It’s another year and it’s another film festival! I didn’t lose my phone this time. XD

Terracotta Film Festival was back on the 23rd May for another week of films for all of us film geeks. Asian film geeks that is. Thankfully I already had a week off so I could watch a couple of movies during the week and most on the weekends. Well the good films were on the weekends which was ok for me.

Also a big change this year was that the seats were unallocated… no need to book an actual seat. You could sit wherever you like this time. Cool!!

The first film I watched was Unbeatable. A Hong Kong film starring Nick Cheung (Hong Kong star). It was a very, very good film. I haven’t seen a good Hong Kong movie for a long time. There was hardly any dubbing, the story line was great where Nick Cheung played a 2 medal champion who went to prison because of illegal gambling. He came out and became a person in debt taxi driver. One day a guy from China whose father became bankrupt wanted to earn some money for me, so he asked Nick to become his master to learn the art of boxing and defence. Fantastic movie. I would recommend to Hong Kong film fans.

On the Friday I watched The Face Reader, a Korean film. This one was supposed to be on the Sunday but was swapped around, and I got a chance to book another film to watch. Anyway, this film is set in the olden days where an old man could read people’s faces to see if they were corrupt, why their love lives were so bad or just very good people. One day he was sought by a business lady who was also a face reader to earn some money. His son left him and his uncle to become a governor in the royal palace, this gave the father a chance to leave his home and become a face reader for the public. He solved a crime in the meantime and became the King’s governor… Anyway, it was quite sad towards the end, I shed a few tears. Boohoo.

Commitment was on Saturday. This is a great South Korean film depicting the North Korean spies. A lot of Korean fans came to this one, and I enjoyed it very much. A boy of 18 becomes a spy because his father was abandoned by the motherland. The son had to complete a mission (killing other North Korean spies) before returning back home to go back to his sister. It gets a bit emotional. It’s funny at the beginning and I completely love it!!

The Snow White Murder Case was on Saturday evening. I thought this was going to be a scary Japanese film, but it wasn’t. It was quite funny where a reporter was trying to solve a murder case using Twitter and the internet. The interviews of the witnesses and the people who knew the “killer” were very funny. I didn’t have a great view of the film because the person in front was blocking my view of the subtitles. Good film if you like crime comedies.

I watched Firestorm on Sunday afternoon. Not tired yet… but unfortunately this film really tired me to death. I love Andy Lau, but sometimes don’t you think we have too many films that are similar to Inferno Affairs. Too much I think. This film is about a crook who comes out of prison and restarts robbing banks with other crooks. Andy Lau plays the “good” cop but gets caught being a bit bad… It becomes really boring towards the end, it was a very long ending, and I yawned more than expected. I didn’t enjoy it, sorry. ¬,¬””

Judge! ジャッジ was the last film at the Terracotta Film Festival!! This is an hilarious film about an advertising director tells his employee to take his place in an international advertising competition. I love adverts (as most will know) and that’s why I wanted to watch this film. It was funny because it was of a Japanese guy who didn’t know much English and was set out to win this competition. There is a lot of cheating and funny gay moments. Probably the best funny film during the week!

At the end of the film Judge! it was interview time with the film director Akira Nagai. This is his first film, and it is mainly based on his experience as an advertiser in the real world. The person who wrote the script was a also a first time film writer. The film was made to attract younger people to become advertisers although it could embarrass you one day in the future… I hope Akira Nagai makes more films!! All the best!!

Come back again Terracotta Film Festival!!  (Why can’t it be held twice a year?!).