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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: John Woo on RED CLIFF

The short form would be that John Woo rediscovered himself in returning to China, but that really doesn’t capture what’s going on. Woo made his name with such beautiful, dynamic, and surprisingly thoughtful urban crime films as HARD BOILED and THE KILLER — pop culture with soul — then made his way to America for films like BROKEN ARROW, FACE/OFF, and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE II. Pop culture, still — with bigger budgets and bigger stars, granted — but with something missing: Even when Woo touched on the themes that first earned him the love of film fans, it was clear that there was a subtle but critical dissipation of that all-important soul.

So Woo is now back in China. But instead of a full return to familiar, city-grit turf (asphalt?), he’s leveraging his Hollywood-nurtured clout and turned his attention to epic adventure. The result is RED CLIFF, a mammoth (the original Chinese version ran five hours, we’re getting a version that clocks in at somewhere in the neighborhood of two and a half) historical drama based on a fourteenth century novel about two kingdoms who join military forces to repel the onslaught of a usurper general (Zhang Fengyi). And aside from the return of Tony Leung to the Woo fold as a military strategist, and the appearance of Zhao Wei in a very Tsui Harkian role as a female warrior who goes undercover in drag to scout out the opposing forces (other stars in the large cast include Takeshi Kaneshiro as another key strategist, You Yong and Chang Chen as the rival kings turned allies, and Chiling Lin as what amounts to a Chinese Helen of Troy), you can tell Woo is regaining his form in how the lead protagonists form bonds that are less military expediency than they are full-on brotherhood, and the sheer energy and beauty of the production (maybe I’m overdramatizing, but a CG sequence of a dove — John Woo, remember? — overflying the opposing camps looks as much like Woo’s creative heart taking flight as it does a neat way to transition from one locale to another).

I was kind of expecting that having faced/down Tom Cruise, Woo would present a rather battle-hardened front for the press. Instead, he was quiet, polite, and rather self-effacing — which only reinforced my original respect for him. We got to talk about how one brings down to earth a tale originally told at a time when heroes, as a matter of course, were ascribed supernatural powers, and how his sojourn in Tinsel Town positioned him to push the Chinese film industry into more ambitious realms. Click on the link above to hear the interview.The short form would be that John Woo rediscovered himself in returning to China, but... more

DanPersons
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PUSH-BUTTON WAR

Civilians caught in the crossfire. Unlawful CIA warfare.

Jenime
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Push-Button War

Update: Suspected drone kills 8 militants in Pakistan
November 20, 2009 3:32 a.m. EST
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/20/pakistan.suspected.drones/index.html

The U.S. government runs two drone programs. The military’s version, which is publicly acknowledged, operates in the recognized war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, and targets enemies of U.S. troops stationed there. As such, it is an extension of conventional warfare. The C.I.A.’s program is aimed at terror suspects around the world, including in countries where U.S. troops are not based. It was initiated by the Bush Administration and, according to Juan Zarate, a counterterrorism adviser in the Bush White House, Obama has left in place virtually all the key personnel. The program is classified as covert, and the intelligence agency declines to provide any information to the public about where it operates, how it selects targets, who is in charge, or how many people have been killed.

Nevertheless, reports of fatal air strikes in Pakistan emerge every few days. Such stories are often secondhand and difficult to confirm, as the Pakistani government and the military have tried to wall off the tribal areas from journalists. But, even if a precise account is elusive, the outlines are clear: the C.I.A. has joined the Pakistani intelligence service in an aggressive campaign to eradicate local and foreign militants, who have taken refuge in some of the most inaccessible parts of the country.

The first two C.I.A. air strikes of the Obama Administration took place on the morning of January 23rd—the President’s third day in office. Within hours, it was clear that the morning’s bombings, in Pakistan, had killed an estimated twenty people. In one strike, four Arabs, all likely affiliated with Al Qaeda, died. But in the second strike a drone targeted the wrong house, hitting the residence of a pro-government tribal leader six miles outside the town of Wana, in South Waziristan. The blast killed the tribal leader’s entire family, including three children, one of them five years old. In keeping with U.S. policy, there was no official acknowledgment of either strike.Update: Suspected drone kills 8 militants in Pakistan November 20, 2009 3:32 a.m. EST... more

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tagged w/ War

MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: John Woo on RED CLIFF

PUSH-BUTTON WAR

Push-Button War

UNCLE SAM : LIVE FROM THE DUMPSTER !

Not in the NEWS: Russian Federation: Nuke ‘Aggressors’ at “first strike” as part of new military doctrine.

My Experience in Afghanistan & My Message to President Obama

Ron Paul's Effort to End The War

Hamid Karzai sets target for US withdrawl from Afghanistan within five years in inauguration speech

A token of esteem

US People Detached from the True Cost of War?

God of War: Collection - PlayStation LifeStyle Review

Purple Heart recipients prove tenacity under fire

Birth Defects Result of US Depleted Uranium

Israel: The New Totalitarian State

Gen. McChrystal: War Profiteer?

Brit Army Tells Soldiers to 'Bribe' Taliban

Pakistan's Taliban Issues Video Denial

Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan

Ben Foster Interviewed - Star of the brilliant new film 'The Messenger'

Jeremy Scahill: "Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama"

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