Note: This blog expresses only the opinions of the blog owner, and does not represent the opinion of any organization or blog that is associated with RONIN ON EMPTY.
For some of you, July 4th marks the anniversary of the day Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Pullman saved Planet Earth from a horde of Martian invaders. For Americans, however, it’s a holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. We also like to set off fireworks.
Fun fact: The Chinese invented firecrackers.
Now, I don’t think it’s too much of a generalization to say that Americans of my generation and earlier were given a largely whitewashed version of history when we were students. That was most certainly the case in elementary school (how many myths about George Washington were presented as fact?), and for those who didn’t have really good history teachers in junior high and high school, they probably didn’t get the whole unvarnished truth until college, if at all.
As an academic, I feel it is my responsibility to shed light on these darkened corners of our own history. The Glenn Becks, the Bill O’Reillys, and the Ann Coulters of the world may cling to a distorted version of our own country’s past, resorting to juvenile name-calling and vicious attacks when anyone dare paint the United States in an unflattering light.
Invincible: Where’s he going with this?
Hero Hua: I don’t know.
We, too, may not wish to look too deeply into our nation’s past for fear of what we might find, but as responsible citizens we must endeavor to search out the facts wherever they may lead. And so, on this Fourth of July, 2010, I present a Hong Kong film that attempted to rectify a typical US history book omission. Do you remember reading ANYTHING about a well-coiffed Chinese laborer having a swordfight with a blind Japanese guy on top of the Statue of Liberty…before obliterating Lady Liberty herself in the process? I didn’t think so.
I guess that goes a long way in explaining the Chinese Exclusion Act.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your super-powered martial artists…”
A month ago, I saw two sci-fi/mystery-driven series come to an end — the ABC television show LOST and the Japanese film version of Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys. LOST completed its six year run with a two-and-a-half hour episode, fittingly titled “The End,” while 20th Century Boys had, of course, already ended — twice, in fact. The first time was in the pages of Japan’s Big Comic Spirits in 2007, and the second time occurred with the live action film adaptation, a three-film epic that concluded with 2009’s 20th Century Boys 3: Our Flag. Whereas I watched LOST on “live TV,” I had to catch up to 20th Century Boys via a Hong Kong-pressed DVD.
Just what in the heck does Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption have to do with Hong Kong cinema or Asian films in general? Absolutely nothing. It’s just what I’ve been playing since classes ended and final grades were turned in this past Monday. But me being able to play video games calls attention to the very fact that I now have possession of an elusive, oh-so-precious resource known as “free time.” As such, I suppose it’s about high time I call off my self-imposed hiatus from this blog and start contributing to the site again.
So stay tuned to this spot. There will be some new regular features like “Great Moments in Hong Kong Cinema,” “Fist of Manhua,” and much more! In the meantime, enjoy the summer!
“For a long time I’ve wanted to make a film about the building of the railroad in the United States — it would be about the Chinese and the Irish, who built the railroads, their conflicts and how they learned to become friends.”
– John Woo in Out of the Shadows
The unnamed movie in the above quotation has been alternatively titled Land of Destiny and The Divide at different points in its production. What little about the film that I can glean from the internet suggests that this would have been Woo’s next film after Windtalkers before it eventually descended into development hell as Woo decided to take on other projects and more sizeable paychecks.
As far as I can tell, the setting will be California and involve the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. Chow Yun-Fat would play the Chinese protagonist, while the part of the Irish worker was initially rumored to be played by Nicolas Cage, although Hugh Jackman’s name has been mentioned as well.
I just had to interrupt my self-imposed hiatus to call attention to the most recent and rather brilliant episode of Community. For those of you unfamiliar with this NBC comedy, the premise involves a lawyer named Jeff Winger (The Soup’s Joel McHale) who is forced to attend community college when questions arise about the validity of his undergraduate degree. At Greendale Community College, he befriends a ragtag group of students, played by an wonderful ensemble cast that includes Chevy Chase, Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Allison Brie.
At this point, you may be wondering just what the heck any of this has to do with Hong Kong cinema, but I think if you take a good look at the image and the video I’ve embedded below, you’ll know immediately why the episode in question is relevant to a site called LoveHKFilm.com.
Although I’m not really going fishing and I’d never fish with Simon Yam, I am thinking about taking an undisclosed amount of time off from updating Ronin on Empty. Technically, I suppose this is an update, but let’s not get into a debate about semantics, okay?
While I certainly enjoyed putting together that earlier massive list of my favorite films of the 2000s, I have to admit that this substantially shorter list was exponentially more fun. Writing this piece really brought back a lot of wonderful memories, reminding me why I fell in love with Hong Kong cinema in the first place.While my viewing preferences may have leaned towards martial arts films or John Woo-style guns-a-blazin’ Heroic Bloodshed flicks in the beginning, it wasn’t really kung fu or gunplay that sustained my interest. What I really loved and continue to love about Hong Kong cinema from this decade is that each film always seemed to be brimming with potential. Sure, I’ve seen my fair share of “just okay” and even downright terrible HK movies during the 90s, but more often than not, viewing a Hong Kong film felt like a real discovery.
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