Inception

Is he dreaming? Is he not? Is the whole movie a dream? My brain!!!

Christopher Nolan probably gets a good laugh from all of these theories and interpretaions of his crazy confusing (but good) movie.

It'll blow your mind

Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an Extractor that searches people's minds while they dream to unlock their deepest secrets. Saito (Ken Watanabe) sends Cobb and his sidekick, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), on a mission to plant an idea (called an inception) into a business rival's mind. Saito wants Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) to break up his dead father's empire, but this is considered impossible to all the extractors except Cobb. Cobb takes the job in return for him being able to live with his children again. Cobb gathers Eames (Tom Hardy), Yusuf (Dileep Rao), and Ariadne (Ellen Page) for his mission, along with Arthur and Saito. Yusuf makes a strong sedative for them and Fischer so they wouldn't wake up until the mission is complete. Saito buys the airline that Fischer would be flying on to get all of them in the same room. Ariadne is the architect of the dream to replace Cobb (because his deceased wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), haunts his dreams). They plan to go down 3 levels into the dream (a dream within a dream within a dream) and perform synchronized "kicks" (or feelings of freefall) to wake everyone up in each of the dream levels. But when its too late to turn back, they realize that if they die in the dream, they'll end up in Limbo (wait 50 years to wake up because of the sedative and the dream would feel like reality) , which is like purgatory. With Fischer's armed projections in his dream and Cobb's evil wife, inception does seem impossible.

"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling."

I had to google the heck out of Inception it to understand it. That's what makes the movie so intriguing- how much depth there is. This film is so different- the ideas, the action...the whole concept. It's hard to wrap my head around it, but it kept me thinking after the movie, which is great. I love movies that leave an aftertaste kind of impression on the viewer. The action was very cool, especially Arthur's anti-gravity bit. The humor is very subtle and it is a breath of fresh air in all the seriousness of guns and evil wives. With an awesome cast like Inception's, nothing can go wrong with the film. They seemed to work really well together. Leonardo DiCaprio had a mysteriousness to him (very similar to Shutter Island, actually- rockin' the slick hair look). He had great chemistry with Marion Cotillard, but Ellen Page didn't really fit with him. Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt exchanged some funny dialog- just like a bickering couple. Ellen Page seemed more subdued in this movie (Ariadne isn't a quirky character like Juno), but she still had her likable charm. Oh yeah...killer ending. It's like Shutter Island all over. DiCaprio's messing with my brain again.

So...what do you believe? Is it a dream or reality?

Departures

Simply beautiful. 

Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) is a cellist in a orchestra that disbanded because of its small audience. Daigo  is left jobless and in debt because of the new cello that he purchased. He and his wife, Mika, (Ryoko Hirosue) decide to abandon his impossible cello dream and move on...to Daigo's mom's house (which he inherited when she died) because he is able to live there for free. The house reminds Daigo of his father who abandoned him and his mother, so the hatred comes rushing back to him. Daigo searches for a new job and stumbles upon NK Agency that wants people for departures. Daigo goes to the agency and is hired on the spot.

Boss: Will you work hard?

Daigo: Uh...yes.

Boss: You're hired.

If only it were that easy... Of course, his job comes with a twist: "departures" actually means encoffining dead bodies. Apparently, the dead are a huge taboo in Japan, so people would avoid Daigo like the plague if they find out about his job. To hide this from his wife, Daigo goes to a public bath to wash off the dead-body-stench and tells Mika that his new job involves "ceremonies" (like weddings). Eventually, Mika finds out and moves out of the house. His neighbors find out and avoid him. Daigo refuses to give up his job, though. He is proud of it and finds it rewarding. 

Departures was stunning. I don't think I cried this much for any other movie. Yes, death is a grim situation, but Departures puts it in a different light. Death could be happy and filled with love for the lost. Sometimes, I realized that I wasn't crying because someone died; I was crying because it was so beautiful and happy (I know that sounds corny, but if you watched the movie, you might know what I'm talking about). The encoffiner is also brought to light as a highly respectable job and super satisfying. Departures plays with the meaning of fate. Sometimes, you're so caught up with chasing a dream that you don't realize that you can dream a different dream.
The acting was superb. I loved every one of the characters because they were all so rich and had so much depth to them. They all had their own stories to tell and reasons behind their actions. Masahiro Motoki as Daigo was a great fit. He was funny at times to make the seriousness of death not so heavy.


And...I loved the music. Joe Hisaishi does it again. 

Shaolin Soccer

Stephen Chow!! He's such a hilarious guy. This movie is probably one of his funniest.

Iron Head and sing trying to rouse up the Kung fu spirit in gangsters

Fung (Ng Man Tat) used to be a famous soccer player, but because his rival teammate, Hung (Patrick Tse) set up an event that led to his cripple leg, he now is a human foot-stool for Hung. Fung meets Sing (Stephen Chow), who has an amazing "Mighty Steel Leg" and gets an idea to use Sing's Shaolin Kung fu to beat Hung's soccer team and win the tournament. Sing agrees because his ultimate dream is to teach people to incorporate Kung fu into their everyday lives to improve it. After some major encouragement, he gathers his Shaolin brothers to train with Coach Hung. They're a bit rusty on the Kung fu and can't play soccer for their life, but Sing manages to bring their butt-kicking spirit back to fight play against Hung's "Evil Team" (such an evil name).

The Shaolin Bros get their game on.

Now don't let the language barrier stop you from watching this movie. The subtitles are pretty accurate, but I have to admit..knowing Chinese makes this movie perfect. I have watched Stephen Chow's mo lei tau (Chinese wordplay) movies and I understood it like an American: I had no idea what was so funny. Shaolin Soccer, however, doesn't use much mo lei tau. The humor is mostly physical and slapstick, so I kept laughing throughout this whole movie. Having the director be the star of the film really gets things done. There is really no one that can star a Stephen Chow movie than the man himself. He works great with Ng Man Tat and Wong Yut Fei (Iron Head). The romance between Mui (Vicki Zhao) and Sing seemed a little rushed, but Hey, kung fu attracts girls, right? The action scenes were very cool. Even though the CGI isn't as polished as the movies nowadays, the scenes are so over-the-top that they're hilarious. I recommend you see the full 102-minute version of the film (not the Miramax 80-minute version). I don't know why they would cut 20 minutes of great scenes.

This is Empty Hand (Bruce Lee Danny Chan Kwok Kwan)