The Chinese director Wong Kar Wai is one of the greatest
living film directors. His extensive body of work include “ In the Mood for
Love “ with the mega star and uber-gorgeous Maggie Cheung and his mainstay leading
man,Tony Leung, “ Eros,” “My
Blueberry Nights” (with Norah Jones,
Natalie Portman and Jude Law, ) “2046” ,
“Ashes of Time,” “ As Tears Go By “, and many others. Many of these are some of
the best films put out by anyone over the last 20 or so years. Yes, I am a big
fan.
(By the way- many American and western film fans many not
be familiar with many of these and that is why we are writing this blog. These
are world-class films and the effort to seek them out and see them is very much
worthwhile. )
Coming soon I s his highly anticipated,
sure-to-be-huge“ The Grandmasters “. The story centers around
Ip Man. Ip Man was Bruce Lee's martial arts teacher ( Seifu ) and one of the greatest martial artists to ever throw a punch. ( "Ip Man " , the movie, which I consider to be one of the greatest martial arts films of all time, will be reviewed here at a later date. It stars Donnie Yen as the great teacher against the backdrop of the Japanese invasion of China. Hear me now and believe me later, I give it 5 out of 5 stars. Seek it out, grasshopper. )
Here is the You Tube trailer for " The Grandmasters ".........
Wong Kar Wai is one of the most important directors in the movies today, we will be posting reviews of his many fantastic films in the near future.
Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung in " In the Mood for Love " by Wong Kar Wai
Maggie Cheung in " In the Mood for Love " by Wong Kar Wai
Donnie Yen in " Ip Man "
Friday, November 9, 2012
Reviewed - The Underdog Knight. China, 2008
THE UNDERDOG KNIGHT.
Aka – Ying Han ,
China 2008 , English subtitles
The Underdog Knight. A young man, Lao San lives in modern
day China
and is a very
Patriotic member of the PLA( Peoples Liberation Army ) Navy. A Chief in the submarine service. Lao
San simply loves the Navy, the Navy life, the sea, serving with comrades and
doing his duty. He trains hard in all
disciplines ,especially the martial arts
Which is a borderline obsession with our young hero. “ A
sailor’s body should be tough as a submarine, his punches should be like
torpedoes to the enemy ! “ He has a girl
friend, he admires and respects his Commander, and all is right in Lao San’s
world……until the training accident. The accident leaves Lao San physically OK,
but his mental capacity is much diminished. The result is that he is rather
permanently stuck in the mental state of a very Gung-Ho PLA submarine chief. He
now has mainly one thing on his mind, his mission in life- to hurt bad guys, to
protect fellow citizens and right and wrongs he finds, whether they are real or
imagined. This turns out to be a good
thing, unless , of course, Lao San thinks that you are an evil doing bad guy-
in which case, you are asking for a beat down.
Lao San has a hard time staying employed and causes
uncomfortable moments with his girl friend, Mom, and most everyone else. It really
causes discomfort to the bad guys, to whom he deals out bone crushing street
justice. He keeps score of his battles and is enjoying being undefeated out on
the mean streets of Bejing.
Comic relief,the joy
of the underdog winning over great odds, absolutely fantastic fight scenes and
martial arts action all make for a great action movie. The movie is, of course, big in China and the
East, but gets very little play in the West. This is a movie with subtitles for
all of us who are not fluent in Chinese and I realize that subtitles are a big
turn off for some. Small inconvenience for great entertainment, IMHO.
Lao San is a character that is far from perfect, yet almost
in a child-like way, resulting in a very watchable protagonistwho takes great pleasure from the simple
things in life- kicking ass, taking names, breaking the teeth ofthe bad guys and doing his best to be a good
citizen.
The movie takes a sinister turn when real bona fide bad guys
show up in town one day intent on stealing a priceless piece of antiquity, an 800 year old spear belonging to a famous
Chinese general from the distant yet heroic past. Our young protagonist stumbles into the middle
of this, and the fight is on. The local police give Lao San a hard time but
realize that he is a very simple minded good guy and end up having a grudging
respect and liking toward this innocent, child like , two fisted, two footed
dealer of street justice.
Starring – Ye Liu as Lao San, Anthony Wang as one of the real bad guys, and Yong Yu as the police
captain. Most of us in the west will have never seen these people, but they are
all big stars of Chinese cinema.
Rating – 9 of 10, would have been a 10 if it was in English.
Tremendous action, Good over Evil and
the simple joys of seeing justice done all add up to a great way to spend an
hour and half.
Recommended highly !
You tube trailer :
And here is a big thank you to Amazon for posting this review.
you can buy the movie there :
