Movies

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480 - Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978, Hong Kong) - 8/10 - This film came out the same year as Drunken Master. Jackie Chan is a drudge at a kung-fu school and is often used as a practice dummy by the teachers. He becomes friends with a wandering beggar who teaches him snake fist style and Jackie becomes a talented fighter. It was pretty entertaining.

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481 - The Sun Shines Bright (1953) - 6/10 - John Ford directs this film about a judge in Kentucky who has to deal with an attempted lynching of an innocent boy, the shunning of a woman who returns to town to find out her ancestry, and an election between himself and a Yankee. It had parts that were decent, but overall I thought it was definitely a lesser Ford film.


482 - Center Stage (1991, Hong Kong) - 6/10 - Maggie Cheung stars as Ruan Lingyu in this biopic about a 1930s Chinese movie star who committed suicide at age 24 due to stresses including numerous attacks from the tabloid press. The film also has the actors and others in the present day commenting on what happened to Ruan Lingyu and the people around her. That was actually more interesting than most of the (fairly dull) 1930s part of the film, though the end of the film was better than what came earlier.


483 - The Goddess (1934, China) - 8/10 - After finishing Center Stage, I decided to watch an actual movie starring Ruan Lingyu. In this film, she portrays a single mother who works as a prostitute in order to support her young son. She falls under the control of an ignorant thug, but still raises money to put her son into a good school. Her secret occupation causes problems when it becomes more generally known. Ruan Lingyu did a nice job in this and I certainly liked it more than the biopic about her.


484 - The Tall T (1957) - 7.5/10 - A former ranch foreman loses his horse in a bet so he hitches a ride on a hired coach that is transporting newlyweds. Outlaws hijack the coach and take the passengers prisoner, figuring to get a ransom for the wife who is from a wealthy family. This is a pretty standard, but enjoyable western.

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485 - Spring in a Small Town (1948, China) - 7/10 - Liwan has been ill for several years and the family wealth is mostly gone after the long war. His wife, Yuwen, is lonely and doesn't have much to do other than sewing and shopping for food and medicine. Liwan's younger sister lives with them and is full of energy. An old friend of Liwan visits the family and turns out to be an old boyfriend of Yuwen. It's a decent film and the acting isn't bad, but it seemed like the pacing was a bit off at times.


486 - A Touch of Zen (1971, Taiwan) - 8/10 - A scholar/artist becomes involved with Yang, a warrior noble whose family has been targeted by the emperor's eunuch, who holds a lot of power in the court. The first hour was my favorite as we get to know the characters a bit and things aren't quite as fast paced. There is a lot more action after that, including nice scenes in the bamboo forest and with the ghost fortress. A pretty nice film overall.

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487 - Princess Iron Fan (1941, China) - 6.5/10 - This is adapted from an episode in Journey to the West. The Monkey King and two of his fellow monks seek to borrow a special fan from Princess Iron Fan. The fan has the ability to put out fires and bring rain. They want to use it to extinguish the fires that block their path in the mountains. The art is pretty decent, especially for the era. The story isn't bad, considering that I am not that familiar with the source material.


488 - Waves Washing the Sand (1936, China) - 7/10 - A sailor returns home after a long voyage to find that his wife and young daughter are now living with another man. In a rage, he kills the other man and then finds himself pursued by a police detective who is determined to catch him. It's a rather simple film in some respects, but was entertaining and had a few clever bits.


489 - Wild Rose (1932, China) - 7.5/10 - Jiang Bo is a painter who lives in the city with his wealthy family. He travels to the country to do some painting and befriends Xiao Feng, a country girl with a lively personality and a talent for mischief. When her father disappears, he brings her back with him to the city, though his father disapproves of her. I enjoyed this quite a bit, especially due to Renmei Wang who played Xiao Feng.

One interesting note (to me anyway) is Zhizhi Zhang has a small role here as Xiao Feng's father. He had a big role in The Goddess (1934) and co-starred in Waves Washing the Sand (1936). His star seemed to be on the rise. His last acting role appears to have been in 1956.

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490 - Woman Warrior of the Wild River 6: Rumble at Deerhorn Gully (1930) - 5/10 - A woman warrior battling bad guys. There is also a scene with a guy in a bird suit attacking someone. The movie is a bit interesting as an example of early Chinese cinema, but is pretty dull for the most part. (also, another movie with Zhizhi Zhang. He sure got around)


491 - Confucius (1940) - 5/10 - This film depicts the later life of Confucius. The costumes were decent, but the film itself is pretty boring. I thought the acting was bad or perhaps it was in a traditional style that I didn't enjoy.


492 - This Life of Mine/Life of a Beijing Policeman (1950) - 7/10 - We get to see 40 years of Chinese history through the eyes of a Beijing policeman. Governments come and go, but the suffering remains about the same. He doesn't have much real power and can be pushed around by those who are really in charge. In the end, it turns out to be a piece of Communist propaganda, but it isn't a bad movie.

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493 - Wagon Master (1950) - 8/10 - Two horse traders decide to help escort a group of Mormons across the desert to their new home. Along the way, they encounter a gang of criminals, natives, and others. This is a pretty laid back John Ford film that was entertaining.


494 - El Dorado (1966) - 8/10 - An aging gunfighter (John Wayne) helps his old friend (Robert Mitchum) who is a sheriff trying to keep a greedy rancher from stealing the water rights from another rancher. There is plenty of action and a fair amount of humor as well. A young James Caan plays Mississippi, a 'stray' picked up by Wayne along the way.


495 - Comanche Station (1960) - 8/10 - Randolph Scott rescues a woman who is being held by the Comanches and sets out to get her home to her husband, but there are a few obstacles in his way. It's pretty straightforward and I enjoyed it.


496 - 7 Men from Now (1956) - 7/10 - Randolph Scott is a sheriff out to get the seven men responsible for his wife's death. This wasn't bad, but it didn't seem quite on par with the other Boetticher/Scott collaborations that I've seen.


497 - Mulan Joins the Army (1939, China) - 7/10 - A good adaptation of the Mulan legend with music and comedy mixed in with the drama.

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498 - The Lawless Frontier (1934) - 5/10 - John Wayne stars as a man searching for the gang that killed his parents. When he comes across a rancher and his daughter who may be the next victims of the gang, he sets out to help them. There are a few nice twists, but it isn't a very good film overall.


499 - The Lucky Texan (1934) - 5/10 - John Wayne is a Texan who moves in with an old rancher that he knew as a kid. The two strike it rich when they find gold. The bad guys in town plot to steal his mine and his ranch.


500 - The Man from Utah (1934) - 4.5/10 - John Wayne is a talented rider who plans to enter a new rodeo and earn prize money. The town has most of its wealth invested in the success of the competition, but a crooked rodeo gang aims to profit themselves.


501 - The Star Packer (1934) - 4/10 - John Wayne accepts the job of sheriff after the previous sheriff is murdered. He has an Apache friend as a sidekick and seeks to track down the mysterious 'Shadow' and his gang who are causing many problems in town.


502 - West of the Divide (1934) - 5/10 - John Wayne goes undercover as an outlaw to join a gang only to discover that the leader of the gang killed his parents 12 years earlier.

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503 - Ride Lonesome (1959) - 8/10 - A bounty hunter (Randolph Scott) captures a man wanted for murder and teams up with a couple of outlaws and a widow to get the man to Santa Cruz to be hanged. The bounty hunter has to avoid the man's brother and friends who aim to save the man. This is another nice Boetticher film.


504 - The Far Country (1954) - 7/10 - James Stewart stars as a man who drives a herd of cows from Wyoming to Seattle and then takes them up into Alaska. He runs afoul of a crooked judge in Skagway before crossing over into Canada and getting involved in the gold rush. He tries to steer clear of other people's troubles, but eventually gets drawn in. It's decent and has nice scenery.


505 - Red Heroine (1929, China) - 6.5/10 - A young woman is kidnapped by an invading general and his minions. She is going to be forced into his harem, but is rescued by a martial artist who then trains her. Three years later, another young woman is being forced into a similar situation after her father is accused of treason. The Red Heroine now returns to get her revenge and save the second young woman. I thought it was decent for its time.


506 - The Peach Girl (1931, China) - 7.5/10 - A couple who work on a farm have a daughter and plant a peach blossom on the day they bring her home. The girl is the same age the son of the mistress who owns the property and the two children become friends. When they grow older, they fall in love, but the mistress sees class distinctions and refuses to allow their relationship. It's a pretty good melodrama and I enjoyed Ruan Lingyu's performance as the grown up 'peach girl'. Jin Yan was also good as her lover.

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507 - The Man from Laramie (1955) - 7/10 - James Stewart is a man who brings a wagonload of supplies to the town of Coronado, but he is really searching for the person responsible for selling rifles to the Apache, who killed his younger brother. He runs afoul of the vicious son of the local rancher who owns most of the land in the area. This is a decent western, but far from my favorite among the Anthony Mann/James Stewart collaborations.


508 - Ride the High Country (1962) - 7/10 - Joel McCrea has been hired to transport gold from a mining settlement. He encounters an old friend (Randolph Scott) who is going to help him guard the gold along with another young hand. They also have to deal with a young woman who leaves her father's home to marry one of the miners only to find it isn't what she was expecting. It's kind of a slow burn at times that never fully ignites, but isn't bad.


509 - Stop Making Sense (1984) - 9/10 - Great music with the Talking Heads and a great show as well.


510 - Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) - 6/10 - This film noir has a newspaper reporter as the star witness in a murder trial, though all of the evidence is circumstantial. After the trial, he begins having doubts about the man who was on trial. His neighbor is murdered in a similar fashion after the reporter saw a strange man (Peter Lorre) lurking around the apartment building. It has a few decent elements, but is not really a great example of the genre.


511 - The White-Haired Girl (1951, China) - 7.5/10 - Xi'er is the teenage daughter of a poor tenant farmer. She is happy and will likely marry Dachun, a young man about her age. The son of the wealthy landlord takes a fancy to Xi'er and forces her father to sell her to him. The girl is mistreated by the family and eventually escapes to the mountains where her hair turns white. I thought it was a good film.

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512 - An Orphan's Tragedy (1955, Hong Kong) - 7/10 - The film is based on Great Expectations and starts with a dying mother with a baby who is raised by a village blacksmith after she dies. 10 years later, the baby is now a boy (played by Bruce Lee) and the boy meets an escaped convict who is really his father. The father later escapes again and arranges to anonymously pay for the boy's education. The first half of the movie with Bruce Lee was more interesting than the second half after he had been replaced by an adult actor.


513 - Battle on Shangganling Mountain (1956, China) - 7/10 - It was interesting to watch a Korean War film from the Chinese point of view. In a lot of ways, it isn't that different from a U.S. war movie from the 40s and 50s. It wasn't bad.


514 - El Cid (1961) - 7.5/10 - Charlton Heston stars as the Spanish legend who fought with and against Christians and Moors in the 11th Century. It's a nice epic film, though not up to the level of Ben Hur or Lawrence of Arabia.

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515 - The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) - 7.5/10 - The music and scenery are excellent. The acting is also good, but the story isn't really all that captivating. It's a good movie, though. It takes place at the end of the reign of Marcus Aurelius and sees his successor, Commodus, undo many of the positive changes that Marcus Aurelius and previous emperors put in place.


516 - A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016) - 8/10 - Shoya and some of his classmates bullied a deaf girl named Shoko when they were in elementary school. Shoya took the blame for the whole thing and was then ostracized and bullied himself for years after. He's remorseful and is contemplating suicide, but decides to try and reconnect with Shoko in order to apologize first. The film is a bit slow at times, but is a good adaptation of the manga.


517 - Window to America (1952, China) - 7/10 - This satire features a suicidal window washer who encounters a businessman in New York City on the floor he plans to jump from. The businessman decides to try and capitalize on the event by getting the window washer to endorse a number of products, such as cigarettes, glasses, and suits before making the jump. They used whiteface to make some of the Chinese actors appear more 'American'.


518 - The Letter with Feathers (1954, China) - 7.5/10 - The Japanese army is on the move during the invasion of China. A young boy is tasked with delivering an important message to the Chinese army with the location of the Japanese headquarters. He travels with a flock of sheep, but has to use his wits to escape from the Japanese after they capture him and his sheep and also to keep the message hidden. I thought it was good.

519 - The Harvest (1953) - An agricultural collective in China has experienced great harvests for a number of years. However, one of the workers returns from a meeting in Beijing with the goal of increasing production even more and making improvements to protect themselves from drought by digging wells. He is met with some resistance which is eventually overcome and everybody is happy. There are also a couple of references to the was in Korea that were inserted into this Communist propaganda film. It's not bad and I liked the actors in it, but it is fairly simplistic.

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520 - Ying fei ren jian/Orioles Soar on Earth (1946) - 7.5/10 - Liu Ying is a popular singer who is very popular with the wealthy. Her adopted father/manager charges high ticket prices for her shows so only the wealthy can appreciate it. Liu Ying encounters Ren Jun one night after a performance. Ren Jun is a violinist who also conducts an amateur orchestra. He gets her to agree to perform with the orchestra for a series of charity performances to bring music to the poor. She doest this under an assumed name, but word eventually gets out, upsetting her wealthy fans and her adopted father. The movie has good music and is pretty entertaining, though the ending definitely could have used some more work.

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521 - 800 Heroes (1938) - During the Japanese invasion of Shanghai in 1937, a group of Chinese Nationalist soldiers defended a warehouse for almost a week. This film depicts those events in an effort to increase patriotism and anti-Japanese sentiment. It includes the real event of a girl scout making a dangerous journey to deliver a flag to the troops.


522 - Daughter of the Fisherman (1943) - 7/10 - A young artist intervenes when his father's men collect money that a fisherman owes. The artist becomes friendly with one of the fisherman's daughters and it looks like they will marry, though his father wants him to marry the wealthy daughter of a friend. The artist goes off to Shanghai to try and earn a living and support himself and a wife. The wealthy daughter follows him to Shanghai and secretly supports him, hoping to lure him into marrying her instead. This is a pretty good film with some nice songs from the fisherman's daughter.


523 - Dream of the Red Mansions (1945) - 6/10 - This adaptation of a classic Chinese novel centers around a young man who was born with a piece of jade in his mouth. He loves one cousin who is rather sickly, but is expected to marry another cousin who is worldly and wise, but with whom he doesn't feel that special connection. I thought it was pretty boring for the most part.


524 - Foo Fighters: Back and Forth (2011) - 9/10 - A nice documentary looking at the formation of the band, how they function as a group, and a bit about the creation of their albums. Lots of interviews, concert footage, and practice footage.


525 - Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972) - 6.5/10 - I like Pink Floyd and there were some cool visuals here of the volcano and ruins plus decent music, but the film as a whole didn't do much for me.


526 - Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943) - 7/10 - A vaudeville entertainer in San Francisco finds success with his quartet, but leaves them for greener pastures when he marries a high class heiress. However, it doesn't turn out as he expected. It's an okay musical, but only mildly interesting.


527 - Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) - 8/10 - A fun movie starring Angela Lansbury as a woman studying to be a witch through a correspondence course. She has to take in three young children who have been evacuated from London during WWII and they soon learn of her abilities. There is music, humor, and an enjoyable film.

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528 - Top Gun: Maverick (2022) - 8/10 - Tom Cruise returns as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, the aging pilot who is still a captain, even after decades of service. He is called back to Top Gun to serve as an instructor for a special mission. He also has to face people and memories from his past. It's a good movie and hits a lot of the right chords, though I thought it was a bit predictable. It is still solidly entertaining and fun.


529 - Barney's Version (2010) - 7/10 - Paul Giamatti stars as a man whose memory is deteriorating. A detective publishes a book that says that Barney got away with murder. We flashback briefly to his first disastrous marriage then his second marriage where he falls in love with another woman at his wedding reception. It's a decent film and Giamatti gives a nice performance.


530 - Dog (2022) - 6/10 - Channing Tatum stars as a former army ranger who is tasked with driving a dog to his buddy's funeral a long distance away. The dog served in combat areas and has a number of issues in addition to the loss of his companion. The drive does not go well at first, though the two eventually form a bond. It's watchable, but not great.


531 - I Wanted Wings (1941) - 7/10 - A decent, if occasionally boring film about pilots in training for the Army Air Corps. You get a variety of backgrounds and a woman (Veronica Lake) thrown in who brings trouble wherever she goes.


532 - The Little Kidnappers (1953) - 8/10 - Two young boys arrive in Nova Scotia from Scotland to live with their grandparents after the death of their father in the Boer War. Their stern grandfather is feuding with a neighbor that he accuses of stealing his land. The brothers get caught up in this feud a bit before coming across an abandoned baby. This is a nice film that takes place in 1904.

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533 - Destination Tokyo (1943) - 7.5/10 - Cary Grant is a submarine captain who takes his sub on a secret mission to Tokyo Bay to gather intelligence in advance of a bombing run. There are plenty of humorous moments with the crew along with action as well. It was an entertaining wartime film.


534 - Hair (1979) - 7/10 - A young man in Oklahoma heads to NYC after receiving his draft notice in the 1960s. He encounters a group of hippies and becomes friends with them before heading to boot camp. I wasn't really enjoying this that much through a good part of the film, but there were enough decent songs and some of the interactions were amusing so it wasn't too bad by the end.