Stephen Chow's next

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Chow before Chow?

[Drunk Monk]

Across the pond, Chow's latest flick, his first since CJ7, is just a few yuen away from becoming the all-time biggest Box Office domestic film in China. This is a rather distorted stat, as with the massive expansion of China's film market, it's easier to be the biggest because there are more theaters now there than ever.

Chow is returning to JttW, which he tackled twice before with Chinese Odyssey.

Unfortunately, it was a rather uneven retelling. Chow only writes, directs & produces but doesn't personally appear in it and he is sorely missed. He takes a lot of liberties with the tale, and I'm fine with adaptations as that is the nature of JttW, but this version just doesn't go anywhere. Monkey is well depicted. It's not nearly as funny as Chow is usually. There are a few amusing moments, but not that over-the-top mo lei tai humor that is his style. He reunites some of the cast from Kung Fu Hustle, including my personal friends Xingwu and Chiu Chi Ling, but neither has a very large role. He poaches from Jaws, Mr Vampire, and Painted Skin 2, and revisits themes of the Buddha Hand and special magic books. I love Shu Qi, but I think Chow overindulged her because she's not a great comedian. The lead actor who plays monk Xuan Zhang was too weak for to carry the role. He would have been better cast as Oz...from China town (nobody will get that joke but ED and maybe he'll only get half of it).

There aren't any sword fights, but there's magic rings vs. rake, magic boar vs. medieval demon hunting tank, and a few other wacky fights. No bollywood number. Some good blood spitting. The best joke was a blood gag, but I won't spoil it.

All in all, very disappointing.

[cranefly]

This is all so very disappointing to hear.
I don't know when I've seen such a talented person at the top of his game fall so quickly.
He gave us all those fun-and-crazy off-the-cuff films, then the more controlled Shaolin Soccer, then Kung Fu Hustle. After that, several years to make the mediocre CJ7. And now, after many more years, this?
It leaves me speechless. I just don't understand...

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

[youtube]CmKrgPr7PA8[/youtube]

[Drunk Monk]

Don't be fooled.

If you want to see a good Chinese demon hunting flick, check out PS2. <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1425">viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1425</a><!-- l -->

It's on Netflix. It's a big screen flick - very visual - but I think it holds up on the small screen too.

[Drunk Monk]

This looks more like it.

[youtube]aHRbCTWDKGE[/youtube]

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Sounded like Big Trouble in Little China on the soundtrack about half-way through. (Big Trouble now on Netflix)

[Drunk Monk]

For my special Bday treat, I re-watched Kung Fu Hustle. It was sort of like work as I'm working on a piece about CCL iron rings so it provided an excuse to watch Tailor again. I've had it on DVD forever, but never actually watched the DVD version. It's still super awesome. But the real treat was the extras. There was a great Comedy Central interview with Chow (he speaks English) and an even greater one by IKF's former movie columnist R Meyer.

Now, I've never met him. He's a total film nerd, used to play the king at Medieval times (srsly), was in a silly softcore film (srsly+2 but he never appears nekkid, thankfully). He's overweight, awkward as an interviewer, outlandishly and poorly dressed in a goofy yin yang shirt (which he had to point out in his interview). The interview is horrid, but Chow endures, even lets slide some subtle digs at his M's awkwardness, in particular his unintelligible attempts to pronounce Cantonese names. But what struck me as really funny is that seeing M on video, I realized he is a failed PPFY. If you can imagine PPFY never fencing (I know, I know, unimaginable) and instead falling into this job as movie columnist for IKF and then trying to parlay that into some sort of expertise, you got Ric. It was as funny as it was uncanny and the realization made watching one of the most uncomfortable interviews I've ever seen hysterical.

[Drunk Monk]

Also worthy of note: the knife throwing scene in Kung Fu Hustle still makes me laugh out loud. Chow's comic timing in that scene is spot on.

[cranefly]

I have Ric Meyer's soft porn film on VHS in the garage somewhere.
If I recall correctly, there's no sword fight.
And yes, I can visualize all that DM is saying.

[Drunk Monk]

Bro, it was you who turned me on to that. I have a very clear (albeit possibly false) memory of you popping that into the VCR with that classic DOOMBro "you gotta check this out" grin.

If you haven't rewound it lately, it's probably gone bad by now. Just as well.

[Drunk Monk]

It's implausible to try to divorce Donnie Yen's Monkey King from last year's CNY blockbuster, Chow's JTTW: Conquering Demons. Both are the creation myths revised and deviated. Both are effects heavy to the point of overwhelming the story. Both have a lot of eye-candy, but little nutritious value. Both capture a bit of Monkey, but miss the mark overall. This one has better fights, but isn't as funny. I'm sure I would enjoy seeing the finale fight in IMAX 3D. I watched it with T, and while we were both amused, neither of us were that satisfied. It was on a Chinatown DVD-9 however, which was blurry, stuttery and had audience noise. The extra 'interview' on this disc was much more clear, and the effects really sparkled. Lots of magic weapon fights - sword included.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

It would have made more sense if this film came out before Kung Fu Hustle. A lot of themes and bits from Kung Fu Hustle are in JttW, only they were done a lot better in Hustle. The knife flicking, the buddha hand, the cartoon antics. It was like he just didn't get them right in this film where he got them perfect in Hustle.

All the scenes seemed to run on too long, especially the first one with the water demon. I kept wondering when the film was actually going to get to the point of actually telling the story.

And a lot of the effects and CGI seemed of a low quality, where the live action didn't mesh very well with the animated bits.

The film needed more monkey king and he needed to be trickier rather just icky. I did like the perfect priest trying to decide if he was important or impotent. But most of the humor was labored.

It was good to see CCL doing something other than talking about Hung Gar and his fans world wide.

[Drunk Monk]

It was good to see CCL doing something other than talking about Hung Gar and his fans world wide.

I confess, one of the only moments that made me chuckle was when CCL made that comment about it being his first time and that they should go easy on him. The other was the non-stop blood-spurting from that one dude's head.

Have you seen some of Chow's older stuff, G? You oughta check that out. Some of them are very amusing, much better than this last one. This last one was so disappointing.

[El Dingo]

This finally showed up in my DVD queue.

I loved it.

DM thought the first fight went on too long but it was my favorite of the film. The whole town getting involved, the see-saw sequence, the nursery rhyme excorcism and introduction of the female demon hunter was brilliant.

The Demon-Hunter battle chariot stuff confused me but in a fun way.

Did anyone else see the CGI characters doing sloppy wire-work? Did they imitate uneven glides and clumsy landings to reflect real wire stunts?

I was bummed to see the monkey-king so evil, as I thought he was just mischievous and not malevolent, but the actor playing him was top-notch.

Anyway, the end confused the hell out of this round-eye westerner-

[SPOILER ALERT]
















All the defeated bad guys become the hero's team members...

but I can't wait to see the sequels.