Worlds of Wonder

Here's the first pic of Wonder Woman from the upcoming TV series. The costume is a mixture of classic elements and the designs by Jim Lee for the present JMS run on the title. My daughter loves it but my wife hates it. Actually my wife dislikes the actress, Adrianne Palicki, as well, not just the costume designs! :)

In other news, Marvel just announced the creative teams for the new monthly Daredevil, Punisher and Ghost Rider series. Mark Waid will mark his return to monthly writing for Marvel with Daredevil and Greg Rucka, who's been missing since the end of his run on "Batwoman" will be writing the monthly Punisher. Rob Williams will also be writing the new Ghost Rider monthly series. I'm very happy with the choices and am really looking forward to both monthlies later this year. It's about time that these three street-level Marvel icons get the creative teams that they deserve.

Finally, I just finished watching "Beast Stalker" - the film that made Dante Lam a household name and allowed Nick Cheung and Liu Kai Chi to nab the "Best Actor" and "Best Supporting Actor" awards respectively in the 28th HK Film Awards. The film was banned here in Malaysia so I didn't get to see it when it was first released. I became a huge Dante Lam fan after "Fire of Conscience" and "Stool Pigeon" so it's great to finally see where it all began. In fact, the three films should be watched back-to-back as a kind of Dante Lam trilogy. Beast Stalker contains all the elements that we love Dante Lam for: crazy gunfights and car chases, gritty gangsters, ultra shocking violence, cops seeking redemption, Liu Kai Chi, the darkness in the heart of man, and an extra bonus in the form of Zhang Jingchu (who spoke really bad Cantonese but who cares?). I told my wife that the DVD was for my research in my Evidence studies. It's really just a very cool HK movies featuring cops, kidnappers, gangsters, and Liu Kai Chi. Anyway, did I mention that Liu Kai Chi is in it? For my money, nobody plays the lowlife cop/gangster/informer better than Liu Kai Chi. The ending feels like the recent "Cable" series featuring Nathan Summers protecting the girl Hope from Bishop - except we get Nic Tse protecting a small girl from Nick Cheung.

Movie Review: The Stool Pigeon

I became a huge fan of Dante Lam after his previous outing, "Fire of Conscience". If he could make a great film with Leon Lai and Ritchie Ren, there is nothing that the director cannot do. This time, he got three HK best actors Nick Cheung, Nicholas Tse and Liu Kai Chi in a movie called "The Stool Pigeon". Throw in dozens of TVB veteran actors for cameos and a heartbreaking performance by Kwan Lun-Mei, and you get another winner. This film is about the fate of stool-pigeons (played by Liu Kai Chi and Nic Tse) and the policeman who exploits them to solve large cases (played by Nick Cheung).

The classic Dante Lam staples are all here. E.g. haunted characters: Nick Cheung becomes the cop with a conscience because of his own errors that caused the sufferings of his wife (Miao Pu), Kwan Lun-Mei plays the baddie's girlfriend who struggles to be free and Nick Cheung is a convict who is powerless to protect his sister. Liu Kai Chi gives another fantastic performance as a low-life stool pigeon who got so badly beated up that he became a retard. Nobody plays lowlifes like Liu Kai Chi but I think it's about time he does something else as he's becoming a little too typecast for these types of characters.

Finally, Dante Lam films violence as only Dante Lam can. This film is definitely not for the weak-hearted. The violence is slow, frightening and messy - Dante Lam shows us just how difficult and messy it is to kill another person. Another unbelievably good Hong Kong movie on cops, informers and gangsters.

Review: Fire of Conscience

Forget Hollywood nonsense like "The Losers" or "The A-Team" with all that posing and shit. Forget "Infernal Affairs", "Election" or "The Departed". Go and see Dante Lam's "Fire of Conscience" for the real meaning of hardboiled cop drama. I'm surprised by how much I love this film. I mean, I do not even like Leon Lai or Ritchie Ren but put them into a film masterfully directed by Dante Lam, add in a great supporting including Liu Kai Chi, Vivian Hsu and Yip Suen, and you get a Hong Kong cop-classic.

I hate how the word "noir" is thrown about so much these days. But this film qualifies as noir not because of the way it is filmed but because of its subject matter. These days, artsy-fartsy film-makers go around with handheld cameras and shoot their shit in dark rooms. Then they call them noirish. Noir was always about the subject matter. The darkness in human souls. Dante Lam's film is about the "plague" within the hearts of men. Leon Lai and Ritchie Ren both play cops who walk around haunted by the "plague" within them. It's about nasty cops and nastier villains - but without the posturing of some Michael Mann piece.

I first saw this in the theatres and was surprised by how much had gone pass the attention of the censors. Colourful and risque dialogue from Liu Kai Chi, body parts flying everywhere in explosions, police brutality in interrogation rooms, etc. Saw it again on a Hi-Density DVD today and it was even better. If you thought the "Ip Man" movies are what HK film is all about these days, you are sorely mistaken. Go watch "Fire of Conscience" and "Crossing Hennessy" to see what quality HK movies are all about.