Movies! Movies! Movies!
Apr. 25th, 2003 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynHi, folks. It's been brought to my attention recently that some of y'all have recently developed an interest in one of my favourite genres of movie, the Hong Kong action flick. I've been asked to put together a list of such movies that I'd recommend, starting from the assumption that the reader has only begun to have an interest after seeing Bulletproof Monk. I suggest visiting ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
10000bullets for a few more ideas, but in the meantime, shall we begin?
1. Shaolin Soccer. You want to see this movie. If you liked Bulletproof Monk then you really want to see this movie. However, I must warn you... The showing of Monk that I went to had a preview for the US import version, due out in... I think maybe May.
YOU MUST NOT SEE THAT VERSION FIRST.
If there is one lesson I have learned from watching these movies until Cantonese comes out my ears, it is that a badly done dub job can ruin even the most excellent movie. I can't in good conscience recommend Project A because I have only seen the English-dubbed version, and the dialogue is so hideously stilted, the voices chosen for the various actors so wrong, that even Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung together couldn't make me happy with it. The US version of Shaolin Soccer is being imported and dubbed by Disney, but in the end who dubs it is really pretty irrelevant. The fact that it's dubbed at all means that it will most likely be robbed of a great deal of its charm. Kaiju-style crappy lip synching is one thing; voice actors who make Jet Li sound like he's from Ohio are something else altogether.
I should point out that it is possible to get your hands on the DVD of Shaolin Soccer at stands in shopping malls, even though they're not the 'approved' import version. Or on eBay, for that matter. Trust me, this movie is worth it. Take your typical 'formerly great sports team comes out of retirement and shakes off the rust to defeat Very Bad People and regain their youthful glory' movie. Now assume that the person directing it is essentially Jim Carrey on sparkly pink fruit-flavoured monkey crack, and that he's hired the special effects team from The Matrix and several of the finest fight choreographers in Hong Kong. The first fifteen or twenty minutes of the movie are a bit slow and some of the humour depends on Cantonese wordplay that simply doesn't come across in the subtitles, but around the fifteen minute mark, whatever medication Stephen Chow is taking to keep people believing that he's sane wears off. And oh, my friends, when the medication wears off the most gloriously ridiculously funny movie I've seen in a long time kicks in. If you play Mage and you want to make your GM cry, watch this movie and then work up an Akashic Brother...
2. The Storm Riders. This one, like Monk, is an adaptation of a comic book. The difference is that Monk is an adaptation of an underground comic - I believe one written by an American - whereas The Storm Riders is an adaptation of an insanely popular comic book series by Ma Wing Shing, known and read throughout Hong Kong and surrounding territories. In order to understand exactly what sort of movie you're dealing with, you need to remember: this is not a cinematic triumph of a movie. This is a movie in which Sonny Chiba plays an Evil Overlord called Lord Conquer. Let me repeat that: the main antagonist of this movie is named Lord Conquer. That in itself should tell you nearly everything you need to know, just like people who go to see Bulletproof Monk need to know that the movie contains a kung fu Nazi in order to understand what they're dealing with. This is a special-effects-heavy movie. Not just the wire-fu kind of stuff you see in a lot of these movies, but lots of flashy glitzy attempts to replicate the visual atmosphere of Mr. Ma's comic. It should be noted that this is a movie that features a scene where a guy rips off his own arm (he gets better later). There's magical swords and there's murdered fathers and there's jealousy over the master's daughter and there's old geezers named Sword Saint and there's a Shaolin monk who shoots fireballs from his hands and oh, lordy, if you're looking for a flick that captures the feel of a comic book in live action, you can't do much better than this one. And there's a monkey! There's even a monkey! Everything's better with monkeys! Side note: the two main disciples of Lord Conquer, young men named Wind and Cloud, are played by awfully attractive actors. I paid $29.95 for it at Suncoast Video and feel my money was well spent.
3. Iron Monkey. I have never seen a Quentin Tarantino movie, but I owe him a lot; he was instrumental in getting this movie to the United States. I may have to love him forever for somehow arranging to make sure that even Blockbuster used subtitles instead of whinging until they got it dubbed. This is ... if Robin Hood had kung fu instead of Merry Men and a bow, you'd be on the right track. This sucker's just a fun little movie. Friendly neighbourhood doctor vs. evil, or at least stupidly corrupt, regional overlords, one of whom forces another doctor to hunt him down as an outlaw. Wire-fu all over the place (in case you hadn't caught on - wire-fu is when they don't even try to make what's going on look natural or reasonable under the known laws of gravity). An amazing little fight scene featuring a small boy (well, the character's the young Wong Fei-hung, but he's played by a girl) vs. large and cranky people in the marketplace - ph34r his m4d umbr3ll4 sk1llz! This movie is a brilliant example of one of the key axioms of the RPG Feng Shui: everyone knows kung fu. EVERYONE. I liked the story, I liked the script, I liked the visuals, it made me happy, I bought a copy. You can rent it, though. Unlike the first two on this list, this movie had a wide theatrical distribution in the States and is available for rental at pretty much any Blockbuster you care to name.
4. Legend of Drunken Master. Here we get into movies starring people most Americans stand a chance of recognizing. Jackie Chan as Wong Fei-hung is the star of this one, although Anita Mui, who plays his mother, comes very close to stealing the show several times. Jackie plays Wong Fei-hung as a young man in this one. Wong Fei-hung was... how do I explain this? Other people have written about him before. He's a historical figure, a real person - and he appears as a character in more Hong Kong movies than any other human being, ever. You can find a nice write-up about him at this site, but what you basically need to know is that he was a Chinese physician with kung fu training from his father, a social activist in a very dangerous time, and something of a national hero. The storyline involves national treasures being smuggled out of China as part of a scheme to weaken the country, but you can get all of that and more by watching the movie. What you newbies need to know most is that this is the famous Jackie Chan movie where the more he drinks, the more powerful his fighting skills get. It also features a really nice fight set under a train (not a moving one, thankfully). I was able to rent this one. You should be aware that this is actually the second movie in the series; the first is simply called Drunken Master, but I've never seen it.
5. Encounters of the Spooky Kind 2. I can't very well recommend a Jackie Chan movie without suggesting one that has Sammo Hung in it, and this is the Sammo movie that I've seen that I think Bulletproof Monk fans will take to fastest. The title link is to a database of Hong Kong movies, and it's detail-heavy; don't click on it if you don't want to see most of the major plot points summed up in a hurry. All I can say is, this movie made me like Sammo at a time when all I'd seen of him was a few appearances on Martial Law. The man is capable of shedding every last bit of personal dignity for the sake of a great performance, a feat other comedic actors can only envy. And - because this is Sammo - it has to be said: do not let the fact that he's fat fool you. Sammo is fully capable of punching a man in the crotch while standing back to back with him. Or flipping forward in such a fashion that he can kick someone on the top of their head with the top side of his foot, without so much as batting an eye. It's really a fun little movie, though I haven't seen it in ages, and I think you'll like it if Monk is all you've had to go on so far.
6. Swordsman 2. This stars Jet Li, who's probably my favourite living HK action star. (Lam Ching Ying unfortunately died of liver cancer a while back.) I'm sure most HK fans would suggest you watch Once Upon a Time in China instead, but right now I am targeting people who've only seen Bulletproof Monk. The story's kinda disjointed and it's got plot holes you could drive a truck through, but that's kind of the point. I mean, it's got ninjas - ninjas! Not even Lin Kuei, ninjas! Everything's better with ninjas! - and it's got a group of people referred to as the Highlander Clan and I'm pretty sure the subtitles on my copy said something about the ninjas being gypsies... and it's got a scroll of ultimate martial arts power, which is always cool, except for the part about having to castrate yourself. This would be why the antagonist is played by Brigitte Lin. It's an awfully entertaining movie, if not a particularly well scripted one, and once you've watched it you can go on to see Once Upon a Time in China and properly appreciate Jet's skills. Just do yourself a favour and try to get hold of the version entitled Swordsman 2; Blockbuster has a version called Legend of the Swordsman and it looks like another one of their craptacular dub jobs.
That's about it for now. More tomorrow, when I get the chance.
10000bullets for a few more ideas, but in the meantime, shall we begin?1. Shaolin Soccer. You want to see this movie. If you liked Bulletproof Monk then you really want to see this movie. However, I must warn you... The showing of Monk that I went to had a preview for the US import version, due out in... I think maybe May.
YOU MUST NOT SEE THAT VERSION FIRST.
If there is one lesson I have learned from watching these movies until Cantonese comes out my ears, it is that a badly done dub job can ruin even the most excellent movie. I can't in good conscience recommend Project A because I have only seen the English-dubbed version, and the dialogue is so hideously stilted, the voices chosen for the various actors so wrong, that even Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung together couldn't make me happy with it. The US version of Shaolin Soccer is being imported and dubbed by Disney, but in the end who dubs it is really pretty irrelevant. The fact that it's dubbed at all means that it will most likely be robbed of a great deal of its charm. Kaiju-style crappy lip synching is one thing; voice actors who make Jet Li sound like he's from Ohio are something else altogether.
I should point out that it is possible to get your hands on the DVD of Shaolin Soccer at stands in shopping malls, even though they're not the 'approved' import version. Or on eBay, for that matter. Trust me, this movie is worth it. Take your typical 'formerly great sports team comes out of retirement and shakes off the rust to defeat Very Bad People and regain their youthful glory' movie. Now assume that the person directing it is essentially Jim Carrey on sparkly pink fruit-flavoured monkey crack, and that he's hired the special effects team from The Matrix and several of the finest fight choreographers in Hong Kong. The first fifteen or twenty minutes of the movie are a bit slow and some of the humour depends on Cantonese wordplay that simply doesn't come across in the subtitles, but around the fifteen minute mark, whatever medication Stephen Chow is taking to keep people believing that he's sane wears off. And oh, my friends, when the medication wears off the most gloriously ridiculously funny movie I've seen in a long time kicks in. If you play Mage and you want to make your GM cry, watch this movie and then work up an Akashic Brother...
2. The Storm Riders. This one, like Monk, is an adaptation of a comic book. The difference is that Monk is an adaptation of an underground comic - I believe one written by an American - whereas The Storm Riders is an adaptation of an insanely popular comic book series by Ma Wing Shing, known and read throughout Hong Kong and surrounding territories. In order to understand exactly what sort of movie you're dealing with, you need to remember: this is not a cinematic triumph of a movie. This is a movie in which Sonny Chiba plays an Evil Overlord called Lord Conquer. Let me repeat that: the main antagonist of this movie is named Lord Conquer. That in itself should tell you nearly everything you need to know, just like people who go to see Bulletproof Monk need to know that the movie contains a kung fu Nazi in order to understand what they're dealing with. This is a special-effects-heavy movie. Not just the wire-fu kind of stuff you see in a lot of these movies, but lots of flashy glitzy attempts to replicate the visual atmosphere of Mr. Ma's comic. It should be noted that this is a movie that features a scene where a guy rips off his own arm (he gets better later). There's magical swords and there's murdered fathers and there's jealousy over the master's daughter and there's old geezers named Sword Saint and there's a Shaolin monk who shoots fireballs from his hands and oh, lordy, if you're looking for a flick that captures the feel of a comic book in live action, you can't do much better than this one. And there's a monkey! There's even a monkey! Everything's better with monkeys! Side note: the two main disciples of Lord Conquer, young men named Wind and Cloud, are played by awfully attractive actors. I paid $29.95 for it at Suncoast Video and feel my money was well spent.
3. Iron Monkey. I have never seen a Quentin Tarantino movie, but I owe him a lot; he was instrumental in getting this movie to the United States. I may have to love him forever for somehow arranging to make sure that even Blockbuster used subtitles instead of whinging until they got it dubbed. This is ... if Robin Hood had kung fu instead of Merry Men and a bow, you'd be on the right track. This sucker's just a fun little movie. Friendly neighbourhood doctor vs. evil, or at least stupidly corrupt, regional overlords, one of whom forces another doctor to hunt him down as an outlaw. Wire-fu all over the place (in case you hadn't caught on - wire-fu is when they don't even try to make what's going on look natural or reasonable under the known laws of gravity). An amazing little fight scene featuring a small boy (well, the character's the young Wong Fei-hung, but he's played by a girl) vs. large and cranky people in the marketplace - ph34r his m4d umbr3ll4 sk1llz! This movie is a brilliant example of one of the key axioms of the RPG Feng Shui: everyone knows kung fu. EVERYONE. I liked the story, I liked the script, I liked the visuals, it made me happy, I bought a copy. You can rent it, though. Unlike the first two on this list, this movie had a wide theatrical distribution in the States and is available for rental at pretty much any Blockbuster you care to name.
4. Legend of Drunken Master. Here we get into movies starring people most Americans stand a chance of recognizing. Jackie Chan as Wong Fei-hung is the star of this one, although Anita Mui, who plays his mother, comes very close to stealing the show several times. Jackie plays Wong Fei-hung as a young man in this one. Wong Fei-hung was... how do I explain this? Other people have written about him before. He's a historical figure, a real person - and he appears as a character in more Hong Kong movies than any other human being, ever. You can find a nice write-up about him at this site, but what you basically need to know is that he was a Chinese physician with kung fu training from his father, a social activist in a very dangerous time, and something of a national hero. The storyline involves national treasures being smuggled out of China as part of a scheme to weaken the country, but you can get all of that and more by watching the movie. What you newbies need to know most is that this is the famous Jackie Chan movie where the more he drinks, the more powerful his fighting skills get. It also features a really nice fight set under a train (not a moving one, thankfully). I was able to rent this one. You should be aware that this is actually the second movie in the series; the first is simply called Drunken Master, but I've never seen it.
5. Encounters of the Spooky Kind 2. I can't very well recommend a Jackie Chan movie without suggesting one that has Sammo Hung in it, and this is the Sammo movie that I've seen that I think Bulletproof Monk fans will take to fastest. The title link is to a database of Hong Kong movies, and it's detail-heavy; don't click on it if you don't want to see most of the major plot points summed up in a hurry. All I can say is, this movie made me like Sammo at a time when all I'd seen of him was a few appearances on Martial Law. The man is capable of shedding every last bit of personal dignity for the sake of a great performance, a feat other comedic actors can only envy. And - because this is Sammo - it has to be said: do not let the fact that he's fat fool you. Sammo is fully capable of punching a man in the crotch while standing back to back with him. Or flipping forward in such a fashion that he can kick someone on the top of their head with the top side of his foot, without so much as batting an eye. It's really a fun little movie, though I haven't seen it in ages, and I think you'll like it if Monk is all you've had to go on so far.
6. Swordsman 2. This stars Jet Li, who's probably my favourite living HK action star. (Lam Ching Ying unfortunately died of liver cancer a while back.) I'm sure most HK fans would suggest you watch Once Upon a Time in China instead, but right now I am targeting people who've only seen Bulletproof Monk. The story's kinda disjointed and it's got plot holes you could drive a truck through, but that's kind of the point. I mean, it's got ninjas - ninjas! Not even Lin Kuei, ninjas! Everything's better with ninjas! - and it's got a group of people referred to as the Highlander Clan and I'm pretty sure the subtitles on my copy said something about the ninjas being gypsies... and it's got a scroll of ultimate martial arts power, which is always cool, except for the part about having to castrate yourself. This would be why the antagonist is played by Brigitte Lin. It's an awfully entertaining movie, if not a particularly well scripted one, and once you've watched it you can go on to see Once Upon a Time in China and properly appreciate Jet's skills. Just do yourself a favour and try to get hold of the version entitled Swordsman 2; Blockbuster has a version called Legend of the Swordsman and it looks like another one of their craptacular dub jobs.
That's about it for now. More tomorrow, when I get the chance.
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no subject
Date: 2003-04-26 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-26 07:47 am (UTC)After I watched the movie I went online and paged the person I remembered as having recommended it, praising them to the skies for their excellent choice of movie. They said they'd never seen it, but had been meaning to.
I still have no idea who said I should watch this movie!