Sonny Boy (2011)

Winsome inter-racial couple, Rika (Ricky Koole) and Waldemar (Sergio Hasselbaink).

At a glance:

Proudly Dutch and therefore chosen as its official 2012 Oscars submission for Best Foreign Language Pic and also for European Union Film Festival screenings across the globe, Maria Peters' lavish Sonny Boy (2011) is an $8 mil inter-racial love story set against a Holocaust backdrop, with plenty of period detail and afternoon TV melodrama. It's based on a true story about a Surinam scholar and swimmer who knocked up a married white Dutch lady 17 years his senior. Title is in reference to the old crooner's song and subsequently the name of the lovechild borne out of their difficult but passionate union.

Bad news on the doorstep:

Nevermind the over-saturated colours of what I believe to be a poor DVD transfer being played at The Royal, this old-fashioned romance epic benefits firstly from a handsome inter-racial couple, Rika (Ricky Koole) and Waldemar (Sergio Hasselbaink), who command good onscreen chemistry. I remember all too well the last time I saw an unconvincin inter-racial pairin was also at the European Union Film Festival, albeit the 2010 Malaysian edition at GSC. It was For All Eternity (2002) where a Chinese man had zero chemistry with the Austrian female lead. Anyway, back to Sonny Boy, the movie is largely uneven and tried to do too much, payin dues to too many lesser characters and effectively takin the momentum out of the picture. Most of the emotional hooks unfortunately came across as rather underwhelmin, I suspect due to the unimaginative music score. What happened to that powerful, epic-soundin score from the trailer? Anyway, in doin justice to Annejet van der Zijl's novel from which it's adapted, I feel more intense camerawork and a shorter edit would've done the trick.

Perennial wonderment:

"Have you ever drank soymilk out of a chocolate straw?"

Who is Ricky Koole? She has enormous presence and a classy, thoughtful disposition. Hope to see her in a big Hollywood picture someday?

Reminds me of:

A Beautiful Life (1997) with an inter-racial twist, like in For All Eternity (2002).

Most memorable line:

"There are two things a plant needs to grow. Sun and water. These are our rainy days."

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

I believe I might be prejudiced by a poor viewin experience. Nevertheless it's a movie with its heart in the right place. Enjoyed the little bits of humour, too.★★★
Bonus material:

I suppose they're the real Waldemar Nods, Rika van der Lans and Sonny Boy
if indeed their real names were used. Looks like a happy family.

They Wait (2007) @ Demon Days

At a glance:

Female ghost with strange black, inky arms.

Here's more on the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival. They Wait (2007) was a Canadian horror flick that most dismissed as a silly piece of work, produced by the overwhelmingly unpopular Uwe Boll and directed by Ernie Barbarash (Assassination Games, 2011) but I'd like to think the story and screenplay by Trevor Markwart is actually quite solid and intriguin, though the finished product of course, stumbles here and there. Look away now if you don't wanna read a spoiler: besides playin out a mystery that traces back to maligned sweatshop immigrants, it also skims over a topic I don't think any horror movie has ever covered before - inhumane bear farmin! We follow a married inter-racial couple (coincidentally I just watched another Chinese-Caucasian pairin in Seventh Moon last night) as they return to Vancouver for an uncle's funeral after six years abroad in Shanghai. Just as you would expect, it's open season for them starved spirits and their son Sammy (Regan Oey) starts to be able to see them like a Chinese Haley Joel Osment, subsequently fallin prey to one particular mysterious spectre, a female ghost with strange black, inky arms. Sarah (Jaime King) and Jason (Terry Chen) must figure out just what they want before dawn, when the realm of the dead would close up and the kid will be lost forever.

Bad news on the doorstep:

Terry Chen
- what an annoyin actor!

Well, the heart of the mystery is unusual and definitely not cliched but the eerie buildup is undone by some cartoonish CG work, made worse by Terry Chen (The A-Team, 2010) in a superfluous role as the nobody dad. Poor guy was probably miscast because they movie doesn't need him at all. He took too much attention away from Jaime King (Mother's Day, 2011) and made the pair look trivial. I also have a problem with the castin of the kid, whose "Eurasian attributes" go as far as havin dyed brown hair. Come on guys, get real!

Bitter, bitter.
Cured my fever?

Perennial wonderment:

Does bear bile really work? God knows I had a lot as a child. They were nasty. I hope one day the trade will stop. For further readin on the bear bile trade and just how torturous it is for our ursine friends, check out a Facebook fan page or two because that's what people do these days.

Reminds me of:

Kelvin Tong's The Maid (2005).

Watch out for:

Shaw Bros wuxia vet Cheng Pei Pei (Street Fighter: Legend Of Chun-Li, 2009) plays the annoyin aunt with some literal skeletons in the closet. Great to see the golden oldies still gettin work.

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

★★ 1/2 for the story.

Shaw Brothers wuxia vet Cheng Pei-Pei.

Seventh Moon (2008)

At a glance:

Burning effigies:
A multi-million dollar industry.

I've decided to revisit some of the more recent films about the Hungry Ghost Festival, the calendar staple that lends such a rich source for ghost stories when I was growin up. This American horror indie would've disappeared under the radar, if it were not written and directed by Blair Witch Project (1999) mastermind Eduardo Sánchez and had the dirty star appeal of Amy Smart in the lead. Seventh Moon is based on the Chinese legend that on the full moon of the seventh lunar month, the gates of Hell open and the Dead can enter the realm of the Livin. Melissa (Amy Smart) and Yul (Tim Chiou), Americans on a honeymoon in China, end up lost in a remote village, thanks to nervous taxi driver Ping (Dennis Chan).

Bad news on the doorstep:

Horror movie pre-requisite:
Doin what you're not supposed to. Without backup.

The burnt offerings may be lost on Western viewers but for anyone comin from this part of the world, it's pretty creepy stuff - although Eduardo Sánchez seems to have taken a wrong turn somewhere and turned this into a monster movie by the third act. Many critics have lamented on the decision to overuse the shaky cam technique here, a favourite for the director. I believe that the excessive quick cuts and only half-seein the obviously obscured "ghosts" took some of the spook out of what was set to be a fairly creepy effort.

Perennial wonderment:

Amy Smart:
I'm sexy but do they know it?

Why can't Amy Smart make it like Blake Lively? I remember her vaguely in early films like Varsity Blues (1999) and Road Trip (2000) but it was in The Butterfly Effect (1994) opposite Ashton Kutcher that I thought she was really gonna make it. After the two Crank movies, I don't think she has anythin substantial lined up on her CV. What a waste. I always look forward to her gettin her kit off.

Reminds me of:

Kelvin Tong's The Maid (2005) and Herman Yau's The First 7th Night (2009).

Watch out for:

Dennis Chan Kwok San 陈国新 as the cabbie Ping. Nice to see some old hands still findin work. The man has worked in the Hong Kong film and television industry as a producer, director and actor for more than 30 years, perhaps best known to Western audiences for his work in Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Kickboxer franchise. His latest appearance on the big screen was a cameo in Andy Lau's box office gem A Simple  Life (2011) @ Sister Peach.

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
The two leads do their best and give us some reason to care for them but the supernatural elements grew tiresome. DVD Active's Gabriel Powers notes that the climax is so similar to The Descent (2005) that Neil Marshall should call his lawyers. For further info, visit the Seventh Moon official site, which is oddly still up today. ★★
Bonus material:

For the unitiated, this is what every Chinese production does before shootin and not just those that concern ghosts.