Also, check out my buddy Ken's recent in depth review of GIRLS UNBUTTON, over at So Good Reviews.com!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Loletta Lee Lai-chun Unbuttoned. Revisited.
-
Also, check out my buddy Ken's recent in depth review of GIRLS UNBUTTON, over at So Good Reviews.com!
-
ENJOY!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Rebekah (1996)
-
The beautiful and top heavy Cammy Choi Mei-lan headlines this ribald CAT III romp where the main attraction is Cammy's mammaries. Cammy plays a struggling nightclub singer who uses her enormous charm(s) to get ahead (man, these puns are awful. Apologies.) Cracking through into the film biz, Cammy is employed as a CAT III thespian, which quickly looses it's luster as she is used and abused by the films director as a piece of meat. Ditching the jade screen, she heads behind the scene's and uses her Russ Meyerian proportions as a PR/PA for the film company.
In 1993, Cammy won the 'Most Photogenic' award at the Miss Asia Pageant. And photogenic she is. Her claim to fame though, with the boobies obsessed CAT III moviegoer, was her gargantuan ninnies. In REBEKAH, they are lovingly on display, flopping this way and that, to the admiration and growing groins of CAT III lovers, i'm sure. Enormous rack aside, REBEKAH is a filthy and fun film that operates in it's own tasteless world. The kind of world where bangin' guys in the john and running a train on a prostitute is ok. When characters in REBEKAH acquire 'VD' due to their prurient behavior, they visually sport a ton of red dots all over their faces. Now doesn't that sound like a film that is worth your time? Cammy's film career was unfortunately short, only logging time in 4 films. She also bounced around in the wonderful Otto Chan Juk-tiu's 1996 CAT III horror nudie, DEVIL'S WOMAN, again, sans blouse, and lent her curvaceous figure to the godawful turkey, HONG KONG SHOWGILRS, opposite other CAT III strippers, Veronica Yip Yuk-hing and 'Mystical Breasts' Dian Pang Dan. The latter film is a CAT IIA clunker that almost drove me away from HK cinema completely. Avoid it like a carny.
-
Below is a brief scene from REBEKAH, where we see why Cammy left the glitz and glamour of the screen to become a high profile mamasan. Is there a difference in occupation, really? A 'whore' in front of the camera or behind? That appears to be the flimsy question proposed by the filmmakers here. Then again, maybe the film is not trying to be smart at all? I always find myself trying to make meaning out of muck. Maybe REBEKAH just is what it is. That's not a bad thing. Jimmy Wong Shu-kei appears in this clip and riffs on Anthony Wong Chau-sang's 'Bunman' character from THE UNTOLD STORY. Pleasing stuff. Enjoy!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Trust Me U Die (1999)
-
The film lovingly pushes the boundary of shit taste and for me is a winner, especially in it's time and place in HK cinema. Made well down wind from the height of HK CAT III exploitation films, TRUST ME U DIE is a trip back to the future of the warped mind that used to inhabit HK's hey day cinema.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Birthday weekend and HK goodies
So, Wei and I were heading into Flushing for a b-day dinner at a great Taiwanese restaurant called Red Chopsticks, when we made a detour to go pick up my b-day gift. Driving to this fellas house I had flashing visions of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and Buffalo Bill. My mind worked out a scenario where I would knock on the sellers door, he would answer with a candelabra to my noggin', drag my lifeless slab down into his basement, shove me into a deep trench, change into female underthings, apply lipstick, stick his shmeckle between his legs, turn up the Q Lazarus on his hi-fi, stare at himself in a mirror exclaiming, "I'd fuck me!", lower a basket of lotion down to me, request that I apply it liberally all over my man boobs while saying, "It rubs the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again", and then holler bloody murder, "Put the fucking lotion in the basket!" After I snapped out of my personal horror with a shudder, we pulled up to the gentleman's home. I asked Wei to keep the car running and have 911 typed into her phone, ready to send.
I rang the doorbell, stepped back, palms sweaty and ass clenched a tad too tight from fear. He answered the door and was every damn bit of the 'Buffalo Bill' that I had envisioned. Tall, round body, long scraggly gray hair, baked bean looking teeth that were widely spaced out, long and curiously neat manicured yellowish fingernails, nose hairs like unkempt pubics running amok, and a lonely mans smell. The smell of Vaseline. I almost shit myself. He said hello through the screen door, turned, and waved me in. I paused, looked back at Wei for a sec, and then reluctantly entered his home. The box of laser discs were in his foyer and he lifted a few out to show me the quality. He said he had a few more upstairs that he would give me for free. I prayed he wouldn't ask me further into his home, "Please don't invite me upstairs! Please don't invite me upstairs! Please don't invite me upstairs!" And he didn't. He went to get the other discs and I took my box of goodies back into the god lovin' fresh air and sunlight. Back to Wei. Avoiding a dark trenched and lotioned man boob fate. He came back with the other discs, bent my ear for a few minutes about immaterial matters, and asked, "If I get more Chinese laser discs would you buy them? A dollar a piece?" I said I definitely would. Shook his hand with a "Thank you," and returned to Wei's car where my ass declenched and I exhaled with a sigh of relief.
-
Now it was on to Flushing and my b-day dinner. Did a little more HK movie shopping and took a gamble on a mainland copy of the new Shu Qi/ Aaron Kwok big budget craptioner, CITY UNDER SIEGE, for $8. Headed over to Red Chopsticks and devoured some porkchop on rice, jellyfish, oyster pancake, and stinky tofu. My post traumatizing Ebay laser disc experience dinner is pictured below. As for the CITY UNDER SIEGE disc, when I got home later that night I popped the disc in to check the quality. Wonderful quality but, alas, no English subtitles. Sometimes Chinatown is a gamble. This time I took the gamble and lost. Damn you C-town. Damn you straight to heck! A few of the laser discs that were part of my b-day swag are pictured above.

-
Later in the weekend we finished celebrating my b-day with a backyard Korean BBQ that the future in laws and family threw for me. The food was delicious and the conversations throughout the yard were loud, funny, and interspersed with the sounds of English, Mandarin, and Mandarish. As the sun fell, the beautiful September air became more crisp. Layers of clothing were added and a lot of warm Green Tea was downed. Green Tea being Wei's fathers specialty. As the darkness progressed and the party crowd became thin, in the nighttime sky to the west, was a beam of light. The 9/11 tribute lights that pushed through the darkness and reached wondrous heights could be seen from Wei's backyard. It was once a melancholy day, celebrating my b-day on the same day as an international tragedy. Without minimizing the days place, reflection on that horrific day will always linger, but my birthdays are now a more joyous occasion being surrounded by a warm family and new friends who genuinely care about me. The inclusion of Hong Kong films helps as well, of course.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Monday Moo Shu

Thursday, September 2, 2010
Mail Call and Shout Outs!!!
-SHOUT OUTS!!!!-



-
Mr. Kirby, while biding his time and noodling with his next art masterpiece, also runs the Facebook page (that I have mentioned ad nauseum) HONG KONG SUBTITLES. I will allow you to leave my blog to go check out both of Brian's wonderful creations. And if you know what's good for you, and want to be cool like me, order some sweet Shelf Life duds. But please come back! I have someone else I would like you to meet!
Achillesgirl. If you're afraid of a knowledgeable woman with a passion for Asian cinema, then shame on you. You'd be missing out on her wonderful blog (which is in it's infancy) about Asian movies. Check her out as she whips and expounds about HK flickers and her love for the mighty mighty Shaw Bros. Achillesgirl is also lending her kung fu kickin' cranium to the Hong Kong Cinemagic site as a top Shaw Bros. film reviewer. Take a look at some of her work:
-
-
Achillesgirl gots the goods! I would love to keep her blog truckin', so spread the word far and wide. She's an alternative and refreshing voice that cuts nicely through the faux kung fu cinema fan machismo bullshit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)