Hulk

 Released Year: 2003

Directed by 李安 Ang Lee

Casted by:

 Eric Bana as Dr. Bruce Banner / Hulk

Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross

Sam Elliott as General Thunderbolt Ross

Nick Nolte as Dr. David "Dave" Banner

Josh Lucas as Major Glenn Talbot

 Story: 

Scientist David Banner introduces the idea of creating super soldiers by introducing modified DNA sequences extracted from various animals to strengthen the human cellular response, making them effectively impervious to any weaponized agent, but General Thaddeus Ross denies him permission to use human subjects. Banner subsequently conducts the experiments on himself. After the birth of his son Bruce, he finds that his son may have inherited the effects and seeks a cure, but is stopped in the process. Bruce remembers nothing of the incident after a traumatic event, and has been raised by the Krenslers. Years later, Bruce is a geneticist working with his ex-girlfriend Betty Ross, within the Berkeley Biotechnology Institute on nanomed research. The pair hope to achieve instantenous cell repair by using low level Gamma radiation exposure to activate the nanomeds once they are introduced into a living organism. During routine maintenance of their appropriated Gammaspectrometer, a circuit shorts and triggers the experiment's program sequence. Unable to prevent the machine from firing, Bruce throws himself in front of his colleague to shield him and is exposed to incredibly toxic levels of Gamma.

Betty visits Bruce in the hospital and remarks that he should be dead, but Bruce feels great. A new janitor at the lab claims that he is Bruce's biological father, of whom Bruce has no recollection. When under extreme stress, Bruce transforms into the Hulk who destroys the laboratory, though he has no memory of the incident. General Ross suspects Bruce of collaborating with his father but then deduces Bruce has repressed memories. He orders Bruce to be put under house arrest. Through a phone call with his father, Bruce learns that the radiation unleashed something that was already in his DNA, and that David Banner plans to have Betty killed by his dogs, which now have similar powers to the Hulk (thanks to David mutating them with gamma radiation), and he is attacked by Major Glenn Talbot, leading to a transformation into the Hulk. The Hulk seriously injures Talbot before leaping to save Betty from the dogs. The Hulk kills David's dogs and changes back into Bruce before being captured by the military the next morning.

Kept at a secret desert base, Bruce is kept under observation while Talbot intends to weaponize the Hulk's powers. David Banner tries to recreate Bruce's failed experiment, but instead of turning into another Hulk he finds himself able to absorb any materials and energy he touches, and hands himself over to the military after telling Betty that he murdered his wife in front of the child Bruce. Bruce has a nightmare about the event which leads to a more powerful transformation of the Hulk. Talbot is killed in an explosion of his own making. The Hulk escapes the base and rampages his way across the desert to San Francisco, battling army forces sent after him. When Betty calms him into his human form, General Ross realizes that the Hulk cannot be controlled and that Bruce should be executed.

At their mutual execution, David Banner tries to taunt his son into transforming into Hulk, but fails. He then decides to "go first" and bites an electrical cable absorbing all the electricity in San Francisco. The electricity hits Bruce, triggering his own transformation. A brutal fight ensues between David and the Hulk, with David absorbing Hulk's energy during the fight. David finds that the Hulk's energy is too much for him to handle and he is killed by an army missile at the height of his weakness. One year later, though Bruce is presumed dead, General Ross mentions apparent Hulk sightings and Betty admits her love for Bruce. In a South American jungle, Bruce has become a doctor and is approached by rebel militants who want to take medical supplies from the poor. Bruce's eyes turn green and a scream of the Hulk is heard.

 L² Scored: 7/10 

L² Comment:

It was a bit boring in the first place, as the movie gets along, it become better... No doubt its kinda "Ang Lee" style of movie, but still acceptable. Hulk is not my fav superhero, but definitely don't hate him; just hope to see more Eric Bana in naked shot lol~  

Lust, Caution 色，戒

 Released Year: 2007

Directed by 李安 Ang Lee

Casted by:
梁朝偉 Tony Leung as 易默成 Mr Yee
湯唯 Tang Wei as 王佳芝 Wang Chia Chi
王力宏 Leehom Wang as 鄺裕民 Kuang Yu Min
陳冲 Joan Chen as 易太太 Mrs Yee

 Story: 

In 1940s Japanese-occupied Shanghai, a well-dressed, attractive young Chinese woman, "Mrs. Mai", is sitting in a café in a posh neighborhood. When she makes a call to a man, her seemingly innocuous dialogue is a coded signal that prompts a cell of young resistance agents to load their weapons and spring into action.

 Hong Kong 1938
The film then flashes back in time to the events in 1938 that led up to the transformation of the shy, inexperienced university student Wong Chia Chi into the glamorously dressed and seemingly well-to-do Mrs. Mai, her cover role in the Chinese resistance against Japanese invasion. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chia Chi had been left behind in China by her father, who is going to re-marry in the United Kingdom. Chia Chi flees from Shanghai to Hong Kong and attends her first year at Lingnan University. A male student named Kuang Yu Min invites her to join his patriotic drama club. Chia Chi becomes a lead actress in the club, inspiring both her audience and her new-found friend Kuang.

Fired up from the drama troupe's patriotic plays, Kuang urges the group to make a more concrete contribution to the war against Japan. He devises a plan to assassinate Mr. Yee, who is a special agent and recruiter of the puppet government set up by the Japanese Government in China. The beautiful Chia Chi is chosen to take on the undercover role of Mrs Mai, the elegant wife of the owner of a Hong Kong based trading company. She insinuates herself in the social circle of Mrs. Yee. She catches the eye of Mr. Yee and tries to lure him into a location where he can be assassinated. Yee is attracted to Chia Chi and once steps very close to the trap but withdraws at the last minute. It comes to light that Chia Chi is still a virgin, and she reluctantly consents to sleeping with Liang Jun-Sheng, another student involved in the plot to kill Mr. Yee, in order to play into her role as a married woman if she were to sleep with Mr. Yee. It is obvious that Kuang is upset by this, but nevertheless agrees to the two "practicing" every following night. But not long after that, Mr. and Mrs. Yee move back to Shanghai all of a sudden, leaving the students with no further chance to complete their assassination plan. With Yee gone, the university students believe there is no need to maintain the facade and therefore pack up and clean up the rented apartment. An armed subordinate of Yee turns up in their apartment unannounced and finds their sudden packing very suspicious. Spotting their university tank tops, the subordinate realises that "Mr. & Mrs. Mai" are not who they claim they are. The university students kill the subordinate and are forced to go into hiding afterward.

 Shanghai, 1942
In Shanghai, three years later, Chia Chi again encounters Kuang, who is now an undercover agent of the KMT, which is seeking to overturn the Japanese occupation force and their puppet government. He enlists her into a renewed assassination plan to kill Yee. By this time, Mr. Yee has become the head of secret police department under the puppet government and is responsible for capturing and executing resistance agents who are working for the KMT. Eventually, Chia Chi becomes Mr. Yee's mistress. During their first encounter Yee is rough with Chia Chi, virtually raping her by throwing her down onto the bed and tying her up with his belt. However, over the weeks that follow their sexual relationship becomes very passionate and deeply emotional, but also very conflicted for both of them, especially for Chia Chi, who is setting her lover up for assassination.

When Chia Chi reports to her superior officer in the KMT, she exhorts him to carry out the assassination soon, so that she will not have to continue her sexual liaisons with the brutal Yee, but the officer argues that the assassination needs to be delayed for strategic reasons. Chia Chi describes the inhuman emotional conflict she is in, on one hand sexually and emotionally bound to Mr. Yee and on the other hand part of a plot to kill him.

When Mr. Yee sends Chia Chi to a jewelry store with a sealed envelope, she is surprised to discover that he has arranged for a large and extremely rare six carat pink diamond for her, to be mounted in a ring. This provides the Chinese resistance with a chance to get at Mr. Yee when he is not accompanied by his bodyguards.

The next time Chia Chi and Mr. Yee meet, she asks him to go to the jewelry store with her to collect the diamond ring. As they enter the shop, she notices several resistance agents waiting to spring the trap. But, after first demurring, when she puts on the magnificent ring, and experiences Mr. Yee's love for her, she is overcome by emotion and breaks down and urges him twice to "Go, now." Mr. Yee realizes her meaning, runs out of the shop and is rushed away by his driver, and escapes the assassination attempt. By the end of the day most of the resistance group including Kuang and Chia Chi herself are captured. It is revealed that Mr. Yee's deputy has been aware of the resistance cell, but did not inform Mr. Yee, both because of Mr. Yee's relationship with Chia Chi and because the deputy had hoped to use this opportunity to catch the resistance cell leader. Mr. Yee, emotionally in turmoil, signs their death warrants and the resistance group members, including Chia Chi, are led out to a quarry and executed. In the last scene, Mr. Yee sits on Chia Chi's empty bed in the family guest room, and informs his wife that their house guest is gone, and that she should not ask any questions.

 L² Scored: 9.5/10

L² Comment:

Multiple awards winner movie, it has give another peak moment for Ang Lee & Tony Leung. Surprisingly Tang Wei managed to get her fame too from this movie. The whole story is perfect and i like the part which Tony & Tang Wei really have sex. I would have score it a 10/10 if Tony Leung is not so stingy and show us the whole penis :)

Life of Pi

 Released Year: 2012

Directed by 李安 Ang Lee

Casted by:

Suraj Sharma as Pi, age 16  

Irfan Khan as Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, adult
Rafe Spall as the Writer

 Story:

Pi Patel, an immigrant from Pondicherry in India living in Canada, is approached by a local novelist who has been referred to him by his "uncle" (a family friend), believing that Pi's life story would make a great book. Pi relates an extended tale:

He is named "Piscine Molitor" by his parents after a swimming pool in France. He changes his name to "Pi" when he begins secondary school, because he is tired of being taunted with the nickname "Pissing Patel". His family owns a local zoo, and Pi takes an interest in the animals, especially a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker (after a clerical error); to teach him the reality of the tiger's nature as a carnivore, Pi's father forces him to witness it killing a goat. He is raised Hindu and vegetarian, but at 12 years old, he is introduced to Christianity and then Islam, and starts to follow all three religions. As an adult he states that he is Catholic-Hindu, and when asked if he is also Jewish, he replies that he lectures in Kabbalah at the university.

When Pi is 16 (and experiencing first love), his father decides to close the zoo and move his family to Canada, transferring the animals in the zoo in the process. They book passage with their animals (to be sold in North America) on a Japanese freighter named the Tsimtsum. The ship encounters a heavy storm and begins to sink while Pi is on deck marveling at the storm. He tries to find his family, but a crew member throws him into a lifeboat; from the rough sea, he watches helplessly as the ship sinks, killing his family and its crew.

After the storm, Pi finds himself in the lifeboat with an injured zebra, and is joined by an orangutan who lost her offspring in the shipwreck. A hyena emerges from the tarp covering half of the boat, and before long begins to attack and eat the injured zebra, killing it. To Pi's distress, the hyena also mortally wounds the orangutan in a fight. Suddenly the tiger Richard Parker emerges from under the tarp, and kills the hyena.

Pi finds emergency food and water rations on the boat, and builds a small raft of floatation devices so that he can stay at a safe distance from the tiger. Realizing that he must feed the tiger to protect himself, Pi begins fishing, with some success. He also collects rain water for both to drink. At one point, he helps the desperate tiger climb back into the boat after it had jumped off to hunt fish. In a nighttime encounter with a breaching whale, Pi loses much of his supplies. Faced with starvation, he eats raw fish. After many days at sea, Pi realizes that he can no longer live on the tiny raft and trains the tiger Richard Parker to accept him in the boat. He also realizes that caring for the tiger is keeping him alive.

After weeks longer at sea, near the end of their strength, they reach a floating island of edible algae supporting a forest, fresh water, and a large population of meerkats. Both Pi and Richard Parker eat and drink freely and regain strength. But at night the island transforms into a hostile environment, with the fresh water turning acidic. Pi finds a human tooth inside a plant and concludes that the plants are carnivorous, requiring them to leave the island.

The lifeboat eventually reaches the coast of Mexico. Finally back on land, Richard Parker stumbles away from Pi and stops at the edge of the jungle. Pi expects that the tiger will turn toward him and acknowledge him. But instead he looks into the jungle for a while and goes in. Pi is distraught when rescued and begins to weep as he is taken to hospital.

In hospital, insurance agents for the Japanese freighter come to hear his account of the incident. They find his story unbelievable, and ask him to tell them what "really" happened, if only for the credibility of their report. He answers with a less fantastic but detailed account of sharing the lifeboat with his mother, a sailor with a broken leg, and the ship's cook. In this story, the cook kills the sailor, and then Pi's mother, to use them as bait and food. Pi kills the cook in revenge.

In the present, the writer notes parallels between the two stories: the orangutan was Pi's mother, the zebra was the sailor, the hyena was the cook, and Richard Parker, the tiger, was Pi himself. Pi asks him which story he prefers; he chooses the story with the tiger, to which Pi responds, "And so it is with God." Glancing at a copy of the insurance report, the writer notices a closing comment about the remarkable feat of surviving 227 days at sea, especially with a tiger--meaning that the agents chose that story as well.

 L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

From the best selling novel of Yann Martel, the incredible Lee Ang has turned it into a nice movie for us. I love the story but the movie is a bit lengthy in some part. But i just don't know which part to cut off if i'm the editor... maybe will be the part of the flying fish~ Overall its just this good looking hindu kid acting by himself with all the graphic around him :) Not bad, a good try to watch. It might win the Best Film~ who knows...

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 臥虎藏龍

Released Year: 2000
Directed by 李安 Ang Lee

Casted by:
周潤發 Chow Yun Fatt as 李慕白 Bai
楊紫瓊 Michelle Yeoh as 俞秀蓮 Lien
章子怡 ZiYi Zhang as 玉嬌龍 Long
張震 Chang Zheng as 羅小虎 Hu
鄭佩佩 Pei Pei Cheng as 碧眼狐狸 Jade Fox
Story:

The film is set in the Qing Dynasty during the 43rd year (1779) of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. Li Mu Bai is an accomplished Wudang swordsman. Long ago, his master was murdered by Jade Fox, a woman who sought to learn Wudang skills but was rejected due to her gender. Mu Bai is also a good friend of Yu Shu Lien, a female warrior. Mu Bai and Shu Lien have developed feelings for each other, but have never acknowledged or acted on them. Mu Bai, intending to give up his warrior life, asks Shu Lien to transport his sword, also referred to as the Green Destiny, to the city of Beijing, as a gift for their friend, Sir Te. At Sir Te's estate, Shu Lien meets Jen, the daughter of Governor Yu, a visiting Manchu aristocrat. Jen, destined for an arranged marriage and yearning for adventure, seems envious of Shu Lien's warrior lifestyle.

One evening, a masked thief sneaks into Sir Te's estate and steals the sword. Mu Bai and Shu Lien, with the assistance of Sir Te's servant Master Bo, trace the theft to Governor Yu's compound and learn that Jade Fox has been posing as Jen's governess for many years. Bo makes the acquaintance of Inspector Tsai, a police investigator from the provinces, and his daughter, May, who have come to Beijing in pursuit of Jade Fox. While the three are eating lunch, Jade Fox fires a dart with a written message attached to it, challenging them to a showdown that night. Following a protracted battle, the group is on the verge of defeat when Mu Bai arrives and outmaneuvers Jade Fox. Before Mu Bai can kill Jade Fox, the masked thief reappears and partners with Jade Fox to fight. Jade Fox resumes the fight and kills Tsai before fleeing with the thief (who is revealed to be Jade Fox's protegée, Jen). After seeing Jen fight Mu Bai, Jade Fox realizes Jen had been secretly studying the Wudang manual and has surpassed her in skill. After finding out that Tsai was a police officer, a guilt-ridden Jen returns the Green Destiny to Sir Te's estate but is intercepted by Mu Bai. Mu Bai easily defeats her and asks her to become his pupil. Jen angrily rebukes his offer and flees. When she returns home, Jen confronts Jade Fox and banishes her from the Governor's compound.

That night, a desert bandit named Lo breaks into Jen's bedroom and asks her to leave with him. A flashback reveals that in the past, when Governor Yu and his family were traveling in the western deserts, Lo and his bandits had raided Jen's caravan; Lo took an heirloom comb from Jen and she pursued him to get it back, but succumbed to exhaustion in the desert. Lo took her to his cave hideout, where after an escape attempt and Lo's kind hospitality, the two fall in love. Lo eventually convinced Jen to return to her family, though not before telling her a legend of a man who jumped off a cliff to make his wishes come true. Because the man's heart was pure, he did not die. Lo came to Beijing to persuade Jen not to go through with her arranged marriage. However, when Jen refuses to leave with him, he returns the stolen comb and leaves.

After the wedding, Jen runs away and steals the Green Destiny again. Mu Bai, Shu Lien, and Lo are ordered to find and retrieve Jen. Jen visits Shu Lien at one of her dojos, who tells her that Lo is waiting for her at Wudang Mountain. After an angry dispute, the two women engage in a duel. Wielding the Green Destiny, Jen gains the upper hand by destroying every weapon that Shu Lien uses. However, Shu Lien finally uses a broken two-handed straight sword, jian, to her advantage, surprising Jen by managing to press its broken but still sharp edge to her throat. However, rather than acknowledging her defeat and handing over the Green Destiny, Jen injures Shu Lien when she lowers her broken weapon. Mu Bai arrives and pursues Jen into a bamboo forest. A duel ensues where Mu Bai overcomes a challenge Jen sets before him (to determine whether she will be his pupil), regaining possession of the Green Destiny. But when Mu Bai succeeds and Jen continues to refuse, Mu Bai realizes that she is without honor, thus unworthy of becoming his pupil despite her skills and throws the sword over a waterfall. In pursuit, Jen dives into an adjoining river to retrieve the sword, and is then rescued by Fox. Fox puts Jen into a drugged sleep and places her in a cavern in which later Mu Bai, Shu Lien and Bo discover her. Fox suddenly reappears and attacks the others with poisoned darts. Mu Bai blocks the needles with his sword and avenges his master's death by mortally wounding Fox, only to realize that one of the darts managed to hit him in the neck. Fox dies, confessing that her goal had been to kill Jen, because she was furious that Jen hid the secrets of Wudang from her.

As Jen runs off to prepare the antidote for the poisoned dart, Mu Bai prepares to die. With his last breaths, he finally confesses his love for Shu Lien, and dies in her arms as Jen returns too late to save him. The Green Destiny is returned to Sir Te. Jen later goes to Wudang Mountain and spends one last night with Lo. The next morning, Lo finds Jen standing on a balcony overlooking the edge of the mountain. In an echo of the legend that they spoke about in the desert, she asks him to make a wish. He complies, wishing for them to be together, back in the desert. Jen then flies over the side of the mountain and into the clouds.

L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

Multiple awards winner, believe to be the best Asian & proudest film in year 2000. Every Asian see this as a great thing and open a lot of opportunity for Asian to get into Hollywood, this also make us proud and intro our Asian's martial arts to the whole world (after Bruce Lee's success).

The whole film is quite good and the style of fighting is exciting at that period, especially the running on wall thingy. This also bring Ang Lee, Chow Yun Fatt & Ziyi Zhang some fame in Hollywood (Michelle Yeoh already got her when she was in 007 few years back).

A big bravo to them, Ang Lee still continue to produce a lot of good film after this. Hope to see more from him soon :)