From: fajack@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: HK Movies (Was: Diary of a Hitman)
Date: 28 Jul 92 08:33:35 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <1992Jul28.073210.2981@athena.mit.edu>, wildman@athena.mit.edu (Timothy Worsley) writes:

> They are indeed impressive.  And I don't believe it's just because of
> the number of people that get killed--there are many American action
> films that have astronomical body counts but remain uninspiring...  It
> is the way the scenes are filmed, the framing, the camera movement,
> the editing, just look at the second scene of THE KILLER and compare
> exactly how the director has communicated an ordinary story element
> (assassin kills roomful of people, wounds innocent bystander) in an
> extraordinary manner.  LETHAL WEAPON has nothing like this.  RICOCHET?
> You must be joking...
> 
>>However, usually these are only violence for violence sake.
> 
> People always say that...  TAXI DRIVER is a perfect example of a film
> that was criticized for "glorifying" unnecessary violence, which is
> absurd.
> 
	THE KILLER is a worhtless piece of trash.  A lot of gratuitous
violence.  The slow motion gun scenes are ways of glorifying the violence.
It seems like the director is trying to make those scenes look like 
'ballet'.   
	Plot is very important in a movie.  What distinguish TAXI DRIVER 
from other violence movies is that we 'care' about the characters in the 
movie.  The violence committed along the way is the trait of our 
protagonist.     
        I find that in most HK movies, the director are mainly concentrated
on "special effects" such as gun scenes or slapsticks (in comedy).  
Consequently, the films suffered due to poor characterization.  Let's face
it, if you don't "care" the characters, why bother to watch the movie. 

Jack Teh    


 


> Yikes, this has become rather lengthy!  I hope I've made my point:
> sure, most HK films suck, but so do most American films, so does most
> of almost anything.  At least for me, according to what I find
> entertaining, there is a very worthwhile 10% to explore.  Maybe when
> the novelty wears off, and these films become less foreign (which they
> might *not* do, after all they are literally foreign) to me, I will be
> able to quietly agree to most of your statements (except for the bit
> about LW3!!).  But for now, I'm having too good a time immersing
> myself in the visceral pleasure of the best of the hyper-accelerated
> action scenes of THE KILLER (my favorite shot is probably when Chow
> Yun Fat gets that one guy with the knife, the rhythm of that sequence
> is really great, if that makes any sense to anyone--I think Tarkovsky
> said (in his book _Sculpting in Time_) that editing does't just
> logically connect events, but gives them a rhythm--again, this is sort
> of the "analytical" vs. "sensual" issue...), the dense soaring music
> over alternating shots of a sorrowful parting and a bomb being defused
> in BULLET IN THE HEAD (one of my favorite parts, but only in the
> theater--on tape it loses most of its power), blood gushing out of
> Chow Yun Fat's mouth against a background of a huge red neon sign on
> top of a building, and later him striding down the driveway in a
> parking garage with the large red "No Smoking" sign behind him (A
> BETTER TOMORROW).
> 
> Well, sorry about that, I'm getting carried away, and I hope you'll
> excuse me for simply sharing my enthusiasm... :-)
> 
> Happy movie-going,
> 
> Ed Price              (not Tim Worsely) `Do you believe in God?'
> eprice@sql.sybase.com (not wildman@...) `I am the God.'
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies