dluu81

i came into this movie not really expecting much probably because I've seen a lot of Asian American films that ended up disappointing. that wasn't to be the case this time. dim sum funeral has a lot of stuff going for it. i found the family interactions pretty believable and universal (im Chinese American btw), the story had many plot lines and while yes, it could get somewhat episodic, there are actually many Hollywood movies that fall into this structure too and that's the nature of life, isn't it? throughout the movie, i was pretty entertained and didn't look at the time and felt myself caring for the characters which is the greatest compliment one can pay a story. i also absolutely loved the music. the simple piano music really reminded me of the east Asian aesthetic in films and the film became "more Asian" as a result. also, it gave the movie a ethereal and fleeting quality perfect for a movie about death and life. and i don't know how they got her but talia shire is wonderful in the film. it's really great to see her back and it was fun looking to see if the actors would be intimidated by her stature which they weren't. really, all the main characters and even bai ling which i normally cant stand do quite admirably.

all in all, dim sum funeral was a very nice, elegant and heartfelt surprise and i recommend it. 8 out of 10.

i really, really wanted to like this movie because i absolutely loved casshern. but too many things bugged me about this movie. each thing about it pulled me more and more out of the movie until the midpoint i was just hoping for it to end.

1. the cg was horrendous. the backgrounds never meshed with the foreground. the blood was ridiculously fake looking. so was the rain. there were enough instances of goemon running and jumping that looked unnatural (even by casshern standards) to pull me out of the movie. 2. the acting was over the top. you have your over the top characters like hideyoshi and goemon's friend. hideyoshi especially when he licked the fruit that he touched with rikyu's head and throwing saizo's baby in (after the long ass speech for some reason he let saizo have). 3. the flashbacks were heavy handed. we didn't need all those flashbacks interrupting the story. it wouldve been better if they had left it to our imagination after mentioning it in the dialogue and develop the character's present relationships, not interrupt the flow of the story with overly sappy and melodramatic reminisces. 4. the story was weak. goemon goes through much of the story not doing anything. mitsunari lets hideyoshi live for some reason after the assassination attempt by saizo. hideyoshi for no apparent reason wants to war with Korea and china. goemon saves saizo but doesn't think to rescue his family at the same time leading to their deaths.

i think this could've been a decent movie if they had been more careful of each element in the story: clean up the cg, tighten the editing to enhance characterization and story - some lines were unnecessary and colored the character poorly and flashbacks could've been cut. the movie is a much inferior version to casshern that could've possibly held its own. but i blame the director for pushing the acting way over the top, not keeping a more discerning eye for fake cg, and reining in the story and characterizations. say what you will about Hollywood but on a sheer ratio basis, more Hollywood movies are better than any other film in the world because of its system of checks and balances.

i rented it from blockbuster recently and i was very impressed with what juwan did with this movie. i was expecting below average cinematography and a movie id turn off after halfway through - as i did with even Hollywood movies such as hit-man, shoot em up, hellboy 2 - but it was good enough to keep me watching. i liked the style and brashness of it and the story. i did have some complaints though how the story was a bit too chaotic to follow sometimes, the sound wasn't as clean in some scenes, the lead girl wasn't pretty. but that didn't ruin it. i really liked the acting by the benny and baby characters and the dad as well. the movie reminded me of a good old hong kong triad flick and it even had a classic song by alan tam in it that i loved as a kid. really cool. so i recommend this flick. support indie-Asian-good cinema!

so many problems where to start...too many story lines, no clear protagonist, voice-over that didn't add to the story, a subplot with the boyfriend that should've been cut and then it'd have been better and shorter,the lesbian subtext between the two nanas, no clear goal for nana the rocker. and most of the time nana non-rocker is like the best friend who somehow has her own movie though it's still the main actress' movie.

im sure the free flow of scenes works well in manga form and it seems a lot of the manga fans also enjoyed the movie, but for lovers of movies in general, i found this to be meandering and aimless and slow. it's a shame because there's a lot of acting talent here in ryuhei matsuda who was excellent in renai shasshin.

unlike others, i found the look of the film very muted and boring. it reminded me a lot of love letter down to the snow scenes and music, but that movie was better.