Screening Log
This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.
December 2006 activity
Total Log Entries: 74
- Adam (10)
- Andrew (0)
- Chet (0)
- Chiranjit (6)
- David (0)
- Eva (0)
- Evan (0)
- Ian (15)
- Jenny (8)
- Katherine (0)
- Leo (15)
- Megan (0)
- Rumsey (7)
- Teddy (1)
- Thomas (0)
- Timothy (0)
- Victoria (0)
Total Comments: 65
- Pan’s Labyrinth (0)
- Firewall (0)
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1)
- Interiors (0)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (0)
- The Kingdom (0)
- The Innocents (0)
- Les anges du peche (0)
- Night at the Museum (0)
- Children of Men (0)
- Dreamgirls (2)
- Invincible (0)
- Babel (15)
- The Good Shepherd (0)
- Scarlet Street (0)
- Little Miss Sunshine (0)
- The Illusionist (1)
- The Good Shepherd (0)
- Mon oncle d’Amerique (0)
- Flying Down To Rio (0)
- Yearning (0)
- The Good Shepherd (1)
- Little Children (4)
- Shortbus (0)
- Clerks II (3)
- Fires On The Plain (0)
- Cape Fear (0)
- Testament d’Orphée (0)
- Miami Vice (0)
- Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid (0)
- Curse of the Golden Flower (0)
- Au revoir, les enfants (0)
- Freaks and Geeks (4)
- The Watermelon Woman (0)
- Wanda (0)
- The Wind That Shakes The Barley (0)
- Sayat Nova (0)
- Miami Vice (3)
- El Topo (6)
- Troilus & Cressida (0)
- Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (0)
- Deja Vu (0)
- Inland Empire (0)
- Shock Treatment (3)
- The Holiday (0)
- Inland Empire (0)
- Syndromes and a Century (0)
- The Chinese Boxer (0)
- Volver (0)
- Days of Glory (0)
- Paris, je t’aime (0)
- Frozen City (0)
- Network (0)
- Regular Lovers (0)
- The Double Life of Veronique (0)
- L’Amour fou (0)
- Lost Highway (0)
- McCabe & Mrs. Miller (0)
- Nosferatu the Vampyre (0)
- Le vent de la nuit (0)
- Fresh Air (0)
- In Smog and Thunder (0)
- Sissy Frenchfry (2)
- The Tenants (0)
- Little Children (1)
- Half Nelson (1)
- The History Boys (4)
- Inland Empire (1)
- American Movie (0)
- Hard Eight (2)
- V for Vendetta (5)
- Hearts of Darkness (1)
- Casino Royale (0)
- Borat (5)
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The Chinese Boxer / Long hu dou / Hammer of the Gods / Hong Kong / 1970
The “Chinese” in the English title is important and not obvious: Jimmy Wang Yu’s character is first and foremost a symbol of Chinese resilience, diligence, martial arts skill, and honor, in contrast to those nasty, usurping Japanese bastards whose eyes he has the pleasure of gouging out by the end of the film. The politics here form not so much a subtext as a pretext: the patently Chinese actors standing in for pale, mop-topped karate experts from the Land of the Rising Sun are explicitly portrayed as vampires, whose kung-fu is only admirable because it is Chinese-based (or so it is claimed), but whose bellicose nature is utterly inhuman.
All of this obvious racism and propaganda make for a thoroughly entertaining film, of course (a decidedly unpleasant midfilm rape scene notwithstanding), and is nearly plotless by its final third, in which the hitherto dorky Jimmy Wang Yu starts thrashing through karate fighters like so many paper tigers.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Shaw Brothers / Celestial Pictures VCD
11 Dec 2006 12:04 PM | Submit Comment