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The Murder of Laci Peterson (2017)
Heart-breaking Crime Doco full of twists and turns.
Sometimes I wonder to myself: back in the olden-days how could so many people be entertained by public executions (portrayed in paintings, literature, films, etc.)?
Well this doco-series shows just how out-of-control the public can get without knowing anything about the case aside from what was being speculated.
It is also shocking to see such a high-profile case deliver a verdict without evidence of murder weapon, time, location, of any kind. Everything was purely based on ...*sigh* God-fearing-American-values. All these people dog piling on what can only be described as blatant confirmation-bias.
This was heart-breaking to watch for both sides of the family. A groundbreaking case that reached its conclusion based on nothing but emotions, hate, omission and circumstantial factors.
The Stranger (2020)
What generic crap
On episode 3, where some retired old guy offered to 'hack' the "rental car's black box monitoring system", I had to stop and remove the show from my watchlist.
So with this series, this is how the writer brings mystery/thrill:
Step 1. Protagonist talks to a blackmail victim about the stranger
Step 2. the victim gets a call about her dry cleaning or some crap
Step 3. victim: 'sorry g'a go'
Mystery intensifies.
Chui lung (2017)
Had to give more than 1 Star or someone will think I'm brigading
Very disappointing movie considering the big name cast.
Everything from the props (weapons, slum set, cars, etc.) to Donnie Yen's wig is a massive distraction. They must have used the cheapest grade props known to the industry (you'll notice this in multiple scenes where's there's bottling/glass).
The dialogues are predictable and cliche. All their portrayal of triads is something I'd expect from a Young and Dangerous film back in the 90s (much better films than this actually).
The Western actors were also given horrible scripts. Some of their scenes made me question, did the film crew even watch their work after the takes?
I normally don't get frustrated with these films because at least I get good action, but this very much a crime-drama with small parts of action (with almost no martial arts, so casting Donnie seemed like a waste).
It seems the producer of this film is banking on stirring anti-colonialism to keep the audience entertained and had no intention on making an actual worth-while film.
Conquering Northern China (2017)
Over-hyped by YouTube fans
After realising that the two characters in the series were YouTube it made way more sense why the IMDB rating is so high.
I must give props to the sheer courage needed to try some of the food in the episodes but from a filmography perspective, it is extremely amateur.
Everything from the awkward dialogues, uninteresting direction, to the complete lack of actual content.
Take the first episode as an example, it was 60% just bike POV footage. 20% V-logging footage with various quality (inconsistent equipment used) and the other 20% were actually nice landscapes and food.
It barely got more interesting by the final episode.
I appreciate the effort and the vision (Top Gear like? With constant 'bets' and 'punishments') for the trip, but it definitely did not translate well in the final output.
I'm curious on their second series, but I really don't feel like it's worth the spend if the quality is on par with this series. I think it's not bad for a first try, but considering the great editing (not done by them) it was a shame that the direction lacked style and originality.
Wo bu shi Pan Jin Lian (2016)
Great styling, interesting cinematography. Wasted away by poor acting and unrealistic portrayal.
This film has so much potential. It's got good timing sequences, the cinematography is unique and the style is reminiscent of Wes Anderson.
However, the details is just not quite there. Considering the director's bold move to choose such a small focus frame many aspects lack care.
Raining scenes on the river shows clearly it's not raining in the distance. Many side characters clearly has no acting background with exaggerated body language and tone which was off putting. Some of the actors were not able to mimic the local accent consistently.
Overall a very beautifully filmed movie with some great composition and interesting comedic elements. But if you have the knowledge of the language and quality of media in China, you might have also felt the lack of care because these are very basic cinema mistakes in TV dramas and B-grade movies.