prometheus (07 June 2012)

This upcoming science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green and Charlize Theron. The movie is set in the late 21st century, the story follows the crew of the spaceship Prometheus as they explore an advanced alien civilization in search of the origins of humanity. According to Scott, though the film shares "strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak", and takes place in the same universe, Prometheus will explore its own mythology and ideas.

This movie is what I am waiting for this year. From the trailer, I can see that we will have some idea about the Space Jockey, the sceleton remains of the pilot of the spaceship carrying aliens in the first Alien movie.


The Amazing Spider-Man (03 July 2012)

The Dark Knight Rises (20 July 2012)

Resident Evil : Retribution (IMAX 3D)
September 13th 2012


The Umbrella Corporation’s deadly T-virus continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the global population into legions of the flesh eating Undead. The human race’s last and only hope, ALICE (Milla Jovovich), awakens in the heart of Umbrella's most clandestine operations facility and unveils more of her mysterious past as she delves further into the complex. Without a safe haven, Alice continues to hunt those responsible for the outbreak; a chase that takes her from Tokyo to New York, Washington, D.C. and Moscow, culminating in a mind-blowing revelation that will force her to rethink everything that she once thought to be true. Aided by newfound allies and familiar friends, Alice must fight to survive long enough to escape a hostile world on the brink of oblivion. The countdown has begun.

Biutiful is just beautiful

Biutiful, Spanish Mexican co-production of Alejandro González Iñárritu will hit the shores of Singapore on May 5th 2011 but I had a chance to watch it in Istanbul back in February (on its first day there). Alejandro González Iñárritu and Javier Bardem were enough for me to qualify this movie as a  "must see". The beginning and the end of the movie is peaceful and beautiful (especially the ending, which makes you realize what is that snow covered forest and who are the two men talking). But at first you would find nothing beautiful in between these scenes. It is full of poverty and misery and you will again and again witness how people who have already hit the bottom fall more. But there is still something beautiful and shinning throughout the movie.

In the movie, you will watch the life and death in "other" Barcelona. In fact the only scene which will remind you that the city is Barcelona is a brief display of the towers of Sagrada Familia. We watch the last days of Uxbal a psychic man in different illegal businesses but his only aim is to look after his children and do as much as he can for them. As if he has not already hit the bottom, he learns that he is dying of cancer. He then starts to do as much as he can to ensure his kids can go on life without him. The plot is so sad but it is hardly emotional exploitation, we watch a man, successfully portrayed by Javier Bardem, struggling to the last moment to set everything OK for his kids after he dies.

Uxbal's has a supernatural gift adds a deep dimension to the movie but thanks to successful directing, it does not compromise the realistic mood of the movie. Uxbal, like Cole Sear, can see dead people. He is a psychic man who uses his ability to help dead pay their debt before they leave (and make money from their devastated families). He knows well that "the dead suffer if they leave debt behind". This ability also helps the director to create one of the best "passing away" scene I have ever seen.

-- spoiler --
"The dead suffer if they leave debt behind". This sentence gives us a clue whether he successfully paid all his debt especially after all those things went wrong throughout the movie. In that peaceful, snow covered forest with his dad, he smiles calmly to tell us that he is not suffering and left no debt behind.

-- spoiler --

Yes, Iñárritu is repeating himself and and I still think Amores Perros is the best Iñárritu movie. But I believe this movie is still a masterpiece and I even put it in front of 21 Grams.

So what is beautiful in Biutiful? Uxbal's love for his family is beautiful. His never fading hope for his children's future is beautiful. His will to fight till the end, despite his great pain is beautiful. Biutiful tells how precious gems are life, love and family shining even in the dirt of poverty and misery, and this is beautiful.

The movie was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards and Javier Bardem received a nomination for Best Actor and received many awards. I strongly recommend it. I will actually go and watch it again.        

The 2nd Asian Buddhist Film Festival Singapore

In Singapore, going to cinema can be boring. For long months, there is simply nothing other than Hollywood and Chinese blockbusters following each other and small film festivals are rare gems. But luckily there are these small film festivals. One of them is the Asian Buddhist Film Festival, 2nd will be held in May 2011. I hope this becomes a yearly event, the first one was 4 years ago!

The festival will be held between May 5th and 8th 2011 and will screen movies from Bhutan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Sri Lanka and the United States featuring diversity of Buddhist ways and Asian cultures.

The event's first movie is highly acclaimed Hong Kong movie Echoes of the Rainbow. This movie is actually not about or related to Buddhism. It is about the struggles of a working class family in 1960's Hong Kong. It depicts a Hong Kong and an Asia gone long ago. But it is about love, family and universally accepted values of mankind, which qualifies the movie well for the festival. The festival will end by screening of Qi Xia Temple (the story of Ji Ran, an abbot who housed and protected thousands of civilians in his monastery from Japanese soldiers during the Japanese occupation of Nanjing) from China. You can see the list of movies here.

"There are two kinds of Buddhist movies: those that focus on Buddhist subjects and those that don't. Those first shows Buddhist walking around and doing Buddhist things, than there are also movies showing Buddhist values without mentioning the 'B' word.

Echoes of The Rainbow is what i call a Buddha-less Buddhist movie. It foregrounds necessity of mindfulness and compassion in everyday life, but it does not spend a lot of time on mantras, incense, gongs and extreme haircuts."

Dr John Whalen-Bridge, associate professor of English at National University of Singapore and one of the festival's organizing comittee members

In fact the lead characters in Echoes of The Rainbow are Christian and  the movie includes some church screens. "I quickly realized why they chose it, because there are not many barriers or differences among all the different religions" says Alex Law, the director of the movie.  

According to Golden Village web site the tickets for opening and closing mights are at 20 Singapore Dollars each. Tickets for all other sessions will be priced as $10.

World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles

I have just watched this long US Marine propaganda film, in some standards can be called movie, named World Invasion Battle Los Angeles in its first day in Singapore. Yes the one whose trailer features a sad song sang by a robot drag queen, but no they do not show her in the movie. It is not a bad movie as Skyline, if you do not expect anything other than some action, kicking asses of aliens (if they had any). These aliens are also braver than the aliens in Independence Day they land and fight like real aliens. On the other hand this movie is neither classic nor slightly more than average.

First of all the director is a wrong decision. This movie should be directed by one of the directors of the great TV Mini Series Band of Brothers or The Pacific. Then we would have a visual show of chest to chest fight between aliens and marines. Unfortunately the camera moves so fast and shakes a lot. There is no single action screen with a steady shot. I can easily say the movie is poorly shot. It is so sad actually, this could really be a good war movie even with this weak plot but what came out from this team is visually very very poor.

Second they should get away with over emotional American mood to be more international (what the hell was that "you are my little marine" ?!?!). OK the main audience is USA citizens but come on even it is sometimes ridiculous for them.

Third they should use some of the budget for CGI to show some aliens. Well there is definitely something on the other side shooting at the Marines but what you usually see is a blurred scrap metal art works but they are not as good as the ones you can see in Thailand.

At the end, my score is 5 out of 10. If you watch it, it will not bore you but visually annoy you. If you miss it, you will not miss much.

Official Battle: Los Angeles Trailer - In Theaters 3.11.11. Watch more top selected videos about: Battle: Los Angeles, Michelle Rodriguez

-- spoiler --

The film kick starts with a blitzkrieg style alien invasion. It looks like they even do not bother to hover spaceships in the sky for a while to look cool but actually this is probably because they cannot hover. Their technology looks more advanced than humans but not that advance. They even do not use laser guns and their ships stay airborne by old fashion rocket/turbofan style engines.

Throughout the movie, we follow a multi racial US Marine unit whose job is to rescue some civilians trapped behind the enemy lines. During their mission they will realize that although enemy is very powerful, they can be killed and destroyed.

As in the Independence Day, these aliens also have an Achilles' heel which will be discovered by our team. There you know the aliens were well advanced in technology but were still using networks compatible with ours (most probably TCP-IP) so we could upload a virus to their systems. Here, although these aliens are brave enough to fight on land and flew long long way from outer space, they do not pilot their aircraft but use solely drones. Lucky for mankind. This will prove to be deadly for aliens and there is a lesson here for military strategist, do not solely count on technology, if it fails you fail big. Also they are stupid enough to directly dive into a fight instead of trading as much water as they want with some advanced weapons.

It was actually a clever move to have a city fight with aliens but as I mentioned before, this move is nulled by the poorly shot and directed fight screens.

-- spoiler --

The Adjustment Bureau

I have watched The Adjustment Bureau on its first day in Singapore in Tampines Golden Village cinema. The director is George Nolfi, the director of The Bourne Ultimatum and one of my favorite actors, Matt Damon is the lead character so there was no way to miss the movie.

The movie is loosely based on Philip K. Dick's science fiction short story "Adjustment Team" but do not expect a classic like Blade Runner (adapted from his Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). The trailer reminded me of The Dark City but this movie is very different and it is not actually "dark".

Spoiler alert!

Our charismatic politician David Norris (Matt Damon) meets The One, Elise (Emily Blunt), on the worst day of his career and they fall in love at first sight. But there are mysterious guys who will do whatever it takes to separate them and become more aggresive as their passion gets stronger. These guys look like the Observers in the TV Series "Fringe" (but they have hair this time) and we will get to know more about them and their reasons to keep David and Elise separated.



When I was a kid, our televisions were flooded with Brazilian and Mexican soap operas (which always had a man named Ramon either as a gardener, driver or a house keeper) where a man and woman wants each other more than everything but all the forces of the TV show tries hard to separate them. Here the separative force is more strong and transforms this already explored and boring theme into a good romance/thriller with a science fiction background. A gigantic bureaucracy, loosely religious beliefs and figures of Abrahamic religions, reluctantly controlling the fate of the mankind is depicted smoothly and well supports the love theme which is otherwise explored many times.

The chemistry between Matt Damon and Emily Blunt is very realistic and the movie achieve to deliver its message about love, fate, free will and the powers beyond our reach and controlling our lives.