Posted 06 November 2006 - 12:21 AM
here are some movie rewiew!! both the reporter thing that charlene did a great job, which i think as a fan of her, it is the best thing to hear!
i really want to watch this because it help charlene break through all the criztism!
Credit to moviexclusive
[b]Movie Review:
Produced by the Pang Brothers and directed by sibling Oxide Pang, Diary is the latest release from the creative duo whose earlier work Recycle opened a few months back. While some of their movies have been hit-and-miss, the verdict for Diary is difficult, as half of me thought that it was a refreshing break from their usual horror flicks to take on something more psychological, while the other half can think of at least three relatively recent movies which I thought the story borrowed a classical idea or two from.
Diary begins without much fanfare, telling the story of a lonely girl Winnie (Charlene Choi), whose
unrequited love for her boyfriend Seth has brought about much misery. Only her good friend, played by Isabella Leong, shares the grief of her breakup. One day, Winnie meets Ray (Shawn Yue), who incidentally resembles her ex-boyfriend. The usual questions of is he who he claimed not to be, and how their love is going to be developed, runs through your mind, as not too subtle hints are dropped along the way to point you into those directions.
In the first 15 minutes, you would be forgiven if you thought this movie was one of those guy-bashing films with its almost incessant rant on how men are cads. And though the movie is meant to be a mystery thriller, somehow I think Oxide can't help but to add in a few genuinely scary moments (yes, the audience did jump), although it was in part help from the usual techniques of loud scary noises out of the blue during quiet moments. Also, there was a tad too much repetition given the nature of the need to explain things, and some events, without explanation, were unintentionally cheesy. If compared against the movies I thought it drew inspiration from, then Diary suffers from the lack of slickness in its delivery, even though it was quite evenly paced in its compact 90 minutes.
If anything good has resulted from this movie, it's the showcase of Charlene Choi's acting chops in performing a role that is miles beyond the range of what her filmography shows. For example, her other outing recently in Jackie Chan's Rob-B-Hood is atypical of the cutie-pie roles she gets handed. Here, while at times being her sweet self, most times she's just plain unglamourous in a role which called for her to act angry, confused, vulnerable, loving, strong, and even spaced out. Shawn Yue and Isabella Leong are relegated to supporting roles here though, as their characters don't really have much to do. It's all Charlene, in a break from stereotype.
Given the crew was predominantly Thai, you can feel the employment of the usual techniques used in Thai horror, with plenty of mid to close up shots and quick cuts used to provide a sense of confusion that the characters go through. Surprisingly, the credits were all over the place, adding to the disarray of the narrative flow, but probably an attempt to come one up on any of those who thought they had already figured things out.
Watch this if you're a Charlene Choi fan to see how different her role here is from the rest of what she did, or if you're a true blue fan of the Pang Brothers works.
Movie Rating: 2 star
(The true gem is Charlene Choi's portrayal in a story that has potential to be even better)
Review by Stefan Shih
--------------------------------------------
Credit to cinemaonline
Movie Review
This is an interesting study of madness. While I wouldn't say that "Diary" even comes close to "A Beautiful Mind" on account that it lacks the gloss and finesse of the Hollywood production, it is nonetheless an accurate depiction of the delusions, confusion and paranoia that afflict the mind of the sufferer. I know this for a fact because I know of someone with the same psychiatric problem and I am very familiar with the effects and symptoms of the disease. What got me was that director Oxide Pang (of the famed Pang Brothers) included all the little details, including the bit about the television newscaster. All schizophrenics have this delusion. Often, they will sit in front of the TV and have conversations with the newscaster, believing that the newscaster is talking to them and broadcasting their personal secrets to the world.
In "Diary", the paranoid schizophrenic is Winnie (Charlene Choi). She is introduced innocuously enough, going about town looking for her missing boyfriend Seth. To everyone, she looks normal and acts normal. She stalks Ray (Shawn Yue) even to the office, and one day, stops him in the streets and asks him to have coffee with her. She apologises for pursuing him, its just that he looks so much like her former boyfriend but if he were to give her the time of day, just for a little while, she would get over him. With Ray compliant, she then proceeds to invite him over for dinner.
Winnie also seems to have a confidante called Yvonne who appears inside her apartment at the strangest of hours, admonishing her or giving her advice about what to do. The second time Yvonne appears is sometime in the middle of the night when Ray is sleeping in the bedroom.
All this seems normal enough although the audience is given an inkling that all is not well when the next morning, Ray says he doesn't need to go to work anymore as he would just like to stay home with her. From then on, the true depth of her dementia is revealed, as she talks to a now strangely sullen Ray and flies into fits of fury.
The audience is not completely left in the dark as throughout the first part of the film, we are provided with short graphical insights into what is tormenting Winnie, thanks to some special effects. However, nothing is overdone here, unlike "Recycle", one of the production company's earlier films where they had zombies falling out of the sky and all that.
Winnie hears voices and sees things that are not there. Some of these things are portrayed and often, they are frightening. She has trouble differentiating what is real and what is not and along the way, as with real schizophrenics, she loses her own identity, forgets what she says and does, goes around accusing people of transgressions they never did and has no concept of time, mixing up events that happened 10 years ago with yesterday, today and tomorrow. The diary that Winnie records (and this is another thing with schizophrenics, they like to write, but mostly on walls and mirrors) is a documentation of her hallucination and fantasy (which, she believes, are real), but when it is presented to the police as proof of a murder, it cannot be used as evidence as she has recorded events up to September 2007.
I won't say anything else beyond this point except that "Diary" is a commendable effort from the Pang Brothers. Those unfamiliar with schizophrenia may think this is just a dramatisation of possible events but the truth is closer than you think. Schizophrenics behave the way Winnie does. Yes, they are prone to violence (the schizophrenic that I knew stabbed someone in the face in a fit of rage, but thankfully, it was just a minor wound) and yet, they can be sane enough to plan the act, go about their daily activities like shopping and know the exact change. Charlene Choi and Isabella Leong must have done their homework for the good portrayal that they did. A watchable film in all, and a frightening piece of education on what it is like to descend into madness.
Reviewed by Helena Hon
Sign In
Register
Help
MultiQuote
"
. I must wait for the canto version =_=.
Posted 03 November 2006 - 06:53 PM
