Lost in Beijing 蘋果

 Released Year: 2007

Directed by 李玉 Li Yu

Casted by:

范冰冰 Fan Bing Bing as 劉蘋果 Liu Ping Guo

梁家辉 Tony Leong as 林東 Lin Dong

佟大为 Tong Da Wei as 安坤 An Kun

金燕玲 Elaine Jin as 王梅 Wang Mei

 Story: 

Liu Pingguo and her husband, An Kun are a young migrant couple from the northeast of China who have moved to Beijing for a better life. Pingguo and An Kun live in a dilapidated apartment eking out their existence working menial jobs. An Kun works as a window washer, while his wife works in the Golden Basin Massage Parlor as a foot masseuse. Golden Basin is owned and operated by Lin Dong, an unabashed womanizer, and himself from Guangdong Province. His wife, Wang Mei practices Chinese medicine. Very soon, the two couples find themselves headed for a collision course.

When Pingguo's best friend, Xiao Mei, assaults a customer, she is quickly fired by Lin Dong. Pingguo, wishing to commiserate, takes her friend out and promptly becomes drunk on bai jiu. Returning to the Golden Basin, she passes out in an empty office. Lin Dong, seeing the vulnerable Pingguo attempts to make a pass, which quickly turns into rape, a rape witnessed by the window washer, An Kun. Furious at the sight, An Kun begins a campaign of harassment against Lin Dong, defacing his Mercedes Benz, and attempting to blackmail him for ¥20,000. When Lin Dong ignores the furious husband, An Kun goes directly to Wang Mei, who rather than acquiescing, seduces the naive window washer.

Soon, it is discovered that Liu Pingguo is pregnant, though neither An Kun nor Lin Dong can be certain of who is the father. Lin Dong, however, sees in Pingguo an opportunity to make things right with his barren wife as well as to settle things with Pingguo and her husband once and for all. Soon, the two husbands have concocted a scheme wherein An Kun initially receives ¥20,000 for his mental suffering. If the child has Lin Dong's blood type, he will go home with the massage-parlor owner and An Kun will receive ¥100,000. If however, the baby is An Kun's, no money is exchanged, but Pingguo and An Kun keep the baby. Moreover, if Lin Dong again sleeps with Pingguo, half of his assets will go to Wang Mei in a divorce proceeding. During these negotiations, Pingguo remains conspicuously silent.

As the baby is carried to term, Lin Dong becomes more and more attached to the idea that he will at last be a father. When the baby is born however, An Kun discovers that it is indeed his child. Unable to turn down the money, he manages to convince Lin Dong that it is his son, allowing him to collect the ¥120,000. Although, seeing how happy Lin Dong is with the baby, An Kun grows increasingly jealous, at last resorting to a clumsy and ultimately doomed kidnapping. After being released (presumably by Wang Mei, who has decided to divorce her husband), An Kun attempts to "repurchase" his child, to which Lin Dong promptly refuses. Pingguo, who had moved into Lin Dong's home after the birth as a nursemaid, at last has had enough. Quietly, she gathers the money that An Kun had returned, and taking her child, walks out the door. The film then ends as the two men, Lin Dong and An Kun, attempt to search for her, only to have their car break down on a busy Beijing highway...

 L² Scored: 6.5/10

L² Comment:

Storyline is not bad, Tony & DaWei are also very generous in showing us their ass... But BingBing use a back up girl for her nudity part which i think is so not professional :( Overall the movie is not bad, love Elaine's acting, she's the queen of it~ I just wish next time Bing Bing wont be so stingy in showing us what she has ~

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 :)

The Warlords 投名狀

 Released Year: 2007

Directed by 陈可辛 Peter Chan

Casted by:

李連杰 Jet Li as 龐青雲 Pang QingYun
劉德華 Andy Lau as 趙二虎 Zhao ErHu
金城武 Takeshi Kaneshiro as 姜午陽 Jiang WuYang
徐靜蕾 Xu Jing Lei as 蓮生 Lian Sheng

 Story:

 The film is set in the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion in the late Qing Dynasty in China. The story, based on the assassination of Ma Xinyi in 1870, tells of three sworn blood brothers who eventually turn against one another due to the harsh realities of war and political intrigue.

The story begins with a vicious battle, after which Qingyun, a Qing army general, is the only survivor of his entire army. He is defeated because promised reinforcements from a rival General Ho are deliberately withheld. In his aimless wanderings he encounters a girl named Liansheng, who nurses him back to health. Once he regains his strength, Qingyun soon meets Wuyang, who takes him back to the bandits village, and later Erhu; leaders of a bandit army that regularly steals food to survive. There he finds Liansheng again, who is revealed to be Erhu's wife.During one night, some militay troops attacks the village and retake the stolen goods, plunging the village into famine.

Qingyun convinces the bandits to join the Qing army to earn money and security to feed their families; Erhu and Wuyang are hesitant at first, and only agree after the three brothers swear a "Blood Oath", with which they affirm their fraternity to one another under pain of death. Qingyun, with the help of Erhu's army wins over a rebel convoy to show latter's strength to Qing Lords. Qingyun then goes on to meet his old superiors, who are reluctant at first to reinstate him, but upon allowing him the task of conquering a major city, he proves his worth in a victorious battle against a numerically superior force. In this battle, the tide is turned when Wuyang sneaks through the enemy lines and decapitates the enemy general. Qingyun's subsequent promotion and increased support from the Qing lords spurs him to lead the brothers and his armies through a long but successful campaign against the rebels. His victories cause him to become ambitious in the process, during which he reveals his plan to quickly take Suzhou and Nanjing, the principal power bases of the Taiping rebels, and his dream of ridding the world of oppression.

Fearing Qing-yun's growing power and influence, the Qing lords decide to deny Qingyun valuable reinforcements and provisions; without their support, Qingyun's prompt attack on Suzhou devolves into a year long siege, with both sides suffering from starvation. Desperate, Qingyun negotiates with his longtime rival and nemesis, General Ho, offering him half of the spoils of Nanking in return for supplies. Meanwhile Erhu sneaks into the city disguised as an opium dealer, hoping to assassinate the Taiping general ruling Suzhou and thus end the siege. The general surprises Erhu by revealing that he already knows of his plot and says that despite starvation, his troops and people will never surrender due to their loyalty. In an ensuing duel, the general allows Erhu to kill him anyway, saying that as long as he is alive his people will never be free of the siege. His dying wish is that his soldiers and citizens be spared. Moved by the official's sacrifice, Erhu agrees to the terms, but a returning Qingyun feels differently: even with the new provisions, food remains critically short, the rebels cannot be conscripted or released, and the Nanjing expedition would be jeopardized. Instead, he orders the prisoners to be executed, enraging Erhu into considering desertion over the death of innocent thousands. But Qingyun manages to convince him to stay and rejoin the cause by arguing that there are millions of innocents to save in Nanjing.

The Nanjing campaign becomes a grand success, and Qingyun is appointed as a provincial governor by the Empress for his services. He even gets the Empress to agree to his request for a 3 year moratorium on taxes in Nanjing so that the peasants can recover from years of war. Nonetheless, the war has caused a rift between the three brothers, most prominently with Erhu, who quietly defies Qingyun's orders by doling out soldier's pay from the imperial coffers; his offenses and popularity become known to the Qing lords, who cajole Qingyun into arranging his assassination. Erhu is fed false information of a plot by General Ho to assassinate Qingyun and he rides off to warn him only to get ambushed. Meanwhile, Wuyang discovers Qingyun's affair with Liansheng and catches wind of the plot against Erhu. Believing that Qingyun wants Erhu killed over Liansheng, Wuyang murders her, but Erhu is already dead before Qingyun hears of Liansheng's death. Wuyang therefore strives to fulfill the blood oath and goes to kill Qingyun at his inauguration ceremony. As the two brothers fight, a hidden attacker armed with a rifle shoots Qingyun in the back multiple times as Wuyang stabs him in the chest, killing him.

Now alone, Wuyang reminisces upon the words of the oath that was taken long ago.

  L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment:

Our proud Jet Li won the Best Actor in HK Film Awards; Peter Chan won Best Director in HK Film Awards & Golden Horse Awards while this movie won the Best Film in HK Film Awards & Golden Horse Awards. The whole movie is very very good in arranging the characters & the storyline flows very well indeed... The only flaw would be the dullness in color... lol