Besides...

[selenak]

Due to my month with the Mouse, I now have also watched:

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: entertaining; I was charmed by the bff relationship between our leads though agree with whoever said Tony Leung walks away with the entire movie in what is essentially the Darth Vader role. I had heard of him before, of course, but alas have not watched any of his movies yet. Tips of where to start? Because wow. Lastly, I didn't think of it while watching, but later on, I realised I really have to stop thinking about the magically sealed off village concept, because the moment you do that, all kind of inconvenient questions arise: how are they self sufficient n terms of food and clothing? Didn't anyone other than Ying Li ever want to leave? And how about a Once upon a Time fusion where they are under a time loop curse without knowing it?

Loki: Also entertaining for this viewer who isn't a fan of the main character. I have to say, someone clearly took note of Into the Spiderverse and its success with the Spiderpeople from different corners of the Multiverse. Though I have to say, being a Doctor Who fan spoiled for the whole "same basic character, different regenerations versions" concept in that I rarely got that sense with the Lokis, notably not with Sylvie and Loki, which is a shame. (I liked Sylvie! But even given her completely different life experience, I don't think I really bought her as another version of MCU Loki the way that, say, I can believe such different regenerations as the Doctor as played by William Hartnell and by Jodi Whitacker are still the same character. Otoh, Richard E. Grant - who in Moffat's famous DW spoof played one version of the Doctor for a few seconds - as older "Classic" Loki, who also happened to be the one living through all the MCU canon so far with the one difference being that he managed to fake his death in Endgame by creating an illusion strong enough to fool Thanos - did sell me on it. As for the TVA, the 70s bureaucracy aesthetic worked as intended, though I'm not sure the show is up to the free will questions it raises. Still, it was never boring. I feel entirely comfortable waiting for a next season without any urgency, though.

Comments

[sovay]

Tony Leung walks away with the entire movie in what is essentially the Darth Vader role. I had heard of him before, of course, but alas have not watched any of his movies yet. Tips of where to start?

I saw him first in Chungking Express (1994), where he like the rest of the film is bittersweet and adorable; I really took note of him with Lust, Caution (2007), which can be accurately described as an erotic espionage tragedy; I keep forgetting he's in Hero (2002) because it was the film with which I discovered both Jet Li and Maggie Cheung. I have still never seen The Departed (2006) because I saw Infernal Affairs (2002), where he and Andy Lau are just incredibly good.

Otoh, Richard E. Grant - who in Moffat's famous DW spoof played one version of the Doctor for a few seconds - as older "Classic" Loki, who also happened to be the one living through all the MCU canon so far with the one difference being that he managed to fake his death in Endgame by creating an illusion strong enough to fool Thanos - did sell me on it.

I have almost considered watching Loki just for Richard E. Grant.

[winter]

Tony Leung Chiu-wai-wise, I think you'd also enjoy Red Cliff, in which he joins a star-studded Chinese (with the occasional Japanese thrown in) cast in chewing very pretty historical scenery.

[thawrecka]

The best thing I've ever seen Tony Leung in is In the Mood for Love, an absolutely gorgeous film about gossip, small spaces, and what constitutes an affair in 1960s Hong Kong, across from Maggie Cheung who is also luminous in her role.

(I, alas, did not much care for Lust, Caution.)

But he's in a ton of good stuff and it is hard to go wrong with his filmography.

[copracat]

You could just stick a pin into his filmography and you'd be fine. Repeating everything everyone else has said but also Happy Together (1997)

Trailer

[kalypso]

I think In the Mood for Love is the only thing I know him from, but it's so good that seeing his name two decades later I immediately think "Ooh yes, In the Mood for Love." And yes, Maggie Cheung is extremely luminous!

[muccamukk]

Infernal Affairs, especially the first one, is a pretty good place to start with Leung.

[likeadeuce]

Thanks for the ask on Leung movies because I've been meaning to explore his work myself.

[oracne]

Grant is just in the one episode, so you don't have to watch the whole series.

[oracne]

ZOMG THAT FILM. It was not my usual thing but I saw it for him and Maggie Cheung, in an art-house theater.

It's so beautiful and sad.

[whimsyful]

Highly recommend Infernal Affairs (so good I still haven't seen The Departed) and In the Mood for Love.

I just kind of handwaved the logistics of Tai Lo. They could hunt food from the forest and raise silkworms for silk, and anything else vital gets provided by the magical dragon in the lake?

[sovay]

But he's in a ton of good stuff and it is hard to go wrong with his filmography.

This is extremely true.

[reverancepavane]

His collaborations with director Wong Kar-wai are generally explorations of romances well worth the price of admission (In the Mood for Love, Chunking Express, Happy Together, 2046, and The Grandmaster). Hard Boiled (Woo's application of wuxia film techniques to modern gun battles which basically created the genre of gun-fu) is excellent and iconic but probably not to your direct interest. Infernal Affairs with co-star Andy Lau, is well done.

But really you can't go wrong watching anything he is in.

That said, I will forever ensure that nobody ever values my opinion of film again by recommending Eagle Shooting Heroes. So bad it's good. It was actually quickly shot on the cheap simply to raise cash for the yet unfinished Wong Kar-wai project Ashes of Time (which was based on Legends of the Condor Heroes), using the same cast. So you have a really impressive line-up of stars performing in what can only be described as a parody of the movie they are currently shooting. Lots of scenery gets chewed in the process.

[dalmeny]

I don't often use my 2046 icon, but here it is. Love his work.

He is almost inhumanly beautiful in Hero but the politics of the film are questionable.

We recently watched Ashes of Time Redux which was initially confusing until I realised it was supposed to loosely-interlinked stories. Still haven't seen Eagle Shooting Heroes yet.

[reverancepavane]

Hero and Red Cliff are both very beautiful movies but come from the early period of post-HK mainland cinema which had effectively mandated One China Under Heaven messaging at the time. The politics are always rather fraught in this regard, although at this time it was mainly for internal consumption.

What I found interesting as mainland production expanded the political messaging actually lessoned, and you started to get topic that would have been forbidden by the censors previously, such as a detective chasing a serial killer, drug dealing, etc. Topics that had previously been officially forbidden in Chinese cinema, and yet often hallmarks of Hong Kong and Macau cinema. You definitely had the sense that the industry was wanting to explore a more open cinema. There even started to be the return of pure HK-style escapist fantasies.

And then the purge of the industry started in 2018, including the disappearance of iconic actress Fan Bingbing (ostensibly for tax evasion related to the standard double contracts [the official one and the real one] offered to movie stars, but really to signal that nobody was above reach of the Party). Primarily due to economics (as there were too many competing production houses and processes that started affecting CCP member backed studio profits), but also to regain direct control of political messaging through the industry. Also I suspect to curb the power of some of Xi Jinping's rivals, but I am not as familiar with the internal dynamics of the CCP at this time to say for sure.

The returning cinema has once again returned to a strong One China messaging, albeit now with serious jingoistic overtones (with films like Operation Red Sea), aimed at both internal and external consumption.

[Still it's not quite as bad as the strong BJP pro-Hindu messaging coming out of Bollywood these days, which is reaching pretty incendiary levels. Although fortunately Tollywood and Mollywood do not seem to have the same degree of messaging and often present potentially controversial topics. I was seriously going to stop going to Indian cinema with one more movie presenting suttee as the proper and desirable end for an Indian heroine.]

[herself_nyc]

I'm seconding Lust, Caution, which I just watched because it's based on a novel by a writer I'm newly interested in: Eileen Chang. And In The Mood For Love is gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.