Unforgiven

Kung Fu Hustle is to House of Flying Daggers what Blazing Saddles is to Unforgiven. It's a hepped-up burlesque of martial-arts movies that puts audiences in a slap-happy frame of mind. The less you know about it going in, the more fun you're apt to have. It even helps if you don't recognize the director-star, Stephen Chow, who plays a sad-sack ne'er-do-well named Sing. The plot works like Chinese boxes in reverse: every small piece of action opens up into a bigger one. It's set in an urban Asian neverland that owes a lot to Hollywood gangster films of the 1930s and '40s.

ON AND OFF THE AIR:* The unprecedented collaborative PBS/NBC coverage of the Democratic National Convention July 13-16 showed notable gains in viewership for public stations, according to figures released yesterday by Maryland Public Television.In 25 metered markets -- not including Baltimore, whose viewership figures come in monthly doses -- PBS is noting that it consistently outdrew CNN coverage in the expanded "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour," with hosts Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer joining NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and other correspondents in the 8 to 10 p.m. hours.

Modern technology would have permitted Josephine Abercrombie to stay home in Kentucky and have a perfect seat to watch prized filly Confessional at work. Abercrombie, however, prefers to activate her senses, so she flew to Laurel Park for a brief visit yesterday. She was there long enough to witness Confessional make easy work of eight others in the $40,000 Park Heights Stakes. "It's a completely different sensation to be at the track, especially when you win," said Abercrombie, the longtime owner of Pin Oak Stable.

Take the night off. For the most part, TV has.* "Fall From Grace" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11) -- Part 2 of 2. Plans for the Normandy invasion are developed, hidden and eagerly sought in the conclusion of this imported miniseries, which makes the plans for D-Day seem almost as important as whether an Allied agent (Tara Fitzgerald) will be faithful to a fellow agent (Gary Cole), and whether he, in turn, will fall for the advances of another fellow agent (Patsy Kensit). In the end, the Allies conquer the Germans, and love conquers all. Michael York plays a sinister Nazi with more subtlety than expected.

CLINT Eastwood's "Unforgiven," which relentlessly deglamorizes the heroic myth of the Old West, already seemed destined for classic status before it was nominated for a bevy of Oscars this year.The film, purportedly based on a real historical figure, stars Mr. Eastwood as William Munny, a reformed gunslinger who teams up with a black sidekick named Ditty, played by Morgan Freeman, to carry out a contract killing in a godforsaken prairie town.Until recently, black cowboys were virtually invisible in American Westerns.

HOLLYWOOD DOESN'T sleep in Howard County often. So you have to pardon Columbians if they have been a bit star-struck lately. The cul-de-sacs are abuzz with rumors that an entertainment mega-star has taken up temporary residency in the planned community of 82,000.Perhaps the locals shouldn't be so impressed that actor-rapper Will Smith has traveled along Little Patuxent Parkway, visited Columbia Palace 9 and played one-on-one basketball at the Columbia Athletic Club with his fiancee, actress Jada Pinkett.

LARGO -- Few rock bands expect as much as Metallica demands of its audience.Other acts go out of their way to make it easy on their fans -- playing only the most familiar material, for example, or carefully teaching the words before asking for a sing-along.Not Metallica, though. In addition to feeling free to dredge up almost anything in its back catalog, this heaviest of heavy metal quartets takes it for granted that its crowd will know the words to everything.Arrogant? Maybe. Presumptuous?

METALLICAMetallica (Elektra 61113)If all thrash seems an indistinguishable blur of double-time drums and over-amplified guitar, then you owe it to yourself to hear Metallica's new album, "Metallica." Not only are the songs slower and shorter than on the band's four previous offerings, but they cover a wider stylistic range, from the elegiac orchestration of "The Unforgiven" to the quote from Leonard Bernstein's "America" that ironically opens "Don't Tread on Me." Yet as much as that makes this album more approachable to non-fans, the band's long-term following ought to be even more enamored of its expanded range and sharpened songwriting.

WATCHING MOVIES is more than a pastime for Ben Moy. He has turned his hobby into an art form. The Howard Community College art student is not a filmmaker; he is a computer illustrator, and his artwork is inspired by the films he sees. He takes the mood of each movie and turns it into an image on paper. Moy, 25, is one of five student and alumni artists whose work is on display in the college's Invitational Art Exhibit. For three years, the summer show has featured five outstanding students and alumni who have been nominated by the art faculty.

THE nominations for this year's Academy Awards prove once again that the 4,000 or so members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have a rather low appreciation for the home-grown product, the big-budget, Hollywood-produced film. And once more, they seem to favor non-American actors and directors.Two of the films nominated for best movie of the year were inexpensive features made in England, and one of the men nominated for best director is Irish. One of the women nominated for best actress is English; another is French.