America, meet Chow Yun-Fat… Chow Yun-Fat, America

##America, meet Chow Yun-Fat…

I really wanted to like this movie a whole lot. I mean, my
exposure to Chow Yun-Fat has been through several collaborations with John
Woo back in his Hong Kong days. Movies like “The Killer” and [[Hard Boiled]]
set my expectations. Now, don’t get me wrong. Mr. Yun-Fat does an awesome
job playing the oh-too-cool-hitman-with-a-heart. What’s lacking here is a
clear sense of direction for the movie.

One thing is for sure about him, he’s one of the most charismatic actors
around. How many actors do you know that can have an extreme closeup of
their face held on the screen for upwards of a minute and show every human
emotion without looking just plain silly. There’s not many.

##… Chow Yun-Fat, meet America

For a long time, action film stars have been larger than life. Arnold
Swarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone come to ming. Huge hulks of men that
intimidate anyone just by their presence on the screen. Now comes a suave
action hero in the mold of Cary Grant (think about North by Nortwest).

Before filming started on this movie, he didn’t know how to speak a word
of english. Given that, he does remarkably well with the dialog (there’s
only a couple of awkward moments that I can remember) and eventhough he
was acting in a language with which he was unfamiliar, the performance
shone through.

Jackie Chan made his first go at being the writer, director, producer and star in his own movie. It is not bad, and serves as a good preview of things to come in his amazing career.

##The story goes…

Dragon (Jackie Chan) goes in search of his best friend Tiger
who runs away from school after being exposed as a traitor to the Kung-Fu
school they both attend. Tiger gets mixed up with the wrong kind of people.
Dragon helps to get him back on the right track.

##Early signs of genius

I knew going into this movie that it was an early effort by
Jackie to break away from the mold of Hong Kong movies of the time. The
basic you-killed-my-master-so-I-kill-you movie had long since become stale.
So around 1979 Jackie decided that what was needed was a bit more humor,
more interestingly choreographed fight scenes, and a different story line
that would hold an audiences interest for the entire movie.

He was right.

About this time he filmed his last two (Hong Kong) movies in which he
didn’t have complete control over what was going on during the production:
Drunken Master and Fearless Hyena. These two movies brought the comedy into
the genre, but not much else. With The Young Master, the transformation is
complete, and the Kung-Fu movie will never be the same again.

Sure, in many of his subsequent movies he’s not the director, writer, or
producer, but because of who he is he’s able to maintain control even if
not credited for it.

##All in all

All in all this movie is quite entertaining, but there’s quite a few slow
spots that make it hard for a non Jackie Chan fan to stick through it to
the end. The fight choreography looks choreographed (something that Jackie
is able to avoid in later movies), but is stunning nonetheless.

Ron Sirak (Golfweb):
Now here’s a scary thought
[Tiger Woods is playing better now than last year at this time!](http://www.golfweb.com/library/sirak/tiger980303.html)

I’ve gotta agree with Jack Nichlaus on this one:
[Fix the Balls, Not the Holes](http://www.golfweb.com/library/sirak/golfnotes980303.html)

Thank goodness someone in the government is finally waking up!
[Senators rake Gates over the coals (3/03/1998)](http://www.sjmercury.com/business/microsoft/docs/senate030498.htm.)
I’ve been thinking that they should break up Microsoft for years!

If you just finished watching “Braveheart”, then take a look here for
[Images of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce](http://www.magicdragon.com/Wallace/.)

Don’t ask me how, but
[Apple numbers looking up](http://www.zdnet.com/macweek/mw*1209/nw*survey.html.)
I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for one of my favorite companies.