Henchwomen Fight

In tv show Hercules: The Legendary Journeys season 2 episode titled The Mother of All Monsters aired 1995. Actress Tyler Jane and Katrina Misa play as villainesses. I can't describe how global phenomena this show was, I remember as a child bought a poster of Hercules, kids were making songs about Hercules and Xena, Kevin Sorbo wasn't just a superstar, he was way more than that, he was an icon, with his photos everywhere, with everyone knowing him, like Marlon Brando and Al Pacino are superstars, Kevin Sorbo as Hercules was bigger than that, you can even say he was part of the culture back then, and I doubt any character will ever be as popular as Hercules was.. For me I started learning English by watching the show, Holllywood was like a magical place, like, you have great family entertainment like Home Alone, Baby's Day Out, you also have great action movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Sylvester Stallone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, you also had great comedies, great horror, over the years and different stages of my life, I can find the movie or the genre I like, and it was always the best, and being able to speak and understand English seemed like accomplishment, today, I can't stand hearing English, in new movies I mean, I can't stand watching modern Hollywood movies and TV shows, I still enjoy watching movies I enjoyed once, but when it comes to new movies, I would prefer watching Chinese and Asian movies, even tho I don't understand what they say, which is different than how I used to watch movies in English, but what can you do? I hope China can fill the gap Hollywood left, maybe another generation can fell in love with Chinese movies and entertainment, that they also start learning Chinese like I started to learn English, and fell in love with Chinese movies and TV shows, like I once did with Hollywood..

Anyway, let's start the episode, let's escape to the world of fiction and the nostalgia to forget the bitterness of the current reality of Hollywood..

The movie starts with fight scene.. When it comes to shows like Hercules, the director plays a big part in making the fight makes good, and let's be honest Kevin Sorbo was casted to play Hercules because how attractive he looks, not because he was a great marital artist, so when it comes to fight scenes the patterns I noticed are these, having someone with experiences as a stuntperformer, like Jackie Chan who played as a stunt double for the main villain Fist of Fury, and as a henchman in Enter the Dragon, and of course Jackie's experience in Chinese opera helped him to come up with his own unique fighting style, anyway, in such case, you can the fight clearly, it's pure raw the fight feels as if you are watching a theater performance, you basically get the real deal, the stunt performer is performing in front of you, the other pattern which I absolutely loath and hate, like in The Bourne Ultimatum, I absolutely hate this movie, couldn't bring myself to watch it and never will, from the clips of this movie, the fight scenes are like cut cut cut, in order for the movie to hide a really bad fight scenes, it try to distract you that you basically can't see anything, but in order to give you the illusion of a fight scene is happening, another pattern is using a stunt double, so, the fight scenes you want to make good, you replace the actor with a professional stunt double, I see it a lot in Chinese movies with female characters, like, they often use male stunt double to do the jumping and the fighting when needed, and the last pattern is what you see in Hercules, instead of distracting you and due to the fact that the star isn't a professional marital artist, the burden lies on the director, the director have to direct your focus, not like modern Hollywood like Marvel and such, the director is leading your attention, for example with Iolaus in this fight scene, the director knows your focus is on Iolaus, so he fight a thug, and you only see the back of the thug, so Michael Hurst is basically hitting the air, and the stuntman is away from him, but the director knows that your focus is on Iolaus, so he basically predicts where your focus will be, in the same fight, Iolaus hit the villain in the crotch, so what the director did is leading your focus, you see Iolaus' full body, then the director lead you by focusing the camera on his arm, then showing the villain reaction, the shot on the middle with focusing on the arm could be filmed without the stuntman even being present, but that's how the director lead your focus instead of distracting it, same way with kick, you see for example Hercules in full body, then the kick in the middle shot, then the villain reaction, of course Jackie is the king yet sometimes these fight scenes are really hard to do, and some actors lack the experience to do it, especially Hollywood actors TBH, yet, unlike modern Hollywood this show doesn't want to distract your attention and ruin the scene for you, but instead leading and directing your attention..

I love Hercules intro, to be fair, it could be the nostalgia..

 Hercules is an amazing show, this isn't nostalgia, I basically love two things Kevin Sorbo made: Hercules The Legendary Journeys and Meet the Spartans, watched other movies of him, but they were like christian boring stuff so I basically stopped caring about his new movies, still shows like Hercules enough to make him a legend, the character of Hercules in its peak popularity was the most popular character than any other character played by any action movie star at the time, and it's inseparable from Kevin Sorbo, as the character was made before and after him, but nothing comes even close to him playing it.

Echidna summoned the archers around 11 minute mark..

The villains in this episode make me laugh whenever they talk, and I love it..   

We a villainess around 18 minute mark, and the archers apparently killed a man off-screen!! 

This episode would be perfect if Hera was in it, but still we got practical effect in this episode with Echidna, even tho, Hera played by Meg Foster was the most memorable character of both Hercules and Xena show, according to the IMDB she only appeared for two episode that's how great Meg Foster is, I also think the element of mystery and how you always hear about Hera and what she do and those who worship her, and the visual of the fallen Peacock Feather with the sound, then when you see Hera with Meg Foster charisma, you just can't forget such character, it even became part of Arabs pop culture, just to understand how iconic this character was, you can even see today people asking clergymen if it's OK to have Peacock Feather at home fearing it will bring misfortune to their home, you can even find such Fatwas today on the internet dating back to 2002 when the show was popular in the Arab world, it's unbelievable!!

Around 23 minutes the archers made a trap for Hercules..

Echidna making me laugh..

The archers last confrontation is around 36 minutes, but they will appear again in another episode, so I will watch it too..

Let's start watching episode 6 of season 3..

The costume designer of this show, deserve her own statue, as far as I know it's mainly the word of Ngila Dickson, who was also the costume designer of Lord Of The Rings, that's why I said, aesthetically Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is far better than Game Of Thrones..

Echidna got a new baby, it's so cute, I wonder what gift should I bring to her, it's hard to know, Hercules would be a perfect gift, yet it's hard get him, but anything for a friend, right? 

The fighting scenes in this episode shows an incredible director, incredible stuntmen above everything else..

Around 14 minutes we see Echidna's baby, what a beautiful family, like a perfect family indeed, like think about it, a beloved wife who loves her children, and also living in a cave, which means she's not into him for his wealth or money but really loves her husband, and a father who loves her, and love his son, and find him as the cutest baby ever, and even dance in happiness for him, which means he also truly loves Echidna, on the other hand you get Hercules, a mentally ill person who murdered his own family, like hollyshit, I don't need to say more, if he was my neighbor I would move to a different town as far as possible from him!

Ok, this is actually what I was talking about in this article, the idea of using the contrast between appeal and charisma with their immorality, and how it will also if reversed like a character that look really unappealing, but they act like an angel, like using a white lines on dark page or dark lines on white page, both create contrast for the targeted character and it works here with Echidna and her baby, like I get the show is a comedy, but you would actually get genuine emotion watching it, especially when Echidna cry 💔💔💔..

We see our villains again around 30 minutes, they take Echidna's son from Klepto, and the final confrontation starts around 36 minutes..

Wow, that was fun to watch..

Favorite Quotes 

"Boss Highwayman: I have proposal for you, gentlemen, your money or your lives? Looks like it's going to be their money and their lives!" 

"Klepto: What a beautiful baby!"

In 2024 movie (Pri)sons. Actress Veera W. Vilo plays as villainess Koch.

I guess Juha Kaivola is the protagonist of the movie and was hired to be a security guard of a night club!!

In tv show Hercules: The Legendary Journeys season 3 episode titled War Bride aired 1997. Actress Josephine Davison plays as villainess Alexa.

Hercules will always be one of the greatest shows ever made, and I'm talking about one aspect that even Game Of Thrones can't compete with, and it's the aesthetic of the show, the costumes, the makeup, the accessories, the scenery, the design of the set, I wish if there was a HD version of the show, it's so fun to watch just by looking at it, even if there are other shows that came after it with better story and choreography and way more advanced CGI, the aesthetics of Hercules are unmatched.. 

When it comes to the aesthetics of Hercules, it plays a huge role to help the immersion in the story, it's very unique and gives the show its unique character, everything in the show is made to make you feel, the episode started now you are entering a different world, and the way they use nature and the idea of filming in New Zealand, give you the unique feeling that this isn't the world of this time, but it's a story from another time before the industrial revolution, this is so different from how most shows were made afterwards and how many of them are heavily dependent on the CGI.. 

Anyway, Princess Melissa was taken as she was asleep, and it's not clear who is behind it, but Hercules saved her not knowing who she was..

The action fight scenes are very basic, but with a professional camera work they look really nice, the camera is part of the action, it's not common to see camera work as good in fight scenes, it's also not easy..

Around 35 minutes, Alexa successfully tracked Melissa into a temple, and she intends that Melissa doesn't leave the temple alive to try to claim the throne, and we get Alexa's final confrontation..

Favorite Quotes

"Princess Melissa: A war! Fought over me? How romantic!!"

In 2010 movie The Spy Next Door. Actress Katherine Boecher plays as villainess Tatiana. 

The movie starts with nostalgia moments from Jackie's movies, only Jackie Chan can do that in his movies, the guy is a legend and basically a global phenomena.. 

We see our villainess for the first time around 15 minutes mark, as the main villain manged to escape and she was greeting him..

Around 18 minutes there is an emotional moment when Bob Ho accidentally heard Farren talking about why she really doesn't want her mom to marry him..

We see Tatiana again around 23 minutes, and her East European accent sound really beautiful.. 

This a very weird movie for Jackie, I'm used watching him as adventurer, cop, fighter, or whatever, not usually see him like in a romcom family movie like this one.. 

Nice, Jackie is singing in Chinese, I'm not sure which Chinese dialect, I can't tell.

Around 47 minutes, Tatiana manged to track Jackie, and around 50 minutes mark she found Jackie, and they had a very short fight..

Jackie Chan movies is what it mean to make an action comedy, you basically laugh watching the fight scenes.

The villains caught the hero around 1 hour 11 minutes, and Tatiana found out that he was making a trap for them, whenever Tatiana talks it sounds as if she's singing, like her voice sound like music.. 

Around 1 hour 18 minutes, The hero manged to escape using CIA advanced tech and cut himself loose, but Tatiana went to the hero's girlfriend's home to get some formula they downloaded by mistake, and from there the final confrontation of the movie..

The different between Jackie and any other action star, that his action is often comedic and have comedic effect, something is really hard to do comparing to do only action or only comedy movie, a really fun movie to watch.

In 2009 movie Vampire in Vegas. Actresses Melissa Brasselle AKA Rocky DeMarco and Delia Sheppard play as villains Shayla and Dr VanHelm.

I was curious why IMDB use the name Rocky DeMarco instead of Melissa Brasselle, and apparently Rocky DeMarco is the name the actress prefer to use to honor her mother, which is cool.

The movie starts with narration with the voice of Tony Todd who is playing Sylvian in the movie, RIP, Tony Todd 💔💔💔.

We see our gorgeous evil doctor around 8 minutes..

It's amazing we are getting a decent screen time of Dr VanHelm in this movie..

This movie is stupid, if not for the villainess, I would never watch LOL..

Around 29 minutes Shayla gives a dance show to a group of young men, then left her card..

Wow, Miranda Kwok in this movie, what a nice surprise!! 

Around 41 minutes, the night club vampires started attacking the young men who went there after Shayla left the card for them..

This movie is so random, like, are these guys are supposed to be essential to the story!

In movies like these, when Tony Todd make you smile the smile always comes with a heavy impulsion to cry, it's a weird feeling, the character is funny, but at the same time, you know the actor you used to enjoy watching for a long time, and used to see on screen, is no longer with us, it's weird heavy feeling..

The movie started to be really good as a comedy..

Around 1 hour 2 minutes we see Dr VanHelm as she was about to lethally inject the hero after she extracted the serum from him, but was interrupted by Detective Stanton and Detective O'Hara, as the two detective were about to save the hero, thankfully Shayla was there to stop them to make sure VanHelm's evil plans aren't interrupted.

Then Dr VanHelm died in the most stupid way possible by Shayla LOL..

The hero's vampire face around 1 hour 13 minutes is hilarious.. 

It's so bad it's good movie, and should be seen like that, I kind of watch it as a comedy TBH, and it's not boring, VanHelm is my favorite character in this movie, she's so gorgeous, absolute goddess..

In 2022 movie The Ancient City of Loulan. Actress Jingwen Xu plays as villainess Xiao Cang. A movie I watch for the first time, hope it's fun..

So basically the movie starts with Cang killing a poor man as she's leading expedition to steal Chinese historical relics.. 

As they were digging, they were attacking with supernatural bad CGI insects, the actors are doing their best, but the CGI looks awful, and to be fair, I don't think they can be done practically, that's why many movies when they do effects like that, they get dark settings so they don't look obviously fake. 

Basically the first 6 minutes of the movie feel as if they don't belong there, especially that they aren't background story of one of the characters but part of the story of the current movie, and they feel that they belong at least half hour in..

Hell, she just cut man's arm around 12 minutes, I didn't expect that, especially in ChinFucking hese movie..

The creators of this movie is having so much fun with the characters, like the heroes basically endanger each others for their own benefit, in a comedic way, the movie basically treat the story as a video game, and I really like it, it's fun.

I'm sure that's not like the greatest action movie ever made, but it's so good, I will never enjoy any modern Hollywood movie as much as I'm enjoying this one, I'm so immersed in the action, I'm not paying attention to the time, and if an action movie achieved that, no matter how small or big its budget is, it succeeded..

So, we have the heroine called Yi Ran played by Kimmy Tong Fei, and the hero Chen Xiao played by Max Mok Siu-Chung, and their friend who rescued Ni Qiu played by Li Yi, and the main villain Hikari Tori played by Minowa Yasufumi..

Around 42 minutes Xiao Cang impaled a collaborator with a sword, she's soulless, she didn't even flinch, like a deadly scorpion fast and deadly..

Ok, the hero put Xiao Cang under the sword to force Hikari Tori's hand to let them go, but Hikari Tori basically didn't care, and the hero was like "You are a lunatic", like, what did you expect? The man minutes ago was trying to find the secret to immortality to his emperor, not himself, not a woman he loves, but the emperor, and if he's willing to find and gift immortality it means he doesn't even care about his own life, and thus wouldn't care about the lives of others to achieve what he considered higher purpose, yeah, I always say villains for me metaphorical of selfishness, and they mostly are, but in this case we are dealing with a selfless villain, which why I personally don't find heroes appealing to me, due to their selfless nature, that's why I also consider heroes a collective localized concept while villains are individualistic globalized concept, because if you see Hikari Tori from the collective angle, the character sacrifice the self, deny their individuality for his collective, that's why he's seeking immortality only to serve his collective, and that's for his collective he's seen as a hero, and from the opposite collective he's seen as a heartless villain, for the same exact reason, that his actions are inhumane, that's why in order to humanize heroic character, you need to give them individualistic motive, even if they have also a collective goal, which is why in movies the villains take someone that the hero really care about or love, and use such individualistic goal to humanize them for people who aren't part of the collective.

I'm 1 hour 6 minutes in the movie now, and the monsters looks much better in the dark environment, and would look even more better with a little adjustment of the light..

Did I just say the monsters look good under ground? Well, I take it back LOL, because they look awful once again around 1 hour 8 minutes.

The main villain died in explosion, really, that's it? Like, the whole movie didn't have a challenging villain, till now with the main villain and Xiao Cang, and now the main villain died that easy even before Xiao Cang!!

Xiao Cang last confrontation just happen moments afterwards in 1 hour 17 minutes..

The movie was awesome, I really miss these fun movies, and Japanese villains are the best when it comes to Chinese movies, I wish if the confrontation was longer, it kind of feels they wrapped things up quickly, while they could have had a longer fight, even if the main villain died in explosion, at least I was expecting to get a good fight afterwards, and maybe a long challenging fight between the heroine and the villainess and at least the villainess get an upper hand at some point in the fight..

Anyway, Jingwen Xu was great playing the villainess in this movie, with her firm merciless and sometimes soulless reactions, she's a really good actress, I hope to see more movies of her..

I couldn't keep watching the movie on Youtube, once they censored the sound of the shooting and explosions, I stopped watching, so, If you don't mind that, you can watch it on Youtube, if you found it annoying and ruin the movie for you like I did, you should watch it full on IQIYI here.