Author: Andrew Saroch

It’s a languid, leisurely swordplay film that advances at a glacial pace and is defiant in doing so. Yet that is, along with the crisp cinematography, its greatest strength.

With a wonderful, toe-tapping soundtrack, a gallery of amiable characters and a gutsy energy, ‘Swing Girls’ is a resounding success.

‘The Suspect’ is a highly recommended return to form for Ringo Lam after his brief stay in Hollywood. For fans of quality thrillers, this is unlikely to disappoint.

‘Suspect X’ plays with the usual hero/villain dynamic before settling into a denouement that reveals the complexity the audience was hitherto unaware of.

‘Super Model’ is, for the majority, a superior comedy that bursts forth with copious amounts of energy and imagination.

The great on-screen chemistry of the two leads help this stylish and hugely enjoyable caper move along at a leisurely, but absorbing pace.

Go into ‘Sunny’ with the right mind-set and its as enjoyable a piece of commercial film-making as you’re likely to get – just don’t be too surprised if you encounter feelings of narrative deja-vu.

Imbued with that understated eccentricity that many Japanese comedies have used so effectively, Masayuki Suo’s homage to his country’s unique culture proves to be a winning effort.

Its gritty, truthful tone and flawless cast manage to take a sub-genre fraught with cliché and melodrama and give it a provocative resonance that is so very precious.

While ‘Summer Holiday’ has no major weaknesses, it is a traditionally clichéd romantic comedy that doesn’t attempt to throw anything more challenging into the blend.

After being subjected to western productions where kids are annoyingly precocious and completely uninteresting, ‘The Story Of Xiaoyan’ reminds us that there are valid stories about youth to tell.

As the style inevitably overpowers the substance, the facade of a plot begins to break apart and the husk of a film is left.