As a ScreenAnarchy-O-Meter, this post will remain up on top of the page for one day. There might be newer posts below this, so don't forget to take a look!
In 2001 / 2002 the first mutterings and rumblings around "Shaolin Soccer" arrived on Western movienews websites, and I was very surprised when the articles mentioned an actor who was MORE popular in Hong Kong than Jackie Chan.
Huh? Was that even possible?
That actor was Stephen Chow, and although the type of comedy he excells in doesn't always travel well beyond Chinese borders, on occasion he shines with utter brilliance. He is not the best actor out there, not the best fighter and not the best acrobat, but he has a vision for gags which combine his talents splendidly.
Even bad jokes can be a lot of fun when the timing is right, but Stephen Chow adds an unbelievable amount of effort and special effects to that, always pushing it slightly farther than you would expect at first. None of his movies will be in my personal top ten, but I cannot deny that they all contain sequences that are near-perfect.
Case in point: one of the reasons why this article is so late is because I couldn't stop watching the films I took the screenshots from. I had to go to a certain scene to score a close-up, but before I knew it twenty minutes would have passed.
Anyway, in the end I managed to tear myself away from the screen. So once again I'm going to use a turn in the ScreenAnarchy-O-Meter to do a gallery of 5 close-ups of one of my favorite thespians. Guess which 5 movies they're from.
No competition, no prizes, just for fun, try to see how far you get without using IMDB.
And I'll post the answers on Wednesday (earlier if someone has all 5 of them right).
Good luck!
Stephen Chow is ready for his extreme close-up, Mr deMille!