SUN DRAGON

SUN DRAGON
猪仔血泪
(Zhu zai xie lei)
Hongkong, 1979

Willy Dozan
Carl Scott
Louis Neglia
Joseph Jennings
Liang Hsiao Sung

Directed by Hwa Yi Hsi

A trio of robbers looking for a hideout happens upon a farm and wipes out the family, save for the son, Tim (Carl Scott), who is badly wounded in his escape. Billy Chong (Willy Dozan) and his pal find Tim and take the battered kid to their doctor uncle, who heals Tim by using Chinese remedies. Naturally, Tim wants revenge on the gang that murdered his family. After some martial arts training from the doc, Tim sets out with Billy for some good ol' fashioned vengeance.

This is Willy Dozan's first appearance in Hongkong movies. And his name was changed into Billy Chong. He was pairing with the same director for the next movies, Crystal Fist and Kung Fu Zombie. There is a-plenty of fighting and both Billy Chong and Carl Scott (who is a very good black fighter) are good leads. Being budget minded, the locations are spare and the fighting is strictly ground kung fu, no trickery or outlandishness.

HIGH AND LOW

HIGH AND LOW
天国と地獄
(Tengoku to jigoku)

Japan, 1963

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Toshiro Mifune

Tatsuya Nakadai

High and Low is a play in two acts. The first act tells of an executive named Kingo Gondo (Toshirō Mifune) who mortgages all he has to stage a leveraged buyout and gain control of a company called National Shoes, with the intent of keeping the company out of the hands of its other executives. Gondo disagrees with the executives over the direction of the company. One faction wants to make the company a modern mass market low quality manufacturer while the founder of the company tries to keep it conservative with good quality. Gondo believes he can split the difference by making high quality modern shoes. Then he learns that his son has been kidnapped. Gondo is prepared to pay the ransom, until he learns that the kidnappers have mistakenly abducted the child of Gondo's chauffeur, instead of his own son. The kidnapping occurs in parallel with the corporate buyout drama and Gondo is forced to make an immediate decision about whether to pay the ransom or complete the buyout. His position is exposed to the other executives when his top aide betrays him to protect his own position. Finally, after a long night of contemplation and pressure from his wife and the chauffeur, Gondo decides to pay the ransom. This decision essentially seals his fate as the other executives now have the power to vote him out of this directorship. Interestingly, this move ends up making Gondo into a national hero while the National Shoe Company is vilified and boycotted.

The second act follows police procedure as they put together clues to find the kidnapped child, the ransom money, and the kidnapper. It is revealed that the main kidnapper is in fact a medical intern at a nearby hospital, whose sole motive is his hatred for Gondo which stems from jealousy. His apartment is directly under Gondo's significantly larger house on an overlooking hill, one of the many hints of the films title all throughout the film. As the he gets rid of his accomplices via drug overdose, the detective hatches a plot to catch the him when all seems lost. The detective lures him out of hiding by pretending that his accomplices survived his attempt to dispatch them. Gondo and the kidnapper finally meet face to face at the very end, and motives and feelings are examined.

RAID ON ENTEBBE

RAID ON ENTEBBE
USA, 1977

Directed by Irvin Kershner

Peter Finch
Charles Bronson
Yaphet Kotto

Raid on Entebbe is a 1977 TV movie directed by Irvin Kershner. It is based on an actual event: Operation Entebbe and the freeing of hostages at Entebbe Airport in Entebbe, Uganda on July 4, 1976. It was the last movie to be released featuring Academy Award-winning actor Peter Finch.

The movie was released shortly after a more hastily released

made-for-television version came out - Victory at Entebbe (1976). This version of Operation Entebbe is believed to be fairly accurate, although some details of the actual raid remain unclear and somewhat controversial even today. The basic facts of the rescue of hostages held when hijackers working for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine boarded and hijacked an Air France plane recounts the events and response of the Israeli government and the controversy that the rescue stirred. This version shows the difficult deliberations held by the Cabinet of Israel to decide on a top-secret military raid on the Jewish Sabbath by commandos; a difficult and daring operation carried out over 2500 miles from home, and of course, an unwillingness of the Israeli government to give in to terrorist demands. One commando was killed (the operation commander Jonathan Netanyahu, brother of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), a very small number of hostages, and soldiers under the then dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin.

THE STORY OF WOO VIET

THE STORY OF WOO VIET
胡越的故事
(Woo yuet dik goo si)

Chow Yun Fat
Cherie Chung
Cora Miao

Directed by Ann Hui

The Story of Woo Viet is a political drama made by director Ann Hui in 1981. Actor Chow Yun Fat played the title character, Woo Viet. Stanley Kwan was the assistant director was Stanley Kwan and Ching Siu-Tung was the action choreographer.

The movie was one of the first few political dramas made in Hong Kong. It used the story of Vietnamese refugees (boat people) to reflect on Hong Kong's handling of the refugee issue, and also on Hong Kong's sentiment regarding their uncertain future of sovereignty at the time.

Woo Viet (Chow Yun Fat) wants to leave his country, Vietnam, behind and start over in the United States. But he first must make his way to Hong Kong. In a refugee detention camp there, he discovers many of his countrymen are disappearing under mysterious circumstances. As Woo tries to find out what is happening, he realizes his life is in danger, and has to leave for the United States immediately using a false passport instead of seeking asylum. In the process, he meets a beautiful woman, Cham Thanh (Cherie Chung), who then travels with him. When Woo and his new love stop over in the Philippines, they discover that the females are conned to stay there to become prostitutes. Instead of taking the plane to the United States, Woo Viet decides to stay in the Philippines to save his love. However, as he is stranded in Manila's Chinatown, Woo Viet is forced to work as a hired killer.

Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards 1982

Best Screenplay (Alfred Cheung)

THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS

THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS

USA 1993

Directed by Bille August

Jeremy Irons

Meryl Streep

Glenn Close

Winona Ryder

Antonio Banderas

Based on Isabel Allende's best seller epic novel, THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS follows the powerful Truebas family on an entrancing journey that begins in the tranquil days of the 1920s and ends in the modern turbulence of the 1970s. The tale begins in South America in 1926, when a young man, Esteban (Jermy Irons), falls in love with the daughter of a rich man, Rosa Del Valle (Teri Polo). He vows to become rich enough to make her his wife and spends months of toil in the gold fields to earn enough money to do just that. Before the two marry, however, Rosa is killed by poison meant for her father. After the tragedy, Esteban moves to Trés Marias, an abandoned ranch, and spends 20 years of his life turning the ranch into a thriving estate, exploiting the labor of the poor who live off the land.

When he returns to the city, he comes across Rosa's younger sister Clara (Meryl Streep), now a woman with telekinetic abilities. Clara took a vow of silence years before, but upon the arrival of Esteban, she speaks for the first time in years -- "You have come to propose marriage to me," she says. Esteban and Clara marry, and Esteban takes her back to the ranch, where they have a daughter, Blanca (Winona Ryder). Their daughter falls in love with the son of one of Esteban's foremen, a hot-headed revolutionary named Pedro (Antonio Banderas). Now, the country is in the throes of revolution. Esteban banishes his sister Ferula (Glenn Close) from the ranch, beats his wife, and rapes a peasant woman. The product of Esteban's rape (Joaquin Martinez) grows into an angry young man who convinces Esteban to send him away to military school. When there is a military coup, the illegitimate son returns to Trés Marias with revenge and torture on his mind.

Principal photography took place in Denmark, but some scenes were filmed in Lisbon and Alentejo, Portugal. It won awards at the Bavarian Film Awards, German Film Awards, Golden Screen (Germany), Havana Film Festival, and Robert Festival (Denmark), as well as from the German Phono Academy and the Guild of German Art House Cinemas

WILD SEARCH

WILD SEARCH
Hongkong, 1989

Directed by Ringo Lam

Chow Yun Fat
Cherie Chung

Ku Feng
Roy Cheung


Chow Yun Fat plays Hong Kong Police Sergeant Lau Chun Pong, nicknamed "Mew Mew". Mew Mew is a man on the ragged edge. He is, we learn a widower whose wife and child were killed by a robber, he is a man in a downward spiral. He seems numb to life that swirls around him--when he is first introduced, he's sitting in a car, chain smoking cigarettes and drinking from his flask, watching the drama of street life before him as he awaits the arrival of an informan. His expression is disinterested and weary--he pursues the arms dealers who are his prey with a curious detachment. He is going through the motions of being a policeman, yet one senses, that it is only his work that is keeping him going at all. He still commands the loyalty, respect and affection of his colleagues, including his supervisor. He's a good cop and a good man who has lost his way due to overwhelming grief.

Cherie Chung plays the sister of the murdered arms dealer--whose death sets the plot in motion. Chung's Cher Lee is a woman of quiet strength and dignity. Life has not been kind to her. Her husband betrayed her, leading a secret second life with a woman from the Chinese interior, fathering a son. During their marriage he berated her for being clumsy and stupid. Rather than continuing to suffer the humiliation, Cher has divorced him and lives quietly with her father, working along side him in the village fields, harvesting bamboo.

Her sister's death brings Mew Mew--pursuing the arms case--into her life in a dramatic fashion. Their relationship is at first contentious as he suspects her and her father of complicity in the dead sister's arms dealing. The relationship begins to transform as Mew Mew aids Cher in tracking down the father of her sister's illegitimate 4 year old daughter--who turns out to be the kingpin of the arms smuggling operation that the police are investigating.

Their bond is forged as the arms case heats up--thrown into each others company, facing adversity and danger, these two wounded souls begin to blossom. A tentative, tender relationship grows and is tested time and again through Mew Mew's suspension from the force (a result of threatening the powerful, rich arms kingpin); a domestic drama within Cher's family concerning her young niece and her father: the complication of Cher's ex-husband reentering the picture determined to win his wife back; and an assassination attempt on Mew Mew's life by one of the kingpin's henchman--the murderer of Cher's sister.

To be sure, these are restrained performances, yet one only has to watch Cherie Chung as Cher as she sits at the bedside of the wounded Mew Mew, not knowing if he will live or die, her worry, longing and love playing over her features, to appreciate her work in this film. Chow's Mew Mew may lack the flash and dazzle of some of his bullet ballet roles, but the transformation from grief stricken widower to a man being brought back to life by love is fascinating to watch. His scenes with the young actress playing the daughter of the murdered woman are especially touching and heartwarming.

Action fans and bullet ballet junkies will be disappointed by this film. But those of us who enjoy character driven drama will find much to enjoy in Wild Search.

MELODY

MELODY
UK, 1971

Mark Lester

Tracy Hyde

Jack Wild

Director: Waris Hussein

Producer: David Puttnam

Script: Alan Parker

Original Music: Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb and Richard Hews

David Puttnam's first production and Alan Parker's first script meld together to create this delicate and sensitive story of pre-pubescent romance told from a child’s-eye viewpoint. Bearing a passing resemblance to both The Graduate and If..., this endearing story strains credibility at times but if you can withhold your disbelief this intriguing little film holds great appeal. An excellent musical score is provided by the Bee Gees. The film is alternatively known as SWALK (Sealed with a Loving Kiss), and reunites the youthful stars of Carol Reed’s Oliver; Jack Wild and Mark Lester.

Two lonely boys from opposite backgrounds, Daniel Latimer (Mark Lester), and Ornshaw (Jack Wild), become firm friends at a south London comprehensive school. Things change when Daniel notices ten-year old Melody Perkins (Tracy Hyde) in dancing class and falls in love. At first Melody rebuffs his advances, but gradually she reciprocates and returns his feelings. Despite initially aiding his friend, Ornshaw becomes bitter at being shoved aside and the two friends fight. Daniel and Melody announce to their perplexed parents, in all seriousness, that they intend to get married. This marriage is not planned for the distant future, but as soon as possible. Ornshaw performs a mock ‘marriage’ ceremony under a derelict railroad viaduct, and their rampaging classmates collude in helping them evade pursuing teachers and parents. Ultimately, the young ‘newlyweds’ escape into the sunset on a railroad handcar.