[Weekly Update] Old Directors in New Cinema

I re-watched half of Da Vinci Code. The movie was two and a half hour long. I can't even get passed half of it because it was so boring.

How was it such a sensation back then? Was the book significantly better? Genuine question.

CHANNEL UPDATE

Hope you all enjoy our last video on Kung Fu vs. Foreign Fighters! Once again, YouTube algorithm proves to be a cruel mistress. If it weren't for all of you here, there is no way I can continue doing videos like this. <3

Our last video is among the longest video we have ever made, and the highest in terms of word counts. The project was almost abandoned at one point, as I wasn't able to find any primary sources after 10 hours of digging around on the Internet. Worse yet, newspaper database all require research registrations to get access, further adding difficulties to the process. It was honestly a miracle I was able to pull through with so many primary and secondary sources at the end.

To keep the video snappy, I skipped over some of the small nuances, mostly when dealing with translating the sources from Chinese to English. For example, in the story about how the Judo fighter broke his hand, the wording in that story is actually fairly imprecise. It can mean anything from dislocating his shoulder to breaking the bone of his arms.

By the way, I suggested that the fighters may be Judo practitioners purely because of how the fight was described. At one point, the Japanese fighter had his back against Huo Yuanjia, and was about to trip him with his right foot. That sounded like a classic Judo move. Judo, at the time, was only invented about 20 years prior. Being a new martial arts, the fighters may be more open to learning from other martial artists beyond their own discipline. But that is just my personal speculation.

One quote I failed to cite properly was the article from The Hawaiian Star. The description of the Boxers were purportedly supplied by a Chinese official. However, the official rwas unnamed. Reports on the Boxer Rebellion was very Biased on both sides, so the legitimacy of the report is somewhat suspect.

Speaking of Boxer Rebellion, one somewhat common criticism was that I didn't go into the Boxer Rebellion much. From the video, one may find that the action of the Boxers heroic, paralleling the patriotic actions of folk heroes. In reality, the Boxers were and still are seen as a terrorist group in China, who kills even Chinese people for doing business with foreigners or even owning foreign productions. Unfortunately this mindset still lingers in Chinese society to this day.

Finally, regarding the story of Kang Tyre, I actually skipped over one irrelevant but interesting part of the story. After the arena was shut down, the cops and Kang Tyre changed the stage into a show match competition. Basically, he invited a whole bunch of Chinese martial artists on stage to show off their Kung Fu (in kata form). Kang also expressed great admiration towards these Kung Fu practitioners, a sentiment he echoed when the cops shut down his arena, and also repeated when he issued his apologies on newspaper. Dude apparently was a huge Kung Fu geek, which I find rather hilarious.

That's about all the big things I can think of on top of my head right now. If some other interesting things come up, I'll share them in the next update, too.

MEDIA TALK

Tsui Hark's new film, Legends of the Condor Heroes, is doing rather well in cinema despite divisive reviews. It seems this old director still has some magic in him.

For anyone unfamiliar, Tsui Hark was a prolific Hong Kong director, and the mind behind such classics as the One Upon a Time in China series, the Swordsman series, The Chinese Ghost Story, The New Dragon Gate Inn, the Iron Monkey, and a whole bunch more.

I like to compare him to Japanese game director Hideo Kojima, as both of these creative minds adore unconventional approach to their medium, often injecting a lot of Western sensibility into an Eastern frame work. They both like to combine serious social topics with off beat humour. And they both are at the cutting edge of technology when it comes to their respective medium.

Indeed, Tsui Hark's production pioneered many of the visual aesthetics and technology behind wire-fu. He also imported a lot of special effects technique into Hong Kong cinema, making his films appear much more expensive than other contemporary productions.

With time, Tsui Hark has keep up with the time. His movies continue to employ cutting edge VFX and production design. His films continue to be epics with zany humor. And yet, the market has moved on.

We are now 3 decades after the 90s, and the same goofiness of that decade no longer appeals to modern audience. His loud and colourful production design appeals farfetched rather than fantastical. And his Western sensibility seemed childish, now that filmgoers from the East are much more familiar with Western culture.

This problem is most evident with Tsui Hark's Journey to the West II movie, the sequel to Steven Chow's Conquering the Demons. When watching that film, I can't help but imagine how ridiculous and fun it would be if it were made in the 90s with practical effects. But the computer effects, no matter how colourful, just don't appeal exciting. And the non-sense humor fails to captivate as well. The audience has moved on from Tsui Hark.

This is a common problem surrounding old and classic directors. The most famous example would be James Cameron and his Avatar series. It's not hard to trace the continuity from Aliens to Terminator 2 to Titanic to Avatar, all of which reflects Cameron's sensibility. He has always been a big computer effects guy. His stories have always been simple tales of paragon heroes against simple evil.

But this simplistic fable no longer works in today's society. The message of Avatar is that of a righteous one, but the method of which it is told is often questioned. The film feels like it belongs back in a time period when minorities must rely on white people to fight for their rights and speak up for their hardship. Today, that is no longer the approach, and Cameron's flawed method overshadowed his good intention.

A similar problem applies to John Woo, as well. Although in this case, his sense of aesthetic was already somewhat outdated by the late 90s. And his sense of "coolness" has only gotten even less cool since.

And then there's Coppola and Megalopolis.

Yeah, let's wrap up here. I don't wanna lose more braincells.

And that is the update for this week. In two weeks, we'll talk about African Kung-Fu Nazis. The movie isn't great, but the action is pretty fun. Grab a beer and a friend, and enjoy it for a night. I'll see you soon!