Time passes, and my postings here have become infrequent. Life... It moves quickly, and I haven't managed to post about so many things. Have yet to talk about my vacation last year to New Zealand, this year to France, and much more. Reviews are non-existent these days; I watch things mainly for pleasure these days. Starting to find the ground beneath my feet though; my goal for the remainder of the year is to clear away many of the "Have to Do" things on my list so I can get back to a better balance that includes more "Want to Do" things. Progress has been made in that aspect. I'm getting better; I think I'll go for a walk.

In Summary:

Perhaps if more afternoon specials featured such wonderfully choreographed kung fu sequences, the message about the dangers of drug use would have been heeded more. What kid would want their kung fu to suffer as much as Tie Qiao San's did? Some spear wielding ruffian will just march right into your town, humiliate you, and kill off your students. So, kids, drugs are bad, but films like Opium and the Kung Fu Master are good and show off why people still talk about the Shaw Brothers to this day. This is easily a worthy addition to a kung fu fans library.

Have fallen behind in keeping things here up to date. So many entries that need writing... For now, I will start with posting about my reviews for the first two Shaw Brothers DVDs coming out in the US.

Shaolin Hand Lock:

Shaolin Hand Lock may not be the most action packed Shaw Brothers title to pick up, but it does serve as a decent introduction to the style and flair of their work along with the genre in general. The presentation is remarkably gorgeous for a film produced over three decades ago; toss in an amusing out-of-sync English dub, and you have a good first entry in the Hong Kong Connection line that makes me wish they were producing them at a rate that would allow me to relive a youth spent watching these films every Sunday.

14 Amazons:

Where Shaolin Hand Lock was a good introduction to the kung fu of the Shaw Brothers, 14 Amazons is a decent companion introduction to how bloody, almost to the point of camp, their films can be. If you can make it through the initial slow pace of the story, you will be rewarded with plenty of large scale bloodshed you will not soon forget.

I am finally starting a project I have been meaning to do for some time. Over time, I've blogged in various places -- LiveJournal, the AnimeOnDVD.com forums, etc. Now that I have my own permanent blogging space, I've wanted to pull all those posts and place them under this one location. I'll post them under their original dates and times, but occasionally, I'll bubble up ones under a "Reflections" post, either as a full repost or just linking to them.

First up is an experimental series of posts I made while reviewing the Evangelion box set. Titled "Reviewing the Sacred Bull", it was an attempt to shed light on how I reviewed titles by putting my thoughts to pixels rather than paper.

Sadly, I didn't manage to save the comment threads that went with these posts as the site migrated and moved over time; however, I will be posting the original comment threads for other migrated entries where available.

So, here you go, a look into the past...

• Reviewing the Sacred Bull - Prologue
• Reviewing the Sacred Bull - Disc 1
• Reviewing the Sacred Bull - Disc 2
• Reviewing the Sacred Bull - Disc 3
• Reviewing the Sacred Bull - Discs 4 & 5
• Reviewing the Sacred Bull - Disc 6, the Director's Cut
• Reviewing the Sacred Bull - Epilogue, the movies

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