The Fate of Lee Khan "迎春閣之風波" (1973) directed by King Hu

 After A Touch of Zen (1971), King Hu did a slight, but important change-up. Ying-Chieh Han, who had been the action director on King Hu's films since Come Drink with Me (1966) was replaced in the role by the prodigy and contemporary of Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung. Hung had played roles as an elite mook in various other King Hu films (most noticeably in A Touch of Zen where he is one of the personal bodyguards too the final boss). While Han's fighting-style for cinema, rooted firmly in Beijing Opera, Hung (who grew-up in a Beijing Opera school with Jackie Chan) was part of the generation that was directly influence by of the generations that was directly influenced by Bruce Lee. Because of this, while Hung's action directing and choreography is greatly in Beijing Opera the quick movements and minimalist techniques of Bruce Lee is very apparent in this film compared King Hu's previous ones. Even Ying-Chieh Han's fighting is accelerated more than in the films where he was action director. I'll talk more about Han later. 

This movie, like Dragon Inn (1967), takes place mostly in an inn. Like Kenji Mizoguchi's Sansho the Bailiff, the movie is named after the antagonist. What sets this movie apart (also like 'Sansho') is that it is set in the Yuan/Mongolian era of Chinese imperial history—an era that is not usually filmed. Most historical Chinese films take place during the Ming or Qing dynasties (the Ming Dynasty is King Hu's preferred setting). This means that the costumes are very different from what we are used to seeing—especially with the antagonists.

This story is another King Hu espionage caper—but this time he is not putting his protagonists against the secret police, but the regular government. The protagonists are at a place called the Spring Inn to thwart the plans of the brutal regional Lord Lee Khan. The problem is that both Lee Khan and the Han rebels have spies everywhere.

Another interesting thing about this movie is the playing-against-type going on in this film. Ying-Chieh Han had always played antagonists in King Hu films (most notably the final boss in A Touch of Zen), but this time he is on the side of the protagonists. Meanwhile Hsu Feng–who was the main female protagonist in A Touch of Zen–is The Dragon in this film (Lee Khan's fateful daughter). It is amazing to see these two in the role-reversal and it reminds me of Feng's role in Raining in the Mountain (1979).

At two hours, this is one of the shorter King Hu films and possibly the most normal one to get into of his. I also like that, while it is a "Han vs..." film it does not engage in the same crude xenophobic-stereotyping of the antagonists as so many Shaw Brothers films do. And it is a Golden Harvest co-production to-boot (home studio of Bruce Lee). I am happy to watch another King Hu film, and happy to recommend it to you. Happy New Year!

My Goodreads Review of The Promised Neverland, volume 17

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 17 by Kaiu Shirai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the last English-translation manga volume of The Promised Neverland for the year. This has been such an exciting book to read this year and it is crazy to think it will all be over in 2021. Of course, the Japanese-language version has already ended and season two of the anime is expected to premiere early 2021. In any case, this title has been one of the most interesting and intriguing comic books I've ever read and I can't wait to give my overall thoughts of the franchise when I read the last volume next spring/summer.

This volume has the beginning of the final battle. The parties to that conflict though may not be who we think, though. Emma and Norman have completely different agendas that will see the final conflict play out very messily and sorrowfully.

Posuka Demizu art work is almost better than the story, the dynamism on every page is just incredible and in an action-packed volume like this is used to great effect.

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My Goodreads Review of God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont, art by Brent Anderson

This is I believe my first (non-Japanese) comic book review posted on this blog.

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Despite watching the 1990s cartoon as a child and watching the movies, I have read relatively few X-Men comics since I started reading comic books in 2013. Most of what I have read has been of the newer works—particularly Brian Michael Bendis' run on the books. I have not read a lot of the classic stories though I most of what they are about because of how they have been adapted for film and television. This is one of the most famous X-Men stories written by their most prolific writer Chris Claremont as a stand-alone graphic novel. It is illustrated by Brent Anderson pre-Astro City. It's one of those stories that sticks with you from the word go.

The graphic novel begins in a way that few comics would dare do in this era to establish the atmosphere, with the lynching of two black mutant children by an anti-mutant militia under the orders of a disgraced veteran turned right-wing evangelical named William Stryker. Stryker's aim is the full extermination of all mutants and he uses his militia, the Purifiers, with the goal of carrying out that plan. Their bodies are quickly discovered by Magneto, the Malcolm X avatar of the X-Men world who declares full on war against Stryker. If you've seen X2: X-Men United then you know where this plot is going. It is certainly an interesting story to read in 2020. The art is very interesting look at early Anderson who've I've only ever looked at in Astro City. Despite this book being a fairly heavy book, it is still obviously a book set in the late-Bronze Age of Comic Books (which where the majority of Claremont's works come out of) and the social realism is very apparent. Claremont wrote this book in response to the rise of Christian fundamentalism in during the Reagan era. Interestingly he pits a religiously-motivated antagonist against the most famously-religious superhero team in comics (this book in particular uses Kitty Pryde (Jewish), Nightcrawler (Roman Catholic), and Storm (traditional/Nubian)). It creates a very interesting dynamic when they go up against Stryker.

The interesting about this book is that, like Batman: The Killing Joke, this was meant to be a one-off story not in-canon with the main X-Men story. Like Killing Joke the publishing company ignored that fact after it became a hit and Stryker and the Purifiers have been popping-up ever since. Even still, this story still holds it's relevance as one of the most significant stories of this franchise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srwfA...

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My Review of Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999) directed by Jim Jarmusch

 A curious film, pretty much de facto produced by the Wu-Tang Clan (Rza actually scored it, first film with an original hip-hop score). Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai (1999) was directed by Jim Jarmusch and stars Forest Whitaker as a hitman that follows the code of Bushido. 

This films feeling of loneliness and uncertainty of the coming millennium is one of the beautiful things about it. The protagonists and antagonists are looking into the year 2000 not certain what will happen to them. Their lives of the 20th century have become laughably obsolete--like Kierkegaard would say they are all tragic-comic. But before they can go into this void, some business has to be taken care of. The film is almost as apocalyptic as Eugene O'Neil's The Iceman Cometh. 

This movie is part adaptation of Le Samouraï (1967), concerning a mysterious hitman that works personally to a mobster in New Jersey. The twist is that this hitman–that refers to himself only as Ghost Dog–models himself after a Japanese samurai and regularly reads from the Hagakure, the most famous commentary for the code of Bushido. When he does a hit that goes wrong because of his boss' error, a hit is placed on Ghost Dog himself and while he realizes that as a "good samurai" he has to answer for this regardless of who's fault it was, he makes sure that the big bosses who control his "lord" answer before he does.

The theme of loneliness and uncertainty at the end of the 20th century are the two most dominant for me. The mobsters are facing an existential crisis over there future as they no longer command the sort of power that they once had. They try to keep their traditional lifestyle going, but it does not work as it use to. Gangster films like Casino (1995) also deal with some of these themes, but in as stark a terms. At the same time, the loneliness that the regular people who Ghost Dog encounters throughout this film is shown in such an intimae and beautiful way that defies my attempt to describe it. He unfortunately misses an opportunity to kill Marlo Stanfield—one of the few mistakes of this film😉. These themes almost risk overwhelming the film spiritually, but are sonically balanced by the Hip-Hop score. Though this is not the best Hip-Hop score made for a film, it ain't the worst and it definitely gives you enough of the feel of 1990s East Coat Hip-Hop. 

Jim Jarmusch is one of the greatest of the Indie film-makers and this movie further shows his talent. This is his penultimate film with the legendary cinematographer Robby Müller, who's cinematography is so masterful here as it is in most of his films.