My father and I used watch Kung-fu movies when I was a kid
"...But the author's [author of Sex and Zen and a Bullet in the Head] introduction warns that "film school polemics," dosed with "pointy-headed, white wine-and-baked-brie philosophizing," cannot adequately describe the "scalding propulsion" of these movies. [Hong Kong action movies, that is]
These barbs strikes me like a furry of the ninja throwing stars. I'm old enough to be the father of the young fans, and I've long loved kung fu movies. Worse, I'm a film studies professor. I don't drink white wine, and I get baked brie only at faculty parties, but I do spend time trying to figure out what makes movies work. So, in my pointy-headed way I want to ask other questions. Why do Hong Kong action movies trigger such unbridled passion? How are they put together? How do they exploit the film medium? What is the craft behind them? After you walk out of the best Hong Kong action movies, you are charged up. You feel that you can do anything. How can mere movies create such feelings?..."
------ David Bordwell,
Aesthetics in Action: Kung Fu, Gunplay, and Cinematic Expression
published at Poetics of Cinema (Routledge, 2008)
I have been reading it for quite a while and I have been enjoying it in every bit.
Ciao!
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