True Left

Why Modern Movies Suck - They're Destroying Our Heroes

In Part 3 of my series on why modern movies suck, I'll be looking at one of the worst crimes of all - the deconstruction and ultimate destruction of our traditional ARCHETYPAL heroes.

(Disclaimer: the creator of the above video also made a video titled: Why Modern Movies Suck - They're Written By Children, which I have not listened to nor do I endorse).

Also related:

Why YOUTUBE is DYING (Creatively and Artistically)

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome, I'm Josh Strife Hayes and this is a video all about how Youtube is creatively dying.

The Decline of Gaming

In the last 10 or so years it feels like the quality of video games and especially Triple A titles has declined. But why? With advancements in technology, higher budgets, larger teams of developers, how could gaming as a product be getting worse?? Well, that's what I'm here to tell and show you...

Perhaps we should start a thread titled: Why Does Western Civilization Suck So Bad Artistically?

One thing I have noticed about many of the video game commentors on Youtube in regards to the decline of Activision Blizzard and World of Warcraft is that none of them have ever arrived at the conclusion that with each expansion that is added to an MMO (massive multiplayer online) the game becomes even more complex, an obvious Western attitude! How do you ever solve any problem by adding more complexity to it? Even the reduction of fractions in math is a simplification for crying out loud! Westerners for the most cannot see the fact that the more complex a system becomes the more errors and problems that system will ultimately suffer from and create. The same goes for life in general, the more complexity you subject life to the more errors and problems will arise. "This is not rocket science!" — A famous western slogan.

These sentiments also circle back to the Schopenhauer attitude of most people actually being pretty dull. I would add that every Westerner is DULL!!!

Wow, a mainstream news article about Counterculture-era movies:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exhilarating-action-scene-1989-donnie-231948566.html

A stunt from the 1989 martial arts action film “In the Line of Duty 4: Witness” has gone viral ahead of the film’s U.S. HD Blu-Ray release.

Uploaded to Twitter by @TimesSqKungFu, a YouTube and Twitter account focusing on Hong Kong action cinema, a short clip from the recent German Blu-ray release was shared on Twitter.
...
In the video, police officer Yeung Lai-ching (Cynthia Khan) fights a group of thugs on top of a moving ambulance. The clip starts with Khan hanging from the window of the vehicle as her legs dangle and graze the pavement. She fights off her assailants as she climbs over the vehicle, dodging gunfire and other vehicles before eventually rolling into the street as the ambulance drives away.
...
"Knowing that they did these stunts for real makes them terrifying,” wrote one user.

“HOLY F*CK I was getting anxious in the last part,” commented another user. “I have to see this movie holy sh*t.”

Best comment:

I’ve been watching HK movies for over 25 years and when the big hubbub a few years ago about there not being enough female led action stars and such, I sat there scratching my head because all I saw were tough women because HK films are full of them. I forgot that people don’t know about these gems from the other side of the world. Glad people can finally bask in the gloriousness of these classic flicks.

I agree. Indeed, the ITLOD series was considered mediocre by the supremely high action standards of that era:

Firstly, TV dramas allow for much more development in terms of story, characters and thus meaningfulness compared to movies. But I do agree that starting with movies first might make sense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroic_bloodshed

Heroic bloodshed is a genre invented by Hong Kong action cinema revolving around stylized action sequences and dramatic themes such as brotherhood, duty, honour, redemption and violence
...
Protagonists in these films are often good-willed criminals, typically Triad members, hit men, or thieves with a strict code of ethics, which in some cases leads to the betrayal of their employers and the saving of many intended victims. The police officer with a conscience, who cannot be corrupted in any way, is also common
...
Heroic bloodshed films often end on a downbeat or tragic note with the main heroes either dead, arrested by the police, or severely incapacitated.

One possible approach is to start with a movie and then look for the same actors in dramas. For example, the two main guys in The Last Duel (1989) reprised their partnership (though playing new characters) in the incomparably more meaningful The Edge of Righteousness (1993).

I recommended On the Run (1988) to Zea_mays a few years ago:

http://film.chanyuklinonline.com/_lobspc/RUN.Full

Other good examples of the genre would include Angel Terminators 2 (1992), My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (1989), etc..





If it's ancient China you are fascinated by, the margin of superiority of TV dramas over movies is even greater, but suitable introductory wuxia movies would be such as A Chinese Ghost Story (1986) or Swordsman II (1992)



It all depends on what you are looking for in terms of settings or themes.

Given your interest in Buddhism, it should be almost compulsory for you to watch the Buddhist epic masterpiece that is Journey to the West (1996) (*drumroll*):



The Journey to the West episodes are available here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf6G-fGLWGfxCvb0xpuMBBoWEgtAkAu60

However, do not watch the second season, and do not watch any other version; all of them suck.

Other than this, again it would be easier for me to recommend if you let me know what settings and/or themes you have in mind.

Continuing from:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/counterculture-era/is-counterculture-still-alive/msg18890/#msg18890

all episodes of Sukeban Deka II are available here:

https://archive.org/details/sukeban-deka-ii

The legend lives on!

Return of the Condor Heroes 1995 full episodes now online!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUxlohmoXranczb_inTOG8O1TQwgiQXYB

In contrast to:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/counterculture-era/the-archetype-of-the-warrior-how-films-help-empower-us-all/msg17399/#msg17399

which has no historical relevance, this one is set during the collapse of the Song dynasty under Mongol invasion and is a historically consistent fantasy retelling of the events preceding:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Xiangyang

hence is a good example of history spontaneously becoming legend over time (a phenomenon which only ended under the influence of Western academia). This one has it all: anti-Turanism, anti-Taoism, anti-Confucianism, teacher-student romance, etc..

"Do you know Chinese? I’ve been curious about this, because you tend to post Chinese media without English subtitles."

Yes, though if I could find subtitled videos I would post those. If you happen to find subtitled versions of the same series, please post them!

(I have considered softsubbing some of them myself in .srt format (which I have done for other dramas in the past), but the timestamping is time-consuming. If you (or someone else) could help me out by doing the timestamping, I would be willing to type out the subtitle text itself. Let me know if you are willing to volunteer.)

"The Condor Trilogy sounds amazing. You also mentioned that the third book featured Manichaeans"

This is correct. However, the first and third parts are not nearly as good as the second in terms of story and characters. (Full episodes of the first part are also available on the same channel, but I deliberately decided to not post the playlist here.)

"I checked out the Journey to the West rendition that you showed me already, and it’s pretty good so far."

Which video are you on at present? Please feel welcome to post it together with your thoughts! This is what this topic is for!