A Little TLC(w): The Magic Crane (1993)

A low-rent wuxia yarn that reminds me a bit of Butterfly Sword:  I can recognize that it’s not all that great, but I still found it enjoyable.  Tony Leung Chiu-wai is fun and the action is exciting.  Just 1) don’t think too hard about the plot and 2) try to ignore the ridiculous, titular magic crane.

Masters and students from all the surrounding martial arts schools are coming together for a congregation, the least of which is the Tien Chong School, consisting of a single master (Yat Yeung-Tze) and a single student (Ma Kwun-Mo.)  As the two struggle to carve out a tiny bit of space for themselves at the congregation, all manner of hell breaks loose.  Let’s see – there’s a mystical martial arts princess who rides a giant crane through the sky (Pak Wan-Fai,) some kind of rivalry involving deadly musical instruments, lots of fighting between the various martial arts schools, tons of people getting poisoned, and a turtle gall/spleen with healing properties.

I’ll admit that my attention started wandering at points, but to be fair, I’m not sure if greater focus would’ve helped me make more sense of the plot.  I’m reminded of Chow Mo-wan writing martial arts serials in both In the Mood for Love and 2046, constanting confusing his writing partner by throwing in heretofore-unmentioned characters at random and bringing characters back from the dead without explanation.  It feels kind of like that.  Weirdly, though, it sort of works.  It fits the kung-fu grindhouse vibe of the film, all crazy action, ridiculous streams of spurting blood, and a truly horrific-looking fake giant crane (it’s hilariously bad – like, “it makes classic Who monsters look sophisticated” bad.)

But honestly, it is pretty fun.  It’s the sort of movie where I just strapped in and went along for the ride.  Sometimes, totally-random hodgepodge plots annoy me, but every now and then, a film is able to get by on its charm, happily throwing half a dozen story elements to the wall in between audacious wire fu. 

Leung, playing in-over-his-head martial arts student Ma Kwun-Mo, adds a lot to that sense of fun.  He acts as the bridge between the more grounded world of the conflicts among the martial arts schools and the more mystical world of giant cranes and palliative turtle organs.  He’s pretty literally swept off his feet by Pak Wan-Fai early on and then spends most of the film trying to help her while keeping one foot in the situation back at the congregation, so as not to leave his master hanging.

I enjoy Kwun-Mo.  Throughout much of the proceedings, he’s pretty overwhelmed and more than a little confused, but he keeps at it with the determination of a man who feels honor-bound to a beautiful woman with a magical crane who saved his life.

Recommend?

In General – A cautious maybe.  If you’re in the right mood for it – wanting some greasy drivethrough kung-fu fare – you’ll probably have a good time.

Tony Leung Chiu-wai – Again, maybe.  Nothing too spectacular in the acting or the character, but Leung is likable and entertaining as Kwun-Mo.

Warnings

Tons of violence (including attempted rape,) sexual content, and drinking.

The Book of Rannells: Sofia the First: Season 3, Episode 23 – “Beauty is the Beast” (2016)

Andrew Rannells has a ton of voiceover credits in his filmography from the pre-Mormon days, and I don’t really plan on going through all that for The Book of Rannells.  There’s a huge amount of it, I’m sure a good portion of it is tough to find, and overall, it’s just not a priority for me.  However, in recent years, Rannells has gotten back into voice-acting a bit, and those appearances I will be covering.

From what I can gather, the titular Princess Sofia is often whisked off to her plot of the week by the aid of a magic amulet that connects princesses from various kingdoms.  In this episode, she’s sent to help Princess Charlotte, who was transformed into a beast after refusing to allow a goblin to attend her royal ball.  The only way to lift the curse is to befriend the goblin.  Sofia provides ideas, support, and well-intentioned nudging in service of this mini-mission.

It’s very definitely a kids’ show, but it’s cute enough.  Sofia is sweet, and the message – of considering others’ feelings before acting – is good, if heavy-handed.  Princess Charlotte is a basically-nice person, but she can be pretty reflexively self-centered, and that interferes a little with doing what she needs to be a true friend to the goblin.

Rannells voices the part of Morris, the goblin in question.  As it happens, he’s endearingly obsessed with royalty and boasts an extensive collection of souvenirs he’s acquired from assorted royals.  He’s also very gentlemanly, good-natured, and a tiny bit of a fraidy-cat; the connection he forges with Charlotte (with Sofia’s help) is sweet.

There’s not a whole lot here, since there isn’t a whole lot to the episode in general, but it’s a good-sized part with some gentle humor and some cute moments.  Morris’s “royal” fanboy ways are amusing, with his gushing over his collection (open to the public on select days!)  Rannells also gets to be part of a song about friendship/getting to know each other, although it’s just all right.  He gets to sing it with Megan Hilty, who plays Charlotte (along with Ariel Winter’s Sofia,) but the song itself 1) feels really generic and 2) doesn’t give these terrific Broadway singers much to work with.

Recommend?

In General – It’s not the sort of kids’ story that has just as much adult appeal, a la typical Pixar fare.  As such, I wouldn’t recommend it for an afternoon’s entertainment, but if you have kids, there are far worse options than this to sit through.

Andrew Rannells – Eh, a light maybe.  It’s cute and amusing.

Warnings

A tiny bit of very mild scariness.

Relationship Spotlight: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens)

Catching up on all the Good Omens rambling I missed over the summer because I hadn’t seen it then. Anyone who’s watched the miniseries adaptation of this novel can tell you that the real headline of the piece is Michael Sheen’s Aziraphale and David Tennant’s Crowley, particularly the combination of the two together. Most who adore the miniseries will single out these two as its greatest asset, and even many of those who dislike the miniseries will still admit that Crowley and Aziraphale are great onscreen together. Whatever way you slice it, this is what it all comes down to (some spoilers.)

Right from “in the beginning,” Aziraphale and Crowley have had a complicated history. After Crowley tempts Eve into eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and after Aziraphale gives the two exiled humans the flaming sword he was supposed to be using to guard the gates of Eden, the angel and the demon meet and aren’t altogether sure what to make of each other. They reflect on heaven, hell, God’s Ineffable Plan, and the possibility that they may have bungled which one of them did “the good thing” and “the bad thing.”

The series later takes us on a scenic tour of Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship throughout history, hitting highlights such as Noah’s Ark, the Globe Theatre, the French Revolution, and World War II. Throughout, we get glimpses of this unseen tie that binds them. They’re ostensibly enemies, on opposing sides of a holy war, but every time they run into each other early on, they’re congenial with one another. And not only Aziraphale as you might expect, it being within reason that angels would be nice to everyone – Crowley is also thoroughly pleasant toward Aziraphale, going out of his way to greet the angel in a crowd and make small talk. As time goes on, however, they go beyond even that, moving from amiable acquaintances into becoming very genuinely important to one another. About halfway through that tour of history, we start seeing a pattern of Crowley seeking Aziraphale out, either to get him out of trouble or to proposition him for a two-celestial-being ceasefire (reasoning that he and Aziraphale, working for the forces of evil and good respectively, “cancel each other out,” he points out that they could just not bother and end up with the same result.)

But let’s focus on where Aziraphale and Crowley are in the main time period of the series, during the whole Antichrist/end of the world business. At this point, there’s very little that’s reluctant or tentative about their relationship. They regularly call each other, meet up for lunch or drinks, and discuss the work of their individual sides. Call them friends, call them lovers, call them frenemies, whatever you’d like – these are two celestial beings who are very decidedly in one another’s lives. While it’s not a relationship they’re keen to advertise to their own kinds, there’s no real pretense about them being actual adversaries.

This gets a little thorny for Aziraphale, though. As an angel, like I said, he’s pretty conditioned to be friendly and nice, but he knows he’s also not supposed to “fraternize” with demons. In their relationship, if one of them is going to shy away or pull back, it’s usually Aziraphale. He’s particularly resistant when Crowley suggests they team up to stop the apocalypse. It’s one thing for Aziraphale to let his heavenly orders lie once in a while, but it’s quite another to go against the Great and/or Ineffable Plan, especially working shoulder-to-shoulder with a demon. This is when he starts talking about sides and insisting that he can’t team up with Crowley. Even when Crowley wins Aziraphale over to helping him (after all, if the earth is destroyed in Armageddon, there won’t be any Stephen Sondheim premieres in heaven!), the angel spends a good chunk of the miniseries trying to deny what Crowley really means to him.

As with the “Aziraphale and Crowley throughout history” flashbacks, Crowley in the present day is pretty much all in, both on his plan and his relationship with Aziraphale, which I find continually surprising. For all of Crowley’s growling that he’s dangerous and not “nice” as Aziraphale repeatedly avows, there’s very little that the demon isn’t ultimately willing to do on the angel’s behalf, and he’s often the one fighting for the bond between them. It’s Aziraphale who continues to be unsure. He’s caught between all he’s ever believed in and this friend he technically isn’t supposed to have, one who keeps pointing out how all he’s ever believed in doesn’t actually line up with what he holds most dear. But no matter how often he tries to pull away, he can’t bring himself to cut that tie completely. Ultimately, it comes to him and Crowley standing together between humanity and the end of the world, and there’s no one the other would rather be standing there with.