So Close
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Movie Reviews of So Close
Movie Review: Hsu Qi and Karen Mok in a throwdown! YEAH! OK the plot sucks
Summary: 4 Stars
This film, about two high-tech female assassins-for-hire chased by a female police detective, is imperfect, often implausible and predictable; but it still thrilled me anyway. It has three very positive things going for it:1. Terrific fight choreography by Corey Yuen, one of the greatest fight choreographers around (he worked on "X-Men" and "Lethal Weapon 4", many Hong Kong films.) The kung fu is great, although the gunfights are standard issue.
2. Hsu Qi, who is one of the most beautiful actresses anywhere, gets a lot of face time and sexy outfits. Unfortunately she is not a great actress, but hey, nobody's perfect.
3. Karen Mok, who IS a great actress and extraordinarily charismatic, though not nearly as pretty.
Drawbacks:
1. The story is standard issue and predictable.
2. Opening action sequence is very implausible; later fights are improvements.
3. The third heroine, Wei (Vicky) Zhao, is way too soft-looking to be a believable fighter. She is a bad actress and unfortunately gets some super-emotional scenes that are cringeworthy.
Now about Karen Mok. I'd never seen Mok in anything before, but as the police detective she was muscular, charismatic, just amazing. Considering how many fights there are here, it's crucial that the women be believably trying to hurt somebody. We want THROWDOWN! In the fights, you definitely believe Mok is trying to hurt somebody. As the story progresses, Mok's character becomes only more masculine/adrogynous. Which is a good thing.
Only once or twice can you believe Hsu Qi is trying to hurt somebody. But she looks gorgeous in a black cocktail dress, so we'll forgive her, and she's photographed well, which is important. (The face time she gets here makes up for how badly she was wasted in "The Transporter.")
What really made me want this on DVD, is the terrific girl-on-girl fight between Mok and Hsu Qi, which happens midway through the film. They ride an elevator together, and each knows the other is her enemy, but they pretend not to know. Outside the elevator they get into a fight so classic, so good that action directors should study it for years into the future. Finally, Hsu Qi gets down and dirty in her black cocktail dress; you can really believe she wants to hurt somebody. Yeah! THROWDOWN! THROWDOWN!! And Mok, who's dressed like a boy, gives it right back to her. Director Corey Yuen pulls out all the stops here: fast motion, slow motion, camera pans, bullet time, the works, but they're all used appropriately to thrill us, not overused as gimmicks. During the fight, Mok manages to handcuff herself to Hsu Qi, which leads to great close-up one-handed fighting.
As for the plot, oh well, it's predictable and often, totally implausible. The opening action sequence, in which Hsu Qi sticks herself to the ceiling while assassinating an evil executive, is quite unbelievable. And it's scored to the Carpenters' annoying song "Close to You." The film's conclusion is even less satisfying: after all the laws that've been broken, none of the heroines go to jail? Oh, c'mon.
But it's worth it just to see Karen Mok and Hsu Qi duke it out in cute outfits! If you want a Hsu Qi movie and are deciding between this and "The Transporter", go for this.
Movie Review: They long to be close to you...
Summary: 4 Stars
In a high-energy action sequence, a crooked businessman, Chow Lui, is murdered by a young woman who calls herself the Computer Angel. It turns out that she caused some computer virus trouble the previous evening, only to reverse the effects herself. The woman herself ranks high in the karate department but also in terms of sheer cleverness, given the way she kills the businessman. She then proceeds to shoot many of Chow Lui's security teams, often merely disabling them. This leads to Inspector Hong Yat Kong to deduce that she is dealing with someone who in the heat of battle was expert enough to wound and not kill. She becomes fascinated with Chow Lui's murderer.
However, the person who hired the assassin turns out to be none other than the victim's own brother, Chow Nunn, whose motives was that he was intent on taking over the company, plus he was having an affair with his own sister-in-law.
So who are the two? They are two sisters, Ai Linn (Lynn) and younger sister Sue, who's confined to manning the computer due to her recklessness. Lynn is the more cool-headed, b-t-kicking professional and does her jobs while Sue uses a highly-sophisticated computerized surveillance system that allows her to direct her sister and warn her against anyone approaching.
All this is in aid to avenge the murder of their parents. Their father had intended to give this new surveillance system to the police, had it not been for some ruthless businessmen who had other ideas. The two thus look after each other, but with Ai Linn having the understood senior role in both their jobs and themselves as family, a la the older sibling/younger sibling of Eastern thought.
Things begin to crack when Yen, a young man Lynn would've gone out with long ago had it not been for her parents' murder, reenters her life after spending some time in America. Lynn decides to maybe hang up her guns and settle down, as Yen seems to be a decent sort of guy. If it were that simple... as alarmed by the suspicions of Inspector Hong, Chow Nunn decides to eliminate Lynn, and Sue becomes dissatisfied with being the one out of the action.
The interactions between Hong and the sisters prove interesting, as Hong has somewhat of a grudging respect for Lynn's skills, yet is clear in her duty to apprehend all criminals, no matter what the motive. All three actresses, Qi Shu (Lynn), Vicki Zhao (Sue) and Karen Mok (Hong) work well together and apart, especially the very pretty Shu and the impishly pretty Zhao, who plays Mui in Shaolin Soccer.
Its use of the Carpenters' "They Long To Be Close To You" must set some sort of cheeky precedence, but the CGI shattering glass and Matrix-style aerial shots raises the fact how So Close is an action film of the Noughts. And the final battle is a bit protracted. Still, not too bad, I suppose, given the dramatic components between the sisters making it more than a mere comic book actioner.
Movie Review: A good chick flick
Summary: 4 Stars
First you need to forive a couple of things before you can truely enjoy this movie, like the thin plot and the pluasibility of the characters, other than that, this movie is pretty good, for obvious reasons- the well-cheographed fight scenes and it's a fresh change having chicks do the fighting.Shu Qi gets top billing and yes, she's gorgeous, but I think you'll be more impress with Karen Mok. She might not have the lucscious lips or the obvious sex appeal, but she has an edgy, gritty physical presence which is important if you're gonna be an action movie star ( maybe she already is, this is the first time I've seen her in a movie). You can believe it when she's punching, kicking and flying thru the air because physically she is convincing. Unlike Shu Qi, who seem a tad bit fragile and she looked like she was hung on a wire a lot for the more demanding fight sequence. I also like Vicky Zhao. She's terrific as the younger, less competent sister and the heavy acting was all left to her. The handcuffed fight scene with Qi and Mok is something to marvel at and will undoubtedly be copied. The clean high tech cinematography is hard to ignore. It is a study in geometry, angles and physics, specially with the flying bullets and glass everywhere. This is well illustrated in the last shot out by the stairway.
There's a lot to be admired in this movie like the many imaginative ways of shooting a gun; upside down, downside up,sidedays, by ways, falling down, twisting and the overall imagination of the filmakers. As a Hong Kong, over-the-top action flick--- It delivers! Just don't think too much when you're watching this movie. Concentrate more on the gun fights, sword fights and kung fu fights. I did find a few things annoying though. For example, the Mok and Zhao characters- were they suppose to be attracted to each other, and what was that kiss about? they could have at least done it right and gone for a full on lip lock titaliting threatment it deserved, outherwise why bother throwing in this little sublot at the end. Also a couple of the fight scenes were so techinical and crisp that you feel like picking up your supernintendo control pad and playing along. Ultimately I give this movie a generous rating because it doesn't fail to deliver its promise- ACTION and lots of it. The DVD doesn't have any extras but be thankful it offers a lot of language and subtitle options for some of us that wish to see the movie in its original sound. If you're not too uptight and don't sweat the little details, you'll enjoy this movie.
Movie Review: A perfect example on why looks can be deceiving
Summary: 4 Stars
I admire woman who can hold there own and this film says it all. While watching this I couldn't help but to think of Charlies Angels plus the opening scene with Lynn easily marks out the style of this film. "So Close" revolves around a computer program that can hack all the security cameras on earth. Developed by their dad, the program was inherited by Shu Qi and Vicky Zhao after his death, and rather than sell it and make lots of money, they use it to become career assassins - follow your dreams! But after years of busting caps, Shu Qi has become a hurting-on-the-inside kind of lady. Her passion for being a super cool hit woman has cooled and she's starting to feel sorry for the thousands of people she took away. Unable to bring herself to do more than kneecap the legions of goons she used to blithely blow away, she's started to think about getting out of the game, finding a guy, and settling down. Little sis, Vicky Zhao, on the other hand, wants to be like big sis and open many cans of whup a** on veritable armies of henchmen. Karen Mok, a cop who has run into the glass ceiling so hard she's got a concussion, unwinds from all the razzing she gets from her sexist colleagues by pursuing Vicky and Shu Qi and maybe, just maybe, falling for Vicky in the process. Cop/criminal romances are, historically, really bad ideas but it works really well here.
Flying bullets, spinning sidekicks, supercomputer balderdash, car chases, and shattering sheets of glass tumble off the screen like an all-you-can-eat action feast and it takes a fight with Japanese screen legend Yasuaki Kurata to bring this whole buffet to a close. Corey Yuen deploys the pop ballad "Close To You" all over the soundtrack and here's a chance for a whole new generation to get it stuck in their heads, associating it with images of Shu Qi dealing out death from nickel-plated 9mm's.
"So Close" is a movie that manages the neat trick of being simultaneously super-silly and super-cool. With Corey Yuen bringing years of being Jet Li's action director to the table; and Vicky Zhao, Karen Mok and Shu Qi bringing perfect hair, perfect clothes, and perfect roundhouse kicks, it's like a fashion shoot that cant be beat.
Movie Review: Three Hot Asian Beauties in Exciting Martial Arts Actioner
Summary: 4 Stars
Three beauties from Asia join in this martial-arts action flick directed by Corey Yuen, of 'Transporter' fame. The merit of this film lie not only in the eyecandy look, but also in the fact that the three actresses are really doing the ballet-dancing-like, high-kicking actions.
Contrary to our expectations, the film is not Asian version of 'Charlie's Angels.' The story is about two female assassins (Shu Qi 'Transpoter' and Vicky Chao 'Shaolin Soccer' without make-uo here) and one female cop (Karen Mok Jet Li's 'Black Mask') chasing them. As the police investigate the killing of the president of a giant computer company, they detect the presence of two sisters dealing with the dirty business on net.
Then the beautiful sisters, equipped with high-technology and martial-arts skills, then are going to do another job, which turn out bigger and nastier than they thought.
The plot is nothing important. The action-packed and unpretentious film does not hide that it is a popcorn movie made for fun, and it provides lots of it. But well, some may think the film is sometimes a tad too violent, and there is a very sexual nuance between the two sisters (look how the sisters playfully 'fight' each other in ... the bathroom, quite unique version of cat fighting, or male fantasy if you like).
THREE HOT LADIES from Asian are all fantastic. Interestingly, with potential market in mind, the film's actresses are selected from three differenct parts of Asia -- Vicky Chao from mainland China, Karen Mok from Honk Kong, and Shu Qui from Taiwan. You also have a guest appearance from Japan, Yasuaki Kurata, whose name was seen in many Hong Kong-made kung-hu films.
Corey Yuen is clearly having fun with the action sequences, which are beutifully staged. And as I said above, what is most impressive is that the film shows three ladies really doing the action part. One of the few defects of 'Kill Bill' was that Uma Thurman was using the stunt. In this film, when the ladies kick, they use their own bodies.
Mindless, to be sure, but as far as the actions go, it's the first-rate. Just enjoy watching it.