I’m guessing this is a Hong Kong movie? I really haven’t seen that many films from Hong Kong, for some reason or other…

Wow, this is so goofy… I immediately thought that this looked very 80s, but it can’t be. But it’s got that indie 80s fuck off attitude, that audacity — it’s very Aki Kaurismäki, in other words. But with judo and stuff.

So much product placement.

I laughed, I cried, and I was fascinated. It’s just so full on — it commits completely to its concept, and you get pure cinema. It’s all emotion.

I mean, I’ve seen more than a couple of movies in my life, but this seems totally original. But then again, I’ve not seen that many movies from Hong Kong, and perhaps this is just what movies are there?

It’s a masterpiece, anyway. And very silly. I was totally riveted. It looks gorgeous, the performances were so much fun, and it’s just totally original. And now I want to watch all of Johnnie To’s movies.

柔道龍虎榜. Johnnie To. 2004. ⚅

Yeah, totes.

This is a very shocking movie! I mean, such manhandling of the cat…

Well, it’s a movie with a series of striking images… but it feels pretty disjointed. I mean, it really feels like watching moving versions of still shots, sort of.

And Varda’s not being very generous with her subjects.

It’s a series of striking tableaux, but it feels pretty under cooked.

L’opéra-mouffe. Agnès Varda. 1958. ⚂

Oh, I thought this was gonna be a western… I’ve bought a bunch of Howard Hawks movies lately, but this isn’t that.

Instead it’s the only guy who looks like a director ought to look.

*gasp*

Noo! Jump the other way!

This is very noir (an early one; this is from 1941), so you gotta have Humphrey Bogart.

This is very early Bogart, isn’t it? I mean, he’d been hanging around for a decade, but he wasn’t really a star? But then:

This, Maltese Falcon, and Casablanca all in a row.

And that’s Ida Lupino, I guess? Who gets billing above Bogart here.

It’s a horribly racist caricature, but on the other hand, it’s an ingenious way to be lazy… But I guess that’s the joke.

I mean…

But that’s Willie Best, isn’t it? It is! I’ve seen him in oodles of movies, like The Ghost Breakers…

Now that’s scary! Bogey smiling!

That’s more like it.

YEAH! Over!

I dunno… It might just be me, because I sorta got distracted and started doing laundry in the middle of this, but I don’t think this is a very compelling movie. Lupino is just kinda… there… and Bogart is trying his best to make this movie happen, but it’s just a very, very silly plot, and nothing interesting happens, really. This movie is like they made a movie from the discards of a heist movie; collecting all the scenes that were cut from an exciting movie.

Actually, that sounds kinda interesting, but this isn’t that interesting.

This movie has it all — club-footed girls, annoying dogs, cross-eyed handymen… It’s so corny it could be Iowa.

But it also wants to be this super-dramatic movie, and it just doesn’t make sense.

Indeed. But:

It’s a well-regarded movie.

Indeed:

Time reviewed the film when released as having “less of realistic savagery than of the quaint, nostalgic atmosphere of costume drama.”

I dunno. I didn’t much like this movie? But I might totally be wrong.

High Sierra. Raoul Walsh. 1941. ⚂