Kung Fu Classics
Blood of the Dragon (DVD, China, 1973, 96 min.)
by Pao-Shu Kao; with Yu Wang, Chiao Chiao, Fei Lung, Yeung Yeung.
Talvez você tenha visto esse filme em alguma sessão da tarde na TV. Eu lembro dos meus irmãos assistindo filmes de kung fu quando éramos crianças (enquanto eu era fã dos musicais naqueles dias).
De qualquer modo, esse Blood of the Dragon parece meio 'cult', se não é com certeza. A qualidade da cópia em DVD é horrível, o som tem falhas, a cor está seriamente danificada. Deixando isso de lado, a estória é bem divertida, a coisa do "exército de um homem só" funciona muito bem. As clássicas batalhas de espada, o alto e carismático Yu Wang enfrentando sozinho um pequeno exército, até o trágico e sangrendo final.
Special Movie Review
The Departed: no departure (by David Bordwell)
"I’d love to join the applause that welcomes Scorsese back, but for these and other reasons I have to sit on my hands. For me, the inventiveness of the Asian tradition still reigns supreme in the crime genre. I grant that Infernal Affairs accepts the energy-aesthetic, with its swooping camera moves and its 3.2 second ASL. But the camera gives its actors room to breathe, and it spares some time to define a scene’s locale."
read all comment at:
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?p=18
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2. Just Breathe [Anna Nalick]
3. Semi Charmed Life [Third Eye Blind]
4. This Years Love [David Gray]
5. Looking At The World...[Mike Doughty]
6. High [James Blunt]
7. Hands Open [Snow Patrol]
8. I Can't Seem To...[The Clientele]
9. Life is Short [Butterfly Boucher]
10. Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking [Snow Patrol]
11. Fortress [Pinback]
12. I Me You I'm Yours [Jim Noir]
13. Old Habits Die Hard [Jaegger, Stewart]
14. The Reason Why [Rachael Yamagata]
15. When You And I Were Young [Clientele]
16. Silence is Easy [Starsailor]
17. May Angels Lead You In [Jimmy Eat World]
18. I Do [Better Than Ezra]
19. You Only Live Once [Strokes]
20. Drifting [Jay Chou]
1962 – born in Seul, South Korea.
1982 – graduates actor at Drama and Film department of Dongguk University. Works mostly in theater.
1989 - Kuro Arirang, Park Chong-won's first film.1992-93 – stars in Park Chong-won's film Our Twisted Hero, inspired by writer Yi Munyol ´s homonym book; Our Love This Way.
1993-94 - works in tv dramas, like Moon Over Seoul with old friend actor Han Suk-kyu; and Sara Is Guilty.
1997 – Choi plays a tough-talking police investigator in Song Neung-han's No.3.
1998 – Kim Jee-woon's debut film The Quiet Family.
1999 – plays a North Korean agent in Swiri (Shiri), Kang Jae Gyu's blockbuster, co-starring Han Suk-kyu and Song Kang-ho; gets Best Actor prize at Grand Bell awards. Stars a korean theater production of Hamlet. Plays a husband who discovers his wife's infidelity in Ji Woo-chung´s Happy End (Asia-Pacific Film Festival 2000, Best Actor).
2001 – Plays a small-time gangster in Failan, a melodrama directed by Song Hae Sung, from Jiro Asada´s novel, “Love Letter “, co-starring Cecilia Cheung. Wins Best Actor Award at 2002 Deauville Asia Film Festival.
2002 – In film Chihwaseon (Drunk on Women and Poetry), directed by Im Kwon-taek (Best Director at Cannes), played the famous nineteenth-century Korean painter Jang Seung-up.
2003 – Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (based on manga by Tsuchiya Garon and Nobuaki Minegishi) is considered his best work until now, a tour de force, gave him world star status (Best Actor at Grand Bell Awards and Blue Dragon Film Awards). Oldboy won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Fest.
Choi and the film directors: "When I'm working with a director, I don't force my own world...A movie is a work of art made by the director. An actor shouldn't try to change the director's world from outside, but rather, the actor must enter the world of the director, like a member of an orchestra would enter the world of the conductor."
2004 – A music teacher in Springtime; and a North Korean commander in Taegukgi : The Brotherhood of War; directed by Ryu Jang-ha.
2005 – Ryoo Seung-wan´s Crying Fist; Park Chan-wook ends his “revenge trilogy” with Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.The director Ryoo Seung-wan, on Choi´s personality: “I noticed that Mr. Choi is always joking, eating snacks, and generally not paying much attention to filming but when the camera light turns on and I shout 'action!', he suddenly snaps right into character and becomes a different man.”
Choi talks about Crying Fist: "This film was very hard work and the character I played didn't suit my style, but what attracted me to this role was the fact that it is about an ordinary person in an extraordinary situation. This project was meaningful and quite satisfying for me. The movie may seem rather crude at first but it is a deep penetrating look at human nature and the way a man is made or ruined under pressure. I believe that the inspirational message of this movie is needed in today's society of indifference. There's a saying that goes: 'a sliver under my fingernail hurts more than a crack in another man's skull.' This is the kind of thinking that needs to change. I recently heard stories of people committing suicide in the Kangnam area and it really pierced my heart as I was able to see the kind of pain these people go through while filming this movie."
2006 – The Year of Politics – In february, the actor returns a government decoration in protest against decision to halve the screen quota for domestic movies. Choi said the medal (the Og-Gwan Order of Cultural Merit), once a symbol of pride, was now “nothing more than a sign of disgrace, and it is with a heavy heart that I must return it." In march, Choi joins film students at a rally to protest against a cut in the screen quota reserved for Korean movies in domestic theaters, in Seoul. And more protests in may: Choi Min-Sik, Bong Joon-Ho and others, make night vigils in front of the Palais des Festivals, at the 59th Cannes Film Festival, protesting against the reduction of the South Korean screen quota system, trying to aware the people about the struggle of their cinema to keep its identity and independence, against the American hegemonic cultural policy.
New projects: Directed by Yoon Jong-chan, Hamonica and Friend is “a story of homeless people who live in the underground subway station, and even though they look miserable, each people have their own friendship, humor, hope and love.”
HK star Jackie Chan plans to retire from action movies. After more than one hundred films made, and the natural limitations of the age, he is thinking about new chalenges in the profession. Chan talks to the press: "I must say that I've been willing to change my roles for some time. I've been quite fed up with the roles I've been playing. I want to put myself to the test in future, interpreting different characters...And then we all know that the life of an action hero is quite short. In future I would like people to consider me as not just a martial arts character but for other roles as well."
In the meantime, kung fu master Jet Li has declared his intention of quiting the action films too. And in despite of being younger than Jackie Chan, and looking in very good shape, Li seems to have some health issues this days. His latest action film, Fearless, maybe will be the last one. Let´s hope that´s not truth.With this sad news, one has to wonder, what will be the future of the kung fu action films? Who will be the sucessor, or sucessors of this great stars? I can´t think about anyone, do you?
