Tag: Michelle Yeoh

Wicked Part I

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★☆ (3.8/5)Wicked Part I

Rated: PG

Directed by: Jon M. Chu

Written by: Winnie Holzman

Based on the Musical Wicked, music and lyrics by: Stephen Schwartz,

Book by: Winnie Holzman

From the Novel by: Gregory Maguire

Produced by: Marc Platt, David Stone

Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Keala Settle and Peter Dinklage.

Cinematic from the beginning, Wicked Part I opens on a black witch’s hat reflected in a pool of water.  And of course, flying monkeys, the yellow brick road, then the cry, ‘The Wicked Witch is dead.  The Wicked Witch of the West.’

‘Why does wickedness happen?’ one of the townspeople asks.

After telling people, ‘It’s good to see me, isn’t it?’  Galinda/Glinda the Good (Ariana Grande) tells the people, let me tell you the whole story.

The screenplay is written by Winnie Holzman who also wrote the book for the musical; she returns with lyricist Stephen Schwartz to adapt the Gregory Maguire’s reinvented bestseller into a spectacle for the screen.  Expectations for this film are high.

However, I admit, I have not seen the stage play.  Not really my cup of tea.  So you can stop reading the review now or read the review of someone who wouldn’t usually watch a musical but enjoyed this one despite herself.

I just got won over by the characters, Galinda described by Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) as well, blonde.

And Elphaba green and pretending not to care about the laughter at her expense.  That she cares more about the animals that are being silenced and blamed for everything wrong in Oz, then her own lifetime of hurt.

Then the little asides from Galinda about her self-obsession to keep it light as the two who loathed and detested each other become friends.

Rather than feeling like just a musical, the singing was balanced by the storyline and visual effects and attention to detail, the turn of a scrunched page the beginning of the next scene, the floating spinning flowers dusting everyone to sleep, the silhouette of a taloned hand.

The previous collaboration of Schwartz and Holzman pays off because the story and song balance each other so well, ‘Winnie and I tell the story together,” Schwartz says. “Some of it through dialogue, which is Winnie’s department, and some through song, which is mine.’

And the two characters Elphaba and Galinda have a genuine chemistry, ‘We got tattoos together,’ Grande says. ‘I got an ‘E’ for Elphaba in a heart on the back of my leg and she had a little ‘G’ for Glinda on the back of hers.’ Erivo says that their bond is anchored by a sense of joyful exploration. ‘I hope that we don’t lose our love of play,’ Erivo says. ‘That’s something that I really enjoyed—this need to keep wanting to learn and discover. Ariana and I used that to make these beings as humane and full as possible. When we worked together, something special happened.’

Cinematographer Alice Brooks explains Elphaba and Glinda are often shot within a single frame. ‘The 2.40 aspect ratio is frequently beautifully divided in half between these two women.’

Brook goes on to say, ‘Light, to me, embodies everything—it reveals desires and conceals secrets. That’s what captivates me about Wicked so deeply. Early in our preparations, Jon and I delved into themes of good versus evil, light versus darkness. In Wicked, light paradoxically represents darkness, and darkness, light.’

Director, Jon M. Chu, a longtime superfan of the stage production, has embraced all the elements of this film, showing his enthusiasm in the attention to detail that makes Wicked Part I so very watchable.

I’m not saying I absolutely loved the film, but those 2 hours and 41 minutes went by pretty quickly.  And I did leave the cinema with a smile humming ‘Defying Gravity.’

Did I just enjoy watching musical?

Yes.  Yes, I did.

 

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Rated: MA15+Everything Everywhere All At Once

Directed by: Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert)

Produced by: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Jonathan Wang, Mike Larocca

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., with James Hong and Jamie Lee Curtis.

‘No time to wait’.

Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) and Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan) own and run a laundry they live above, in a small apartment with their daughter, Eleanor (Stephanie Hsu) and elderly father (James Hong).

Evelyn sits at the kitchen table, sifting through paperwork.  It’s time to submit their taxes.

A mundane existence.  But seen like life viewed through a mirror.  So even at the beginning, the film feels otherworldly.

That feeling builds as the film circles around again and again, so the sign of a bagel becomes significant, a fanny pack with a fluffy pig hanging as an ornament becomes a weapon, only to reappear later as a tattoo.  Or the mispronunciation of the title of a movie, Racoontouille (instead of, Ratatouille) becomes a reality.

The thought put into the making of this film is seen in the detail of creating this infinite multi-universe where the characters jump from one dimension to the other.  ‘Verse jumping’ gives them the ability of their other self in the another dimension.  So, need martial arts?  Verse jump to a universe where your self has that skill.  All it takes is a particular act, a touch of an earpiece and you’re set.

The particular required act to verse jump gets bizarre and hilarious, as do some of the other selves in other universes.

And the dynamics of the characters fold back again and again with a constant, sometimes gentle humour – a customer’s bag of laundry kept upstairs in the apartment, ‘I think the clothes are happier there’ – and sometimes delightfully twisted humour (sausages for fingers anyone?), weaved all the way through the storyline.

Even the interchange of language from English to Chinese adds to the blurring as Waymond arrives in this universe to take the body of Evelyn’s husband in the current universe to tell her that she’s the only one who can save the multiverse from the evil Toboki (Stephanie Hsu).  All the while tax auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis) is telling Evelyn that there can’t be anything more important than what’s she’s telling her about her current taxes, right now.  And this coming from an award-winning auditor – the phallic trophies on proud display.

I have to say, Jamie Lee Curtis is just pure gold as this tax auditor character.  Absolutely brilliant casting and performance.  Hilarious.

The whole cast is amazing with Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn in what looks like herself as an actress blended into the multiverse story.

There’s some far-reaching ideas here with the title of the movie just so apt.

And added to the Kung Fu fighting and humour there’s also a good foundation to the family drama so I had a good giggle, got a little teary, and was pleasantly surprised by edgy concepts held together with the use of chapters to give the movie structure.

I don’t want to give too much away because there will be plenty of buzz about this film and if you’re reading this review, you’re more than likely going to go watch it and I highly recommend it: go watch it.

Gunpowder Milkshake

Rated: MA 15+Gunpowder Milkshake

Directed by: Navot Papushado

Screenplay by: Navot Papushado, Ehud Lavski

Producers: Andrew Rona, p.g.a. Alex Heineman, p.g.a

Starring: Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Chloe Coleman, Paul Giamatti, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, Angela
Bassett.

Gunpowder Milkshake opens to the sounds of a thunderstorm as lone assassin Sam (Karen Gillan) is
completing a hit in her target’s apartment. A rhythmic thudding draws her attention so she turns toward the door. Behind it is a small militia with all guns drawn and pointed at her.

Later, when she is tucked up at home watching TV and casually stitching a flesh wound on her own arm, Sam receives a call summoning her to meet with Nathan (Paul Giamatti), her handler and front man for a shadowy cabal called The Firm.

She’s in trouble.

‘It was supposed to be a low profile gig, not a massacre.’

She has killed the wrong man and The Firm wants to cut her loose, leaving her unprotected.

One of the attackers Sam dispatched was the son of an influential crime figure that The Firm wants onside. When his henchmen find her, Jim McAlester (Ralph Ineson) has vowed, ‘to do terrible things’ to her.

There is only one place left for Sam to turn. The Library. A front and an armoury for a nest of female assassins.

Filmed in Berlin, director Navot Papushado’s city has that otherworldly, Dark City-esque sense of a city forever in darkness lit with glowing neon, a city we recognise but can’t quite identify.

In this parallel reality the violence is so extreme, so gratuitous and so utterly over-the-top that it has a cartoon quality, but it’s the crazily inventive and completely goofy situations that arise from the action that set this movie apart.

If Sam is to leave the Dental Surgery she uses as a makeshift hospital, she must fight her way out of an ambush with both of her arms paralysed.

For their side, the faceless men in black suits, The Firm’s board members and McAlester’s mafia-style crime family both represent rigidly hierarchical organisations. ‘They make all the rules and change them when it suits their needs’, always assured of their ability to muster overwhelming force.

When McAlester’s man Virgil (Adam Nagaitis) yells out, ‘You think you have a chance here? I’ve got an army!’ He means it. His boss has sent a bus full of men to take Sam down.

Sheltering from the gunfire behind the library’s check in desk with her mother (Lena Headey), Sam counters, ‘I’ve got my mum’.

Sam’s retort is pitch perfect and it beautifully encapsulates so much of the nuance in the movie. Not only does it acknowledge the fact of Sam’s dearly longed for relationship with her estranged mother in this desperate moment and the ferocity of her mother, she is a formidable ally, but also the way that the movie unobtrusively values the traditionally feminine arts such as sewing alongside gun slinging and close-quarters combat.

Never underestimate a librarian, or the emancipating qualities of good book. The women are kickass in this movie, taking it up to the men on their own terms, even while they have quietly created pockets of resistance that function beneath their notice and an ingenious method to hide their weapons.

This movie is just plain fun to watch.

Crazy Rich Asians

Directed by: Jon M. ChuCrazy Rich Asians

Screenplay by: Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim

Based on the novel, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ by: Kevin Kwan

Produced by: Nina Jacobson, p. g. a., Brad Simpson, p. g. a., Jong Penotti, p., g., a.,

Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Harry Shum Jr., Ken Jeong, Sonoya Mizuno, Chris Pang, Jimmy O. Yang, Ronny Chieng, Remy Hii, Nico Santos, Jing Lusi, Carmen Soo, Pierre Png, Fiona Xie, Victoria Loke, Janice Koh, Amy J Cheng, Koh Chieng Mun, Calvin Wong, Tan Kheng Hua, Constance Lau, Selena Tan, Nevan Koit, Amanda Evans.

Like Rachel Chu’s (Constance Wu) ‘auspicious nose’ I’m feeling very lucky watching Crazy Rich Asians just before going on holiday to Singapore – but trust me, I’m flying economy!

Watching Crazy Rich Asians does make you feel glamorous and extravagant, thrown into the world of the superrich.  And not just rich, old money rich.

Rachel may be an NYU Economics professor, but she doesn’t know what she’s getting into when travelling from New York to Singapore to go to her boyfriend, Nick Young’s (Henry Golding) childhood friend’s wedding.  And to meet his family…  The family… The Youngs.

Like Rachel’s college friend, Peik Lin Goh (Awkwafina) says, Nick’s like the Asian Bachelor.

And when everyone realises that Rachel’s a Chu but not any Chu worth noting, the claws come out.

Nick’s family are posh and snobby: they’re ‘snoshy’.

To survive, Rachel needs to fight back to prove that love can conquer money.

There’re some great characters here with already mentioned college friend Peik explaining the Singapore world – that they think she’s a banana: yellow on the outside and white inside.  And Peik’s ‘new rich’ family are hilarious with Neenah Goh, AKA Aunty (Koh Chieng Mun) and hubby, Wye Mun Goh (Ken Jeong) and creepy single brother (Calvin Wong) lurking and talking photos at every opportunity.

Based on Kevin Kwan’s New York Times and international bestseller novel, I can see why the story’s so popular.

There’s humour, love, history, the difficulties of relationships – the trial of meeting Chinese-mum-knows-best Eleanor Young (Michelle Yeoh) and the matriarch and Grandmother Ah Ma (Lisa Lu) who knows better.  There’s the story of the beautiful and warm sister, Astrid Young Teo (Gemma Chan) trying to make her husband feel like a man.  And the story of a mother who had to fight and give up her own ambitions of a career for family.

So even with all the money and glitz the story is still relatable.

It’s just that beautiful mansions lit up like a fairy tale castle in the middle of the jungle and rare orchids blooming at night and crazy fashion with golden sparkly outfits and party ships in international waters and fireworks look like so much fun on the big screen.

Sure, it’s over the top.  But why not!

The film’s like a bejewelled party box with a heart-warming romance inside.

I had a lot of fun watching this movie to the extent I’m wondering if I’m becoming a romantic because Nick Young was just so gorgeous and polite and lovely and Rachel’s such a relatable, likeable character: I loved that they were in love.

And there’s more to this film than romance and, ‘love conquers all’, Crazy Rich Asians is also about integrity being worth far more than money.

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