Johnny Tri Nguyen as Johnny [REVIEW]

Monday, April 6th, 2009

q-q-JohnnyTri

Johnny Tri Nguyen (above) is the number one movie star in Vietnam. Is that saying much?

Ah, maybe not. But he has been in two of the more notable local-Vietnamese productions, Nu Hon Than Chet (Death’s Kiss) in 2008, and The Rebel in 2006. NHTC broke all the local box office records here, even running a successful viral marketing campaign on Cyworld.

You might say Johnny is the Vietnam equivalent of Thailand’s Tony Jaa, the movie star best known for his breakthrough role in Ong Bak. Both Johnny and Tony are action specialists, and Johnny used to compete on the US Wushu team. But just as with most Thailand to Vietnam comparisons (football team, economy, travel, lady boys), Thailand wins. At least in action.

I recently saw Ong Bak 2, which is completely unrelated to Ong Bak aside from name, but does a good job of showing Jaa at his best, his frenetic action pace without any pretense that we need to care about the plot. I gave it a 7/10 on IMDB, and then noticed that both of Thailand and Vietnam’s best had faced off in Tom Yum Goong (translated as The Protector), released in 2005.

It’s gotten solid reviews on IMDB, averaging a 6.9 after more than 13,000 votes. Sounds good right?

Wrong.

This is an atrocious movie. Of the nearly 450 movies I have rated on IMDB, I gave this my worst rating ever, a 2/10. Awkwardly ridiculous with silly fight scenes, confusing itself between comedy, action movie, and tearjerker. Worst of all, it runs at nearly 2 hrs. Ong Bak 2, despite all its faults, focuses on the fighting, and stops at 1:30. Much more watchable, more more reasonable. Tom Yum Goong, on the other hand, was so bad even from the start that I had to start writing notes to remember this full retard.

Tom Yum Goong, My Movie Commentary Track:

(as live blogged while watching, chronological order from the start of the movie)

There’s a joke in this movie where a random passer by says something like, ā€œYou got a pirated movie movie? Don’t ever do that again!ā€. I wonder if somehow I got an intentionally bad pirated version of the movie, and there’s actually a much better version out there for legit owners. Unfortunately, even if there is, unlikely I can buy it.

Starting:

  • First 30 minutes:
    • OK, got it. Tony Jaa loves his elephant.
    • WTF is going on here? (movie introduces random character)
    • WTF is going on here now? (another random character)
    • WTF IS GOING ON HERE? Who is he? Who is she? (MORE random characters)
  • Ok more Tony Jaa. When is this guy going to actually do a non-totally fake seeming fight?
  • Define ā€œFake Fightā€: you know, like when people somehow hit each other from five feet away. The kind of punches you see on Saturday Night Live, where the camera angles hide the fake action, and they add the oomph sound created by hitting watermelons.
  • Johnny Tri Nguyen’s character is named Johnny. I guess acting only goes so far.
  • An X-Games street gang is now after Tony Jaa; a gang with football jerseys, dirt bikes, BMX bikes, and ATVs. Hai ya, my ATV shall chop you!
  • The movie sets for the fighting scenes and situations seem obviously made for only Tony Jaa to use and escape from harm. Like these guys want to lose.
  • This movie isn’t purposely bad?
  • This is an action movie?
  • Johnny is as good an actor in English as he is in Vietnamese. FAIL.
  • His English sounds as good as his Vietnamese does. FAIL. (I’ve watched most of The Rebel as well)
  • Johnny speaks Vietnamese to his gang, who laugh with him. His gang is partly white.
  • Johnny Tri is not as good looking as some in VN claim him to be.
  • Tony has become the One. By wearing a bell around his wrist. He seems to change from being absolute crap, like Neo pre-Matrix, and the becoming The One. It’s a cycle he repeats over and over. He just needs motivation, apparently.
  • Tony Jaa is the Monica Seles of fighting- creating your own sound effects when doing anything. Ya! Uh! Hai ya!
  • Note to self. When attacking someone from behind with a butcher knife, do not karate-yell right before you unleash the attack, notifying the other person that you are behind him.
  • I’m hungry. It’s 2AM. There’s still 30 minutes in this movie left?
  • Why can’t anyone in this movie speak English? Even the English speakers can’t speak English!
  • Watching this movie makes me think I can handle watching Street Fighter, the Legend of Chun Li

rottenSF

  • Prachya Pinkaew- the director of this movie also directed Ong Bak? And Ong Bak was before this? I don’t think he got the performances he was hoping for, either out of himself or Tony or Johnny.
  • This is a temple that is on fire. At the same time it is flooded. At the same time, it is completely on fire?

I should write a post on FMyLife that I had to watch this movie. People on IMDB claim that the longer director’s cut is much better than the apparent US version I watched in terms of a fleshed out storyline. But those fans also thought the action was great, while I thought the action was sluggish and predictable. Poeple walk into Tony Jaa so they can be beaten up, it doesn’t seem like fighting. There’s a huge difference between the Ong Bak movies and Tom Yum Goong.

My rating: 2/10.

But here’s the trailer:

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Who’s This Chump?

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Mai-co

Been a long time since I posted, and I guess it’s a mix of 1) not having a desk at my current living situation 2) just so wrapped up with work 3) not in the groove to write.

But I think it’ll come back…eventually. Still working on some posts, and would like to write more about Vietnam, show more photos here too.

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Moving to Saigon (And other News)

Friday, August 15th, 2008

I’ve hit a lull in blogging, but things have been happening.

Dark Knight comes here (finally) in 2 weeks. I’m moving to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), essentially, right now. It’s ….a bit sad for me, I actually wanted to stay in Hanoi, well, I didn’t want to leave, since I just really, really love Hanoi, especially my apartment. It’s a good move for my work, and may make me happier with work, which is an extremely important part of my life.

Other:

  • Went to Hue a few weeks ago for 5 days, checking out Thuan An (a beach that’s only 15km away from Hue and Lang Co, a more isolated beach town 75 km away from Hue). Very fun trip, plan to make a post on the trip with pictures…just need to get to it.
  • My eldest uncle on my Dad’s side died a few days ago. I hope my Dad is doing ok. I’d met my uncle a few times, but don’t really have a connection to my relatives on both sides since I didn’t grow up nothing them. But essentially all my relatives live in Saigon, and now I’m moving to Saigon….so that’s a bit awkward and stress for me. I know for anyone reading this, you probably think I’m a bastard who doesn’t care about anyone, which I suppose is true, but most people are used to relatives and a sense of extended family. I, however, am my sister, and my parents, cousins from Indiana (1 family), and that’s it.
  • My Metal Gear Solid and Hoang Thuy Linh posts, are by far, the most popular posts on this web site. I almost feel like I should upload the sex video on here to amp up this site’s page views, but that really wouldn’t be right. Incidentally, Hoang Thuy Linh is an active user of Cyworld Vietnam.(She marks her stuff private)
  • It was #1 for a good amount of votes, but it was inevitable that it would fall: I’d be lying despite my grand claim that I thought it would be that good. I think it can stay top 10 over time.
  • 2008-08-15_15-28-42-641
  • Not playing basketball at all
  • Don’t have a place to live in Saigon yet, which worries me, especially since I loved my Hanoi place so much, but once I’m in Saigon and accept it, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
  • Top Gear is such a ridiculously good TV show. Took me forever to start watching it, but oh, is oh so very good. Just damn funny.
  • Starting a English club on Cyworld, club.cyworld.vn/VNEnglish. Me and my friend Henry are joining up to help people learn English, but it’s not just on us helping people. We’re creating a club where Vietnamese students join, teach, and help each other, collaborative discussion and learning. I think it be a big success as long as there are a few dedicated people (like me and Henry) to start it off.
  • Interested in the Olympics, but have not been watching
  • Vietnam played the Brazil Olympic team in Hanoi right before the Olympics started. I didn’t know Ronaldinho was going to play, and that really drove up ticket prices here. I wanted to go, but didn’t. I turned up sick that day anyway. Almost a lock that it will be the only time Ronaldinho comes to Vietnam in his life.
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Hot Girls of Hanoi Strike Back!

Friday, May 30th, 2008

Some things in life are self explanatory. (this is a big post btw, lot of large images)

Take, for example, this Miss Hanoi pageant, sponsored by my buddies at Cyworld Vietnam.

If you’re reading this and in Hanoi, come out this Saturday to Dai Hoc Hanoi, 05/31.

Just print this ticket out and get in:

Back to the ladies, here are some of the hottest young things in Hanoi:

(For much, much more hotness, visit www.cyworld.vn/misshanu, the official site for the pageant, or you can check out my pics)

Click on the pics for the full size versions.

Ao Dai Competition/Evening Gown:


Community Outreach:

Talent Show:

Swimsuit Competition:

Other:

Videos:



I’ll be amazed if you actually got this far down and decided to read my text for the rest of the post, but having a chance to observe some of the competition behind the scenes, what I really like about this pageant is that it’s made up of a lot of “girl next door” types, people who are just normal girls. No one’s really a professional circuit girl, most of them are just “oh, there’s a pageant, sure!”

You could really see this in the talent show. I remember expecting some run of the mill American-style crap, but they really showed me something new, for good and bad.

The winner of Miss Hanu gets $5K USD if I remember correctly. Cyworld’s also giving out a scholarship to the Internet’s choice, so feel free to register and help a girl out.

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Bring Out the Hot Girls of Hanoi

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

Going to be a lot of pictures and videos coming up from the various stages of the contest coming to its Myhome soon.

I “have” to head over to Hanoi University tomorrow to check out the interview portion of the contest. Time to meet some pretty girls.

http://www.cyworld.vn/misshanu

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Cyworld Vietnam Looking Good

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

Nice Redesign: (no, they did not pay me to post this, but I wish they had)

CaptureWiz022

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CyDay And Cyworld!

Friday, October 26th, 2007

You can see some of the pictures in the “New Photos” sidebar widget right now, and a bunch of the better pictures are highlighted at the end of this post. CyDay was a few weeks ago but I’m back in Saigon for a few days again for work, and hopefully I can get back to Hanoi on Saturday.

CyDay was a concert hosted by Cyworld on October 6th. A lot of big stars came out: My Tam, Ha Anh Tuan, Anh Khoa, Quang Vinh, Bao Thy, Luong Bich Huu, and some other people. Nice venue, over 6K+ people (over capacity, I hear), got broadcast on BTV live, and has been viewed on VTV, HTV, etc.

  • My Tam is by far the biggest star of those who performed, she’s one of the biggest stars in Vietnam. She’s good looking, but a lot shorter than you’d think. (I’m not tall at any means at 5′6, she’s probably around 5 feet-ish. She also looks a lot older (than she should?) I look younger than my age (26) but she’s younger than me, and I would never think she was my age or younger. Her performance was good, you can tell why she’s a star. She closed off the show, and the event organizers had balloons drop from the ceiling to celebrate. Cool effect, not sure how they got the balloons to drop (balloons are hung on a horizontal string line, and then they started dropping off one by one. Other times, from sporting events, I just see that things are dropped as if a hatch opens up and stuff empties out.
  • Ha Anh Tuan’s a relative new comer, he won Vietnam’s version of American Idol last year. (There’s also Vietnam Idol now, fully licensed from American Idol)
  • Quang Vinh’s an emerging pop-star, has an Elvis-ish look to him. His look is a bit quirky, not sure how to really explain it, he’s got the long sideburns. I know the girls like him. A good performer and a nice guy from what I’ve heard.
  • Bao Thy’s another emerging star- former model turned singer. Turned popular after winning the Miss Audition contest. Audition is a super popular PC dance rhythm game that originated in Korea. I think it was supposed to be released by Acclaim in the US, but not sure about its current status. She can’t sing very well, and she isn’t the greatest performer, but she was pretty ok in the concert once she was at “concert” level Bao Thy.
  • Anh Khoa was the first act, but he’s a good performer as well. Very entertaining, more of a rocker…to bad he didn’t have a real rock band behind him. I guess Vietnam is not so ready for him yet, but I can imagine him being bigger if live rock catches on here.
  • Luong Bich Huu, I wasn’t a fan of at all. Her wardrobe, or her pajamas, her songs, not sure why she’s popular. She came off like a 12 year old to me, but I think she and Bao Thy are both 19. Anyway, everyone has their own preferences.

Other Notes:

  • Vietnamese people in front don’t stand for concerts. Very unlike America. There’s just a layout of seats throughout. They did get rowdy thought at certain moments. The MC’s did a great job of getting the crowd involved, though this came mainly from the front.
  • I obtained some tickets for family, kind of nice thing for them not see what I do (not easy to describe), but that I’m connected to a legit operation. Too bad parents couldn’t attend. Mom’s side couldn’t attend either, they were rebuilding their house or something. I still haven’t visited them since I left the US over a year ago.
  • In the afternoon activities, the agency has Wii Sports running along with Dance Dance Revolution. Interesting “cameo” appearance/reminder from the RedOctane days.

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Saigon It Is!

Thursday, October 4th, 2007

I’ll be in Saigon over the weekend- Cyworld is doing a big concert event to help promote its service and I have an invite. Should be a lot of fun. Will take pictures and show off. They even have My Tam!

The details:
Saturday, October 6: Cyworld CyDAY live-concert with My Tam, Ha Anh Tuan, Anh Khoa, Quang Vinh, Bao Thy, Luong Bich Huu, and others.

Be a nice cultural experience, something I need more of, just been so busy with work. At the same time, I need more cultural experiences to be better at work. The irony.

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