122 posts tagged “1980s”
Before Steve Martin, Roger Moore, not Peter Sellers, was the last person to play Chief Insp Jacques Clouseau.
The stories are different enough that one could not accuse the Hong Kong film-makers of outright copying, but there is clear inspiration between the English Ooh, You Are Awful (or Get Charlie Tully), starring Dick Emery, and the first of the successful franchise 最佳拍檔 (Aces Go Places). The films are 10 years apart.
The plot lines are similar: in the original, Emery has to find a Swiss bank account number, separately tattooed on four different girls’ behinds. In the later film, Sam Hui (the father of Canto-pop) and Karl Maka’s characters have to find a map reference, tattooed on two different girls’ behinds. The following is of two very similar scenes, one set at Waterloo Station in London, the other at a taxi company’s radio department, and subsequent scenes involving photographic booths, where one might be able to claim there was a fair amount of direct copying. Emery is more blue, while the later film is more slapstick with better pacing.
And yes, that is the lovely Cheryl Kennedy in the first clip.
In the 1970s and 1980s, it was highly unlikely for Hong Kong cinemagoers to have seen the Emery film.
Head to 2.45 for the above scene in the first video; 0.43 in the second clip.
For our American friends who might not know what Chris Tarrant looks or sounds like in the 21st century, ITV (presumably, as the eventual successor to ATV and Carlton) did a Tiswas reunion special a few years ago. I found this part on YouTube, and it includes a very politically incorrect rant against the French by Michael Palin toward the end.
Chris Tarrant leaves Tiswas in 1981—goodness, when I compare him to those Millionaire repeats, he’s less intelligible here.
These are plastic chopsticks from the Yangtze Restaurant on Willis Street, which were obviously done many years ago: they feature a six-digit telephone number and a non-Linotype version of Helvetica Italic, which I enjoyed.
I ate there Thursday night to celebrate my friend Nick’s 40th birthday, and want to give them one plug: this was the first time that I can remember, when eating at a Chinese restaurant that didn’t make ‘no MSG’ one of its claims, where the chef respected a customer’s request for the additive to be omitted from the meal. (There is a chain, whose name I forget, but it is something like Noodle Wok or Noodle Box, that has MSG-free as one of its claims; it is the exception and not the rule.)
So often, MSG is still put in regardless of the customer’s request, which is dangerous: I have a friend who is so allergic to it that she carries around an adrenalin shot in her handbag. If she has MSG, she risks dying. When a customer says no, respect it.
Just to put this bad stereotype at rest: MSG is not a must in Chinese cooking and I have not known a single Chinese person who uses it in a home-made meal. It is, however, used by second-rate chefs who can’t get the traditional flavours or the wok heating the way it should. And those folks don’t deserve the title of chef.
So a major thanks to the Yangtze for understanding that ‘no MSG’ means just that—hopefully we can begin getting other Chinese joints doing the same. (And the meal was delish, thank you very much.)
Surprisingly, I have never pasted this video on my blog before. About time that was redressed.
We were chatting about non-US actors adopting American accents on Jaklumen’s blog and I thought of several American actors who do pretty good English accents.
First up, Rénée Zellweger as Bridget Jones:
Just to show that Brits remake American shows, too, and do just as lousy job of it as Americans do when UK shows cross the Atlantic. Anyone old enough to remember The Fosters, co-starring Lenny Henry as Sonny Foster?
Click here to see a clip at TV Ark.
It’s British Good Times, and Henry was in the J. J. Evans equivalent role played by Jimmy Walker, but it was less gritty.
Equally forgettable were The Upper Hand (British Who’s the Boss?) and Married for Life (British Married with Children). The former I have featured on this blog because it did have its fans (Pussy Galore was in it); the latter is so bad that I could only find a single clip on YouTube:
If you are going to remake shows, maybe the Russians do it a bit better:
Man, I miss the Cold War.
How about Law & Order: Special Victims Unit? Criminal Intent also made it to Russia.
I remember at the time there was quite a lot of excitement around this car—then as the years went by, we realized it was another boring bread-and-butter bubble. All the Ford Telstars made it on to Autocade today, and here they are. This is, as far as I can tell, more accurate than the claptrap on Wikipedia.
Ford Telstar (GC/AR/AS). 1982–7 (prod. unknown). 4- and 5-door sedan. F/F, 1587, 1789, 1998 cm³ (4 cyl. OHC). Mazda Capella (GC) with new front and rear ends and Ford badging. Mechanically the same. No coupé. Five-door badged TX5. Big technological advance on Cortina, which it replaced in Australia and New Zealand, though in the latter market, a station wagon variant was missed. Popular and a welcome all-rounder in the mid-sized market at the time, and Ford’s main entrant through most of the Asia-Pacific, but more seemed to be affectionate toward its predecessor. Sold at Autorama dealers in Japan.
Ford Telstar (GD/AT/AV). 1987–96 (prod. unknown). 4- and 5-door sedan, 5-door wagon. F/F, F/A, 1587, 1789, 1998, 2184 cm³ petrol, 1998 cm³ diesel (4 cyl. OHC), 1789, 1998 cm³ (4 cyl. DOHC). Mk II Telstar, introduced alongside Mazda Capella (GD), and with a stronger resemblance to the donor vehicle. Station wagon for the first time from 1988, but sold only in Japan and New Zealand; sedans appeared more mature, larger. Five-door still called TX5. DOHC and four-wheel-drive models for this generation, as well as a larger 2·2-litre unit. Improved on its predecessor in terms of quality and refinement, but more of a domestic appliance. Station wagon continued as part of closely related GV series after 1991, while sedans went to GE platform that year; GD wagons were still assembled in New Zealand into the mid-1990s.
Ford Telstar (GV). 1992–7 (prod. unknown). 5-door wagon. F/F, F/A, 1789, 1998 cm³ petrol, 1998 cm³ diesel (4 cyl. OHC). Instead of coming up with an all-new wagon for the GE-series Capella and Telstar, Mazda put the GD through an extensive facelift, and sold the result alongside GE. The effect was somewhat incongruous—bumpers and plastic trim looked like afterthoughts and blended poorly with the original shape—but GV kept the company in the mid-sized wagon market in Japan for much of the 1990s, when it faced financial difficulties. Mid-term revisions in 1994.
Ford Telstar (GE/AX/AY). 1991–7 (prod. unknown). F/F, F/A, 1789, 1991 cm³ (4 cyl. DOHC), 2497 cm³ (V6 DOHC). Another variation on the Mazda Capella (GE)—Mk III for want of a better term—as before with relatively few changes from original Japanese model. Overall a bread-and-butter bubble with typical rounded styling of the late 1980s–early 1990s. Telstar II launched in Japan in 1994 and overlapped standard GE run. GE built also in South Africa by Samcor, 2·0 and 2·5 only.
Ford Telstar II (CG). 1994–7 (prod. unknown). 4-door sedan. F/F, 1789, 1991 cm³ (4 cyl. DOHC). Odd amalgam of rounded centre section of GE-series Telstar with formal front and rear ends favoured by traditional Japanese sedan buyers. Mechanically a GE four-cylinder. Same sheetmetal as contemporary Capella. Introduced in Japan after Mazda’s multi-brand strategy collapsed, and front end meant to ape Mazda Sentia; Ford simply took what was available for the Japanese domestic market and badged it a Telstar.
Ford Telstar (GF/GW). 1997–2001 (prod. unknown). 4-door sedan, 5-door wagon. F/F, F/A, 1840, 1991 cm³ (4 cyl. DOHC), 1998 cm³ diesel (4 cyl. OHC), 2497 cm³ (V6 DOHC). Final Telstar, but very conventional. Mazda Capella (GF) twin was developed as a reaction to the company’s overambitiousness of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and resulted in a very plain car. Telstar had four-door sedan and wagon; no five-door. Diesel from 1998. Sold in Japan, and not widely exported as Ford shifted to promoting the Mondeo and Contour in most markets.
My Groups
-
Asian Updated: 5 minutes ago
-
Phone Pics Updated: 5 minutes ago
-
Love where you live Updated: 31 minutes ago
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
