A renegade cop on the edge… They pushed him too far… Now he’s out for his own brand of … *snore*
If I’d read a plot synopsis of Sha Po Lang before I saw the cast, I never would have picked it up. Fortunately, my local movie dealer knew of my Donnie Yen addiction, and practically shoved the box in my pocket.
My brother was by for a visit. This is news, because he lives in Austria (beer halls and sausages, not kangaroos). We hadn’t seen each other for about eleven years.
Even in the best cases, family relationships can be … complicated. Alan and I have been through much of the good times and bad times that are typical of siblings. Among the good times, Alan introduced me to much of the music I now listen to, a handful of the books on my shelf, and gave me my first taste of martial arts action movies when I was a wee lad.
Well, then. In honor of Alan’s trip to the States, let’s have a look at a film about brotherhood.
Ahehe. Let me begin with a little apology. Last week, in a fit of inexplicable smartassery, I attempted to explain my smartassery by way of a series of fictitious misadventures which had allegedly befallen me. While many readers know me well enough to recognize my bullshit in text mode, some were under the impression that my life had really gone down the crapper. Allow me to clarify on several points: Your humble reviewer owns no truck, has never owned any motor vehicle, has never had a driver’s license, and has never been responsible for the destruction of any vehicle by means of driving it poorly. Your humble reviewer’s career is really doing okay; in comparison with the last five jobs your humble reviewer has held, he’s actually doing fantastic. Chicks your humble reviewer digs could not ignore your humble reviewer on a dare.
Now, let’s follow up that last mixed blessing with some truly great action cinema.
Jackie Chan smashed the competition with Snake in Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master. Attempts to imitate his style were unimpressive. Indeed, it seemed at times like Chan’s only real competition was himself. The glove is down, and Chan repeatedly takes it up, and attempts to show himself what he’s made of. If you examine Chan’s filmography, you will notice that he frequently returns to old themes to try them again, not just by way of sequels, but by extracting ideas or shot sequences from one film, and trying them again in new ways.
After Drunken Master showed the world an irreverent take on the legendary Wong Fei Hung, Tsui Hark enlisted Jet Li to play Wong Sifu in a more traditional series, the Once Upon a Time in China films.
Chan returned the tale to his own vision, enlisting a star-studded cast to show a higher budget version of Wong Sifu’s troubled adolescence.
Not to be confused with Legend of the Red Dragon.
So, I slacked last week, and I owe the community a review.
Look, folks, I’m going to be right up front about this: I’m in a smartass mood today. I torpedoed my career before it started, I can’t afford a decent place to live, I crashed my truck, and this chick I dig is totally ignoring me. I don’t see how it behooves me to give a shit about anything.
So I’m going to review a film I don’t give a shit about.
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Today, I’m thinking about job searches, and that delicate balance between a large company and a small company. At a giant corporation, roles tend to be better defined, and resources can be allocated to deal with problems according to a procedure that is well understood. On the other hand, corporations tend to be ruthless in punishing acts of creative problem-solving, and regardless of what they tell you in the weekly pep talk, improvisation is a sin. Small firms are the opposite; they expect employees to show up in the morning, and wing it. Your job description? Make more money for the boss. When something goes wrong, the only formal procedure is, “Don’t let your manager find out.” One business model produces results which are consistently stale; the other is wildly unpredictable. (I generalize, of course.) Somewhere in the middle is the sort of company I get along with: the glorious mid-sized firm with enough procedures to keep from going too deep down the rabbit hole before I’ve had my coffee, but with enough flexibility to let people use good judgment without fearing reprisal.
So, while I’m thinking about the blend between formal procedures and improvisation, let’s talk about The Blade. No, not the Wesley Snipes film about a guy with the powers of both man and oatmeal; I’m writing about Tsui Hark’s remake of the Shaw Brothers classic One Armed Swordsman.
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