Chick flicks and Chinese flicks

Some agree with me that "Amelie is" a chick flick. It's beautiful, but too cute for me, and I didn't get it. My girlfriend had to explain to me what was going on. "Couching Tiger" is a chick flick too in another way, and people liked it much more if they hadn't seen many martial arts movies before--there's lots more just as good but more macho ones. "Ice Storm" is great, but maybe Ang Lee is too Merchant/Ivory for me. Wong Kar-Wai is my favorite new director and I love all his movies, including "Ashes of Time." Wong has incredible style but every movie he makes is a new beginning.

Funny I should see your post now. I watch a lot of Hong Kong movies, mostly action-crime stories. But just a couple days ago I watched, Dance of a Dream Directed by Andrew Lau and starring Andy Lau. It could definitely fit the bill of a chinese chick flic.

Dance of a Dream (Oi gwan yu mung) (2001) - **1/2 (out of 4)
This time Andy Lau is a dance instructor. This is a fun little movie with interesting characters, highlighted by the goofy Kam, played by Sandra Ng. No martial arts or big action scenes, but some good dancing and fun bits of comedy...though some of the biggest laughs came from the bad subtitles (I am really curious what "Toady" was supposed to mean).

To paraphrase the old Irish Spring soap commercial (and thereby give away my age!), "Amelie may have been designed for women, but Ayyye like it, TOOO!" lol

I just saw it for the first time last night & was impressed. I hadn't heard a tremendous amount about it going in, so I wasn't underwhelmed by a huge build-up. (Jaws, when I was a kiddo, was the only one I really fell victim to. As a 12-year-old, NO movie could have lived up to what Jaws SOUNED LIKE it was going to be to me! lol As an adult, I came to appreciate it as a true classic.)

I would call Amelie one of 2001's best movies. Two of my other favs from that year are Lasse Hallstrom's The Shipping News & Wes Andersons's The Royal Tenenbaums. Amelie ranks right there with those two (and shares many stylistic similarities) and is miles away from the typcial Hollywood clone factory of today.

Is it a top 20 all-time film? Well ... I somehow doubt THAT ... but it is certainly one of the handful of top films of the early 2000's ... and may well remain in the decade's top 10 as the end of 2009 approaches.

MarkMyWord