MovieChat Forums > 'A' gai wak (1983) Discussion > Lo San-Po (hope it is a possible spellin...

Lo San-Po (hope it is a possible spelling)

posted 17 years ago by AndreiPavlov
8 replies | jump to latest

Good Day, Everybody.

To say something good about this movie is vulgar. So, would rather dwell upon one character.

With reference to the movie itself: watched it a few days ago and re-watched it yesterday (with the original soundtrack and English subtitles of course). Now I'm sure that the evil character (pirate Lo San-Po) is a big-time villain. He is not one-dimensionally bad and wicked, but he is daring from top to toe and even, may I say, fair as well. He's every inch a fighter. It seems to be the only on-screen villain whom I respect deeply. I was even sorry when he died at the end! He deserved to survive for his courage alone. Besides, he managed to kick the three great men at once (!) and alone (!) - I hope, I don't have to name the three ones. He is extremely memorable with his habit to chuckle and his way of walking in an awkward manner. And his bright dressings and tattoos all over his body are also insane.

What do you think? Can any villain of today’s cinema get close to San-Po’s greatness?

[–] Ah-Nolt 17 years ago

What you talkin about?
Project A is brilliant.

[–] AndreiPavlov 17 years ago

I'm talking about the notorious Lo San-Po. As to the movie itself, I used "vulgar" in the meaning "common; prevalent".

[–] Henry J Sosenite 16 years ago

Yeah, I see what you're saying. Lo San Po was cool. I think this is Jackie Chan's best movie (as well as most spontaneous and most bizarre... the outfits!! what on earth?!) but I always regretted that they had to kill Lo San Po the way they did. He's not like the villains in other movies where they commit various treacherous and foul acts to get the viewer to dislike them. Lo San Po seemed like a friendly guy, and I also have to wonder how they decided to make him so much of a bad-ass that it took the three stars of the movie to beat him!! It's like they wanted us to like him- and then they had to go and give him the most horrifying and undignified death. Oh, well... I prefer to think of that as just one of the many charms of Project A.

(One thing to note- the original Chinese might have had some bit of dialogue (or even an extra scene) that sets up the evilness of Lo San Po's character. No way for me to find out for now, though, unless I decide to order an imported DVD... which I might like this movie enough to do!)

"Beautiful evening. you can almost see the stars..."

[–] AndreiPavlov 16 years ago

Let me also maintain the following, dear Mr “Henry J Sosenite”: without Lo San Po ("Lor Sam Pau") the second movie looks much less entertaining to me. It's like "Queen" without Freddie Mercury. Do you dig? Such a complex evil character is a real treat and to give him so little screen time and put him to death so swiftly is almost a crime against the audience. Perhaps Mr Jackie Chan and his team understood that but of course could not resurrect the pirate after such grisly death for the part 2.

Regards

[–] puschit-1 15 years ago

I loved him, one of the most entertaining and charming villains ever! he was good to his men and his friends. It almost broke my heart when Jackie revealed to him that he was cheating him while San-Po welcomed him like a brother until then ...

Plus he looked so bad-ass and unique with his tattoos and pirate outfit, his fighting style was superb as well. And the german dubbing makes things even better because they gave him this hanseatic sailor type dialect, watching a chinese pirate talking like that is pure comic genius!

And yes, it was a very unsatisfying way to die for him, especially because he did a fair fight, on the other hand it's a testatment for his fighting skills. I mean, if Jackie Chan, Yuen Bio and Sammo Hung, three of the most talented martial artists of that time, need a hand grenade to kill him, then San-Po must be the greatest figher ever. At least that's what I keep telling myself to make it easier every time I watch him die.

Other sympathic villains that I didn't want to die (MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY):
* Most characters played by Charles Dance, especially Sado Numspa in "The Golden Child".
* Darth Maul.
* Paco from Blood Sport. I wanted him to kick Van Damme's ass.
* Antonio Banderas as "Miguel Bain" in Assassins. The movie would have been 100times better if he didn't cheat on Stallone in the final scene once again, getting him killed. It would be so great if their alliance would have become permanent.
* Rutger Hauer in Bladerunner. It was sad when he died.
* Kurt Russel as "Stuntman Mike" in "Death Proof" - andI think I am not alone when I say I wanted him to win or at least survive.
* Wesley Snipes was way cooler as the villain in "Demolition Man" than Stallone as the hero.
* Robert DeNiero as Neil MacCauly in "HEAT". Most people I know wished he would have escaped in the end.
* Mr T as Clubber Lang in Rocky III.
* The "Tremor Brothers" in "Smoking Aces". They were so hilarious that I didn't want them to die.
* "Karl Ruprecht Kroenen" in Hellboy. Damn was he stylish. Should have been a villain in part 2 as well.

EDIT:
I know that Paco and Clubber Lang didn't die but I wanted them to win and they were sympathic and bad-ass villains.

[–] darkmorph 14 years ago

Lo San-Po is awesome. Remember the part when he grabbed that blonde girls blouse and peeped at her breats? The actor that played Lo San-Po made some snicker afterwards. That was so damn funny.

[–] flurng-1 11 years ago

Please excuse my blasphemy, but I actually thought this movie was kind of a turkey. To be fair, the English voice dubs certainly made it much worse than it would have been with just sub-titles! And, I'm used to Chan's higher-budget American films, so of course this piece couldn't compete.
Now then, to the subject of this thread; I agree that Lo San-Po was incredible!
Naturally, one should expect no less from the "King of the Pirates", but he certainly delivered the goods, and proved that he deserved the title!
Also, his death was, indeed, truly disappointing, but as for him being a "sympathetic" character, let's remember.... he's the KING of the PIRATES! How much more evil can ya get?!
Finally, regarding Darth Maul from "The Phantom Menace", I could not agree more! It was such a waste of a terrific character killing him off after only one film! But then, I suppose they couldn't have him going up against Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader - he'd SHRED the main character of the trilogy!

[–] puschit-1 11 years ago

Yes, that IS somewhat blasphemy because budget isn't important for these kinds of films. The high-budget american films are mostly worse than Chan's older works and the higher budget is part of the problem. They spend that money on american co-stars, explosions and other unnecessary elements that only distract from the plot, martial arts and hilarity. Shang High Noon is probably the only exception here, it was a good movie and the budget helped regarding the historic pieces, but aside from that ... also, in american productions Chan is nothing more but the sidekick of the american guy and always on the receiving end of jokes based on chinese/asian culture. The main reason for me to watch Rush Hour 2 was because I hoped this time the roles would be reversed, you know, because it takes place in Hong Kong. Chris Tucker would be the foreigner this time. But nooo, they were still making jokes about the chinese.

Project A is one his best movies, alongside with Drunken Master II. His american movies aren't all rubbish but definately not better - they may have bigger budgets and look shinier (which has also being todo with being shot later) but they lack the heart, soul and charisma of Chan's earlier works.