Inconspicuous but decent Hong Kong B-film director. His oeuvre is hardly essential cinema, but once you've gotten past the bigger names in the Hong Kong movie industry, Jingle Ma is a solid option for some shameless genre entertainment.
Movies
Jingle Ma slowed down considerably, but like most Hong Kong directors late comeback are par for the course. Europe Raiders is the third film in the franchise and those who have seen the previous films will know what to expect. Slick, silly and expensive entertainment that is a blast to watch, but has poor longevity.
Para Para Sakura
Simple race flick that is more than happy to stick to the genre clichés. Ma brought together some Pan-Asian talent, but no real A-listers. The plot is very basic, the drama doesn't really work and the CG is a little distracting. The pacing is nice though and the film does have its moments, but in the end this is little more than random filler.
Jingle Ma isn't the most subtle of directors, so when he's doing romance you pretty much know what you're getting yourself into. The fantasy elements are a welcome diversion and the soundtrack (though often overbearing) does add some extra flavor, but there's no escaping the cheesy in this one. Onion is killed in a traffic incident, but because he's the 60th billion deceased he gets a chance to decide his future. Either he goes to Polaris (the afterlife), or he returns to Earth and gets another 5 days to make it work with the girl he loves. The only problem is that she won't be recognizing him when he returns. Richie Jen is pretty horrible, Cecelia Cheung is passable, though not at a level where she can carry the film. The cinematography is rather bland, and the Ma doesn't fear sentiment, the score on the other hand does bring something to the table and the finale is pretty surprising. Not exactly great cinema, but I expected worse.Read all
A mediocre romantic drama that lacks charm and likeable characters. It tries to compensate with an idyllic setting and some pretty young faces, but in the end that doesn't really cut it. It's not the worst film and it does provide some easy entertainment, but there are better films out there that offer exactly the same ingredients, only prepared by a better cook.
One of Jingle Ma's ill-advised romcoms. I'm not quite sure what exactly Ma was going for here, but the result is one big mess. The romance is overly cheesy, the comedy is almost slapstick-like, nothing really goes together and for some reason there is some awful singing that keeps making comebacks throughout the film. Ding Ding is an Asian-American who moves back to Beijing to complete her studies. There she bumps into Dong. The two are clearly made for each other, but when Dong wakes up the next morning he doesn't remember Ding Ding. Dong suffers from memory loss, which greatly complicates their relationship. Koo is a pretty solid actor, but he's just terrible here. Ma's direction is all over the place, the comedy is more miss than hit, the romance doesn't really work, and the film has some serious pacing issues, even when the runtime is relatively short. Not Jingle Ma's finest work, which makes it pretty difficult to recommend.Read all
