A niche noesis and passion of mine is Hong Kong cinema , most specifically the Gun Fu films ( you read that right ) of the late eighties and early nineties . It raise up me when my supporter bewail over a bust likeRush Hour 3 , short sleep off duringCrouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon , or hustle their eyes atWindtalkers , not because I take issue with their take on these films , but because it sadden me that the luminary star or directors " “ Jackie Chan , Chow Yun Fat , and film director John Woo , severally " “ are no longer getting the respect they merit . With that in mind , I want to give three of my favorite Hong Kong boys their due .
Jackie Chan
You in all probability knowJackie Chanas the loveable and goofy martial creative person who team up with Americans for tight - paced activeness thriller ( as well as a man who has perfected the art of the bloomer reel ) . But did you bang that Chan was set up to be the next Bruce Lee ? strictly trained in soldierlike prowess , medicine , and dance , the untried Jackie Chan had bit role in several Bruce Lee films before Lee ’s premature death . Afterwards , Chan was seen as the natural substitute for Lee , except that young Jackie did not want to spend his vocation in Lee ’s tail . Instead , he formulated his own brand of amusement " “ that which combined humor and warriorlike arts .
A rooter of American slap - stick comedians such as Buster Keaton , Chan work hard to make a name for himself , often performing his own stunts ( which put him as Enemy Number 1 on indemnity company ’s listing ) . Sure , he still trifle smiling , goofy in force - guys in his American films , but his over-the-top warriorlike arts work developed in his former day of Hong Kong cinema is worth mention , especially because it infused a humor that seek to take Kung Fu a trivial less seriously . insure out this compilation telecasting , made from my favorite Chan film , 1978 ’s " Drunken Master . " It foreground his signature move " “ the manipulation of object around him ( afternoon tea cup , pole , water jug ) , as well as his top - mountain pass martial arts skills and inclination for downing plenteous amounts of fluid braveness .
Chow Yun Fat
Before theChow Yun FatofBulletproof MonkandPirates of the Caribbean , there was Chow Yun Fat … Latinian language star ? Prior to being project ironically in activity moving-picture show by directors like John Woo and Ringo Lam , Chow was a romantic leading man in Hong Kong cinema . But , as his type increasingly gained a penchant for wielding double Beretta 92s to serve their jurist whilst sporting sunglass at dark with toothpick grit in their teeth , Chow became the quintessential Hong Kong action hoagie . In fact , Chow became such a Brobdingnagian action star that hordes of young Isle of Man began dress up up like one of his most renowned characters , Mark Gor fromBetter Tomorrow , a drift parodied in this clip from its continuation , " A Better Tomorrow 2 , " where Chow come back , without narrative apology , as the slain Mark ’s twin chum .
The cartridge clip end with one of Chow ’s most passionate and beloved scenes from Gun - Fu cinema , giving us the dark thymine - shirt shibboleth " Respect the Rice . " Speaking of respect , if you ’re a fan of this genre and do n’t mind copious amounts of arterial spray , the final scene from the movie is considered one of the bloodiest ever - but also one of the great - in action history .
John Woo
Likely familiar areJohn Woo ’s American works such asFace / Off , Mission Impossible IIandBroken Arrow(OK , mayhap not that last one ) . But what about the films that made Woo an internationally modern violence ? A majuscule deal ( though admittedly , not all ) of American action movie house is constrict to very obvious convening , perhaps based on an assumption that viewers are alone interested in burst rather than striking contentedness . for certain , we all love a little Bay and Bruckheimer , but in his other films , John Woo perfected something cryptic than the pal - pig bond and the arbitrary love plot . Something far more intuitive to which Hollywood has never fully allowed him to refund " “ the construct of Heroic Bloodshed . Perhaps it came from one of the more interesting aspect of Hong Kong cinema itself " “ its palpable sensory faculty of urging . Films made in the late 1980s and other nineties often had nihilistic or despondent themes ( see : the filmography of Won Kar - Wai ) inspired by the country ’s looming return to China in 1997 . One of the well plastic film of the prolific Woo - Chow collaboration , and possibly Woo ’s last cracking Hong Kong film , is 1989’sThe Killer(originally titled , in Chinese , Bloodshed of Two Heroes ) . The film ’s nuclear fusion of Kung Fu and gun scrap is inspirational , but the heart of the plastic film lies in the kinship between an assassin front for one last hit , and the examiner looking to contribute him down . Not as ceremonious as you might expect . take in the trailer and judge for yourself !
