Author Archives: Simon Ho

Chinatown

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Initially, i was skeptical about this movie. Mainly because i am Chinese and the title didn’t appease to me. I was definitely wrong. Believe the hype. This movie was really really good and i very much enjoyed. This was the first film I was able to recognize an actor, Jack Nicholson. Which made the film all the more enjoyable. The role of JJ by Nicholson was very polished and he complimented the Noir genre very well. This film kept me in my seat, asking more and more questions which were finally answered in the end. I can definitely see why this was said to be one of the greatest films ever made.

Pertaining to Noir, I felt they would make the creator of Noir films in the 40’s and 50’s proud. Noir was fading genre since those times. Chinatown was able to bring back the grittiness and darkness that hasn’t been seen in 30+ years.

 

Blade Runner

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Blade runner was quite the mind bender. Harrison Ford did a very good job with the role of Deckerd. Honestly not sure what i can make of this movie. I did enjoy it though. So many questions left to be answered. The main one was the truth about Deckerd. Is he a robot? who knows, this is one of those things that creators of the film love happening with one of their characters. Blade Runner, had everything that one would expect in a Noir genre- Death, darkness, femme fatale, love. Definitely worth the watch and I’m glad i was able too, without this course i probably would not of.

Murder My Sweet

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Murder My Sweet was probably the most confusing, but in a positive way of all the films we have seen so far. The twists and turn to create an effect of mystery was endless from the start of the film. Like most of the film noir films we have sampled so far, the plot starts with the main protagonist, Philip recollecting the event via flashback effect. Like most film noirs, this was built on the basis of mystery and skeptics. Philip was hired by an ex-con to find his long lost missing girlfriend. This was the beginning of spiraling events for Philip. Throughout the film it has kept the audience on the edge of their seat. Philip gets drugged and roughed up, there is not one but two femme fatales and countless amounts of murders and mysteries. The main mystery from the very start was who was the missing girlfriend, Velma that he was suppose to find. This was lead on up until near the very end, which showed that Helen, the wife was the person he was looking for all along. Helen or Velma turns out to be a mass murderer and a crook in her own right. In the end it seemed that the good finally prevails in this film, and the protagonist actually ends up with a femme fatale in the end, which was the step-daughter of Helen/Velma, Ann. I felt this was done due to the current events of the time, which was after the Great Depression and during WW2.