The Meaning Of Chow Yun-fat (its In His Mouth)

2315 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Influence of smoking on film characters

The Meaning of Chow Yun-Fat (It's In His Mouth)

Ultimately, it comes down to his mouth.

Chow Yun-Fat is the coolest movie actor in the world today, and the only way I can explain this is to talk about his mouth. He does cool things with his mouth.
Smoking cigarettes is no longer an emblem of cool in the USA, but Chow does wonders with cigarette smoke in Prison On Fire. Director Ringo Lam understands this; like most of the great Hong Kong directors, he loves using slow motion and freeze frames to pinpoint important moments in his movies, and he saves a few of the most elegant slow-motion sequences for Chow blowing smoke and looking cool.

In John Woo's over-the-top classic, Hard Boiled (the rough literal translation of the Chinese title is Spicy-Handed Gun God), Chow plays with a toothpick.
There are few movie moments more violently cool than the shot of Chow, a gun in each hand, sliding down a stair banister blasting a dozen bad guys while letting his toothpick hang just so from the side of his mouth. In God of Gamblers, Chow plays a gambler who gets a bump on his head that turns him into some quasi- autistic prodigy, like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. Chow retains his intuitive skill at playing cards, but now he must be pacified by constant pieces of chocolate that he scarfs greedily, goofy smile on his face. Blowing smoke, dangling his toothpick, eating chocolate, or just smiling ... ultimately, when trying to explain why Chow Yun-Fat is cool, it comes down to his mouth.

Everything I have said so far describes a subjective reaction to watching Chow
Yun-Fat on the screen. Fill in the name of your favorite actor or actress, change the specific references, and this could be your essay. We don't learn anything new from such subjective meanderings; we only identify taste preferences. I'm proud to be a Chow fan, but then, I am proud to be a fan in general. With other favorites of mine, though, I am able to get at least a little bit beyond subjectivity. Be it Murphy Brown or X-Ray Spex, Bruce
Springsteen or NYPD Blue, at some point I can analyze my relationship to the cultural artifact in question, place it in some cultural context, and come to some hopefully useful conclusions about both the particular text and our interaction with that text. Chow Yun-Fat, however, seems to defy my attempts at analysis; ultimately, it all comes down to his mouth and nothing more.

Try describing Chow Yun-Fat to someone who has never seen him on the screen.

Show More
Related

  • Essay On Mao's Last Dancer

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most films captivate the audience’s interest through the main character. This film did just that. Through the main character Li Cunxin, I was able to notice the amount of hard work and dedication which lead Li to become a famous ballet dancer known worldwide. The film based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin, “Mao’s Last Dancer” directed by Bruce Beresford is about a Chinese boy named Li Cunxin who was born into a large family of 6 boys. At the age of eleven, Li was selected from a poor Chinese village by Madam Mao’s cultural representatives to leave his family and study ballet in Beijing. The film focussed on his eventual departure from China to U.S.A after being selected by a world leading choreographer, Ben Stevenson and the consequences that followed.

    Read More

  • Smoking Quotes In Letting Go By David Sedaris

    1389 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sedaris changed from a non- smoker to a frequent smoker. In one incident, Sedaris used a cigarette to seem tough when he was faced with an individual who he described to be prison like. Sedaris reacted to this incident with, “I might have simply covered, but now I put a cigarette in my mouth [...] This man was going to rob me [...] but no, ‘give me one of those [cigarettes]’ he said” (2) .Sedaris uses this experience to show a sense that in society one looks tough while smoking, and that they won 't get bothered when they have a cigarette in their mouth. This also shows there is a bond between smokers. This perceived bond between a man who looked like a criminal and a man who puts a cigarette in his mouth made Sedaris feel tough about himself. Even though Sedaris may not admit that, he is an addict smoker, smoking controlled him, as when he states, “When New York banned smoking in the workplace I quit working. When banned in restaurants I stop eating out” (3). Sedaris here is not just a smoker, but a smoker who is so controlled by smoking that he puts smoking over his job and even eating. This definitely shows the negative effect that smoking has had over

    Read More

  • Interpretation of the Balcony Scene by Baz Luhrmann and Franco Zeffirelli of William Shakespreare's Romeo and Juliet

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    film goes is very fast and it changes from one location to the next in

    Read More

  • Why "Huckleberry Finn" Is Not An Appropriate Booke

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ttle between feuding families, a young boy named Buck is shot and his corpse is found floating in the river. Huck's companion, Jim, shows the deep welts of a whipping he's been subjected to. During a mob scene, a shooting and a stabbing occur. Repetitive risky behavior

    Read More

  • The Marlboro Man Article Analysis

    1494 Words  | 3 Pages

    The central point the author drives home is that at the turn of the twentieth century, cigarette smoking was not deemed an acceptable practice for middle or upper class men in the United States. The author states that there were numerous factors, each seemingly more extreme than the last, that lead to the acceptance

    Read More

  • The Movie Titus

    1673 Words  | 4 Pages

    The opening scene starts with a little boy in a classic 90’s kitchen, which is set up similar to a low class restaurant. He is wearing a baggy t-shirt and blue jeans with a brown paper bag over his head. He is sitting at a dining table watching a cartoon on a TV. The camera does not cast the TV, so you are unaware from what period it is from, but never the less it is there. The cartoon has rodeo horns and a man yelling ‘come one come on’ with a groggy voice similar to Popeye the sailor man. He is at his kitchen table playing with electric helicopters, robots and action figures while eating a hotdog alone. He starts to destroy the table by pouring salt out of a salt shaker over everything and squeezing the ketchup out of a generic glass ketchup bottle. For the most part this is a silent scene, the only noises are the onomonopeia’s made by this little boy to express the actions of his toys. While in the mid...

    Read More

  • Personal Essay: Moving To California

    1212 Words  | 3 Pages

    I can understand why I found it cool, many people did, and still do. There’s some kind of dangerous and risky appeal to it. But, it’s place on my personal pedestals has definitely been replaced by other blooming trends and things I consider cool. There is no strong force still drawing me to smoking cigarettes and i’m thankful for that. Thankful that I listened to my parents and never smoked, and thankful that I wasn’t like some of those children from my hometown in India that actually got addicted. Before, I was drawn to smoking because it was strange and mysterious, yet it had some kind of elegance. Now that i’m more capable of understanding this thing and its side effects, therefore I feel no need to try it. More so, over the years it lost it’s power over me because as multitudes of facts and reports of its negative side effects were released and it became less idolized since more people realized how physically dangerous it

    Read More

  • Lee Mun Wah Essay

    430 Words  | 1 Pages

    Lee Mun Wah is a documentary filmmaker, educator, author, therapist, and diversity trainer. He is also the founder of Stirfry seminars and Consulting which is a diversity training company. On January 31, 2017, Lee Mun Wah came to Iowa State University to host an interactive session on diversity in the Sun Room located in the Memorial Union.

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: My Baseball Journey

    297 Words  | 1 Pages

    Baseball was my life for fifteen years; learning values and tracing favorite memories back to my baseball journey make me grateful for these experiences. However, after a year of playing baseball in college while battling an injury, I decided to alter my goals; ultimately choosing to leave baseball behind. Finishing out the school year and anticipating what I might expect in the future left me feeling lighter; I believed I made the right choice. While on summer break, reflecting on my decision and thinking about my next journey, I became uncomfortable: I was no longer athletically active; I was no longer dedicated to a team, and I did not anticipate the search to find myself would leave me feeling uneasy. My fresh start began by transferring

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative Essay: Major League Baseball

    965 Words  | 2 Pages

    As I layed in my bed on a cold and windy Friday night, i could hear the roar from Fenway park across the street. The Red Sox had a game tonight against their long time rival the New York Yankees. Their games would always be so thrilling and so exciting to be at, i was a young 15 year old boy who like everyone else wanted to be a MLB baseball player. I had always dreamed about playing on that beautiful and playing against those Yankees. Living in Boston mostly everyone here absolutely hates the yankees. I was having a hard time going to bed so i looked outside and was looking at all the people outside walking outside the Ballpark.

    Read More

  • Summary of the Film Hero

    354 Words  | 1 Pages

    The amazing actions scenes just leap out of the screen and the film is still

    Read More

  • Analysis of In the Mood for Love

    2575 Words  | 6 Pages

    "Decade: Wong Kar-wai on "In The Mood For Love"." Indiewire. N.p., 7 Aug. 2013. Web. 9 May 2014. .

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: High School Baseball Team

    498 Words  | 1 Pages

    Mine and Jackie’s barrier are pretty similar, well it involves the small five ounce, nine inch in circumference, little red seamed and white ball. Ever since I was little I was always fascinated with it, and the environment. On those sunny saturdays, with the cool breeze of the air brushing against my arm, to the stormy sundays when the frigid moist lies on my lips and my legs in tight knots, I’ve always enjoyed the game called baseball. Since my first grand slam (tee ball) I realized that I’m a pretty good baseball player and I could be if I kept working on it. Then it hit me, literally. While I was jogging to first base, I had this sudden moment of realization that hurt worse than the baseball. Could I make the high school baseball team?

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Letting Go David Sedaris

    1461 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sedaris has changed from a non- smoker to a frequent smoker. In one incident, Sedaris uses a cigarette to seem tough when he was faced with an individual who he described to be prison like. Sedaris reacts to this incident with, “I might have simply covered, but now I put a cigarette in my mouth [...] This man was going to rob me [...] but no “give me one of those [cigarettes] he said” (2) .Sedaris used this experience to show a sense that in society one looks tough while smoking, and that they won 't get bothered when they have a cigarette in their mouth. This also shows there is some kind of bond between smokers. Not necessarily a good bond or a positive bond that is needed in society. This is a bond between a man that looks like a criminal and a man who puts a cigarette in his mouth to feel tough about himself. Even though Sedaris may not admit that he is an addict smoker, this is shown when he states, “When New York banned smoking in the workplace. I quit working When banned in restaurants I stop eating out”(3).Sedaris here is not just a smoker, but a smoker who is controlled by smoking he puts smoking over his job and even eating. This definitely shows a negative effect that smoking has had over Sedaris as it has taken over

    Read More

  • Violence, a theme in the Movie "The Shining"

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    techniques such as Camera angles, Lighting and sound. This movie users all of this elements

    Read More

More about The Meaning Of Chow Yun-fat (its In His Mouth)

Open Document