Chow Yun-Fat / John Woo trivia game: Answers Page

(Q#14) "This is my girlfriend.... This is my wife." I edited this quotation slightly for the game, since it's too obvious otherwise: "My girlfriend, Peggy. My wife, Jackie." From the memorable scene, about 20 minutes into ABT2, in which Kit brings Peggy (who is this?) home after her Dad, Lung (Dean Shek Tin) has been set up on a murder rap by that villain of villains, Ng Man-Tat. You will recall that Kit was dating Peggy, so as to gain access to Lung's gang ... neither Peggy nor his wife (Emily Chu) is particularly amused by the encounter.

(This question was one of the more difficult ones, with a 50% success rate. The most common error choice was OAT (21%), presumably because of the romantic triangle element.)

(Q#5) "They called him the king of diamond hill." From the hilarious scene, 25 minutes into the movie, when some random old guy (anyone?) with a shrine to Mark-Gor (the bullet-torn, bloody coat, the glasses, cartoon sequences of Mark's life everywhere) introduces the idea that he had a twin brother, Ken, who apparently for no apparent reason was called 'The King of Diamond Hill'. I've always been baffled by this line, & provoked to much mirth by the whole scene.

(This question was one of the most difficult ones, with a 33% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (27%).)

(Q#26) Twenty-five cents From the rice scene! One of my favorite John Woo moments, despite the hilarious cheesiness & CYF's pitiful English skills (way back in 1987, he hadn't AFAIK even taken lessons yet]. It occurs about 25 minutes into the movie.

Evil Gwailo: "I'm your protection."
Ken: "Oh?"
Evil Gwailo: "And now you listen to me. You will pay me a thousand dollars a month."
Ken: "I see." [Waiter brings over plate of rice and drops it in front of the E.G. with a muttered imprecation.] "I give you nothing. I won't give you shit!"
Evil Gwailo: "You don't pay me, and I'll blow up your restaurant."
Ken: "You really mean that? You mean that? You want to blow up my restaurant?" [mugs for the waiters] "You make me so nervous! I really scare about this. Mamamia! He want to blow up my restaurants." [The waiters and wannabe-Marks are all laughing. CYF turns on them.] "Shut up, you!" Turns back to gwailo with a kind smile. "What about that my friend. You feel hungry, you come to my restaurant any time. No problem. What do you think? What do you think?" Turns round to the waiters. "Oh yeah, he needs some money." Searches through his jeans and takes out 25 cents. "I got a quarter. Take it or leave it, it's up to you. What do you think?"
"Asshole!" the gwailo shouts, tossing the plate of rice into CYF's face.
CYF pauses, and then laughs. "What's the matter with you?" he says. "You got a big problem? You don't like my rice? You don't like my rice?" Switches to Cantonese, and turns to the pole-axed wannabes. "My rice is good, tastes good." The staff are horrified by Ken's loss of face, and protest inarticulately as he starts picking the rice up off the floor. Back to English. "What is wrong with the food?" he asks the gwailo, bringing the plateful of rice back to the table. He samples a mouthful, and says beatifically, "It is beautiful for me." Offering a handful to the gwailo, he says, "You want to try some? No?" He gives him a look of disdain, and crescendoes, "For you, rice is nothing. But for us, rice just like my father and mother. Don't fuck with my family!"

(This question was one of the most difficult ones, with a 36% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (41%).)

(Q#10) The baby named Righteousness. From the scene about 87 minutes into the movie. Kit, spitting blood and oozing heroism from every pore, with his dying breath names his baby 'Sung Ho Yin' -- the spirit of righteousness, at least according to my subtitled copy. I admit that I was sappily moved by this scene, but the most memorable thing about this line is hilariously funny English dub. If you saw the dubbed version, you saw the dramatic death sequence: "Call her ..." cough, hack, spit " ... Sue Ellen" (dies).

(This question was one of the more difficult ones, with a 40% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (15%).)

(Q#7) Stacks of money left lying on a dresser. From the wonderful scene about 94 minutes into the movie when the evil henchman (no idea) tries to scoot out carrying the bulk of the dough, and leaves the cool duel-to-the-death henchman (no idea) a hefty bribe to block the way behind him. As the slimy guy scuttles away, the cool guy expressionlessly considers the money, and then without touching it slouches out of the room toward the fight. I love this scene -- & in fact, the whole ending sequence, especially Ken-Gor making fun of his lack of weapons skills, the duel scene, and Ti Lung's 'memories of the Shaw brothers' moment, hacking through Shing Fui-On et al with his sword.

(This question was of average difficulty, with a 58% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (15%).)

(Q#23) The smell marks the loot. From a scene about 5 minutes into the movie, when Cherie (Cherie Chung) sprays the box transporting the picture to be stolen with perfume. Later on, after having broken into the truck, Joe (CYF) sniffs around to find the box. OAT is not one of my fave Woo flicks, but it definitely has some hilariously cool gimmicks!

(This question was of average difficulty, with a 65% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (21%).)

(Q#13) "This sketch will be worth a lot more tomorrow." I got this quotation totally wrong, but ah well (the art reference apparently provided enough of a clue for most people). I was thinking of the hilarious scene, about 8 minutes into the movie, when we see James (Leslie Cheung) wiling away the time before committing the art theft by having himself sketched by a pavement artist. He then signs the drawing, tells the guy "I'm a notorious thief. Read tomorrow's newspapers," and walks away in that oh-so-Woo slo-mo way.

(This question was of average difficulty, with a 67% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (15%); I have no idea why.)

(Q#1) The sturdy chandelier. Definitely my favorite scene in OAT: the moment when, about 36 minutes into the film, James (LC) hurtles over a field of laser beams in the castle they're robbing by swinging from Joe (CYF), who's hanging from the chandelier. Falling candles and sudden drops to within an inch of the floor provide excruciating tension; outrageous hamming from Leslie Cheung and CYF provides the marvelous humour.

(This question was of average difficulty, with a 65% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (21%).)

(Q#30) The parrot gives the show away. From the scene about 64 minutes into the movie, when Cherie first meets Joe after the accident, and BoBo the parrot blurts out "Cherie my love" after Joe's been stoically pretending the emotion is all in the past. Yet another wonderfully creative OAT moment!

(This question was of average difficulty, with a 60% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (30%).)

(Q#6) The football baby. From the ending of OAT, when CYF in his manic excitement at watching a football game, starts madly dusting things and passing them to the right. The baby gets caught up in the rush. ;) A large minority of people put HB; I admit that CYF runs down the hall with the baby under his arm, but I think you'd only put HB if you'd forgotten the much more relevant football scene in OAT.

(This question was one of the more difficult ones, with a 40% success rate. The most common error choice was HB (35%).)

(Q#15) Light falls on the picture of a tennis champ. This used to just be "picture of a tennis champ", but that struck me as too difficult (even for this quiz!) so when I was making the changes after the first three responses I changed this one too. From a scene about 11 minutes into the movie, when John is at Jennie's apartment for the first time. The cat knocks over the lamp, and CYF sets it upright, and then suddenly notices the photos of Jennie dressed in tennis gear, showing off a medal, and of Jennie on a bike. Jennie's calm egotism -- she always seems to be listening to tapes of herself singing, and only displays pix of herself -- has always struck me as funny.

(This question was one of the more difficult ones, with a 48% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (41%).)

(Q#28) Death of a traffic cop. From the scene in which we are introduced to Danny Lee, about 15 minutes into the movie. A traffic cop (I've no idea who this guy was -- anyone?) interrupts the arms deal of undercover cops Li and Chang (Danny Lee and Kenneth Tsang) with gangster Eddie (Tommy Wong). The traffic cop is promptly killed, leading to a tense standoff scene and then a bloody action sequence.

(This question was of average difficulty, with a 63% success rate. The most common error choice was HB (19%), presumably on the principle that all kinds of cops get killed in the hospital sequence! But I don't think that there's a specific traffic cop scene in HB that I missed.)

(Q#20) A man paints a dragon's forehead. From the scene about 26 minutes into the movie when the character of Tony Weng (likewise no idea who the actor is -- anyone?) ceremoniously opens the Dragon Boat festival by daubing a dragon statue with red paint. However, his enjoyment of the honour is to be short-lived.

(This question was of average difficulty, with a 56% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (27%).)

(Q#3) The 'Scared Heart' sign. This item was originally just 'Scared Heart', but after the first three responses seemed to indicate a confusion with the Once a Thief plot (Cherie Chung's scared heart) I changed it to read "The 'Scared Heart' sign". It's from the scene about 33 minutes into the movie, when after the shoot-out at the beach, CYF rushes the wounded girl to the hospital. As his car turns in the driveway, the sign "Scared Heart Hospital" is clearly visible. The idea of a hospital called "Scared Heart" has always made me laugh.

(This question was one of the more difficult ones, with a 46% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (21%).)

(Q#4) The mysteriously re-attached severed arm. From the scene about 60 minutes into the movie, in which John attacks Johnny Weng (Shing Fui On) and entourage in the parking garage. The sequence starts with John shooting Weng in the shoulder. The driver of Weng's car jumps out, and the car crashes. Weng opens the door; his left arm hangs outside the car. CYF drives up to make a second attack: you can now clearly see Shing Fui-On's forearm being blown off (it falls out of the car!). In the immediately following scenes (as Weng's men drag him to safety) it's been mysteriously re-attached; later on in the movie the arm appears in a cast, but Weng appears to be able to use the hand. :P

(This question was one of the more difficult ones, with a 40% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (35%).)

There was a thread about the severed arm on alt.asian-movies this month, with some people contending that it's part of the car that's blown off. I didn't give my opinion, figuring that the game was still on, but I've scrutinized the frame closely and I see (1) fingers on the part that's blown off (2) a spray of blood (3) a bloody stump. It looks like a severed arm to me! (And if I recall correctly, it's even more obvious in the Taiwanese version of TK.)

(Q#18) "I don't want to die like a dog." From the scene about 94 minutes into the movie, when Sidney (Paul Chu Kong) staggers into the church, pursued by dozens of Weng's men. After driving off the first wave of attackers, John turns back to Sidney, who is dazed with pain and loss of blood. "Am I a dog?" Sidney asks John (at least, according to my subtitles!), who struggles to reassure him. "We're outmoded characters," Sidney mutters, "We're outcasts .... I don't want to die like a dog. But you see, I didn't keep one last bullet." I love this scene -- I've always felt Paul Chu should have won a Best Supporting Actor for The Killer.

(This question was one of the easier ones, with a 79% success rate. The most common error choice was ABT (15%), probably because people were thinking of the equally-dramatic scene when Mark criticizes Ho's play-it-safe approach to life. But AFAIK the line does not occur in ABT.)

(Q#16) "Is someone loving you?" From the scene, about 23 minutes into HardBoiled, when we see Theresa (Theresa Mo) getting one of the hilarious white-roses-&-code messages from Alan (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai). I did get it slightly wrong though -- I was fooled by the grammatical incorrectness of the real line. As Theresa and Tequila both memorably sing, "Are you somewhere feeling lonely, or someone's loving you?".

(This question was of average difficulty, with a 60% success rate. The most common error choice was OAT (13%), perhaps because people were reminded of the scene when Jeff jealously questions Cherie.)

(Q#9) The bucket of fish. From a scene about 32 minutes into the movie. Tequila is fishing on the pier, when he meets 'The Fox' (Stephen Tung). Eddie reveals that Johnny (Anthony Wong) plans to attack the warehouse where Mr. Hui (Kwan Hoi-Sang) has stored his arsenal that night. Tequila leaves him the $30,000 payment for the tip-off in the bucket. ;)

(This question was of average difficulty, with a 67% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (21%).)

(Q#24) "Thanks, I have my own." Another slightly misquoted line (whoops), from one of my favorite bits of dialogue, in HardBoiled. About 36 minutes into the movie, when Johnny lays it on the line for Alan about killing Mr. Hui, he offers Alan his gun and says, "Either we conquer the world, or you kill me tonight with this. No regrets!"

Alan looks him in the eye, gestures the gun away with a nonchalant smile, and says, "I have my own."

(This question was one of the more difficult ones, with a 41% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (23%).)

(Q#27) Two cables crossed. From the truly bizarre scene, 87 minutes into the movie, when Alan decides the best way to try and open the arsenal door is to ground two giant electrical cables across his own body. This scene has always boggled my mind. ;) I originally had this down as 'two wires crossed' but after the first three responses seemed to indicate a confusion with OaT I changed it.

(This question was of average difficulty, with a 58% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (19%).)

(Q#17) The little pisspot. This one was really too easy -- but since I included the babies in ABT2 and OAT, I felt compelled to include the most memorable baby of them all. From the scene about 120 minutes into the movie, when Tequila is escaping the hospital, carrying the last baby from the maternity ward. Burning debris from an explosion sets fire to Tequila's clothes; the opportune incontinence of the infant extinguishes the conflagration. "You saved the day there, you little pisspot!" Tequila says, admiringly.

(This question was one of the easier ones, with a 73% success rate. The most common error choice was None of these (15%).)