Anita Mui

The Silver Emulsion Podcast: Ep. 97 – Drunken Master II

This week on the Silver Emulsion Podcast, Stephen and I are talking about one of the greatest kung fu films of all time, the one and only Drunken Master II. Directed by the legendary Lau Kar-Leung and starring Jackie Chan, Anita Mui and Ti Lung, this is what movies are all about! Listen and enjoy! 🙂

Watch Drunken Master II along with us on Blu-ray, DVD or Amazon Instant Video!

Also: the show is on iTunes! So if you feel like subscribing there, or rating/reviewing the show, feel free to share your thoughts!

Intro:

Tsukasa Masuko – In-Game
- From the NES game T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage (VGMPF)

Outro:

Jackie Chan – The Drunken Master (Cantonese Version)
- Drunken Master II Soundtrack (iTunes, Amazon)

If you’ve got feedback, throw it into the comments below or email it to me via the contact page! We’ll include it in a future show!

The podcast is embedded directly below this, or you can go directly to Podbean (or use their app) to listen. If you want to subscribe, paste http://silveremulsion.podbean.com/feed/ into whatever reader you’re using.

The Silver Emulsion Podcast: Ep. 63 – The Heroic Trio

This week Stephen and I are diving into one of the film’s I loved dearly during my teenage years: Johnnie To’s 1993 comic book-wuxia: The Heroic Trio! Listen and enjoy! 🙂

Also: the show is now on iTunes! So if you feel like subscribing there, or rating/reviewing the show, feel free to share your thoughts!

Intro:

Ananda Shankar – Nostalgia
- Shubh: The Auspicious (Amazon)

Outro:

Anita Mui – 莫问一生 Don’t Ask About Life (The Heroic Trio Theme)
- 戲劇人生 [Drama of Life] (Discogs)

If you’ve got feedback, throw it into the comments below or email it to me via the contact page! We’ll include it in a future show!

Justice, My Foot! @ ShawBrothersUniverse.com!

Hey there, Emulsionistas! My second post for the official Shaw Brothers site went up yesterday. This time it’s a review of the Johnnie To-directed 1992 smash-hit starring Stephen Chow and Anita Mui: Justice, My Foot!. Check it out here and enjoy!

And if you’re looking to watch Justice, My Foot!, it’s available on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Microsoft and Google Play. It’s also on HK Blu-ray for those more inclined to physical media.

Rumble in the Bronx (1995)

Rumble in the Bronx [紅番區] (1995)

Starring Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Bill Tung, Francoise Yip, Marc Akerstream, Garvin Cross, Morgan Lam, Ailen Sit Chun-Wai, Kris Lord, Yueh Hua, Rainbow Ching Ho-Wai, Carrie Cain-Sparks

Directed by Stanley Tong

Expectations: Very high!

All things considered:

Just the action:

If I had to point to a single movie that changed my life, it’s without a doubt Rumble in the Bronx. While I had seen some Bruce Lee films as a kid, Rumble in the Bronx was my first real taste of the Hong Kong movie. Even in its somewhat watered-down form as released in the US, the film completely and utterly destroyed my brain. I became immediately obsessed with Jackie Chan, to the point of not being able to watch American action films for years because they didn’t have the reckless, dangerous, “real-life” quality to the action that typifies the Hong Kong films of the ’80s and ’90s. This obsession even led me to dig deep into classic films, researching the work of Buster Keaton (a major influence on Jackie), which would eventually evolve all the way to me starting up this very blog as a way to express my unique and eclectic taste in film.

Roughly 20 years has passed by now, and re-watching Rumble in the Bronx for the first time in at least 10 years has given me a new understanding of the film (especially after reviewing my way up through Jackie’s filmography). I wouldn’t say that I was disappointed, or that it failed to live up to my personal legacy with it, but it definitely has its issues. I experienced a similar feeling when I reviewed Police Story III: Supercop, and within the films’ shared creative team the reasons for this emerge.

Drunken Master II (1994)

Drunken Master II [醉拳II] (1994)
AKA The Legend of Drunken Master

Starring Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Ti Lung, Felix Wong Yat-Wah, Lau Kar-Leung, Cheung Chi-Gwong, Ken Lo, Ho Sung-Pak, Hon Yee-Sang, Hoh Wing-Fong, Andy Lau, Bill Tung, Chin Ka-Lok

Directed by Lau Kar-Leung

Expectations: C’mon, it’s Drunken Master 2! I know it’s awesome!

I can confirm that love at first sight exists, because from the moment I first laid eyes on Drunken Master II, nearly 20 years ago, I was completely and utterly smitten. Time has changed many things in my life, but time has not diminished the power of Drunken Master II even a smidgen. It is every bit the amazing film it always was, and re-watching for the first time in many years brought back every enthusiastic feeling I ever had about the film. Heaven is indeed real, and it is watching Drunken Master II! Hyperbole aside, Drunken Master II is great and if you love martial arts films, I don’t think there’s any way for you not to love this one.

The film begins with Wong Kei-Ying (Ti Lung), his son Wong Fei-Hung (Jackie Chan) and their assistant Tso (Cheung Chi-Gwong) waiting to board a train home to Canton. Fei-Hung doesn’t think they should be forced to pay taxes on the ginseng root they are bringing back for a patient. Tso tells him that British consulate members don’t need to pay the duties, so when a group of them go past, Fei-Hung swaps the ginseng box with an identical box of theirs.

Miracles (1989)

Miracles [奇蹟] (1989)
AKA Mr. Canton and Lady Rose, Miracle, Black Dragon, The Canton Godfather, Big Brother

Starring Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Gua Ah-Leh, Richard Ng, O Chun-Hung, Sunny Fang Kang, Bill Tung, Tien Feng, Ngai Jan, Gloria Yip Wan-Yee, Wu Ma, Billy Lau Nam-Kwong, Lo Lieh, Lee Hoi-Sang, Michael Chow Man-Kin, Paul Che Biu-Law

Directed by Jackie Chan

Expectations: Very High. It’s the only classic Jackie film I’ve never seen.

Miracles is Jackie Chan’s favorite of all the films he’s made, but I doubt many of his fans share the sentiment. It is a lavishly produced film, a true achievement for Jackie Chan the director, but from a viewer’s perspective it is a bit all over the place. It is a prime example of the flexible approach to mixing genre and tone often seen in Hong Kong films, and as such it is both a rousing success and somewhat underwhelming. I imagine that future viewings of the film will only make it better in my estimation, as it won’t be working against 20-some years of expectation and personal hype.

Jackie’s film is a remake of the Frank Capra film A Pocketful of Miracles, which in turn was a remake of the earlier Frank Capra film Lady for a Day. I haven’t seen either of the Capra films, but judging from their synopses it would seem that their stories are more focused on the deceptive plotline that makes up the bulk of the second half of Miracles. Again I haven’t seen the other films, but this would make sense because just watching Miracles, it feels like the first half is almost entirely unnecessary in a strict plot sense.

Silver Emulsion Film Reviews

Anita Mui