Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

Accuracy of Death which is aptly titled as Sweet Rain, is adapted from the bestselling novel by Kotaro Isaka "The Accuracy of Death", starring Japanese heartthrob, Takeshi Kaneshiro as the Grim Reaper or the Death God.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Takeshi Kaneshiro plays the Grim Reaper in "Accuracy of Death a.k.a. Sweet Rain"

Chiba (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is a Grim Reaper or Death God whose job is to decide a person’s death in a sudden and unexpected way and not through illnesses or suicides. Chiba’s job is to decide if the upcoming appointment with death should be marked in the agenda as "proceed" or "suspend". "Suspend" simply means that the person will survive for now, and is only granted when a reaper gets the impression that his subject still has his or her life fulfilled.

The movie is separated into three parts, which in someway, the three parts are inter-related to each other. Chiba has a black dog as a companion who speaks to him without any voice (only subtitles), which is simply annoying. Chiba has never seen a clear blue sky because whenever he is around, rain never stops. Chiba learns to enjoy music and understands the meaning of life while on his journey to decide the fate of Kazue Fujiki (Manami Konishi), Toshiyuki Fujita (Ken Mitsuishi) and a 70-year-old woman (Sumiko Fuji).

The movie is quite a masterpiece despite the seemingly flaw of a poor plot and the second part of the film, which is almost not needed. However, with the credible performance of Takeshi Kaneshiro and his great sense of humor, the movie is worth watching — no matter it rains or shines.

My rating: 8 out of 10.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Red Cliff, which also known as The Battle of Red Cliff, is a John Woo’s film based on the Three Kingdoms starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Zhao Wei and Lin Chi-Ling.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie begins with a scene in the Imperial Court of the Han Dynasty in AD 208 where the Prime Minister Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) requests Emperor Xian’s permission to start a war against the warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan in southern China, whom he perceived to be rebels against the Han Dynasty. He manages to get the Emperor to issue a decree for permission to launch an attack against Liu Bei who has fled southwards and Sun Quan.

Cao Cao’s strong forces of army easily conquers the southern lands while Liu Bei has abandoned the city of Xinye and is leading his army and the civilians. Unfortunately, Cao Cao’s calvary manages to catch up with Liu Bei (You Yong) and the great battle of Changban ensues. Zhang Fei, sworn brother of Liu Bei, has personally led a small group of soldiers armed with reflective shields to hold off the enemy in order to buy time for the civilians to escape. As the enemy soldiers approached, Zhang’s troops used their shields to reflect sunlight into the eyes of the enemy’s horses, creating chaos and seizing the opportunity to strike back.

Meanwhile, Zhao Yun (Hu Jun) desperately searches for Liu Bei’s wives and son, whom were separated amidst the chaos. Zhao Yun found Lady Mi, who was desperately trying to protect the infant Liu Shan from being captured by enemy soldiers. She was severely wounded and committed suicide by jumping into a well after entrusting Liu Shan to Zhao Yun. Zhao Yun manages to bring Liu Shan back to Liu Bei after fighting off many soldiers.

At the same time, Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), Liu Bei’s chief advisor, managed to bring Guan Yu, sworn brother of Liu Bei, to assist Zhang Fei. Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu bravely held off the enemy until the last group of civilians has evacuated. Guan Yu stayed on alone to hold off the enemy and was surrounded by several enemy soldiers. In his last attempt, he throws his halberd towards Cao Cao, barely missing the latter by an inch. Later, Cao Cao decides to let Guan Yu off, saying that Guan Yu could have killed him earlier but decided to spare him.

After the battle at Changban, Zhuge Liang set forth for Wu on a diplomatic mission to negotiate for an alliance between Liu Bei and Sun Quan (Chang Chen). Sun Quan was in the midst of a dilemma, unsure whether to oppose Cao Cao or surrender. While, his advisers have been desperately trying to persuade him to surrender, his military officers, on the other hand are advocating war. Zhuge Liang urges Sun Quan to form the alliance with Liu Bei against Cao Cao, but Sun Quan replies that he needed more time to think about it. Lu Su then brings Zhuge Liang to meet Wu’s great viceroy and chief commander of Wu’s army Zhou Yu (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai).

Although the discussion with Zhou Yu about war is brief, both of them manage to express their thoughts through music. Zhou Yu’s music shows that he wants to start a war while Zhuge Liang’s music indicates that he needs a friend.

Meanwhile in Cao Cao’s camp, he has recruited two new generals named Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, both of whom were surrendered generals and well-versed in naval warfare. Cao Cao finally expresses his desire to possess the beautiful Xiao Qiao (Lin Chi-Ling), the wife of Viceroy Zhou Yu. After having much thoughts, Sun Quan has finally made up his mind to form an alliance with Liu Bei and declare war against Cao Cao.

The alliance of Sun Quan and Liu Bei has managed to defeat Cao Cao’s army in the first battle after Sun Shangxiang (Zhao Wei) manages to lure Cao Cao’s army into Zhuge Liang’s "Ba Gua" (the Eight Stratagems Formation). While Cao Cao has learnt of the defeat, he shows no disappointment at all. At the same time, the allied forces are celebrating their victory.

Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang has another discussion on the new plan to combat Cao Cao’s forces. Zhou Yu stated that Cao Cao’s next move was still unclear although they have scored a victory against Cao Cao’s vanguard army. Zhou Yu then says to Zhuge Liang that he has hoped they would not become enemies in the future, and if that is so, they would each serve their respective lords. Zhuge Liang then send a pigeon to scout Cao Cao’s army and discover the enemy’s formation. The film ends with Zhou Yu lighting his minatured-sized ships on a map based on the battle formation with a torch.

The film continues in the second episode which is slated to release in January 2009, which will make the entire sage at least four hours long. The movie will be shortened to a total of 2 and a half hour for showing outside Asia.

Overall, John Woo manages to weave his magic again on this epic Chinese movie. With brilliant war strategies to the great fighting scenes, Red Cliff is an extraordinary film that really depicts the epic battle of Red Cliff.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Warlords, previously known as The Blood Brothers (Ci Ma) is a martial art film directed by Peter Chan and starring Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro. The film was influenced by the late Chang Cheh’s 1973 film The Blood Brothers but it’s not a remake. The film is set in the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion in the late Qing Dynasty in China. The story tells a tale of three sworn blood brothers.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the 1860s, during the late Qing Dynasty, as one of the darkest periods of Chinese history, the country is suffering under the rule of the corrupt Manchus who invaded China from the North and established the country’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing. Natural disasters are wreaking havoc in the countryside, and in the midst of this chaos, the Taiping Kingdom, one of the strongest rebel groups ever to rise up in China, is overrunning the country and staging battles with the Qing army threatening the throne.

Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro in The Warlords

In a war between the Qing army led by General Ma Xinyi (Jet Li) and the Taiping Kingdom, General Ma’s army is overpowered by the rebels as Ma’s allies back out in the last minute causing a slaughter of Ma’s army. Every army of Ma’s is dead except General Ma, himself as he has feigned death. Though he is able to escape from the masses of dead bodies, he faints in the middle of nowhere due to hunger. There, Lian (Xu Jinglei) has saved him and brought him to a deserted house. She cooks porridge for him in order to revive him. Ma gobbles the porridge before he breaks out and tells Lian about the slaughter of his army. Lian consoles him and before long, they both ends up in the bed.

Later on, while resting in a village after having his armors and weapons sold in order to buy food, the village is attacked by bandits led by Cao Erhu (Andy Lau) and his trusted Lieutenant Zhang Wenxiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Zhang quickly tests the ability of Ma after he sees Ma still wears boots that only the ranks of General wears them. Ma easily fends off Zhang’s attack and Zhang straightaway recommends Ma to join the bandits.

When Ma saves Cao in a furious battle, the three swear blood brotherhood. When Lian returns home after running away from Cao, Ma realizes that Lian is Cao’s wife but what already happened has happened.

Besides Lian, Ma’s dream is to get rid of the rebels and the corrupted Qing officials and he manages to convince both Cao and Zhang and their troop of bandits to join Qing army instead of robbing to survive. Easily fooled by the cunningness of Ma, Cao and his men join Ma and many dangerous battles are engaged. Ma’s become more and more ambitious as he wins every battle despite having less men than the enemies. Ma soon became obsessed with power.

The complication between the blood brothers and Lian have worked out in favor of Qing’s ruthless Empress and her highly ranked officials. In the end, the assassination of Ma takes place during the day he is supposed to be sworn as The Governor.

Overall, The Warlords show a more ruthless side of Jet Li as he plays his role well to his USD $13 million paycheck while Andy Lau plays a tragic hero torn between different factions. Takeshi Kaneshiro, meanwhile, plays a second fiddle to both these actors with his innocence overshadows the elements of being a bandit but his years of acting his Hong Kong movies have somewhat improved. The talented Xu Jinglei plays the beautiful Lian well to every bit, as Cao’s wife and even better as Ma’s woman.

Note: In Malaysia’s version, General Ma is known as General Pang, Cao Erhu is known as Zhao Erhu, and Zhang is known as Jiang.

My ratings: 7 out of 10, could be 8 out of 10 if only Lian shows more flesh.

Popularity: 5% [?]