10-11-2019, 08:26 PM
Just found this on Amazon Prime. It's a TVB martial arts soap opera. S1 runs 28 43m eps. Here's the thing, one of the main characters is played an old friend, Phillip Ng. I did a cover story on him a while back when he was in that rather disappointing Bruce Lee historical rewrite Birth of the Dragon. He's been working steadily in TV and films. Yeah, he plays the villain. All my friends play villains.
Phil is cool tho. He lives in HK and I wonder how he's doing. We chat online now and again. I should check in with him, tell him I'm finally watching his show. He has a new movie, Undercover Punch and Gun, that's just coming out now or just came out. I'm better friends with his dad actually as he still lives in the U.S. and we cross paths in the wulin now and again. Phil's livin the dream. He's worked with Jacky, Sammo, Yuen Biao. He's in the upcoming Donnie Yen remake of Enter the Fat Dragon. I fantasize about going back to HK and having him take me around to meet all his cool friends.
E1 was great. Lots of solid fightin action. It's based on Bajiquan, which is a style I actually practice. Well, I practice one form from the style, an odd folk form, the one form I kept from my years under Shaolin Monk Shi Yanfei. Baji is a system on to its own with dozens of forms. Nevertheless, I love that form and recite it almost every week. I try to keep one form from every master that I've studied under for a prolonged period, although my Xingyi counts for both Tony Chen and He Tao (I wasn't under He Tao for very long and didn't retain any of the forms he taught me). But back to e1, it's overdone melodrama as many of these Hong Kong martial arts soap operas are, however the action redeems it. I'm always praising the Hollywood choreo like Into the Badlands, Preacher, Wu Assassins, etc., but HK action puts it all to shame. They make it look so effortless. Unfortunately E1 was all set up and the real story doesn't kick in until E2, 15 years later.
E2 has more of an HK comedic bent, silly slapstick, sassy women, sleazy triad bosses, goofy love story arcs, I was just about to give up until the very end when Phillip makes his first appearance and kicks everyone's ass.
26 eps to go. I may just fast forward to the fight scenes. And Phil's scenes.
Phil is cool tho. He lives in HK and I wonder how he's doing. We chat online now and again. I should check in with him, tell him I'm finally watching his show. He has a new movie, Undercover Punch and Gun, that's just coming out now or just came out. I'm better friends with his dad actually as he still lives in the U.S. and we cross paths in the wulin now and again. Phil's livin the dream. He's worked with Jacky, Sammo, Yuen Biao. He's in the upcoming Donnie Yen remake of Enter the Fat Dragon. I fantasize about going back to HK and having him take me around to meet all his cool friends.
E1 was great. Lots of solid fightin action. It's based on Bajiquan, which is a style I actually practice. Well, I practice one form from the style, an odd folk form, the one form I kept from my years under Shaolin Monk Shi Yanfei. Baji is a system on to its own with dozens of forms. Nevertheless, I love that form and recite it almost every week. I try to keep one form from every master that I've studied under for a prolonged period, although my Xingyi counts for both Tony Chen and He Tao (I wasn't under He Tao for very long and didn't retain any of the forms he taught me). But back to e1, it's overdone melodrama as many of these Hong Kong martial arts soap operas are, however the action redeems it. I'm always praising the Hollywood choreo like Into the Badlands, Preacher, Wu Assassins, etc., but HK action puts it all to shame. They make it look so effortless. Unfortunately E1 was all set up and the real story doesn't kick in until E2, 15 years later.
E2 has more of an HK comedic bent, silly slapstick, sassy women, sleazy triad bosses, goofy love story arcs, I was just about to give up until the very end when Phillip makes his first appearance and kicks everyone's ass.
26 eps to go. I may just fast forward to the fight scenes. And Phil's scenes.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse