Cubussoli
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
GurlyIamBeach
Instant Favorite.
Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
yl480
Monga is directed by Niu Chenze from Taiwan in 2010. This film is based on the mid-1980s in Taiwan as a background. The film related to five young teenagers who just out of school and the experiences of entry the gangsterdom (heishehui). The entire film revolves around brotherhood, interests, fight and conspiracy to develop the story plot. The genre of this film is drama. The story start in Taiwan that a place called Manga. A young boy, Zhouyiwen or mosquito, he was a timidity and kind boy; he has been bullied by others since he was little. He has not a father. Because of a drumstick, he met a several young people who living the gangster life. Also because of a drumstick he began his gangster life. They set up a group called Prince Gang. They often fight on the street, visits brothel and receive protection fees from others. As result of Li Zhilong's father, Geta, is a boss of Temple Front, no one can bully them. As the resentment of elder, they involved in that. Conflict and betrayal leads to them killing each other finally.I want to analyze two character mosquito and Heshang.The lead character, after met his four buddies, and he thought his life has meaningful suddenly. He thought they save his soul and brought a new world for him. In the film, there are have a one scene that is, when they climbed the wall and play truant go to outside, mosquito looked back and without hesitation to jumped the wall. I t seems tell us he wants to say goodbye to his past. This is my favorite place. He just knows the brotherhood is very important to him. He thought His buddies like his brother. Because of them, his life was becoming exciting even leave school he felt not matter. They protected him at school and celebrate his birthday. They help each other, they together do everything. All this, he was deeply moved by them. Compared with them, he is more innocent and kind. He is more like a follower. Just like the lines of film, "the grass flutters in the same direction as the wind blows". From this movie we can clearly see that mosquito aspires to paternal love. He was very envy Zhilong has a good father, he saw zhilong with his father sang a song together affectionate, he was touched by this scene. He cried, he hopes he was Zhilong and Geta was his father. Actually, in his heart, he has been thought Geta was his father. At the Temple Front, he saw Geta lying in the pool of blood, he was collapsed. After Geta dead, he replaced Zhilong attended the funeral. These evidences reflect mosquito was much respected Geta although his emotion was humble. He fell in love with Xiaoning, a hooker; he thought he could tell everything to Xiaoning. Particularly, he discovered the real gangster life is terrible, and the cruel ways of punish to others lead to him felt fear and thought of her as refuge.The other lead character, Heshang, he was clever, he and Zhilong grew up together, , they have exceeded the feelings between brothers. He knew his father's hand was cut off by Geta, he decided to revenged. At the same time, his heart was extremely contradictory. In the movie, when he found the missing Zhilong, he embraced him tightly, and he recalled the picture that he killed the Geta. He burst into tears loudly. He was much regretted. All the remorse in his mind is vent out in this moment. In the film's final, he chose to believe mosquito. Like mosquito said "you thought you goof the gangster life, in fact you goof the friendship and brotherhood". In fact, all of them are not had gangster life, they trust each other and not leave each other. Heshang's confusion, helplessness, sadness, and contradiction also are represents the other four. In this film, there are two lines repeated several times. "I only heard of brotherhood, never heard of meaning". And "If you don't killed them up today, once day you'll be killed". I think these two lines are influences them deeply.In this movie, there are two key points which are yo-yo and Sakura. They appeared many times in this movie. Heshang gave the new yo-yo to mosquito; mosquito was moved and takes this everywhere. He often plays yo-yo, Heshang was wounded, he sat on one side and holds yo-yo until he fell asleep. Mosquito make a nightmare, when he woke up the yo-yo on his pillow. They sat on the dam, the yo-yo issued weak light. In the end, mosquito use the line wanted to kill Heshang. It can be said, this yo-yo is witness their friendship breakdown. The other thing is Sakura, the combination of Sakura and blood is special point in the film. Progress to the end of the film, Heshang's blood spatter in the air and becomes the Sakura, this is mosquito always dreamed of seeing.All the character describing is based the story line, on that way; the story has already reflected the characters' temperament, experience, emotion. In addition, this film has well reflects the characteristics of Taiwan's local, exaggerated bright clothes, the Taiwan dialect and some lifestyle about Taiwan. Meanwhile, also reflects their idea is not very open and feudal, because they think the gun is evil and not accept the new culture. The film uses slow motion and soft music to balance the fight scenes, especially, five teenagers caused the fighting of all turfs in Monga.Overall, Monga has a very strong emotional color. This story is sad and dreary, everyone lose their important emotion. They never have gangster life, they just through the brotherhood to burning their life. This is the confusion of puberty and the pressure of real life to give a special significance.
peachies
So this was the hottest flick in Taiwan after it came out, overthrowing Avatar's reign at the box office. After hearing so much about it, I had to go see it... and it was quite good. I have to honestly say I wasn't really expecting too much based on Taiwanese films I'd seen before (disclaimer: I actually haven't seen very much), but this one is very well made, has a great story, and the actors are pretty hot... Takeshi Kaneshiro, watch out!In short, it's about a place called Monga, which I have learned was a port where many mainlanders entered Taiwan from back in the day. In this film, the story takes place in the '70s and '80s and is about a group of friends, part of the Temple Front gang. The narrator of the story, Mosquito (Mark Chao), is invited to be a part of the gang after a silly fight with members of another gang, the Back Alley. Mosquito has grown up without a father and has never had any real friends, so after Monk (Ethan Ruan) and the others take him under their wing, he fully embraces the new lifestyle and there's no turning back. The story has a number of heart-wrenching twists and while it is a drama, there's also a lot of humor which I loved. In the end, it all comes down to the characters trying to balance the harsh realities of a violent gangster life with the honor of friendship and brotherhood.I have no idea when the film will be hitting the U.S., but it has a promising future as it's totally something fresh out of the Taiwanese film industry. As they would say in Taiwan, this film is 紅 ("hong") or red... meaning it's hot!Overall thoughts: Strong acting, engaging story, and a good film to watch with a group of friends!
vince4953529
This is an interesting big-budget commercial movie about gangsters in Taiwan. I've seen a few Taiwanese films about gangsters or criminals before, but none this polished. Monga is well-acted and has good cinematography. But there are several problems that I've seen with this film. Firstly, Dragon Lee looks very much like Tom Cruise, and if you have Tom Cruise as one of your lead gangsters (let alone in a Taiwanese film) then I have to say it's bad casting. Second thing that bothers me see the alternation between Taiwanese and Chinese being spoken by them. I have friends who speak Taiwanese only among each other, and no they do not alternate between Chinese; let alone gangsters in the 80's with proud Taiwanese heritage. Thirdly, Monga is too clean and nice in the movie. In reality many parts of Monga is a seedy place with many sketchy people and teenagers. There are much trash on the ground, run-down houses... but in the film there isn't much portrayal of the seediness and grittiness of the area. I can't feel the Monga that I knew in this movie. And that's the problem with commercial movies in Taiwan, where everything is just a bit too sanitized (English song played in the background, please).This film lacks a bit of realism. The violence is there, and the older gangsters do looked more real, but overall it could be better. It's nice to see the Taiwanese film industry begin to revive slowly, but I wish commercialism won't destroy this movement.
George_Huang
After the stunning "What On Earth Have I Done Wrong?," the second film by the persistent director/actor Niu Cheng-Ze(aka Doze Niu) has finally been released under expectations. Besides the attractions of the new generation actors/idols Juan Ching-Tien and Zhao You-Ting(aka Mark Zhao), everyone was also expecting, if this will be better than "Cape No. 7," the Taiwanese box office miracle back in 2008. From the first day box office record, it was helped by the success of "Cape." As for the film itself, it's so much better than "Cape." The story begins from a non-Minnanese teenager, who was raised in a single parent family and had no friends, faced the embrace of the "Prince Gang," an inheritor of a major local gang, he of course couldn't resist the eagerness of getting recognized. But the best of youth also came to the inevitable testament of humanity.Before I saw the film, I couldn't help wondering, if this will have the shadow of "I Vitelloni" by Fellini, or the look of "Goodfellas" by Fellini's follower Scorsese, or even the glamour of "City of God," by the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles. When it comes to the violent scenes, the way Niu used the slow motions and soft instrumental score reminds me of Scorsese's romantic sentiment. I could also tell he was trying to avoid any too artistic presentation. With the outstanding editing, it was very intense with the length of 140min. It inherited the deep observation of Taiwanese gangsters by Hou Hsiou-Hsien and Chang Tso-Chi but also gives it a new look for the audience to get close to more easily.Though it's not perfect, the plot came out of Niu's thinking direction makes it more reasonable than any other new Taiwanese films. The desire for friendships of the accepted boy, Mosquito, led him to be the most loyal member in the gang. He was too innocent to see the fragility of humanity. Monk, who was considered the smartest one, could only be trapped in a fate of religious superstitions. His value of loyalty, due to one single false judgment and the raised anger of vengeance, has been pushed to the edge of his reason with the paradox in his heart. To decrease the strong masculine of a gangster piece, Niu added the young prostitute who made Mosquito know what love is. This blended a sense of tenderness into the film smartly.Comparing to saying it has the romanticism of "Goodfellas," it's in fact closer to the tragedy of the conflict between idealism and realism we see in "Infernal Affairs" and the remake "The Departed." It's not told from a first person, unlike most Scorsese works, but from the upgraded multiple point of views such as "The Departed." More strictly defined, Mosquito and Monk, like Tony Leung and Andy Lau, DiCaprio and Damon, are the two narrators of the story. But shamefully, the characters lack of the quality of more vivid or heartfelt which they could've been, despite of the enough backgrounds and motivations and the natural twists and truths. While being so, it's still a film that represents the period and culture in Taiwan truthfully. It is unique and has the unique feeling that only Taiwanese audience can connect to.Sandee Chan's music leads the atmosphere successfully. It even has a slight epic feeling of "The Godfather" and a slight sharpness of "City of God." With also the quality guaranteed sound processing by the national treasure Tu Du-Che, the performance of sound in the film really reached an international standard. Niu selected a hit at the time "Making Love Out of Nothing At All" by Air Supply especially to describe the time Mosquito and the young prostitute spent together. It also added up a bit of cute and retro cheesiness. The big space for the two leading actors to interpret also made them the promising candidates for the year-end's Golden Horse Awards. This film can also be seen as the unity of Taiwanese filmmakers, such as an award-winning actor from "Cape No. 7," the producer of "Orz Boyz" and even the director of "Winds of September" who joined as an assistant director with his crew. It all shows another Taiwanese Cinema New Wave has officially been set off.
