I was inspired to draw a picture of Yang from A Touch of Zen because I like to draw just like the character Ku, who is an artist and draws portraits for his business. This particular scene is from the battle in the bamboo forest, just before the ending of part 1.
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Dragon Inn is another example on one of King Hu's many great films to watch. After watching a bunch of films, as the previous posts show, I've come to really enjoy Hu's creative storytelling and memorable characters that he brings to life on screen both good and evil. One of the coolest things I saw in this film was the people being able to catch lightening fast arrows with their bare hands. Of course, I thought this was impossible to do in real life, however, there is actually a man name Anthony Kelly, an Australian martial artist, who has the Guinness World Record for catching the most arrows in two minutes! He caught a total of 33 arrows!
Here's a link to a video of his if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-GUZlgxwwo Come Drink With Me by King Hu is an interesting martial arts film because of the unique characters and the plot. First, with Cheng Pei Pei’s character as Golden Swallow who was mistaken as a guy, but is actually a woman. I love her character because she was very skillful in wuxia, and she played a really strong female character. She breaks the stereotype that only men are good at fighting, but I’m glad she was portrayed as someone who can protect herself. I was impressed to know that she doesn’t have any prior experience to martial arts and was actually a ballerina too. It shows in her elegance and grace that she carries throughout the film. My favorite scene of hers is at the temple when she had to battle against the Jade-Faced Tiger and his henchmen. She did an excellent job holding all of them off by herself. She even surprised the Jade-Faced Tiger by how good she was in her fighting style. Of course, the Drunken Cat should be given credit for helping her because he was in the background without anyone noticing him as he was helping her in the battle. Particularly when he made one of the guys fall down before they got her or when he threw back the Golden Swallow’s sword when she was empty-handed. He even healed her back to health when the poisonous dart by the Jade-White Tiger pricked her. Drunken Cat was also an interesting character because he had powers beyond human capability. He is clearly a smart guy who knows how to fight and is also good at manipulating people just like the scene when he told the Jade-White Tiger that the Golden Swallow killed his henchmen but in actuality he was the one to kill them himself. I really applaud King Hu’s creativity and effort in this film despite the circumstances he was put through while making it. There was definitely a lot of pressure on his part to make a great successful film and I say he completely hit it on the nail.
September 2, 2016 was my first time watching a King Hu film titled, "Sons of Good Earth" which in the director's eyes is his "first" film. He had made a prior film to this, but because he had no control of editing in the other one, he doesn't consider it to be his first film. My only exposure to Chinese films had been the Ip Man movies, which I enjoyed, and for this film I liked as well. I normally don't gravitate to war movies, but I liked the sort of underdog story going on between the Chinese towns-folk and the Japanese military. I liked the pacing and the story plot as well as the main characters that we as an audience have to follow. My favorite parts about this film were the relationships that Rui had with both Lotus and his partner/best friend. Although Lotus's and Rui's relationship had a somewhat awkward beginning, it developed into a warm genuine love. I also adored Rui's relationship with his best-friend because I'm able to empathize and relate their relationship with my best-friend. Spoiler alert ahead, I was really sad with his death scene, and wish it didn't happen but I think it was added in to show the repercussions of war. Overall though, I am satisfied with ending of this film.
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December 2016
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