Comments on: Before They Came to America: Giants of Hong Kong Cinema

By: Helenann

Helenann — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:06:35 +0000

There’s a scene in, “Anna and the King” where Jody Foster comes up the stairs, and Chow Yun Fat stretches out his hand and just stares at her…I melt everytime. Glad someone mentioned, “The Replacement Killers.”
Jackie Chan is a terrific artist as wellthat rare combination of being a ferocious fighter with comedic timing!

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:50:32 +0000

Allison:

Sorry, missed the HK qualifier! Thanks for the great article.

By: Sherc

Sherc — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:38:16 +0000

I watched all of Jackie Chan and Chow Yuen Fatt’s movies when I was young and growing up in Asia. What they have then was pure asian cinematic performance, minus the hindrance of Hollywood. Where heroes are suppose to be only humans, and die in the end.

While crouching tiger, hidden dragon is beautifully made, I suppose those flying over the roofs kung fu are not longer a new thing for us in Asia. I swear Chow is a better actor than his restrictive role in pirates, then again, I think he’s brilliant there. I long for the glory of the older Hong Kong flicks, and I am glad some of the current ones are as good!

Thanks for acknowledging them!

By: donner

donner — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:07:36 +0000

I watched Kung Fu Hustle recently and just loved it…Crouching Tiger is great, The Killers is great, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Woo, its all good stuff…thanks for the write up – now tell us about more of these Asian artists!!

By: Wendella

Wendella — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:37:59 +0000

It was Cannonball Run II to be exact.

By: Wendella

Wendella — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:36:14 +0000

I had a Japanese penpal in high school and she told me at the time that she had this friend who was an actor. He had appeared in Cannonball Run. Yes, it’s been a while since high school. Her friend was Jackie Chan.

By: n2y2

n2y2 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:30:27 +0000

If you are going to talk about Jet Li, you must put “Fist of Legend” in there. The movie is just strait up Kung Fu, with very little in the way of special effects and wire work. For pure marshal arts in the raw, you cant go wrong with that one.

On the topic of Chow Yun Fat, I like “The Replacement Killers”. That was directed by an American, Antoine Fuqua, but he is doing a pretty darn good Woo imitation from the director’s chair.

By: Melinda

Melinda — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:10:13 +0000

Chow Yun Fat is definetly one of my favorite Asian actors. In fact, he’s the reason I’ve watched Anna and the King about a hundred times. I also liked Crouching Tiger.

By: Vitajex

Vitajex — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:05:19 +0000

What about Stephen Chow? Yes, he’s a comedian, but he features kung fu in almost all of his movies, often to humorous effect.

By: MacBeth

MacBeth — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:00:31 +0000

Also a mention of a fight choreographer would be good. Such as Yuen Wo Ping whose international films include The Matrix trilogy, Danny The Dog, and Kill Bill 1 & 2. His big Hong Kong films are Fearless, Kung Fu Hustle, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Iron Monkey. He also did a lot of the fight choreography for many of Jack Chan and Jet Li’s early films such as Chan’s Drunken Master and Li’s Once Upon a Time in China. All these films would be far less entertaining with out the help of fight choreographers like Yuen Wo Ping.