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Oesters van Nam Kee (2002)
Worth it, if you've read the book
I can't say much for the movie on its own, as I prepared for seeing it (and seeing Katja... hmmm) by reading the book first.
The book on its own is done quite well; the novel of an adolescence, his dual life, his frustration with love and the way he tries to struggle through life isn't all that bad. When watching the movie, though, it became apparent to me that almost all of those motives/themes are lost.
The casting is done well - both main characters (Katja Schuurman - I only know her acting from a Dutch theatre-play, and Egbert Jan Weeber, whom I only know from "Van God Los") are especially fit for the role they play.
The movie by itself (without knowledge of the book) must be confusing to most or seem like scenes loosely put together. It might have been maimed in the editing, or perhaps the screenwriter has a different view on how to construct a movie then I do. They tried hard to show the all-consuming character of the relationship by putting in a few very steamy sex-scenes, but ended up doing what just every other dutch movie does: profiling itself just because of those sex-scenes (which is what other comments point out quite clearly). Which is a shame, since the original story behind it is quite a bit more. Well, not Tolstoi, but OK :-)
Wo hu cang long (2000)
Matches up to "Hollywood-action" is understating it!
I have seen this film three years ago and watched the rerun on TV tonight. It struck me only now how this movie matches up to other, Hollywood-ean action movies. A few of the moves you see flashing by, seemingly just thrown into one of the "lesser" fight scenes are identical to the ones made to be pivotal to entire action sequences in another favorite of mine - The Matrix.
The only thing that bugs me about this picture is my own inability to understand the language spoken - which does limit the experience.
Ying xiong (2002)
Even better then Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
This movie paints pictures and tells stories so beautifully that I found it hard not to vote '10' for it. Out of nearly 1000 movies in my vote history, this would have been the 3rd of 4th to get that mark. In the end, I decided not to - it'll have to settle with a 9 :-)
What's good about it (damn near perfect, in fact) is just about anything that needs to be good about a movie - cinematography, script, special effects, casting. Acting is not always perfect, but still damn good.
What's not perfect about the movie is that it's in Chinese. I know, highly subjective, but since I don't understand it, I can't understand/enjoy the movie to its fullest.
If you liked Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, you'll love this one.