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What Have You Watched Recently?


Susano

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

Last night:

 

One of the first Kung Fu Movies from the Shaw Brothers: One-armed Swordsman. Cheesy. Very cheesy. But still a good laugh, and actually not that bad, when you consider when it was made and that all the sets were apparently made by colour-blind school children as their class "history project". It's considered "a classic" though later Shaw brothers films in the same genre like The Five Venoms and To Kill with Intrigue are much better.

 

Then we saw Ong Bak 2. Not to be confused with the early Tony Jaa movie Ong Bak, with which it has absolutely nothing in common - apart from Tony Jaa, of course. Actually I liked this better than Ong Bak: better filmed, better paced and better fight scenes (IMO). Of course one wonders what all those samurai and ninja are doing in the north of Thailand, but, hey, whatever. Time for another fight scene!

 

cheers, Mark

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

Last night:

 

One of the first Kung Fu Movies from the Shaw Brothers: One-armed Swordsman. Cheesy. Very cheesy. But still a good laugh, and actually not that bad, when you consider when it was made and that all the sets were apparently made by colour-blind school children as their class "history project". It's considered "a classic" though later Shaw brothers films in the same genre like The Five Venoms and To Kill with Intrigue are much better.

 

I prefer Tsui Hark's version: The Blade.

 

Then we saw Ong Bak 2. Not to be confused with the early Tony Jaa movie Ong Bak' date=' with which it has absolutely nothing in common - apart from Tony Jaa, of course. Actually I liked this better than Ong Bak: better filmed, better paced and better fight scenes (IMO). Of course one wonders what all those samurai and ninja are doing in the north of Thailand, but, hey, whatever. Time for another fight scene![/quote']

 

Is it better than Tony Jaa's The Protector? 'cause that film was just hilariously awful.

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

Is it better than Tony Jaa's The Protector? 'cause that film was just hilariously awful.

 

Ong Bak 2 is hilariously awful from a story or acting point of view, but has many, many worthwhile fight scenes and stunts.

 

Of course, I liked The Protector as a b-list gamer's movie. ;-)

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

Ong Bak 2 is hilariously awful from a story or acting point of view, but has many, many worthwhile fight scenes and stunts.

 

Of course, I liked The Protector as a b-list gamer's movie. ;-)

 

"Where is my elephant?!?"

 

"Where is my elephant?!?"

 

"Where is my elephant?!?"

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

Ong Bak 2 is hilariously awful from a story or acting point of view, but has many, many worthwhile fight scenes and stunts.

 

Of course, I liked The Protector as a b-list gamer's movie. ;-)

 

The Protector was just goofy. Of course, I like Versus and Death Trance, so I'm one to talk. Then again, I had fun pointing out the few places in Sydney I'd actually visited while watching the movie (like the bridge over the harbor). I'll also admit his on-take run up the spiraling hotel walkway is very impressive. But I still don't understand the gang fight with the fluorescent light tubes.

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

I'd like to know more about these three in particular. How do the original Japanese releases stack up against the more familiar International versions?

 

Mothra is pretty close. BIOS has some mnior editing, but isn't really subtitled. It's just the dub placed into the Japanese version, which was kinda crappy. H-man was more or less the same as the international version as well, but looks a hell of a lot better now that it has been remastered.

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

I prefer Tsui Hark's version: The Blade.

 

Yeah. We saw that at your place, IIRC. I haven't actually gotten a copy of that yet, but it's on my list. Still, I like to see the originals as well when the opportunity comes up.

 

Is it better than Tony Jaa's The Protector? 'cause that film was just hilariously awful.

 

Dunno. Haven't seen The Protector. But Ong Bak2 has a really simple storyline - set in the 14th century as the Ayutthaya dynasty is establishing itself, our Hero's family is killed by his cousin, who becomes king. He flees into the jungle carried by a loyal soldier, is captured by slavers, rescued by bandits and trains in a variety of martial arts from everywhere (including Elephant-beating-up and use-of-explosives). He is adopted by the old bandit king and then sets out for Revenge!

 

I liked it: it's lushly filmed and is basically a series of fights using different styles loosely linked by the plot above. It's an ideal vehicle for Tony Jaa. He has almost no dialog, and spends his time either beating people up, glaring at the camera through long hair or cutting himself (his character's a little emo). It was set up for a sequel - if they make it, I'll go see it. :D

 

Cheers, Mark

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

Oh, forgot to mention. Recently we saw "Mongol" - a big budget extravaganza about Ghenghis Khan's early years. It's a mixture of fact and fable - I really don't think Ghenghis Khan was such a sensitive, caring guy, and the Director clearly knows diddly-squat about Mongol warfare, or indeed warfare in general. But it's got lots of guys riding around and stabbing each other and the cinematography is verra pretty. Oh - and lots of Mongolian Throat singing :D.

 

I'd give it one thumb more or less kinda up.

 

cheers, Mark

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

Yeah. We saw that at your place' date=' IIRC. I haven't actually gotten a copy of that yet, but it's on my list. Still, I like to see the originals as well when the opportunity comes up.[/quote']

 

Actually, we first saw The Blade at an HK film fest at the... Kennedy Center?

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

Saw 9 with my dad. It was visually interesting' date=' but I felt it lacked something. Perhaps a little more coherency.[/quote']

 

I agree. The animation was first class, but the story was very weak by comparison. I did get an idea for a con game out of it though. All the PCs would be about six inches tall in a regular-sized world.

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

Man, Defying Gravity has been canceled already. No doubt to make room for more reality TV of one sort or another. I can't remember why I used to watch so much TV when I was younger. I think the cable networks are the only places where you can find interesting programming, and then the shows worth watching are few and far between.

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

One other thing that dramas are being canceled to make room for: Jay Leno's new daily evening show starts tonight. I actually think some of Leno's usual routines are funny (Headlines especially, in which he collects unintentionally humorous actual headlines from newspapers), but it runs every weekday, meaning that's five hours NBC won's schedule dramas in.

 

It also serves to seriously undermine Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show.

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Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

Man' date=' [i']Defying Gravity[/i] has been canceled already. No doubt to make room for more reality TV of one sort or another. I can't remember why I used to watch so much TV when I was younger. I think the cable networks are the only places where you can find interesting programming, and then the shows worth watching are few and far between.

 

Nuts!

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