Return of the Street Fighter / The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge (1974) May 6, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Action, 1970s films , 3 commentsDirector: Shigehiro Ozawa Starring: Sonny Chiba Territory: Japan Production Company: Toei Productions
Yes, I bought the box set…
I wasn’t going to do a Blog on these sequels, but I’ve relented after discovering they’re actually quite fun. I’m not going into the finer points of the plots – largely because there are no finer points to the plots (Tsurugi usually turning against his employer for one reason or another is pretty much it).
The rules are pretty standard for the 70’s – Lone Wolf anti-hero takes on the bad guys single-handedly. And woe betide befriending him, because you’re just going to end up dead at the hands of the bad guys. In fact, one woman ends up dead just considering befriending him. As in the original, we are continually reminded (through a sepia-toned flashback) of Tsurugi’s tortured past seeing his father executed by firing squad after (presumably false) accusations of spying against his country.
My only complaint about the first sequel is the over-reliance on lengthy flashbacks to The Streetfighter to pad out the film’s short running time (both sequels run to about 79 minutes on DVD), which really ruin the flow. It appears that all three films were made in 1974, so it’s not like the audience needed reminding of the events of the first film either.
The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge starts heading quite steeply into gonzo territory at times, with one of the weirdest assassins I’ve ever seen. He dresses like this:
Which is fair enough, as he has a sideline as a kind of showman. Except he dresses like this all the time – even when he’s out to perform a hit on someone. You would think he’d prefer something a little less conspicuous, but apparently not. His nationality is also matter of concern – his chosen language is English, believe it or not, and I thought I detected a hint of an Australian accent. Odd. It’s perhaps the weakest entry in the trilogy, but still has moments of great fun (mainly because of the guy above).
The much-celebrated gore is less evident in the sequels (the top screenshot notwithstanding) but it is still a bit nasty. The action scenes are occasionally superb – the standout scene takes place in The Return of the Street Fighter, in a kind of massage parlour/sauna – really exciting stuff, even though the trick shots and undercranking can sometimes be a little too evident. There’s also a good bit in the final film when Tsurugi meets a female Taiwanese Kung Fu artist, and you realise that Sonny Chiba really was a sprightly chap.
I’ve really warmed to Takuma Tsurugi over the course of these three films – much more than I’d expected. He can be a right bastard at times, and his treatment of women is pure 70’s misogyny, but I strongly suspect he’ll be in heavy rotation on my DVD player in the years ahead.
Sons of Good Earth (1965) May 5, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Drama, War, Romance, 1960s films , add a commentDirector: King Hu Starring: Peter Chen, Lee Kwan, Betty Loh, Kok Lee-Yan, King Hu Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
The year is 1937 – just prior to the Japanese invasion of China. Painters Ju Rui and Lao San (Peter Chen and Lee Kwan) inadvertently stumble upon He Hua (Betty Loh), a woman sold into the sex industry at a local brothel. Doing the decent thing, they protect her from the brothel keeper by posing as a married couple. The relationship quickly becomes the real thing after a comment by kindly old sergeant Hao (Kok Lee-Yan), who proves to be too clever to have the wool pulled over his eyes. Their peaceful life is shattered when the Japanese invaders come to town and begin their reign of terror. But certain citizens such as Director Ding (King Hu) start mobilizing guerrilla forces in the area.
This was King Hu’s first film as sole director (although he has that credit on The Story of Sue San, he was apparently supervised by Li Han-Hsiang), but already some King Hu trademarks are in place. It starts as one thing (a romantic comedy, believe it or not) and ends up as something completely different (a war film), going through something else in the middle (a political drama, for want of a better term) without the separate pieces jarring together horribly. The film is also shot fantastically, but that is standard for a King Hu film and hardly warrants a mention. Actually, the soundtrack almost steals the show – there’s so much martial music here that it reminds you of one of those big WWII epics made in Hollywood during the period.
The two leads play painters caught up in the whole mess, and do a pretty good job of it. Lee Kwan will be familiar to many as a comedy actor in such films as Fearless Hyena, but here he pretty much plays it straight. There are also so many familiar faces in this such as veterans Kok Lee-Yan, Ku Feng and Tien Feng – who between them probably racked up film appearances well into triple figures! King Hu himself appears in a supporting heroic role, and does a pretty decent job of it.
There are certain small lapses in the narrative from time to time, but the whole thing hangs together surprisingly well and there’s hardly a hint of melodrama involved. This is perhaps the least sensationalist portrayal of the Japanese invasion of China I’ve seen, but you’ve still got your despicable villains (one of whom is played by Fung Ngai, who seems to have made a career out of playing Japanese villains). The film does have an unnecessarily jingoistic feel at times, and it’s hard to believe that the Chinese weren’t actually at war with anybody when this film was made, least of all the Japanese.
You will have to suspend your disbelief a number of times, but Sons of Good Earth is certainly worth watching.
Rage against the Remake! (King WHO??) May 1, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Articles , 7 commentsUnless you are particularly unobservant, you will have noticed that over the last few years, the movie industry has thrown seemingly dozens of remakes our way. So much so that nearly every film you hear about these days is a remake of something or other. Even respectable filmmakers get in on the act, too: Peter Jackson, director of classics Bad Taste and Braindead (I think he also scored a minor hit with some kind of fantasy-based project) did King Kong and is now remaking The Dambusters. Even though no one seems particularly interested (the only publicity I’ve heard about the Dambusters film is people speculating what the dog will be called now), remakes are still being churned out at a massive rate.
However, nothing about the current trend has really, truly, wholly pissed me off until now. I hated the idea of a Dawn of the Dead remake (it ended up quite watchable, actually), I scoffed at the idea of a Wicker Man remake (I will never, ever sink so low as to watch that one), but I took it all with a pinch of salt.
That was until I heard that last week it was announced that Quentin Tarantino is to helm a remake of Come Drink With Me. Now don’t get me wrong, I like Tarantino up to a point. Both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction were bloody brilliant. Some of his scripts are good to great. But Jackie Brown left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth (but then again, I’m not a big fan of Elmore Leonard) and I’m still not sure about Kill Bill – it seemed to me as if he was deliberately trying to get bad performances out of the actors most of the time.
Tarantino’s credentials as a Hong Kong film nut are without question – he used City on Fire as a template for Reservoir Dogs and much of Kill Bill is in the Shaw style (including the logo at the start and a tell-tale shaky face zoom). But King Hu’s Come Drink With Me? I’m sorry, but it’s too polite to be given the Tarantino treatment. I’m surprised he even likes the film – I would have thought Chang Cheh would have been closer to Tarantino’s style, and The Five Venoms more his speed. Plus, aren’t the public starting to get tired of Tarantino wearing his grindhouse influences on his sleeve? Kill Bill was not well received, and I’d imagine this will fare even worse.
What I want to know is how is he going to handle the scene at the Inn where the Golden Swallow and the bandits are pretending not to fight each other? I certainly hope she’s not going to just burst in and shout, “Any of you f*ckin’ pr*cks move and I’ll execute every one of you motherf*ckers!” And are we going to be treated to a Twisting competition between the Golden Swallow and the Drunken Beggar Fan Dapei? What about Smiling Tiger’s lifeless body in the boot of a car (or the back of a horse-drawn carriage in this case) after being accidentally stabbed in the face by Jade Faced Tiger?
I suppose I shouldn’t be too judgmental at this stage (at least he’s calling it by its proper English title and not the abominable Girl with the Thunderbolt Kick), but it doesn’t bode well. One possible upshot of all this could be a long overdue release and remaster of King Hu’s catalogue. To date only this, Legend of the Mountain and Sons of Good Earth have got proper DVD releases with nice remastered visuals and audio (Swordsman doesn’t count). Some of his other films are practically impossible to get hold of (I only managed to get my hands on Raining in the Mountain when I visited a dubious shop on a visit to New York) and some are impossible to get hold of. Hopefully, Tarantino will raise awareness of King Hu and we’ll see the rest at last. At least we should get a remaster of A Touch of Zen out of it. And for that, I would be thankful.