Blind Shaft & The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Blind Shaft is a pretty good anti-capitalist Chinese film about killers in small mining towns. Plus it had nudity, which is not a bad thing. Not gratuitous, as it definitely seemed to emphasize the corrupting influence of the intellectuals and capitalists, along with anyone who likes to see naked women give massages or have sex. So basically, the nudity wasn't gratuitous as it showed the corruption of the killers and that they're trying to ruin the pure young Chinese youth. But it's also anti-bureaucracy in that the reason for the ability of these capitalist at all cost killers to continue their spree is that the mine owners have to pay more to get the killings hushed up than it would be to pay the killers off. Which is just insane, but probably a fairly accurate way to portray the hugely corrupt CCP. That the movie is both anti-capitalist and anti-communist party doesn't entirely leave the movie's point of view clear. Besides the pro-country bumpkin messages the movie clearly portrays. Is there a point to it besides just creating a great little brutal and funny neo-noir? To a certain extent, does there need to be when it's done so well? I'm definitely going to have to say that the messages of the movie are nowhere near as fully realized as the actual plot. It's fun to see a message movie so fully enjoyable.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is one of those spy movies that's clearly way too intelligent and cynical to be popular. Le Carre's first novel to be adapted into a film was a movie that had to have been set very soon after WWII as a major reason for the disgust of the movie is the problem of Nazis and Jews after the war. I definitely can't do a full listing of why and how much I enjoyed the movie because so many of them are the plot twists that are inevitable in a spy movie. That it's more Harry Palmer than James Bond is only one of the reasons why I enjoyed it. Well, more James Bond circa now rather than the excellent actual spy movie Bonds of the 60s. Richard Burton is outstanding (he plays the drunk very well), and the entire cast (including M as a shopclerk!) makes it very excellent.