‘Double Trouble’: Not worth half the price

Double Trouble

Directed by David Hsun-Wei Chang

Written by Zhang Hongyi and Yeh Sho-Heng

China, 2012

It would be nice for Jaycee Chan to not be held to such an absurdly high standard. The problem is, he has his father’s nose: that daft proboscis which, each time it was broken and re-broken, more deeply signified Jackie Chan’s status as the clown prince of kung fu. Jackie Chan’s films set a near-impossible standard to meet, but worse, Jaycee’s new film Double Trouble (which the elder Chan was not connected with in any way) doesn’t meet the standards set by any good film.

Jaycee Chan plays a Taiwanese security guard who is assigned to protect a priceless painting, but due to a chance encounter with a visiting Chinese tourist (Xia Yu) the painting is lost anyway. Chan ends up chasing the painting with Yu in tow, thinking him a possible culprit; as the title suggests, this is a buddy film. But is this a buddy comedy or a buddy action film? The answer seems to be, “neither.”

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Essential Viewing for fans of ‘The Raid: Redemption’ – 15 Classic Martial Arts Films

Not long ago, Sound on Sight’s editor Ricky D emailed myself and fellow contributor Michael Ryan for the purpose of compiling some of our individual favourite martial arts pictures to celebrate The Raid‘s theatrical release across North American this Easter weekend. I would never consider myself to be a scholar of the genre, but it is true that I do tend to go back to martial arts films on a consistent basis when I have I craving for high-octane action. I think it has to do with the fact that what the performers pull off actually can be done if one practices long and hard enough. You can round-house kick someone in the face or brutally beat up a group of thugs with nunchucks but you could never levitate off the ground on bend metal with your mind, fun as it may be to watch movies in which characters perform those acts. I will never round-house kick someone in the face because I am too lazy to learn how, but it’s fun to think that I could…

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1- The Big Boss (aka Fists of Fury)

Directed by Lo Wei

Hong Kong, 1971

For whatever reason, when people think about Bruce Lee, the first film which springs to mind is Enter the Dragon. I have no idea why since that movie is a sham. The second obvious pick is Fist of Fury, (not Fists) eventually remade in the early 90s as Fist of Legend, the latter which starred Jet Li. That is a great movie, make no mistake about it, but it is The Big Boss, the movie that shot Bruce Lee into stardom which seems to win my heart the easiest. It’s a bit cheaper, a bit rougher around the edges and a bit more on the exploitation side of the spectrum of film genres.

Lee stars as a poor young man from mainland China who, at the behest of his uncle’s council, moves to another town for work in an ice block carving factory. Unbeknownst to them at the start of the film, their boss is using the factory as a front for his drug smuggling operations. Lee gets to know some of his cousins and make new friends who also work at the same plant, but when they start suspecting something is amiss, a few of them die (surprise!). Of course, it is up to Lee to save the remainder of his family and stop the ‘big boss’ from getting away with his scheme.

This movie is amazing, but amazing in that ‘wow, this movie is kind of on the cheap scale but still manages to be brilliant in a early 70s kung fu style sort of way’. You know what I mean, right? It is perhaps the Lee film (among his major films at least) which features the least amount of action, but it is there and it is pretty cool What’s more, The Big Boss is what started the entire running joke about Bruce Lee growling like a dog joke and yelling ‘Whhoooooaaaahhhhh!’ whenever beating the living daylights out of opponents. The first ever appearance of the legendary sound effects occurs about halfway through. Lee is staring off against another man. Slowly, they circle one another, their glares burning. Suddenly, Lee shifts his head ever so slightly (presumably to unsettle his opposite) and the soundtrack booms with ‘Oooah!’, only to be followed with ‘Ggggrrrrrrrr…’ When the kicks and punches start flying, Lee is the quickest of the bunch, a formula 1 car in the shape of a martial artists next to everybody’s ordinary Nissan.

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Shaw Brothers Saturdays: Sadly, ‘The One Armed Swordsman’ cannot overcome all of his handicaps

The One Armed Swordsman

Directed by Chang Cheh

Written by Chang Cheh and Kuang Ni

Hong Kong, 1967

One knows exactly when it has happened. Any movie aficionado is familiar with that odd feeling which takes over when one has watched a film that manages to overcome its flaws and provide some solid entertainment despite it all. There is no hiding that the film is imperfect. Some of the flaws may be glaring, but what it does well, it does marvellously. This is the sentiment felt while watching one of director Chang Cheh’s more popular films, 1967′s The One Armed Swordsman. More than once a sense of exhilaration washes over like a tidal wave, which thankfully made up for the moments which floundered. For this reason, one salutes director Chang Che, who pulls off quite the job even though his film is hampered, at times, by a strange script and really bogus storytelling methods. Enough with the intro and on with the juicy details.

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Montréal AmérAsia Film Festival: ‘Pearls of the Far East’ puzzling, yet just as beautiful as its titular jewels

Pearls of the Far East
Directed by Cuong Ngo
Written by Minh Ngoc Nguyen and Matt Guerin
Vietnam, 2011

Any young director is faced with a steep challenge when shifting his or her focus from the realm of short films to that of the feature length. Suddenly, the economy required in the storytelling takes on an entirely different facet, with the director now having to let his characters breath a little more. Vietnamese director Cuong Ngo arrives on the international stage with his first ever feature-length movie following two shorts, The Golden Pin and The Hitchhiker Project, which both saw the light of day in 2009 and each an exercise within familiar genres, not to mention that they utilized some Canadian talent. The result of his efforts for this latest endeavor, Pearls of the East, is unquestionably skewered towards a different audience. Curiously enough, even though the movie is 103 minutes long, has actually made an anthology film, hence remaining in his comfort zone…

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Montréal AmérAsia Film Festival: ‘Yona Yona Penguin’ overcomes obstacles and learns to fly

Yona Yona Penguin 

Directed by Rintaro

Screenplay by Tomoko Konparu

Japan, 2009

It has most likely been said and written elsewhere and done in far more articulate manner, but the Japanese have a knack for going all out within the realm of feature length animated films. Unlike in other countries and regions of the globe, which all produce fine pictures in their own right by the way, animation from the land of the rising sun seems to occur on a completely different level. Maybe much of the fuss about their cinema is tied to the reality that, more often than not, they truly create new, unexpected worlds which are only so rarely seen in animation produced in other countries. Some might argue that this storytelling technique feels more as if the Japanese abandon basic principles in storytelling, preferring to throw a bunch of stuff on screen and see what sticks. That is open to debate, but there is little doubt they their animators have imagination, Yona Yona Penguin, from experienced animation director Rintaro, being on such example.

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Kim Ki-duk enters the confessional in ‘Arirang’

Arirang

Directed by Kim Ki-duk

Written by Kim Ki-duk

South Korea, 2011

What separates the writers and directors who take their craft to heart may not only be felt in their films, although the latter is a reasonably accurate measuring tool, but also in what they communicate more directly to viewers and listeners who pay attention to their interviews. Who takes themselves very seriously, who is merely having fun, who is looking to expand the language of cinema, who is looking to respect tradition, and so on and so forth. Interviews are one form of direct communication, but so would be a documentary in which a given director spends over 90 minutes filming him or herself as they discuss their career, its impact on their lives as well as that of others, their dreams, aspirations and their views on what their work’s place in the world might be. Such is the strategy employed by the highly respected South Korean director Kim Ki-duk, who explains to the audience why he has not made a film since 2008′s Dream.

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Shaw Brothers Saturdays: ‘Heroes of the East’ is in a class of its own, period

Heroes of the East

Directed by Lau Kar-leung

Written by Kuang Ni

Hong Kong, 1978

Marriage. There is really nothing like it. The love which binds two people together so strongly can emanate from any number of things, such as common interests, even in the smallest of things. It is interesting how some marriages and various other relationships can come undone by matters one least suspects. Pride, for one, can be a mighty big killer, especially if one has too much to swallow and thus must abide by it. Such is the dilemma facing the central couple in Lau Kar-Leung’s 1978 classic film, Heroes of the East, who not only come together because of their shared love for martial arts, but eventually grow apart due to their respective adherence to the disciplines they know best, which, in the case of the historical China-Japan rivalry, can be a tremendous matter of national pride, enough to wash away whatever love once existed.

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