Aftershock (2010) @ 唐山大地震

Would you save your daughter or your son first?

Xu Fan's powerhouse turn.

At a glance:

Chinese filmmakin ace Feng Xiao Gang (Assembly 2007, The Banquet 2006) has made IMAX screens in China a rippling goldmine with the Hua Yi Brothers-backed Aftershock 唐山大地震 - a tearjerkin triumph of Mainland cinema that is at once more marketable to other regions than the usual fare due to its high production values. It also bears the unlikely distinction of being the first IMAX film that isn't created Stateside. Drawing from the 1976 Great Tangshan earthquake that had a death toll which is controversially contested up until today to be anything from 200,000 lives to three times that, Aftershock is a fictionalised story set during a real-life event (like Titanic 1997) and benefits from the unflinching powerhouse portrayal of the filmmaker's actress wife Xu Fan (One Foot Off The Ground 2006, The Founding Of A Republic 2009) as a mother who had to painfully choose between saving her son or saving her daughter during the atrocities of natural disaster. It is a strong, textured drama with very decent CGI work that doesn't detract from the primary focus of buildin on themes of guilt, abandonment, closure and redemption - essentially a film all of the Chinese diaspora worldwide can relate to. Sparin you a more detailed synopsis is probably the best idea considerin its epic landscape of a story that encompasses events such as Mao Zedong's death.

Bad news on the doorstep:

Ahh I jumped the gun on this one, me. I came back from the Singaporean premiere with a chest stirrin with emotions and gave it five stars. When the euphoria died down I realised I was very impressionable. I blame Xu Fan's incredible performance.

Perennial wonderment:

Just how far have we come from the traditional patriarchal importance of a male heir? Not far, I assure you.

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

The five-star performances in Aftershock (includin Zhang Jing Chu's role as the adult daughter) are a definitely highlight, not to mention its high entertainment value in balancin drama and action, just like Assembly. One can only hope that movies such as this, despite the fiction, serve to remind people the importance of family and just how much emotional resonance is left behind by natural disasters. Aftershock is a first grade tearful testament to that.
Bonus material:

Mantra (2010)

Mantra: Looks like that scene from Joan Of Arc (1999), innit?

At a glance:

Santau (2009) gets a thematic sequel with Mantra (2010), Metrowealth’s 38th in its catalogue and one that wishes to echo the RM 4.3 million success (collections from Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei) of the first movie last year. In Mantra, Zul Suphiaan (stage name Zul Handy Black, the dodgy neighbour in Santau) plays Muzir, a man who gets involved with dark powers and inadvertently gets thrown into jail for a crime. He loses his wife (Ana Dahlia) and while to another man, his one-time friend Hasbi (Hasnul Rahmat). In Pudu Jail (yes, you get to see several scenes shot inside it before its famous demolishin) he dabbles with the occult again by learnin black magic from an old prisoner (Rozaidi Abdul Rahman). With his newfound powers, Muzir manages to poison the warden (Hamdan Haji Ramli) and frees himself to seek revenge and reclaim his family.

Bad news on the doorstep:

Zul Handy Black

The recycled horror formula is simple – take an original research about black magic and add a strong revenge theme with an all-new cast of fresh faces, lettin it all bake in some decent CGI and sound work. You can say Mantra is better than Santau in all aspects, and can even lay claim to some artistic respectability due to its difficulty in producin – save for one sore point which is minimal character development, resultin in a compromised storyline. In the earlier 2009 film, the CGI work and the performance of its lead actors may not have been better but there were clear cut protagonists and antagonists who were easy to follow. In Mantra, the focus on the titular subject may (to the point of using “real” chants and incantations) seems to have backfired considerin the approach has come off a little too successful, takin away the appreciation of the 89-minute feature film as a whole. In other words, Mantra commands respect for its faithful adherence to the demonic subject but in terms of entertainment, we may not remember it as a particularly scary or successful film.

"Did you or did you not pick up the bar of soap?"

Reminds me of: 
The movie is one of the last to be filmed in the now demolished colonial relic Pudu Jail in Kuala Lumpur. Wished I had the chance to visit it but it was too late.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

In a nutshell, Mantra was probably a hell of a script but this screenplay doesn’t give it an engagin justification. Santau had a certain Stephen King appeal to it but Mantra just comes off more like a dramaticised documentary. Let’s hope the next horror movie from Metrowealth – Ngangkung – will set it right.★★★
Bonus material:

Pudu Jail, Kuala Lumpur. Now demolished.