Hong Kong action day

[avram]

Erik hosted a Hong Kong action movie festival at his place today, with Josh and Lisa bringing the DVDs. We saw Iron Monkey (great), Drunken Master 2 (really good), and (I think) part of a really awful dub of Drunken Master 6, and something very silly with three ass-kicking women and an invisible robe and a scheme to steal children and make a new Chinese emperor. There was another movie the others watched before I got there, and at the end we saw the first two episodes of Shamanic Princess, a pretty good anime series BSD had brought.

It seemed to me that the martial arts was choreographed at a much slower speed in the earlier movies, with longer pauses after moves. I suspect that audiences have gotten more sophisticated as time has gone on, better at being able to read rapid-paced action.

Comments

HK Action Day

[(Anonymous)]

I thought the dub was for _Drunken Master_ (the first one), and yeah, it was embarrassing. The ass-kicking women were _The Heroic Trio_, which I kind of liked despite its super-silliness. I think the first movie was _Ti Chi Master_ (sorry for the misspelling).
Matt

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Ooops -- I was scooped on the title of The Heroic Trio. That's a good movie, I've only seen it on tape, though. I like Iron Monkey quite a bit, even saw it in the theater in a recent rerelease. Yeah!

I hadn't noticed what you mention about the choreography. I HAVE noticed, though, that individual takes and cuts of martial arts choreography have gotten shorter and shorter, which I dislike. I like the longer takes of the early 90s/late 80s movies more than I like the super-edited style of today.