Earlier this year, legendary director/cinematographer Jack Cardiff, a man whose career spanned the majority of cinema history, died. David Carradine's death later overshadowed those of legendary Hong Kong cinema villain Shek Kin and Shaw Brothers stalwart Ho Meng-hua, director of classic films like Suzanna and The Lady Hermit. Then Lou Albano; then Shing Fui-On. Michael Jackson. Does anybody need to say more?
Another three: Paul Naschy, Chen Hunglieh and Ding Shanxi. I liked these guys, or at least some of the movies they made/appeared in.
2009 is almost over. It needs to hurry up and end.
Showing posts with label Obituaries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obituaries. Show all posts
12/3/09
8/28/09
RIP Shing Fui-on
This has been hard year for fans of Hong Kong cinema. The passing of the legendary screen villain/character actor Shek Kin and director Ho Meng-Hua earlier this year was unfortunate enough, made less bitter by the knowledge that each lived long, presumably fulfilled lives. Their deaths were overshadowed by that of David Carradine, who died in the same week. As much as Carradine evoked mixed feelings from fans of Bruce Lee and kung fu movies, his death was another loss for fans of b-movies and cult cinema.
Now another actor's passing has been announced. Shing Fui-on, posessor of one of the most unique faces in Hong Kong cinema, died on August 27th at the age of 54. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2004, but still made appearances in Oxide Pang's The Detective and Cheung Chee-keong's Bodyguard: A New Beginning. Shing appeared in well over a hundred films and probably countless television series. My first memory of recognizing him was in God of Gamblers, where he has a great comedic scene in whih he loses to Chow Yun-Fat. Indeed, I'd seen him in various films, from bit parts in Wong Jing crap like Legend of the Liquid Sword, Cat III sleaze like the silly Erotic Ghost Story III and the disgustingly exploitative Human Pork Chop, and as gangsters and criminals in various films throughout the eighties and nineties. Hong Kong audiences nick-named him "big silly head," which probably sounds less mean in Cantonese.
Shing was a real professional, clearly giving his best even in small parts or in large parts in small movies. Hong Kong cinema still has its stars, but it's difficult to point to anybody who could replace the unique screen presence of yet another artist who left us too soon. Rest in peace.
Now another actor's passing has been announced. Shing Fui-on, posessor of one of the most unique faces in Hong Kong cinema, died on August 27th at the age of 54. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2004, but still made appearances in Oxide Pang's The Detective and Cheung Chee-keong's Bodyguard: A New Beginning. Shing appeared in well over a hundred films and probably countless television series. My first memory of recognizing him was in God of Gamblers, where he has a great comedic scene in whih he loses to Chow Yun-Fat. Indeed, I'd seen him in various films, from bit parts in Wong Jing crap like Legend of the Liquid Sword, Cat III sleaze like the silly Erotic Ghost Story III and the disgustingly exploitative Human Pork Chop, and as gangsters and criminals in various films throughout the eighties and nineties. Hong Kong audiences nick-named him "big silly head," which probably sounds less mean in Cantonese.
Shing was a real professional, clearly giving his best even in small parts or in large parts in small movies. Hong Kong cinema still has its stars, but it's difficult to point to anybody who could replace the unique screen presence of yet another artist who left us too soon. Rest in peace.
4/22/09
RIP Jack Cardiff
It's a shame when a truly gifted artist dies. It's even worse when that artist is somebody whose work you actually enjoy.
Jack Cardiff was involved in numerous brilliant films, awful films, brilliantly awful films, and infamous failed projects in a career that started in 1928 -- the silent era. Scent of Mystery for instance, was the first movie to be shown in "smell-o-vision," a system in which odors were pumped into the theater to simulate what the characters on screen would be smelling. Obviously a flawed concept, it's still an amusing idea, although it might have been less so for those who actually had to sit through a film while artificial scents mingled with the natural theater B.O.
There's also the infamous failure of what was to be his directorial debut, the self-funded Errol Flynn vehicle, The Story of William Tell. Sadly, what makes the film so infamous is the stories of the financial ruin it caused not only to investors, but to the aging Errol Flynn, as his co-star Bruce Cabot seized Flynn's property in lieu of his salary.
But there's two things that stand out in my mind about Jack Cardiff. One of them is the brilliant work he consistently put into his films as a cinematographer, and the other is The Long Ships, an impressively over the top and totally ridiculous rip-off of The Vikings (Cardiff was a cinematographer on that film, ironically) that he directed in 1964. It had a cast filled with B-actors among Richard Widmark, clearly enjoying himself as an unconvincing viking captain, and Sidney Poitier, rather obviously lost playing a Moorish prince, and Rosanna Schiaffino, an Italian actress from many a peplum (Italian muscle-man flicks -- usually low budget and awful) and also one of my favorites. It would be a pretty boring movie with an almost inappropriately bombastic and intrusive musical score (the fanfare is played at even the slightest diegetic provocation) were it not for a virtuoso opening sequence shot in silhouette against all sorts of powerful images culled from Eastern Orthodoxy and Coptic church tradition. Granted, the reverent tone is dropped pretty quickly once the vikings get a chance to raid a Persian harem, but it's a brilliant sequence. The other amazing sequence is the "Mare of Steel" which is easily the best (read: most hilarious) torture scene in any film ever.
I don't mean to sound like a jerk -- boiling down an amazing man's vaunted career to one of the silliest movies he directed -- but I just plain love The Long Ships. And it's certain that others love movies like Girl on a Motorcycle, just as surely as they love The Mercenaries. And assuming that somebody has somehow gone their entire lives without watching The Long Ships, perhaps The Barefoot Contessa, The African Queen, War and Peace, The Vikings, Fanny, Rambo, or Conan the Destroyer have provided some degree of amusement.
It's a rare gift to have been so good, that your efforts can so often be called the best thing about a movie. Even if it was because he worked so often with Richard Fleischer, the world will look a little less better without Jack Cardiff to lens it. RIP.
Jack Cardiff was involved in numerous brilliant films, awful films, brilliantly awful films, and infamous failed projects in a career that started in 1928 -- the silent era. Scent of Mystery for instance, was the first movie to be shown in "smell-o-vision," a system in which odors were pumped into the theater to simulate what the characters on screen would be smelling. Obviously a flawed concept, it's still an amusing idea, although it might have been less so for those who actually had to sit through a film while artificial scents mingled with the natural theater B.O.
There's also the infamous failure of what was to be his directorial debut, the self-funded Errol Flynn vehicle, The Story of William Tell. Sadly, what makes the film so infamous is the stories of the financial ruin it caused not only to investors, but to the aging Errol Flynn, as his co-star Bruce Cabot seized Flynn's property in lieu of his salary.
But there's two things that stand out in my mind about Jack Cardiff. One of them is the brilliant work he consistently put into his films as a cinematographer, and the other is The Long Ships, an impressively over the top and totally ridiculous rip-off of The Vikings (Cardiff was a cinematographer on that film, ironically) that he directed in 1964. It had a cast filled with B-actors among Richard Widmark, clearly enjoying himself as an unconvincing viking captain, and Sidney Poitier, rather obviously lost playing a Moorish prince, and Rosanna Schiaffino, an Italian actress from many a peplum (Italian muscle-man flicks -- usually low budget and awful) and also one of my favorites. It would be a pretty boring movie with an almost inappropriately bombastic and intrusive musical score (the fanfare is played at even the slightest diegetic provocation) were it not for a virtuoso opening sequence shot in silhouette against all sorts of powerful images culled from Eastern Orthodoxy and Coptic church tradition. Granted, the reverent tone is dropped pretty quickly once the vikings get a chance to raid a Persian harem, but it's a brilliant sequence. The other amazing sequence is the "Mare of Steel" which is easily the best (read: most hilarious) torture scene in any film ever.
I don't mean to sound like a jerk -- boiling down an amazing man's vaunted career to one of the silliest movies he directed -- but I just plain love The Long Ships. And it's certain that others love movies like Girl on a Motorcycle, just as surely as they love The Mercenaries. And assuming that somebody has somehow gone their entire lives without watching The Long Ships, perhaps The Barefoot Contessa, The African Queen, War and Peace, The Vikings, Fanny, Rambo, or Conan the Destroyer have provided some degree of amusement.
It's a rare gift to have been so good, that your efforts can so often be called the best thing about a movie. Even if it was because he worked so often with Richard Fleischer, the world will look a little less better without Jack Cardiff to lens it. RIP.
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