I Need Help Film Fans

[LowerCaseRepublican]

Okay, gang. I got a paper due Friday by 2 pm.

 

I've got to watch a non-Japanese film and discuss the influences of Japanese cinema on the film. I chose the very obvious Kill Bill with the clear influences to the Baby Cart series and Lady Snowblood. However, I am also looking to see how the Hong Kong/Chinese influences affected the sense of Japaneseness in QT's movie.

 

So, if you have a few minutes, I'm looking for articles that would show the influence of Japanese cinema on the HK/Chinese cinema (specifically fighting films) of the 1960s and 1970s. Any assistance would be very much appreciated. All the books that I've asked my professors about are either not in print anymore or my library can't get their grubby meathooks on in time for me to write this paper. So my last haven is the internet.

[Kid Gleason]

Well, for one, the Samurai film is the Japanese influence. Most of your classic Martial Arts films, the Kung Fu variety such as Shaw Bros. is HK. I'm not too sure what you are looking for, but if you want to get flooded with info, travel to the website www.mhvf.net and go to the Asian board. Post this exact question you posted here, and get ready for your info. The people on that site are VERY helpful and they actually are "experts" on the genre, some of them having written books on the topic and many editors of magazines, websites, and even DVD company owners.

[Kid Gleason]

Hmmm, the wire work in Kill Bill is HK, and anytime you see the wire work in Japanese film, that is the influence of that. The wild Martial Arts, that is all HK. If you compare the Street Fighter series (Japanese) to the stuff being done by Shaw Bros. (HK) there is a drastic difference in the styles. Even today the Japanese MA films are nowhere near the caliber of the HK films.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

Kid, thanks a lot for the info.

 

I'm just looking for article examples of how HK/Chinese cinema is in Kill Bill and how these examples impact the sense of "Japaneseness" throughout the movie.

 

I've found some stuff about many Japanese directors working for SB during the 1960s and 1970s and cameos by certain characters throughout Kill Bill are from famous SB films. I'm just looking for articles about stylism.

 

I was also wondering if anybody knew why in the tea house scene with the Crazy 88 -- why it is partially in color and then goes to black and gray? Was that just to please the American censors or an homage to the old black/white samurai film or what?

[Rex Kickass]

To avoid an NC-17 rating I believe.

[KipWellsFan]

The black and white photography is ultimately an homage to '70s and '80s US television airings of kung fu movies. Black and white (as well as black and red), were used to conceal the shedding of blood from television censors. Originally, no black and white photographic effects were going to be used (and in the Japanese version none are), but the MPAA demanded measures be taken to tone the scene down. Tarantino merely used the old trick for its intended purpose, rather than merely as an homage.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266697/trivia

 

That's not very clear

[KipWellsFan]

The sequence where the Bride fights behind the blue-screen and we can see her silhouette, is a reference to SF: Episode One (1998).

 

 

http://www.peacedelic.co.jp/sf/english/index.html