The evil dead!!! Those are sick movies (meaning great)!! This includes the remake.
Very gory though. If blood makes you queasy the evil dead is probably a bad choice of film to watch. They’re more or less a splatter films (aside from army of darkness which was comparably tame).
Interestingly army of darkness had to be edited to avoid an NC-17 rating. I don’t understand why given how comparatively tame it is.
The Evil Dead was one of the movies that made me start getting obsessed with movies. The others were HK movies. (Days of Being Wild, Once Upon A Time In China)
Not only was I scared, I was wondering how in the world they were getting those shots like the steadicam through the woods and the mirror scene.
I’d probably have a heart attack if I was running away from that. Combination of running + fright induced catecholamine release means my heart rate would be like 40000bpm.
Yeah, exactly. But look at the the editing, angles, camera movement and the framing. And remember this was made in the 80s. It was all so damn intriguing I think I’ve already watched both 1 and 2 over 20 times each.
I later read that the Coen Brothers were involved in the filming process and editing for part 1 IIRC.
Particularly impressive given the budget of the first film.
I used to watch martial arts films like ong bak, IP man, enter the dragon etc.
Some of them are Hong Kong made. I also enjoyed films like old boy, I saw the devil, a tale of two sisters (south korean films etc).
I’m not particuarly affluent regarding Hong Kong filmography though, perhaps you could enlighten me.
Edit: you know what was funny about the TCM… It was texas, wouldn’t someone have owned a gun? I recall Jackie from that 70s show making this exact remark.
As an intro:
Once Upon a Time in China 1, 2 (Kungfu, smart political commentary)
The Killer (John Woo being John Woo)
Shaolin Soccer (Comedy)
Chungking Express (“Arthouse” movie but probably the biggest influence on modern day cinematography since that era)
Flashpoint (MMA)
Amor of God 2(Jackie Chan, don’t need to watch part 1)
EDIT:
Exploitation (Category 3 movies):
Ebola Syndrome
Naked Killer
They recently put a bunch of Shaw Brothers films on Netflix … do far I’ve enjoyed the five venoms and return to the 36th chamber
Armour of God (part one) is one of my favorites.
But then again, I’m biased - as an kid I was watching the shooting of the car chase sequence from my window and became a lifelong JC fan afterwards.
I watched part 2 before I watched part 1 so I was a little disappointed because it wasn’t as “crazy” as part 2. But it’s still great. I just think part 2 would be a better introductory movie for someone unfamiliar with his movies and HK movies in general. None of the other characters from part 1 appear anyway.
Catch this one if it’s in there. Classic movie. I’m not really into those old Shaw Brother movies even though I’ve watched lots of them over the years.
EDIT:
This one too. One of my dad’s favorite movies.
Oh God what is this NONSENSE again?
Mulan failed because of a shitty director(seriously, go watch The Zoo Keeper’s Wife if you don’t believe me), shitty writer, shitty acting, shitty casting, not enough Donnie Yen dishing out ass whoopings and excessive China pandering.
And the choice of race for the filmmakers didn’t even matter since this was a period drama. Who the fuck knows what really went down during that era? All we have are books and past Hong Kong and some China movies for reference.
If Tarantino had written and directed Mulan, things would have been a lot different. It would have been great, I guarantee you this.
While I agree a China person instead of that ginger hack Ron Howard should make the new biopic about that famous Chinese pianist Lang Lang, this isn’t about race. It’s about CULTURE. Lots of cultural nuances need to be taken into consideration when making a contemporary biopic unless you have an actual GENIUS like Martin Scorsese doing it.
I wouldn’t even hire a racially Chinese person who grew up in the US with little knowledge of China culture to film it. I’d rather hire a Somalian dude who grew up in China to do it. These fuckers just don’t get it. It’s basic fucking common sense.
Fuck this identity politics bullshit.
A few decades after my brief childhood fascination with the Tank Girl trailer, I finally got around to watching it tonight.
If I had watched it in the 90s I probably would have loved it. Great soundtrack, irreverent plot and so 90s it hurts.
Knowing what I now know about tanks, realistic post-apocalyptic scenarios, combined arms warfare and supply chain realities really ruined the fun for me.
Making a tank “girly” is just shoddy decision-making in a scenario involving water shortages and mutant renegade factions. It confers no tactical advantage whatsoever. I couldn’t stop wondering where all of the spare parts were being machined at to enable a slacker to continuously operate her tank in harsh desert environments.
They never even explained how they fueled this machine, which was a real slap in the face to fans of tank history and future tank combat scenarios.
My wife gets annoyed when I bring up these minutiae when watching more or less fantasy/SciFi stuff …
I watched half of it in the 90s. Didn’t like it then either lol.
I go crazy when I watch those found footage shows because I’m always thinking who the fuck is holding the camera and why is the dumbfuck still filming. Luckily I can’t watch most of them due to motion sickness.
My husband gets annoyed when I point out every little thing that’s wrong if there’s a hospital scene in a movie.
I returned to school later in life and worked in the film industry for side money. I ended up holding every on-camera role other than stunts.
We logically know movies are fake, yet I’m convinced we subconsciously hold onto them as examples of human behavior. Working in the film industry helped me truly understand how. fake. and. brainless. film is.
Those cars driving on the interstate in the distant background? Every single one was selected for model, year, and color. The speed it’s driving, the timing between it and the preceding and subsequent cars, all staged. That cute couple walking happily behind the main actors in a light-hearted rom-com date scene? Selected by the casting agent for their heights, weights, skin and hair color, and how they look together. Their clothes and hair were chosen and styled by wardrobe and makeup. They’re told how fast to walk, when to look at each other, whether or not to smile, how animatedly to lip sync with each other…
And that’s just the background. The actors’ lines and actions are all completely fake.
So yes, nitpicking movie inaccuracies and impossibilities is a worthy deed. Working in the film industry leveled up my nitpicking to over 9,000.
/rant
My wife and I caught The Talented Mr. Ripley again the other night. One of our favorites. The cast is ridiculous: young versions of Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and, my favorite Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Two thumbs up, as they used to say.
Wish I could like this post x1000.
I’ve only produced/co-directed a number of shorts and ads for business except for one but yeah, it’s pretty fucking lame lol. Every damn thing is fake. Even did scripted interviews with real people and heavily edited them. Did some where I was prompting them while they were improvising their nonsense and edited my voice out and dubbed in SOME QUESTIONS during editing. ALL FAKE LOL!
EDIT:
Did 5-10 takes every couple of lines for an INTERVIEW once because the dude kept fucking it up and put my editor through hell editing it.
And the whole RGB shit lol. (To those who don’t know, when you watch most movies, you’ll almost always see a red, blue and green object, dress, prop, light, whatever in the same scene although the hues might vary. This is for creating depth. The John Wick movies are very clear examples of this. It’s a fucking HEADACHE if you don’t have the budget for a set designer/art director.
Keeping in frame, blocking the light because one dude moved an inch too far to the left, audio fuckups, having to reshoot scenes after spotting mistakes during editing, adr(dubbing to replace dialogue) later lololol…
FAKE! IT’S ALL FAKE!
I was ranting in another thread about that staged Trump video where he gets out of the helicopter and returns to the White House after his hospitalization. People are hard to direct. Cars are harder. Was trying to get people to imagine how many takes it took to capture a FUCKING HELICOPTER in the right position in frame lol.
There are people I know who think it was all shot in real time.
They did so much post production color correction to hide the changes in lighting throughout the day but it was still so obvious to anyone who know how to spot shit like this.
FAKE! ALL FAKE!