Posts by Dr. Craig D. Reid
Craig started off in the biz in 1979 as a stuntman/actor in Chinese Kung Films in Taiwan, the token white dude that got his butt kicked in by a different kung fu star every few months. A former writer for Rueters of Asia, he's written over 1000 articles for magazines (when they truly were in vogue), is an award winning screenwriter, was a fight choreographer in Hollywood for 10 years and his critically acclaimed first book The Ultimate Guide to the Martial Arts Movies of the 1970s was published by Black Belt Books 12/10.
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SDAFF CLOSING NIGHT- The Film “A Better Man”Molds into an Even Better Woman.
Posted November 18th, 2017 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized
A Female victim of abuse helps her ex-beau become the film’s title…A Better Man. Documentaries and true stories bring us windows of someone else’s lives, where we can lay witness to the suffering and hardships of others. We in essence became Sunday, armchair quarterbacks expounding upon our own intuitive (usually pseudo-intuitive) sense of how he […]
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THE VILLAINESS: OUCH, WOMAN
Posted November 16th, 2017 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized
Something dawned on me last week. This past summer, Hollywood has churned out more blockbuster films this year featuring characters that are skilled martial artists than in previous years: Guardians of the Galaxy II; Wonder Woman; Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets; Atomic Blonde; Hitman’s Bodyguard; American Assassin; Kingsman: The Golden Circle; Bladerunner […]
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SDAFF 2017: PARADOX – A Martial Enigmatic Ambiguity of Fatherhood
Posted November 15th, 2017 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized
In the vein of male-bonding kung fu films from the ’70s by renowned director Chang Cheh (known for his Shaw Brothers Shaolin Temple and Chinese storied wuxia and Jiang Hu epics), and the sensitivity of male driven melodramas created by Chang’s prize pupil, John Woo, comes Paradox. Bottom line, it’s a film that features the […]
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SDAFF 2017: ISLAND SOLDIER – Why the American Soldiers of Micronesia Need a Macrostudy of Economics
Posted November 14th, 2017 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized
Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania and is made up of thousands of small islands and inlets in the western Pacific Ocean. They share cultural history with their two neighboring island regions, Polynesia (Hawaii, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, Cook Islands and 1000 more) and Melanesia (New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands and others). Micronesia is […]
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SDAFF 2017: MAINELAND – Shoe on the Other Foot
Posted November 13th, 2017 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized
When I was accepted into the entomology department at National Taiwan University in 1979, I had no idea what to expect. Based on preconceptions and misconceptions, I had plenty of each. Some of my assumptions were that everyone respected nature (too many Shaolin films), were into philosophy (again with the kung fu films), and according […]
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SDAFF 2017: SHOPPING FOR FANGS – THE COMING OF GENERASIAN X
Posted November 12th, 2017 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized
In 1997, there was a new wave of Asian-American filmmakers and actors who were poised to make their own mark in the cinematic community. They didn’t do films that featured the same worn Asian actors you saw playing the same typical Chinese bad guys in every TV show or crappy American made martial art movies […]
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SDAFF 2017: Bad Genius – A Testy Education Out of Control
Posted November 10th, 2017 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized
It’s crazy, at the festival’s November 9 official opening night screening of Oh Lucy! at the San Diego Natural History Museum, a film about what happens when a single, silently miserable, chain-smoking Japanese women who’s choking on mid-life crisis, decides to take a English class, I had flashbacks of my time in 1979 Taiwan teaching […]
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SDAFF 2017: O-pening Night – 0h Lucy!
Posted November 10th, 2017 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized
Nestled between the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, a great place to train, and the world famous San Diego Zoo, is the San Diego Natural History Museum’s Kaplan theater, where you can still hear creatures chattering, bellowing and grunting. I’m not referring to the place of Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!, but the […]
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TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE 2017 SDAFF
Posted November 8th, 2017 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized
Crikey! It’s already the 18th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival and it’s like a trip to the North Pole…nicely cool and great for the soul. On the other hand? A solid collection of right-on hot films, great for the palate and cool for the spirit. So in keeping up with the holliday bloggiday, Twas […]
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