Where am I up to? Oh yeah, Monday, seems so long ago. First movie of the day was 'Loveless'. I was excited for this movie as it was the first film directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt Locker, Point Break), was Willem Dafoe's first feature role, and it was about rockabilly biker dudes invading a small town to fix one of the gang's broken bikes on the way to Daytona. Problem is, it was just kinda dull. There were a few moments of excitement, a few laughs at the rockabilly talk (cool your jets, daddy-o etc etc) but mainly it was just long slow takes of a pensive looking Willem Dafoe. All mood and style but not a lot of substance here.
More fun was movie #10 for the week, 'Dirty Ho'. When the credits started, I instantly knew this was gonna be good - it's a "Shaw Brothers" movie! The renowned production company that has made hundreds of kung fu films from the late 50s and even up to today. This one was from 1976. Set in ancient China, the 11th prince Master Wang has abandoned royal life and lives among the people as a social gadabout, drinking fine wine and collecting antiques. His kung fu skills must be disguised to avoid being recognised. The film opens with a scene where he comes up against common thief Ho in competition for the attention of women with his gifts of jewellery and 'drafts' (whatever those are). A fight breaks out which Wang wins with the most subtle kung fu and fighting skills you will ever see. Ho decides to track Wang to recover his jewellery (itself stolen) and they get into a series of funny stoushes, with each other and with others (the three cripples scene is hilarious) until Wang eventually takes on Ho as an apprentice without him even realising it. With the upcoming naming of the heir to the dynasty, the greedy 4th prince decides to take out the 11th prince and then the real fights begin. Eventually Ho realises his master's true identity and skill and begins training in earnest to help him get back to the palace alive and in one piece for the ceremony.
Don't mistake this as a serious fight flick though, it's a comedy from start to finish, that just happens to have some superb choreography and almost balletic fights. The movie lets the storyline unfold in chronological order with no gimmicks - it needs none other than the main theme of Wang's subtle skills. I'm glad I knew what this was about because in the beginning, you might even have realised what he was doing if you weren't watching closely. Really funny, really cool and really fun. And a lot of nice beard smoothing in between fights as well! I went home happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment