Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

[prinnysquad]

Wha? Kung fu films need to look like they're filmed in SnowStormVision, with video rolls and cut off subtitles.

Pleased to see HKL stuff out and about again. Hopefully some of the more random titles will get released, and piss on the chips of profiteers on amazon marketplace.

Watched two films recently

Matching Escort with Pearl Cheung and Meng Fei. Utterly madcap wire-fu with Pearl steaming up the screen. She plays a young un who sees a right arsehole kill her entire family. She is entrusted with they family jewel, the Jade Lovebird Pendant, but plummets to her doom over a cliff edge. Well, not exactly - she winds up in a cave inhabited by an old weirdo cripple type, who teaches her hand to hand shizzle to complement her sword fighting. Pearl confronts her family's killer.

It's all very, very odd. Pearl, though, weilds the sword like a good un, and the claret sprays everywhere, with decapitations, chopped limbs and swords through heads. Nasty!

Entertaining enough film.

The Eight Dragon Sword - an early 70s Taiwanese wuxia. Kong Ban is a reformer who rounds up ****heads and forces them to mend their ways. He meets his match, though, with a masked swordsman, who defeats Ban. As 'payment', Ban must travel to the Carefree Mansion and acquire the Fire Dragon Magic Ball. He encounters a lass and her dad, and gets caught up in family issues surrounding the treasure.

Surprisingly enjoyable for an early 70s swordplay. The action is cleaner than I expected - other wuxia films from this period have much slower sword movements. The weapons on show are hilarious, and great, with harpoon spears, fire spears, hats with knives sticking out, and dragon-handled knives. There's some amusing fantasy scenes involving wooden-board air surfing; very Back to the Future II!

Very much a pleasant surprise, probably not as good as I'm making out because I expected so little.

[CMcK]

I finally got round to watching Ip Man this evening. I really enjoyed it. Good action, not too much fluff. Quite a similar story to Fist of Legend but not that I'm complaining as FoL is one of my favourite martial arts movies.
Still cannot get used to seeing HK movies with such high production values. I actually almost think some of it is over stylised.
Still I'm eager to see Ip Man 2 now and I hoping Legend Of The Fist gets a cinema release over here.

[monel]

Ip Man 2 is OK but doesn't come anywhere near the first action or storywise, sadly.

With these HKL re-releases I hope they sort out some of the flawed titles, meaning the pinkish tones, trimmed frames, etc etc. Have to agree about some of the Amazon marketplace sellers, I haven't quite figured out what substance(s) they are abusing to come up with their prices.

[prinnysquad]

Three films:

Tiger's Claw (1974)

Cliff Lok is a cocky young tyke trying to establish his martial supremacy. He overhears people comparing him to an old master, Sek Kin, and he decides to challenge him. Unfortunately, the old guy is serving time for murder. Lok decides he needs to break him out and settle the argument.

Interesting film. The hero isn't really a hero, and the whole piece is a morality play about family and finding a sense of purpose in life. But there's plenty of fights, and the settings are pleasingly grim, which matches the sentiment behind the plot.

The dub I watched was absolutely terrible and did a real disservice to the film, with lazy, uninspired voice artists on autopilot. Shame, as it betrayed some of the efforts the cast put into injecting emotion into the story. (Lazily copied review that I posted on kfc earlier this week)

Legend of a Fighter

What can I say about this film? Ok, here it goes. The storyline is cliched nationalistic rubbish with no emotional core whatsoever. The acting is poor, verging on ham at times, delivered by a cast on autopilot. The action is stilted and clumsy, with poor camerawork derailing any moments of quality, of which there are few. Overrated in the extreme. Avoid.

Ok .. I've wound up shinobi7000 enough. I don't want him to send me a dog turd in the post, so I'll reveal the truth. Take everything I said, and apply the mirror opposite, and you've got a better picture of this classic. The cast is uniformly excellent, with Ko Fei playing a proud father to Leung Kar Yan's hopeless son. A teacher, a Japanese spy played by Yasuaki Kurata, arrives to teach the boy various non-martial skills, while covertly scoping out the secret family kung fu style. It's a story of master/pupil bonds being tested to the limit by national pride, and the three leads are great. Beardy has many superb scenes, and packs a mean punch. The final scene in the dojo with Kurata is amazing. Talking of Kurata, he offers a typically assured performance, with excellent power and skills. These two guys form a good bond that provides the emotional core of the film. Ko Fei plays his role well, and flexes his acting boots a bit, with the hilarious sequence of facial reactions he unleashes while secretly listening to his son being a highlight. The comedy here is fitting, and broad enough to enjoy on a basic level - the old man's battle on the boat is very amusing. There's a good support cast and more good battles, particularly the one against the judo expert. Top stuff, this oozes quality from every pore.

On The Run

Doh Re Me.

I'll not go on about the story too much, as it's been covered on this thread before. I like police action films, I like pursuit films, and I like noir films. So basically, I liked this. Yuen Biao shows his acting credentials really well in this flick. There's no real classic Biao action that I'm used to, except maybe the pole-to-lamppost stunt, but that gave the film a whole new level of brutal reality. He's just a guy in this, with no special skills, but running for his life. It's raw and the violence has a certain quality to it that demonstrates the fragility of morality. Many of the deaths are senseless and instant - no heroics here. It's a very bleak atmosphere. The story was intense for Biao's character - he really suffered here!

I enjoyed it a lot. The settings were good, the pace and camerawork excellent, and the general tone was very arresting. Charlie Chin was badass as the corrupt cop, and his band of lackeys went about their business with menace. Nice to see Lo Lieh, Yuen Wah and Ko Fei in different roles. I was very pleasantly surprised by the performance of Pat Ha as the female assassin. She grabbed my attention with her smouldering, involved acting, and cut a powerful figure on screen.

As has been said, not a MA film, but a great crime noir, with a stamp of quality all over it.

Apparently there's a missing scene at the end - why oh why would anyone cut it off??? I've read about it and it appears to be story based, not violence, so there seemed to be no reason whatsoever for its omission.

['Press Start']

I love Legend of a fighter. You can tell the end fight scene inspired the Matrix fight with Neo and Laurence Fishburn. Got the HKL version too, a keeper for sure!

[prinnysquad]

Yeah, that scene was an obvious inspiration.

The HKL version is currently on amazon, used, for less than a fiver. There's no excuse really. Lots of great special features for your Hong Kong cinema buff.

[monel]

I definitely agree with you that Legend Of A Fighter touches on the pupil/teacher bond. The first time I saw it, the ending really affected me like few kung fu films have. Also the parts at the start when Kurata advises the young FYG that running away from lifes problems isn't the answer.

On The Run-Charlie Chin gave a great performance and his crew were downright scary. This needs to be remastered and given a ton of extra features.

Shame about Legend Of A Fighter with HKL trimming the picture and not getting the full dub. It's the only decent release out there, too. I had another version which was fullscreen (not wide) but I need to check the audio.

[QualityChimp]

You Japester, Prinny! I was thinking "I'm sure I've heard Legend of a Fighter is a classic?"!

This thread is dangerous - I get 3 more films to watch from every one I actually find time to get through!
Searching for Shinobi's comments on Righting Wrongs, I saw him mention Outlaw Brothers, so now I've tracked that down and have that to add to the pile of stuff to see, argh! Now I feel obliged to find Legend of a Fighter too...

On The Run is great, especially if you're primed for Biao not to be his usual acrobatic self, but watch it as a prime slice of Asian crime-noir. I too was really impressed by it, but shocked at the death count. If you know Biao's character, I wouldn't expect to make it to the end credits alive! Same for Righting Wrongs, in fact.

If you ever see Yuen Biao coming your way, leg it - you're just collateral. I swear he's got more dead people around him than Jessica Fletcher on Murder She Wrote!

[monel]

Make sure you get Legend Of A Fighter. Outlaw Brothers only really delivers fights wise right at the very end. It's nice seeing the 80s Porsches and Ferraris, though. It'll introduce you to Yukari Oshima.

Which is my latest collecting hobby-girls with guns sub-genre. My favourites are Yukari and Moon Lee. Cynthia Khan is beautiful but she can't fight as well as the other two. Pick up Iron Angels (the first one) and go from there. You will not be disappointed with Moon and Yukari.

There's a bit in A Book of Heroes where Yukari kicks serious ass.

[prinnysquad]

Legend of a Fighter is a proper classic kung fu film. Great fights, top characters, ace setting, a bit of humour, and all nicely put together in a tidy package. It also has the extra character depth that many of its contemporaries don't have.

[monel]

Bangkok Knockout-sadly, there's no version with subs yet, although some dodgy ones will pop up sooner or later (I always wonder who the hell does those bootleg subs especially considering how quickly they appear).

I had been really looking forwards to this for months, and it was quite good. Some of the action was amazing, some less so. Compared to Sammo or other old school HK choreography, these Thai films usually feature less complex exchanges, I wonder if that's to do with Thai martial arts. Their stunts are amazing though, and I think they've replaced Hong Kong with regards to pushing the action genre forward.

I did enjoy it, even without subs, and some of the baddies spoke in English. Pretty terrible plot but I will buy the English subbed version especially if they have extensive behind the scenes stuff on it.

[QualityChimp]

I'll see that when it's subbed up, Shin. Trailer looks mental!

In other news, the Terracotta Far East Film Festival is on again at the Prince Charles Cinema in London from the 5th to the 8th of May.

Highlights include Gallants, Choy Lee Fut, Helldriver and Karate Girl.

[prinnysquad]

He Has Nothing But Kung Fu (1977)

A pre-shaved head Gordon Liu is an amnesiac who befriends Wang Yu, a conman street beggar. He teaches him to virtues of chivalry while he tries to understand who he is an what his mission is. Meanwhile, bad 'uns plan to preserve their dodgy enterprises. Wilson Tong also stars.

This site gives a decent enough review - http://10kbullets.com/reviews/g/gong...g-but-kung-fu/

It was a decent-to-watch, lighthearted affair, without any real quality to recommend it, but without anything to be offended by. Liu and Yu are good together and have a decent interplay going. There's a super little battle atop crumbling rooftops at the end, which raised the game a bit. Liu and Yu wear some dodgy 1920s gangster suits at one point which look hilarious:



The Female Chivalry (1975)

Judy Lee is a fresh-faced mystery woman in this undemanding film, who engineers events in a small town to bring down the hand of righteousness on local ****s. She helps snivelling Escort Commander-to-be Barry Chan to win a thrown fighting tournament, and rescues him from the henchman of a sulphur mine ganglord. He swears his allegiance to her and they plot the downfall of the gang boss.

The story is lightweight. One review I read said that this could be an episode of a weekly serial about a wandering asskicker, who travels far and wide to spread the good word and teach chivalry. In fact, in the subs I watched, Judy called herself ****Kicker, because she kicks the **** out of people. It's hard to disagree. She never looks in any trouble, and deals with allcomers with ease. There's some decent choreography for her to show off her kicking, and a few decent action pieces, like when she kicks a bloke 30 feet down a quarry embankment, and you see it in full shot the entire way. She relishes this role - she's almost invincible, and often makes fools out of various dumb bandits. Early on the film, there's a slapstick fight routine that she clearly enjoys. When she's sat in the teahouse, listening to the men argue and strut, she shakes her head and laughs at the absurdity of their misplaced confidence. She's a great character in this.

The rest of the choreography is decent enough - a lot of open-bodied fighting and close quarters punching. The sets are grimy and authentic, and the music surprisingly good.

Watch with low expectations and in a grinning mood and it'll be time well spent.

[prinnysquad]

The Armless Swordsman (1969)

Korean swordplay flick, focused on a tale of revenge, after a man cuts off his love rival's arms in a jealous rage. The poor bloke learns how to throw darts with his feet and hold his sword in his mouth. The story is quite well developed, and the performances sound, but the MA action is ropey. It's all quick cuts and unclear framing, probably to hide the fact that the deaths dished out by the armless hero never look convincing. Late 60s swordplays are always slow and soft anyway, and a bloke gripping a sword in his mush just doesn't look powerful enough. The action is, shall we say, very much of its time, and probably laughable to people brought up on Shaw Bros 70s stuff. However, if the action is taken in context, it's pleasant enough. The settings are superb - high snowy mountaintops and broken shacks - and the whole ambiance of the film is impressive.

[prinnysquad]

Shaolin Drunk Monkey (1981)

Godfrey Ho special, with Elton Chong playing a cook at Shaolin who witnesses Eagle Han Ying burn the joint down. He asks for drunken pisser Mike Wong to help him with MA in order to challenge him.

Standard Godfrey Ho film, nothing much else to say really! Very cliched story, and the usual comedy thrown into the mix. Mike Wong and Han Ying deserve so much better than this, and even the OTT Elton Chong should have had better vehicles to showcase his decent MA talent. Action undercranked all the way. Death Wish sampled in the soundtrack - lol.