A French Mexican adventure directed by Luis Bunuel, starring Simone Signoret, Charles Vanel, Georges Marchal and Michel Piccoli.
A revolution starts because the government takes over mining claims in South America. An old man and a stranger who is new in town are blamed for it, so they leave with the man's daughter and prostitute mistress as well as a local priest. They take one of the military men hostage and head into the rain forest. He escapes with their food and meets up with other soldiers before being shot. The group is left to find their way out of the jungle with no supplies.
This was slow to start, but I liked it more as it went on. The plot started off looking like a Sergio Leone fistful of revolution epic, but turned into wilderness survival for the better. The characters were relatively static, but what interested me was that their relationships with one another changed over time. The hero was a typical Indiana Jones dude who came into town like Trinity. Dialogue was all in French, but I found good English subtitles. I thought the acting was spot-on, but stereotypical like the characters. The world already had tons of western cowboys to model the hero and romantic interest after, as well as the old man in 1956. Costumes looked like a standard western, but sets and filming locations went far beyond that old Texas town. There was lots of jungle B-roll and the locations for scenes in the jungle looked good too. I really like those big, weird-shaped trees. Camera-work was definitely to my liking and very much Sergio Leone style. There were lots of long shots showing distance and space, but not many close-ups. Doing a quick click-through, I hear no non-diegetic music. The dialogue would have been the correct volume if I needed to hear some French and the sound effects were mixed loud, but not clipping. IMDb has a rating of 6.9/10 listed and Rotten Tomatoes has 92% Tomatometer with 60% Audience Score for an average of 73.66%. I would go a little bit higher than that and was glad that Rotten Tomatoes had such a high site score for it. I rate this adequate and would recommend it if you want to see a Sergio Leone film starring Indiana Jones on a jungle survival adventure.
A Mexican thriller directed by Luis Bunuel, starring Silvia Pinal.
Rich dinner guests are trapped in a room of the house where they attended the party. Even though the door is open, they cannot leave. They run out of water and food, lose their humanity and turn against one another.
It was an interesting premise that seems like it would have made a good Twilight Zone episode. An hour and a half seemed a little long though. The plot does develop more fully than my brief description, with different characters acting their parts in the psycho-drama. All of the characters were rich, white and well-dressed, making them difficult to differentiate at times. The doctor always stood out for his age and relative sanity. I could understand a word or few of the Spanish dialogue, but found good English subtitles. The only problem was that "Y" was replaced with "T". The dwarves of Conde Petie in Final Fantasy IX get "hungert", Not Mexican aristocracy. I thought the actors did a great job of going crazy. One woman pulled out her hair and everyone looked haggard in their suits and gowns. Needless to say, not too many sets. There was an exterior and a dining room at the beginning and a church at the end. There were also some exterior shots spread throughout as people outside could not enter the house. Everything else was in the room. Camera-work was not the best I've seen, even accounting for black and white. That honor goes to Fire over England, a dull, but beautifully shot film. I thought the shots stayed too much in mid-range without getting very close or far away and the general compositions just didn't do it for me. There was a disembodied hand special effect and some creative double exposures or layering to make a dream sequence. The audio seemed on for dialogue and there was not much noticeable music (seems to be the current trend). The gritty style and surrealist subject matter definitely reminded me of Un Chien Andalou. IMDb has an 8.2/10 rating listed, AllMovie has 4.5/5 in both AllMovie and user ratings and Rotten Tomatoes has 96% Tomatometer with 93% Audience Score for an average of 90.2%. Why this gets a consensus A- and A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) gets a consensus C- is beyond me, but that doesn't happen here. Not on my blog! I would say it should be reversed. This gets my o.k. rating because I don't think it's as magnificent as everyone else apparently does.
A Chinese kung fu directed by Lau Kar-leung, starring Chen Kuan-tai, Wong Yue, Lo Lieh and Gordon Liu.
The legendary Pai Mei destroys Shaolin temple and sends the monks fleeing. One of the monks who specializes in tiger claw meets a woman who specializes in crane style. They have a son and the father goes off to get revenge on Pai Mei while the son learns crane style from his mother. Eventually, the father stops returning from his battles and the son finds an incomplete book of tiger style to learn from before facing Pai Mei himself.
Lots of fighting and styles to talk about. The plot initially seemed to get bogged down in the wedding section, but picked up into... Nobody would ever guess... Revenge! The son was an interesting character because his mother dressed him as a female and there was a comic relief character in the beginning who got lost around the middle. Everyone else was exactly as expected. The English subtitled dialogue did not hold my interest much, but there was tons of discussion on who is the better fighter and which animal style they used. Pai Mei was acted just like in Kill Bill and all of the other kung fu films I've seen. He didn't flip his beard though. The fighting is what to watch this for. I would seriously recommend skipping the first half for this reason. The training for rematches reminded me of Kung Pow! Enter the Fist (2002). We also had Pai Mei and tiger-crane style, clearly referenced in Kill Bill. One of the main plot points in Pai Mei's fights was that he would grab the opponent's foot with his dick. The sets looked expensive and there were lots of locations like boats, towns, temples, forests, the family's home... I noticed the son's costume most because he was dressed like a girl. Camera-work followed the old kung fu standard, but was not bad. I can see everything that's happening in these old Chinese flicks, unlike some more modern films. There weren't special effects like flying or energy blasts, just standard editing cuts during some sections of the fights that would be physically impossible otherwise. The audio was not bad, but in Chinese and seemed to follow the early kung fu trend of not having enough music. IMDb has a 7.1/10 rating listed, AllMovie has 2.5/5 AllMovie rating with 3.5/5 user ratings and Rotten Tomatoes lists 68% audience score for an average of 64.75%. I think an F grade is a little bit low and again, it's because AllMovie rated extremely low. This is actually better than Fist of Fury, but not good enough to get a green rating. I rate it adequate and would recommend it for hardcore kung fu fans.
A Chinese kung fu directed by Lo Wei, starring Bruce Lee.
A martial arts student in China returns to his school to find his teacher dead. Some Japanese fighters show up at the funeral to issue a challenge. This starts a chain of conflicts between the groups.
This is an iconic, early kung fu. It set the o.k. standard bar for future films. The plot must have been fresh at the time, but revenge became the default plot for all kung fu films to follow. The characters were a little shallow by today's standards, but it seemed more realistic that the hero would become a wanted murderer as the plot developed. It was also made very clear that he was the strongest fighter. English translated dialogue was all plot outline with no style or flavor. I imagine this would have been different to a Chinese speaking audience. Bruce Lee's acting was great though. He put on disguises to fool the Japanese group and portrayed different characters. The fights seemed to take full advantage of editing techniques to show damage to characters. There were also break away set pieces, slow motion and layering. Sets looked authentic and as mentioned before, Bruce had at least 4 costume changes. Camera-work looks standard by today's perspective because it actually set that standard. Most kung fu films before this don't look as good. I did not like the audio. It seemed that there was too much volume range between characters and very little music. IMDb has a 7.4/10 rating listed for this, AllMovie has a 3/5 AllMovie rating with 4.5/5 user ratings and Rotten Tomatoes lists 92% Tomatometer with 83% audience score for a 79.8% average. I would have agreed with the average consensus in 1972, but it feels kind of stale now. I rate it o.k.
A French animated fantasy directed by Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner.
Mice live underground and collect teeth. Bears live on the surface and act like humans. A mouse and a bear who are rejected by their societies become friends.
I think the anti-authoritarian plot was the best part of this. Fuck the police, fuck societal norms and do what you want. The two main characters did not show much development, but were amusing in their own, shallow way. The mobs of mouse and bear cops were stereotyped perfectly because that is what cops are like. I watched it in French with English subtitles that were a little off-time. When Ernest was busking, the subtitle author wrote "I give up, not translating a song" or something along those lines. The main plot came through, but some details may have been lost in translation. The animation style mirrored the watercolor paintings of the children's books that this was based on. It was rendered a little minimalistically and with some impressionism as well as a strong "cartoon" style. The French audio sounded great. Everything was mixed right and levels were appropriate for content. This won 10/25 awards that it was nominated for. IMDB has a 7.9/10 rating listed and Rotten Tomatoes has it listed 97% Tomatometer with 88% Audience Score. 88% average B+ grade seems right to me. I would say that equals adequate on here. You might want to check it out.
A Chinese wuxia directed by Ching Siu-tung.
A group from Japan arrives in China. They arrange a duel between their swordsman and a Chinese swordsman, but other people are trying to influence the outcome of the duel.
There were some good special effects, but the rest was unimpressive. The convoluted plot contained too many characters (surprised?). I think the story of the duel and the characters of the two swordsmen got neglected in favor of minor plot elements like the romantic interest that doesn't work out. The acting seemed professional and very wuxia, not cheezy like kung fu. The subtitles came with this one and worked. I thought the translated dialogue was dull and lifeless. Even the momentary appearance of a comic relief character seemed like dead pan delivery of plot outline writing. Sets and costumes looked authentic, but seemed to be community property with every other Chinese film of the kung fu and wuxia genres. All of the camera-work was very dynamic, to use a positive word. Quick takes, lots of camera movement and quick editing. It wasn't as fast as Chinese Ghost Story, but pretty quick. The actual fights were just special effects scenes with flying people and objects. There was also some prolific stage blood, dismemberment and decapitation. I'm not spoiling anything by telling that the decapitated head explodes. Some of the "flying character" shots were obviously done by a person jumping and grabbing a tree. It looked absurd. The audio was not so great, but not kung fu bad. Someone in the process seemed to be paying attention to sound levels most of the time. The style reminded me of 5 Element Ninjas mixed with Legend of Liquid Sword and Killer of Snakes Fox of Shaolin. IMDB has a listed rating of 7.3/10 and Rotten Tomatoes lists 83% audience score for an average of 78%. I agree completely. It's a regular C+ wuxia because the plot got buried under a load of junk, but the special effects were entertaining. I rate it adequate.
A Chinese kung fu directed by Yuen Woo-ping, starring Yuen Biao and Kwan Tak-hing.
A fighter's wife who used to wear bells was killed in an ambush at a restaurant, causing him to become evil. He is hiding out with an opera troupe and wants to kill a cowardly man who runs a laundry business.
I was expecting another run of the mill kung fu snoozer, but this was worthwhile. The plot was a little convoluted (aren't they always?) but had a reason for why the villain went evil. Not many films explain why the bad guy is bad. The casting for him and the hero was great. Biao was the hero and Tak-hing was the teacher (his constant role). The villain doesn't even have a wikipedia page, but he was perfect for the part. There were a few too many other characters, but that's another staple of the genre that goes with the unnecessary plot points. A little bit of crappy acting is yet another of the unavoidable kung fu cliches, but the main characters did a great job. I can't really say much about the dialogue, but I found good subtitles. Sets and costumes looked extremely recycled, like every kung fu flick ever made shared them. The exception was the dog costume for the lion dance scenes. The choreography for those and the fights was done exceptionally well. This is not just because it looks good, but because of context and use of props and special effects. It wasn't just "Let's fight!", but a lion dance competition fight, accidentally showing eagle claw techniques in front of the teacher, etc. I also liked the use of Hong Kong wire and wuxia style long sleeve weapons. The editing was all very quick and the camera-work straight forward, but I could see what was going on and there were a few creative angles to give context to some situations like when the killer scales an alley wall. One of my least favorite kung fu cliches is bad sound and this had it. I swear every sound was peaking the levels, with most being distorted. IMDb has a rating of 7.5/10 listed for this, AllMovie has 0/5 AllMovie rating with 3.5/5 user rating and Rotten Tomatoes has 85% Audience Score. 57.5% average seems really low to me and all because of the zero from AllMovie. I rate this good because I'm so tired of kung fu flicks that it hurts and even I liked it. Watch this if you're just as bored with whoosh, swack and fighting for no reason.
