When is a cult movie cult? It’s a question asked many a time with no real defining answer as everyone will have their own opinion. Does that also mean that a movie studio can be considered cult too? For all the box office success it had in its heyday, Shaw Brothers now is less known to the mainstream and is instead firmly in the hearts of those movie fanatics that quite probably read these pages. With their studio bound sets, buckets of fake blood and sheer theatricality, the movies had a distinctive look but by the time “The Kid with the Golden Arm” was released times were already moving on an. So how does it fare now over 40 years later?
“The Kid with the Golden Arm” is screening on Fantasia International Film Festival
Yang Hu Yun (Sun Chien) is asked to escort a valuable cargo. Aware that the Chi...
“The Kid with the Golden Arm” is screening on Fantasia International Film Festival
Yang Hu Yun (Sun Chien) is asked to escort a valuable cargo. Aware that the Chi...
- 7/26/2022
- by Ben Stykuc
- AsianMoviePulse
Fujian Blue
Deauville Asian Film Festival 2008
DEAUVILLE, France -- First-time director Robin Weng injects marvelous energy into Fujian Blue, a film in two parts that is as a powerful social comment on changing Fujian, one of the first Chinese coastal provinces that opened its doors to the world in the early 1980s. An ensemble of non-professionals is used to push the narrative into often exciting realm. The film looks poised for a long festival run though its commercial prospects seem limited.
In the first section, The Neon Nights, Amerika (Zhu Xiaopeng), Roppongi (Zhuang Jian Jie) and Dragon (Luo Jin) use their imported video cameras to film wealthy women in sexual acts with lovers. These women, termed "remittance widows" because their husbands are away on work, are then blackmailed by Amerika and his gang, who use the money to buy drinks, drugs and prostitutes.
Dragon is an exception. He uses the illicit earnings to pay off his brother's emigration debt, send his sister to a private school and help his parents live better. The gang understands this, and is not entirely without scruples. When Amerika decides to blackmail his mother who takes a lover, his friends are aghast. The second part, At Home, At Sea, is really about Dragon and the honest desires that he seeks to fulfil through nefarious means.
Weng's non-professional actors essay their roles with conviction, and an imaginative use of locations helps the movie's central theme to develop and affirm how an increasing Western influence has led to excesses in China. Crime and addiction appear to be ruining the country's social fabric, and Weng's work captures this situation with remarkable clarity.
FUJIAN BLUE
Wonderland Pictures/Fantasy Pictures Entertainment/Harmony Film Company
Fanhall Films
International sales: Fantasy Pictures Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Robin Weng
Screenplay: Robin Weng, Chen Tao and Lin Yile
Producers: Weng Xiuping, Lin Fan and Kondo Teiko
Executive producer: Zhang Xianmin
Directors of photography: Hai Tao, Shang Yi and Wang Yan
Production designers: Chen Fei, Weng Yu
Music: Wang Lei
Co-producers: Gao Liyong, Chai Tao, Huang Wenbo, Zhu Rikun
Editor: Zheng Jian
Cast:
Dragon: Luo Jin
Amerika: Zhu Xiaopeng
Roppongi: Zhuang Jian Jie
Running time -- 91 minutes
No MPAA rating...
DEAUVILLE, France -- First-time director Robin Weng injects marvelous energy into Fujian Blue, a film in two parts that is as a powerful social comment on changing Fujian, one of the first Chinese coastal provinces that opened its doors to the world in the early 1980s. An ensemble of non-professionals is used to push the narrative into often exciting realm. The film looks poised for a long festival run though its commercial prospects seem limited.
In the first section, The Neon Nights, Amerika (Zhu Xiaopeng), Roppongi (Zhuang Jian Jie) and Dragon (Luo Jin) use their imported video cameras to film wealthy women in sexual acts with lovers. These women, termed "remittance widows" because their husbands are away on work, are then blackmailed by Amerika and his gang, who use the money to buy drinks, drugs and prostitutes.
Dragon is an exception. He uses the illicit earnings to pay off his brother's emigration debt, send his sister to a private school and help his parents live better. The gang understands this, and is not entirely without scruples. When Amerika decides to blackmail his mother who takes a lover, his friends are aghast. The second part, At Home, At Sea, is really about Dragon and the honest desires that he seeks to fulfil through nefarious means.
Weng's non-professional actors essay their roles with conviction, and an imaginative use of locations helps the movie's central theme to develop and affirm how an increasing Western influence has led to excesses in China. Crime and addiction appear to be ruining the country's social fabric, and Weng's work captures this situation with remarkable clarity.
FUJIAN BLUE
Wonderland Pictures/Fantasy Pictures Entertainment/Harmony Film Company
Fanhall Films
International sales: Fantasy Pictures Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Robin Weng
Screenplay: Robin Weng, Chen Tao and Lin Yile
Producers: Weng Xiuping, Lin Fan and Kondo Teiko
Executive producer: Zhang Xianmin
Directors of photography: Hai Tao, Shang Yi and Wang Yan
Production designers: Chen Fei, Weng Yu
Music: Wang Lei
Co-producers: Gao Liyong, Chai Tao, Huang Wenbo, Zhu Rikun
Editor: Zheng Jian
Cast:
Dragon: Luo Jin
Amerika: Zhu Xiaopeng
Roppongi: Zhuang Jian Jie
Running time -- 91 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/21/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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