Revisiting the Resplendent, Wind-Bending, Mighty Sword Clanging, and Colorful Cinematic Glory and Mastery of Zhang Yimou’s “Hero/Ying xiong” (circa 2004)
Okay, so now that we’ve got that windbag blog title out of the way (how did I do, folks?), let’s get down to the brass tacks of the matter: the iconic and often-imitated-rarely-duplicated cinematographic marvel which was once Zhang Yimou’s Hero/Ying xiong, the 2004 swashbuckling flicker picture that dazzled and titillated, yet somehow didn’t intellectually connect.
With Cheekbones That Can Slice Turnips…
Yet another evening of Hong Kong classic cinema, this time with King Hu’s Shaw Brothers classic from 1966 Come Drink With Me/Da zui xia/Big Drunken Hero, starring drop-dead gorgeous (and Shanghai-born!) Cheng Pei-Pei/Zheng Peipei, as Golden Swallow, prancing around the screen like a prima ballerina and applying a major bad-ass hurt-on to all the baddies.
Dragon Dynasty’s Bey Logan, American Expats Who Speak Pitch-Perfect Mandarin Chinese, and the Ageless Stars of Hong Kong’s Breakthrough Cinema
I had the good fortune to get my hands on a number of Hong Kong DVDs lately and last night I finished off Mo gong/Battle of the Warriors, starring HK pop sensation and A-List actor Andy Lau/Lau Tak Wa.
Twitter and Facebook | Nothing But “A Place To Pick Each Other’s Fur”
I crossposted a James Cameron Vanity Fair interview to my Posterous feed yesterday because something he’d mentioned to interviewer Krista Smith about Facebook, Twitter, and social media – more generally — intrigued me. So much so, in fact, that I needed to stretch my thinking about it here (boldface by me):
Fans, Friends & Followers by Scott Kirsner of Cinema Tech
I’m almost done reading Scott Kirsner’s Fans, Friends & Followers: Building An Audience and A Creative Career in the Digital Age based on a majorly strong thumbs-up from Jon Reiss, author of Think Outside the Box Office. Both books complement each other well, even despite their mild overlap, and I’ve been particularly enjoying how Scott’s book is structured along Po Bronson lines, essentially a series of comprehensive vignettes showing a representative sampling of people who embody the DIY/social media/take no prisoners message Kirsner is conveying to his loyal audience.
Lance Weiler Has Another Great Idea
How about Augmented Reality to trial products before you buy? I wonder if it works for certain types of relationships as well?
Chinese Filmmakers Tend to Get Beaten, Don’t They?
Would really enjoy getting some feedback on what people think about the Chinese indigenous film scene. Have a look at this Murray Whyte article in the Toronto Star from late last year for all the details.
Chinese Brainwashing During the Korean War…
…or perhaps not? You decide.
Somehow, I got stuck into a pair of choice documentaries last night (I really shouldn’t have) over at The National Film Board of Canada’s website, one of which was Shui-bo Wang’s sensational Korea War investigative piece entitled They Chose China (52m 26s).
That last snap there is some iconic stock footage from John Frankenheimer’s 1962 all-time Cold War classic The Manchurian Candidate, with Laurence Harvey playing the brainwashed turncoat Captain Raymond Shaw (yes, that Raymond Shaw, “the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being [you]‘ve ever known in [your] life”). Shaw, caught early on during the hostilities behind enemy lines during the Korean War and mercilessly subjected to radical thought experiments that morphed him into a cold-blooded “sleeper” killer by his cunning Chinese jailers.
SHORT FILM: PRC History in 30 Minutes
Have you checked out the artwork in this? Excellent narration. I challenge any non-Chinese speaking laowai to speak Mandarin (or any suitable Chinese dialect) as well as this man speaks English (and yes, I’m in my panda-hugging mood today!)
Shotgun Down Da Jing Lu in Shanghai
You have got to love Shanghai…sweet memories of Da Jing Lu.
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