Dave reviews Skrillex two surprise albums 'Quest For Fire' and 'Don't Get Too Close' following 9 years between albums (1:03), Chinese espionage thriller film 'Hidden Blade' starring Tony Leung (13:56), and Marvel's 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' starring Paul Rudd and Jonathan Majors (23:06).

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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Skrillex, & Hidden Blade - Ep. 360

Hey, you know that segment we do at the end of every episode where we debate if an actor belongs on our list of top performances? And you know how we never actually read the list out anymore because it's become too long? And you know how we've ended up with a BUNCH of spare picks this year? Well, it's time for some tidying up!

Ben and Matt's Marvellous Journey

Marvellous Journey - Episode 42: The 'All-Marvel List' Updates

In 2002, Tony Leung and Andy Lau starred in the Hong Kong classic Infernal Affairs, which Martin Scorsese remade in the US as The Departed; twenty years on, the inspiration flows in the opposite direction, Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street a clear reference point for this fictionalised tale of real-life stock market manipulation, deeply embedded corruption, and the growth of a multi-billion-dollar company from meagre beginnings on the back of scams, confidence, appearences, and lies, with Leung starring as charming, oleaginous company founder and Lau as the anti-corruption official on his tail. We had terrific fun in The Goldfinger.

Which isn't to say it's a perfect film. We have our issues. The imagery could be more expressive - though director Felix Chong (another Infernal Affairs alumnus: he wrote the trilogy) clearly has an eye for visual impact, and there's lots to be impressed by. We'd like to know why Lau's corruption investigator believes that chasing Leung's CEO is worth the disruption and danger to his family, beyond simply justice. We'd like any similar insight into what drives Leung, beyond simply greed. And if it is simply justice and greed, we'd like it to be better sold, bigger and brasher. We'd like the clash between the two to be more explosive. And the rather pat ending induces eye-rolling. But never mind all that. The Goldfinger is an entertaining and exciting tale of the rise and fall of a business empire that lived and died based on the fundamental corruption of the system and interests that built and supported it.

Recorded on 30th December 2023.

412 - The Goldfinger

157 - Stolen Death (1938) / Lust, Caution (2007)

This week we’re forming resistance cells and sneaking around as we arm ourselves against Tsarist oppression with Nyrki Tapiovaara and plot an assassination with Ang Lee’s patriotic theatre troupe

#157 - Wartime Noir

夢中人 (Cookbook Express) Feat. Tony Leung  l  Faye Wong

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Nowstalgia is a weekly pop culture podcast hosted by Dave Martinson reviewing and analyzing music, movies, TV, and entertainment. Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow our Best of 2023 Spotify playlist: 
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0hlWY8E1fowCiuYU8Q1E8k?si=9c739b031376490e

Subscribe on YouTube: Youtube.com/NowstalgiaPod

Follow Nowstalgia on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/NowstalgiaPod

Mike Thomas, Matt Waters, Ben Phillips, Kevin Ford, Jerome Cusson and more bring you shows covering a plethora of films and TV shows, including Lost, Adventure Time, Game of Thrones, Firefly and even superhero movies, because nobody else is talking about those! Where else could you hope to find a 90-minute critical discussion of Brokeback Mountain and a dump truck of trivia on Mission: Impossible II in the same feed?

"I have this romantic idea of the movies as a conjunction of place, people and experiences, all different for each of us, a context in which individual and separate beings try to commune, where the individual experience overlaps with the communal and where that overlapping is demarcated by how we measure the differing responses between ourselves and the rest of the audience: do they laugh when we don’t (and what does that mean?); are they moved when we feel like laughing (and what does that say about me or the others) etc. The idea behind this podcast is to satiate the urge I sometimes have when I see a movie alone – to eavesdrop on what others say. What do they think? How does their experience compare to mine? Snippets are overhead as one leaves the cinema and are often food for thought. A longer snippet of such an experience is what I hope to provide: it’s two friends chatting immediately after a movie. It’s unrehearsed, meandering, slightly convoluted, certainly enthusiastic, and well informed, if not necessarily on all aspects a particular work gives rise to, certainly in terms of knowledge of cinema in general and considerable experience of watching different types of movies and watching movies in different types of ways. It’s not a review. It’s a conversation." - José Arroyo.

"I just like the sound of my own voice." - Michael Glass.

New tracks tagged #tony leung