Top 10 Chinese films of 2005

I watched The Promise 2 weeks ago.....I got hooked by the clever trailer (where they manage to mask most of the ugliness of the sfx) and partially because my girlfriend wanted to check it out.

The effects would have looked 'ok' about 10 or 15 years ago. Once we figured out it was a lame movie instead of walking out we decided to stay until the very end and laugh our asses off....

My vote goes to Hiroyuki Sanada......in those pink robes he was "priceless"...

Whoever is funding Chen Kaige should go bankrupt.

Four worst movies of 2005

AUDIENCES in Hong Kong have voted“The Promise,” “Seven Swords,” “Mob Sister aka: Ah sou” and “Chang Hen Ge” (Song of Everlasting Sorrow) as the four worst films of 2005, a Shenzhen-based newspaper reported today.

All four movies were strongly anticipated by audiences before their debut, but frustrated viewers most when they walked out from theaters.

The audiences gave specific reasons for their unfavorable voting.

“The Promise,” (director: Chen Kaige; leading roles: Cecilia Cheung, Nicholas Tse, Hiroyuki Sanada, Jang Dong-Kun, Liu Ye, Chen Hong) was criticized for its abusive use of special effects. It also lacked a clear theme and didn’t have colorful and solid roles.

“Seven Swords,” (director: Tsui Hark; leading roles: Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Charlie Young) confused viewers because it was too heavily edited and shortened from four hours to no more than two hours.

The failure of “Chang Hen Ge” (director: Stanley Kwan Kam-Pang; leading roles: Sammi Cheng, Tony Leung) was mainly caused by the mistaken choice of Sammi Cheng as leading actress, some people said.

The fatal shortcoming of “Ah Sou” (director: Wong Ching Po; leading roles: Karena Lam, Simon Yam, Eric Tsang, Anthony Wong, Alex Fong, Yuen Wah, Liu Ye) was its unskilled director and weak story line, according to audiences. The director of the movie is considered as not knowing how to tell a story though he had seven movie stars in the film.

Hong Kong audiences have chosen “Election”, “Perhaps Love”, “Initial D”, “Kill Wolf” and “Wait till you’re older” and “2Young” as the six best of the year.

ummm....the promise? *barf* I'm still recovering from the pain that caused my its utter dissapointment. sure its has pretty pictures and everything, but anyone with the intellect of a infant ostrich can see that it was a load of doodoo. after i watched it, i jus wanted to scream at the top of my lungs "WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHEN KAIGE THAT MAKE FAIRWELL MY CONCUBINE AND TEMPTRESS MOON??"...it was supposed to be the chinese movie event of the year...is this wut chinese movies have reduced to? just a series of vivid images used to fool little kids?

......on my more upbeat note. Perhaps Love was quite good. Takeshi Kaneshiro is a hot peice of asian boy ass. i pray that the gay rumours are just rumours.

I haven't seen The Promise yet, and am not going to. Someone out there has made a very sarcastically interesting short film, using clips from The Promise, and making fun of it. I would recommend this instead of the all-people-think-is-shit origional.

I won't surprise Sunflower ranks the 3rd. It's a good movie indeed. Chinastic has two Chinese people talking about the film, if you want to check out.

AV actually turns out really good too. Somehow its black humor makes me think a lot.

Saw "The Promise" last night. Shit.

"Complete Shit." Well maybe. And I can completely understand people who pop the movie out after the first totally ridiculous scene, with the stampeding cattle and speed-crawling slaves. However it has a fantasy charm, and it's fun and crazy in a way that reminds me of "Clash of the Titans," bad special effects and all. I can't claim it's anything artistic, I wouldn't have put it at #2, but it's interesting in a way Seven Swords wasn't - or for that matter, yet another melodrama about peasants struggling in the Cultural Revolution isn't.

I'm not at all a fan of Kaige Chen or Zhang Yimou, but I find their movies very similar, and they're the only two mainland Chinese movie directors foreigners pay attention to. Kaige Chen's "Farewell My Concubine" is definitely the best of the lot. So I think you have to give him some props for that.

I've seen most of the movies on the list - I'll have to see the rest soon. I agree "Election" was the best of the year. The other movies, even the ones I thought were worth watching, I'd be hard pressed to add to any sort of "best of" list.