Boarding Gate

Yes, why did I expect more? Olivier Assayas has never done it for me…although I have to admit, I’ve only seen half of his filmography.

One thing I do like about this guy is that he makes multi-cultural films. He obviously loves Asian cinema and Asian culture in general…. I have the HHH – Un portrait de Hou Hsiao-Hsien by the way… very rare. Lemme know if you want me to burn a copy. And we all know about his failed marriage with Maggie Chung. Well, in this film, he gives Kelly Lin her international debut (I think she’ll make it to the level of Maggie and Ziyi Zhang if she plays her cards right, although not nearly as talented or beautiful)
and he takes us to Hong Kong at the 3/4 mark.

Anyway, this film is a mess. Here is IMDB summary: An Italian woman who lives in London has a passionate affair with a former financial big gun (Michael Madson). She also had a second lover (Carl Ng), a contract killer who has to kill the big gun. Her second lover’s wife (Kelly Lin) is behind the scenes, pulling the strings.

To tell you the truth…. I’m not even sure that is correct… I may be confused but Carl Ng isn’t a contract killer. Oh screw this…. the film is full of horrible exposition in the dialogue…. bursts of over-acting…. and a tendency to keep falling back on the strung out sexiness of Argento. Kim Gordon looks 70… no joke. And Assayas loves exploring the business side of things in his thrillers. If anybody has seen Demonlover… you’ll know that this is incredibly BORING!! Nice music by Sonic Youth though.

Please hit the StairMaster Asia!!!!

Here is the 2nd poster… again..much better than the film.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/boardinggate/trailer/