Invincible Armor

It is impossible to exaggerate how pure a movie Invincible Armor is. The movie runs an hour and forty minutes and if you timed it with a stop watch I doubt you’d find five minutes of content that did not involve people fighting spectacularly over the top kung fu duels.

The story is in the basic “They Killed My Master. I Have Been Framed For His Murder. I Must Seek Revenge” template. But with the intriguing twist that the ultimate person behind the assassination turns out to be a master who has mastered the invincible armor technique, a technique that allows him to undergo a breathtaking amount of abuse. Also, thanks to the fact he has remained celibate he also has the power to retract his testicles up into his body (!). This comes in handier then you might think. But all in all I’m not sure that it’s a fair trade. Particularly given how things turn out for him. Would it be giving away too much dear reader if I reveal that the movie features a shot of two eggs being crushed in a single hand? And that after that shot the movie consists of little more then the old master rolling around on the ground in agonizing pain. I can only imagine that “I wish I had put those to better use!” is running through his mind as it happens.

You know what mere words don’t really do it justice…

Prior to that glorious sequence there’s a kick ass Kung Fu movie. It’s not going to win any points for story. But the efficency of it is really quite astounding. When I say the characters in this movie are fighting all the time, I mean that quite literally. They arrive at a tavern, fight, receive some exposition, fight, go to a duel, fight. It would be an exaggeration to say that any of these non fighting sequences run past two minutes.

But lets give the film some credit, fighting like anything else grows dull after being displayed incessantly for a hundred and forty minutes. To its credit though, Invincible Armor is suitably innovative that it never really does get boring. The choreography and camera work are inventive, as are the various techniques and weapons the filmmaker’s trot out to enliven each battle. And while the weapons and techniques (and occasional Wu Xia fifty foot leaps) are all suitably wild. They never become so distracting as to take away from the actor’s obvious skill at Martial Arts.

All in all Invincible Armor is one of those movies that’s tough to review, because it so manifestly is what it is and you already know if you want it or not. And if you didn’t when you saw that the movie was called Invincible Armor then you certainly did when you saw the above clip. No more honest review of the movie exists…

One more time.

Dragon's Forever

While Jackie Chan continues his long slow slide from the man who made The Legend Of Drunken Master and Police Story to the man who made Rush Hour 3, The Spy Next Door and The Karate Kid (BUT HE’S PRACTICING KUNG FU!!!!) its nice once to revisit his older films and remember that there was once a time when a new Jackie Chan movie was a very good thing.

Dragon’s Forever is a show case for Chan at his best, acting as a perfect display for his brand of unfakeable athleticism that never fails to get the jaw dropping. While in some of the lesser Chan film’s, his broad sense of humor can undercut the intensity of his stunts and performances, Dragon’s Forever finds the perfect balance of intensity and levity. The role, though still firmly a good guy, is a bit less noble then the average Jackie Chan character and aside from a few scenes with Hung, never turns into a clown the way Chan is want to do. He’s a full fledged badass in this, and it’s a role that’s satisfying to watch him play.

Directed by veteran Sammo Hung, whose skills in front of the camera (He plays a role here as the “fatty” comic relief) are of much use to him behind it. Hung simply put knows how to shoot action, because he knows how the mechanics of an action scene work inside and out. He puts together some stunning sequences for Dragon’s Forever. Simply some of the best displays Chan ever had for his artistry. Including a climactic fight scene that goes on for nearly half an hour, and features stunts off handedly performed that would serve as the centerpiece of lesser action movies. It rivals even the legendary battle that capped Drunk Master II, for sheer “I can’t believe the human body is capable of such abuse” disbelief.

The film’s story is perfunctory even by Kung Fu standards, involving a battle between a fish farm and a textile mill that’s really a front for a narcotic smuggling triad. There’s a lot of “wacky” highjinks and romantic interludes, where the apathy is almost audible. But there’s also a refreshing lack of homogenization. Say what you will about Dragon’s Forever, and a lot can be said about a film in which Jackie Chan “meets cute” with a girl while defending her rapist in court (This is what I believe is referred to as “Not Cool”).

but it’s a film that a startling specific product of its time and place. Even its tastelessness is appealing because something that can’t be replicated in our increasingly globablized world. Nowadays a Hong Kong Filmmaker would know that there is no way that would play in the American market.

Now yes on the simple level treating rape as somewhat more serious then jay walking, this is perhaps not such a bad thing. But its this same mode of thinking which turns someone who once tore through the cinema, with a grace and joy that seemed nearly supernatural, into a blandly wholesome family entertainer.

The Young Dragons

John Woo has become a depressingly easy director to underrate. Its no secret by now that John Woo’s American career has been, to put it kindly, a disaster. A depressing mélange of missed opportunities, watered down whoring of his talents, and good ole fashion hackery. The entirety of his 15 years wasted in Hollywood yielded one film, that is kind of entertaining despite being a total camp fest (Face Off) and one film that had potential but should have been a whole hell of a lot better (Windtalkers). The rest is too depressing to delve into, I’ll just say that when your second runner up stars Jean Claude Van Dam your career has problems.

Meanwhile outside of Woo’s own doing, his style which started out so refreshing ended up first being subsumed and replicated by hacks ad nauseam, and then cast aside for the Greengrass touch. Either way, he’s awfully easy to discount nowadays.

But this doesn’t wipe out all the great films Woo has made. Bullet In The Head, The Killer, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow. These films are still legendary among action fans and with good reason. His borderline high camp style, masochistic story lines, and incomparable eye still make him an essential filmmaker. A Frankenstein’s monster, equal parts Douglass Sirk, Bubsy Berkley, Jean Pierre Melville and Sam Peckinpah.

Still, there are signs that Woo’s reputation is back on the rise. Though I haven’t seen Red Cliff yet (I’m waiting for the money to pick up the Blu Ray and refused to see the truncated American cut) I hear it’s a return to form. And Kickass gave him a very generous name check. Turning his films into essential training for the budding young sociopath. Having never seen the film name checked by Big Daddy and Hit Girl, I decided to check out Woo’s first film The Young Dragons.

So famous is he for the Heroic Bloodshed style, that few know that Woo started out as a kung fu director. And a damn good one at that. Depending on the day you ask me, I might say that his Hand Of Death (starring a young Jackie Chan) is my favorite Kung Fu film period.

The Young Dragons, isn’t quite there yet. Woo’s style hadn’t quite crystallized. It’s not a perfect film, but its also one with clear signs of who Woo would become, and is thus worthwhile for any serious fan of the director. A flawed film but a rewarding one.

I’ll admit. I had a hard time following this movie. And I mean that in a very basic way, as in who the characters were half the time, and what their base motives were. Its not like the story is super complex or anything in fact I’m almost embarrassed about it. But there’s a real confusion to the storytelling that makes it plain difficult. Now granted this is not all the movies fault. This film has the classic old foreign film fuck up of printing its subtitles in white before displaying them in front of white backgrounds and costumes. Meaning forty percent of the dialogue is lost. And what dialogue does make it through is atrociously translated (not that I’m complaining per se, The Young Dragons hasn’t been, strictly speaking, released in The US. I was just happy to get my hands on a copy. Beggers can’t be choosers and all that.)

While there are no flying doves, tongues of flame, or rains of bullets, its clear from the beginning that Woo had a talent for action. While there’s nothing quite as batshit insane as say the ending of A Better Tomorrow II, Woo shows a real talent for interesting composition, choreography, and a skill for challenging himself. While most martial arts directors keep the camera stationary to make choreography easier, Woo moves it in sweeping tracking shots, bringing it into the midst of the action while keeping his lucidity. He finds interesting ways to shoot things, perpendicular from how you would expect them. At one point he shoots a battle with the camera pointed directly at the sun, blowing out the frame save for the principles silhouettes. At another he chooses an ultra wide shot, for an impressive cliff dive, rendered even more impressive by the fact that we can clearly see there is no sort of safety net or trickery here.

Woo’s taste for Masochistic Melodrama already in full flower. The movie is clearly a heroic bloodshed movie wherein the heroes just happen to kill each other with their bare hands rather then pistols. Most the heroes die tragic deaths, leaving the survivors to stare at their bloodstained corpses, getting chocked but because of just…how…beautiful they where.

Hey come to think of it that’s more or less an apt metaphor for Woo’s directing career.

The Five Fingers Of Death

Five Fingers Of Death is in many ways the prototypical Kung Fu movie. All the pleasures of the genre, naïve callow heroes, blind avengers, strange techniques, exotic training, dorm room philosophy, dastardly villains, flamboyant fodder, and of course jaw dropping Kung Fu, are present and accounted for.

Its appropriate then that Five Fingers Of Death (or King Boxer as its known in China) was the first Kung Fu movie given wide release in America (Predating Enter The Dragon by six months) its such a perfect summation of the genre’s pleasures, that it makes for a perfect ambassador. (And an influential one, Kill Bill Fans will get a nice surprise, Tarantino actually does a superlative commentary track with the great Elvis Mitchell on this one.)

The Five Fingers, tells the story of a young martial arts student, sent to learn The Iron Palm Technique at a distant dojo. There he finds himself drawn into a long standing feud between his master’s honorable school, and the one of the biggest douche to ever run a martial arts school. Through his colorful mercenaries, the giant douche has been in control of the martial arts in the area, but with the arrival of Lo Lieh, he even goes so far as to hire the sneaky sneaky Japanese to help him achieve victory (Warning this like many Chinese films made in the first few decades after World War II does not have a view of The Japanese that one would call PC).

The story is nothing you haven’t seen before, complicated only by the jealousy of a passed over student and the loyalty of a Dance Hall girl who is ultimately, and disappointedly rejected for the girl back home. But once again that’s kind of the point, the ease and skill with which Five Fingers Of Death puts itself through the paces is kind of astounding in its own way. When a dishonored blind man seeks to redeem himself with great vengeance and furious anger, it’s the most ass kickingly awesome dishonored blind man seeking redemption through great vengeance and furious anger that you’ve ever seen. When there’s a training montage, there’s a hell of a training montage, with Lieh dipping his hands into real hot coals. When there’s a fall it comes with a torture scene that’ll make you squeamish despite not showing anything. And when it comes time for Lieh to lay waste to a roomful of his enemies or decimate a villainous master… Well brother I believe you get the picture.

While Lo Lieh doesn’t have the natural charisma of say Bruce Lee, Sonny Chiba, Jet Li, or Jackie Chan, what he lacks in flashiness he makes up for with sheer competence. They don’t try to make Lieh a superman, he gets his ass roundly handed to him more then once in this thing. But It’s clear that Lieh can do everything that we see him do (Well up to a point I doubt if you where to break his hands by beating them with Iron Bars for a few hours he’d come up smiling after a brief convalescence, nor do I believe he can make his hands actually glow. But you get the point). He carries himself to with an ease and confidence only experience can bring.

(That man's hands are glowing! What in God's holy name would possess you to fight him?)

As an entry point into a genre that is often so inexhaustible that it can be intimidating, Five Fingers Of Death is more or less perfect (though modern viewers might find it a little slow at first their patience will be rewarded). As a reminder to the hardened fan of just about everything fun about the genre its works perfectly as well.