Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert in a promotional still for Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938)
7pm tonight at The Classic I'm showing Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, Ernst Lubitsch's rom-com about a woman who finds out that her millionaire husband to be has been divorced 7 times before. Lubitsch's playful, progressive sensibilities make his battle of the sexes comedies totally unique and timeless
The Japanese poster for Sister Street Fighter: Hanging By A Thread (1974)
Martial Arts Monday #8
Sister Street Fighter: Hanging By A Thread (1974)
Very charmed by the first of these films. I was expecting it to be more of a romp than the mainline Street Fighter films, but it was still plenty brutal and bleak
If you use Tubi there are loads of fun b-Westerns from the 30s and 40s that are all about 60 minutes long. Under Western Stars (1938) has singing cowboy Roy Roger’s fighting corporate power for his town’s water rights. I also like the Hoppalong Cassidy films: Border Patrol (1943) is a good start
Some great and lesser seen Ford Westerns: Two Rode Together, Fort Apache, Wagon Train
Day of the Outlaw, a brilliant snowbound suspense Western
Anything by Anthony Mann, but especially Winchester ‘73 and The Tin Star
The Hired Hand
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Open Range
Man Without a Star
An image from Daisies (1966), featuring the disembodied heads of Ivana Karbonová and Jitka Cerhová against a collage background
Starting this Thursday and then running every 1st/3rd/5th Thursday for the rest of the year I’ll be hosting The Classic Film Club, a free screening series at The Classic Comedy Club
Our first film will be Daisies (1966), Věra Chytilová’s masterpiece of femanarchist surrealism
Very excited for this
My hand holding the Arrow Blu-ray of the Sister Street Fighter collection
Martial Arts Monday #7
Sister Street Fighter (1974)
I’ve had the Sister Street Fighter films languishing on a shelf for the last four years, so I figure now is a good time to finally watch them. I enjoyed Etsuko Shihomi in the Street Fighter films, so it’s nice she got her own spin-off series
Horses take their census with a Gallop Poll
Western Wednesday #4
Sons of the Great Bear (1966)
East German Western about the plight of the Dakota Oglala tribes in the 1870s, probably full of very well meaning stereotypes and German guys playing Native Americans
Yuen Clan films are known for their outrageousness, their flashy special effects and wire-work, but there’s almost none of that here. The actual matches are obviously heightened, but outside of a couple of gags it’s all surprisingly grounded. There’s just tonnes of really impressive soccer playing
Structurally, this is just like any other kung fu film of the period, with soccer teams and matches taking the place of rival schools and competitions. The opening credits, with Yuen and Cheung Kwok-Keung demonstrating football tricks plays like a sports parody of a Lau Kar Leung credits sequence
Small-town hick Lee Tong (Yuen Biao) flees to the big city after humiliating a local bigwig. In the city he accidentally embarrasses soccer star The Football King (Dick Wei), who brings Lee onto his team to humiliate him in return. Lee becomes a soccer star, but must contend with triad match fixing
Martial Arts Monday #6
The Champions (1983)
New arrival today, a Yuen Biao starring soccer comedy with direction and fight choreography by various members of Yuen Woo-Ping’s family, the Yuen Clan
I gained a new appreciation for Biao last year and I’m excited to see lesser known Yuen Clan stuff
The actual final fight between Sean and Spencer is really interestingly shot, lit from beneath as they’re battling over a grille, casting a lattice of shadows over both men. In general there’s a bit more ambition with lighting and shooting than you’d expect
The climactic fight sequence is a bit disappointing for a Rothrock fan, as basically all 4 of the bad guys she beats are just unceremoniously knocked over railings to their deaths
But other than that it’s a pretty sturdy and watchable DTV programmer. Rothrock’s fights here pit her against groups of men at night, muggers and “won’t take no” bar creeps. My favourite bit in these scenes is when she kicks one of the creeps into a car door so hard that it comes off its hinges
Martial Law II: Undercover, is, to my great surprise, a fair bit better than the City Cops. There’s a bit of a laxness to the fights, not so much in the choreography or performances, but in the way that it’s shot/edited. Despite skilled performers, a lot of the fights seems stagey and weightless
LA cop Sean (Jeff Wincott) is promoted to detective and moved to a new precinct. When his new colleagues turn out to be in the pocket of local crime lord Spencer Hamilton (Paul Johansson), he calls in Billie (Rothrock), his best friend and fellow cop, to go undercover and help him take them out
Her biggest fight scene is against Japanese gangster Shikamuka (Luk Chuen), where she combats his katana with a pair of sai. Lots of focus on her impressive high kicks. She really should have some more fights, but time had to be made for the gag where she and Tai get turned on while eavesdropping
Rothrock spends most of the film playing 2nd fiddle to these doofus cops as they pursue the boring investigative plot (heavily chopped up for the American dub I watched) or try and humiliate her. Whenever she does get a fight scene, Lau films her well and lets her show off
Director Lau Kar-Wing is basically the equal of his brother Lau Kar-Leung as a martial artist, but has nowhere near his skill as a director. Kar-Leung is showman, stylist, poet, and philosopher. The only real through line in the Kar-Wing films I’ve seen is gay panic and queerphobia
City Cops sees American FBI agent Cindy (Rothrock) heading to Hong Kong to capture Kent Tong (Kent Tong Chun-Yip), a witness fleeing for his life from both the mafia and the triads. She’s teamed up with goofy chauvinist HK cops Ching Shing (Michael Miu Kiu-Wai) and Tai Kau (Shing Fui-On)
Annoying guy who’d been bothering the bartender last night said “This is for you” as he was getting up to leave and I thought he was tipping her, but then he handed her a bottle of hemp oil that he explained was “inspired by the 10 commandments”
Stern teacher (bird) telling off a mouthy student (squirrel): Squeak when squawken to
Poster for City Cops (1989)
Poster for Martial Law II: Undercover (1991)
Martial Arts Monday #4 & #5
City Cops (1989) & Martial Law: Undercover (1991)
Going for a Cynthia Rothrock double feature, one from her Hong Kong years and one from her American DTV years, to get back into the movie-watching groove
He’s very into the idea of “human supremacy”, which I think demonstrates a pretty limited range of empathy. He also kept talking about how he supports the humans in Avatar
My boss’ 16 year old chud son, who is supposed to be taking over when his dad retires, is arguing with one of the performers tonight about Warhammer 40k and just referred to himself as a “space racist”
Haven't watched a movie all week because I've been replaying Ratchet & Clank 4. I've beat it 3 times in the last 3 days and I've not enjoyed a single minute of it. Video games are so evil
The Marxist Brothers: An analysis of class relations in Monkey Business (1931) through the lens of historical materialism
Screenshot from Academy Cinemas website listing a 5:30pm showtime for Castration Movie Anthology i. Traps
Screenshot from Academy Cinemas website listing a 5:30pm showtime for Castration Movie Anthology ii. The Best of Both Worlds
Castration Movie Parts I & II playing at Academy Cinemas on February the 23rd/24th! This is the cinema sicko event of the year in Auckland.
Essential for anyone interested in queer cinema, low-budget filmmaking, outsider art, digital video aesthetics, or just having a good time having a bad time
It’s crazy that Groucho Marx, the greatest screen comedian of all time, almost definitely never said the funniest joke ever attributed to him
