A Touch of Sin (2013)

Every crime has a victim and every criminal has a story of their own to tell. A Touch of Sin is one of the most powerful of such crime stories I have seeing recently and its directed by the well-known Chinese director Zhangke Jia. Zhangke is famous for his style in powerful dramas that mostly speak of the contemporary themes that surround the rise of Chinese economic boom and the resulting cultural changes.

A Touch of Sin is a collaborative of four different storylines that has minor connections with each other (which remind me of the great Mexican production Amores Perros-2000) that had the same style of story telling. There are more than few main characters in this due to it’s nature of the plot and each story has certain uniqueness’s and similarities to fathom. For me it’s hard to tell which story is my favorite and which is not as I see a certain beauty in all of them. As all the stories are based on some sort of a crime (large or minor) at a certain point viewer comes to the realization of where it is heading.

Though there is no hard hitting ending to this movie once it’s done the viewer will be still living a trance. There is beautiful cinematography, acting and very little of music and laughter going around. But I completely like the way it flow at times wished that some stories has more. And truly this portray the cultural and economical effects the modern China and its people are going through and some of it may seems overwhelming.

Genre: Crime| Drama

Director: Zhangke Jia

Original title: "Tian zhu ding"

Score: 4/5

Chunking Express (1994): Rating 4.5/5

Maybe the most bewildering thing about Kar Wai Wong movies is that, they seem too normal while you watch it but once done they start to haunt you. And they are overly narrative and sometimes overly expressive in minor elements of the plot yet not so detailed and mysterious about some of the far deep and seem to be important areas. And it seems like the director intentionally hide certain things from the viewers and viewers are left to go through a journey of discovery them selves if they want more answers than the ones are obvious. Yes strikingly more answers we find more things left to ponder. Chunking Express is such mysteriously touching piece of artistic cinema that boils down to a very simple yet very complicated story about everyday people.

The story is woven around two Hong Kong cops. At a glance they both share certain similarities as characters and circumstantially and losing their girl friends is one of the prominent ones. Chunking Express deals with their emotional despair and hope as they struggle to overcome the uncertainty and the loneliness they feel in their post relationship recovery period. The beauty of the script is that these two characters have no intention to overlap yet but only to connect deep down in the observance of the viewer.

Chunking Express expresses it self-using narratives. And these narratives in the form of thoughts of the characters who speaks to them selves are very powerful and strangely unique. When you listen to them closely it opens up a variety of emotions filled pathways in to the characters life. The viewers get to explore these characters who at times are bold but most of the time mysterious in their own ways. And the director builds these characters and their behaviors in to a certain point where they become strangely familiar after sometime but the viewers deep down knows that they are not. But follow their lead in their journey of sorrowful uncertainness.

The director very effectively uses cinematographic elements such at colors, camera movements and angles along with strong symbolism to build the plot. And just like his later work In the Mood for Love (2000) he uses music that is very character centric over and over again until it becomes a habit. Here he uses the classic California Dreaming by The Mamas & The Papas and blend it so well with the story by the time movie the ends it is so prominent as characters them selves. Maybe the most binding component the viewers unknowingly fall for is the ever-natural performances and the chaotic style of story telling. Though how simple the character or the events look at a glance it is not so uncommon for the viewer to struggle moment to moment to realize the depth they represent.

Chunking Express is a well-written and skillfully directed cinema by the renowned moviemaker Kar Wai Wong. His signature style is all over it and for anyone who is brave enough to experience it will discover the world in a unique way. Perhaps one of the most beautiful things about this movie is that you hardly notice that it touched you until you are left alone to ponder about it. And this moment of realization can happen anytime without an early warning. The trick is not to rush it.

Original title: Chung Hing sam lam

Language: Cantonese

Country: Hong Kong

Genre: Drama | Romance

Director: Kar Wai Wong

-Priyantha Bandara

Protégé (2007) (Honk Kong) (Cantonese)

Protégé (2007) (Hong Kong) (Cantonese)

Crime | Drama

This is another touching and shocking tale of distress and drug abuse unveiling from the land of Hong Kong proving that Asian cinema has its dynamites too. The movie is well directed with a plot that fries brain cells. And the performance of the cast is no less than respectable. It’s spinning around a cop who is deep undercover in Hong Kong’s largest drug circle, who is about to become the next Don of the trade. Will he be able to put the big brain behind bars of will his cover blow up is for you to find out? But, just like Scarface of the west Protégé from the east will leave its scars deep. And will dramatically haunt your dreams for some time.

හොංග් කොංග් පුරේ දැවැන්තම මත් ද්‍රව්‍යය ජාලයේ අඩියටම හොර රහසේ කිමිදුනු පොලිස් නිලධාරියකු සහ ඔහුගේ මතට ඇබ්බැහි වුනු අසල්වැසි සුන්දර කාන්තාවක් වට ගෙතුණු සිත සසල කරවන පුවතක් රැගත් Protégé ආසියානු සිනමා කෘතියක්. ආසියාවේ සිනමාව කෙතරම් රසවත් එමෙන්ම ප්‍රබල එකක්ද කියා ඔප්පු කිරීමට මේ චිත්‍රපටිය හොඳ උදාහරණයක්. හොඳ අධ්‍යක්ෂණයකින් සහ පෙර සඳහන් කල පරිදි සංවේදී කතාවක්ද රැගත් මේ චිත්‍රපටිය සමාජයේ එක් විෂම දුෂිත පැතිකඩක් වෙත ඔබේ දෙනෙත් විවර කරාවි.

3.5/5

-Priyantha Bandara

Synopsis: Special agent Nick (Daniel Wu) is deep undercover in the heart of Asia's lucrative crime trade as he plays protégé to one of the key players in the game, "Banker" (Andy Lau). (IMDB)