#heroic bloodshed

[madamshogunassassin]

Exquisite Bodyguard (2023)

[omercifulheaves]

A Better Tomorrow (1986)

[countzeroor]

Film Review: The Replacement Killers

When Chow Yun-Fat came to the US, he brought a reputation from various Heroic Bloodshed epics, from John Woo and Ringo Lam – a reputation as an action star with a strong acting range. So, it’s unsurprising that his early roles would fall into that same category, with The Replacement Killers doing a film in that style, but with some admittedly more Hollywood sensibilities. Continue reading…

[fuforthought]

There’s a reason they call this sub genre “bullet ballet.”

The True Hero (1994)

[r-a-s-v]

Bullet in the Head (1990)

[mass-beyond-measure]

A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)

[vhs-ninja]

Tiger on the Beat (1988)

[madamshogunassassin]

A Better Tomorrow (1986) Directed By: John Woo

[omercifulheaves]

Hard Boiled (1992)

[kungfutemple]

Hard Boiled (1992)

[fuforthought]

A Better Tomorrow II (1987)

[ogradyfilm]

Recently Viewed: Full Contact

While John Woo is undoubtedly the most famous “bullet ballet” choreographer among general audiences, the late Ringo Lam is arguably even more influential (of particular note, his high-octane heist flick City on Fire is often cited as the primary inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs). And if Full Contact is any indication, it’s not difficult to see why: this delightfully over-the-top revenge thriller features all of the ingredients that make Hong Kong action cinema so appealing—heroic bloodshed, motorcycles, explosions, training montages, disorienting P.O.V. shots, camp gay criminals that perform lethal magic tricks, copious Buddhist iconography, and (of course!) guns galore. This is a movie that begins with a striptease and ends with our protagonist (played by the incomparable Chow Yun-fat) telling his foe to “masturbate in Hell” (quite possibly the single greatest pre-mortem one-liner ever uttered); the word “subtlety” does not exist in its vocabulary. In fact, the performances and visual style are so deliberately exaggerated that it’s basically a musical with fistfights and shootouts instead of songs... and I adored every absurd moment of it. The current post-post-postmodernist sensibilities of the industry don’t really support earnestly ridiculous stories like this anymore. Full Contact doesn’t feel the need to justify its excesses with irony or self-awareness; like its nihilistic villain, it simply embraces its own insanity—unapologetically, unashamedly, and unabashedly.

[r-a-s-v]

Hard Boiled (1992)

[schuschinus]

Book Cover and character illustration for "heroic bloodshed" by dian the saint dianthesaint.de/romane/

[toddjurgess]

Was language a problem on this set?

At the beginning, but it worked itself out surprisingly quickly. I learned that sometimes I don’t need to explain as much as I thought. I could say to the DP, ‘What I want here is a Martin Scorsese kind of shot,’ and he’ll know exactly what I’m asking for. I say, ‘Sam Peckinpah,’ and they know I’m talking about slow motion. It’s the international language of films. One day I was describing the way I wanted a closeup, then a rack focus to the girl, and the DP said, ‘Oh, you mean you want the John Woo shot!’

(interview with John Woo by Maitland McDonagh, Sept 1993 issue of Film Comment)

[madamshogunassassin]

Legacy Of Rage 龍在江湖 [1986] Directed By: Ronny Yu A year before John Woo's A Better Tomorrow II, Mang Hoi's blesses us with his gun blazing choregraph finale with Brandon Lee in Legacy of Rage.