CJ7

Directed by Stephen Chow
Written by Stephen Chow, Vincent Kok, Tsang Kan Cheong, Sandy Shaw Lai King, Fung Chih Chiang and Lam Fung

Stephen Chow made three absolutely exhilarating movies in a row: Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle, and CJ7. At a time when so much formulaic spectacle dominates, his films consistently produce a wow factor along with story and feeling and… did I mention that they are not sequels or remakes?

We are fortunate to have the George Eastman House and their glorious Dryden Theater in our little city. Big city folk are spoiled with repertory cinemas, but I was unfamiliar with the concept until I moved to Boston. Imagine- a place to go to see movies old and new that might not be available through normal distribution channels.

Kung Fu Hustle somehow attracted our attention- maybe it was a quick grab at the video store when all the Jackie Chan movies were out. You remember those days when you had to drive a car to watch a movie at home? So, so long ago.

Hustle was a tour de force,  ensuring that we had to find its immediate predecessor: Shaolin Soccer. Once again, it was like watching Bruce Lee re-enacted by Harpo Marx on a faulty projector that spun through the film at eight times normal speed. Choreography by Termite Terrace. With subtitles.

It was hard not to want more and it was hard to find more.

Then,

word came that the Dryden would be screening the latest Stephen Chow movie and it was imbued with unexpected depths. He discarded the trappings of insane action for the tale of a poor man and his child. Also, there would be an alien. It was billed as a children’s film for people prepared to see something old and new.

We have all sat through those movies when some comedian takes on a serious role. We all learn a few lessons together and go home mildly surprised that someone who can act has the ability to, well, act. So, some trepidation accompanied us to the showing of CJ7.

I won’t ruin the plot for any potential viewers, but let’s just say that an outline of the story is not going to make it seem revolutionary. But it was still among the most sublime experiences of all those children’s movies that parents sit through. It was the closest I can imagine a live action movie getting to Hayao Miyazaki, while Chow’s prior two films were closer to Pixar frenetic-ism.

I’m in the soft spot between parent and grandparent when I don’t have to see the fodder Hollywood spews out as entertainment for children. But occasionally something transcends its intended audience. What a strange idea. Our movies are no longer meant for all of us, but rather marketed to segments… Division is so easy when you view your audience as a pie.

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 198 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.

Having hit the century milestone in blogging on writers, musicians, and other creatives, I wanted to invite others to share their thoughts on a work of art that influenced them.  You write it and I will post it. You get the credit. If you have a blog or anything else that you want to promote, then I will happily allow you to do so in the about you section at the end of your post.

First, check out my explanation post. If you come away with more questions, then message me and I will do my best to answer. Even if you don’t have any questions, message me to let me know you’re working on something and what your intended subject is. I don’t care if it touches on something already covered or planned. It is true that the world may have only enough space for so many words about some of these topics.

Then choose a song or book or painting or building or you-name-it and write at least 500 words about it. Add a few sentences about yourself. Then message me and I will tell you where to send your post.

If you want to trade posts

(because you also want a little break or to add a little variety to your blog), then I am happy to accommodate you. I can write about a lot of things, as is probably apparent. I can’t promise that it won’t sound like your uncle sitting in the corner pontificating after too much wine.

Lastly, I wanted to thank everyone who has read even one of these posts. If you are just checking in for the first time in a while, then a hundred or so columns await you. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them. Well, more actually and I enjoyed writing them quite a bit.

Sleeping in Flame

Book written by Jonathan Carroll

I have not written much at all about one characteristic of art that I find particularly interesting: its ability to capture within a new work all that has gone before. I don’t mean that self-referential wink when a movie shows a fight sequence in slow motion or when a poem discards punctuation like so much packing popcorn. Here, I am thinking of a movie like The Godfather which seems to pulse with the entire history of Hollywood, let alone Shakespeare.

The history of long form storytelling in film is just pushing a century, which almost seems manageable to comprehend. The short hand used by directors has certainly evolved, but it remains possible to sit in a movie-plex and have the images teach you something about all the art that went before- at least when the art on the wall is made by people who know their history and appreciate it.

I don’t know if this embedded history counts as subtext, but it surely imparts additional meaning when handled well. For me, when I read Carroll, I feel as though I am looking back at the entire history of fiction. (Note that history is only a couple centuries longer than that for cinema.)

That is not to say that you get a history lesson when reading Sleeping in Flame– far from it. The magic that he weaves feels like a natural progression from Daniel Defoe through Charles Dickens and on through James Branch Cabell.

Art is always

influenced by what came before. Whatever the craft, it developed its techniques long before any of us entered the scene. As an artist, you might break with the past or embrace it, but both are responses to precursors. The more difficult trick is to absorb those predecessors and then chart a new course. Like all trailblazing, you will lose your followers if you can’t leave them breadcrumbs marking the new way.

Read any of the stories in The Panic Hand. They’re a bit like Umberto Eco or Bernard Malamud with the gloves taken off, which is really saying something. It’s like he has taken the best of American writing and embedded it in the best bits of those European stories that were assigned in World Lit I and II.

More than that, Malamud, Eco, and Carroll may move beyond hard reality, but they never leave behind the humanity of their characters. Those well-drawn portraits allow their work to be about this world as we know it, no matter how far afield they may wander from realism.

Isn’t that what we want from our art? That ability to walk a tightrope over previously un-imagined dangers, showing us that miracles are possible. Perhaps more that they are possible. We can co-exist with the strange and, maybe, just maybe, find the marvelous within the strange.

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 199 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.