Starring: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Chow Yun-Fat, Geoffrey Rush, Bill Nighy, Naomie Harris
Director: Gore Verbinski
Scheduled release: Now showing

An honest-to-God, brawling, hooting, big ball of popcorn spectacle of a movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End fully embraces its ludicrous sense of summer season overkill without succumbing to the bloated tedium that afflicted its disappointing predecessor Dead Man’s Chest. Clocking in at just under three hours, it’s definitely longer than necessary, but given the number of unresolved plot strands that the last film left strewn about like so much tangled rigging, it’s actually amazing the filmmakers are able to tie everything up quite as nicely as they do.

Starting with its unlikely origin as an amusement park ride, the Pirates series quickly mushroomed into a sort of meta-pirate film, a vast and whirligig universe unto itself that drew in every possible nautical cliché and legend possible. Thus the first film concentrated on yo-ho-ho-ing, rum-drinking, and general pirate-y scalawaggery. The second roped in Davy Jones and The Flying Dutchman — not to mention an excess of secondary characters and familial drama. For the third (but not necessarily last, given the teaser it ends with) entry, the bursting-at-the-seams script tosses in a raging maelstrom, an actual trip to Davy Jones’ Locker, and even the sea goddess Calypso. Dead Man’s Chest showed that more is not always better, with excess just leading to more excess and a general sense of lethargy — they were just setting us up for the conclusion and marking time until then. At World’s End, however, shows that Hollywood excess, when combined with the right combination of actors and an occasionally smart script, can work out quite nicely, thank you very much.

As for what actually happens in the film, the plot synopsis would keep us here until the next film (maybe) comes out. Suffice it to say that the young lovely lovers Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) are still semi-estranged, though grudgingly working together, this time with Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). They’re trying arrange a high summit of pirate lords to fight as one against the dread Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander), who’s enlisted the near unbeatable Flying Dutchman and its undead captain Jones (Bill Nighy) to his anti-pirate crusade. Meanwhile, Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp, aka the reason everybody’s buying a ticket) is marooned in Davy Jones’ Locker and needs rescuing. Things don’t go smoothly.

Director Gore Verbinski has an obvious talent for staging the frequent and massive action scenes. They’re more fleet-footed this time out, particularly a full-on broadside duel between two ships swirling around a roaring maelstrom, sword duels raging on both decks. Surprisingly, in this film he also manages to let a little honest emotion sneak into the equation, and it works; note particularly one surprisingly moving scene where a major character sees their father floating by in a small boat ferrying him to the afterlife.

But it’s really Verbinski’s deft touch with superstar actors (how else can you imagine The Mexican got made?) and providing smart jabs of humor amid the furor of clanging swords, roaring cannons, and howling winds, that make At World’s End as enjoyable as it is. With a lesser crew hanging around, the improbably dense storyline would have suffocated the film. But with Depp, Rush, Hollander, and Nighy (not to mention a new pirate lord, played by Chow Yun-Fat with claw-like fingernails) all in gloriously high-camp mode, it’s near impossible not to crack a smile. And how exactly does Stellan Skarsgård — playing Turner’s Flying Dutchman-trapped father — manage to wring so much honest pathos out of a role that requires him to have a starfish stuck to his face? Of course, there’s also Depp’s sun-stroked, prolix looniness (“I’m not in a divulgitating mood”), which is heavily relied on here, as it should be; the film would collapse like a house of cards without his deft, mad Bugs Bunny appeal.
The summer season has definitely seen better. At World’s End is too long for what it is, and the blithely bloodless way in which the body count piles up makes the rating a little troubling. But for a sequel to a sequel, based on a Disneyworld attraction no less, it’s really not half bad in the reckoning. Chris Barsanti

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Edwards, Chloë Sevigny, Brian Cox
Director: David Fincher
Scheduled release: 7 June

Talk about a tough sell. David Fincher’s most accomplished film to date is a true-crime masterpiece about the Zodiac, an enigmatic serial killer whose random approach to murder terrified Northern California throughout the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Methodical and mesmerizing, the picture flirts with a three-hour run-time, features realistic depictions of senseless slaughter, and builds to an incomplete conclusion that is only satisfying when taken in context (for those unaware, the infamous cold case remains unsolved to this day).

It’s also brilliant, the first great film of the year which constructs with painstaking detail a fruitless investigation that grew into an obsession for certain members of San Francisco’s media and police forces.
Fincher has traced the steps of determined detectives tracking elusive killers before. His second feature, Seven, strung us along on a series of grisly murders as vague clues slowly snapped into place. Shock value meant something to Fincher at the time. As a storyteller, he still was trying to discover his voice, so contemplative scenes of Morgan Freeman researching potential leads in a library were offset by conventional action sequences that catapulted Brad Pitt down rain-soaked alleyways.

More mature, Zodiac disregards cheap jolts and commits itself fully to the investigative process. The protagonists are grizzled newspaper editors and dedicated beat cops snared in Zodiac’s attention-grabbing web. Zodiac doesn’t have one gunfight or gratuitous chase scene. Instead, we get the wonderful Philip Baker Hall analyzing handwriting samples to match penmanship of potential criminals to Zodiac’s published letters. Thrills occur when boot prints found at crime scenes can connect officers to the leading suspects. Trust me, it’s riveting.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Non-Americans might not know this case in detail. And in truth, nearly four decades after Zodiac’s first alleged kill, proper resolution still eludes us — the case has been open and shut repeatedly over the years.

Facts we can corroborate are covered by Fincher and crew on screen. After shooting two young adults who were parked near a golf course in Vallejo, a man calling himself Zodiac wrote confessional letters to San Francisco’s major publications. The mailings also contained mysterious cryptograms which Zodiac wanted published.

As the killer collected more victims, his reign of terror swallowed up a number of colorful characters. Lead investigators David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) chased every lead generated by a paranoid community. They often found themselves at odds with San Francisco Chronicle crime reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), who sank so deep into the case (and a bottle of booze) that Zodiac eventually targeted him by name. Lurking on the fringe of the investigation was Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), an editorial cartoonist at the Chronicle whose avid interest in puzzles drew him to the Zodiac case until, like those around him, his obsession with identifying the killer cost him his job and family.

Graysmith eventually published a book on his findings, which Fincher uses as a road map to navigate the convoluted case. Zodiac covers decades, jumps through multiple jurisdictions, and casts a scorecard of worthy character actors willing to read but a few lines of dialogue (look for Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, and Chloë Sevigny as Graysmith’s tragic love interest).

Zodiac features a strong cast working from an intelligent script. Ruffalo and Downey are both fantastic as men whose insides are devoured by the investigation. The latter beautifully skewers a few of his own self-generated clichés to portray a gifted reporter whose vices cost him a bright career. Screenwriter James Vanderbilt taps into the dramatic tensions of newsrooms and crime scenes, perfecting the darkly cynical humor tossed off the cuff by professionals staring down death on a daily basis. It is street poetry, and far superior to the dreck that just won Departed scripter William Monahan an Oscar.

Behind the camera, Fincher continues to define his signature visual style. Cinematographer Harris Savides worked with Fincher on the nerve-wracking The Game, and helps him achieve moody, suspense-generating shots that keep us on edge. Fincher has at least three stunt visuals I’m compelled to see again, my favorite being a bird’s-eye view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

These tricks keep us vested, because as mentioned, Zodiac is long. My theory, though, is that the near-bloated length is essential to the story Fincher is trying to tell. For the men involved, it seemed like the Zodiac case would never end. Years passed, hot leads grew cold, evidence dried up, and prime suspects came and went. A defeatist attitude envelopes the film’s last third, and we feel the emotional drain on those that gave their lives to the investigation. There’s no way to properly convey that in a 90-minute film; and in hindsight, I can’t think of a single thing Fincher could have cut for time’s sake.

What I wish, instead, is that Fincher would work more frequently. The gifted filmmaker was downright prolific in the ‘90s, cranking out Gen-X classics like Seven and Fight Club every two years. But Zodiac is only his second film this decade, and it arrives five years after his passable popcorn flick Panic Room. Part of me understands that artists can’t be rushed, and I’d regret a clipped process if it meant Fincher scrimped on style and substance. So long as the wait results in movies like Zodiac, then patience is a virtue I’ll continue to perfect. Sean O’Connell

Starring: Athena Chu Yan, Candice Yu On-on, Patrick Tang, Don Li, Monie Tung, Misia Chen Meixi, Mandy Chiang, Yan Ng
Director: Herman Yau
Scheduled release: Now showing

“Everyone leads a stressed life in HK,” observes the manager of a gigolo nightclub in Whispers and Moans, Herman Yau’s dramatic offering based on Yang Yee-shan’s non-fiction book of the same name. It’s a statement most Hong Kongers will agree with. I’m less sure though whether most people would go for the de-stressing options taken up by many of the individuals in this movie which, with its heart on its sleeve, makes it clear its sympathies lie squarely with sex workers, be they female, male or transsexual, rather than their clients.

“Sex toy, sex workers. What’s the difference?” asks Jenny (Candice Yu On-on), a woman of the world who works as a mama-san at a nightclub whose hostesses are actively encouraged to offer extra services of a sexual nature to often very demanding clients with money to spend. In truth, the older female was merely testing the naïve Elsie (Yan Ng), an idealistic social activist, whose character is based on co-scriptwriter Yang Yee-shan, when making the provocative pronouncement.

Rather, as Whispers and Moans takes pains to show, prostitutes, mama-sans, gigolos and others involved in the sex trade are people too: with their own problems, stressed lives, loves and ambitions. As director Yau told bc before the film had its local premiere at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival, “Sex workers have always been discriminated against. People feel they are lower than normal people because of their line of work. Even though they’re sex workers, it’s still a job, and they have their own principles. Jobs like these exist because there is a demand in society for them. Most people just assume sex workers are bad people, which I don’t believe is right. In many European countries, sex workers actually have rights, because they’re human too.”

“Sex maniacs are what they are!” is what Kaka (Athena Chu Yan), the other mama-san who prominently features in the film, damningly decides about the patrons of the nightclub where she works. However, maybe it takes one to know one, as she – a decade younger in age and general behaviour than her colleague, Jenny – reveals that she used to be a nightclub hostess herself. And then goes on to openly declare she found that far more satisfying and less boring than the secretarial job she previously had and the more senior mama-san position she now holds.
At the same time, Kaka’s actions often speak louder than her words even when they are screamed out. And although she may share the feelings of pre-op transsexual prostitute Joey (Don Li in a brave performance) that “being a whore tells me for sure I’m a woman” (and a two-timing man who turns out, to the shock and horror of both his lovers, to have syphilis), it’s also clear she wants – needs? – men for psychological support as well as sexual satisfaction.

To some extent, Joey turns out to be luckier in love than his si mui (‘sisters’) as, for a time and against the odds, he finds an unlikely soul mate and love in gigolo Tony (Patrick Tang), who is so popular with see lai (housewives) he is nicknamed ‘housewife honeycomb’! Also, in keeping with the thought-provoking film’s unsentimental emphasis, very little romantic love is on display at all.

The focus is even not so much on lust as on power games and people looking to satisfy merely physical needs. On a more positive note, there is also substantive sisterly care and affection (particularly between reluctant hostess Nana (Mandy Chiang) and her drug-addicted elder sister, Aida (Monie Tung)) along with ample evidence of familial love by a pair of hardworking daughters for their impoverished father and a guilt-stricken single mother for a young daughter being cared for by her stoic grandmother (Bonnie Lai).

However gritty and often grim in tone and tale Whispers and Moans is though, its makers still do seem to want to show a silver lining to the sex-worker cloud. Consequently, though there’s no hiding the fact it is a hard job and life, many are able to survive. What’s more, if one works extra hard – and, maybe comes over from Mainland China, like the righteous and mainly happy Happy (Misia Chen Meixi) “I’ve been doing this for seven years. It’s the professional spirit that keeps me going,” – one actually might be able to earn enough to eventually retire fairly comfortably.

Ultimately, however, it may well boil down to a question of respect. And while others may look down upon them, many of these individuals, especially those who thrive in this world, turn out to have quite a healthy sense of respect for themselves and their colleagues. As someone I knew from another life liked to assert, “I’ve been discriminated against many times in my life but I’ve never felt oppressed.” Or, as Elsie the activist puts it more matter-of-factly in a conversation with a hostess too ashamed to tell the man she loves what her real profession is, “You make your own living, that’s your dignity.” Yvonne Teh

Starring: Mark Cheng, Maggie Siu, Lam Suet, Kenneth Wong and Hui Siu Hung
Director: Herman Yau
Scheduled release: Now showing

Once upon a time, Category III movies flooded out from Hong Kong in much the same volume centipedes and other creepy crawlies would pour out of luckless corpses of Hong Kongers who had crossed South-East Asian black-magic experts in over-the-top cult movies like Eternal Evil of Asia and Exodus from Afar. Although those days may not be back entirely, this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) Director-in-Focus, Herman Yau, seems to be doing his utmost to make it appear that way with two Category III films out in quick succession in local theatres.

One of these, Whispers and Moans, had its local premiere at the HKIFF. This one, the ominously titled Gong Tau: An Oriental Black Magic didn’t. And after viewing it, one can understand why – this supernatural horror-laden crime drama is definitely one of helmer Yau’s more outrageous and populist offerings; the kind of movie meant to elicit loud reactions (screams, groans and “wah!”-type exclamations, as well as laughter) that would shock more rarified cinema-goers.

But, boy, do you get a lot of Category III bang for your bucks in this here movie! Full frontal female nudity, two points, pubic hair and all? You got it! Gruesome baby death? Check! Male masturbation and semen as part of a gong tau spell-casting ritual? Oh, most definitely! Additionally, throw in some flattened fauna, violent cop deaths, a couple of gross autopsies, corpse desecration and lots of flowing blood – and much of all that bursts from the screen within 15 to 20 minutes of the start of the film!

Then there’s the gong tau…You want needle gong tau? Yeah, it’s there in this offering which centres on OCTB detective Rockman Cheung (Mark Cheung playing it straight, serious and intense) who discovers that spells have been cast on his wife Karpi (Maggie Siu in a thankless role that calls on her to be hysterical for much of the movie) and baby for his sins.
Early on in the story, suspicion falls squarely on Lam Chiu (Kenneth Wong in sinister mode), a cop-killer cum black-magic expert from Malaysia who had been shot and arrested by Rockman and consequently hates him, along with all police in general, with a vengeance. Chiu was released from prison a year previously but his whereabouts are now seemingly unknown to everyone bar a friend, Fat Wah (character actor Hui Siu Hung), who consequently gets repeatedly hauled in for harsh questioning by Rockman and his buddy, Brother Sum (Lam Suet).

Unwilling to put all their eggs into one basket, however, Brother Sum, a man far more perceptive than he looks, decides to explore other possibilities. One of which leads to a meeting with Master Clear Sea (Fung Har On), a secret Buddhist sect master able to provide philosophical insights and black-magic exorcism services.

After the master successfully convinces Rockman that Karpi, suffering greatly from the delusion of needles being jabbed into her, and their now dead son were afflicted by gong tau, the cop is forced to also consider that an extra-marital fling with a sexy lap dancer (a Mandarin-speaking Teng Tzu Tsuan) while investigating a case in Thailand may be coming back to haunt him in ways he couldn’t have previously imagined…

As a friend with whom I watched the movie said afterwards, this is one of those Hong Kong films that may get men thinking twice before indulging in any hanky panky in places like Thailand or Malaysia. That notwithstanding, my own sense is that viewers are more likely to come out entertained, and feeling that director Yau, producer Dennis Law and co had a wild ball thinking up and creating this fun offering, rather than feeling inclined to make changes to their moral compass! Yvonne Teh

Starring: Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, Shaun Evans, Michelle Ryan, Michael Dixon, Michael Lambourne
Directed by: Sean Ellis
Scheduled release: 31 May

Ben Willis is a 20-year-old art student suffering from a crippling case of insomnia after his girlfriend unceremoniously dumps him. The lack of sleep threatens not only his work but also his sanity so, to fill the hours when the rest of the world is tucked up in bed, Ben takes a nightshift job at the local supermarket. There he is forced to deal with a menagerie of colourful characters, from well-meaning halfwits Barry and Matt to their control-freak store manager, Mr. Jenkins. Ben naturally gravitates towards checkout girl Sharon, quite possibly the only sane person working there, and the possibility of newfound romance appears.
Ben learns that the key to surviving the nightshift is how he manages his time – whether that means taping over his watch as Sharon does, or simulating fellatio on various cold cuts from the meat counter, as Barry and Matt seem more than content with. However Ben, being the sensitive artist type, takes an altogether different approach. In his mind he is able to slow down time to a complete standstill, and wander the aisles of the supermarket in total freedom as the shoppers become a gallery of live models for him to admire. His self-confessed obsession with the female form is here allowed to run riot and he happily undresses the customers (who fortunately for the viewer seem to consist almost solely of 18-25-year-old supermodels) and wiles the hours away sketching and painting them.
Cashback is a peculiar but ultimately very satisfying experience. It began life as an 18-minute short film in 2003. After director Sean Ellis was honoured with an Academy Award nomination the same year, he was able to secure the necessary funding to expand the project into a full-length feature. In many ways, the film is a typical British romantic comedy, featuring a dry, witty script peppered with amusing vignettes and colourful, oddball characters. However, it stands out from its contemporaries thanks to its imaginative visual style. Ellis uses similar digital techniques to those employed by acclaimed French director Michel Gondry in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, allowing characters to walk in and out of frozen moments or life as it plays in fast forward, giving much of the film an hypnotic, dreamlike quality.
Ultimately Cashback does not really say anything new, but that, it seems, was never its intention. The film speaks to anyone who has ever worked in the service industry or suffered from teenage heartbreak, and it is the reassuring familiarity of the story and characters that make it so likeable. Ben is endearing with his adolescent naivety towards both his work and his love life but director Ellis’s visual poetry ultimately leaves the strongest impression. James Marsh

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding Jr,
Eddie Griffin, Terry Crews
Director: Brian Robbins
Scheduled release: 7 June

Inside Eddie Murphy hides an overweight soul longing to swell to its full potential. Which is hilarious because on the surface the physically fit funny man hasn’t gained a pound (or aged a day) since we first saw him on screen nearly 25 years ago in 48 Hours.
When Murphy feels compelled to toss his proverbial weight around, he doesn’t embellish his gluttony with radical feeding frenzies. Instead, he spends hours in a reclined chair and lets Academy Award-winning makeup artist Rick Baker do all the heavy lifting. Murphy and Baker’s frequent collaborations over the years have yielded a parade of eclectic (and unusually obese) characters, from The Nutty Professor’s Sherman Klump and his rotund family members to the acerbic barbershop patrons of Coming to America. When these two join forces, the industry generally acknowledges their accomplishments. Three of Baker’s 10 Oscar nominations are for Murphy-led comedies, which includes a win for The Nutty Professor, hands-down their most celebrated effort.
Essentially, Norbit mirrors Professor as it once again showcases Murphy and Baker’s incomparable skills at turning Murphy into a fat guy (or gal). A sensitive, sympathetic wallflower (played by Murphy) must find the strength to stand up to a grotesque counterpart (also played by Murphy) so that he can fulfil a destiny and be with the picture-perfect princess of his dreams – here Thandie Newton assumes the always-underwritten love interest that belonged to Jada Pinkett Smith and Janet Jackson in Professor parts one and two.
Orphaned as a baby, the awkward Norbit (Murphy) is destined for failure. He falls in love with young Kate as they struggle to survive the hard-knocked life at a roadside adoption establishment run by racist Mr. Wong (Murphy). But when Kate is adopted by loving parents, Norbit is claimed by pushy Rasputia, and the two become a match made in Hades.
Right around the time Norbit burns through all the skinny-guy-with-a-huge-girl sight gags it can think of, the story (credited to brothers Eddie and Charlie Murphy) brings grown-up Kate (Newton) back into the fold. Now a successful businesswoman, she wants to purchase and run the orphanage. Norbit sees this as an escape clause to his pathetic marriage, until he learns Kate is accompanied by a slimy fiancée (Cuba Gooding Jr.).
The Nutty Professor movies did more than fatten Murphy’s bank account. They also taught the gifted comedian how to handle excess prosthetics. He’s beyond comfortable with his artificial girth, which allows Norbit to attempt (and master) a number of amusing physical stunts. As Rasputia, Murphy bounds through an aerobics class, wrestles to squeeze in behind a steering wheel, catapults kids out of an inflatable castle and, in the film’s funniest scene, tackles a water slide at the town’s amusement park. Rasputia is another impressive creation from Baker, and Murphyonce again injects her with sarcasm, bitterness, and comedic fury. It’s a testament to Murphy’s acting chops that the same performer can nail Norbit’s meek demeanour and massive hope whenever he’s around Kate. Newton, for her part, maintains an artificial sweetness that doesn’t distract from Murphy’s three-ring circus.
There’s a formula to these Murphy-in-makeup comedies, which Norbit closely follows although it overstays its welcome a bit, and relies too heavily on toilet humour (despite the PG-13 rating, this one is for mature teens). I’m confident Murphy will one day try to top the creations he unleashed in Norbit, though next time he could improve the comedy with a few minor tweaks. For instance, what if Norbit’s wife wasn’t such an ogre? It would make it harder for us to wholeheartedly root for a Norbit-Kate relationship. Along those lines, what if Kate’s fiancée wasn’t a lying, cheating, backstabbing weasel?
Sometimes these comedies could benefit from a little gray area. Norbit isn’t that deep. Instead, it’s the kind of crass comedy where a slimy dance instructor (played by Marlon Wayans) talks about the Bible and his desire to “turn the other cheek”, then walks away so we can see his bare ass. Sean O’Connell

Starring: Rain Li, Jo Kuk, Monie Tung, Wu Anya, Chan Hung Fai, Derek Tsang,
Raymond Wong Ho Yin, Andrew Lin
Director: Lee Po Cheung
Scheduled release: 31 May

This Hong Kong movie’s Cantonese title translates into English as ‘Single Tribe’. Although not perfect, it’s more accurate than the romantic comedy’s English language title of Single Blog – the number of single people in the work could amount to a tribe but none of them, as far as I could discern, are caught writing a blog! This linguistic quibble aside though, I couldn’t really fault this fun – and funny – Category IIB-rated film which revolves around a trio of unmarried young women looking for love, happiness and sexual satisfaction.
At the start of the movie, Kitty (Rain Li) is in what she considers to be a happy relationship with Woody Fong (Derek Tsang). At her flatmate Mei Wah’s (Monie Tung) birthday party, however, she happens to look out of a window and spot her boyfriend making out with another woman. Upset, she dumps him before he can dump her. Soon afterwards, she and the equally unsuccessful-in-love Mei Wah turn to their significantly more sexually experienced and confident fellow flatmate, Vivian (Jo Kuk), for advice along with lessons in how to fondle the other sex’s private parts in ways that will make them happy.
As the film progresses, Kitty goes from uptight miss to sexually promiscuous party gal. So dramatic is her transformation that when she chances to cross paths once more with Woody, he realizes with a start that she is no longer the woman he thought he really knew and was convinced would never change. At the same time, Kitty’s two roommates undergo interesting changes of their own; one of them deciding to shack up with her female boss (Wu Anya), and the other amusingly falling for the kind of man (Chan Hung Fai) who might well be best described as a goody two-shoes, yet who turns out enjoyable to be with in his own unique way…
With its female focus (despite what its official poster or trailer might have you think), Single Blog may appear to primarily appeal to women. And the man sitting on my right at the screening I attended definitely appeared bored and consequently happy to answer his phone not once but twice during the first 30 minutes or so of the movie. However, with the film’s first lesbian love scene, his attention turned squarely onto the screen and thereafter he appeared to thoroughly enjoy this at times surprisingly salacious offering. Nonetheless, the film is still able to maintain a rather cutesy air to appeal to the females in this city where Hello Kitty and other kawaii critters reign supreme. Yvonne Teh