Fist returns in fun kung fu movie - Tv Series

VENICE (Hollywood Reporter) - Although one expects more from producer Gordon Chan and the director Andrew Lau of the "Infernal Affairs" trilogy -- which Martin Scorsese remade into "The Departed" -- "Legend of the Fist" still is good fun, a popcorn movie of epic proportions for kung fu fans.
The film feels tailored to Western palates -- sure there's violence, but it's toned down by Hong Kong standards, and even the fighting is cut back. Chinese and Hong Kong audiences might be critical of this take on an iconic cultural hero, but star Donnie Yen is a household name in Asia. With an all-star cast and the director's following, the film is practically a guaranteed megahit at the local box office.
"Fist" is all about Yen, who has the requisite acting and kung fu chops to play a suave, sensitive and serious badass. The martial-arts superstar slips back into the legendary role of Chen Zhen, who has had countless incarnations, the most memorable by Bruce Lee in "Fist of Fury." Yen actually played Zhen in a popular 1995 TV series, and the years have left him no worse for wear.
The film opens in 1917 France, where Third World recruits -- including countless Chinese -- were brought to Europe by the French and British to help with the war effort. Most of them died on the front, a fate the noble Zhen promises to spare his friends. Just when you think you've seen every battle scene imaginable, Yen, who also served as action master on "Fist," delivers the film's best and most breathtaking fight sequence. Bayonets and bullets are nothing against Zhen's superhuman skills.
Eight years later, Zhen resurfaces, disguised (in, ahem, only a tiny mustache) as a piano player working in Casablanca, Shanghai's hottest nightclub. He befriends the owner (Anthony Wong, always a joy to watch) and falls for hostess-siren-singer Kiki (the impossibly beautiful Shu Qi) as he secretly leads the Resistance against the Japanese occupation of China, led in Shanghai by a ruthless Japanese general (Kohata Ryuichi).
Zhen also dons a black suit and mask and starts fighting the Japanese single-handedly as the Masked Avenger. He hovers over the city like Batman, which adds to the film's comic-strip feel, along with the stylized sets placed in a CGI Shanghai.Lau is a rare breed of director: He has leased almost all of his own films, and his trademark visual pizzazz is there, if not the gritty intensity of his other work.
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Former African child soldier helps Americans get fit - Arts

NEW YORK (Reuters) - For most of his life, Tchicaya Missamou's warrior training made him into a killing machine. Now, he is using his skills to help Americans get fit.
Missamou's memoir, "In the Shadow of Freedom," recounts his childhood in Congo Republic and his journey to America, his tour in Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps and, finally, civilian life in California, where he opened the Warrior Fitness gym that teaches Congolese and U.S. fighting techniques.
"By the time you finish this book, you will understand that there is not an obstacle that you cannot overcome," Missamou, 32, told Reuters. "I want people to control their own destiny."
Growing up in Congo-Brazzaville as one of 16 siblings born to his father's seven wives, Missamou's childhood was shaped by the violence that sprung up in the 1990s following the oil-rich central African nation's first democratic elections.
Missamou describes how, at around 14, he and his teenage friends were handed guns and a few grenades and put in charge of a checkpoint with orders to block members of rival ethnic groups from entering the area.
"I saw awful things during this time," he wrote in the book, co-written with Travis Sentell that was published earlier this month by Atria Books. "These militias had learned what a mighty weapon Congolese youth could be in a struggle."
When the fighting ended, the boys returned to their former lives and Missamou entered Congo-Brazzaville's gendarmerie.
Violence broke out again in 1997, and this time Missamou became a war profiteer. He assembled a convoy of armed men and struck lucrative deals with Brazzaville whites, most of whom had fled, to rescue abandoned suitcases of cash and valuables.
"The Congo was falling apart, but I was rich," he wrote.
As Missamou's success grew, so did his notoriety. With the help of his father, a police captain, he fled Africa while still a teenager. He ended up in California and found work at a martial arts studio. There, Missamou met a U.S. marine recruit who encouraged him to enlist.
Soon, Missamou was deployed overseas, going to Afghanistan and Iraq to fight for his adopted homeland. Through an executive order that fast-tracked citizenship applications of U.S. soldiers, Missamou became a U.S. citizen in 2003.
TALKING CURE
Despite a disastrous return to Congo-Brazzaville in 2004, when he was arrested and almost beaten to death, Missamou said he still dreams of returning to his homeland.
But Missamou, who wears his crisp, white U.S. marine's uniform on his book tour, said he also wants to give back to his adopted country.
In 2007, he opened The Warrior Fitness Camp in Valencia, California, where he trains students in military techniques as well as the skills he learned as a child in the African bush.
He has plans to expand it into a chain and is even pitching a reality show in which he would travel around the country and teach fitness, spirituality and nutrition to Americans with "weight issues."
"My workout is a mind game because I believe the mind is the most powerful weapon that we have on our body," he said.
But while he said he wants to give back to his adopted country, he said he sees his memoir as a route to dealing with his past.
"What I learned in America is that it's by talking that we heal. It's by talking that we change people's lives," Missamou said.
"America is the greatest country on earth," he said. "If you don't know what you got, then read this book."
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IT Works Out, Gets Fit - Board Games

The phrase "team-building exercise" has a literal meaning for the IT staff at JM Family Enterprises Inc.
A group of tech workers plays pick-up basketball in the company's parking garage in an area that executives have agreed to keep clear for the hoop and the regular lunchtime games. Another group of IT workers heads out to run together, while another works out at the same time in the company gym.
This commitment to on-the-job fitness isn't just tolerated by IT executives there -- it's encouraged.
"It allows folks to stay fit, burn off some stress, to work together and build relationships," says Shawn Berg, vice president of technology operations at the Deerfield Beach, Fla., company.
It's really a trickle-down phenomenon. If it doesn't come from the top to encourage the associates to stay healthy, then it's not going to happen.
Richard Luceri, M.D., vice president of health care services, JM Family Enterprises
Companies with corporate fitness and wellness programs have a diverse selection of offerings for their workers, from health fairs during business hours to 24/7 corporate gyms to on-site medical services. While these programs benefit all workers, program leaders and IT executives say getting the company's tech staff on board presents some challenges as well as opportunities.
"In our IT services, folks are for the most part sedentary, so there's a lack-of-activity issue. They are exposed to a high degree of stress. And they're so diligent and passionate about what they do that the day or night goes by and they haven't gotten up to do anything for themselves," says Richard Luceri, M.D., vice president of health care services at JM Family Enterprises. (Read more about IT's on-the-job health hazards.)
Luceri says he works with managers in all departments to make sure they encourage their workers to make time to take care of their health.
"It's really a trickle-down phenomenon. If it doesn't come from the top to encourage the associates to stay healthy, then it's not going to happen," he explains.
A Department Priority
IT managers are getting the message. Berg says his department discourages using e-mail and holding meetings after 5 p.m. so workers feel like they can move on to their own activities. ("It sounds goofy but it makes a big difference," he says.) Lunch meetings are also discouraged, he says, to keep that time free for those pick-up basketball games, daytime runs and midday gym sessions (followed up with showers in on-site locker rooms).
Berg isn't just paying lip service to the topic. IT managers really do help workers make their own health a priority.
Jason Schell, director of product administration for information technology services at JM Family Enterprises, works out early in the morning, regularly getting in around 5:30 a.m. to exercise before getting an egg-white omelet from the cafeteria and heading to his desk.
Schell says the on-site 24/7 gym helps him fit exercise into his day, and he says he often bumps into IT workers getting off an overnight shift who are doing an early morning workout before heading home.
"It's all about convenience," he adds.
Other companies are making a push to integrate health and wellness into the DNA of their IT departments.
"Our IT workers do have a challenge fitting work/life balance into their schedules, but I can tell you that the IT workers are highly engaged in our wellness program," says Bob Merberg, wellness program manager at Paychex Inc., a payroll services company headquartered in Rochester, N.Y.
Merberg says there's no single program that attracts techies. Rather, the company and the IT leadership had to build a culture that made health as important as other components of the IT lifestyle.
Walking the Walk
Laurie Wright, a database administrator at Paychex, says she has seen an evolution in how her department regards health and wellness programs.
"There was probably initially a lot of hesitation, not because they were concerned that we wouldn't get our work done but because we support production and they were concerned that something might happen when we were out running," she says with a laugh. "But we showed we could handle ourselves. If you work in a stressful kind of environment like IT, you know you have to rely on your co-workers and you can work out plans that can fit everyone's needs."
Wright's an example of that. A 20-year veteran of IT, she led a team of Paychex IT workers that logged the highest number of average steps in the northeast division in the company's most recent eight-week Eat Well, Live Well challenge. Wright says she started wearing a pedometer when she first got involved in the company's wellness program.
"I was surprised to learn that I didn't even walk 2,000 [steps a day]. Now on a normal day I can get 10,000," she says, attributing the improvement to both little changes like taking the stairs instead of the elevator and using the company's outside walking track. She even walks around her office as she talks.
Wright, who has lost 40 pounds and lowered her blood sugar level, says she has seen some changes in management's attitude toward health and wellness. She says at least one manager is likely to suggest walking the track while meeting with others.
Indeed, rank-and-file employees, wellness program administrators and IT leaders themselves agree that the best way to get techies to participate in a company's fitness regimens is to make it part of the department's culture.
"It often comes down to breaking down the barriers as to why people aren't doing it on their own," explains Debbi Brooks, the company's employee wellness program expert. Companies need to make it convenient for workers, offer incentives and find the programs that appeal to particular groups and individuals.
Brooks says she finds that IT workers tend to "feed off each other and cheer each other on," so they like to exercise together and compare results. They like their gadgets, so social networking tools and smart phone programs that let them track fitness progress have been popular, too. And considering the demanding hours that IT often works, flexibility is key.
Telecommunications analyst Tom Walsh says that last one really helped him. He took part in a 10-week nutrition and wellness program offered through his company, Health Care Service Corp.
"Having it at work made it much easier to be part of it," he says. As did his manager's support, he says. His manager adjusted his morning start time by a half-hour to accommodate morning workouts. The ROI was impressive: Walsh dropped 60 pounds, came off his blood pressure medicine and is looking at getting off his cholesterol and diabetes medicine, too.
Pratt is a Computerworld contributing writer in Waltham, Mass. Contact her at marykpratt@verizon.net.
Your Best Work Posture
The market for ergonomic products has come up with some healthier alternatives to the traditional desk. There's the desk that lets you stand up. There's also a treadmill desk, which, as you can imagine, allows you to exercise while you work.
But Tom Revelle, vice president of marketing at Humanscale, which designs and manufacturers ergonomic tools in New York City, says the best desk is one that adjusts to your own individual needs so you can maintain the best posture you can throughout the day.
That doesn't mean you should be sitting ram-rod straight at your desk. Rather, you want to be reclining slightly in your chair, so that the chair takes the weight off your back, he says.
To do that, try the following:
* Move the keyboard off your desktop; instead, put it on an adjustable shelf below the desktop or put it in your lap.
* Get a good ergonomic chair that allows you to lean back and adjust the tension on that back support. (It should be adjustable for height, too.)
* Move your monitor up to the front of your desk when you're working on the computer and move it back when you need desk space, so you're not leaning forward to see the screen.
* And get some really good task lighting for your desk. Very few people need to stand up all day, Revelle says. And he suspects most people may have a hard time working and walking on a treadmill simultaneously.
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Lindsay Lohan admits flaws but says career not over - Movies

Lohan, 24, recently released early from jail and a rehabilitation program and now ordered to attend behavioral therapy classes twice a week, told Vanity Fair magazine in an interview conducted one week before her jail term began that she would cut back on hedonistic ways to revive her career.
"I want my career back," she told the magazine. "I want the respect that I had when I was doing great movies. And if that takes not going out to a club at night, then so be it. It's not fun anyway."
The "Freaky Friday" actress said landing in Los Angeles several years ago was "very go-go-go" with ample freedom and money that brought upon damaging behavior, but now she "was fine" and her acting ability was in top shape.
"I don't care what anyone says. I know that I'm a damn good actress," she said. "And I know that in my past I was young and irresponsible, but that's what growing up is. You learn from your mistakes."
Adding to her confusion, she said, was that she constantly read U.S. tabloids, which she called "really scary and sad."
"I would look up to those girls...the Britneys and whatever. And I would be like, I want to be like that," she said.
Reports of alcohol abuse were overplayed, she said, while dealing with her father was far harder.
"I think everyone has their own addictions and hopefully learns how to get past them," she said. "I think my biggest focus for myself is learning how to continue to get through the trauma that my father has caused in my life."

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