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This may have been my first actual Anna May Wong film. She was one of the first asian actresses, and I only really know her because of one of those google profiles. Marlene Dietrich was so weird, so affected in her line delivery and posturing. Warner Oland is the villain, looking strangely hapa like he does in every asian role he took. It won the Oscar for cinematography, and there are some spectacular train scenes that mimic Peiping (Beijing) but it was all shot in Cali. Remarkable too because there are no special effects back then. A fascinating historical watch. No swordfights. Some machine gunning, stabbing and really bad fistacuffs. Not particularly DOOM recommended. I do need to watch more Anna May Wong flicks. She was captivating - the original Hollywood dragon lady.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
Hey, I thought I was the only one watching old movies.
Been plowing through some Pasolini. Arabian Nights (1974), The Decameron (1971). Next up is The Canterbury Tales (1972). And yes, I'm watching his trilogy out of order because I don't know better.
I think I've seen Shanghai Express. Certainly some extended scenes. But now, after checking wikipedia, I'm beginning to doubt it. Because somehow I thought William Holden was in it. But this was shortly before his time.
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Ha! Synchronicity strikes!
In the span of ten minutes I went from never having heard the name 'Anna May Wong' to reading it twice. After reading DM's post, I had breakfast and read Time magazine. They are doing a special where they focus on great women from the past 100 years, highlighting a distinctive woman for each year. Anna May Wong was the subject for 1928
She was a silent film star but got sick of being typecast as the Dragon Lady. She moved to Europe where she was better appreciated.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm
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03-12-2020, 10:36 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-12-2020, 10:42 AM by Drunk Monk.)
(03-11-2020, 09:42 PM)cranefly Wrote: Hey, I thought I was the only one watching old movies.
Nah bro. You're the only one watching twistedly perverse 3+ hour flicks. The rest of us are watching the twistedly perversones under 3 hours.
(03-12-2020, 06:36 AM)Greg Wrote: Ha! Synchronicity strikes!
In the span of ten minutes I went from never having heard the name 'Anna May Wong' to reading it twice. After reading DM's post, I had breakfast and read Time magazine. They are doing a special where they focus on great women from the past 100 years, highlighting a distinctive woman for each year. Anna May Wong was the subject for 1928
She was a silent film star but got sick of being typecast as the Dragon Lady. She moved to Europe where she was better appreciated.
Cool. Yeah, she's someone I should know more about because I write so much about Chinese cinema. I already know Oland, but he's a fascinating story too. Seeing Wong juxtaposed with Dietrich was just odd. Anna is super cool through the film and speaks almost accent free. Marlene is so quirky in her style and her accent makes all her lines sound really stilted. I don't quite get her.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
