Category: China

Feels Great! | Second Life (2024) Review

March 22, 2026

This is the rare case where my memory of a film, “edited” into snatches of images by whatever neurological sorcery, just about matches the film itself. When you hit play on Second Life, also known as Son of a Punch, you’d better not take a second to close an app on your phone or fiddle with a bag of – what do the kids like these days? – Fritos. It doesn’t even clear one minute, including studio logos, before something insane happens. A gang boss busts in on a police funeral and starts talking when all of a sudden he’s silenced forever by the flying kick of the widow, Lao Liang. Pregnant and now imprisoned, Liang establishes herself as top dog by defeating the treacherous Sister Hong in a fast, prop-heavy battle scored with music out of an old King Hu epic. The lighthearted tone and broad comedy are established here, as well as a relentless pace. The moment Hong is put down, she becomes a lifelong ally and friend, jumping to Liang’s aid when her water breaks only moments later. And in the next few moments, we jump ahead thirty years and meet Gui, an enforcer for gang boss Chang Meng who shoots up the ranks after protecting him from a dozen guys in a shirtless blaze. … More Feels Great! | Second Life (2024) Review

Rip and Tear | The Forbidden City (2025) Review

March 20, 2026

Whoa! You know, it wouldn’t take much for an Italian kung fu movie to be the best Italian kung fu movie, so why set the bar so high? I don’t think anybody else is coming. First of all, I’d be happy to address any reservations one might have, as I did, based on the title. Despite its somewhat foggy thematic resonance, The Forbidden City is “Chinese restaurant name” generic and may resurface unpleasant memories of The Forbidden Kingdom, the Jet Li versus Jackie Chan anticlimax which happened to be the Hollywood debut of Liu Yifei, who’d go on to play Disney’s Mulan in 2020, doubled by stuntwoman Yaxi Liu, the star of The Forbidden City. Capisce? As we find, “Forbidden City” is the name of a Chinese restaurant in the movie, but it could also refer to its primary setting of Rome, upon which Liu’s wayward character Xiao Mei eats, prays, and lays a heavy beating, and that’s only barely a joke. Fair warning (or invitation): the spice level here is “Korean.” We’re not talking CG blood and the weightlessness of mild American fare nor the horror-hewn sadism of Indonesia. It’s roughly comparable, I’d say, to The Man from Nowhere. Guys, do not fight in a Chinese kitchen, where there’s grills and frying oil and – oh, God – cheese graters. There’s a bone break so severe I yowled. Mei is hardcore, animated by rage and, to borrow a useful term, too angry to die. … More Rip and Tear | The Forbidden City (2025) Review

Beautiful Violence | Raise the Red Lantern (1991) Review

September 22, 2023

All of the great films I’ve seen this year – John Wick: Chapter 4, Dragon Inn, Ran – left me thrilled or excited or breathless but intact. It’s been a long time that I’ve been this shaken by a movie. The credits rolled and the Blu-ray disc whirred inside the PS4 and I clicked around for a bit, first on the trailer by accident and then on an interview with film historian Tony Raynes. I had no idea what he was saying. I just sat there, responded to a couple of texts, and realized that as much as I’d been planning on writing a review for Raise the Red Lantern – this site would be incomplete without it! – doing so would mean lingering in that head space, and returning to that world. … More Beautiful Violence | Raise the Red Lantern (1991) Review

Deduction, Not Reduction | Lady Detective Shadow (2018) Review

September 16, 2023

I’ll be honest, I watched this movie in three installments, against the ticking clock of a 48-hour rental on Amazon Prime Video. For the first few minutes of the second session, I was convinced the playback hadn’t remembered where I left off. “Didn’t I already see this part where they force their way into the inn, witness a fight, then talk with the police?” I sure had, but it happens again, with variations enough for a kind of “can you spot the difference?” puzzle. To be honest once more, I had no earthly idea what was going on in this movie, and I doubt an undisrupted viewing experience would’ve done the trick. I may be among that special few who find kung fu movie plots confusing, but I have a feeling, in this case, I can share the blame: myself, the movie, and fate (as authored by the logistics of international film distribution). … More Deduction, Not Reduction | Lady Detective Shadow (2018) Review

Once Upon a Time in Singapore | Crazy Rich Asians (2018) Review

January 26, 2023

Despite my best efforts, I was moved by this film. Granted, if you’ve read any of my coverage of Korean dramas, you know I’m a pretty easy mark. Crazy Rich Asians has a rocky start, pitched more toward comedy as we’re guided by a too-cute film language bordering on fourth wall breaks. Like, at any moment, Constance Wu is gonna look into the camera with an ironic “You’re probably wondering how I got here.” I suppose what I’m really thinking of is characters introduced with loud title cards, because they are introduced with voiceover and cutaways, and it’s a toss-up whether it’s an Asian or Asian-American celebrity who’s great or who totally sucks. … More Once Upon a Time in Singapore | Crazy Rich Asians (2018) Review

American Kung Fu Primer [PODCAST]

July 24, 2022

This month, Donovan Morgan Grant returns to provide an overview of the American kung fu movie, which is also the story of the evolution of the action scene and the United States’ cultural perception of China, Hong Kong, and Japan. We start at prehistory, before the advent of martial arts styles, and move through the watershed year of 1973 — challenge the conventional wisdom that that was the beginning — and continue onto the Golden Age and the resulting Doldrums, both pivoting around the rise and fall of The Matrix. Throughout, we introduce the careers of the action icons like Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme, and whittle down a list of recommendations. … More American Kung Fu Primer [PODCAST]

Turning a Corner?

February 26, 2022

To my mind, Li Bingbing’s appearance in the good old-fashioned, all-American movie The Meg was conspicuous, only another in a line of conspicuous Chinese faces in Hollywood films. This week, it was reported that she won’t be returning for the sequel. Good. We talked briefly about Li Bingbing for our look at the historic and folkloric warrior women of China, as she played a staple character originating in literature, the White-Haired Witch. Of course, she played that character in The Forbidden Kingdom, and she was a bad guy witch. That’s the rare case where you have to cast Chinese actors in Chinese roles, and they did, for the most part, going so genuine-article that they overlooked Chinese-American talent. Bingbing was already an established star, racking up industry awards since the late ‘90s, but it wasn’t until 2011 that she began her Hollywood career proper, with Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, costarring with Jun Ji-hyun of all people. From there it was Resident Evil: Retribution as Ada Wong, Transformers: Age of Extinction, and The Meg in 2018. … More Turning a Corner?

Pilot Pains

April 11, 2021

It’s just how things are these days, that the credits on the Kung Fu revival fade in and make a promise soon to be unfulfilled: “Based on Kung Fu by Ed Spielman.” This new show has nothing to do with the earlier one, which was a western, and the current narrative in television is that Kung Fu has been reclaimed by the Bruce Lee estate, by way of Cinemax’s Warrior. Why go back and reclaim again, in that way we ordinarily do, by only populating a problem canvas with better faces? The whole thing needed restructuring, from the draft phase, and it was already done. It was done. So I guess, well, now time for the next one! Hell, bring on The CW’s Kung Fu, because I don’t need to hear the argument that The Hunger Games is a ripoff of Battle Royale. If The Hunger Games can offer anything new, anything extra or different or special, why argue it shouldn’t exist just to boost your cult film creds? (Battle Royale does not count as “cult”). I’m perfectly willing, even possibly excited, to see the Y.A. version of “martial arts woman,” because I want to see all versions. I want to see a martial arts woman in everything I ever watch — provided she’s treated with respect. Or rather, demands respect — takes it, by the throat. … More Pilot Pains

“Warrior” Couldn’t Be More Relevant in 2021

March 18, 2021

Just as some believe anti-violence in film can be achieved by sickening the audience with ultraviolence, any cinematic depiction of racism necessarily traffics in the imagery and narratives of racism. And necessary they may be in turn, all the brutal historical dramas which bring atrocities to vivid life beg the question: isn’t there another way? Perhaps there have been or could be movies about racism that forgo such descriptions as “confrontational.” Instead, we could have two strangers from opposite sides of the track building a new and honest relationship with nary a slur slipping out. Sometimes you want that, and that’d be nice. But sometimes, you want to see a racist guy kicked through a wall. … More “Warrior” Couldn’t Be More Relevant in 2021