Machi Action (Review)
Machi Action
aka 變身
2013
Written by Giddens Ko
Directed by Jeff Chang
Machi Action is a hilarious tale of a tokusatsu hero actor who is replaced and must find a new purpose in life. The film will resonate for anyone who has lost a job and struggled through the uncomfortable period of trying to readjust their life to the new actuality. Unfortunately thanks to the Great Recession, far too many of us have experienced that reality.
A unique film in the tokusatsu genre due to the focus on the actors and decisions behind the series, instead of just a parade of easily replaceable teenage heroes. Machi Action covers all the bases, from the lame effects to generic monsters to shows growing stale due to lack of drama and repetitiveness. The visuals are largely inspired from the various Kamen Rider series, with bits of Super Sentai and Ultraman thrown in for good measure.
The success of Machi Action is due to the mix of Tie Nan’s employment struggles and the tokusatsu genre humor. The balance keeps the film grounded enough for you to feel for the character while providing plenty of joke fodder of not only the effects heroes shows, but the entertainment industry in general. 10 years and a ratings nosedive cause Tie Nan to be on the unemployment line, the hero fighting his greatest battle, trying to stay relevant in a world that has moved on. As an ongoing plot thread shows, modern children have changed, and the show’s greatest failure is being stagnant instead of moving with them. People fear change, and it’s all too easy to get stuck in a routine that becomes a rut. But the longer you put off the inevitable, the bigger the pain will be when things are finally altered. Had Space Hero Fly kept up with the times there would have been no danger, but no one looked at the big picture.
The struggles of Tie Nan becomes the struggles of everyone to adapt and change with what life gives you, while still living up to your principles and doing what you believe in. There is always the danger of someone newer and younger coming in to replace you. But don’t give up the fight!
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Trailer for cool looking Taiwanese flick Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? (明天記得愛上我) is a Taiwanese romantic comedy that looks like it treats relationships as a real thing and not a fantasy 6 couple wedding event. This is Arvin Chen’s second feature (after 2010’s Au Revoir Taipei) and stars Richie Jen, Mavis Fan, Mavis Fan, and Kimi Hsia. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February. I for one an looking forward to seeing it when it hits DVD, unless it manages to get a screening somewhere nearby.
Kimi Hsia likes to wear fruit on her head. This is a fact.
Categories: Movie News Tags: Arvin Chen, Taiwan, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
Fight alongside Taiwanese tokusatsu-themed flick Machi Action!
Machi Action is a tokusatsu flick with a twist, as it’s about the actors who star in the tokusatsu shows. Specifically, it’s about the actor who plays Cosmo Universe Space Hero Fly, and what happens when his low-rated show is replaced by a newer, cooler show with a better suit and a more hip actor. The acto then needs to find himself and become the sort of hero he played on tv. Judging from the look of Machi Action, director Zhang Shilin “borrowed” a lot of the visual style from some of the Kamen Rider series. Which isn’t a bad thing (and wouldn’t be the only time Taiwan had their own version of “Kamen Rider” properties.) Bolin Chen plays the soon-to-be unemployed actor.
via Maser Patrol
Here are some pics I ganked off the official Facebook page for Machi Action!
Categories: Movie News Tags: Machi Action, Taiwan, tokusatsu
Shaolin Traitorous
Shaolin Traitorous
aka 大太監 aka Traitorous
1976
Written by Cheung San-Yee
Directed by Sung Ting-Mei
In the 1970s, the most dangerous occupation in Taiwan was being Polly Shang Kuan’s father in a movie. And once again, Shaolin Traitorous involves Polly playing a character that is avenging the deaths of her parents. But, shockingly enough, Polly isn’t the focus of the flick, it’s Carter Wong as Shang Yung, who survives the massacre of his family as a child and then trains at Shaolin Temple and eventually go get revenge.
Story wise, Shaolin Traitorous is a by-the-numbers revenge flick. But the choreography makes it rise a bit above the crowd. There is an obsession with array attacks, and there are multiple scenes with many guards stacked on top of each other in a huge human fence formation. Though fun to look at, I’ve never really understood how these attacks do anything except present a bigger target. But maybe that’s the trick…
Aside from the many guards stacking, if you’ve seen one of these films, you know the score. If they’re your thing, then you will enjoy the crap out of Shaolin Traitorous. If you’re just seeking some kung fu thrills, it will do the trick. But it’s not going to be a film you rave to everyone about on Twitter.
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Categories: Movie Reviews, Ugly Tags: Carter Wong Ka-Tat, Chang Yi, Cheung San Yee, martial arts, Polly Shang Kuan, Sammo Hung, Sung Ting-Mei, Taiwan
The Zodiac Fighters
The Zodiac Fighters
aka 十二生南 aka Dragon Zombies Return aka Shi er sheng nan
1978
Directed by Hau Chang
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50 Shades of Grey wishes it was this daring!
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Polly Shang Kuan Ling-Feng began her career In 1966 with the United Film Corporation, and was quickly and began studying martial arts. When director King Hu needed a new starlet for 1966’s Dragon Gate Inn (one of the films that helped usher in the modern wuxia films) with Cheng Pei-Pei still under contract at Shaw, Polly was his choice. Polly played a female swordmaster disguised as a man, a role she would be accustom to playing. Often it is hard to figure out what gender Polly is supposed to be in many of her films! 18 Bronzemen, probably her most famous role in the west besides Dragon Gate Inn, also sees her disguised as a man. In 1973’s Back Alley Princess, she was a woman who spent the entire film playing a man, and won the Golden Horse award for Best Actress. 1978’s Little Hero saw her playing a man, and 1977’s Fight for Survival saw her playing a woman who started to become a man thanks to some kung fu, causing her to need to learn a different kung fun style to revert back.
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I have to stay in this cave for a year? But there’s no bathroom, there’s not even a corner!
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In some of her earlier roles such as A Grand Passion, The Bravest Revenge, and A Girl Fighter, Polly was regularly cast as a female out to avenge her murdered father. If you stacked the bodies of all of Polly’s murdered fathers in her older films, you could climb to the moon and probably kill her moon father, causing her to seek moon revenge, which wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary by her later films. By the late 1970s, Polly was making some of the most awesome films to come out of Taiwan. Most of these were weird variations of martial arts films packed with comedic tones and funny situations. You don’t watch these films to see expertly performed Eagle Style, you watch it to see wacky costumes, ridiculous fights, and insane situations.
Unlike many of her contemporaries, Polly did not have Peking Opera training, but according to the one biography online that has been copy/pasta’ed everywhere, Polly eventually got black belts in taekwando, karate, and judo. I will point out that none of those are Chinese martial arts. Polly left film in the 1980s and moved to the US. Rumor is she runs a restaurant in LA, but no one has said which restaurant! Polly could be serving you catfish in black bean sauce right now! Or even denying you the ability to sit at your table until the rest of your party arrives… She has appeared occasionally in enough interviews that you can see pictures of her now if you so desire to Google it.
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It’s time for Popeye Style Kung Fu!
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So this all brings us to Zodiac Fighters, a film where we have people dressed up as the various Chinese Zodiac animals running around doing kung fu styles in the manner of the animal they are dressed up as. We have a few extra bad guys with different animal suits who show up near the end, and a sequence involving rubber sharks that you have to see to believe. Zodiac Fighters is crazy and freaking awesome, a great martial comedy. Unfortunately, it is also hard as heck to get a hold of. I had to bribe a guy dressed like a moose. Or maybe he was a moose. In any event, I now have a copy, and some moose has a bunch of caramel corn.
I’d like to tell you I did all this research and identified all the random actors, but that would be a lie. I just did what the few of us who watch these films do and went to the source, this Cast Photos Page that is used by every reference source out there, even the HKMDB! So now you know the terrible secret of all us obscure movie bloggers.
Zodiac Fighters is so beloved among cult world cinema fans that it was even featured as one of the Polly Shang Kuan films we talked about in an Infernal Brains Podcast! There is even an even harder to find sequel, called either Zodiac Fighters 2 or War of the Zodiacs depending who whoever wrote the cover of the bootleg with a Sharpie. It does not feature Polly Shang Kuan, but does feature most of the animal actors, little people in dog costumes, and the giant octopuses seen in Little Hero. War of the Zodiacs should probably be called War of the Props Left Over From Other Films.
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The Secret Society of People Dressed as Animals Who Aren’t Furries is ready for battle!
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I promise I won’t start quoting lyrics from Talk to the Animals or start wondering what would happen if we could walk with the animals, or possibly even grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals. Because that would just be easy and predictable, and we aspire to a higher standard of lame jokes at TarsTarkas.NET!
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I’m the biggest Shark Week fan in the world!
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The Other 11 Zodiackers:
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Something’s happening here. What it is, ain’t exactly clear…
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Categories: Bad, Movie Reviews Tags: Cheng Fu Hung, Gam Sai-Yuk, Hau Chang, Lee Keung, Lo Lieh, martial arts, Ngok Yeung, Polly Shang Kuan, Sek Fung, Taiwan, Wang Tai-Lang, Weng Hsiao-Hu, Wu Feng-Hsien, Yee Hung
The Ginseng King (Review)
The Ginseng King
aka 三頭魔王 aka Three-Head Monster
1988
Written by Chu Yue-Lam and Kwok Cheun-Ming
Directed by Wang Chu-Chin
It’s Taiwanese Kaiju Time again! Today’s installment features the fantastical flick The Ginseng King, the story of a kid and an old ginseng guy, and all the freaky deaky stuff they encounter along the way. Many of which are giant monsters that look like they’re made out of roots and tubers. This is one of the least annoying kids in Taiwanese cinema, probably due to the fact he doesn’t whine all the time nor flying around like a crazy person, he’s just a kid trapped in a world gone to crazytown.
The Ginseng King seems mostly a children’s film, though it does feature a bit of disturbing imagery, and some naked woman behind! So it’s perfect for kids! Ginseng King is a mishmash of influences, and manages to come out with something new and strange. It’s also pretty entertaining, with nary a boring part, and a constant influx of new fantasy creations to see. The shame is it is so hard to get a good copy of The Ginseng King.
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Categories: Movie Reviews, Ugly Tags: Chan Ying-Kit, Chu Yue-Lam, Cynthia Khan, Kim Fan, Kwok Cheun-Ming, nazis, Taiwan, Taiwanese kaiju, Wang Chu-Chin
