TOTAL VIOLENT AMBIANCE - 古惑仔

One of the typical Cantonese terms that you may have heard is gu wak chai (古惑仔) - "anciently confused youngster".
What it means is hooligan or thug, a teenage ruffian, who will likely come to a bad end.

Probably a juvenile delinquent, and a poor student in school. But one with connections to a gang.
Some are dead by sixteen, others become serious criminals.
Yet others go into marketing, religion, or blogging.


香港電影 HEUNG KONG DIEN YING

Except for those last three careers, the subculture is well represented in Hong Kong gangster movies. Many of which are either a complete rock'em sock'em blast of operatic gore and ultra-violence - the oeuvre of Hong Kong director John Woo (吳宇森 Ng Yu-sam) - OR explore deeper themes of honour, trust, friendship, ethical behaviour, gallantry, etcetera (also frequently seen in the oeuvre of mr. Woo).
A key element underlying the genre is 'yi-hei' (義氣): loyalty to and self-sacrifice for one's friends and sworn brothers.
One can often tell who the bad guy is by their lack of that characteristic on-screen. They are flawed, they lack nobility, and worst of all their actions betray a vileness of spirit.


It shows some epic misbehavior, but this clip is relatively safe.

流氓學校
This is why you're all little monsters! Improper rubbish!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S5kjisq3NYg


The following clip should only be watched by anthropologists, linguists, and mature audiences.
It might prove a wee bit traumatic for sensitive people.


學校風雲
Ten minutes of rumbling in a nightclub, chase scenes, cleavers, and violent death.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_loqsYtHKw&feature=related

That last scene was the ending of the movie 'Hok Hau Fung Wan (學校風雲) - School on Fire (produced in 1988).

[Director: 林嶺東 Ringo Lam (Lam Ling-tung). Bad-ass: 張耀揚 Roy Cheung (Cheung Yiu-yeung). Good girl: 袁潔瑩 Fennie Yuen (Yuen Git-ying).]


The movie narratively details the changing personalities of a bunch of high-school punks as some get further involved in organized crime, others for various reasons have second thoughts. Along the way, some people die, some girls are brutalized.
Roy Cheung is the 'older brother' heading the youth-branch of a larger gang, and runs roughshod over their tender spirits. He epitomizes the flawed character who lacks 義氣 and consequently it is most welcome when in the last minute of the movie he gets what's coming.
You will cheer when his already dying body goes over the edge and plunges to the sharp iron fence spikes below.

Saw the movie at the Pagoda Palace Theatre on Columbus Street several years ago. Even the young hoodlums who customarily hung out there seemed chastened after the movie was over.

It was probably his lack of gallantry, more than the horrific scenes, that quieted them. Older Brother Smart was a right bastard, cruel, vicious, vindictive, and entirely devoid of any 義氣 whatsoever.
Having grown up on both sword-hero (劍俠 kiem hap) and triad (黑社會 hak sei wui) movies, the social environments of which are collectively known as Gong Wu (江湖 rivers and lakes), the various local 古惑仔 aspired to at least a modicum of gallantry.
Right behaviour, even if one is on the wrong side of the law, is an important element in the Cantonese weltanschauung.


做好漢子 TSO HOU-HON JI

What might seem a didactic imposition in a Hollywood flick, and would be crudely overdone besides in the hands of English-speakers, was often a necessary element of the Hong Kong movie - audiences felt cheated if the heroes and heroines did not demonstrate how a person should act.
No matter the situation, some values are universal.
Adhering to a code of conduct proves that one is part of the human family.
And only those who truly grasp what loyalty, gallantry, and decency mean can epitomize right behaviour.

All men are brothers. Those who do not act accordingly put themselves beyond consideration.


後記 AFTERWORD

For a truly classic rendition of the right bastard without a shred of 義氣, you really should watch the movie Gaam Yuk Fung Wan (監獄風雲) - Prison on Fire (1987), also directed by Ringo Lam, with Roy Cheung as the vicious prison officer. This is the movie that established Roy Cheung's reputation as an able enactor of the evil psychopath role. When one of the prisoners, played by Chou Yun-fat (周潤發) bit off his ear, the audience roared their appreciation. The sob deserved it!


我叫你做食屎狗!
Ngoh kieu nei tso sik si gau ('I'm calling you a shit-eating dog').

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BiYrcOv98Co

Prison on fire is worth watching also because the actions of Ah-Ching (Chow Yun-fat) perfectly epitomize the instinctive gallantry so admired by the Cantonese.
He may be a lower-class shlub, but he's got the right stuff - a sense of decency.
義氣



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IF IT STINKS IT MIGHT BE EPIC

It turns out that I am a much more patient and tolerant person than Savage Kitten. If you've read this blog for a while, this may surprise you no end. But it is nevertheless the unvarnished truth.

Years ago she borrowed 'The DaVinci Code' from the library to see what all the hoopla was about. I think she got halfway through the first page before deciding that it was a load of bollocks and popular only because people are idiots. On the other hand I got through nearly two pages before deciding de gustibus non disputandem est, the writing in this thing is bad, meh.

We also tried to watch 'Last Year in Marienbad' together. A more pretentious piece of artistic excrescence is hard to imagine. She watched five minutes and concluded that it stank, I saw at least fifteen minutes before regretfully realizing that there was no plot, the characters were flat and unlikable, the dialogue jejeune and pointless, and the cinematography repetitive and derivative.


THE LEGEND OF THE BLACK SCORPION

Last night we sat down to watch 'The Legend of the Black Scorpion', starring Zhang Ziyi and Daniel Wu, directed by Feng Xiaogang. Less than ten minutes into it, she disappeared into the other room, having several times pronounced it a stinker.
Except for a smoke break during which I fixed myself a whiskey and water, I sat through the whole thing.

I think I now understand why Chinese novelists like to feature extended families of several hundred named characters in their works - if, in a fit of pique, they decide to kill off everybody they'll have plenty of scope for creative murder.
The Legend Of The Black Scorpion is a blood-spatter epic. Played for beauty and importance rather than laughs. It is inspired by Hamlet, as interpreted by either Macchiavelli or Ingmar Bergman.
Zhang Ziyi is Hamlet's mom during the period between the T'ang Dynasty and Sung, when the empire was in turmoil and several houses competed for power. Hamlet, in the person of Wu Luan (Daniel Wu), is the crown prince. An artistic sort of chappie, who heads into the distant and semi-barbaric south in a funk once his dad marries Wan'er (Zhang Ziyi), where he stages very meaningful stage pieces in a forest setting for an audience of nil comma nil spectators. Very meaningful! You can tell by the angst that drips off the screen. His dad subsequently gets whacked by his uncle, who then takes Zhang Ziyi as his wife. Several uninteresting plot-twists later, everybody dies of poison or violence.

I thoroughly enjoyed the dramatic deaths of the uncle (poison-suicide) and the empress (surprise sword through the chest). These were very nice. Lots of other people also die in this movie, but in boring ways.
I got the distinct impression that no one was chosen for their acting ability.

However, it is a visually striking movie. Absolutely beautiful. The cinematography deserves kudos. Despite the not-particularly inspired writing, and unsubtle ripp-off of Shakespeare's little Danish adventure, this movie is big, bold, brassy, and epic.
When you watch it, mute the sound and invent your own dialogue.

WHITE CHICKS JIGGING TO BAD MUSIC

That, more or less, sums up the movie 'The Beach Girls and the Monster'. Yes, this qualifies as one of the most pointless movies of all times. Putrid pile of dreck barely begins to describe it.


I enjoyed it immensely and heartily recommend it.


The special effects are special in the same way as brain-damage is special - and you might feel that you have been damaged after watching this movie. The acting is appalling, the writing is miserable, and the production values completely non-existent.
It is gorgeous. If other bad movies are sedate virgins putting on trollop makeup for the first time, this movie is a proud harlot flashing huge garish boobs of badness. So grab the popcorn and make an evening of it.


THE BEACH GIRLS AND THE MONSTER
1965, directed by Jon Hall, starring Jon Hall (!), Arnold Lessing, and Sue Casey.

Warning: includes bikinis, bongo drums, and really stupid dialogue.


The basic premise is that a giant fish-monster is killing surfers. Especially slow-moving surfers. Who are on the beach, not in the water - they're never in the water, there is no actual surfing in this movie. But there are plenty of scantily-clad white chicks jigging to bad music, so it's not a total loss, though it may very well make you embarrassed about white people dancing.

Of course, you could instead cringe over the music. That too would be an appropriate reaction. I assume that you are already comfortable with bad acting and horrid scripts?

Spoiler: The monster is an angry fish doctor dressed in a cheesy costume who hates beach bums, teenagers, and his wife. He does them in by first trying to choke them, then clumsily slashing their face with his clawed hand. This surprises them so much that they die of shock.
We know that it cannot be because of blood loss - the producers forgot to include fake-blood in the budget.

Ooh, there are those white chicks jigging again! Same tune, too!