[Weekly Update] Nov 16, 2022

With Twitter becoming a circus, I ask my friend where I should migrate to, so I can keep in contact with fans outside of Patreon and YouTube.

I thought about moving to TikTok, but I really don't wanna do even more videos, let alone vertical ones.

So I said "maybe I should start an OnlyFans". But like, a SFW one.

And it honestly wasn't even a bad idea.

CHANNEL UPDATE

Hope you enjoy our Jet Li Retrospective! Patreon voted videos generally don't usually gather many views. It is thanks to you that I can do these videos without having to constantly worry about channel performance. I simply can't thank you enough!

In order to keep the video short, (and it's still pretty long at 17 minutes,) I have to keep the discussions on individual movies brief. That means I have to skip over most of his films, especially English-language ones. One day, I'll revisit those movies in a more detailed videos, because they are so much fun.

For now, we are moving onto a video on Chinese web movies, and I'm currently having a blast! Nothing changed since last week, so I won't repeat information here.

Finally, I'm still feeling some burnout currently. I'm trying to distance myself from work a little bit more, so I can take breaks in between videos. I won't be as active on social media or Discord as a result, and e-mail reply will be slower. I promise I'll be back soon!

MEDIA TALK

Alight, let's talk about few other Jet Li movies that wasn't included in our retrospective:

The Master was filmed in 1989 but released in 1992. It has some tangential connection to the Wong Few-hung mythos, which is interesting because it was filmed before Once Upon a Time in China.

In Hong Kong, It was released as "Wong Fei-hung '92" to capitalize on the success of the folk hero genre.

It's not a very good movie, and Li's action wasn't that great compare to his usual stuff. It's clear that Tsui Hark was still experimenting with Jet Li. It is pretty neat to see a Jet Li modern action flick before Bodyguard From Beijing, though.

Last Hero in China is a Wong Jing made Wong Fei-hung movie. The English title is inconspicuous. But the Chinese title is literally formatted to look like part of the Once Upon a Time in China series.

Although in reality it's a parody of the genre, nothing in its title suggests so. The fact that it also stars Jet Li must've confused so many people.

Copyright exists because Wong Jing exists, I swear.

Dr. Wai in The Scripture with No Words is a mouthful, but it was a childhood favourite of mine. I love it so much, I never even noticed it was a Jet Li movie. The movie itself is enough to captivate me to no end.

Dr. Wai is basically a Chinese Indiana Jones movie, but with way more action and some pretty imaginative VFX. They don't look very good, especially not for today's standard. But if you watch it with the mindset of a 90s Hong Kong filmgoer, this movie is such a blast. Grab a beer and enjoy.

Compare to Romeo Must Die and The One, Kiss of the Dragon feels way more serious. It also feels really French. Thanks, Luc Besson.

Supposedly, the story of Kiss of the Dragon is base on Jet Li's promise to his wife. When they became a couple, Jet Li promise to marry her if they can stay together for 10 years. They did, and they are still happily married.

The Forbidden Kingdom blows. I have no idea why people like this movie. A lot of people praise the film for its action. But even as a young man with no experience in filmmaking, I can tell you the action in that film is nowhere near as good as what Jet Li and Jackie Chan have to offer.

Also Jet Li just isn't very convincing as the Monkey King.

Also the VFX is really bad, guys.

Ocean Heaven... I'm going to need to make a movie on that one.

The Expendables is fun. It's not often you get to see Jet Li doing comedies, but his banter with Sly is absolute gold. I particularly love the part where he complains about being smaller, so the bullet holes are relatively bigger.

I have no idea what that whole thing is about, but it feels very Jet Li. As in, Jet Li the person, not the star.

And that's the update for this week. Work on the next video has begun, and I'll keep you updated on its status. Stay safe and hope you all have a good winter!