Film reviews

Fearless: fun but I’ve seen it somewhere before

13 July 2006 Natalia Romanova Post a comment

Last night, it being Orange Wednesday and all, I went to see what is promised to be Jet Li’s last martial arts movie: Fearless. How could I resist?

Fearless is set in Shanghai at the turn of the 20th Century. Li plays Huo Yuan Jia (the film’s Chinese title), founder of the Jin Wu Sports Federation. A martial arts master, Huo Yuan Jia ends up fighting Westerners and Japanese in a demonstration contest to prove that the Chinese are not “the weak men of the East”, as the Westerners suggested. But most of the movie is a flashback to his life, showing how he became a famous fighter, how his life fell apart through poor choices and mistakes, and how he was able to pull himself back together again.

There are essentially three intents of Fearless:

  1. To prove Jet Li can act and therefore should be considered for future dramatic roles that don’t involve wu shu
  2. To prove that China was a mess in the early 20th century and that the People’s Republic of China was therefore a very good idea indeed
  3. To recapture some of the things that made Jet Li’s earlier Hong Kong films so good in order to give him a good send-off.

Continue reading “Fearless: fun but I’ve seen it somewhere before”

Garth Ennis and John Woo unite!

13 July 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

New comics publisher Virgin Comics is to launch a “Director’s Cut” series of comics. The idea is that famous directors will come up with their own comics, the first in this line of mighty story-tellers being John Woo. Garth Ennis, famous for various things including Preacher, is going to be scripting “Seven Brothers”, as Woo’s comic will be called.

I checked the Virgin Comics web site and I have to say the rest of their stuff looks like arse, so this is going to be a blessing for them I suspect. And yes, Richard Branson does have something to do with it. As of yet, the web site has nothing on the new range.

UK TV

The changing naming conventions of kids TV

13 July 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Shuriken SchoolRemember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Well, they’ve been making a comeback recently so the answer to that is probably “yes”. But they first appeared during the 80s in a comic and then later a cartoon series. Back then, the idea of a cartoon series with the word ‘Ninja’ in the title was so upsetting to the BBC, they forced the series’ makers to rename it Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.

Times have moved on. I was looking through the schedules yesterday and came across Shuriken School over on children’s ITV. It’s a cartoon series about a ninja training school, it turns out.

For the unenlightened, a shuriken is one of those ninja throwing star things*. And the Beeb was worried about the word ‘ninja’? What next? Uzi School? Two-by-four-with-a-rusty-nail-in-it school?

I’m not that fussed. I’m just amused by the change in standards…

* Okay, there are other kinds of shuriken, too, not just the star-shaped ones. But how do I know what a shuriken is? My first encounter with these lovely things was back in 1985, form 2(iii). I was walking along merrily when my spidey sense started to tingle. I stopped and a second later a razor-sharp metal star embedded itself in the wooden door about six inches in front of me. It was Steven King’s (not Stephen King the author, but Steven King) shuriken – he was practising his throwing technique and hadn’t noticed me, he claimed. Hmmm. He also carried a box of home-made HNTD explosive around with him, and stashed wooden nunchaku in his school bag. Ah, we had happy times growing up in SE London…

News

Teach the Bible using Doctor Who

12 July 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Reverend WhoAn enterprising vicar down in Emsworth plans to teach the Bible to kids by dressing up as Doctor Who.

The Rev Tom Kennar says, “Any child who watches Doctor Who will be familiar with the idea of time travel, so they’ll understand going back in time to meet biblical characters. I can’t promise there’ll be any Daleks or Cybermen but we will be meeting some of God’s heroes of the Bible, and some genuine villains.”

About 120 children will get to watch daily episodes of Doctor Who alongside water play, cooking and craft activities at the club, which runs from July 25 to 28 in St James’s School in Emsworth. How fun does that sound?