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| Scene from Fast & Furious 6 (file photo) |
Summer season is always the most competitive period for Hollywood blockbusters and animations. The hot-blooded action follows the hot weather and results in a lot of fighting, fast driving, gun shooting and explosions. This July, several directors will once again bring to the theaters their version of doomsday and of course let the US military and heroes save the world in the end.
Graduation and the rather empty student dorms at night during summer holidays lead to a number of horror films. The scary rumors about old buildings or adventurous games played on campus have become sources of inspiration for filmmakers. For audiences looking for the supernatural, the darkness of the cinema is an appropriate choice this month.
Besides the genres that are always popular during the summer holiday, fans of Jay Chou, Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng will also see their long-waited productions, all of which have been warmly received by critics thus far.
A-list attraction
Jay Chou's works, including songs he has written and music videos he has directed, are famous for being full of imagination and sometimes too unconventional to be accepted by conservative audiences. To write a song with his name repeated in the lyrics or to direct a film about time travel through a piano is no surprise for his fans.
Six years since his box-office success, Secret, he continues to be creative, bringing a combination of many elements he personally loves into his second feature film The Roof Top.
As a result, here comes the first Chinese comedic action-musical, which is set in a traditional Chinese medicine shop. It is not necessarily a period drama but everyone dresses in vintage style.
The roof top of the film's title is the place where the four main characters celebrate their friendship. Chou invited many of his real life friends, mostly TV hosts or regular visitors on different talk shows in Taiwan, to play the leading roles in the film. The best part for fans is that Chou, as you may have already guessed, wrote all the music for the film.
Meanwhile, Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng have returned as the big-screen's golden couple. 2001's Love on a Diet and the office love affair Needing You in 2000 both attracted many romantic comedy fans, while Yesterday Once More (2004) focused on the tension between the "couple thieves." All of them were directed by Johnnie To.
Now comes Blind Detective, which hit cinemas last week, also a piece from the Lau, Cheng and To trio. In the story, one girl disappears every year since the 1990s, and one of them is policewoman Cheng's friend. When she meets a "blind detective" played by Lau, a puzzle-solving journey begins.
Scary schools
There is little need to explain the stories with titles like Bunshinsaba 2, Bloody Doll, The Supernatural Events on Campus and Nightmare. Horror fans know that excitement comes wrapped in fear, and with these films they will get plenty excited seeing a lot of female ghosts similar to those in Korean or Japanese fright flicks.
Among all the scary tales coming in the next few weeks, The Deadly Strands is a bit different. Directed by brothers Zhao Xiaoou and Zhao Xiaoxi, whose previous works include Invisible Connection and Mysterious Face, this film featuring Liang Jing and Leon Dai (a famous actor and also a director from Taiwan) is a big-budget horror movie compared with others that are filmed in a B-movie style.
The storyline of The Deadly Strands focuses on a family and the death of the mother in an aquarium. Promotion photos of Dai in the scene of the mother's funeral have received many positive comments for his acting.
Seasonal migration of Chinese left-behind children
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