Quentin Tarantino's Hong Kong connection

[DiP]

Great read!

http://www.easternkicks.com/features/the-eastern-connection-part-1-reservoir-dogs-and-city-on-fire

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Cynics would even point out that French New Wave director Jean-luc Godard pioneered the ‘ordinary talk’ that made Tarantino famous, and it’s no secret Quentin was fond of Godard’s movies.

While Tarantino has said that he is a fan of Godard and not really a fan of Truffaut, he is not above being influenced from Truffaut. That ordinary talk from thugs is certainly similar to Shoot the Piano Player. The checking off the list and the basic plot of Kill Bill is certainly from The Bride Wore Black.

This is very tied in with our capitalist notion of exclusively ‘owning’ (and making money off) an idea, but that’s a topic for a totally different article and I won’t get into it here.

This is always annoying when someone writes that they won't get into it here when they already have. It reads awkwardly and should have been edited out. That and "It’s a very Western notion to call something ‘original’, assuming ideas come out of nowhere." which is partially ignorant and too generic to actually mean anything (In American film, artists used to copy each other all the time for decades -- a stance taken from vaudeville. It also seems to make a statement in the inverse that Eastern notion has no idea of originality -- once again too generic and logically unsound.)

He is correct that the voices stating that the film was a straight copy were wrong. When I first watched City on Fire I was expecting a remake, instead of what it was.

It was often very much on the nose too, adding some extra cheesiness to the already cheesy eighties.

Do you really think of City on Fire (and/or John Woo as cheesy?)

[LemmyThePirate]

Cheese is an interesting adjective, it can be celebratory or negative depending on your preference. For example I see say a list of the best B-movies online, a cool list with a lot of fun good movies I'd say, but the comments are all saying these shouldn't be called b-movies. I think a B-movie can be good, and cheese can be a good thing.

In the case of HK melodrama, I love A Better Tomorrow but it is as cheesy as any soap opera if that kind of over-the-top melodrama is inherently cheesy to you. But I don't think that's inherently a bad thing, I like cheese, and well done melodrama.

As for QT, I never found City on Fire to have much in common with what makes Reservoir Dogs work, and thought City on Fire was just so-so. As the article says, there are plot similarities and scenes that influenced him, and also surely film noir heist movies like Asphalt Jungle or The Killing etc as well. Reservoir Dogs is mostly known for the memorable dialogue and characters, not the cops and undercover cop scenario, though that helps. And the original style and tone, with the flippant comedy and pop culture references, and music etc. All the elements that make it a classic to me aren't lifted from City on Fire, but it is fair to cite it as an influence. But everybody is influenced by everything.

A lot of the movies people say he stole from, Drugstore Cowboy etc, sure he's seen these movies and they influenced him, and he may use a camera angle or an idea here and there. But I'd say while wearing his influences on his sleeve, QT is still one of the most original writers out there. His characters, their voices in their dialogue, so much is original. And it's not like we don't see plenty of derivative films in general, but to me QT is never really derivative. He may do a Sergio Leone spaghetti western influenced style film, but he's still tells many original stories in a largely original way.

And so does John Woo of course, The Killer is one of the all time best movies ever in my book.

It is interesting that QT is pretty much the only filmmaker that gets this specific scrutiny for influences and borrowing from films he's seen, fame puts you under a microscope I guess. But I'd be curious to see more articles like this with filmmakers you wouldn't expect.