Boxer From Shantung

Title: Boxer From Shantung

Director:  Chang Cheh, Pao Hsueh Li

Released:  1972

Starring: Chen Kuan Tai, David Chiang, Cheng Young Hip, Ching Li, Wang Ching

 

Plot: Ma Youngzhen (Tai) and Xiao Jiangbei are a pair of labourers from Shantung who are struggling to find ther fortune in Shanghai. However when Ma encounters the local crime lord Tan Si (Chiang) he finds himself using his fighting skills to rise through the criminal underworld ranks.

Review: When it comes to naming influential directors especially in Hong Kong Cinema, Chang Cheh should be at the top of that list especially when he directed close to 100 films for the equally  legendry Shaw Bros including many of their key titles including Five Element Ninjas, The One-Armed Swordsman and the Five Deadly Venoms.

Joining “The Sexy Killer” which memorably remade “Coffy, this film plays essentially like the kung-fu version of “Scarface” even though it was shot nine years previous to the release of that film. However unlike Tony Montana; Ma doesn’t set out with any kind of plan to be a crime boss as he refuses a hand out from the honourable crime boss Tan Si after impressing him with his fighting abilities.  In an unusual twist it’s actually his own good intensions which see him still being drawn into the dealings of the local underworld, while soon seeing Tan Si almost as a mentor figure especially when he start imitating Tan Si’s style right down to his trademark cigarette holder.

As Ma’s power and influence rises he sound finds himself being targeted by the hatchet welding mobster lead by Boss Yang whose territory Ma and his followers are moving in on, as Ma refuses to muscle in on any territories run by Tan Si out of mutual respect. This of course leads to several large scale confrontations which is where the film especially gets interesting as Chang Cheh uses some great cinemography to elevate the film being just another kung fu flick, especially when he gives us moments such as Ma being surrounded by a group of knife welding mobsters, only to turn the camera away at the key moment they strike, almost as if he is interpretating the audiences reaction and forcing them to look away from a potentially gruesome scene.  Ma of course is a martial arts powerhouse as he frequently takes on multiple opponents with little hassle.

The fight scenes throughout the film are all certainly memorable with the highlights here seeing Ma take on a towering Russian strongman while ending on an absolute high with the Tea house showdown which plays not unlike the Scarface finale with Ma taking on overwhelming odds as he battles up and down the two floors of the teahouse with most of the fight spent with a hatchet embedded in his torso in what might be one of the bloodiest fight scenes I have ever seen especially when the bodies just appear to be piling up on the floor of the teahouse, with Cheh constantly managing to find new and ever more inventive ways to maintain the hold he has over the audience as the sequence plays out.

Working with a much longer run time at two hours than your standard kung fu movie, this film also avoids the usual revenge seeking student learning new styles path to instead give us a tale of a man trying to find his way in the world and generally do the right thing which is clear from the start as we see Ma and Xiao being forced to sleep on the floor of an Inn because they can’t afford a room and yet neither of them lets their situation beat them down, despite the innkeeper certainly taking a good shot at it. Its these humble beginnings which makes Ma’s corruption from power all the more believable especially when he suddenly goes from having nothing to suddenly having a tea house and a steady stream of protection money coming in. While this plot line is perfectly satisfying, it does however never take advantage of the relationship between Ma and the tea house singer Ms. Jin played here by Ching Li whose despite having some nice scenes never feels as if she is being fully used.

While perhaps alittle overlong for your more casual viewer watching this expecting some light hearted chock socky, but for those willing to brave the run time this is a rewarding experience, while the engrossing story really ensures that the runtime really doesn’t drag more so when each of the fight scenes seems to top the last with the finale which really has to be seen. This truly is the work of a master firing on all cylinders with this film really proving a highlight of his heroic bloodshed period which would go on to inspire both John Woo and Quentin Tarantino and here the influence is certainly clear.

Spring Breakers

Title: Spring Breakers

Director: Harmony Korine

Released: 2012

Starring: Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine

Plot: When Candy (Hudgens), Brit (Benson) and Cotty (Korine) decide to rob a restaurant in order to fund their spring break vacation to Florida it only marks the beginning of their downward spiral into a life of crime that the group soon find themselves in and one which devout Christian Faith (Gomez) soon also finds herself drawn into as she overlooks her friends actions and joins them on their trip to Florida. It is while in Florida though that the girls soon find themselves drawn into the crime ring of Russian rapper and wannabe gangster Alien (James Franco).

 

Review: What happens when a  former Disney Princess decide to break away from the house of mouse for good? Apparently they thrown themselves into a hedonistic mix of sex, drugs, crime spree’s and pink balaclava’s, or so it would seem with this latest offering from indie maverick Harmony Korine, which see's Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical 1-3) and Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place) Trashing their prom dresses to join Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine as a group of party loving college girls and lifelong friends who fall for the allure of crime and easy money.

Released under an onslaught of publicity stills of the female cast members in their bikini’s, this film seemingly had a blink and you miss it cinema release, meaning that it has taken an art society (yes they seemingly want to see young girls in bikini’s too) screening for me to eventually see this film*, which far from generated the kind of buzz I think the studio was expecting judging by the amount of publicity it was given ahead of its release. At the same time it is hard to place exactly what this film should be classed as seeing how at its heart it’s a crime thriller, yet director Korine still refuses to give up on his indie and experimental film making roots, as with the amount of bare flesh and drunken debauchery on show it would seem as if he has chosen to cross the film with a “Girls Gone Wild” video, while frequently shooting from the hip or like a stretched out and overly glossy music video. Korine though at this point in his career clearly knows films appeal to the few rather than the mainstream, even though this is miles closer to the mainstream than any of his previous films, it will no doubt still have all the feelings of a celluloid migraine for most movie goers.

Essentially re-rooting his breakout script for “Kids” (memorably directed by cinema’s l’enfant terrible Larry Clarke) from the poverty and grime of New York to the luminous bright lights and sun soaked beaches of Florida.  Like “Kids” the script feels largely improv, especially with Franco’s hip hop caricature Alien, who seems to embody the gangsta rap life style complete with glittering grill and cornrows in what is certainly an interesting look for Franco who is white as the driven snow and whom here continues his on going mission to rack to appear in as many surprising rolls as possible. Still here he certainly seems to be having a blast largely improving such a random character, who when not making his continual brags about money, guns or even having Scarface on repeat can be found frequently snarling out the words “Spring Breakkkk” and “Bitches” every other word. The girls meanwhile suffer from paper thin character development  to say the least, with Faith perhaps being the most developed of the foursome as we see her frequently being conflicted by the lure of the party life style and the desire to be a good Christian, with the film opening to her taking part in a youth Christian group (led by former TNA wrestler and founder Jeff Jarrett in a fun cameo appearance), while here she seems to be already questioning the mean of her faith, something which only further challenged when she arrives in Florida and finds herself amerced in the party lifestyle, especially as her friends are seemingly on a quest to keep the party going at no matter what cost.

While it might seem like stunt casting by using both Gomez and Hudgen’s here they prove themselves not afraid to act out of their comfort zone, especially in the case of Hudgen’s who continues on to break away from her clean cut image, having previously shown her feisty side in Zack Snyder’s cult favourite “Sucker Punch”, only kicks it up another notch here as one of the main instigators in the girls downward spiral. Sadly while all the girls might give adequate performances, there is still a sense of shallowness to the film, similar to how it ultimately portrays the so called Gangsta lifestyle and is only added to by the lack of development for any of their characters and essentially leaving them more often than not to play of their womanly charms than anything close to flexing their acting muscles.

The soundtrack is largely a mixture of electro / dance music by Skrillex with the occasional dash of gangster rap and while I can’t say that it really did much for me, it still worked well with the film, especially when Korine seems to be actively editing the film around the soundtrack, often giving it a glossy music video feel as a result, alas a music video featuring copious bouncing naked breasts and obscene alcohol consumption being shot in slow motion, but then isn’t this essentially what spring break is about…or so I gather coming from a English (and hence spring breakless) perspective.

While it might be easy to write this film off as being a lot of style and very little substance, Korine has still somehow managed to craft a film which is none the less engrossing, as he pulls a trick non to dismilar to the one Sofia Coppola did with “Lost in Translation”, although his execution is perhaps done with a more sleazier edge to it but this film like Coppola’s is one were essentially nothing really happens as Korine seems frequently to be just stringing together random scenes of improv and stylised violence alongside those of partying youths. However it is amongst these random scenes of excess and partying that we also get a number of memorable scenes including Alien playing a stripped down version of Brittany Spears’s “Everytime” on his poolside piano while Candy, Brit and Cotty dance around while welding shotguns and dressed in their trademark pink balaclavas which at the same time make this far from an unsatisfying viewing experience if ultimately a hollow one.

*This is an archive piece originally published at "Diamonds In Da Sky", apologies for confusion this might have caused,

Bad Lieutenant

Title: Bad Lieutenant

Director: Abel Ferrara

Released: 1992

Starring: Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Paul Calderon, Leonard L. Thomas, Robin Burrows, Frankie Thorn, Victoria Bastel

Plot: An unnamed police Lieutenant (Keitel) is tasked with investigating the rape of a nun as he tries to battle his own demons as his drug and gambling addictions threaten to consume him.  

Review: Back in the late 90’s when I was first seriously getting into film, beyond the surface level enjoyment I already got from my movie watching, Channel 4 here in the UK used to show Extreme cinema; a genre pretty much dead these days with society on a whole becoming harder to shock it would seem. Back then these films were truly seen as pushing boundaries of taste and would be shown as part of their late night schedule on a Friday night. It was from these seasons of films that I was exposed to films such as Greg Araki’s “The Doom Generation” and necrophilia romance “Kissed” which shocked me almost as much as they held a strange fascination for me, knowing that I was watching something which certainly fell outside of the cinematic mainstream, especially with their frequently graphic depicatations of sex, drugs, nudity and any number of taboo subjects. It would also be through these late night movie watching sessions that I would first see this film, which while I might not have followed it fully back then, still proved to be a memorable experience while kick-starting a lifelong fascination with the films of Abel Ferrara whom I mention in my review of “The King of New York” is my director of choice when I feel like watching something truly grimy and once again here it’s what he truly delivers.

As always with Ferrara it is a suitably grimy vision of New York that he once again gives us here, especially with the Lieutenant frequently seeming to take us on a guided tour of its most seediest parts as he hangs out with drug dealers and trades drugs he steals from evidence, while at the same time adding to his own habit. It’s a habit which when combined with his frequent drinking, often finds him in some more than questionable situations as he frequents with prostitutes often in some form of stupor which also gives us one of the more memorable scenes from the film as a naked Keitel staggers around a room wailing into the night as he looks barely capable of functioning in any form. The other talked about scene sees him pulling over a couple of young girls and forcing them to perform for him as he masturbates and curses beside their car.

As well as these two vices and the constant pursuit of them, the Lieutenant also finds himself in a rapidly increasing spiral of gambling debts, as he continues to back the Dodgers as they face off against the Mets over a series of games, while Baseball player Darryl Strawberry seems to be the only hint at any human connection that he has with anyone with the sporadic interactions he has with his family either erupting in volatile outbursts or general neglect as he often appears to be distant even when surrounded by his family. This self-imposed isolation only increasing over the course of the film as he gambles himself into further debts, while his addictions run wild, ultimately coming to ahead as he suffers a breakdown in a church, memorably grovelling and howling for forgiveness to a vision of a post crucified Jesus.

Unquestionably this is not an easy film to view, but despite the frequently graphic nature and crude tone the film takes, Ferrara clearly isn’t aiming to just shock his audience but instead punch them square in the face as he blurs the lines of gritty reality with frequently grotesque imagery. At the same time it is a powerhouse combination that we get from the potent combination of Ferrara’s direction and a bold and fearless performance by Keitel who despite committing numerous hideous and depraved acts still remains grimly watchable.

Similar in many ways to “Taxi Driver” the film views humanity at its darkest, perhaps making it all the more fitting that a nun is chosen as the victim of rape, as here even a symbol of purity and light is not beyond being soiled. At the same time the nun’s refusal to participate in the investigation of her attackers, furthers Ferrara’s own reoccurring ideals of finding forgiveness and compassion even when surrounded by a society fuelled on violence and hatred.

Unquestionably though thi is not the sort of film which is watched for enjoyment in the traditional sense, but this is still a griping if bleak experience and one truly carried by Keitel, whose performance Nicolas Cage would attempt to replicate with perhaps more overacted results in the unrelated, let alone Ferrara despised “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans”. However if you’re looking for a companion piece to “Taxi Driver” it’s safe to say that this film delivers the goods and more.

King of New York

Title: King of New York

Director: Abel Ferrara
Released: 1990
Staring: Christopher Walken, Laurence Fisburne, David Caruso, Victor Argo, Janet Julian, Wesley Snipes, Steve Buscemi, Paul Calderón, Giancarlo Esposito Theresa Randle, John Turturro, Frank Adonis

Plot: Drug Lord Frank White (Walken) upon being released from prison sets about eliminating his competition, with the goal of financing a new South Bronx hospital. However Frank’s past comes back to haunt him when a group of overzealous cops lead by detective Roy Bishop (Argo), frustrated by the lack of evidence to nail Frank for the current street killings decide to take matters into their own hands.

Review: I would like to think that we have at least one director whose work is not so much of a grimy in nature, but essentially embraces the grime and dirt it is being forged from, which for some may bring to mind the Minister of Bad Taste John Waters, The splatter of Herschell Gordon Lewis or the downright randomness of Frank Henenlotter. Directors who with a frequently balls to the wall attitude towards censorship and thier craft often as a result making them too random or strange for mass consumption and as such destined to remain  the filthy secret of our DVD collection and our go to director when we feel like taking a walk on the seedy underbelly of seemingly decent society. For myself though Abel Ferrara will always be that director, for ever since viewing “Bad Lieutenant” on a late night TV screening way back as an impressionable youth, something about his work has always resonated with myself, perticularly in how he shoots New York as his vision is possibly as far away from the traditional New York fantasy as you can get and more in tune with the one which Scorsese showed us with “Taxi Driver” and it’s this vision of New York which Ferrara returns to here with his ultraviolent twist seemingly on  “Robin Hood”.

Taking on one of more rarer leading roles Walken here gives one of his more iconic, but sadly little seen performances despite the fact that the film is listed as one of the “1001 Movies To See Before You Die”, while it’s portrayal of power in the drugs trade makes it only the more surprising that it’s not in numerous rappers DVD collections unlike the vastly overblown and drawn out “Scarface”. Walken’s portrayal of White though is a fascinating one to say the least, for having left prison he shuns the usual going straight route we have seen so many times before and instead seemingly has realised that he is set to live out his days in the drug trade and that he instead might as well focus on getting back to buisness and concentrating more on were his profits are going instead with his original idea of running for mayor soon being switched in favour of financing his neighbour hospital. It is during an almost confessional confrontation with detective Bishop though that we truly come to truly understand Frank’s world view as he states

“I spent half my life in prison. I never got away with anything, and I never killed anybody that didn't deserve it.”

While going on to further elaborate on the sins of his criminal counterparts, blaming them for running the city into the ground while they grew rich off their trade, something he is clear to separate himself with, while brutally eliminating anyone who stands in the way of his new plan. Now while Frank’s intentions might be considered in some askiew way honourable he is still far from being a saint, as seen even more so with his shark like prescence happy to share a joke or even bust a few dance moves, only to turn deadly when crossed as especially seen by how he handles being snubbed by a mafia boss who he doesn’t shoot once but repeatedly even after he is clearly dead, even performing a drive by at a funeral, after his gang is attacked by Bishops's rogue cops.

Joining Walken whose commanding performance essentially owns the film, Ferrara has still assembled an impressive cast, though considering the star status of many of the cast, a lot of his casting choices have been later rewarded as the careers of the cast took off, for example Lawrence Fishburne is still so early (yet non the less noteworthy here) in career he is still listed as Larry while David Caruso and Wesley Snipes would only get their big breaks after this film’s release with Caruso going on to star in “NYPD Blue” while Snipes who was living in his car during filming would go on to make “New Jack City”. Still despite their lack of star power they more than hold thier own here with Caruso being on perticularly frenzied form and far cry from his more sedate tones he has become more recognisable for as Horatio on CSI Miami".

Ferrara curiously doesn’t give us much of an insight into Franks’s past and his rise to power, or even why he works with a predominantly black gang and has such a strong embracement of black culture as especially seen by his love of Hip hop music which frequently soundtracks any one of the various parties he throws with his crew. Still with Ferrara preferring instead to keep the focus strongly in the present the film rattles along at a quick pace, no doubt thanks to the half hour which was cut from the film’s original two hour cut while he blurs the lines between right and wrong instead preferring to work in the same shades of grey which Rob Zombie equally favoured for “The Devil’s Rejects” as neither criminal nor cop is seen as been on the side of right or wrong, which ultimately only adds the films raw and gritty edge, which makes it far from the easiest of films to watch and unsurprisingly during the films premier caused most of the audience including Ferrara’s wife to walk out, which is never a good sign when your own wife walks out of your movie. Meanwhile the Q&A session was opened with the question

"This film is an abomination. Why aren't you giving the proceeds to some drug rehab program?"

A suitable question especially considering how glamorised the drug trade is portrayed as, especially if you happen to be a member of Frank’s crew, while the film would be further dogged by scandal when both Laurence Fishburne and Nicolas St. John were booed off the stage at the second screening. Still while the film might have become one of the lesser seen films on Walken’s resume it still marks one of the strongest periods of work for Ferrara, who would follow it up with the legendry “Bad Lieutenant” and the sadly overlooked remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” titled simply “Body Snatchers” and for Walken it is easily one of his best and only makes it more of a shame that he has not been given more leading roles over the course of his career….Long live the king!