Welcome to this Baka's blog on his fave Japanese Pop Culture interests.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Tripping- Japanese-Taiwanese movie review
Synopsis: Shaodea is a Japanese girl, living in Taipei with her father. He moved to Taiwan with his wife to start a Chinese herbal medicine shop. Ever since her mother died, Shaodea wants to return to Japan, but her father refuses to give up his dream. One day, after an argument with him, Shaodea goes out with her friends. While breaking in into a museum, the girl is transported back in time to feudal Taiwan. Thinking she’s on a movie set, the girl gets involved in a bank robbery and soon has to run from the authorities. She teams up with Haishon, an attractive young man who became a thief to save the economic crisis of his hometown. Together with a Tao-master, who is transporting 2 zombies back to their ancestral lands, they set off on a fantastic adventure.
Most films one would not consider to ne masterpieces nor must watches, Tripping is another movie which falls into those categories but it's not to say it's not a fun watch because it is. Rena plays Shaoeda, a Japanese girl living in Taiwan, one who yearns to be back in Japan unlike her father played by the always solid Ren Osugi. As noted in the synopsis above, that's what the film is basically about, really thin on a plot but it ended up being an enjoyable watch, if you just want to be entertained and like sword fights and mystical characters then this would be right up your alley and would recommend it.
Rena always does well in her roles whether it's a drama or film, problem is she hasn't been in many really good ones, actually most would be subpar except her acting, looks and charisma bring them up a notch or so and make them worthwhile watches, if there's any film though that is close to a must watch is 10 Promises to my Dog which I'll be posting about after another rewatch.
Not going to drag out the review for this film, really is a simplistic film plot wise but if you're a Rena fan it's one that you shouldn't miss, she's in almost every scene and really makes a less than stellar film one that's an enjoyable time killer. Besides Osugi didn't know any of the other cast, they are Taiwanese actors, don't know how popular they are but the other big star of the film Bo-lin Chen appears to be quite popular in his home country. Final rating of this would be a 7.5/10, so many better films out there but Rena as usual is a pleasure to watch, gonna hunt down a few others of hers to hopefully find a real winner, A Day on the Planet is supposed to be a real winner so that'll be coming up on my view list and hopefully can come back with a good review for it, post below this one has many screenshots of Rena from the film.
Cast: Rena Tanaka, Ren Osugi, Bo-lin Chen, Jimmy Hung, Lichun Lee
Year: 2006 Running time: 102 minutes Director/writer: Yiwen Chen
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