I enjoyed the playful, pulpy liveliness of The Jade Bow. It would be best described as a total romp, a wuxia epic filled with colorful costumes, a delightful love triangle, and and incredibly hammy villain. Think Robin Hood or Zorro. The budget was clearly very low judging from the rough sets and abysmal background actors (retakes seemed to be a no-go), but even those add to its modest charms. The repetitive action is the film's weakest aspect, despite being an early work of famed choreographer Lau Kar-leung.
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The Bells of Death 1968
The influence of Samurai and Western films is strong on Yueh Fang's incredibly stylish and bloody revenge wuxia The Bells of Death. Wei Fu's (Chang Yi) family is murdered by a gang of three bandits, and he embarks on a years long journey to exact his revenge and hunt them down one by one. Even for a film that's less than 90 minutes the pacing of this film is wildly breakneck. The focus is on the action rather than character,…
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The Unsinkable Molly Brown 1964
It takes a certain amount of fortitude to enjoy The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and though I enjoyed it in fits and spurts I'm afraid I'm just not up to the job. It's such an aggressively desperate film, with every scene aching for attention much in a way the Browns seek approval from high society in the film. I have higher tolerance for the attention seeking than most, and it helps that I have a fondness for Debbie Reynolds. Her performance…
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Same Time, Next Year 1978
The biggest problem afflicting Same Time, Next Year is it's lofty goal of treating the central romance as a parallel to the changing of attitudes and cultural shifts that occurred from the early 50s to the late 70s instead of treating them like an actual couple that makes any sense. The film focuses on Doris and George, who meet at an inn and fall in love, agreeing to meet there one day a year to resume their affair. These two…