East Bay View (a blog about several things)

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Tuesday, March 28, 2006

SFIAAFF '06~! Bitter ends [festival note]

We conclude our SFIAAFF '06~! coverage with notes on two Seventies HK martial arts flicks. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS below.

Clans of Intrigue (Chu Yuan)
OH MY GOD SHE RIPPED OFF HER OWN HAND AND IMPALED HER HERMAPHRODITE LOVER WITH IT.

The Boxer from Shangtung (Zhang Che, Bao Xueli)
The material linking the fight scenes isn't of much interest, because Chen Guantai, as the eponymous pugilist, doesn't really care that he's losing his soul. The brawls, however, are crisply staged, as realistic as twenty-on-one battles can be. And it ends with the most violent sequence I've ever seen, during the entire duration of which our hero has an axe protruding from his midsection; it's more visceral than anything in Tarantino because it's deranged-ludicrous instead of comic-ludicrous. You may value this more than I did.

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