“If the film (Romeo Must Die) cannot integrate Jet Li into his own film, it stumbles even more over its incorporation of 'Hong Kong action'. Romeo Must Die is, visually, a post-Matrix film, but it does not have its predecessor's fantasy remit to explain why fighters float in mid-air... the CGI-enhanced wirework looks as though…
Wong Jing – you nasty little man…
Or The Depiction of Martial Artists in High Risk. “Cross referencing is a constant in Wong Jing’s scavenger movies. Their in-jokes are too opportunistic to count as homages.” David Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong, P. 175 In his direction of his movies, Wong Jing goes nosing and scurrying after opportunities for gag making like a hungry…
Wong Jing’s High Risk
“They are the ideal example of script-by-brainstorming; each scene is stuffed with gimmicks. The opening is likely to be breathless. Within the first sixty seconds there will be a gag, a chase, or a suspenseful encounter.” David Bordwell, on Wong Jing’s films, Planet Hong Kong, P. 172 And Bordwell is right! The very first scene…
A brief blog about the fight with the garbage truck in My Father is a Hero
“(Geoffrey) Nowell-Smith suggests that repressed emotions erupt in moments of high tension or drama and manifest themselves as symptoms through performance, music and mise-en-sce`ne and it is at such points of heightened emotion that the characteristic excesses of the melodrama manifest themselves.” (Shingler and Mercer, Melodrama, pp. 22-23) As discussed in my blog on melodrama and…
Getting to know you: introductory fights in My Father is a Hero
Last night I watched The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. A collaboration between Shaw Brothers and Hammer studios, this production is an odd blend of eastern and western themes and talents. It stars David Chiang and Peter Cushing, and the plot revolves around Dracula taking the form of a corrupt Chinese mystic and decamping…
My Father is a Hero: prefiguring action
My previous 2 blogs have also dealt with the action in My Father is a Hero. The last blog I posted commented on the action and its choreography in the opening scenes. I am a hopeless structure freak. When I used to choreograph myself I always paid a lot of attention to structure in my…
My Father is a Hero – an overview of the action
So far I have written blogs on My Father is a Hero that have focused on the theme of the movie (here) and its melodramatic form (here). In the next series of blogs I will be focusing on the action and how director and choreographer, Corey Yuen Kuei, and choreographer and action director, Yuen Tak, have…
Some thoughts on the final fight scene in My Father is a Hero
The final fight scene of My Father is a Hero is an absolute corker. It is set in the metal encased confines of a cargo ship that is hosting an illicit antiques auction, and this means that the frenetic action bounces about in a relatively small space, which adds to the impression of contained energy…
The melodrama in My Father is a Hero
Last year I read a very interesting book written by John Mercer and Martin Shingler called Melodrama. This book is a survey of the way the term ‘melodrama’ had been used to describe certain American films during the history of cinema. I read it because I was interested to see if there was any co-relation…
My Father is a Hero: The Power of the Promise (Part 2)
The relationships discussed in the first part of this blog so far are between male characters, and this film would be in danger of being an overwhelmingly masculine film if it were not for the impact of 2 important female characters: Li Xia (played by Bonnie Fu Yuk Jing), mother and wife to Ku (played…
