The Meaning Of Chow Yun-fat (its In His Mouth) :: essays research papers

The Meaning of Chow Yun-Fat (Its In His Mouth)Ultimately, it come outs down to his gumshield.Chow Yun-Fat is the coolest moving picture actor in the being today, and the only way Ican explain this is to talk about his mouth. He does cool things with his mouth.Smoking cigarettes is no longer an emblem of cool in the USA, but Chow doeswonders with cigarette smoke in Prison On Fire. Director Ringo Lam understandsthis like most of the great Hong Kong directors, he loves using black motion andfreeze frames to pinpoint important moments in his movies, and he saves a few ofthe most elegant slow-motion sequences for Chow blowing smoke and looking cool.In crapper Woos over-the-top classic, Hard Boiled (the rough literal translationof the Chinese title is Spicy-Handed Gun God), Chow plays with a toothpick.There are few movie moments more violently cool than the shot of Chow, a gun ineach hand, sliding down a stair banister blasting a dozen bad guys while lettinghis toothpick hang just s o from the side of his mouth. In God of Gamblers, Chowplays a gambler who gets a bust on his head that turns him into some quasi-autistic prodigy, like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. Chow retains his intuitiveskill at playing cards, but now he must be pacified by constant pieces ofchocolate that he scarfs greedily, goofy smile on his face. Blowing smoke,dangling his toothpick, eating chocolate, or just smiling ... ultimately, when move to explain why Chow Yun-Fat is cool, it comes down to his mouth.Everything I have said so far describes a subjective reaction to watching ChowYun-Fat on the screen. Fill in the name of your favorite actor or actress,change the specific references, and this could be your essay. We dont learnanything new from such subjective meanderings we only determine tastepreferences. Im proud to be a Chow fan, but then, I am proud to be a fan ingeneral. With other favorites of mine, though, I am able to get at least alittle bit beyond subjectivity. Be it Murphy Brow n or X-Ray Spex, BruceSpringsteen or NYPD Blue, at some point I can analyze my relationship to thecultural artifact in question, place it in some cultural context, and come tosome hopefully useful conclusions about both the particular text and ourinteraction with that text. Chow Yun-Fat, however, seems to defy my attempts atanalysis ultimately, it all comes down to his mouth and nothing more.Try describing Chow Yun-Fat to someone who has never seen him on the screen.