• Blue Collar (1978)

  ★★★★★ ♥ Watched Monday, Nov 4

  "They pit the lifers against the new boy and the young against the old. The black against the white. Everything they do is to keep us in our place."
  Director Paul Schrader's directorial debut Blue Collar is the gritty 1970s American dream converted into a nightmare. The film is a searing, darkly funny indictment of labor exploitation and rampant consumerism that's fueled by perpetual dehumanization of the workforce, privately targeted on the lower to working class.

  Find it on eBay

• The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (1984)

  ★★★★½ Watched Thursday, Nov 7

  Another excellent Shaw Brothers flick by director Lau Kar-leung who did the martial arts masterpiece The 26th Chamber of Shaolin. The movie includes outstanding choreography along with some bone crushing fight sequences including bamboo sticks that literally take out a person's teeth!

  R.I.P. to actor Fe Sheng who unexpectedly passed before the films shooting had wrapped.

  Find it on eBay

As an eBay Partner, Classic Art Films may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page.

Follow my film diary on Letterboxd.