The Blade (film)

The Blade is a 1995 Hong Kong martial arts film co-written, produced and directed by Tsui Hark, starring Vincent Zhao, Moses Chan, Hung Yan-yan, Song Lei, Austin Wai, Chung Bik-ha and Valerie Chow. This film is notable for its unusual style, which includes dramatic close-ups, employment of colour gels, frenetic camera use during the fight sequences, and overall dark tone.

Plot

Ding-on is an orphaned blacksmith working in Sharp Foundry, which is run by his master, a friend of his deceased father. The master's daughter, Ling, who narrates the movie, is romantically attracted to both Ding-on and his colleague, Iron Head. One day, Ding-on and Iron Head see a monk fending off a group of thugs, who later ambush and kill him in revenge. Iron Head is so furious that he identifies himself as someone from Sharp Foundry and taunts the thugs to fight him. The master is angry when he hears of Iron Head's reckless behaviour so he punishes him. Iron Head holds a grudge against Ding-on for telling their master about the incident. He becomes even more unhappy when their master announces his decision to make Ding-on his successor.

Circuit (administrative division)

A circuit (Chinese: 道; pinyin: Dào; Japanese: dō) was a historical political division of China, and is a term for an administrative unit still used in Japan. In Korea, the same word 道 (도; do) is translated as "province".

China

Circuits originated in China during the Han dynasty, and were used as a lower tier administrative division, comparable to the county (縣, also translated as "districts"), but only to be used in areas in the fringes of the Empire, that were either primarily inhabited by non-Han Chinese peoples, or too geographically isolated from the rest of the Han centers of power. The system fell into disuse after the collapse of the Western Jin dynasty.

The administrative division was revived in 627 when Tang Emperor Taizong made it the highest level administrative division, and subdivided China into ten circuits. These were originally meant to be purely geographic and not administrative. Emperor Xuanzong added a further five and slowly, the circuits strengthened their own power, until they became powerful regional forces that tore the country apart during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. During the Later Jin and Song dynasties, circuits were renamed from dao to lu (路), both of which literally mean "road" or "path". Dao were revived during the Yuan dynasty.

Dao (surname)

Đào is a Vietnamese surname previously written 陶 in chữ nôm. It is related to the Chinese surname Tao.

Persons with the surname

Dao (sword)

Dao are single-edged Chinese swords, primarily used for slashing and chopping. The most common form is also known as the Chinese sabre, although those with wider blades are sometimes referred to as Chinese broadswords. In China, the dao is considered one of the four traditional weapons, along with the gun (stick or staff), qiang (spear), and the jian (sword). It is considered "The General of All Weapons".

Name

In Chinese, the word 刀 can be applied to any weapon with a single-edged blade and usually refers to knives. Because of this, the term is sometimes translated as knife or sword-knife. Nonetheless, within Chinese martial arts and in military contexts, the larger "sword" versions of the dao are usually intended.

General characteristics

While dao have varied greatly over the centuries, most single-handed dao of the Ming period and later, and the modern swords that are based (sometimes loosely) on them share a number of characteristics. Dao blades are moderately curved and single-edged, though often with a few inches of the back edge sharpened as well; the moderate curve allows them to be reasonably effective in the thrust. Hilts are sometimes canted, curving in the opposite direction as the blade which improves handling in some forms of cuts and thrusts. Cord is usually wrapped over the wood of the handle. Hilts may also be pierced like those of jian (straight-bladed Chinese sword) for the addition of lanyards, though modern swords for performances will often have tassels or scarves instead. Guards are typically disc-shaped often with a cupped shape to prevent rainwater from getting into the sheath, and to prevent blood from dripping down to the handle, making it more difficult to grip. Sometimes guards are thinner pieces of metal with an s-curve, the lower limb of the curve protecting the user's knuckles; very rarely they may have guards like those of the jian.

Film (Iranian magazine)

Film (Persian:فیلم) is an Iranian film review magazine published for more than 30 years. The head-editor is Massoud Mehrabi.

References

External links

Film (film)

Film is a 1965 film written by Samuel Beckett, his only screenplay. It was commissioned by Barney Rosset of Grove Press. Writing began on 5 April 1963 with a first draft completed within four days. A second draft was produced by 22 May and a forty-leaf shooting script followed thereafter. It was filmed in New York in July 1964.

Beckett’s original choice for the lead – referred to only as “O” – was Charlie Chaplin, but his script never reached him. Both Beckett and the director Alan Schneider were interested in Zero Mostel and Jack MacGowran. However, the former was unavailable and the latter, who accepted at first, became unavailable due to his role in a "Hollywood epic." Beckett then suggested Buster Keaton. Schneider promptly flew to Los Angeles and persuaded Keaton to accept the role along with "a handsome fee for less than three weeks' work."James Karen, who was to have a small part in the film, also encouraged Schneider to contact Keaton.

The filmed version differs from Beckett's original script but with his approval since he was on set all the time, this being his only visit to the United States. The script printed in Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett (Faber and Faber, 1984) states:

Lubrication theory

In fluid dynamics, lubrication theory describes the flow of fluids (liquids or gases) in a geometry in which one dimension is significantly smaller than the others. An example is the flow above air hockey tables, where the thickness of the air layer beneath the puck is much smaller than the dimensions of the puck itself.

Internal flows are those where the fluid is fully bounded. Internal flow lubrication theory has many industrial applications because of its role in the design of fluid bearings. Here a key goal of lubrication theory is to determine the pressure distribution in the fluid volume, and hence the forces on the bearing components. The working fluid in this case is often termed a lubricant.

Free film lubrication theory is concerned with the case in which one of the surfaces containing the fluid is a free surface. In that case the position of the free surface is itself unknown, and one goal of lubrication theory is then to determine this. Surface tension may then be significant, or even dominant. Issues of wetting and dewetting then arise. For very thin films (thickness less than one micrometre), additional intermolecular forces, such as Van der Waals forces or disjoining forces, may become significant.