Love In Disguise

Love In Disguise Synopsis: (from Yesasia)
Impossibly famous an incredibly young age, DMH (Leehom Wang) has only ever known a celebrity pop star existence. Yet, despite all the perks and glamour, there is still something lacking in his charmed life: True love. Refuses to give up in his search, with the help of fellow musician and friend WZB, DMH disguised as regular Joes in hope to find true love. While incognito, DMH and WZB strmble across the performance of a classical Chinese orchestra and DMG is immediately captivated by the melodies of the guzheng soloist, LMQ (Crystal Liu), a classical music student at the Shanghai Conservatory, who's affections lie with the accomplished, if not arrogant, conservatory virtuoso, ZXZ. DMH nevertheless promisses to help bring them together, deteermined to spend more time with LMQ.

Inevitably, DMH's distraction from his superstar responsibilities does not go unnoticed Agent Joan (Joan Chen). Further more, as he and LQM grow closer, it becomes increasingly difficult to conceal his identity. What happens if she finds out who he really is? Can she really love and respect a celebrity pop star? And can she forgive him for lying?


My comments:
Hmm…I’ve been neutral regarding Wang Lee Hom; I’m not a fan or a hater so I can watch Love In Disguise without any biases. How was it? It was cheesy, yes, as I found myself rolling my eyes a few times during the movie. But, overall I thought it was enjoyable rom-com mostly due to the music aspect since I was always fascinated by traditional instruments like er-hu and guzheng. I thought the romance part was unconvincing since I didn’t see any sparks between the leads.

Performance wise, everyone was passable since the actors were not required to do much or acting very hyper. Wang Lee Hom was basically playing himself (notice the way he moves his hands when singing in the movie is exactly the same in real life). The surprising thing was Crystal Liu remained a plain Jane until the end and got the guy. Finally, no huge makeover for the heroine to get the attention of the guy! Also, Khalil Fong’s little cameo as himself is cute!

Lust, Caution

Lust, Caution Synopsis (from Yesasia)
When an ordinary girl is given an extraordinary mission, patriotism will not only test her aptitude for murder but the will to break her own heart. Academy award winning director Ang Lee embroils us in the deceptive and unsavory world of Japanese occupied Shanghai in 1942. A young, shy Wang Jia Zi is recruited by a student group and their charismatic leader dead set on countering the puppet government. Her first mission; to seduce the head of the regime's secret police, enrapture herself in the affair, and then end his life. Adapted from Eileen Chang's novella.


My comments:
I know that there are lot of in-depth reviews of Lust, Caution so I’m not going to embrass myself for writing one (ha!)…So I’ll just make it short and sweet. It’s a 158 minutes movie but it didn’t feel long and I wasn’t bothered by the overplayed mahjong scenes. Very good acting from the cast and I didn’t think that Lee Hom did that bad. I especially like the last scene/shot of Tony Leung, it’s so beautifully done! A highly watchable movie.

Secret

Me, as a Jay Chou fan, of course I have to support his directorial debut!

Secret Synopsis (from Yesasia)
Lun (Jay Chou) lives with his father, Chiu (Anthony Wong), the music teacher of Tamkang Secondary School. Both of them are very good at music and piano.

On the first day of Tamkang Secondary School, Lun walks through the campus with his classmates, a mysterious piano solo draws his attention. He follows the song and finds that an ethereal girl is playing piano in the old music room.

The piano girl is Yu (Guey Lun-Mei), one of Lun's classmates. She is always late for school and hence sits next to Lun at the back row. The two become intimate friends and spend a lot of time together. “What's the melody you played the first day we met?” asked Lun, “That's my secret.” Yu whispered in his ear.

My comments:
When this movie was released in Asia, I avoided all reviews and spoilers, hoping to enjoy this movie fully. I’m glad I did because it’s beyond my expectations and I didn’t see that twist/secret coming. Just by reading the summary, I was like…bah…it’s gonna be a terminal disease twist again in the form of Korean melodramas…but I was W-R-O-N-G! It's not something we haven't seen before but it kinda worked this time. However, with a twist like this, flaws, illogic and confusion are present. I think I understood the whole thing but then again, I’m still confused in some aspect. Anyway, a good movie with likeable performances from the leads (err…I can’t really say that Jay is fantastic in the acting department yet) and great music…haha as a fan, watching my idol playing piano is always a delight! Don’t worry, Secret is not a Jay’s self-promotion, self-advertisement or even self-directing MV type of movie; it has story and ‘heart’…