#david chung

[manderley]

ᴍɪᴄʜᴇʟʟᴇ ʏᴇᴏʜ ɪɴ

𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐬 (𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟕)

[separateways]

Brigitte Lin in WEB OF DECEPTION (1989) dir. David Chung

[of-fear-and-love]

[flashfuckingflesh]

Digging Up the EVIL Disentombs the Past! "Exhuma" reviewed! (Well Go USA Entertainment / Blu-ray)

Open the Blu-ray Coffin on “Exhuma” Today! A shaman and her assistant recruit a geomancer and a mortician to investigate the case of an American newborn boy’s distressing grave calling that has also haunted every patriarch member of the family for generations.  The large paying job sends them to remote forest where the unmarked grave of the boy’s great, great grandfather lies beneath the…

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Magnificent Warriors (Chung, 1987)

As far as Indiana Jones ripoffs go, this is a lot better than Firewalker. Mostly because it does a great job imbuing the period adventure setting with classic Hong Kong style action. Old timey machine guns, ropes as whips, etc. And it avoids the tonal whiplash common in Hong Kong cinema, something I’ve acquired a taste for, but might mesh poorly with this kind of movie. 

Michelle Yeoh looks really cool in all her adventurer outfits, and this is one of Richard Ng’s more dignified, digestible roles. There is no attempting to creep on female characters while mistakenly thinking he’s nude from a spell he cast, no scheming to grope a female character in any seemingly interminable scenes. None of that here. For those you’ll have to watch the Lucky Stars movies. And shake your head as you watch them lest someone think you’re endorsing all the hilarity onscreen. 

I will say that aside from those two I found the other characters pretty forgettable. Actually I did like Lau Chin-Dai, but mostly because she’s cute as a button. I’ll also say that the score is a tad repetitive and depending on your mood might end up driving you up a wall. And the rural environment and pacing mean that it lacks the tightness and claustrophobia of David Chung’s Royal Warriors, but it still has plenty of character.

[omercifulheaves]

Roboforce a.k.a. I Love Maria (1988)

[hotpotdragon]

Royal Warriors (1986)

[zaat]

I Love Maria (鐵甲無敵瑪利亞) aka Roboforce (1988) dir. David Chung & Tsui Hark

[genkinahito]

Royal Warriors 皇家戰士 (1986) Dir: David Chung

[bens-things]

Magnificent Warriors (1987) dir. David Chung

[moviesiveseenandwanttoremember]

David Chung’s “中華戰士” (Magnificent Warriors) April 16, 1987.

[of-fear-and-love]

Tony Leung in 鐵甲無敵瑪利亞 / I Love Maria (1988)

[flashfuckingflesh]

A Pact Plans EVIL Revenge on Crime Fighting Heroes! "Royal Warriors" reviewed! (88 Films / Blu-ray)

“Royal Warriors,” a Revenge Tale, Now on Blu-ray from 88 Films! Hong Kong police inspector boards a Hong Kong bound plane on return from her vacationing in Japan.  She meets Michael Wong, the plane’s air marshal, as well as her across the aisle seat mate, Japanese native, Yamamoto, a retired cop returning to Hong Kong to retrieve his wife and daughter and retreat back to Japan to start their new…

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Royal Warriors (Chung, 1986)

You know you're off to a good start when a movie opens with not just one, but two great action sequences. First you get Michelle Yeoh as a cop on vacation visiting Japan and doing touristy things like snapping pictures of street performers, only to run into a bunch of mob goons chasing some poor bastard. These mob goons are extra dangerous because they have swords, but you get Yeoh and the precision of her movements as she takes these suckers out one by one. Then you get Yeoh on a plane with Hiroyuki Sanada holding a giant stuffed animal and Michael Wong providing security, and a bunch of bad guys being transported as prisoners, only for some other bad guys to try to free them. You learn that two of the bad guys are named Tiger and Cockerel, and you know which one pulled the short straw when picking cool nicknames. You get a lot of punching and kicking and shooting in close quarters, one guy going out like Goldfinger (almost), and a thing with a grenade that you probably shouldn't try at home. We're off to a great start.

This is an early girls with guns actioner, in that it stars a girl with a gun in Michelle Yeoh (although she uses her arms and legs too), but pairs her with a couple of guys probably because producers were still uncertain about the viability of female-led action films and wanted to hedge their bets. To the movie's credit, Yeoh gets to be plenty badass and does not need much saving, as can happen in more annoying examples of bet-hedging, and actually plays off pretty well with the male leads while providing a charismatic centre. And she also plays things pretty by the book, at least until the end, which is a nice enough surprise. Anyway, alongside Yeoh you get Michael Wong as a hunky, goofy cop, providing some comedic elements without getting too annoying. He hits on Yeoh with some regularity, but it feels more like flirting between coworkers than the straight up sexual harassment you often get in these movies. And you get Hiroyuki Sanada as a Japanese cop, a more stoic counterpoint to the other two. I guess he's hunky too, but for him it's not really a character trait. And I suppose Yeoh is hunky too, whatever the girl version of hunky is. Hunkette. Let's go with that. I promise I'll be less thirsty in my reviews going forward but I've been sick the last few days so please forgive me. I'm drinking lots of water so that should help. Anyway, how hunky he is doesn't matter because he's a family man and off the market, until his family gets horrifically murdered with a car bomb. But there's no time to get back in the dating scene because he's off to get his revenge.

The bad guys do some revenging too, and in fact murdered Sanada's family in the first place for that reason, although there's a bit of a chain reaction happening here. Anyway, you get a lot of great action scenes, one of them in a neon-lit nightclub, a car chase turned demolition derby, lots of collateral damage in the form of innocent bystanders, non-zero amounts of Seinfeld bass, some sacrifices, some heroism, plenty of bloodshed, some heroic bloodshed while we're at it, some mishandled evidence, a twist involving two carefully edited videotapes, a fight scene involving a chainsaw, Sanada trapped under a car sliding across a gravel pit as Yeoh pushes it with her armoured car, a bunch of explosions that look too close for comfort, and I'm having a good time. If you're watching it on the Criterion Channel, I should note that the subtitles drop out for a little bit during a climactic fight scene, but as the characters are conversing through the universal language of punching and kicking, little is lost in translation.

[clairewritesandrambles]

Currently watching Twisters with headphones and subtitles (as it should be experienced). If you had a hard time hearing some of the quieter dialogue like me, here is a list of little details I didn't notice the first time:

Scott's driver tells to Boone to blow him when the Tornado Wranglers arrive at the first gas station.

Ben telling Tyler to keep his eyes on the road when he is staring at Kate as she and Javi pass them.

As Boone is hanging out the window loading rockets, he sings 'Dead End Road' by Jellyroll and then when the camera pans out he yells "SING IT BEN!" (Honestly this rewatch caught a lot of background dialogue for him, made me love Boone even more).

The cause of the broken trigger during the second tornado is melted chocolate and Tyler is lecturing Boone about eating chocolate in the truck.

In the background after the Stillwater tornado you can see the StormPAR guys digging the truck out of the wreck of the motel. (Still find it hilarious that it survived, considering we see a - slightly smaller - truck get sucked straight into the tornado in the same area).

Scott 100% calls Riggs his uncle. I already was pretty sure that was what he said, but subtitles confirmed it.

You can barely hear the dialogue, but the entire time during the EF5 that hits El Reno Scott is the one talking in the truck with Javi. It's all super quiet because of the music and sound of the tornado, but throughout the entire thing it is Scott who is showing fear and Javi is the calmer one (while still being realistic for the scene). I think it just adds an interesting take on how calm he is later and wanting to go back to the tornado. Maybe a bit of a pride thing?

Not so much something that I *just* noticed, but I find the inconsistency with Tyler's truck damage at the end hilarious. The thing just got rolled by an EF5 and a few days later (StormPAR truck is still covered in mud, so it can't be a big time gap) it seems fine at the airport. I can totally see him being the type of guy who would absolutely run it to the mechanic as soon as possible, that is HIS BABY.

This has been Live Watching with Claire.

[brotherconstant]

Slow Horses | 4.02 "A Stranger Comes to Town" ↳ A Comedy