(TV) Weeds. (Season one, 2005) Grade: B
Thoughts: Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) has just lost her husband and has to raise her two sons, Silas Botwin (Hunter Parrish) and Shane Botwin (Alexander Gould) on her own. The show is pretty funny and silly and over the top. I really like when they focus on the black family, whom Nancy gets her weed from, because they are honest and tell it like it is to this sheltered white woman who is basically trying to be a drug dealer. Oh and Kevin Nealon is pretty funny as a pot smoking city councilman. One thing the show has made me realized is Orange County type suburbia is SCARY.
(TV) The Robinsons. (Complete Series, 2005) Grade: B-
Thoughts: Recently divorced 30 year old, Ed Robinson (Martin Freeman) is trying to pull his life back together but it is difficult with his crazy family made up of parents Pam and Hector and brother George (Huge Bonneville) and sister Vicky (Abigail Cruttenden). I mainly watched the show because Martin Freeman from the UK Office was in it. The show had some good moments and some moments that dragged. British people are very dry in humor and totally, utterly miserable souls but I guess if you never saw that sun that often you would be the same way.
TV count: 2
(M) Zhifu (Uniform). (Yinan Diao, 2003) Grade: D+
Thoughts: Slow moving and slightly confusing, the main character makes and cleans clothes in a poor city of China. He comes across a police uniform and end up keeping it and using it to extort money from people to pay for his dad’s medical bills. Along the way he meets a girl, who seems like just another shop girl but is actually a call girl at night. The film is suppose to explore what “uniforms” say about people but I found it more about how corrupt and crooked parts of China were and how they have some time before they become a super power.
(M) Shiqi Sui De Dan Che (Beijing Bicycle). (Xiaoshuai Wang, 2001) Grade: C+
Thoughts: Guo Liangui (Lin Cui) is a country boy who just got a dream job – to be a courier for a popular delivery company in China and a bike. Jian (Bin Li) is a poor student who wants a bike to impress a girl he likes. Jian ends up with Guo’s bicycle and the story follows how the boys fight over the bike. Yet another film regarding modern China; however this was more entertaining than Uniform but not by much.
(M) Zhou Yu De Huo Che (Zhou Yu’s Train). (Zhou Sun, 2002) Grade: B-
Thoughts: Zhou Yu played by the gorgeous Gong Li is madly in love with a poet Chen Qing (Tony Leung Ka Fai). Unfortunately, Chen lives far away and so every week she takes a train to see him. On the train she meets a veterinarian doctor Zhang Qiang (Honglei Sun) who is attracted to her. Eventually the poet has to move away and she spends her time with the doctor. The movie was beautifully shot and certain scenes were so simple and lovely.
2006 count: 149 movies
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