#gordon lam

[splinteredsoul]

Limbo (2021)

dir. Soi Cheang

[don-dake]

Standard Chinese:

「他們說Victor和林國富好像有勾結。」

Spoken Cantonese:

「佢哋話呢…Victor同林國富好似有啲景轟喔。」

第八集

Standard Chinese:

「蔣兆年在生意上和很多人有過節。」

Spoken Cantonese:

「蔣兆年喺生意上便同好多人有牙齒印㗎！」

第十四集

《隱形怪傑》 (1997)

新詞：景轟 (ging2 gwang2)，牙齒印 (ngaa4 ci2 jan3)

[may8chan]

Limbo - Soi Cheang 2021

[olivierdemangeon]

PARADOX (2017) ★★★★☆

[floorman3]

I Did It My Way Review- A Hong Kong Action Crime Thriller With A Cool Story

Crime films come in all shapes and sizes. They are a big part of the American Film landscape but also a huge part of the Asian Film market as well. I Did It My Way is the latest movie with a crime-centric storyline from director Jason Kwan in it. It is a crime thriller with a twist which makes it all the more interesting and entertaining than the average crime movie. Ho Sau (Gordon Lam) is an…

[moviemosaics]

Limbo

directed by Soi Cheang, 2021

[adamwatchesmovies]

Ip Man (2008)

Ip Man is a marvel. It tells a great story that allows you to become invested in its characters. It also delivers the kind of fight scenes that will have you on the edge of your seat despite already knowing who will win at the end. If Donnie Yen wasn’t already on your radar, he will be after this.

Based on true events, Wing Chun master Ip Man (Donnie Yen) is the undisputed master of martial arts in Fohsan - a city renowned for its schools of hand-to-hand combat. After the Japanese invade China in 1937, General Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) recruits former masters and pits them against his Karate students as part of their training. Though Ip Man has always shunned fighting for its own sake, he is pulled into the conflict.

A quick summary of the film does not do it justice, as the story is essentially split into two parts. The first is dedicated to building up our protagonist. In other martial arts films, this would mean humble beginnings, an early defeat, the meeting of a master, many training montages and then a victorious rematch. Ip Man begins with its titular character already at the top of his game. The fights are partially about showing you how good he is at deflecting blows and retaliating but mostly, they’re used to tell you who Ip Man is. When he engages a fellow teacher in his own home, Ip Man insists on keeping the results of the fight a secret because he knows he’s the best. He chooses to fight behind closed doors because he knows Liu Chiu (Gordon Lam) needs to maintain a certain reputation and pride to make a living. When the formidable Kam Shan-chu (Fan Siu-wong) stomps into town looking for a fight, you’re not watching, wondering Ip Man will lose, you’re looking forward to seeing him in a duel with someone who isn’t his friend. See what director Raymond Wong did there? There’s an escalation between the two battles because of the relationships.

The second part begins when Foshan is utterly devastated by the invading Japanese. The stakes felt high before. Now they are for different reasons. You don’t think Ip Man could lose a fight but wonder what a victory might cost him. General Miura may admire Chinese martial arts… but he’s still at the head of an army that massacred thousands and his second-in-command (Tenma Shibuya) is eager to cut down anyone that would stand up to them. If Ip Man isn’t harmed, his his wife, Cheung Wing-sing (Lynn Hung) or son might be. Using the number of opponents, Ip Man’s mood, his family, his opponents and the setting, director Wilson Yup continuously finds ways to keep you on edge.

The action scenes are masterly choreographed. We see Ip Man fighting all sorts of different opponents and to mix things up, we also get to see other martial artists take on villains using a variety of styles. You feel the impact of every strike but you don't want to miss a single second of the action and prevent yourself from closing your eyes as you wince. For any one of them, Ip Man is worth seeing but this is not the kind of movie that’ll make you want to jump from one fight to the next. The quieter moments are just as important/compelling. They give you a necessary break from the action and allow the actors to show off their dramatic chops. We don’t demand convincing performances from martial arts movies - they already do so much with the stunts - so this picture is going above and beyond.

There are a few blips in the 108-minute running time where Ip Man can feel just the teeniest bit nationalistic - even though I’d say the Japanese invaders are handled remarkably evenhandedly considering everything. Still, there are a couple of shots here and there where non-Chinese audiences will wonder “What are you REALLY trying to say here, movie?” It’s nothing that’ll bother you too much, not when what you came to see is this well done. Thanks to the wartime setting and the main character’s family given much more attention than expected, this is a surprisingly layered film, a great pick if you’re trying to get someone else into martial arts films. They won’t even mind the subtitles because the drama is strong enough on its own. This is just the first part in a long series and I can't wait to see what's next. (Original Cantonese with English subtitles, March 5, 2021)

[fathersonholygore]

[Fantasia 2023] "We're merely ants": Tales of Fate & Free Will in MAD FATE

Mad Fate (2023) Directed by Soi Cheang Screenplay by Melvin Li & Nai-Hoi Yau Starring Lok Man Yeung, Gordon Lam, Charm Man Chan, Ting Yip Ng, Wing-Sze Ng, Ching Yan Birdy Wong, Man-Wai Wong, Pancy Chan, & Oscar Guo. Mystery / Thriller ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★) DISCLAIMER: The following essay contains SIGNIFICANT SPOILERS! If you proceed, you choose your own fate. There are plenty of movies about fate…

[randomrichards]

HARD BOILED:

Hot shot officer

Clash with conflicted gangster

Gun fu master piece

[gravalicious]

The social world is the foundation of the political one, but both worlds are achievements at each moment of the historical unfolding of the human species. The attack on thinking rests in an effort to wipe out the political. We live in an epoch fearful of thinking beings. Its material form is the current disaster of market fundamentalism, where no critical reflection on the market is tolerated. In political economic terms, we are living in the triumph of a labor-centered proliferation of leisure time without cultivating conditions for work and action. Thus, labor-socializing without labor production leads to consumption as our primary relationship with the “outside” world. The result of such activities is a decline those that depend on thought over those that depend, simply, on want. As thinking declines, so does distinction, and where there is no distinction, we collapse under the force of sameness or mandatory sameness (where thinking is indecent). All this amounts to a new form of what in days past would simply be called totalitarianism. Ours is a world of market totalitarianism, a world in which there is literally no room for any other alternative formulation of the human spirit. And where thought cannot experience rupture or difference, then it projects itself as no longer conditioned but determined. In effect, a very inhuman conception of the human has begun to take form beyond the mechanisms of exploitation to that of solidification, to that of wiping away the human as possibility into the human as fact. This collapse, the rendering of the human as law governed, complete and concluded, brings to the fore the double pronged battle of which Fanon warned nearly half a century ago. We need new material conditions in which to live. But we need new concepts by which to live.

Lewis R. Gordon - George Lamming the Existentialist (2008) [Working paper 006, John Hopkins University]

[filmnoiress]

favourite books you read this year? least favourite?

this got so long lol

favourites:

the blood of gods by conn iggulden: this author is very hit or miss for me but thankfully this was a hit! conn iggulden is never better than when he's writing about a sickly little guy <3 he takes historical liberties but he explains where and why in his author's note so i don't really have a problem with it

the facemaker by lindsay fitzharris: lindsay's back and covering even more fascinating surgical history! this time the story of dr harold gillies' groundbreaking work in wwi

the escape artists by neal bascomb: world war i! prison break! really well written! what more could i want!

also augustus by anthony everitt, agent josephine by damien lewis, the race for timbuktu by frank t kryza, moscow nights by nigel cliff, tommy douglas by vincent lam

romantic outlaws by charlotte gordon! such an incredible book i couldn't put it down. mary wollstonecraft and mary shelley were both such fascinating women. every single man in their lives was a demon

rick mcintyre's alpha wolves of yellowstone series: ahh what an incredible series. dynastic drama romance betrayal tragedy family grrm WISHES he could write anything as good as this saga. every single book made me cryyy😭favourites were probably the first two but they're all great

bonfire the chestnut gentleman by susan raby-dunne: i thought this was a really charming book told from the pov of a horse in the first world war, the horse basically has the voice of a stuffy old english gentleman which was so cute

no man's land by wendy moore: such a good book about a military hospital from the first world war (shocker) run entirely by women

through a window and in the shadow of man by jane goodall: i's jane goodall's chimps it's my entire life of course i was going to love these

armadale by wilkie collins: WOOO my man wilkie off the SHITS this book is WILD you know you're in for a wild ride when 35 pages in there are five characters with the exact same name

the confidence men by margalit fox: absolutely bonkers true story of two first world war pows who escape a turkish prison camp by pretending to b psychics. insane

shadow of a doubt by diane negra: really liked this analysis of the movie! i didn't agree with all of her arguments but

crossing hitler by benjamin carter hett: great biography of hans litten makes a great companion piece to babylon berlin

last train to memphis by peter guralnick: this really was an excellent first half of a biography. elvis' life moved so quickly and he became a star so young that it's kind of no wonder he basically lost his mind later on and it's only amazing he held it together as long as he did

dust by arthur slade: this one was for a younger audience but i think it holds up for adults! horror set on the canadian plains during the great depression! what more could i want!

the troop by nick cutter: this was sooo disgusting gooey wet body horror <3 loved it

edit: something wicked this way comes by ray bradbury how could i have forgotten this one! what a great companion piece to carnivale!

as many liars by douglas smith: absolutely insane true story of how the pc party of manitoba installed puppet candidates in several ridings to split the ndp vote in the 1995 provincial election! literally insane that i had never heard of this before. remember you can never trust the conservative party!

carnivale and the american grotesque: wonderful collection of essays about the show, great companion piece, you can really tell the authors love the show

the time traveller's guide to regency britain by ian mortimer: ahh what a lovely informative book. it really felt like the author was taking your hand and leading you on a guided tour of regency britain

wounded by emily mayhew: actually the last book i read that i loved this year, i'm doing this out of order, but yes i loved this! each chapter focuses on a different person on the journey of the wounded in the first world war at least for the british, starting at the front and ending in the hospital

flowers for algernon by daniel keyes: saving this book for last because no book has affected me like this yet. book of the year for me

least favourites:

the sleepwalkers and children of wrath by paul grossman: i was just so disappointed in these because i found both of these really well written in the beginning but by the third act they just go completely off the rails :( novels set in the weimar republic be good challenge

the great stink by clare clark: idk where to put this one. i really didn't think this was a good book and i didn't like how it was written but then there was a twist literally on the very last page that gagged me completely so idk.

the man who walked backward by ben montgomery: ugh i had so many problems with this book and its subject don't get me started. actually do the title and intro make it seem like our subject is a sort of quirky but lovable idiosyncratic person who took a different approach to surviving the great depression and it made all the difference :) when the book makes clear he literally just decided to abandon his wife and kids-as the sole breadwinner of the family-in the middle of the great depression to go walk around backwards??? we read about his wife sending him letters on the road begging him to send money back to his family but he never did and his response was always to chide her for not thinking of his expenses and how hard he's working...but he was looking for advertising for his reverse walking stunt the entire time so clearly he was hoping for money from this. you couldn't have sent any back to your family? then it turns out he might have been smuggling drugs the entire time???

the devil's playground by craig russell: mr russell i loved your last book what is this. this wasn't scary, the characters were flat, iou could see the twist coming a mile away (compare that to the devil aspect when i had NO idea it was coming), and such a waste of a great setting (1920s hollywood silent horror film set!!!)

1794 by niklas natt och dag: listen i remember how gross and indulgent and misanthropic the first book was. but this book is so ridiculously over the top about it (like that female character who literally exists just to be tortured b the author). and at least the first book was about a compelling case and had Thee character in cecil winge. no one is comparing in this one. such a disappointing sequel

the wasteland b w. scott poole: ugh. this book has such an awesome premise (exploring how wwi influenced horror cinema!) but it's so bad. the author has the weirdest gaps in his research, each chapter is supposed to be about its own subject but they all blend together, and as much as he reiterates his thesis statement on literally every single page he never actually delves into what that statement means or is clear on what the thesis is! are you saying the first world war influenced horror films just in the decades immediately following it or all horror to come? but actually i'm not too mad at this book bc reading it was frustrating but it also just became a very productive exercise on what not to do. i absolutely could have done better

the house of whispers by laura purcell: another disappointing follow up to the silent companions from purcell. this wasn't scar, there was no dread, it was so slow, so many random aspects that never came together, unlikable characters. smh

shadows on the mountain by erin hunter: me when i read a book by the warrior cats lady and she does her weird warrior cats thing: :O no one @ me ik this is for kids i just wanted to read a novel about apes :( there's no need to add all this weird mythology literally the animal behaviour is mythology enough

[may8chan]

Last Hero in China - Yuen Woo Ping & Wong Jing 1993

[olivierdemangeon]

THE WHITE STORM 2: DRUG LORDS (2019) ★★★✮☆

THE WHITE STORM 2: DRUG LORDS (2019) ★★★✮☆

[jimmylee300]

Hong Kong Action Cinema Blog 3

Last blog I took a closer look at the way John Woo directs his films, using Hard Boiled as the main example. This movie is one of his more known ones so I thought it would be the perfect movie to dive into his style of directing. Now for this blog, I am going to look at how John Woo and his filmmaking style has influenced other directors and films, in years to follow.

John Woo has a very unique style of filmmaking and directing. With action, he never makes it too over the top, and wants to make everything as realistic-looking as possible. With the use of slow-motion and the rapid switching of angles with different speeds during a fight, he is able to capture all the action while making everything seem very real. Every scene is very chaotic because he goes all out. Lots of bullets flying, weapons being tossed around, explosions, and a lot of blood. People coined the term "gun-fu" from his action scenes to describe the rapid gunfire between two people fighting head-to-head. John Woo influenced a lot of movies to come in later years of action cinema, and influenced directors and filmmakers that came after him too.

A filmmaker I'd like to discuss is Quentin Tarantino. He directs action films filled with drama. John Woo's films are mainly action but also involved some drama as well. He has had major influence from John Woo and his films and directing style of stylized violence, and he has said it himself but also it is evident through the way he directs his own movies too. Quentin Tarantino during an interview had said "John Woo was a big major hero to me at the time, I was just so influenced by Hong Kong cinema" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAck19uYAv0). What Quentin took away from John Woo is just the beauty of directing action cinema. You can film it in so many ways, but the way John Woo does it keeps everything fresh and intense. He uses intense dialogue, similar to a Hong Kong action film, and unexpected but thrilling action.

Certain ways John Woo has directed has had an influence on today's action films too. In Hard Boiled there is an action scene through the hospital that lasts two minutes and 42 seconds with no cut, it is an extremely long take from John Woo. In this scene, "the usual Woo hallmarks are on display: a hero wielding twin automatic pistols, slow motion, as well as the use of a technique rarely seen in his movies – filming the majority of the set piece in one take. The use of an unbroken shot...allowed the unseen set designers to alter the location to fit the requirements of the sequence while also enhancing the audience’s enjoyment of the action" (AllTheRightMovies).

Later action movies utilized this, such as Prachya Pinkaew’s Protector. In this movie he "has a memorable set piece that’s a perfect example of how a one take action scene can showcase both a lead character’s martial arts prowess and the imposing location he must traverse in order to confront the bad guys" (AllTheRightMovies). Prachya took inspiration from John Woo and utilized a great technique for action films to make the scene more effective.

Quentin Tarintino filmed the Kill Bill movies, which was seen as "his own take on 70s Japanese, Chinese, and Hong Kong martial arts movies including legendary actors from the era like Sonny Chiba and Gordon Liu" (Harvey Gough).

The Wachowski sisters directed The Matrix movies, which dove more into their "wuxia influence with increasingly extreme displays of martial arts" (Gough). Other notable films like Underworld, Blade 2 and Equilibrium "embraced the Hong Kong action sub genres gun fu (martial arts involving superhuman skill with guns) and heroic bloodshed (violent melodrama), which were popularized by directors John Woo and Ringo Lam in the late 80s and 90s" (Gough).

The director I mainly focused on today is John Woo, who has had a major influence on the genre of action cinema today. With his unique directing styles, it is clear why so many people use parts of his style in today's films, because it is so great and refreshing.

Sources:

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"DRUG CLERK FOUND NOT GUILTY OF FORGERY," Toronto Star. February 28, 1913. Page 4. --- Evidence Was Not Strong Enough To Convict, Though There Was Strong Suspicion. ---- Evidence given before Judge Denton in the Court of General Sessions to-day in the case of Claude D. Ashe, a drug clerk formerly employed by S. T. Hopper, a Bathurst street chemist, accused of forgery followed closely the lines laid down in the Police Court, where the preliminary hearing was held.

It was adduced by Crown Prosecutor Greer that the defendant had worked for Hopper, that a blank money order had disappeared about the time that the accused left his employment without more than a few hours' notice, and that the missing order was subsequently cashed at the Broadview avenue branch of the Standard Bank, by R. A. Somerfelt, a clerk of the bank at that branch. The handwriting expert, U., R. Stanton reaffirmed his opinion that the signature to this particular order was forged.

Asked by the Court if he considered the dissimilarity so great that he would be willing to send a man to jail, the witness said that was something which was none of his business, but he would have no hesitation in swearing that the writing in the standards admitted as being specimens of defendant's handwriting were coincident in many points with the writing on the forged order.

S. D. Gordon, a druggist with whom Ashe was working at the time the order is declared to have been cashed, testified for the defence.

Judge Denton found the accused not guilty on the ground that although the circumstances were against lam, the evidence sufficient corroboration. suspicious was not

[tranquildr3ams]

I Did It My Way (潜行, 2023)

I Did It My Way (潜行, 2023) #Action #Crime #Thriller #IDidItMyWay #ActionMovies #Film #HKFilm #Movie #Review @WellGoUSA

I Did It My Way (潜行 ,2023) Director: Jason Kwan Cast: Andy Lau, Gordon Lam, Eddie Peng, Yase Liu, Simon Yam, Suet Lam, Kent Cheng, Philip Keung, Hedwig Tam, Kevin Chu, Terrance Lau As the secretive, complex world of online drug trafficking increasingly targets Hong Kong, the police launch a risky, top-secret sting operation to bring down one of the most notorious drug lords in Asia. – Well Go…