Once Upon A Time In China (黃飛鴻)

One of my favourite Chinese martial arts movies of all time is Once Upon A Time In China (1991), also known as Wong Fei Hung (黃飛鴻) and its sequel directed by the famous HK director and producer, Tsui Hark (徐文光). Arguebly the movie which set off a slew of martial art flicks from HK in the early 90s upon its successful box office takings, the original spins off 4 sequels, numerous non-related series and introduced then Chinese martial art champion, future superstar, Jet Li to the global audience.

Wong Fei Hung is a Chinese folkhero based in Foshan (佛山), Guangdong (廣東). Being a folkhero, the line between facts and fictions are often blurred. The movie is a highly fictionalised account of this legendary figure.

Wong Fei Hung is the son of Wong Kei Ying (黃麒英) who is one of the Ten Tigers Of Guangdong (廣東十虎 a grouping of ten top martial art masters in Southern China). Wong is a medical practitioner as well as a formidable martial artist. His martial art knowledge is rooted in the famous Hung Branch style (洪家) (one of the major five Southern Chinese branches, founded by Hung Hei Kun -洪熙官), taught to him by his father. Wong Kei Ying appears in the second sequel but is nearly defeated by Kwai Keuk Chat aka Clubfoot, who eventually became a student of Fei Hung. This is abit ridiculous, afterall Wong Kei Ying is a formidable master himself but maybe he is getting old.

Wong's most famous style is said to be the Shadowless Kick, rumoured to be so swift that one can't even see the shadow. In the first movie, this style is depicted as a basic swift kick but in subsequent sequels, it became a chain of kicks, kicking the opponent many times before landing. Now that is abit far fetch. Another is the Fist Of Ten Forms, a combination of punches incorporating the basic movements of the Hung Branch style. This is briefly mentioned in the first movie. His favourite weapon is said to be the wooden pole as well as the southern tiger fork, although the later is not depicted.

Wong is also rumoured to be an avid lion dancer. In the second but poorer sequel, Wong participated in a special "King Lion" lion dance competition organised by Empress Dowager which eventually turned into a massive battleground between different opponents. As a medical practitioner, he owned Po Chi Lam (寶芝林) clinic which he uses as both his home and occasional practise ground for his students. He often involve himself in revolutionary ideas and this landed him in troubles which gave him an opportunity to showcase his fighting skills, in the movies at least. The stories took place the end of the increasingly turbulent period of the 19th Century Southern China as the nation is increasingly tearing itself apart and as well as the influx of Western forces. Tsui Hark inserted couple of historical figures and associations liberally, like Liu Yongfu (劉永福), the general of the Black Flag Army, the White Lotus Society (白蓮教), Dr. Sun Yat Sen and Lu Hao-tung (陸皓東), both revolutionary figures.

Prior to this movie, the most profilic depiction of Wong Fei Hung is a series of movies starred by the late Kwan Tak Heng (關德興), who acted as the titular role for at least a staggering 77 movies, between 40s to 70s. Actor Shek Kin (石堅) who, after playing so many antagonistic roles against Kwan Tak Heng, became synonymous with villainous roles. As bad as Shek Kin as the saying goes.

Without doubt, Once Upon A Time In China and its sequels contained a strong nationalistic message and deal with Western imperialism throughout. Wong is said to protect the Chinese pride fiercely.

The best aspect of the movies are the fighting sequence. Smooth and breathtaking, it is something which was not seen before. Of course there are bloopers. An obvious one is a sequence where Wong did a somersault and one can clearly see the wig hang out halfway.

There are two memorable antagonists whom Wong faced. In the first movie, there is Yim Chan Tung (Yee Kuan Yan), a down and out martial art master who practises the Iron Body Stance whereby swords and spears could not penetrate his body, as well as being able withstand powerful counterpunches. He is obsessed with challenging Wong and claim his place as the number one martial art master in Foshan but alas, Wong went one up on him and delivered couple of high powered kicks and punches to his face and head instead during the final fight, causing him to suffer from severe head trauma. Eventually he is killed in a hail of bullets.

The second movie featured the now famous Donnie Yen as Lap Lan Yin Shu, a general of the Qing government who is a master of the Four Gates Pole Stance and the infamous Cloth Staff style. His showdown with Wong is simply breathtaking for its time, both using long weapons to try to overcome each other. Its no wonder as the action director is non other than Yuen Woo Ping. In the end, Wong managed to slice through the Cloth Staff using a splinter from his broken wooden pole and slashed Lap Lan's neck, effectively killing him.

Wong has numerous students under him at one time or another but the most profilic and often depicted in movies are Leong Foon, Lam Sai Wing aka Porky, Leng Wan Kai, Ngar Chat Sou aka Bucktooth and Kwai Keuk Chat aka Clubfoot. With the exception of Lam, whether the rest really exist is unknown. Each of the above students are depicted in the movies as colourful characters. Kung fu actor Yuen Biao, a contemporary of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, starred as the first movie Leong Foon, thereafter, now retired actor Benny Mok took over the subsequent roles. Both added a different dimension to the character.

Wong is said to have married four times and have ten kids but in fiction he has only one true love, his Thirteenth Aunt (十三姨)(the former beauty queen, Rosamund Kwan). Technically, she is only his aunt due to her father is a sworn brother of Wong's grandfather.

Eventually, the too numerous sequels and inferior spinoffs led a to saturation point and eventually, all Wong Fei Hung related movies disappeared all together from the cinema by end of 90s.

The Wrestler.

Never would I have thought that Mickey Rourke, actor of R-rated movies like 9½ Weeks (1986) and The Wild Orchid (1990), last seen with a heavy makeup as Marv in Sin City (2005), would have starred in this 2008 drama about a washed up former superstar wrestler, Randy "The Ram" Robinson, real name Robin Ramzinski, whose life now is reduced to renting out a cabin in a trailer park, doing whatever jobs available for him at a local supermarket and spending time in a strip joint. Whatever glories he experienced when he was at his peak 20 years ago has left him; now he is broken and all alone. Still clamouring for past glories, he wrestles during the weekend, taking a cocktail of drugs to maintain his performance and keep in shape. Based on some interviews I read, the director, Darren Aronofsky, insisted for Mickey Rourke as the lead whose tale is somehow loosely reflective of Mickey Rourke's often turbulent real life persona. Mickey Rourke certainly drive this movie and his acting is somewhat natural and managed to bring out heart-wrenching moments in a subtle way. He also looked different, somehow aged alot, possibly because he underwent some surgery on his face during his brief stint as a boxer. The beautiful Marisa Tomei also gave a strong performance as the aging stripper, Cassidy. What is shocking is a full nudity shot of her, something I could only imagine previously ;) as her previous roles are usually quite modest. It is no wonder that both are nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively. One memorable moment is perhaps when Randy is rejected by his estranged daugther (Evan Rachel Wood) for missing a dinner date with her. Before that, his attempt to get close with Cassidy is also brutally turned down. This is the turning point in Randy's life. All hopes seem to fade and suddenly blown away. From there, Randy concluded that only in the ring will he still be accepted and loved. Only his fans, who still chant his name every time he climbs into the ring, will he be still recognized, without any emotional backlash. This pulls him back to the world where he has attempted to move away from. Thus he agreed to the main event of which is life threatening because he had just underwent a bypass due to all those years of substance abuse. Cassidy, realising her folly in rejecting Randy after a subtle scene whereby nobody take notice of her anymore nor give tips whilst on the center stage, desperately persuade Randy out of the final match. In the final scene, although his opponent pleaded for him to conclude the match, he climbed up the rope, despite the ever-growing pain in his chest, and executed his signature move, The Ram Jam...then the movie cut to black. I will never know whether Randy survives or not. This is definitely not one of those feel good Rocky movie...more in the vein of Million Dollar Baby (2004). The movie also offered the audience a slight glimpse into the daily going on of the wrestlers, and one particular hardcore match involving Necro Butcher with Randy is really hard to swallow. Definitely one of my favourite movie right now.

Fauzi interviewed.

It is great to see Fauzi the man to be interviewed by The Star newspaper today under their Star Two (pg.2 to 3) section. In it, he spoke in great length about his passion about pitcher plants, how he started and his vision. I wonder if Fauzi is looking for a business partner :)

Voluntary Separation Scheme...

Well, woke up to an unpleasant news of being targeted as one of the employees "recommended" for voluntary separation scheme (VSS). After working for about 6 years at this steel mill, a local arm of a famous Australian coating line located in Kapar, the business went from bad to worse within 2 quarters after riding high for a period of 6 months before that. Plagued with tens of thousands tons of steel coils, purchased at a higher market price before the commodities and global economic meltdown, the business is now trying to cope with losses in millions (not including USD exchange rate losses) by initiating a first wave of costs cut back by offering VSS to its permanent employees across the board. Well, not across the board anyway.

To my surprise, irregardless of what the official communication was, actually there are a bunch of employees being "tagged" for "highly recommended" to take VSS. I am one of them. The reason behind this is quite murky. That's the problem. VSS is voluntary, not via indirect duress of being asked to go for a one on one meeting with a sales manager for a "chat". I think that took the dignity out of the whole process. I did not debate in length the reason for being asked so but the situation is this, if the VSS is not fully subscribe to its desired number of employees, and meet the so-called "forecast" to sustain the business, since they are scaling back its fiscal budget, thus creating redundancy, the second wave to be considered would be retrenchment. And in between that, those "tagged" would be indirectly put into "cold storage". Better to take VSS right? However, it is a highly risky move for me as I have a small family to raise, as well as with the economic situation right now, would I be able to bounce back into the labour market in time?

Ah well, que sera sera, I have had enough of all the shenanigans anyway. Hope to roll with the punches now...

Full Moon Party.

Attended mom's cousin's son's son full moon party at Puchong today with everyone. They stayed just a couple of roads down from sister's place so we walked there. Took pics in twilight mode. Everytime pics did not turn out properly, I would tell Esther that it's "art" heh. Yeah, right. Nice buffet they prepared. Embarrassingly, I forgot to prepare angpow for them. Luckily, sister gave an packet to me and we quickly stuffed the money inside and pass it back to them on the way back to Subang.

Happy Together (春光乍泄).

In my personal opinion, Happy Together (春光乍洩) (1997) constitutes the last "great" output from WKW. About the relationship of a gay couple, it was controversial and also sensationalized during its release as including a "love scene" between the late Cantopop heartthrob, Leslie Cheung and "ladies man", Tony Leung. The movie got a "Category 3" in Hong Kong in terms of viewership admission ie "R-rated". Re-watching that infamous scene, which lasted about 4 to 5 minutes, I felt that Tony Leung looked kinda "tense" whilst Leslie Cheung is looking every bit at ease heh. But this movie is beyond that, and what WKW has done is giving an intense look into a vicious cycle of love-hate relationship between the two main characters. There is nothing "happy" about it (in fact if the characters were to be a man and woman, it would give the same intense feeling). The songs featured, amongst others, are I Have Been In You by the late Frank Zappa, and the haunting scores by Astor Piazzolla.

Set in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the film started proper with Ho Po Wing (Leslie Cheung) telling Lai Yiu Fai (Tony Leung) that he was bored with him and ended their relationship whilst in the midst of their journey to see the famous Iguazu Falls. The breathtaking Falls served as a metaphor of a sort, as Ho had previously bought a lamp depicting it, as an ultimate destination point of their turbulent relationship, of which neither could reach together happily. Lai narrated that this was not the first time they broke off, and got back together. They came here from Hong Kong, in the midst of the pre-handover from the British to China, to run away from Lai's father, as Lai had stolen a sum of money from his father's business old friend to fund their lifestyle and trip.

Lai then had to grudgingly work as a doorman earning tips at a tango bar to re-coup cash to return to HK. He had spent all his money on the trip as well as on Ho. But Ho (whether consciously or by co-incidence) showed up one night in the arm of another man at the bar, noticed Lai but both ignored each other. Ho then continued to purposely went to the bar in the arms of various men, to hurt Lai emotionally and arouse his jealousy. Then out of the blue, he phoned Lai at the bar which Lai promptly ignored. He then called Lai's place of residence, asking him to visit him. Lai ignored this invitation but did show up in drunken state at Ho's apartment whereby Lai unleashed his emotions and pent up frustration at Ho. Ho later gave a gold wrist watch to Lai so that he could get some cash, but the next day, asked Lai to return it. He appeared to have been beaten up. Lai promptly returned the watch but warned Ho not to contact him again. Presumably, the watch was stolen by Ho, he had been beaten up badly the second time around as he showed up at Lai's doorstep. Lai emotional defense melted as he saw the state of Ho was in, and took him to the hospital. Up to this point, the entire movie was in chrome-like black and white. The coloration came in at this point, reflecting the blossoming emotions of the characters.

Lai later allowed Ho to stay at his rented apartment as Ho's both hands had been injured, and nursed him back to health. There are some lighter, humour infused moment here, as Ho tried to seduce back Lai. In time, Lai accepted Ho again and their relationship blossomed once more. Lai seemed most contented when Ho is back with him. This might hint at Lai being driven to point of being possessive because of insecurity whilst Ho seemed to be unable to hold on monogamous relationship, and took Lai for granted as a temporary, solid emotional ground to hold on. He could "see" that Lai is very much in love with him and manipulate this to his advantage.

The momentary "happy" re-start was not to last as once Ho fully recovered, he quickly became bored and continued his wayward, promiscuous attitude when Lai was not around. By this time, Lai had worked in a Chinese restaurant as kitchen helper where longer hours are required for more money. He also met Chang (Chang Chen), a travelling Taiwanese, who may be a homosexual himself. Lai and Chang became friends at the work place.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Lai and Ho deteriorated further. Ho began to come back late from his nightly activities, leaving Lai alone in the apartment, after work, waiting for him. When Lai questioned him, Ho would get defensive and berated Lai for being such a tightass. The issue came to ahead when Ho confronted Lai as to where his passport was, of which Lai refused to return it back to him (Lai had kept it secretly during Ho's recovery period, possibly to prevent "losing" him again). Ho, in his tantrum, beaten up Lai and left. Lai, unable to give up the memories of Ho and lost him once more, became very depressed again and may even be suicidal, at this stage. Chang consoled him by accompanying him on a nightly drinking sessions. He also asked him to pour all his repressed emotional pains into a tape recorder as he will bring it to the end of the world (Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego) . There is a lighthouse (Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse) there which one could drop all their sorrows. Chang may also served as the strength and pivotal point to Lai to break "free".

Chang then left to continue on his journey. In the meantime, Lai tried to cope with his depression and loneliness by engaging in casual sexual encounters with other men in public places. He also encountered Ho again but did not acknowledge each other. During this period, he had undertaken a job at a local abattoir because of higher pay and moved to another apartment. He also wrote an apologetic letter to his estranged father. Ho, in an apparent same cycle as before, tried to contact Lai again but to no avail. Ho then rented Lai's old apartment where they spent time together and waited desperately in vain for Lai to return. This is the most poignant scene in my opinion. It seemed that Ho is perpetually "trapped" in the relationship on his own now, whilst Lai has managed to break free and moved on.

Eventually, when Lai saved up enough money to return to HK, he successfully dropped by Iguazu Falls, reflecting and reminiscence of his failed relationship with Ho. There, Lai was shown standing at The Devil's Throat section of the Falls, holding on to Ho's passport. He narrated that Ho and himself should be there together. This surmised their relationship all this while, a relationship which could and should have been elevated to another stage of maturity, rather than running to a stand still in a non-conclusive, emotionally exhausting cycle.

The final closing scene had Lai stopped by Taiwan on his way back to HK, to visit Chang's parents food stall where he took a photograph of Chang standing beside the lighthouse at the end of the world. Chang had told him previously that if there is one place Lai could "find" him, it would be there. Stability finally entered Lai's turbulent life all these years. At this point, Danny Chung's version of The Turtles' Happy Together kicks in, giving a sense of hope to the character.

An alternative ending with Tony's character killing himself is documented in Buenos Aires Zero Degree making-of documentary. The documentary also captured the ever changing thought of WKW. The original plot is way different from the final released version. WKW also removed all scenes featuring HK Cantopop star Shirley Kwan. I preferred the released version and am glad WKW did so, as the way I see it, the original plot is way too dark and nihilistic.

Dylan - recovered and tried to stand up.

Dylan's recovered fully, not only from the fever which caused me severe anxiety but also from a bout of itchy rashes which the doc said is not serious. Whew! Today, he even tried to stand up to reach the telly.

Kite from Subang Parade.

Went to Toys R Us last Saturday to have a look at what gift Esther and I should get for Chloe's birthday. In our mind is a masak-masak set. After making sure we know the sort of price range to be expected, we decided to wait closer to her birthday before getting one. We saw some good ones like a kitchen set with all the accesories. Wanna make sure that the toys are suitable for her age too. One of the convenience of modern toys is that the manufacturer put the kids age category on the box itself. Helps me make the right choice..with a price of course...in the tune of several hundred ringgits...but then again Esther keeps reminding me that if I could blow several thousands on some worthless jeans and collectable toys, several hundreds should not stop me from getting on what we think Chloe wants...okie. Esther then got a kite for Chloe whilst we ponder...problem is flying it...it was more difficult than I thought...also the mosquitoes were attacking us (Subang should be renamed Mosquito Coast)...promised Esther to bring the kite back to Malacca on our next visit as the wind there is noticebly stronger...wayyy stronger than Subang...by the way, aren't kite used to be free...at least when I was about six or seven, when I was still staying at my late grandma's house in Batu Lanchang, people would make them out from couple of lidis and pink plastics...then double coat it in glue with glasses for a sky battle.