Word: swordsman
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...fall from a great height: that befits a tragic hero or, in Leslie's case, a tragic diva. For if Brigitte Lin embodied the woman-man in such '90s films as Swordsman II and Ashes of Time, then Leslie was Asia's definitive man-woman. More persuasively so, because for Lin it was a role; for Leslie it was life. A gay man in a society intolerant of gays, he never explicitly acknowledged his homosexuality. But neither did he try to suppress it, as some Hong Kong stars have done. He was too much the showman, the exhibitionist...
...stage the fights, Zhang chose Ching Siu-tung, a renowned choreographer who has also directed 21 features, including such Hong Kong classics as A Chinese Ghost Story, Swordsman II and The Heroic Trio?not to mention a 1989 quickie called A Terracotta Warrior, starring two kids from the mainland, Gong Li and Zhang Yimou. The very first set-to in Hero is a terrific one between Li and Yen. (Each man first imagines the fight, like a chess player visualizing his opponent's possible moves.) How swift their swords! How eloquent their body language...
...shot in the flickery black-and-white of the Godzilla genre, another will unfold entirely in Japanese anim?. Tarantino even sent his cinematographer, Oscar winner Bob Richardson (Platoon, JFK, Wall Street), lists of must-see Samurai and Shaw Brothers' classics like Five Fingers of Death and One Armed Swordsman as a pre-production crash course in the camerawork of the kick-flick canon...
...Until 1967, Hong Kong films were largely musicals and comedies headed by female stars. But that was B.C.C.: before CHANG CHEH . With his 1967 One-Armed Swordsman, Chang created a scowling hero who turned his disability into a vengeance?and Hong Kong film into the violent, burly, balletic male preserve it has been ever since. Born Chang Yi-ying in China's Zhejiang province, this energetic craftsman wrote romance novels, film reviews and a newspaper column under three different pseudonyms. Then he set about defining the Hong Kong action movie. Such swaggering epics as The Savage 5, Shaolin Avengers...
...timer," insists director Toto Natividad, whose resume lists 45 Philippine action films. But while close-ups make clear the physical training and cosmetic surgery Ogami underwent for the role, he had apparently decided against acting lessons. "His name is Genta Ogami," rumbles the voice-over on the trailer. "Master swordsman, a man with a mission to fight evil in a foreign land...