Not Fab-boo-lous, but not completely boo-ring either

Show Me the Ghost failed to break any new ground in the Ghost Whisperer genre. If they’d trimmed the film by 20 minutes and tightened up the story it might have made a good episode in one of the many ghostly dramas dedicated to the same theme.

Ye Ji and Ho Doo are friends dating back to childhood. When Ye Ji fails yet another job interview she casts her troubles on her friend reminding him that he owes her money. Ho Doo takes her to his new house that is spacious and came completely furnished and as they would find out later, complete with its own ghost. Unable to break the contract the two determine to either fob the apartment off on someone else or drive the ghost out.

The plot was threadbare and I knew within five minutes exactly where it was going. Some of the scenes felt incredibly forced. It was billed as a comedy and that was a reach unless you find Han Seung Yeon’s relentless screaming and ear-piercing fake crying hilarious. There was only one segment involving four pair of shoes that made me chuckle. Kim Hyun Mok’s performance was as understated as Han’s was shrill. The rest of the cast was adequate but not much more.

For a big fraidy cat like me, this was the perfect kind of ghost story. It wasn’t scary and there was a bittersweet resolution to the haunting. Despite being cursed by an over-used paradigm, with a more imaginative script and compelling acting it might not have been spooktacular, but it would have had more spirit.

10/15/23

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Sammo takes on a hopping vampire!

Sammo Hung took on all sorts of things that go bump in the night in Spooky Encounters. This was a combination of horror, comedy, and kung fu with mixed results.

Bold Cheung’s wife is having an affair with the local wealthy guy, Master Tam. Unwilling to share or be exposed Tam hires Chin Hoi, an immoral priest to kill Cheung by magical means. Chin Hoi’s apprentice, Priest Tsui, refuses to go along with the murderous plot and secretly helps Cheung. Another of Chin Hoi’s apprentices tricks Cheung into spending the night not once, but twice in a locked temple. Not scary, you say? Locked inside is a hopping vampire! When the hopping vampire fails to kill him, the bad guys frame Cheung for the murder of his very much alive wife. Eventually the simple Cheung is convinced that the man he trusts and the wife he loves are plotting to kill him. It will all come down to a no spells barred priest against priest and Sammo against the rest ultimate magical fight.

This is considered a kung fu horror classic and many people love it. I struggled to connect with it. I love a good hopping vampire story and this one scored on that account. But if Sammo is in the movie, I want more action. The first fight didn’t take place until 43 minutes into the movie. And most of the action took place after the 1-hour mark. The story wasn’t compelling enough to keep me interested during the first half. I was happy to see Lam Ching Ying, one of the martial arts directors, have a nice little fight against his own men when they were possessed. Chung Fat played a lot of bad guys early in his career so it was fun for him to play a heroic character. The final fight had Sammo possessed by different characters including the Monkey King. The action and dialogue were cranked high in fast motion. Once Sammo started fighting the film took on more interest for me. Fair warning there were some gruesome images-insects, rodents, a decomposed corpse, and a decapitated chicken.

Encounter of the Spooky Kind was one of the first movies to combine kung fu, comedy, and horror. It started out slow, finally finding its footing. The humor could be hit or miss, but when it came to fighting, Sammo rarely missed.

10/4/23

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"Never have I witnessed the beauty of the world"

Zhang Yi Mou is renowned for his use of brilliant colors and vibrant scenery. In Shadow he showed he could strip it all away and lay bare the story in a gray and white world. The story that seems simplistic at first peels away layer after layer revealing desire, betrayal, and greed.

Two kingdoms have signed a peace treaty but only the Yans have control of the great walled city of Jing. The Pei clan yearns to reclaim Jing City against the wishes of their king who wants to keep the peace at all costs even if it means wedding his sister to the Yan heir. The Pei Commander has challenged General Yang to a duel, one he doesn't believe he can win with the winner claiming the city for his clan. The Pei king strips the Commander of his rank for putting the peace at risk, reducing him to a commoner. Early on it is revealed that the Commander is only a shadow named Jing. The real Commander stays tucked away in an underground cave slowly dying from a wound rendered by the Yang general. Soon the characters set up the play they wanted, never knowing if they were the puppet master or puppet.

Shadow's dark underlying mood reminded me of an emotional mash-up of Kurosawa's Kagemusha and Throne of Blood. Jing had grown up in the darkness and even in the light was someone else's shadow. Aside from the Commander's wife, was there something else he desired? The Commander (like a good Kurosawa character) had gone nearly mad trapped below ground scheming and planning. Deng Chao played both characters so well I could scarcely tell they were the same person. Madam was torn between her loyalty to her husband and her feelings for Jing. Other than his longing for Pei to reclaim Jing City, Capt. Tian's loyalty was murky at best. Was Pei's king short-sighted or playing the long game? Characters with the greatest conceit would pay the greatest price. Zhang Yi Mou took his time revealing the hidden truths beneath the characters' facades.

Zhang may have stripped his palette of bright colors but the film was no less stylistic. Though the film at first glance appeared monochromatic, he judiciously used color---patches of green on the hills, the luminous glow of skin, the golden heat from candles, warm brown tones in the Yin and Yang and of course the crimson flow of blood pooling in the rain. His use of color and architecture were, as always, a wonder.

Umbrellas are no stranger to kung fu movies. Zhang, however, took them to new heights. One scene with the army sliding down the cobblestone street doubly armed may have defied gravity but not wuxia magic. The fights were brutal and deadly. Ku Huen Chiu has an impressive track record as a martial arts director and his work here was exemplary. One fight managed to combine dangerous combat into an erotic dance. Feminine moves were created to combat masculine ones to great effect. A surprise knife or sword to the neck always works, too. The great battle accompanied by a zither duet was reminiscent of Hero and just as effective.

The climax dragged on as the endgames became apparent and who would ultimately come out on top was left up to the viewer to decide. Shadow was at its heart a martial arts film complete with betrayals, schemes, lust, and revenge served on a blood-soaked platter. Few directors could create a more aesthetically pleasing film or take an old genre and make it feel new. Zhang Yi Mou is one of my favorite directors for being able to do all that and more. Shadow's breathtaking use of color and creative cinematography was the perfect setting for the ancient story of man's pyrrhic need for power.

9/26/23

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Set in the early 1900's, The Bloody Fists starred Chen Sing and Chen Kuan Tai. Yuen Woo Ping choreographed the fights which meant at least they would be interesting. It was a good thing, because the story wasn't.

With a plague descending upon the country the invading Japanese wanted the precious dragon herb grown locally for their own people and to let the Chinese suffer the devastating effects of the illness without their remedy. The villagers in charge of farming and storing it refuse to sell it to the Japanese. A mask wearing Chen Kuan Tai in a terrible wig brings his men to intimidate the village into handing over the dragon herb. Three brothers manage to hold his men off initially. In a kung fu film if there are three brothers, two of them are extraneous and most likely won't see the ending credits. Along with the Yu brothers, Jiang Wu Ke, a notorious robber wanted by the law shows up in town while he's on the run. He falls ill with the plague and is treated with the dragon herb by a mute and his grandfather. By the time he recovers the villagers are either dead or being held hostage by the Japanese. The bad guys didn't quite grasp the whole hostage concept as they kept killing them off or killing the people who knew where the herb was hidden. Offended by the bad guys' violence Jiang decides to take matters into his own hands.

Chen Sing played the good guy in this movie, going against his usual villain type. He did make for a more complex hero than the bland Yu brothers. Chen Kuan Tai didn't come across as a very sinister baddie, but it could have been due to the hilarious wig he was sporting. Evil sidekick San Kaui had owl-like eyebrows while Pak Sha Lik looked like his mustache was made out of electrical tape. Mama Hung and Hao Li Jen who had nearly 600 acting credits between them made their usual supporting appearances.

The story's simple plot coupled with terrible pacing caused the movie to drag terribly. The sets weren't special and the Chinese costumes were standard for kung fu movies regardless of the era they were supposed to take place in. The Japanese costumes were as bad as Kuan Tai's wig. There was an awful rape scene that was gratuitous and completely unnecessary which downgraded the movie for me. Yuen Woo Ping's fight choreography wasn't as polished as it would become but it was entertaining, especially the final fights by the ocean beach. Chen Sing and Chen Kuan Tai had enough charisma to sell it. There was one fight in the dark that was almost impossible to make out much of the action. Trampolines and sped up camera work were both employed throughout.

As bland as the story and characters were, I did enjoy seeing Chen Sing play the good guy. He made his character compelling to watch, a rare feat next to the lackluster cast. The Bloody Fists wasn't an awful 1970's kung fu film, but it wasn't bloody marvelous either.

9/10/23

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"A flower once bloomed will hold to the vine, while a bud will fall."

Kurosawa Akira worked on this script but didn't live to film the story. The Sea Is Watching seemed far from his usual comfort zone as it was woman centric and heavy on romance. You'd have to go back to just after WWII to see him tread so heavily into romantic territory. Director Kumai Kei picked up his mantel and made the film, but it felt far from the Kurosawa films most of us are familiar with.

The film centers around a brothel and a young prostitute named Oshin. She has a big heart and a bad habit of giving it away to the wrong men. Kikuno is an older prostitute with an older suitor who wants her to come live with him. Stopping her is a violent yakuza lover who thinks he owns her and uses her earnings to pay off bad debts. The young women stick together and support one another through their ups and downs. After a bad romance, Oshin falls hard for a destitute man who is ready to end his life. He will play a key role when a torrential storm churns up the sea and the nearby river sending flood waters toward the town.

The cinematography and sets were beautiful and the colorful kimonos stunning. The acting seemed overwrought at times as the younger thespians weren't as polished as the more experienced actors. Shimizu Misa grounded the young oiran with a more reserved performance.

This film played like a melodramatic slice of life on the wrong side of the bridge as the women dealt with the caste system, love, heartache and dangerous clients. The middle bogged down making an already long film feel longer. However, the ending gave the film the emotional weight it desperately needed when one person showed the true samurai spirit in a moment of love and sacrifice with the pure-heart of a warrior.

9/9/23

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Sometimes brave people can bring about change

As the Tibetan antelope numbers rapidly decreased from one million to around 10,000 in the 1990's, men from the Kekexili area formed the Mountain Patrol to deter poachers from the area. Based on a true story, in the nearly lawless, desolate land the patrol had no one to rely on but themselves. Outmanned and outgunned by the ruthless poachers they would have to be resolute in their convictions in the unforgiving terrain to save the endangered animals…and themselves.

A Beijing journalist with a Tibetan father, Gu Ya, succeeds in imbedding himself with the Mountain Patrol. Their leader, battle hardened Ri Tae, accepts him with the hope a story could bring more help to their cause. The patrol is mourning the loss of one of their own who was murdered recently by the poachers. Gu Ya scarcely has time to unpack his bag before the men head out on patrol to track down the murderers. Along the way they cover barren desert and forbidding mountains. Gu Ya discovers how harshly they interrogate witnesses and suspects, especially after they come across nearly 500 hundred dead and peltless antelope. The patrol reverently stacks the carcasses and burns them with a funeral rite. The small band of men have to resort to selling the pelts they discover to pay for medical care and supplies.

The patrol was decimated by illness and death. The earth reminded them that despite their noble cause, they were vulnerable in spaces without food and water, where snowstorms could erupt in a moment, and quicksand could swallow a man in a matter of seconds. The desert and blizzard winds mercilessly erased all traces that a person had ever been there. Ri Tae was a man possessed with catching the murdering poachers which endangered not only himself but also his men as they ran low on food and fuel. Tibetan actor Duo Bu Jie was perfect as the patrol leader who was relentless in his pursuit of his enemy and also loved his men and the land.

Mountain Patrol could be disturbing with scenes of animals being butchered with numerous carcasses and bullet ridden pelts. Yet it also featured beautiful and stark landscapes. Director Lu Chuan filmed on location where the events were said to have happened in a land so remote a person's steps could be the first footsteps there since the dawn of time. The soundtrack was emotionally haunting, perfectly accenting a scene without intruding. The story was gut wrenching as the men with "dirty hands and pure hearts" suffered devastating losses. Yet their losses for a cause they believed in did bring about change. After their stories became published the government designated the land a natural preserve and the antelope population has steadily increased. Lu Chuan never fully answered what compelled these men to risk their lives in service to the graceful animals, but the world is a slightly better place because they did.

9/1/23

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"Beauty co-exists with its wounds"

If a person wrote a love letter to Taiwan extolling its people, land, food, and history it might look like A Thousand Goodnights. An adopted daughter sought to finish her father's rail trip of exploration and found an unfinished story needing reconciliation. Later in the drama the journey diverted off the main itinerary into melodramatic territory stranding passengers hoping for more scenic destinations yet still continued the search for meaning between generations and what constituted home.

Kindly Station Master Tai Chia He took an abandoned little girl, Tai Tien Ching, home and raised her as his own along with his daughter, Tai Tien Yu. On the day of his retirement, Cheng No, a young man he had corresponded with through the years returned to Taiwan. Chia He set out the next day on his long awaited rail journey complete with itinerary in hand. When Chia He unexpectedly died Tien Ching and Cheng No decided to finish his trip for him. Along the way they discovered relationships that needed healing-a first love, a birding club, an old friend's birthday party gathering, and a child who needed a family and desired to be a station master.

New friends were made and new family members discovered and romance blossomed along the way. The drama dealt with healing the sins of the past and the problems of the present. It covered a multitude of issues-infidelity, lost parents, dementia, plagiarism, gambling and the trials of becoming an idol. The older generation learned from the younger generation as the younger generation learned from the older generation.

I loved seeing the beauty of Taiwan and learning about some of its history. The rail travels were my favorite part. The healing message and reconciliations were heartwarming if a little too simple. As one character said, "I really miss those days when we traveled together." Me, too, buddy. The story lost some of its magic when it veered off course.

The biggest problem I had was the female lead, Tien Ching. As one character asked her, "Were you born to be exploited?" She was terribly bland and being an artist could not be used as a substitute for actual interesting characteristics. She mumbled quite often and had trouble standing up for herself which led to people taking advantage of her. The actress who played her was limited to pursing her lips and darting her eyes around to convey emotion. Her every movement looked staged and awkward and very rigid in comparison to some of the more natural performances around her.

Overall, A Thousand Goodnights conveyed the value of handing down our stories from generation to generation as well as expanding the friendships to the next generation. Most family and friendship problems were handled respectfully and with compassion. The characters also found the value in home and family and not letting past family heartaches determine how they would treat each other in the present. This charming drama showed not only the beauty of Taiwan and her people, but also how we are all tied to the earth and to each other.

5/31/23

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Wong Fei Hung once again fights opium dealers, this time in Heroes of Heroes, with a little help from Beggar So. An evil opium smoking and opium dealing prince found himself overextended when he managed to make enemies of both men even with the vicious Red Lotus gang backing him up.

Special Commissioner Lin asks for Wong Fei Hung's help in cleaning up the city when the Emperor declares an opium ban. So Chai from the wealthy So family is bamboozled by Prince Barac into siding with him on the opium issue. The Prince is not only addicted to opium but stands to lose a fortune if its banned. When the prince hooks the young So on opium, Wong Fei Hung steps in to rescue the promising fighter. The two kung fu legends will have to work together to bring down the prince and free the city from the grip of opium addiction and dealers.

The first fifty minutes of this film were narratively scattered and filled with slapstick comedy. I found it tedious and underwhelming. When the secondary characters stopped hogging the limelight and So and WFH stepped up with their fists and kicks in the second half the movie turned for the better.

Wang Jue made for a very bland Wong Fei Hung. Donnie Yen was much more interesting as the young Beggar So discovering his destiny. Hung Yan Yan/Xiong XinXin succeeded in making the sinister Prince someone who was difficult to defeat. Fennie Yuen started out as the intrepid princess reporter with her camera, but quickly became a damsel in distress. Ng Man Tat and Sheila Chan were mainly used as comic relief, really bad comic relief.

The fights, especially in the second half were entertaining. There was a lot of wire-work and sped up camera action, but also some nice hand and foot work. Donnie was young, fast, and limber. I always enjoy watching him fight. The Yuen clan choreographed interesting fights using weapons, scenery, tiger, crane, and drunken fist styles of kung fu.

If you love 1990's slapstick comedy complete with goofy prosthetic teeth, you're in for a treat. If you're like me and just don't get it, but do enjoy old kung fu movies, be patient and wait until around the 50-minute mark and the fun will begin.

8/27/23

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The Blob moved quicker than this slow paced movie

H-Man, in this case H-Men, was another film cautioning against the use of atomic weapons. Similar to The Blob, slow moving ooey-gooey creatures that can also glow green dissolve anyone in their path.

The film begins with a drug heist gone wrong when the chief gangster disappears leaving his clothes behind. Enter an earnest young scientist who tries to convince the police that the gangster didn't run away---he was dissolved. The police refuse to believe him and concentrate on tailing the gangster's lover who is a singer in a club. After the dissolved bodies start puddling all over town, they realize they are dealing with the consequences of radioactive experiments.

The sci-fi part of the movie was well done for a story about giant molasses-moving blobs of radioactive goo that dissolve people but not their clothes. The tedious gangster part of the film about finding a block of missing heroin slowed the movie down making the blobs seem quick in comparison. As with some Godzilla movies, the monstrous blobs had most of their screen time in the last segment of the movie leaving the rest to the boring humans.

I enjoy a good creature feature, but the movie needs to feature the creature and not women in skimpy outfits singing in a club or cardboard characters wandering around aimlessly looking for gangsters or puddles of goo. Green Glowing Blobby-7.5/10 Bland Gangster Noir-4/10

8/24/23

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Until death do us part...

This drama special had the potential to be a satisfying romance and murder mystery. There wasn't just one secret, there were several. A construction worker paid for a wife from Vietnam, but his own insecurities created problems that turned deadly.

Mail order bride stories tend to be problematic in real life. They are often rife with scams and human trafficking issues. In this story, a rough construction worker buys a Vietnamese wife. He has little trust in her and hides her foreign registration card and passport. She diligently works taking care of his shoddy home, assisting his invalid mother, learning Korean, and eventually finding jobs to help support their little family. He drinks at night, falls asleep, and goes to work, leaving little time for conversation. Eventually, they have a child together. Despite her loyalty he refuses to help her gain Korean citizenship, fearing that she will leave. She patiently hopes that one day he will see the love she has for him. The special opens with her being interrogated by the police for his brutal murder, so spoiler alert, there's not a happy ending for this couple.

This drama special had great potential but the writers decided to sabotage the relationship, not with a secret but with physical abuse. On separate occasions he hit her in public repeatedly. If she killed him, I was ready to be a witness for the defense. She constantly displayed saintly long suffering with his silences, distrust, jealousy, and physical abuse. Nothing she did seemed to penetrate his insecurities. He may have shown kindness towards her a few times, but I can't get past him hitting her and leaving her vulnerable without her foreign registration card. At first, he may have been cautious with a stranger in his house but some of his actions could be perceived as him treating her as less than because she was foreign or even worse because she was a commodity he had paid for. Because he refused to communicate with her and treat her as a real wife, he set up the dominoes to be knocked over leading to his death and financial ruin. Secret had many secrets but the biggest was why the writers thought an abusive male lead was ever going to be seen as sympathetic.

8/21/23

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"We know it's wrong, but preaching won't help"

Women of the Night was a brutal look at women without a support system who were left to fend for themselves on the streets during post WWII Japan. Sisters Fusako and Natsuko took different roads, but both ended up at the same destination—prostituting themselves to survive. Once again, Mizoguchi showed the devastating affects of war and poverty on women, this time taking on topics that were often taboo.

Mizoguchi spared no one in this melodramatic look at the plight of women in the chaotic years after the war. A husband died, two children died, parents died, dying of malnutrition was a real fear, two sisters slept with the same man, opium was on the scene, STDs were dealt with, two characters were raped, gangs preyed on the weak, abortion was discussed, and pregnancy affected a main character. While life on the streets could be rough and deadly, Mizoguchi veered from informative into an area that felt exploitive.

Aside from desperation, the film was filled with anger, deep seething anger. Rage-filled Fusako hoped to infect as many men as she could. Natsuko only saw men as a way to make money, even willing to betray her sister to find a patron. The prostitution gangs fiercely guarded their territory, viciously attacking any woman who wandered their way or sought to turn straight. Men patrolled the streets looking for easy marks to rob and rape, further exasperating the predicament of young women on their own. Once "defiled" the girls often felt they had nowhere to turn but to prostitution.

Fusako had resisted turning to prostitution until the betrayal, which felt like an insincere reason for abandoning hope, and immediately diving into the world of street walking. By the end of the film, she made a 180 in the shadow of the Madonna in a bombed-out church that looked like a cemetery. It brought to mind the old Madonna (virgin) or whore definitions for women. She decided that she would work on behalf of all women for a world where their virtue could be protected. After being shown the dire straits women without family or fortune faced it felt insincere and an excuse for a hopeful ending. When the Purity Association had preached chastity at a women's clinic, the prostitutes jeered that they weren't turning tricks for fun and who would feed them if they quit? Would jobs suddenly be available and polite society accept them? Would men no longer take advantage of them? At one point there were 70,000 officially recognized prostitutes, not counting those who worked the streets. Mizoguchi repeatedly heaped humiliating trials and tribulations upon the female characters in this film and seemed to leave them with the false hope that simply walking away would provide them with food and shelter and a society that might come to accept them and be a safe place for women. After all the fury, degradation, and sorrow, the film's ending felt trite and unearned.


8/21/23

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"If you keep disturbing me, you'll get me angry"

King Hu's Dragon Inn was one of the bar setting martial arts films in the 1960's. Set in Taiwan, King made full use of the stunning scenery, capturing it lovingly on film. Polly Shang Kuan Ling Feng, Shih Chun, Miao Tian, Tsao Chien and Hsieh Han shone as the primary participants in the battle at the inn on the edge of civilization.

It was the time in martial arts lore when the ruthless Eunuch Tsao Shao Chin was massing wealth and power and crushing his enemies. He had loyal and ethical defense minister Yu beheaded and exiled his family to the outpost at Dragon Gate Inn. And because he was the bad guy he sent members from the East Agency to murder the children. The first attempt failed because Hsieh Han, in a rare good guy role, stepped in with his sword and protected the small entourage. Tsao sent Pi Shao Tung (Miao Tian) and nearly 30 men to intercept the surviving Yu family at the Inn.

The Inn is where the action truly begins and rarely slows down. Shih Chun's Hsiao Shao Tzu arrives after Pi and his men settled into the inn. Ostensibly he was there to see his old friend Wu Ning, the owner of the Inn and General Yu's former lieutenant. Pi's men attempt to take Hsiao out which results in several dead agents and a tenuous détente. Hsieh Han and Polly make their way to the crowded Inn forcefully insisting on accommodations. They also have to demonstrate that they are not to be trifled with. When finally the Yu children appear the sword-fights begin in earnest and the arrows start flying. Not to be left out, the deadly Eunuch Tsao makes a grand entrance with more men.

Dragon Inn kept the story straightforward, no secret lists, no secret kung fu books, or double-double crosses, just the goal of wiping out a good man's family and the loyal subjects who stood up for what was right. King would make the iconic A Touch of Zen in 1971 which had a richer story, Dragon Inn let its swords do the talking for the most part. Swordsman Hsiao injected humor into the lethal fights with Tsao, mercilessly taunting a man who was not used to being disrespected. Due to the large cast and near constant action, character growth was given short shrift.

Polly often played a hot-headed swordswoman, this time she was the cooler, faster blade and her brother played by Hsieh Han was the volatile stab first ask questions later swordsman. With a dancer's agility she moved quickly and gracefully. Shih Chun came across rather stilted to me, though he performed well in the fights. Miao Tian was a charismatic and daunting bad guy, I really enjoyed his performance in this film. As evil eunuchs often were, Pai Ying's Tsao was over the top---an asthmatic, blond-haired master of kung fu and sword fighting he made for quite the spectacle. Hsu Feng, who would later star in A Touch of Zen played the bit part of the young daughter on the run in this film.

The fights were more operatic than realistic, but not of the poorly done swipe and die choreography used in some films. Han Ying Chieh was the martial arts director and an imposing Lieutenant for the East Agency. There was judicious use of trampolines and wire work and on a couple of occasions sped up camera work. The fight at the inn introducing Hsiao made creative use of every day items. Instead of being relegated to the background, Polly was allowed to fiercely fight Tsao, Pi, and Ying Chieh's Lt. The final gruesome fight was well coordinated and showed how determined and unafraid of death each combatant was. Unlike some of the cheaper Taiwanese martial arts films that were grainy and shot amongst the trees, King made grand use of the scenery as backdrops for the bloody clashes. The desolate, rocky desert and lush forested mountains often stole the scenes as the battles played out in nature.

Dragon Inn was a child of the 60's and reflected the acting and fight choreography of the era. When comparing it to other martial arts films of the time it displayed a greater elegance and cohesiveness. Not a perfect film, but for old martial arts movie fans, certainly an entertaining one.

8/16/23

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"Don't avoid the truth!"

The Tale of the Bookworm is a drama special book lovers can appreciate. In a little over one hour, it covered as much story ground as most dramas cover in 16 bloated episodes. The only copy of Heo Gyun's book "The Tale of Hong Gildong" aka "The Biography of Hong Gildong" has been stolen and an awkward bookworm must use what he's learned from reading to solve the case. The drama incorporates the usual political intrigue, a loyal bookpig, a hint of romance, a bromance, self-sacrifice, a bookwolf, and the determined bookworm who is willing to risk his life to find the missing treasure.

Low born bookworm Jang Suh Wan is accused of a murder that occurred at the same time as the theft of Heo's book where Jang regularly "borrows" books to copy. He and Capt. Lee are charged by the sinister Minister Lee with finding the radical book or face the consequences. Along the way, Jang meets a book loving concubine and a book obsessed prince. He's also kidnapped a couple of times and threatened with torture, the worst torture was having a book's ending spoiled for him! The horror! It would make any self-professed book lover crack! While there were comedic and fun bromance moments there were also blood spewing and blood pooling deaths.

Han Joo Wan made for a sweet bookworm with Sherlock Holmes abilities. Choi Dae Chul as Capt. Lee had great chemistry with the bookworm and was easy on the eyes. You can always count on Lee Dae Yeon to make for a proper Joseon schemer, he could do this role in his sleep. And Ahn Nae Sang brought the right amount of moral ambiguity to the famous writer. The special looked low budget, but the cast's charisma covered over most of the cinematographic cracks.

Heo Gyun is historically credited with writing The Tale of Hong Gildong, though authorship has come into dispute. In the drama, Jang's hero may not have been what the bookworm had hoped for but the power of the written word was more important and life altering. It was fun learning a bit about this progressive and subversive for the time writer and Hong Gildong, one of the most influential early writings in Korea. The Tale of the Bookworm was simply done but effective and entertaining as it reminded us of the power of books to change minds and the world.

8/3/23

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"What's immoral about a man and woman falling in love?"

Director Mizoguchi Kenji precariously balanced The Life of Oharu on the edge of a knife, while touching on melodrama, never slipped off into base sentimentality. His heroine, Oharu, faced degradation after degradation as a woman during the Edo period of Japan. Bound by tradition and gender, with little autonomy, her life was one of hardship created by roles she could not break out of.

Teenage Oharu was in love with a young retainer played by Mifune Toshiro. Katsunosuke refuses to give up on her because of his lower class, believing rank and money don't mean happiness, one has to marry for love. When they are caught in flagrante delicto, she and her parents are banished from Kyoto and the court, a far easier punishment than the lowly man who loved her. As fate would have it in Edo, Lord Matsudaira needs a concubine because his wife is barren. Without a second thought for Oharu, her father sells her to the lord. She blesses the lord with a son, but when the ruler is deemed as becoming weaker for spending too much time in bed with her, she is shown the door with basically the clothes on her back.

Her father sells her to a courtesan house where her attitude gets her thrown out. He then sells her as a maid to a couple, but when they discover her background, the wife becomes jealous and the husband wants "favors." After leaving that household, her parents find her a husband who doesn't care about her background and for a brief time she is happy. But that happiness turns to tragedy and once again she is on the street even lower than before. A group of old prostitutes take her in and set her up as a common prostitute, not an easy or profitable proposition at her age. When fate seems to smile on her it is only to turn the knife. But this cruel last twist strangely leads to a path that brings her peace.

Tanaka Kinuyo at the age of 43 took part in the grand tradition of actresses too old for their role playing a teenager. Her father was played by Sugai Ichiro and her mother who was played by Matsuura Tsukie were both only two years older than she was in real life! The role took her well into middle age, with the prostitutes complaining that you can't make a fifty-year-old woman look twenty. Tanaka may not have had a teenager's youth but she still brought a resiliency and grace to the role even as Oharu's life deteriorated. Mifune Toshiro's role as the retainer in love with her was brief and filled with criticism of classism and advocation for personal choice in something as important as marriage.

Mizoguchi often focused on the plight of women in his pictures. When he was young, his sister was sold to a geisha house because his father had gone into debt. That same sister would later take he and his brother in and pay for their schooling and help him find jobs. His criticism of women being sold and the damage it did to their lives was stinging.

Oharu made one choice for herself, the love for the young retainer and that ended in utter disaster because such a union was unacceptable to society. After that, her life choices were determined by others, for their desires and benefits. When it was found out she had been a courtesan, it meant she was fair game and men took advantage of that. When she was dismissed by the daimyo, there was no compensation for her loss of status, nor when her husband died did she receive anything, it went to his family. She was a woman without power, without status, and without her own agency. Her father sold her three times, as a concubine, a courtesan, and then as a maid. With the brief exceptions of Katsunosuke and her husband, Oharu's dignity and happiness held little to no value to the men who came into her life. There was no guilt in selling her or casting her callously aside. Mizoguchi didn't dwell on the vile acts, he simply pointed them out---repeatedly. Men were the only ones who truly mattered, especially men of power, and they were myopically and self-centeredly exercising their rights. Oharu never wailed at her fate, she simply kept as much dignity as she could as she faced torment after torment. Only at the end, when she made a choice that kept her in control of her own body did she came into her own. What might have been seen as a loss by others, actually freed her for the first time and let her spirit sore.

Mizoguchi resisted an emotionally manipulative, overwrought soundtrack for this sorrowful story. Instead of a swelling impassioned score to highlight the current emotional crisis at hand, stark, traditional Japanese tunes were used, whether it was background music, Buddhist chants, or a beggar on the street playing. He often distanced the audience from Oharu's pain by having her partially cover her face. The beleaguered woman was also recurrently shown from the back so that we didn't see the wounded emotions on her face. The story enacted around her told us of her shame, grief, and anger. Oharu's circumstances were also hidden from other characters in the film. The people who derided her were blind to the depth of her pain and her despair at being powerless to fight the system that held no compassion for her.

The Life of Oharu could be repetitive but also contained an element of truth. In the 17th century, a woman once "ruined", lost her status and value making her vulnerable and leaving her with few alternatives. Oharu's real courage was in surviving and ultimately finding an escape route that freed her from the cruel cage society and family had trapped her in.

7/26/23

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What price honor and glory?

The Sword asks the question, "what price honor and glory?" It's something I always wonder when I watch these films where swordsmen try to move up the pecking order by defeating someone ranked higher than themselves and toss the word honor around while doing it. "Excuse me, I know we don't have any disagreements, but would you mind terribly battling me to the death to see which of us is the superior swordsman?" This procedure never seemed very polite, much less honorable. In this film, Adam Cheng was forced to weigh the costs of spending years hunting for a legendary swordsman simply to test his skills.

Adam Cheng as Li Mak Yin befriends Ying Chih, a young swordswoman being hunted by a kidnapper, on the road to finding Hua/Wah, the legendary swordsman who has gone into hiding. Along the way he runs into his old flame who grew tired of waiting while he was on his quest and married Lin Wan (Norman Chu). Lin Wan turns out to be a vicious brute who wants Hua's sword Hon Sing. When Ying Chih is finally kidnapped Li goes to help her and is gifted the cursed sword Chi Mud to aid him by a woman who saved his life after a fierce battle with Lin's henchman. Turns out Ying Chih is Hua's daughter. In a very awkward moment after returning the man's daughter, Li asks if they could duel. After that interlude, the bodies start stacking up.

For a 1980 martial arts film, The Sword was slow, melancholic, and artfully done. Director Patrick Tam used beautiful framing and compositions combined with dramatic lighting. 1980's synth music was utilized for the soundtrack which actually worked quite well for setting the mood. The film asked how it felt to get what you wanted. Were the costs in innocent lives worth a lifetime of trying to beat and be the best? For the lone swordsman was the emptiness and loneliness of the lifestyle a satisfying tradeoff to feed one's pride and ambition?

The stunt work and fight choreography were acrobatic and quick. Despite being a more thoughtful movie, it did have gruesome ends to some of the fights. There were not only the traditional impalements, but one person decapitated himself and another was split in half. Chi Mud, much like The Ring of Power, was infused with hate and malice, and considered an evil sword. And just like the ring, it orchestrated the deadly destiny of several lives.

Adam Cheng played the conflicted and ambitious swordsman well. As Li weighed some of his exploitive actions, his life goals began to change. Norman Chu can be counted on to give depth to a villainous character and he did. Tien Feng, often cast as a baddie, was sympathetic as the aging considerate swordsman who cared for those around him. Jade Hsu found just the right balance as the firebrand daughter. She was forced to act idiotic for a scene but the writers finally put Ying Chih back on the right path. Eddy Ko, in a mostly silent role, made for a frightening henchman. Overall, the acting was quite good, especially for the genre.

The Sword was an excellent martial arts film for 1980 in comparison to so many others made during this time. The scenery, settings, and costumes were of a higher quality than most. For those looking for non-stop action, this might be a disappointment because it takes its time developing Li's character arc and the stakes being played for. The movie ends on a mournful note as Li moves beyond what he has been taught about honor and begins to understand that the real world has real consequences for his prideful actions. I would definitely recommend this film for fans of the genre. As always, I rate pre-1990 niche dramas on a curve.

6/27/23

*Many sites use a copy and pasted synopsis that says a swordsman and a samurai team up to find a blade. There is no samurai in this film, my guess is that it's either for a different movie or someone wrote a synopsis who had never seen this film.

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