Long Shan: Home of the Mountain Dragon

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

To Joey Wong - Wang Tsu Hsien Most noted for her ethereal beauty (and height) and the Chinese Ghost Story films, she has retired (2004) and we hope is living in peace and prosperity. Joey's last appearance was the mostly unseen Shanghai Story and in Yon Fan's Peony Pavillion (2001)

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

To Gillian Chung Yun Tung  , singer and actress. Member of Twins with partner Charlene Choi Cheuk Yin . This screen shot is from the rather unfortunate Protege De La Rose Noir as the girls do a hilarious and pretty convincing take on Jackie Chan in Drunken Master II. The movie's faults certainly aren't their responsibility. And regardless, sometimes cute is it's own reward.

A note to the CPC thugs at SARFT and the cowards who produced Mei Lanfang and then removed Gillian's footage - said to be excellent. May you spend your next ten lives building igloos in the Sahara and sand castles in Greenland. Supervised by Red Guards.

"Watashiwa!"

Princess Raccoon - Operetta tanuki goten (2005) Director Seijun Suzuki's radical departure from his Yakuza themed films such as Pistol Opera and Tokyo Drifter is a flight into fairy-tale land. A thoroughly engaging mixture of live-action, Anime, CGI, cut-out animation ala Terry Gilliam and looniness this film more closely resembles Gaja Gamini or The Happiness of the Katakuris than anything else I can recall. There's even a hint of West Side Story - "Men must not be with Raccoons, Raccoons must not be with Men". And yes, it says "Operetta", so we have song and dance, rap, tap, show tunes and a samurai Calypso marching band. And Raccoons.

Sometime, probably in the 17th century, (there are Spaniards) the vain and brutal king, Mkijiro Hira, is told by the palace seeress, the (Christian) Virgin Hag that he has been supplanted as "fairest of them all" by his son, Joe Odagiri, thereby vowing to exile the lad and devise his demise. In the course of his wanderings the prince comes across a Raccoon Princess in human guise, Zhang Ziyi and the quest for love begins, encountering a number of the expected pitfalls, including the language barrier - "You speak a language I have never heard"; this being explained by her coming from "Cathay", thereby giving Ziyi the opportunity to speak her dialogue in her native toungue while the rest of the cast speaks in theirs.

We meet many odd characters, including the Ostrich Monk, a set of Gibson Girl - like handmaidens ("You girls are weird") and even the "Frog of Paradise". I can not pretend to give this movie it's due but it is deliriously lovely and loads o' fun.

The post title will be clear on watching the film

Surprise! Surprise?

Given the history of its stars and the venue, this is something of an odd film, albeit quite generally conventional in its development. A thoroughly Hong Kong production, (in Cantonese) produced by the remarkable Tsui Hark of the "Swordsman" and "Chinese Ghost Story" and "Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain" films and directed by Ching Siu-Tung, director of "The Heroic Trio" and "Chinese Ghost Story" series as well as the god of action and martial arts choreography in such works as ""Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers", it nonetheless stars the two most prominent figures of mainland, Mandarin film.

The action begins circa 215 BC as a soldier is overseeing the construction of the gigantic mausoleum for the first Qin Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi , including the creation of the Terracotta Army. In scenes reminiscent of  "The Ten Commandments" thousands of toiling and disposable workers labor under the lash to feed the Emperor's megalomania.

The Emperor's quest for immortality doesn't stop at architectural gigantism however; at the same time, he is driving the court necromancers to develop an elixir that will allow him to live forever, and he is not a patient man. Driven by a close call in which his construction supervisor, General Mong Tian Fong, saves his life, and the nature of politics at the time, Qin Shi Huangdi feels a cold hand on his shoulder.

It is now that the general meets an unhappy Imperial concubine, Winter, as she is considering suicide. A straight path is followed here as they fall in love, are caught and executed; he by being encased in terracotta and she by burning, but not before she slips him a non-FDA approved sample of the immortality elixir. Cut to:

"The Nineteen Thirties", as the shooting of China's first talkie is underway. Descending from a shiny airplane is the squeaky-voiced, giggly, wannabe starlet, Lily Chu, dressed like a Goodwill version of Gloria Swanson and evincing an airy cluelessness worthy of Carole Lombard. And here we come to the surprise, for Lily is played by none other than Herself, Gong Li , the powerful center of such films as "Raise the Red Lantern", Jou Do, The Story of Qiu Ju and "Farewell to My Concubine". Furthermore, she is alarmingly natural - and maybe having a little fun with it. She is also the exact image of Lady Winter from the ancient time.

Pathetically convinced that she will walk straight into a starring role, Lily breezes into the middle of the filming, centering on the star, Bai Yun Fai, played by the handsome and ever-dependable HK baddie Yu Rongguong , who has more history on his mind than film, namely, looting the priceless tomb of the Qin Emperor if it can be found.

In her glue-like pursuit of fame and rave reviews, Lily wanders into a site being investigated by Bai and his unholy henchmen, thereby earning herself a "ride" - one-way - in the scoundrel's plane. After his plot fails, Bai parachutes to safety leaving Lily to crash into a lovely soft sand bank and then be swallowed up and descending into...The Emperor's Tomb; where she meets; and you guessed it; General Mong Tiang Fong, just coming around after his 2000 year sojourn encased in terracotta.

The double surprise is completed here as Mong is played by Zhang Yimou, the great "Fifth Generation" director of many of the above mentioned films and the companion of Li for many years. A rare acting role for him is well fleshed out; he conveys the stolidity of an ancient warrior and bureaucrat (plus nifty combat moves) and the bewilderment of confronting the twentieth century and the flighty Lily, whom he is convinced is his long-lost Winter. He also displays a neat sense of deadpan humor with temporal dissonances involving autos, guns,  a train and a pair of sunglasses.

Here the story returns to its adventure/romance mode with few surprises, generally following threads of heroic archeology and time-dislocation films such a the "Indiana Jones" series, "Time After Time" and the hilarious The Iceman Cometh starring Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk and Yuen Biao. I won't follow the story to the end to avoid possible spoilers for those who might see it. The film does end, or does it, in the "1990s" After all, the real point here is the answer to a long held question of mine; can she do comedy? Damn right!

A note here: I purchased this DVD from HKDVD Store.com it isn't available at NetFlix and I'm too far removed from any possible rental site like San Francisco's Chinatown. Also, the transfer quality is miserable and the English language subtitles, while surprisingly correct, are tiny and hard to read, so maybe this is only for fanatics like me.