#century cinemax

[dsneybuf91]

Why I Didn't Review Warrior Season Two

The answer goes beyond any discouragement caused by the lack of comments or Twitter Likes on "Warrior Season One Highlights."  With the long-awaited third season airing now, I decided to share a longer explanation for failing to fulfill my announcement to cover episodes from every one.  This article combines writings from the unfinished "Warrior Season Two Highlights" draft, with sentiments I experienced while watching the first 20 episodes all over again.

Special thanks to people who pushed "Like" and/or "Reblog" on the Tumblr repost of "Warrior Season One Highlights," for assuring me that an audience could exist for my coverage of this show.

Among this season's six directors, two possess Asian heritage, who in total directed three of the 10 episodes.  The ones I considered reviewing include "To a Man With a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail" (#16; directed by Vietnamese-American Dustin Nguyen; written by Jonathan Tropper & Brad Kane) and "If You Wait By The River Long Enough" (#17; directed by Anglo-Burmese Omar Madha; written by Kenneth Lin).

The end of Warrior Season One felt like it would've made a satisfactory ending to Ah Sahm's story as a whole.  This made it hard for me to tell exactly how much of following seasons' content draws from "The writings of Bruce Lee," and how much came from his successors in the writing staff. The documentary Becoming Warrior strongly suggests that almost all of it came from the latter, but I didn't find the documentary until after my rewatch of Seasons One and Two.

Season Two presents some admirable efforts to flesh out the supporting cast.  Some of the most compelling storylines include Young Jun taking over the Hop Wei, and Ah Toy falling in love with vineyard owner Nellie Davenport (Miranda Raison). Regarding new additions to the main cast, new Hop Wei recruit Hong (Chen Tang) manages to endear.  His homosexuality delivers a unique reason to depict him as an outcast to both Chinese and non-Chinese, though Ah Sahm and Young Jun both sympathize with and befriend him quickly after his arrival.

One difficulty I experience while attempting to recommend Season Two concerns the misfortunes of every woman who wins Ah Sahm's heart, outside of his family.  Fight club owner Rosalita Vega (Puerto Rican Maria-Elena Laas) appeals by carrying out an agenda independent from Ah Sahm's story, and by holding her own in fight scenes.  Unfortunately, even though she completes the agenda, her romantic subplot with Ah Sahm concludes with an overly-cruel means of increasing his loneliness in America.  Meanwhile, Penny's various struggles come across as a reminder for female viewers to appreciate their 21st century privileges.  The hiring of a female director, Dennie Gordon, helped prevent the reminder from feeling too condescending.  However, it might still unnerve viewers who feel that women have fewer privileges now than during Warrior's Cinemax run.

By the end of my first viewing of Season Two, an apprehensive part of my mind developed the sense that the writers possibly ran out of ideas for Ah Sahm.  Even though he remains important to others in San Francisco, they often threaten to overshadow him.  Sometimes, even the show's least interesting characters seemed to receive more screentime than him.  In contrast, a more optimistic part of my mind developed the sense that the writers decided to save some compelling ideas for Ah Sahm's story for the future.  Even if it took longer than they probably hoped for Warrior to receive a third season, it feels fortunate that they and Andrew Koji could finally bring those ideas to life.

Plug

Violence towards Asian-Americans persists at alarming levels.  I would like my readers to donate to The AAPI Community Fund, even if I personally take no share of the funds.

#warrior hbo max #warrior max #tv show review #my posts #bruce lee #shannon lee #andrew koji #ah sahm #jason tobin #young jun #olivia cheng #ah toy #dianne doan #mai ling #chen tang #hong #dustin nguyen #zing #maria elena rios #rosalita vega #omar madha #kenneth lin #stop asian hate #lgbtq

[nickgerlich]

Battle Of The Brands

I have long preached the importance of brand protection. A brand is one of those things that typically takes years to build, and once you have established yourself in the minds and memories of consumers, it behooves you to do everything it takes to keep it there.

Sometimes a company will do a rebrand, which can involve an entirely new look and feel to packaging and logos, as well as the product itself. How it is positioned, which is effectively the “fifth P,” is usually changed then as well. It’s like hitting the Reset button, getting a do-over because the market has changed.

But what about when a company ditches a branding effort that has been in place for 51 years, and is still working well? Now that’s something that raises eyebrows. Take a look at HBO now. That’s Home Box Office, the long-time king of cable services that has been trying to find its way during the streaming era. It recently announced its HBO Max streaming service will now simply be called Max.

The company thinks it is a better umbrella name for its growing array of options, which recently saw Discovery+ come along for the ride. Essentially, they want to reposition themselves such that they are not viewed as just adult content, but also kid-friendly.

The only problem is that HBO’s second-tier brand, Cinemax, has that nagging suffix. Cinemax was always where you went to watch older movies, those that had run their course and lost some luster. The fact that they even combined it with the name HBO for streaming was enough to make me wince, but now to completely ditch the name that made the company what it is? It’s terrible.

Imagine if Coca Cola Company decided to gather up all its many brands and flavors, and rechristen them all Sprite. Sprite Cola. Diet Sprite. Cherry Vanilla Diet Sprite. I could go on. Fortunately, Coca Cola is smart enough to know how valuable its main brand is, and they will protect it until the end of time.

I know. HBO execs think they know what they are doing. Acquiring Discovery+ was a great move, because it helped build out their portfolio. But Disney is likely to finish acquiring Hulu next year, and do you think they’ll rename their streaming bundle Hulu? Not a chance. Walt would be turning over in his grave.

And what about Facebook renaming itself Meta, and Google now being Alphabet? What’s up with that? We consumers haven’t stopped referring to them by their original names, just like for anyone raised in Chicago in the late-20th century, it will always be the Sears Tower. None of that Willis Tower stuff for us, thank you very little.

Apparently HBO thinks that all the time, money, and effort they put into building the HBO name since 1972 now has little or no value, that we will automatically think of them when we see Max, and then go on as if nothing happened. To be honest, they will probably survive, and maybe even thrive, but this is still not a text book example of good branding.



Of course, I felt the same way when Cingular renamed itself AT&T. I loved the wordplay with Cingular, and I knew the history well regarding the splitting of the legacy AT&T company—much like Standard Oil—in years prior. Hey, Verizon just left their name intact. Cingular was a good name, but in the end, AT&T has still worked. And, I might add, happily takes my money every month.

Still, HBO has provided a good example of a potentially very bad thing. You just don’t mess with what is working, even if you might get away with it. And when I tune in Season 3 of The Righteous Gemstones next week, I’ll still be telling everyone it’s on HBO. Not Max. Somebody’s gotta show these guys how it’s supposed to be done.

Dr “You Can’t Fix What’s Not Broken” Gerlich

Audio Blog

#marketing #HBO #Max #branding #streaming

[signalwatch]

Vamp Watch: Daughter of Dracula (1972) Watched:  09/04/2023 Format:  BluRay Viewing:  First Director:  Jess Franco If the 1970's brought us anything in cinema, it was sexy vampires.  I mean, there's no shortage before.  Ask me about Brides of Dracula.  But by the time we got to the 1970's, we had moved into a weird twilight zone of art film/ exploitation film/ horror film where nudity was rampant and sex was not just implied in knowing cut-aways. As far as I know, of the Jess Franco movies, I'd only ever seen Vampyros Lesbos.  And, somewhat (in)famously, Franco was one of the foremost purveyors of cheap, wandering "horror" films that bordered on a Cinemax late-night entry and what cable would play on weekends in the 1980's while also absolutely existing as in-no-way-scary horror films. The movie is one of five directed by Franco in 1972 alone.  Whatever the market was, it was quantity over quality, and I suspect few scenes were actually scripted or anyone really did much to prep for the movies after getting a set of fangs, a Dracula cape and a location.  The movie uses a lot of 1970's film language, from racking focus into a scene (usually onto some natural object) and lots of lingering shots of people walking and not saying much. The basic set-up here is that Luisa Karlstein (Britt Nichols - aka: Carmen Yazalde) returns home to see her dying mother, who tells her where the key is to a family tomb, says there's an unspeakable horror there, and then immediately keels over.  Apparently ready for unspeakable horror as long as you look fantastic, Luisa heads into the tomb where she is immediately made into a vampire by Dracula, who has been locked down there for some time. Townswomen begin getting killed, a detective who really wants to be the love child of Columbo and Maigret, shows up and "Jefferson" (Franco looking like a dopey hipster) keeps telling everyone its vampires, and no one will buy it.   In between, there's lots of stuff like people playing pianos, a half-assed investigation, and Luisa making it with her friend, Karine (Anne Libert).   The movie wants to borrow from the novel Carmilla, but is clearly someone jotting down some ideas they liked in Hammer movies, not least of which was The Vampire Lovers and, even less like Lust For a Vampire, seeing what they could get away with not worrying about British certificates.   Like a lot of these movies, they use long takes to fill time and a wandering, semi-incoherent plot and suggest "it's dreamlike!" and maybe it is.  Maybe more like a real wandering, semi-incoherent dream than what we think of as "dreamlike" in most films.   Anyway, I won't go too far down the rabbit hole of these movies, but I figured being a little conversant in them couldn't hurt, and I picked this one as it seemed to want to be Carmilla, so I'd have a basic structure to compare it to.  But it really isn't that.   BTW:  their Dracula is just a guy who never does more than sit up in a coffin and eventually have a nude woman tossed on top of him.  Some days on a film set are just odd. https://ift.tt/bzt7rDn via The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/HUinMml September 05, 2023 at 08:31PM

#The Signal Watch #Vamp Watch: Daughter of Dracula (1972)

[bigeyeug]

MultiChoice Uganda and Uganda Communications Commission showcase Uganda’s cultural heritage in Nambi

By Our Reporter MultiChoice Uganda together with communications regulator Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) have showcased Uganda’s cultural heritage in a short film titled Nambi. The short film showed for the very first time in a screening at Century Cinemax, Metroplex Naalya on Tuesday. It tells the story of Nambi, a goddess who had to give up her powers in exchange for a life on earth…

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#MultiChoice Uganda news #Nambi #Uganda Entertainment News

[ramascreen]

Hell Yeah! Here's The Official Teaser For WARRIOR Season 3 Starring Andrew Koji

Season three of the Max Original drama series WARRIOR, based on the writings of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, debuts with two episodes THURSDAY, JUNE 29 on Max. Hailed as “the most underrated action series of the century” by Inverse, the series comes to Max for the first time after originally airing on Cinemax.   Logline: In the wake of the race riots that upended Chinatown in season two, Mai…

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#Warrior

[alwaysfirst]

Warrior Season 3 to be out soon

Jul 20, 2022 04:50 IST Washington , July 20 (AF): The wait for Andrew Koji starrer 'Warrior' season 3 is over! HBO Max just announced the news on Instagram by posting a slew of photos from the sets.Making the announcement, HBO Max captioned the post, "The wait is over! Season 3 of Warrior is officially in production. Catch up on the action anytime on HBO Max. #WarriorMAX #WarrioronMax"

The third season was announced in April last year. The show that aired its first two seasons on Cinemax, is going to be coming back with its third season on HBO Max. The show's second season premiered in October 2020 after the first season aired in 2019.

The show is based on the writings of Bruce Lee. It revolves around the horrific Tong Wars in the late 19th century in San Francisco's Chinatown.

Apart from Andrew Koji, the series also stars Celine Buckens, Kieran Bew, Olivia Cheng, Dean Jagger, Langley Kirkwood, Dianne Doan, Maria-Elena Laas, Dustin Nguyen, Miranda Raison, Chen Tang, Hoon Lee, Christian McKay, Joe Taslim, Joanna Vanderham, Jason Tobin, Perry Yung, and Tom Weston-Jones.

According to Variety, 'Warrior' was created by and executive produced by Jonathan Tropper under his Tropper Ink Productions banner. Justin Lin, Danielle Woodrow, and Andrew Schneider are also executive producing alongside Shannon Lee. Brad Kane and Richard Sharkey are the other executive producers of the show while Kenneth Lin, Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard are co-executive producing it. (AF) Read the full article

[peanutjelly6]

Style and also Activity of a Fresh NIR Celecoxib-Based Fluorescent Probe for methylhexanamineoxygenase-2 Focused Bioimaging inside Tumour Tissue

With this review, bTBI has been manufactured by cardstock detonators equivalent to Six hundred milligram regarding TNT exploding at Six.Your five centimetres straight for the rabbit's mind. Cinemax (100 percent O-2 in 2.Zero absolute environments) was utilized as soon as, 14 right after injury. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy had been done to investigate the effect associated with HBOT about the metabolism of neighborhood injured nerves inside mind tissues. Additionally we analyzed blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity, human brain normal water written content, apoptotic aspects, and some inflamation related mediators. Our outcomes demonstrate that hyperbaric o2 might confer neuroprotection and improve analysis right after mind blowing injury by promoting one's metabolism of local neurons, curbing mental faculties hydropsy, safeguarding BBB honesty, minimizing cellular apoptosis, and suppressing your inflamed response. Additionally, well-timed input inside of A week soon after injuries might be more conducive to increasing the analysis of sufferers using bTBI.Changes in nutritious packing along with unpleasant species are among the best human-driven disruptions in freshwater environments #Link# , yet our understanding how these people affect the biodiversity of ponds is still limited. We all executed expose famous analysis of the mollusc community associated with Oneida Body of water determined by our own thorough lakewide research next year and former surveys going back to 1915. Noisy . 20th century, the forest were built with a high water lucidity, along with abundant macrophytes and also benthic plankton, and hosted essentially the most different molluscan community in New York Condition, which includes Thirty two gastropod and In search of unionid types. With the Sixties, pond turbidity greater during a period of anthropogenic eutrophication, causing a 38% loss of species prosperity and a 95% decline in plethora regarding native gastropods grazing on benthic plankton. Following a invasion involving Dreissena spp. in 1991 and up coming raises throughout water clarity, local gastropod species richness extended through 37% and also large quantity elevated 20-fold by The coming year. As opposed, filter-feeding unionids ended up unaltered simply by greater turbidity during eutrophication nevertheless had been extirpated by dreissenids. Through different consequences on turbidity, eutrophication along with Dreissena spp. possess probable powered the actual noticed adjustments to local grazing gastropods through affecting the great quantity associated with light-limited benthic algae. Due to the high species richness and #Link# environmental significance of benthic grazers, keeping track of as well as handling turbidity is very important in conserving molluscan range.Your A-type phospholipases (PLAs) are usually crucial participants in glycerophospholipid (GPL) homeostasis and in mammalian tissues; Ca2+-independent PLA- (iPLA) especially may be implicated with this important course of action. Nonetheless, your regulation of this specific enzyme, that is important to avoid useless #Link# competition in between functionality and destruction, is not understood. Not too long ago, all of us provided facts how the efflux of the substrate elements through the bilayer will be the rate-limiting part of the particular hydrolysis involving GPLs by a few secretory (nonhomeostatic) PLAs. To study no matter whether here is the situation using iPLA as well, a mass spectrometric analysis has been used to figure out the pace involving hydrolysis regarding several saturated and unsaturated GPL kinds inside simultaneous utilizing micelles or vesicle bilayers since the macrosubstrate. Along with micelles, the particular hydrolysis diminished with raising acyl sequence duration separate from unsaturation, as well as small discrimination among acyl positional isomers had been noticed, presumptively due to the differences in the framework of the sn-1 along with sn-2 acyl-binding websites in the protein.

#Adagrasib #Fluorouracil #methylhexanamine

[otapptz]

Celebrating 20 years of #FastandFurious!🥳 How fast and furious time flies.✨💯 Who has been your favorite character all these years? Comment and let us know.👇

#otapp #Fast and Furious 9 #fast 9 #dar es salaam #africa #east africa #century cinemax #hollywood #hollywood movies #the rock #dwayne johnson

[clive-owen-and-the-knick]

I cannot describe how awesome the soundtrack to The Knick is!!!

#cliff martinez #the knick #soundtrack #cinemax #turn of the century #electronic #music

[dsneybuf91]

Warrior Season One Highlights

(Originally posted on May 28, 2022)

Jonathan Tropper’s TV show Warrior, which premiered on Cinemax in 2019, brings to life a failed pitch Bruce Lee made for a series dramatizing San Francisco’s Tong Wars. Executive-produced by Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, among others, the action-packed serial centers around the exploits of Ah Sahm (Japanese-British Andrew Koji), a Chinese immigrant who becomes a hatchet man for the Tong known as “Hop Wei”. Warrior seems to have earned a modest cult following, especially after HBO Max posted the first two seasons. After I finish each one, I’ll review my favorite episode from each Asian-American director. Among this season’s five directors, two possess Asian heritage, who in total directed three of the 10 episodes.

The Blood and the Sh*t

Airdate: May 3, 2019 (#5)

Director: Kevin Tancharoen

Writer: Kenneth Lin

"Transporting precious cargo via stagecoach through the Sierra Nevada, Ah Sahm and Young Jun (Jason Tobin) are forced to spend the night with three strangers at a frontier saloon in the middle of nowhere. The detour turns perilous when Harlan French (Christiaan Schoombie), a notorious outlaw, shows up with his henchmen, looking for a lucrative payday."

Sending Ah Sahm and Young Jun out of San Francisco for this episode serves the dual purpose of refreshingly changing Season One's pace halfway through, and fleshing out their friendship.  Despite the shift to a less urban setting, the episode maintains thematic consistency with the rest of Warrior, through its cynical depiction of anti-Chinese discrimination.  With a cast of Asian, Caucasian, and indigenous actors depicting a time of high racial disparity, the template of intimidating strangers winning over skeptics under their protection gains a poignant new layer; although I haven't seen the script's inspiration, The Hateful Eight.  Considering the influence of Japanese cinema on Western movies, it almost feels poetic to find an Old West tale boasting a Japanese lead actor.  Even though not all of this show's Caucasian characters hate Chinese people, the line between "good white person" and "bad white person" blurs when Harlan quickly shifts from saving Young Jun from castration by Mason (Craig Urbani), to attempting to rob Ah Sahm's and Young Jun's party.

Impulsive Young Jun, long-time Hop Wei member, provides a fascinating contrast to solemn newcomer Ah Sahm, with whom he does share an engaging camaraderie.  Young Jun's status as a second-generation immigrant justifies his cynicism, when he laments that his disconnect from his the culture of his father - Hop Wei leader Father Jun (Perry Yung) - makes him feel as out of place among other Chinese people as among Caucasians.  Ah Sahm's and Young Jun's varying degrees of familiarity with America even come through during the "anything goes"-style fight scenes, which prove as brutal and engaging as I can expect from Thai-American Kevin Tancharoen.  Young Jun mostly fights with weapons, as do other characters assimilated into or born in America.  In juxtaposition, Ah Sahm relies on his former home's hand-to-hand combat techniques, yielding additional gruesome results.

Bartender Lu (CS Lee) contributes a distinct Chinese-American perspective on the late 19th century.  As a manual laborer who eventually opened up his own business, he makes money through more honest means than Tong members do.  However, his backstory teaches that the majority of Caucasians would only respect people of other ethnicities for their own benefit - and even then, not to the extent of paying Lu fairly for his labor.  Judging by his statement of rarely receiving Chinese patrons, his current entrepreneurial position still amounts to serving white people for money.  Lu does prove that systemic discrimination hasn't rendered him submissive, such as when he and his wife Billie (Erica Wessels) both help protect the bar from the bandits.

Lu's blissful marriage to Billie delivers a necessary depiction of a functional interracial romance.  The episode before this one sees Penelope "Penny" Blake (Joanna Vanderham) begin to cheat on Samuel Blake (Christian McKay), the mayor of San Francisco, with Ah Sahm, as reward for saving her life in the second episode.  With Lu and Billie, Warrior gains a relatively less sinful example of love transcending racial boundaries.

Young Jun's own love interest in this episode, Native American prostitute Wankeia (Rachel Colwell), likely wouldn't present the most empowering depiction of an indigenous woman; her silence and profession reflecting the Old West's limited education and career opportunities for women of color.  On the positive side, Jason Tobin sells the plainly stated notion of Young Jun finding a kindred spirit in another societal outcast, as opposed to simply adoring Wankeia for her physical beauty.  During the climax, she also defies the impression that Native Americans in Westerns need non-indigenous people to protect them from selfish Caucasians.

The closest thing I could find to a flaw with this story concerns Harlan's motivations for the second attack on Lu's bar.  It doesn't seem like the episode ever explains how he knows exactly what type of "precious cargo" Ah Sahm and Young Jun must transport back to Father Jun.  The Western tone and aesthetic convinced me to overlook this, and just enjoy the adventure as an old-fashioned thrill dashed with social commentary.  Given the high quality of the performances and set pieces, I can excuse the contrived writing of a one-off baddie.  "The Blood and the Sh*t" adds an exciting buffer to Warrior Season One's midpoint, while reinforcing the importance of companionship in a ruthless society.

They Don't Pay Us Enough To Think

Airdate: May 24, 2019 (#8)

Director: Lin Oeding

Writers: Evan Endicott & Josh Stoddard

"After a bloodbath on the streets of Chinatown, the Hop Wei and Long Zii consider a novel way to end hostilities. Ah Toy (Olivia Cheng) and her real-estate business partner, Leonard Patterson (Frank Rautenbach), hit a fork in the road in their effort to buy a valuable piece of land. After promising jobs to Dylan Leary (Dean Jagger)'s Irish workers, Byron Mercer (Graham Hopkins) toasts senator Robert Crestwood (Patrick Baladi) at a fundraiser, while Penny struggles to hold her tongue. Mai Ling (Vietnamese/Chinese-Canadian Dianne Doan) warns her brother, Ah Sahm, against waging a battle he may not win."

The more plot-relevant of the two Warrior episodes discussed here demonstrates the series' captivating exploration of San Francisco's 1870s pecking order.  The various ongoing plot lines divide our attention between Chinatown's Tongs and prostitutes, working-class white denizens/citizens, and politically-powerful white citizens.  Each of San Francisco's social classes contains people who survive through unscrupulous business, but the Tongs and prostitutes earn the viewers' sympathy as people making the most of desperate situations.  When considering the period's patriarchal atmosphere, it feels even more intriguing to see the ruthless lengths that vigilant brothel owner Ah Toy and Long Zii's ladder-climbing Mai Ling will take to accumulate and exert power.

Throughout Season One, most of the Asian actors emphasize their characters' isolation by speaking fluent English among each other, but switching to broken English when addressing Caucasians.  When the latter group hears Chinese characters' personal conversations in Chinese, the spoken translations for the audience become reminders of the importance of understanding marginalized perspectives on society.  Due to Ah Sahm inheriting some American lineage from his grandfather, Andrew Koji and his writers emphasize Ah Sahm's isolation without resorting to broken English.  While he does demonstrate the ability to converse intelligibly with Caucasians, he usually prefers to say nothing at all to them.

Despite Ah Sahm's tendency to disappear for long stretches of this episode, he remains an engaging protagonist.  His devotion to the Hop Wei requires him to unquestionably follow orders from Father Jun, yet he still seems in control of his direction in San Francisco.  His agreement to duel Long Zii lieutenant Li Yong (Chinese-Indonesian Joe Taslim) comes off at this point as an attempt to ensure himself that despite Mai Ling's rejection in the first episode of his offer to bring her back to China, and Penny's termination in this episode of their affair, he still has purpose in America.  He goes so far as to disregard advice to drop out of the life-risking duel, knowing that a loss could both weaken the Hop Wei's hold on the drug trade, and embarrass himself.  Through Ah Sahm, Koji and the creatives tackle the task of presenting a protagonist as both dutiful, and proactive.

This episode draws its title from a quote by Bill O'Hara (Kieran Bew), an Irish-American cop assigned with lessening crime in Chinatown.  Warrior's attempts to endear him to viewers usually prove ineffective to me; in this particular story, any admiration I would've given him for refusing to support political supporters of the Chinese Exclusion Act feels canceled out by his own act of brutality later on.  I have noticed the irony of the oppressed becoming the oppressors, but his plotlines more often than not leave me anxious to resume focus on characters enduring a larger degree of discrimination.

A mixed martial artist and stuntman, Lin Oeding helped provide this episode with thrilling and visually stimulating fight scenes.  The opening battle between the Hop Wei and the Long Zii begins this episode in chaotic fashion, as a countless number of gangsters engage in fascinatingly choreographed killings.  A later brawl between Ah Sahm and some masked opponents impresses on a more intimate level; between the focus on Ah Sahm's need to survive the unexpected obstacle, and the long takes showing off everyone's skills.  Across all of the fight scenes, the total amount of onscreen blood seems to reach a tolerable level: Neither unnaturally low, nor nauseatingly high.  The goriest sights of both of these episodes go by very quickly.

Caucasians who engage in systemic racism boast understandable motivations, such as maintaining peace and creating jobs.  However, the show doesn't ask the viewers to forgive their bigotry.  In this episode, it becomes especially explicit when Penny objects the Chinese Exclusion Act, by attempting to point out hypocrisy of white men banning immigrants from a country that didn't originally belong to them.  While this opinion doesn't gain much traction in her patriarchal social circle, her lingering empathy for Ah Sahm helps her to nonviolently demonstrate resilience and a headstrong attitude.  Overall, "They Don't Pay Us Enough to Think" successfully provides several compelling perspectives of San Francisco on the brink of the Tong Wars.

Plugs

Special thanks to the Warrior Wiki for helping me keep track of everyone, even though several character pages reveal Season Two plot points right at the top.

Kevin Tancharoen and Kenneth Lin did a fascinating interview about the making of "The Blood and the Sh*t" on the day that it aired.

Violence towards Asian-Americans has reached alarming levels.  I would like my readers to donate to The AAPI Community Fund, even if I personally take no share of the funds.

#bruce lee #warrior hbo max #warrior max #andrew koji #ah sahm #jason tobin #young jun #dianne doan #olivia cheng #ah toy #mai ling #kevin tancharoen #kenneth lin #lin oeding #my posts #stop asian hate #tv show review

[jaynedolluk]

Recently I rewatched Season 1 of Warrior as I had the DVD. Love this series so much. It’s based on an idea Bruce Lee had and it’s the story of a Chinese man arriving in San Francisco in the late 19th century. Ah Sahm ends up working for one of the Triad gangs as he’s such a good fighter. The show highlights the racism faced by the Chinese people at the time as well as the misogyny and classism. But most of all, it’s a really cool martial arts drama with some interesting characters. And I’m so pleased to hear that it’s coming back. (It was originally cancelled by Cinemax after two series but HBO have now commissioned a third series) 

#warrior #warrior hbo max

[popculturebrain]

'The Knick' Season 3 Being Developed by Barry Jenkins and André Holland

The Knick, one of the best shows of the 21st century, is coming back. Created by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, the Cinemax series ran for two seasons, with Steven Soderberg directing all 20 episodes.

[signalwatch]

Vamp Watch: Daughter of Dracula (1972) Watched:  09/04/2023 Format:  BluRay Viewing:  First Director:  Jess Franco If the 1970's brought us anything in cinema, it was sexy vampires.  I mean, there's no shortage before.  Ask me about Brides of Dracula.  But by the time we got to the 1970's, we had moved into a weird twilight zone of art film/ exploitation film/ horror film where nudity was rampant and sex was not just implied in knowing cut-aways. As far as I know, of the Jess Franco movies, I'd only ever seen Vampyros Lesbos.  And, somewhat (in)famously, Franco was one of the foremost purveyors of cheap, wandering "horror" films that bordered on a Cinemax late-night entry and what cable would play on weekends in the 1980's while also absolutely existing as in-no-way-scary horror films. The movie is one of five directed by Franco in 1972 alone.  Whatever the market was, it was quantity over quality, and I suspect few scenes were actually scripted or anyone really did much to prep for the movies after getting a set of fangs, a Dracula cape and a location.  The movie uses a lot of 1970's film language, from racking focus into a scene (usually onto some natural object) and lots of lingering shots of people walking and not saying much. The basic set-up here is that Luisa Karlstein (Britt Nichols - aka: Carmen Yazalde) returns home to see her dying mother, who tells her where the key is to a family tomb, says there's an unspeakable horror there, and then immediately keels over.  Apparently ready for unspeakable horror as long as you look fantastic, Luisa heads into the tomb where she is immediately made into a vampire by Dracula, who has been locked down there for some time. Townswomen begin getting killed, a detective who really wants to be the love child of Columbo and Maigret, shows up and "Jefferson" (Franco looking like a dopey hipster) keeps telling everyone its vampires, and no one will buy it.   In between, there's lots of stuff like people playing pianos, a half-assed investigation, and Luisa making it with her friend, Karine (Anne Libert).   The movie wants to borrow from the novel Carmilla, but is clearly someone jotting down some ideas they liked in Hammer movies, not least of which was The Vampire Lovers and, even less like Lust For a Vampire, seeing what they could get away with not worrying about British certificates.   Like a lot of these movies, they use long takes to fill time and a wandering, semi-incoherent plot and suggest "it's dreamlike!" and maybe it is.  Maybe more like a real wandering, semi-incoherent dream than what we think of as "dreamlike" in most films.   Anyway, I won't go too far down the rabbit hole of these movies, but I figured being a little conversant in them couldn't hurt, and I picked this one as it seemed to want to be Carmilla, so I'd have a basic structure to compare it to.  But it really isn't that.   BTW:  their Dracula is just a guy who never does more than sit up in a coffin and eventually have a nude woman tossed on top of him.  Some days on a film set are just odd. https://ift.tt/eN5aiLP via The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/NWRtp8c September 05, 2023 at 08:31PM

#The Signal Watch #Vamp Watch: Daughter of Dracula (1972)

[bigeyeug]

Moonfall is a hollow, galaxy-brained spectacle - The Verge

Moonfall is a hollow, galaxy-brained spectacle – The Verge

By Reporter After bringing us narrowly averted apocalypses instigated by alien invaders, giant monsters, doomsday prophesies, and climate change (which, admittedly, hits a little too close to home these days), Emmerich looks to the night sky for the next threat to humanity in Moonfall, his latest foray into disaster-as-art on the big screen. The film casts Patrick Wilson and Halle Berry as a pair…

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Warrior Season 2 Episode 3 Review: Not How We Do Business

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This Warrior review contains spoilers.

Warrior Season 2 Episode 3

“Not How We Do Business” sums up the latest episode of Warrior in two ways. First, it’s a line that Zing (Dustin Nguyen) lays on O’Hara (Kieran Biew) when he finally breaks away from being a debt collector for the Fung Hai. “Not how we do business” also works on a meta level, this episode only has one Kung Fu fight. That’s weak for a Bruce Lee inspired show. There are two other fight scenes, but they’re scrappy brawls the likes of which can be found in any action drama.

Bruce Lee fans want Kung Fu, and not just any Kung Fu. As part of the Little Dragon’s legacy, it must be great Kung Fu. The lone Kung Fu scene in this episode is good and serves to introduce a pivotal new character, but that’s not enough. It’s not how we do business. 

This episode begins with a missed opportunity where Ah Sahm (Anthony Koji) is in the Barbary Coast Fight Pit, facing off against another challenger. That would be great, but the fight is already over. The opening shot focuses upon his burly challenger, but he has already been knocked out and is just standing stunned, then there’s a shot of Ah Sahm, and then the challenger falls.

Seriously? No Kung Fu? Starting in the Fight Pit is fine dramatically but shortchanging the audience out of a fight is not the way to go for this show. It’s a big ripe piece of low hanging fruit left to rot. Bruce Lee fans crave gratuitous Kung Fu. Whenever Warrior goes to the Fight Pit, there had better be a fight.

After that, Ah Sahm’s fight manager Vega (Maria-Elena Laas) teases him with the promise of a bigger purse in some other international arena, a place where Warrior will hopefully go at some point this season, but not in this episode. Chao (Hoon Lee) pulls Ah Sahm aside and implies that he knows about the molasses plot that he and Young Jun (Jason Tobin) are cooking up, and that he’s concerned over Ah Sahm’s rivalry with Mai Ling (Dianne Doan). Chao comments “I don’t see any version of that ending well” which comes as no surprise to anyone. If this all ended well, there’d be no fight scenes. 

Enter Hong – the New Guy in the Hop Wei

The centerpiece of the episode is the introduction of a new character, Hong (Chen Tang). Chen Tang just portrayed Yao in the new Mulan. In the original Disney animated film, Yao was Mulan’s hard ass comrade, and in contrast, he’s the shortest character (unless you count Mushu and Cri-Kee). The live action Mulan changed a lot – Yao was still the hard ass, but now he’s 6 feet tall and a less significant role. Nevertheless, Chen is a great addition to Warrior, exuding a southern charm because he was raised in Memphis and has a natural southern accent in real life, but he covers that up for Warrior. 

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Hong arrives ‘fresh off the boat’ with a batch of new recruits, hatchet men ordered from China by Father Jun (Perry Yung). Their appearance makes Young Jun nervous that Father Jun might be on to his non-Chinese molasses scheme. He’s also suspicious of Hong’s attempts to weasel his way in with them. Nonetheless, Young Jun and Ah Sahm agree to take Hong to a brothel. There Ah Sahm discovers Hong is gay but sympathetically keeps that secret. 

After that, the threesome stumble across some Fung Hai gangsters in the streets and Hong, either eager to impress or just hungry to kick some ass, takes them all out by himself. It’s a good introduction and reveals his expertise with whip chain. A whip chain is a traditional Chinese weapon, one that can be easily concealed as a trusty everyday carry for a Tong man. Chen Tong delivers a decent first fight scene with it. As weapons go, the whip chain requires more skill to wield than a nunchaku. Hong deploys both the whip chain’s striking and entangling methods proficiently, although the scene is in a dark alley and the shadows can conceal a multitude of sins. Chen Tong lists skills in Stage Combat, Karate, Kung Fu and Tai Chi on his resume and claims he did some preparation for the role of Hong studying Chinese whip chain and the Japanese equivalent manriki-gusari.

One of the best things about Warrior is the relationship between Ah Sahm and Young Jun. They have an earnest chemistry as two gangsters being gangsters, delivering beat downs, slinging molasses, and chasing sticky. This camaraderie is commonplace for buddy films and TV partners but it’s exceedingly rare and delightfully refreshing to see this for two Asian men in a Western production. Both Ah Sahm and Young Jun have a lot to prove and their connection is palpable. Hong brings a new lighter tone as the third wheel to their partnership. They already seem to be bonding as a threesome which is promising for the rest of the season. 

In the Room Where It Happens

Mai Ling (Dianne Doan) and Li Yong (Joe Taslim) pay a visit to the Fung Hai lair so she can scold Zing (Dustin Nguyen). Walking into Zing’s room is a gutsy move for Mai Ling, but with Li Yong at her side, she’s fearless. Zing agrees to Mai Ling’s terms, but not before she shares a ritual drink of mare’s milk with him. Mare’s milk, or Kumis, is a unique fermented drink because few alcoholic beverages are dairy derived. It’s usually not that strong, nor is it the disgusting chunky chowder depicted in Warrior but the Mongols are stereotyped as barbarians, just as they were in Mulan, so it’s depicted as revolting. Mongolians are poorly represented in film and television. Project their media depictions upon any other race and the generally disparaging tone is evident. 

On the way out, a Fung Hai thug gets up in Li Yong’s face and gets throat punched for his trouble. Don’t mess witjj Li Yong. Knowing Li Yong could destroy his crew, Zing calls off his man saying “Be thankful for your pain. It means you’re still alive.”

Much to Li Yong’s dismay, Mai Ling echoes this line towards the end of the episode, making him wonder if his boss is headed down the wrong path like Zing. While everyone in Warrior has their dark side, Zing has emerged as the villain with no redeemable qualities. Taslim brings a guarded nobility to Li Yong as Warrior’s most badass fighter; he’s loyal to Mai Ling, his lover and boss, but not blindly so. This, along with Taslim’s martial expertise, makes Li Yong one of the more intriguing characters. Mai Ling, like most of the rest of the cast, is another character with a lot to prove.

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Later, Zing, being the barbarous Mongol villain, threatens Chao (Hoon Lee) over delivering weapons. Chao, always the manipulator, discusses Zing with Mai Ling. Then later, Chao meets with Li Yong alone. Over bowls of noodles, Chao proposes a way to avoid war, teasing some coming intrigue to take Zing down. Everyone is aligning against Zing and the anticipation of this inevitable showdown is promising.

Sophie (Celine Buckens) sneaks into Leary’s (Dean Jagger) back room at the Banshee and finds his map of factories that use coolies. While she’s smart enough to realize that Leary is behind the factory firebombing, she somehow overlooks that Mercer Steel has got to be among those circled on that map too. Clearly her sister’s company is on the Irish workers hit list because they were beating up the coolies headed to Mercer until Penny (Joanna Vanderham) hired the Hop Wei for protection against them. Sophie and Leary finally hook up and Leary unwittingly echoes Chao saying, “This isn’t going to end well.” By now, the audience is well aware it’s not going to end well and has their collective fingers crossed that it will end in a massive Kung Fu fight at the very least. 

As they have a post-coital stroll, Sophie suggests that Leary get into politics with a nod to Hamilton by suggesting he should “be in the room where it happens.” Leary calls Sophie out when she says she “knows.” She’s an entitled upper-class woman and hasn’t seen the tragedy that Leary has. He tells Sophie of some of the horrors he witnesses, of friends and family starving, and starts to pull away from her until she draws him back. It gives Leary more context.

Given the era, Leary likely escaped the Great Irish Famine (1945-1849). Over a quarter million Irish emigrated to the New World and Leary would be part of that generation. The Irish are struggling too. During that period, Irish immigrants made up most of San Francisco’s working class and about one-third of the city’s population. This is another way Warrior sheds light upon a dark period of history.

Police Beatdowns

The other two fight scenes come from the cops. The first is short. Lee (Tom Weston-Jones) returns to Nora’s (Gaosi Raditholo) tavern where he got rolled last episode to exact revenge. He goes full copper, night-sticking and shooting up the joint until he gets his cash back. With Lee, Weston-Jones is echoing his role as Kevin “Corky” Corcoran, in his previous TV show Copper. Corky was an Irish detective in a period drama set in the late 18th century, the same era as Warrior. This is not so much of a bar fight as it is a cop taking out a few unarmed barflies. 

When a debtor’s wife flashes a gratuitous boob at O’Hara, offering him sex to pay her husband’s bills to the Fung Hai, it’s the last straw and he finally quits the Fung Hai. Even though O’Hara has repaid his debt, Zing exacts revenge by sending Tong men to invade his home and threaten his family. This happens right after dinner where Lee had been their guest. Lee comes to the rescue, revolver blazing, and a scrappy bit of violence ensues where O’Hara’s son and wife must defend themselves too. It’s a brutal sanguineous scene, leaving everyone dead or splattered with blood, ending this episode in a bloody mess. 

Warrior Season 2 can be seen exclusively on CINEMAX.

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