🍿Roadgames

I’m glad I got to see this one. I remember the VHS box intriguing me as a kid. And as a kid I loved this director’s other Hitchcock pastiche Cloak and Dagger, though I didn’t realize he’d directed it until recently.

Frequently described as Rear Window in a truck. While that’s true, I think the film is better described as a mashup of the breezy protagonists from Young and Innocent and the sleaze of Frenzy.

If that sounds like a weird combo, well, it is. But the film holds these parts together pretty well.

Also, I appreciated the technical aspects of the movie. The in-truck cinematography, the camera movements around the edges of the cab, the editing. I’ve always loved Hitch’s technical experiments and this film really tries to capture that aspect of his style.

🍿 I’m impressed by the amount of effort and creativity it took to put this on screen. Were I or my kid thoroughly entertained? Not exactly. But I think it’s a good kickoff to Spooky Season 2022 and an excellent reminder of the power of physical effects and technical know-how.

Letterboxd

Frequently mentioned on lists of great Minneapolis tacos, Valerie’s is a couple of blocks off of Lake Street, around the corner from the butcher shop from which it sprang.

Tacos are $3.50 and are quite a good deal for the price. These are not tiny tacos. Not so big that you need to use a fork, but big enough that picking them up can be a slight challenge. A solid 4-5 bites per taco.

Based on my sampling it’s hard to go wrong at here. I ordered three tacos: lengua, barbacoa, and chorizo. Eaten in that order they started off delicious and only got better as I went along. I want to highlight the chorizo, which is clearly made in house, for having a super-forward cinnamon flavor that I found surprising and delightful.

Available salsas are a creamy verde and rojo, neither of which are spicy. The rojo has bright, fresh tomato flavor that went really well with the chorizo.

🍿A companion piece to 1974’s Shaolin Martial Arts and an entry in Chang Cheh’s Shaolin series, Five Shaolin Masters is Cheh at his most expansive. And maybe his most obsessed about dudes getting their genitals mutilated.

I haven’t seen Shaolin Martial Arts, but judging from the poster it’s about two guys. Just two. You can probably guess how many heroes there are in Five Shaolin Masters.

But it’s not just those five! There’s a matched set of five villains. And one of those five has twin bodyguards. And on the side of the righteous rebels are about a million dudes, several of which get significant screen time.

Both of these groups split up and have roughly the same plot, over and over. Good guy tries to fight bad guy, fails and learns a valuable lesson.

About an hour in to the movie, when everyone has learned their lessons, they settle on the radical plan of getting better at martial arts. From this point on the movie is pretty fun. And the last 20 minute is just one long series of fights.

Shaw Brothers made a lot of Shaolin movies in the 1970s and my guess is that when people think of “Shaw Brothers Shaolin” they aren’t thinking of Cheh’s movies. They’re probably thinking of 36 Chambers or Pai Mei. One way or another they are thinking of Lau Kar-leung and Gordon Liu. Both of whom were part of the making of Five Shaolin Masters.

Lau Kar-leung had been around Shaw for a while by 1974, mostly working for Chang Cheh. Gordon Liu had know Lau Kar-leung for a while by 1974 and was an adopted part of the Lau family. But he was new to acting. Five Shaolin Masters was just his 2nd film with the studio and Cheh. His part is small, but he’s clearly far more talented than the other bit-part actors in the movie.

I don’t know the details of the split between Laur Kar-lueng and Chang Cheh, but I can imagine. Chang Cheh had his set of actors and his style. Lau Kar-leung had a ton of experience, a great talent in Gordon Liu, and a desire to strike out on his own. It’s around the time of Five Shaolin Masters that the two groups go their separate ways.

1975 would see The Spiritual Boxer, Kar-leung’s directorial debut. He’s credited with choreography in a few later Chang Cheh films, but it’s hard to say when those films were made. Cheh directed 57 movies in the 1970s and some were released a long time after they were shot.

Gordon Liu would be a third-string player in a few more Cheh films before jumping over to starring roles in Lau Kar-leung movies in 1976. After 1976 I don’t think the Lau family worked with Chang Cheh again.

It’s not like this split is the “End of Chang Cheh” or some cataclysmic event. Both Cheh and the Laus continued to work for Shaws and release fantastic movies.

But it is a step along the evolution of Shaw Brothers (and HK film) away from Cheh’s style which had dominated for almost 10 years. And it freed up the Laus to make their version of Shaolin movies, which are far more fun and memorable than Five Shaolin Masters.

🍿For a Lau Kar-leung film there’s not much fighting in Challenge of the Masters. There’s a fair amount of action, but only two fights.

“Wait! “, people might say, “There’s a ton of fighting in Challenge of the Masters!” But I think there are three kinds of ‘martial arts’ scenes in Challenge: Brawling, Posing and Fighting.

The brawls are the skirmishes between the various schools. These are frantic melees made up of dozens of people. No rules, no need for precise choreography, just a lot of flailing.

The posing is in the smaller inter-school battles. These look like fights, but the choreography is stagey and slower. These are schools showing off their skills, but not committing to an actual fight. It’s two dudes at the bar puffing out their chests.

Finally, the fights. These have two combatants, are fluidly choreographed and they mean something. In one a fighter is killed and in the other mercy is granted. And the outcomes of these fights tie in to the more philosophical bent of Challenge, which is far more about the mental/ethical side of martial arts than the physical.

This makes for kind of an odd movie, to be honest. There’s always kind of a lot going on, but a lot of it doesn’t have a lot of impact. Which I think is by design, and I think Lau Kar-leung and Ni Kuang should be congratulated for trying something headier.

Sadly the dang Celestial re-relase does this film no favors. As a film from a high-profile director I’m not sure how this got released with its weird color problems. I watched this on Arrow but I’m pretty sure their copy came straight from Celestial, and it’s full of weird, transient color errors. These look like emulsion scratches, but they are too quick. I’m sure they came from the automated ‘restoration’ tool that Celestial used for all the Shaw films. It’s not as bad as some of the rereleases of older Shaw films, but it’s still distracting.

🍿The Kangaroo Jack of yakuza films. The title and poster promise something very different than what the film actually delivers. But once I reset my expectations I found a beautifully shot movie. There are some long tracking shots in here that are quietly insane. They don’t draw a lot of attention to themselves. But once I noticed them happening I was super impressed.

About 70 minutes in the film starts to get kinda wacky and I thought, “Ok, from here on out this is gonna be wild.” But no. It’s got about 10 minutes of wackiness and then it returns to its quiet, soft-grain, reflective self. This is more A Scene at the Sea than it is Violent Cop.

I watched the theatrical release which runs just under 2 hours. There’s a 20-minute longer release on the Arrow Blu Ray. I haven’t found a good comparison between the two, but it sounds like the longer version adds more incident and conversation. It’s not like there’s an extra 20 minutes of machine gun battles or anything.

🍿 Despite hearing a lot about how weird this movie is, I was not prepared for how weird it is! Hard to count how many movies and styles this thing is riffing on, but mostly it’s firmly in the vein of psychedelic sci-fi that runs from 2001 through Zardoz and onwards. But take that genre and mash it up with Jodorowsky, The Omen, Star Wars and Close Encounters and you start to get a sense of this movie’s weirdness.

🍿 kid’s review, “It was OK.” When pressed for further details they offered nothing.

I thought it looked great, but it never quite hooked me. I appreciated what it was going for and I’m very glad that countries outside the US are able to do animated movies that aren’t targeted to the broadest, youngest demographics. It’s the sort of film that I would happily recommend to folks, even if it didn’t quite resonate with me.

🍿 I had no idea what to expect with this one. I’ve never seen anything from Wakaliwood. I’d put this film in my watchlist thanks to Joshua Dysart’s review and the general vibe of it being enthusiastic, creative and full of love. When I had the opportunity to show a movie to a bunch of movie-nerd friends I figured this one would be a great choice.

And it was! As others here have mentioned, the excitement and fun folks had making this film is palpable. Reminded me of early silents, or low-budget HK stuff from the 70s.

I wish more films had a VJ track. Imagine VJ Emmy yelling at Wes Anderson characters for being emotional trainwrecks.

🌮 La Tortilla

I’ve been chasing La Tortilla for a bit. I’m not on Instagram, so I can’t see their location announcements. I’m kinda on Facebook, but their announcements there are infrequent. But they are regularly at Arbeiter Brewing on Tuesday nights and, surprisingly, my Tuesday night this week was free. Perfect.

They offer burritos, nachos, two taco options (Mexicano y Americano), elotes, churros, and, best of all, fried plantains. How awesome is that? What a perfect little side dish fried sweet plantains are. I can’t remember seeing them at other taco trucks.

I went for chorizo tacos Mexicanos. $10 gets you three tacos. On the small side, easily chompable in 2-3 bites. Their offerings of salsa rojo (hot) and verde (hotter) added some heat and flavor to the already tasty chorizo. Nice tacos overall. And the plantains were plentiful, sweet, soft and delicious.

Watching other folks I thought the nachos looked very tasty and the table next to me loved their burritos. I also liked the look of the vegetarian taco option. Might try all these and more next time I head over there on a Tuesday.

🍿 In 4 years Sammo Hung directed his first 7 movies. 6 of these were ‘historical kung fu’ genre. After 1981’s The Prodigal Son he didn’t direct another movie in that genre for 11 years.

Largely this was due to market forces. After the early 80s Hong Kong cinema mostly focused on modern-day films. But maybe Sammo felt like he’d said what he needed to say in the genre. The Prodigal Son certainly feels like a fitting cap on Hung’s version of these films. Amazing cast, beautifully shot, wonderful choreography and a confusing clash of tones. It’s the canonical Sammo Hung Historical Kung Fu film, honestly.

After watching Sammo’s early films, Prodigal Son’s casting really stood out for me. It features a lot of new faces, whereas many of Sammo’s previous films featured the same folks over and over.

Sammo had know Yuen Biao and Lam Ching-ying forever, but had never really featured the latter. Ching-ying shows up a ton in early Sammo movies, but usually as a minor character or nameless heavy. I’m pretty sure Prodigal Son was his first starring role. And it was one of his few non-Vampire related leading roles. He was such a talented performer and Prodical Son gave him a chance to shine.

Also new is Frankie Chan Fan-Kei. He’d been around HK film for awhile but as a composer. Until 1981 his film credits came from composing scores, mostly for Shaw Brothers. I’m guessing he and Sammo had crossed paths at Shaw and later Sammo had him write scores for Knockabout and others. Then, when Frankie Chan wanted to switch in to acting, Sammo gave him a high-profile shot as the semi-villain of Prodigal Son. And I’m glad he did. Normally this role would have gone to Leung Kar-yan and he would have done a great job. But Frankie Chan brings a very different energy to the movie and it helps the film stand out.

🍿 In no particular order, the 3 three most stressful/tense movies I’ve ever experienced:

• Hereditary
• House of the Devil
• Smooth Talk

Good god, y’all. I leaned over to my partner about halfway through and said “This is the most stressful fucking thing I’ve ever seen.”

Intense, yes. But also honest, beautiful and stunningly acted.

🍿 A great 75 minute movie that is, unfortunately, 97 minutes long. And much of that extra 22 minutes is a Dean Shek performance that is excessively weird even by the excessively weird standards of Dean Shek.

Though not directed by Sammo, I’m still throwing this one in my Early Sammo Retrospective because of its production company, Gar Bo Films, founded by Sammo, Karl Maka, and Lau Kar-wing. The company only made two films, this one and Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog. It might have lasted longer, but Sammo’s relationship with parent company Golden Harvest soured in the 1980 and he went independent, creating a new production company.

Sammo gets a lot of attention as a star and director/choreographer. But I knew less about his role on the business side of things. Letterboxd lists him as a producer of 45 movies, while HKmdb lists 47. And the companies he founded (or co-founded) made many classics of HK cinema. Mr. Vampire, Yes Madam, Tiger Cage, Righting Wrongs and many more. Sammo gave a lot of people in Hong Kong the time and money they needed to make their movie, and the industry is all the richer for it.

Unfortunately The Odd Couple might have needed less generosity. The core idea of the script is great – two feuding masters decide to settle fight by training students to fight in their place. Old master Sammo Hung teaches a young stubborn Lau Kar-wing. And old master Lau Kar-wing teaches a young goofy Sammo Hung.

But the script introduces all sorts of weirdness that gets in the way. Lee Hoi-Sang with clown-like eyebrows. Mars (who is called either “Potato” or “Big Stupid”, depending on your translation) wearing inch-long buck teeth. The aforementioned Dean Shek who weaves through the film to a rocking drum solo. Basically, any time the characters aren’t fighting things get pretty goofy. But it was written by Raymond Wong, so maybe that’s to be expected.

As for the fighting, it’s pretty great. Sammo and Lau Kar-wing handled the choreography with a stunt team made from a mix of Sammo and Lau’s crews. The talent here is good. But Lau Kar-wing’s direction tends to lean in to the film’s goofiness. There’s a lot of comedic undercranking here. The framing and editing are less clear than Sammo’s usual style, which can get in the way. But the quality still shines through, especially in the film’s final 20 minutes.

🌮 Tomatillo Taco Truck

This one was parked downtown, near 9th Street and 2nd Ave. I had not seen it before, but it’s not like I get downtown that often.

I chose the carnitas tacos for $9 (almost $10 after tax). It doesn’t look like you can mix and match, but maybe you can if you ask.

I was surprised to get two tacos. For $10 I figured three. But inflation hits tacos too, I guess. The carnitas were tender, but lacked the crunch & char that I like when I make it at home. I think some salt would have helped as well, the flavor was a little lacking. But the salsa verde was bright, crisp and sour. And the tortillas were nicely done (not made fresh, but warming up tortillas is still an art form).

Sadly the whole thing comes in a giant styrofoam clamshell. I wish this were not the default at so many places.

A while back I inherited my grandfather’s 1948(ish) Voightlander Bessa 66 camera. A fully-manual rangefinder camera that takes 120 film, it’s a tricky one to use. I used it a bit when I got it, but nearly every photo I took was unusable.

This year I started poking at it again and found the shutter speed was way off. So I got it repaired, bought some film and brought it with me to the BWCA.

Well, the shutter speed is still off. It was fine for the first roll, but at the end of that roll I noticed a problem. Further testing showed that I could now shoot as fast as 1/50, but no faster. If I used some super slow film and the sun wasn’t too bright, I could make things work.

My kid ended up taking some great photos of me. And I managed to get a few non terrible shots.

🍿It’s fun to see time travel used as a mechanism for stasis, a way to prevent change.

The kid reviewed it as, “A movie I enjoyed, but not one I want to watch again.”. Which I think is about right for me too. A little long, a little lumpy in the plot. But glad we watched it and I look forward to seeing more of Mamoru Hosoda’s films.

Probably the most important movie Sammo Hung directed. It may not be his best (though it is very good), but its impact is undeniable.

I don’t think this is a particularly original or hot take. There’s a whole book named after Sammo’s movie that says the same thing.

But Spooky Encounters doesn’t come from nothing. Parts of it had been floating around HK Films for years. In 1960 Shaw Brothers had adapted a classic story to make the ghost romance The Enchanting Shadow. Though this 20-year-old film probably wasn’t at the front of people’s minds in 1980, the story, and its many film versions, remained well known.

In the mid-70s, Shaw made spookier movies geared more towards the international and exploitation markets. Movies like Black Magic and its sequel weren’t funny, or particularly focused on Chinese tradition, but they created space for effect-heavy scares which had not been a big part of HK movies up until that point.

In 1978, Hung’s close collaborator Jackie Chan starred Spiritual Kung Fu. Though not a good film it did feature weird ghost/imps and a bunch of goofy special effects.

And in 1979, just a year before Spooky Encounters, King Hu (one of Sammo Hung’s early mentors), made Legend of the Mountain, a very King Hu-ish movie about ghosts, reality and frogs.

All of those feed in to Spooky Encounters, as does Sammo’s own earlier work. The monkey kung fu of Knockabout reappears here, as do parts of that film’s ‘restaurant fight’. Goofy horror jokes from The Victim are deployed here to much greater effect.

But if Spooky Encounters were just a thoughtless rehash of its progenitors it wouldn’t be a big deal. That’s not what Sammo did, though. He took all these things and created something entirely new – Chinese vampire horror comedy. Throughout the 1980s and early 90s this brand new genre that Sammo invented was huge with roughly 100 movies that tried to replicate it. And while many of them are terrible, some are amazing and none of them exist without Spooky Encounters.

If we lived in a world without Spooky Enconuters then we wouldn’t have Lam Ching-Ying riding an ostrich. Or Lam Ching-Ying stabbing a vampire in the dick. And who wants to live in that world? Not me!

A movie that benefitted from me having a long, solo car ride home afterwards. After leaving the theater I was a both confused and irritated by my confusion. The car ride gave me time to think and process.

There’s a lot in this movie, and there are reviews here that offer very cogent takes on aspects of the movie that I didn’t even notice. But over my car ride home I came to think of the movie as an exploration of the difference between wanting to be looked at and not wanting the gaze.

OJ , the monster, the animals. They don’t want that gaze. Maybe they can be ‘trained’ (or ‘come to an agreement’) to accept the gaze, but they don’t want it. And at some point that dislike will emerge.

Emerald and Ricky want to be gazed upon. Emerald wants fame. Ricky, I think, believes he’s ‘blessed’ by his experience in “Gordy’s Home” and that he’s made to receive the gaze.

Angel and Antlers are gazers. Antlers makes the gaze and Angel consumes it.

Being willing to accept the gaze is a parallel for ‘tameness’. If you are ok with people looking at you, you are tame. The horses, mostly, are tame. Gordy and the monster are not. In a way, Emerald and Ricky are tame while OJ is not.

Which I think lines up well with celebrity – the fame that Emerald and Ricky are looking for. Celebrity is being gazed at all the time, and if you are comfortable with that then you’re tame. And if you’re not then you’re one of those stubborn, angry celebrities that people want to gaze at even more. Until you lash out.

I don’t have trustworthy MCU opinions. I’ve only watched a few of them; and for the ones I have seen my opinion falls somewhere between Indifferent and Grumpy (except for Thor: Ragnarok, which I liked)

There’s about 20 minutes near the end of this movie when it actually lives up to the goofiness of its subtitle. I liked that bit! The rest I found overly serious and uninteresting.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

A dark satire, sometimes shot as a pure comedy, about all the awful decisions society/state forces us to make. And how individual people trying to make the best decision they can are still enabling the system that crushes them.

But, despite that bleak description, it’s also quite interesting and kind of fun?

Highway Patrolman

In my mind this was a gritty, modern-day film. But no, it’s not that at all. It’s at least two different films. Neither of which makes a whole lot of sense. Having several incongruent plots is normal for Sammo’s films of this era, but The Victim is more incongruous than most.

The first half of the film is almost entirely comedic. Sammo is just some random dude looking for a fighter better than him. When he stumbles across Leung Chung Yau (Beardy, Hung’s frequent star), he decides that he’s found his master and follows him everywhere. Jokes ensue.

But Beardy’s on the run from an old Shaw Brothers plot and frequent Shaw Brothers star Chang Yi. There’s an evil brother, filial piety and lots of drama.

These two films co-exist uneasily for a bit. There will be a scene where Sammo helps a goofy weirdo stab himself followed by Chang Cheh-style bloody revenge. Then Sammo wears a Dracula costume for a bit before we head back to melodrama. Eventually the film sticks to the melodrama side of things and introduces a twist that makes the first half of the film make even less sense.

Side note on that Dracula thing. The Victim was released about 10 months before the next film in this series, Encounter of the Spooky Kind which I am very excited to dig in to.

I see a lot of love for the final fight scene. And it’s certainly more furious than most of Sammo’s choreography. But it also runs at two distinct speeds, which I found distracting. When Chang Yi’s on screen, the film is clearly undercranked and the whole thing feels cartoony. When Chang Yi’s being doubled or is off screen, the film returns to normal speed. So you spend the whole fight bouncing between these two speeds. Which, honestly, is a lot like the movie itself. It’s partly late-70s ‘real’ kung fu comedy mixed with heightened, sped-up Shaw-style melodrama.

TL;DR version - It’s a good Sammo movie, you should check it out. The plot is kind of a mess, but that’s almost a given with this style of movie.

For those that want a more rambling take, there are three things I think are pretty interesting in Knockabout

Yuen Biao

After releasing 2 monumental films the previous year, Sammo’s only release of 1979 was Knockabout. And, in many ways, it doesn’t seem like a big film in his catalog. When it gets mentioned it’s usually in the context of Yuen Biao, Hung’s ‘brother’ from the Chinese Opera school.

Like Hung, Yuen had been in movies for years by 1979. But always in the background. If you watch the fights in Warriors Two and Enter the Fat Dragon closely you’ll see Yuen get beat up multiple times in each movie.

In Knockabout he takes the lead. Well, for the first half of the movie he’s co-lead with Beardy (Bryan Leung Kar-yan). And in the second half of the movie he’s kind of co-lead with Sammo. But it was more of a lead role than he’d ever had before.

And, with a few exceptions, Yuen Biao is not a Lead Actor kind of performer. If you look at his filmographythere aren’t many posters that feature him front-and-center. Of his 146 films (criminy) I’d say there are 3 or 4 where Yuen Biao is the clear lead: Prodigal Son, Dreadnaught, The Iceman Cometh (not based on the play, btw), Knockabout

Usually he worked in a pair of leads (i.e., Righting Wrongs) or in a group (all the Jackie/Sammo/Yuen movies).

But as Knockabout makes clear, especially in its later training sequences, this is bananas. Yuen Biao is fucking awesome.

So what’s the difference here? Why are Jackie and Sammo famous and Yuen Biao is a ‘just’ hugely accomplished actor with a 5 decade career?

Knockabout offers a joking answer; in the final fight Yuen can’t overcome the boss because he ‘lacks power’. And I think this is part of it. Other bright stars of this time (Jackie, Gordon Liu) could project power in their action. Jackie especially — watch The Fearless Hyena, also released in 1979, for a particularly good example of this.

But Yuen’s style was different. He wasn’t ‘schticky’ and he didn’t impose his physicality. He was Just Really Good. There’s a grace and precision to Yuen’s work that no one can match. But, other than Fred Astaire, grace and precision don’t usually lead to Lead Actor status.

If you’re going to watch one of Yuen Biao’s leading roles…well, it should probably be Prodigal Son. But if you’re going to watch two, then Knockabout is a good choice.

Sammo’s Fight Choreography

Through most of Knockabout we see what I’ve come to think of as “Sammo Standard” fights. These are usually outside and feature 2 fighters. They start on a medium shot then quickly cut or zoom to a wide shot. In the wide shot there’s plenty of room on the sides for the fighters to explore. Sometimes the camera will pan with them as they move back and forth. Then there’s a cut to change the setup or cover a tricky stunt. Then you’re back to that medium shot and you repeat from there.

This approach worked, and Sammo’s team was really good at taking advantage of those wide angle long takes. But there’s not a ton of variety. They were usually two-dimensional affairs — a lot of left and right but not much else.

At the end of Knockabout a fight that had been very standard moves to a new location, a restaurant. Suddenly the space is confined by tables, chairs, and a roof. And then Sammo and Yuen hop on the tables — our two-dimensional fight gains a third dimension.

The fight in the restaurant is great. Yuen climbs around on the roof joists, does backflips on tables and jumps around with abandon. It’s an evolution in Sammo’s style, one that takes better advantage of setting and props. And I wanted to highlight it because I’m hoping to come back to this when I get to re-watching Pedicab Driver as part of this Sammo retrospective.

The Ongoing Sammo/Lau ‘Beef’

Man, I love making up weird theories about Sammo Hung and Lau Kar-leung! See my Magnificent Butcher or Warriors Two reviews for more of my weird nonsense. This is something that will also come back when I re-watch Pedicab Driver, btw.

Knockabout was the first Sammo film featuring Lau Kar-wing, younger brother of Lau Kar-Leung. Kar-wing had worked on Kar-leung classics like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Challenge of the Masters. But in 1978 he started working with Sammo, both as an actor and behind the scenes at a studio they started with Karl Maka. He had a role in Warriors Two, but in Knockabout he gets promoted to lead bad guy and is a ton of fun.

Kar-wing continues to bounce between the two groups, appearing in both Sammo and Lau Kar-leung movies, while also working as a director and choreographer. I wish I knew more about this relationship! It seems super interesting.

One of those movies that’s so well known that I figured I must have seen it. I mean, I love Sammo Hung and I’ve been watching Hong Kong films for close to 30 years, so of course I’ve seen Warriors Two.

But I hadn’t. And what a treat to watch this one for the first time. Inventive choreography, excellent staging and a mostly effective story once it gets going (except for poor Cheung Man-Ting who gets nothing to do here except die). Warriors Two is a high point of one of the best years in Hong Kong film.

What a wild year 1978 was in Hong Kong theaters! The 36th Chamber of Shaolin opens in February. Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow opens in March. Drunken Master in October. And then, at the end of December, Warriors Two wraps up the year. These films basically define sub-genres of kung fu movies and are classics in the careers of their creators.

And (I think) it’s also the start of some beef. I talked about this in my review of 1979’s The Magnificent Butcher, but I find the interplay between the Lau Kar-Leung Crew and the Yuen/Hung Crew pretty fascinating. I think Lau Kar-Leung and his movies’ focus on Hung Fist martial arts is a big reason why Warriors Two goes in to so much detail about Wing Chun and why the training sequences are so thorough. Look at how great the Wing Chun style is! Take that, Lau Kar-Leung!

Magnificent Butcher sharpens this beef (to mix metaphors) by joining Sammo Hung with the Yuen Clan and directly teasing Lau’s school. But Sammo’s stating his allegiances pretty clearly in Warriors Two as well.

The opening 5-10 minutes packs in so much setup so quickly that I thought this movie was going to really move. Then it spends a solid 45 minutes just dicking around, including two nearly-identical Mothra music videos.

Rodan and Godzilla as bickering jerks is probably the highlight here, though the four-monster battle royale at the end is also a lot of fun.

I was sure I’d seen this one, but no. And had it not been featured by Joe Bob Briggs I probably would not have watched it at all. I’m glad I did. It’s got that Hammer vibe, but amped up and willing to be grosser than those stuffy British.

And it looks great. Job Bob’s commentary on Bava’s history as an effects wizard really highlighted the visual work in the film. Check it out.

Pete Docter directed three of my top five Pixar movies, so clearly I dig his work. But I’m also reluctant to revisit them due to the emotional trauma they inflict on me.

I think this was my kid’s 3rd time through Up, but her first time watching it with me. And I don’t think I’ve seen it since 2009 — before I had a kid, before I was the sole adult living in my house, before I was in my 40s (and I’m not in my 40s for much longer). Unsurprisingly, it hit differently this time.

I don’t know that I recognized the villain of the movie before. Sure, there’s that explorer guy, but he’s more an avatar of the villain than the villain himself. The villain is stubbornness, and a specific kind of stubbornness that both Asner and Plummer exhibit — an empty, boulder-like refusal to accept change or to give up on a plan.

Carl even looks like a rock, which is such a delightful bit of character design.

BTW, top five Pixar:

• Wall-E
• Inside Out
• Monsters, Inc.
• Up
• Turning Red? Toy Story 3? Not sure.

 Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance  At some point, when making yet another version of this decades-long examination of depression, loneliness and human connection, someone thought “This needs more panty shots and upskirts. Like, way more than normal.”

Aside from the “200% Fan Service” that the film seems intent on delivering, I liked this Rei/Shinji focused telling of the story.

 The Shop Around the Corner  Kind of the classic “Characters in rom-coms are terrible assholes, but you want them to fall in love anyway” story.

A Christmas Carol This very short 1938 version spends much of its 70 minute run time focused on the Cratchets, because they were played by popular character actors. It also makes the Cratchets way more wealthy than any other version, which kind of undercuts the whole thing. But it does feature the many, many Cratchet kids lasciviously stroking a goose while Tiny Tim looks on saying “I want to stroke it”. So..there’s that.

The Muppet Christmas Carol A more faithful Carol adaptation. I once got into a very weird argument with a Christian puppeteer about this movie on Usenet. Ah, Usenet. I hope no one can find my old Usenet posts…

Sabotage

Another incompetent white cop fails upwards.

Much of the trivia on IMDb repeats the story about Hitchcock saying he (spoiler) blew up the kid (end spoiler) because that was what happened in the book and he had to be faithful to it. That is utter bullshit. For proof, just look at the rest of the movie which pretty much jettisons 80% of the book. Or look at every other movie Hitchcock made, because they were nearly all adaptations and none of them gave two fucks about being faithful to the source. Hitch was just sad that people got mad at him and was trying to get out of it.