Jonah Jeng
@JonahJeng
788 Following 1.8K Followers
ahhhh OK watching Ryoo Seung-wan films next
"Many Thai action sequences feel like a series of escalating self-dares: how can we take a Hong Kong-style stunt and make it more extreme, more challenging, more dangerous, more hard-hitting?" -- great history of the movies I love, thank you again for an amazing piece!
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ICYMI, I wrote about Thai action cinema for @mubinotebook.
My latest for @mubinotebook traces the historical and aesthetic connections between Thai and Hong Kong martial arts cinema.
The piece was originally commissioned by HKinema, the magazine of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society (link in the reply).
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I have a booklet essay for Kani Releasing new Blu-ray for Seijun Suzuki's great and very underseen Capone Cries a Lot.
My latest for @mubinotebook traces the historical and aesthetic connections between Thai and Hong Kong martial arts cinema.
The piece was originally commissioned by HKinema, the magazine of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society (link in the reply).
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holy textbook (positive) !! essential reading for THE FURIOUS fans with lots of context for Sonomura's lineage and analysis of his style leading up to our favorite movie!!
Jonah doing the lord's work. There is so much academic done on the particular signatures of directors, cinematographers, composers, etc. Yet, action choreography is barely a footnote, but it's just as important -aesthetically and historically- as any other element.
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If anyone is interested in exploring some academic works on action cinema 👇
@reelingdays There are definitely essays/articles, but I’d have to rack my brain a bit!
These books are absolutely worth checking out though:
@reelingdays There are definitely essays/articles, but I’d have to rack my brain a bit!
These books are absolutely worth checking out though:
THE DEATH OF ROBIN HOOD (Michael Sarnoski, 2026)
Wish I caught this on the big screen
In the latest entry in his "The Action Scene" column, @JonahJeng revisits Gareth Evans’s THE RAID on its fifteen anniversary and the lasting influence of its kinetic filmmaking.
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Contour is one of my favorite martial arts movies...plus the late Dennis Ruel put on a kicking clinic here. He had another fight against dudes with baseball bats which was one of the greatest displays of Hapkido I've seen in film
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Jacobus and Ruel’s timing and chemistry is absolutely amazing and have given us some amazing fight scenes over the years that harken back to 80s and 90s HK cinema! Must see stuff for action movie fans!!
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@JonahJeng That's me in the black hoodie in Ed's fight. We were watching a lot of Lau Ka-Leung movies at the time, so it made sense for the American warehouse thugs to know praying mantis and choy li fut
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Pure fucking magic whenever Jacobus squares off against Dennis Ruel.
Eric was sending me dailies every night from the set while I was living in Boston. For this fight I said “this fight needs to end on ONE clever move” (without offering any actual idea lol). two days later @theericjacobus IM’d me and all he said was “Ed got it” and boy did he.
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action columnist extraordinaire @JonahJeng makes his debut in @FilmmakerMag , writing on Eric Jacobus, who imparted a Hong Kong sensibility to DIY DV movies in the 00s, just before the dawn of YouTube:
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"Twenty years ago, a movie filmed for a couple thousand bucks in the Bay Area delivered action sequences that left most Hollywood offerings in the dust."
Read @JonahJeng 's appreciation of CONTOUR, Eric Jacobus's low-budget action masterpiece:
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Read Jonah’s great piece and then come see @theericjacobus’ new opus, BAG LADY on the big screen August 23rd.
Don’t think Ferrara would approve, but Bad Lieutenant becoming an auteur anthology is pretty sick imo
