Author: Andrew Saroch

Episodic and pantomimic, this is a series of not especially interesting scenes sewn together with a completely uninvolving main narrative.

‘A Distant Cry From Spring’ is the very best of Yamada’s themes, contained in a truly beautiful masterpiece that leaves tears in the eye as the credits roll.

The major strength here is E Jingwen who is such an eternally affable figure that you are rooting for her from the first frame until the end.

It works perfectly with these protagonists and Lee Sang-Geun throws every cinematic trick and cliché out of the bag to put these two through the wringer.

Over its full running time of a modest ninety minutes, ‘In Full Bloom’ runs out of steam and the attempt at deeper layers of introspection become stilted.

Wong Kwok Fai has given us a film of quality with ‘The Attorney’, a courtroom thriller that deserves a place among its more illustrious contemporaries.

What starts as an amusing, quirky action comedy goes off the rails around the hour mark, the makers falling foul of the obscure law of Korean blockbusters that means that they MUST have a duration of two hours or over.

‘Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes’ has enough effortless charm and genuine heart to mean that this is more than just an exercise in playing that beloved narrative device of time-travel.

‘Lady Detective Shadow’ is part Detective Dee and part ‘Come Drink With Me’ though nowhere as good as either.

It’s good to see Hong Kong actor/composer Lowell Lo again, and Andy Lau is always charming. Nevertheless, ‘Find Your Voice’ is as subtle as a hammer to the kneecaps.

It has to be admitted that there are some decent moments within the film and it certainly brings more smiles to the face than many a Chinese New Year comedy of the past.

This is a surprisingly exciting and often blackly comic thriller that borrows from ‘Prison on Fire’ but does so with real skill.