summer full of Asian movies

MOVIES TO WATCH

• Dragon Tiger Gate {Donnie Yen /Nicholas Tse / Shawn Yue}
  
• Beast Stalker {Nicholas Tse}
  
• Invisible Target {Nicholas Tse/Shawn Yue/JC Chan}
  
• Initial D {Jay Chou/Edison Chen/Shawn Yue}
  
• A Chinese Tall Story
• Claustrophobia
• Undercover Lover
• Undercover Lover II
• Love is Elsewhere
• Butterfly Lovers {Wu Chun/Charlene Choi}
  
• Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru {Tamaki Hiroshi/Aoi Miyazaki}
  
• L for Love, L for Lies
• Drink, Drank, Drunk
• Playboy Cops
• Trivial Matters

~honmei~ LAVENDER

movie title: LAVENDER
cast: TAKESHI KANESHIRO / KELLY CHEN
director: RILEY YIP
genre: ROMANCE/COMEDY
year released: 2000

SYNOPSIS
Kelly Chen played the role of woman living in sadness due to her fiance's death when suddenly an "Angel" fell from the sky one stormy night and landed on her roof. Thus begins the journey of healing, friendship, love and hope.

REVIEW
I love Takeshi {so I'll be biased}. It's a heartfelt, romantic-comedy. Kaneshiro barely makes romantic-comedies nowadays so I cherish each and everyone that he made. ^_^ His an ultimate boy-next-door. Chen portrayed her character quite well.

Also starring Eason Chan as chow-chow

~honmei~TURN LEFT, TURN RIGHT

movie title: TURN LEFT, TURN RIGHT
cast: TAKESHI KANESHIRO / GIGI LEUNG
director: JOHNNY TO
year released: 2003
genre: Romance/Comedy/Drama

SYNOPSISLeung plays a translator, and Kaneshiro plays a violinist, who live parallel lives and appear to be perfect for each other, but somehow fate seems to keep them apart. They live in the same apartment building, but don't meet. Because when they leave, one turns left and the other turns right.

REVIEWI love the book by Jimmy Liao and I was just excited when the movie came out. This is one of my top Asian movies. Kaneshiro and Leung have good on-screen chemistry. I may sound biased but I love Kaneshiro and Zhang Ziyi team-up. However, Turn Left, Turn Right is quite a lovely movie to watch. It makes you stop and think ~ what if my soulmate is just around the corner but I keep missing him because I turn left and he turns right?! No worries, if he is my soulmate ~ he'll know the first time he lays his eyes on me.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The meeting
• Takeshi Kaneshiro {total eye-candy}

~shiata~ TADA, KIMI WO AISHITERU

title: TADA, KIMI WO AISHITERU
{english translation} Just Loving You
{englsih title} HEAVENLY FOREST
director: Takehiko Shinjo
actors: TAMAKI HIROSHI /AOI MIYAZAKI
genre: Romance / Drama
language: Japanese
year: 2006

SYNOPSIS
Two young college students found a very special kind of friendship through photography and a hidden forest.

CAST

• Aoi Miyazaki as Shizuru Satonaka
• Hiroshi Tamaki as Makoto Segawa
• Munetaka Aoki as Ryo Shirohama
• Keisuke Koide as Kyohei Sekiguchi
• Meisa Kuroki as Miyuki Toyama
• Asae Oonishi as Yuka Yaguchi
• Misa Uehara as Saki Inoue

REVIEW
Tamaki Hirsoshi intrigued me in his JDrama "Love Shuffle", so I decided to watch his other works. I stumbled upon Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru by searching romantic-comedy jdrama and one recommended this movie. Upon seeing the trailer on YouTube and I saw Aoi Miyazaki and Kuroki Meisa is also part of this romantic-drama ~ I was sold.

If you love the feeling of falling in-love again whenever you see a film ~ Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru is definitely it! The cast are amazingly talented, Hiroshi / Miyazaki and Meisa have great on-screen chemistry. This one movie you can't miss. Highly Recommended

HIGHLIGHTS
The amazing kiss!

MOVIES LIKE THESE
Koizora {2007} Miura Haruma / Yui Aragaki
5 Centimeters per Second {2008} animated

~honmei~ PENELOPE

movie title: PENELOPE
director: MARK PALANSKY
starring: CHRISTINA RICCI, JAMES McAVOY
genre: ROMANTIC - COMEDY, DRAMA
release date: 02.29.08

CAST:

• Christina Ricci as Penelope Wilhern
• James McAvoy as "Max Campion"/Johnny Martin
• Catherine O'Hara as Jessica Wilhern
• Reese Witherspoon as Annie
• Peter Dinklage as Lemon
• Richard E. Grant as Franklin Wilhern
• Simon Woods as Edward Vanderman III
• Ronni Ancona as Wanda
• Nick Frost as Max Campion
• Lenny Henry as Krull
• Nigel Havers as Edward Vanderman II
• Burn Gorman as Larry
• Russell Brand as Sam
• John Voce as Duty Cop

SYNOPSIS:
A modern romantic tale about a young aristocratic heiress born under a curse that can only be broken when she finds true love with "one who will love her faithfully."

Penelope (Ricci) a young woman born with a slight deformity blame it on the curse is forced to search for her "one true love" that will release her of this curse. However, these aristocratic youmg men that she meets are abhorred thus making her lose confidence. Here comes Max (McAvoy) a ruggedly handsome aristocrat befriends our Penelope and shed some light in her rather boring world.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Max's shocked handsome face upon Penelope's first meeting.
• Penelope's enchanting eye-opening transformation.
• Max and Penelope's first kiss.
• Amazingly great soundtrack ~ Sigur Ros "Hoppipola" ~ is truly enchanting.

LOWLIGHTS:

• Slow movement when Penelope is engaged to another young artistrocrat.

TO LOVE or NOT TO LOVE:
I love this movie because it's graced by McAvoy, Ricci and Witherspoon's presence ~ few of my fave Hollywood actors. The romantic, fairy-tale liked love story infused with comedy, drama and enchanting music.