Sammi Cheng – Cinema of the World

Johnnie To – Man Tam AKA Blind Detective (2013)

admin — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 03:35:00 +0000

Quote:
Blind Detective, the latest film from Johnnie To, could also be described as a movie about movies, specifically movie-making—not that you would know it from its set-up, however. As the title suggests, the film centers around the exploits of Chong (Andy Lau), a former detective forced into early retirement as a result of retinal damage that left him permanently blind. He’s approached by Ho (Sammi Cheng), a cop who displays brilliant physical prowess in combat situations but lacks Chong’s astonishing intuitive abilities, which she hopes to learn from him directly through hiring him to solve the case of a disappearance of a dear friend of hers back in 1997.

Obviously, Chong’s disability has a profound effect on his sleuthing methods—but the nature of his methods, especially as To presents them in the film, are fascinating in their thematic implications. Certainly, his lack of sight has forced him to rely on his other senses to pick up the slack, as the film’s opening sequence attests. But then, at a morgue, Chong gives Ho her first lesson in his investigative tactics, methods reliant less on simply utilizing his other senses and more on using one’s “imagination”—which, in this case, is akin to the kind of leaps of empathy that actors regularly make in approaching a character. But the filmmaking comparisons don’t stop there: Many other episodes of the film involve what are essentially role-playing scenarios, as Chong directs Ho to put herself in the mental spaces of various victims and killers. Such scenarios become increasingly violent and perverse; at one point, Ho assumes the roles of various heartbroken women, opening herself up to getting slapped multiple times in the throes of angry passion. For To, the creation of great art requires its artists to be open to walking along the precipice of madness without falling over the edge.

Unlike, say, Darren Aronofsky’s feverish horror antics in his own art-making allegory Black Swan, To’s tone remains lighthearted throughout, though rarely to the point of diminishing the serious emotions underneath the surface frivolity. And if nothing else, Blind Detective is distinguished by its freewheeling playfulness and To’s ability to skillfully sustain the tone of a broad (maybe too broad for some tastes) live-action cartoon, right down to Andy Lau’s Bugs Bunny-like consumption of a carrot in one especially life-threatening situation. Blind Detective, though, is also something of a love story, in which Ho finds herself falling for Chong, even though Chong initially has his mind dead-set on the last woman he remembers seeing before he became blind. It turns out, though, that, as brilliant an investigator as he claims to be, he has his, well, blind spots when it comes to matters of the heart.

Blind Detective (Johnnie To, 2013).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	2h 9mn
Size: 	5.46 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1280x536 
Aspect ratio:  	2.40:1
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	4 746 Kbps
BPP: 	0.288
Audio
#1:  	Chinese 5.1ch AC-3 @ 640 Kbps (Cantonese)
#2:  	Chinese 5.1ch AC-3 @ 640 Kbps (Mandarin)

https://nitro.download/view/B81B3908277D36F/Blind_Detective_(Johnnie_To,_2013).mkv

Language(s):Cantonese, Mandarin
Subtitles:None

The post Johnnie To – Man Tam AKA Blind Detective (2013) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Johnnie To – Gao hai ba zhi lian II AKA Romancing in Thin Air (2012)

admin — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 22:53:21 +0000

In a rare, but much welcome change of pace, Johnnie To came off the back of 2009’s disappointing multinational crime thriller, VENGEANCE, with two relatively light and fluffy romances. DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART successfully navigated a complex and hard-to-predict love triangle through the tumultuous financial tsunami that hit Hong Kong harder than most. While the next film to be released in cinemas bearing To’s directorial moniker was LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE, a similarly finance-obsessed work, it was a project To had in fact been tinkering with for a number of years already. Instead, once DON’T GO BREAKING… had been completed, the Milkyway Image crew headed north into the mountains of Yunnan, where Louis Koo and Sammi Cheng would star in snowbound love story, ROMANCING IN THIN AIR.

Romancing.In.Thin.Air.2012.576p.BluRay.AC3.x264-EDPH.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 51 min
Size: 	3.51 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x436 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 604 kb/s
BPP: 	0.336
Audio
#1:  	Chinese 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 kb/s (Cantonese)
#2:  	Chinese 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 kb/s (Mandarin)

https://nitro.download/view/770A871F4B6BB73/Romancing.In.Thin.Air.2012.576p.BluRay.AC3.x264-EDPH.mkv

Language(s):Chinese ( Cantonese, Mandarin )
Subtitles:English,Chinese

The post Johnnie To – Gao hai ba zhi lian II AKA Romancing in Thin Air (2012) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Johnnie To – Yesterday Once More (2004)

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 09:26:00 +0000

Romance blossoms again for a divorced jewel-thief couple as they try to rekindle the love they once had for each.

4.37GB | 1h 34m | 1280×720 | mkv

Language(s):Cantonese
Subtitles:English

The post Johnnie To – Yesterday Once More (2004) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Johnnie To & Ka-Fai Wai – Sau sun nam nui AKA Love on a diet (2001)

admin — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 05:30:36 +0000

Synopsis
A depressed, obese woman tries to lose weight in order to win back her ex-boyfriend with the help of a fellow Hong Konger whom she met in Japan.

2.71GB | 1 h 35 min | 1024×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/BF020C461391E96/Love.On.A.Diet.2001.576p.BluRay.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language(s):Cantonese,Japanese,English
Subtitles:English

The post Johnnie To & Ka-Fai Wai – Sau sun nam nui AKA Love on a diet (2001) first appeared on Cinema of the World.