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[RedKing]

Okay, A Chinese Ghost Story is done and should be up in the archive for your viewing pleasure shortly.

Notable quotables:

Solifuge: Damn, the ammount of unwitting, lucky barely-escaped moments would put Scooby Doo to shame.

Red_King: YES...drunken style whlie reciting pieces of the Daode jing and BREAKDANCING.

pnx: Sorry dude, trees hate books, but for a different reason.

[scriver]

A sad face for missing.

[RedKing]

A sad face for missing.

It's in the archive now.

Plus, I may have found a decent copy of Mr. Vampire via the intertubes. I'll know once the torrent is finished.

After that, the next pairing will be "All Wong Fei Hung, All The Time": Once Upon A Time in China (starring a young Jet Li) and Drunken Master (starring a young Jackie Chan). Thought it would be interesting to compare two very different takes on the same character. Also planning to go into depth as to why Wong Fei Hung is such a popular character and how it relates to the HK/Chinese film industry.


Another future planned pairing is "The Unreliable Narrator" (Zhang Yimou's Hero / Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon). Both films have at their core the same story told multiple times from different points of view, with the viewer left to find the truth in between. Not only is it a very cool literary device, it's a real challenge for the actors to portray the same characters differently each time. And in both cases, the cast delivers beautifully. Should be an interesting contrast visually as well: the grainy B&W of Rashomon against the gorgeous color-soaked (and color-coded) Hero.

[scriver]

I think Hero is a pretty cool dude.

Is Rashomon deliberately black-and-white or just old, by the way?

[RedKing]

I think Hero is a pretty cool dude.

Is Rashomon deliberately black-and-white or just old, by the way?

Bit of both. It was released in 1950, so it technically could have been shot in color, but color was still very expensive.

[scriver]

They should've done it like if... and gained additional pretension points

[Pnx]

For those who missed the show last night, I thought I should share the best part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pXXWd_CIYY

[RedKing]

For those who missed the show last night, I thought I should share the best part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pXXWd_CIYY

ROTFL....I was just thinking about this scene on the way to work this morning, for some oddball reason. The thing is....if you know Taoism, it's actually pretty brilliant because it sums up the Taoist rejection of worldly dichotomies and social convention.

[RedKing]

w00t! After quite a search, I found a good copy of Mr. Vampire -- good picture quality, and a surprisingly good subtitle job.

I'll plan to show it on Thursday afternoon (EDT) sometime, i.e. Thursday evening for the Euro-folks.

[scriver]

Sweet! That means I can watch it! Joys!

[RedKing]

While I'm at it, here's a roadmap for planned pairings in the future (movie choices subject to change):

Will the real Wong Fei Hung please stand up?
Drunken Master (Jui kuen)
Once Upon a Time in China

The Unreliable Narrator
Hero (Ying xiong)
Rashomon

Night of a Million Zillion Ninjas
Duel to the Death (Xian si jue)
Shinobi: Heart Under Blade

Dangerous Liasons
Green Snake (Ching Se)
Painted Skin (Hua pi zhi: Yin yang fa wang)

World War Z: The Eastern Front
Wild Zero
SARS Wars (Khun krabii hiiroh)

Wuxia Epics
Touch of Zen
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo hu can long) *or* House of Flying Daggers (Shi mian mai fu) -- can't decide

Country Mouse, City Mouse
Not One Less (Yi ge dou bu neng shao)
Beijing Bicycle (Shiqi sui de dan che)


The last pair aren't action flicks or historical pieces, they're dramas that deal with the dislocation and other issues for rural Chinese moving into the cities, which is a huge social issue over the last decade. I'd like to eventually open the selection up to these sort of social critique/slice-of-life movies because I think people would do well to get a better understanding of life "over there". I know some good films on the changing social landscape for GLBT in Taiwan and China as well, for instance.

EDIT: Hmm....I also need to work a little harder on finding and including good Korean and Thai films. 

[RedKing]

Showtime in three hours! On the slate for today is the 2nd half of the supernatural set, Mr. Vampire. Lam Ching-ying stars as Master Kau, the badass Taoist priest responsible for making sure the dead behave themselves. When a botched burial creates a jiangshi (hopping vampire) on the rampage, it's up to Kau and his two bumbling apprentices to save the day.

It's a horror-comedy with a lot of emphasis on the comedy. I'll have my microphone enabled, because this one will take a LOT of explanation. 

Showtime at 3pm EDT (7pm GMT) or shortly thereafter.

[RedKing]

Shameless bump. Stream is live, come see the bouncing undead!

http://www.livestream.com/redkingsactiontheater

[The Merchant Of Menace]

*Hiss*
Using GMT, GMT won't exist for another 2.5 weeks.

[RedKing]

*Hiss*
Using GMT, GMT won't exist for another 2.5 weeks.

I thought GMT didn't change? We're typically GMT-5, except during the summer when we're -4.

Anyways, Mr. Vampire has hopped into the archive. My mic didn't work so well, so most of the commentary was typed.