Skip to main content

Rating: 3.2/5
Review: "In the room movie review"

"A decent arthouse film that may only appeal to fans of Eric Khoo."

Arthouse local director, Eric Khoo, is back with a controversial film. Surely, its awareness increased when Eric refused to edit for the classified rating, R21. It is apparent that the version, that will be shown in local cinemas, is cut. The uncut version is only shown in film festivals and probably in Hong Kong too.

The story: It is no surprise that sex takes up the bulk of the film. In the six stories, sex is the main theme. But do not let the racy theme deter the viewing. Eric, being an artistic director, serves more than just a titillation piece. He plays with emotions and thankfully knows when to end each story. Each story varies in runtime. The shortest story must the first one, in English, where a talk between two men leads to a surprising twist of love. It moves on to a funny second story, in Cantonese, that is the most outstanding due to its playful and bright tone. It is about a lesson of empowering men during sex. The third story returns back to Eric's comfortable territory, an artistic piece about a ghost and romance. It is meant to be a tribute to Damien Sin. The fourth story, in Thai, sees the last meeting between two guys before one of them goes for a sex change. The fifth story, in Japanese and English, is where the film earns its rating. AV actress Shou Nishino bares her body as a wife who sleeps with a young man. Their sex meetings eventually lead to love. The last story, in Korean, is about two Korean best friends having humorous sex talks that represent the younger generation.

Eric tries a different style for each story. Although he still relies on lengthy dialogues, he is smart enough to keep the scenes strangely interesting and humorous at time. The mood for each story differs but most of them still contain his usual dour and moody style. Acting ranges from good to alright. Music is off beat at some point but is still serviceable for Eric's style.

Overall: It is for Eric's fans. I can see it not appealing to mainstream audience. The artistic style of grainy and sharpness of the picture may be a turn-off to viewers who spend $12 and expect crystal clear quality on big screen. Understandably, the style fits the period of time. For Eric's fans, it is alright to catch on big screen. For others, small screen should suffice.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rating: 3.4/5 Review: "The Spirit of Ramayana" (103 minutes) "A passable Thai horror movie with an interesting concept but weak execution." As a low-budget horror movie, it has enough entertainment values. In the recent years, there are a few strong Thai horror movies with decent production values and there are many mediocre low-budget horror movies. The Spirit of Ramayana is somewhat in the middle. It may not look that polished but its themes and concept are intriguing enough. The story: The narrative is straight forward however its editing made the movie look messy and disjointed. It is a simple story about Mintra, a young dancer who is rejected for the main role because she cannot pull off an evil and sensual side. However, a spirit helps her to unleash her dark side. On paper, it sounds like a supernatural Black Swan. It lacks the emotional depth of Black Swan as the director seems only interested in churning out cheap scares. As the plot develops fur...
Post a Comment
Read more
Rating: 3.5/5 Review: "G-Force movie review" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is not all that bad, at least it tries its to be an enjoyable family movie flick. But as usual, Disney movies now are getting haters around the world due to its popular teens and live-action animals-talking movies. So now, when they see a live-action Disney movie whether it has teenagers singing or animals yapping away, they would be put off immediately. Whatever it is, G-force is fun with 3-D. Kids would like the cute animals coming near them. The story: G-Force has a simple story which is also not creative. But that it is not what kids want, they would want to see action blazing through their ways. As this being a Jerry Bruckheimer production, you can expect at least a car chase and some explosion but only more mild. Trevor Rabin did a good work in creating epic music. Though a kid movie, expect some rude humour but also at the same ti...
Post a Comment
Read more
Rating: 3.9/5 Review: "John Carter movie review" Unfortunately, I didn't catch it in 3D. I wasn't sure of how the post-conversion would turn out. Back to the movie. To tell the truth, before John Carter opened, I was not sure if I should give the movie a try. The posters are boring and uninspired and trailers are not really exciting. It was only the week that it opened that I decided to catch it in cinema. I am glad that it is actually a fun and entertaining movie that is worth to watch in cinema. The story: It does pack a lot during the 132 minutes runtime. And it does feel slightly bloated. But it is still fun entertainment. The movie starts with a short action scene on Mars and moves on to John Carter on the human world. Then the next 20-25 minutes show John on Earth. So Sci-Fi will have to wait a while to see John on Mars. The story is simple to understand but the number of characters may confuse. It is sort of a chase movie. The action scenes while short are many...
Post a Comment
Read more