The Silence and Sabrina the Teenage Witch

I’ve been watching this mostly because there are at least two members of the cast that were in Sabrina the Teenage Witch… which for some reason is a very comforting show for me to watch. It’s probably because when I was younger I watched the ABC version, which was a sitcom and of course very different. But somehow the faces in these horror films have become comforting. What’s cool about movies that are apocalyptic are that they take your life… and make you realize that the stuff your worrying about could very quickly become something you really don’t need to worry about at all, but in a way that is more far fetched then say watching the news about a stable country, that suddenly has become a war zone. It’s also cool to think about how a behavior that is considered by some to be something you can be bullied or teased about, to be the thing that keeps you and your family alive… an asset perhaps to the whole world.

I have been watching a lot of shows recently and maybe its time I started reading again. I have been reading Musashi to Noah right before I do a Netflix binge or something… but perhaps I need to get a separate book to read for myself. Or I can start doing more Kung Fu again…or writing.

A hidden move by Donnie Yen in Chasing the Dragon

If you haven't seen this movie, it's streaming on Netflix.

A lot of people are huge fans of Donnie Yen. This movie basically reminded me that Donnie Yen really is a great actor. I say this because most of his roles are flat, or even if he did a great job as Ip Man... well repetitive. Where as this character, based on a real person, is a whole new thing. i never saw Donnie Yen like this, doing a Chiu Jao accent. (Chao Chao? Actually if you have ever been to the old Chau Chau City in Boston's Chinatown I think it is referencing the same city/hometown) I don't speak that language but at least to me it sounded good.


The most famous phrase in Hong Kong  gangster movies from this language is "Gka Gkee nahng!" or in Canto, 'Jee gay yun!" meaning (we are) same people. ie, don't kill me we're on the same side. I think it was on purpose that Wong Jing, the director did not have that phrase in this movie.

Andy Lau plays Rock Lee/Lee Rock/ Loi lock

and some may remember he played this same person in an older movie entitled "Rock Lee" that was like 4 hours long and yet still fascinating. Also a real person who moved to Vancouver to retire/flee.


I feel like the references in this movie assume you must have watched that previous movie and know the history I love that kind of stuff.

The fighting in this is not Kung Fu style but you get a glimpse a Donnie Yen practicing a few moves in his jail cell that is reminiscent of moves I have seen my Si Suk practice. A loose, I want to say White Crane or White Crane Hung Gar hybrid. Not something for show really, but not the sort of thing that you see in a Hung Gar form... but also a move boxers and such often discredit for use in the ring, but something very useful for a street fight with defense and offense and which translates well using it in a butcher knife fight. It wasn't in the fight sequence and choreography at all, just when the protagonist is in the cell. In fact he is talking while he does it and Donnie Yen does the move quite well. In other words, he put some real research into the role and actually practiced that move to have done it so well for such a short part of the movie. And those types of moves were actually sport of called useless by the Ip Man movies. ie, Ip Man totally beats anyone who does moves like this or characters that reference this style of fighting.


Anyway, mad respect to Donnie Yen for putting in that extra effort that probably only a few people who practice that type of move would notice, and for really getting that old school look when executing the move Old school not as in Old school movies either. I wonder who he interviewed or did he just pick up that move from someone he knew and added it to the character. Could have been someone he knew in Hong Kong, but also could have been someone he knew in Boston too who passed through Hong Kong during this time, knew these type of characters portrayed in the movie and told stories of the old days...  and maybe that made an impression on Donnie Yen.

Anyway, the movie is good besides that too. But if you are into hidden Kung Fu moves, look out for it.

Warrior

Warrior

I have already watched the first two episodes twice. Here is some advice though. You should watch all of Bruce Lee's Movies first (there are only 4.5 of them) and get into who Bruce Lee was, because I feel like there are so many references both in terms of fight scenes and plot to his life as well as his movies.

Warrior is awesome... no doubt. But remember that it is an American show, so don't get all Hong Kong or Canto purist about the fact that some of the actors aren't pronouncing the words with the right tone. Those actors aren't necessarily Chinese so they are doing their best, and Shannon Lee was involved with the casting and wanted to make sure that other non Chinese Asians were not discriminated against.

At some point the actors switch to English in what I think Justin Lin (director) himself referenced as the Red October sequence (Where suddenly you understand what Harrison Ford is saying... and I'm sure his Russian was horrible too) and then the dialogue is epic. Here is why I say that. No they are not translating slang directly from Taishanese or Sze Yup (this are the places Railway workers were from. The First Chinese American Railroad worker was from Taishan, last name Wong)

But the American slang is influenced by it. The shows creators admit that they are kind of making up the slang... but it sounds so cool that... I think people are gonna start talking like this. "Crossing the Salt" being too "Fresh" as opposed to FOB which does sound so 90's now. And calling an "onion" "itchy"

Now These terms I have actually heard but in a different context than used in the show. But it is amazing that the show is creating culture. And to be honest that is what Bruce Lee was doing. he had specific Fight choreography that influenced everyone else's fight choreography for decades to come. I also recently found out that HE is playing drums for the opening of Way of the Dragon Mang Long Gau Gong. And when you listen.... that is a very specific beat. It's not a lion dance beat. It's not a Dragon boat beat. It's on Western drums... but its not a western beat. That beat is sooooo Bruce Lee.


And again, while Warrior is so awesome... you suddenly realize how good Bruce Lee was. I would say his character is the combination of at least 4 of the characters in the show, including Ah Toy, who does the deeds that Chen Jen does in Jing Mo Moon (Fist of Fury-Chinese Connection)

The show is also sooooo LA which makes me crack up but in a good way. It's awesome that the Dialogue for Ah Sahm is this real cocky and crass stuff. I think, after watching the interview with Ah Sahm's actor, that he really can act. But the role of Ah Sahm is supposed to be this guy who can fight... but is awkward and breaks all the rules. Kinda like the main character in Way of the Dragon. A Herng Ha jai.

The actors and characters around the main character are actually more typical of the stereotypical cocky side to Bruce Lee's characters, and those characters really do an awesome job as well.

The Hairband Oath

The old crone lit the candle, burned the incense and set fire to the herbs and the paper money.

"Amah, if he shun the use of money in this life... why do we burn pretend paper money to our ancestors? What do they even need money for? Their dead-"

"Shh quite, you don't know. They need a lot of money and we give them this pretend money then they give us the good luck and we get real money. Then we don't have to think about money or worry about using money. Be quiet and do the ritual. You! you take off the hair band." She said pointing at me, "You take off the hairband," She said pointing at the other girl.

The other girl didn't say much, but I think she understood more of what was going on then I did. We were supposedly cousins. My parents just dropped me off to live with Amah for the summer. i vaguely remember her from when I was very little. Phone calls, things like that. She was my grandmother or something. But we never did anything like this before.


"You say,"I am sorry sister that I could not be born on the same year and same month and same day as you... so I only wish that I will die on the same year same month same day as y-"

"Wait I don't ant to die." I complained

"Not now, they are saying in the future." Said the crone. 

"But how old are you?" I asked the other girl who still didn't say anything. The thing is, she was taller than me and looked more grown than me in other ways too. I just felt like maybe I was getting gypped because if I was born after her and I died on the same day as her then my life would be shorter. She just looked around and sighed. I began to wonder if she spoke English. She looked more white than Asian, though I was mixed too... but really I hadn't heard her say anything in any language at all.

"You SAY IT!!!" Amah shouted looking like she might have a stroke or die in some other way. If she did... I had no idea where this house was really. I mean I guess I could look it up on the phone. But it seemed it would be a better situation overall if Amah lived so I said it.

The other girl then said something in Chinese... Cantonese... I think. And what she said kind of flowed better. And I realized she had said what I just said.


We exchanged hairbands and hand wraps, the kind people use for boxing.

Not that I had ever boxed. I had just put this hand wrap on.... and now I was taking it off again. It took a really long time and Amah kept saying how stupid I was.

In the end we went upstairs. Amah chopped up a chicken which this older boy, maybe even a young man had delivered. Amah was like super nice to him, along with some other food. He waved at us and the other girl actually smiled. We ate... and then me and my new "Sister" sat outside on te trampoline while Amah did something or other in the house.


"We'll start training tomorow." Said the other girl in English.

"Oh..." was all I said for a while, and then, "My name is-"


But she interrupted me and said, "You'll be called Yongfu"

She said it quietly and offhandedly but it seemed so final, mainly because she had hardly said anything before. I suddenly really wanted her to like me and be my friend. After all, there was nobody else here besides Amah and I got the feeling she was crazy. I had thought this girl was crazy too or that something was wrong with her... but maybe it was just because Amah was there.

As if sensing that I wanted to ask, she said, "You will call me Mangfu"

Mystic Drums of Mei San Mountain: When I was a young girl.

When I was a young girl,
The sound of the deer skin drums
Would echo down the mountain.
The bodies of the drums made from the solid
oaks of trees felled to make way for the Mansions once seen on the hillside.

When I was a young girl I played the drum with special sticks, made from the antlers of the
hidden buck, the ones with scales and color that could prance along the  river of time
in and out of the past as if stepping in and out of the brush, whose body could only be taken
by the spiritual bamboo spears and skin prepped with the knives forged in a kiln
in the caves by the railroad on anvils made of the railway ties.

Our drums were special.
Our art was special.
and now you two girls will learn the art that I learned here on this mountain as a young girl.

But first you must take the hairband oath.