Reviews

Films

Blood Brother

As one of the most anticipated films of the year for its stellar cast and John Woo behind the scene as a supervisor, Blood Brother (Tiantang Kou) turned out to be a disappointment.

It tells a story of three ambitious young men who leave behind the small town life for possible prestige in the 1930s' Shanghai. Their search for dream ends up with bloodshed and desperation.

The lame character building just cannot make up for an unconvincing story. All of them, although billed by A-listers, are flat and bizarre. A young man who touches a gun for the first time kills five professional killers in a second. Another spends decades trying to kill his brother without any convincing reason. The third tries to mimic Al Pacino's style but overacts. The only woman in the story seems in love with everybody and nobody.

The only credit to the director is his control of the visual effects, such as light, color and costumes. The film, in general, is visually enjoyable but fails to present a good story.

Liu Wei

Rumour Has It

Directed by Rob Reiner, starring Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner

Not having had the best of luck in her post Friends career, Jennifer Aniston has again picked a stinker - an unfunny romantic comedy with a premise that references an older, much better film. There's talent here: Rob Reiner of This is Spinal Tap fame directs, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Ruffalo and Richard Jenkins play supporting roles, and none of them can be blamed for this mess. Hell, blame can't even be apportioned to Kevin Costner or the distracted Aniston. The real problem is that it was a bad idea to begin with.

Aniston plays a journalist named Sarah who is engaged to nice guy Jeff. Sarah gets cold feet though and upon confiding in her mother, discovers she did too before marrying her dad (Jenkins). She then finds out that her grandmother (MacLaine) had an affair with a much younger man (Kevin Costner) and their fling may have inspired the movie, The Graduate. What's more, Sarah's mum may have slept with the same man and in a bid to set the record straight, the intrepid reporter tracks the cad down only to be seduced by his wealth and charms.

In essence grandma, mum and daughter all seem to sleep with Kevin Costner. That's what the hook of this film is, one family of gals sharing the same guy. Being a highly conventional romantic comedy, it's all made out to be far less sordid than what it sounds. Unfortunately, Rumour Has It is neither romantic nor amusing. Aniston's Sarah proves a rather unlikable piece of work, while the only actors playing characters worthy of our sympathy - Ruffalo and Jenkins - are merely pawns in an icky game of cross-generational sexual chess. Yuck.

Ben Davey

BOOK

Hi-tech innovation

Innovation with Chinese Characteristics: High-tech Research in China assesses China's ambitions to become an innovative society by 2020 and a technology superpower by the middle of the century. It provides a snapshot of China's innovation abilities.

Recently published by Palgrave Macmillan, a global academic publisher, the English-version book is the fruit of a multi-cultural, multi-national, and multi-institutional cooperation. Co-authors of the book are leading experts in diversified fields and describe the strengths and weaknesses of research being done in China in four key areas: IT, energy, nanotechnology and biotechnology.

As the book reveals, Chinese research in nano and biotechnology will lead the world. Its innovative research in reducing the application cost of clean coal technologies and renewable technology is of critical importance to environmental protection. A Chinese version of the book comes out next year.

Chen Zhiyong

(China Daily 09/13/2007 page20)