Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

[prinnysquad]

God I still haven't watched the Police Story films. What a ringpiece.

In other news, I've got cheapy copies of two newbies through the door.

The Bloody Fists, Ng See-Yuen's (co-writer and producer of Ninja in Dragon's Den, Drunken Master and Snake in Eagle's Shadow) directorial debut, and starring Chan Sing and Chen Kuan-Tai. It sounds like one of those Chinese/Japanese cultural tensions films.

Shaolin Kung Fu, a Joseph Kuo film I can find out very little about! It's the 1974 one, not the 1981 film.

[prinnysquad]

Time for an updated top 10, dammit, 11, I just can't drop one. They're all aces for different reasons.

Drunken Master
Snake in the Eagle's Shadow
Hellz Windstaff
Rebellious Reign
Duel of the Seven Tigers
8 Diagram Pole Fighter
Shaolin Intruders
Knockabout
The Buddhist Fist
Heroes of the East
The Magnificent Butcher


Bubbling under... The 18 Bronzemen, Snuff Bottle Connection, Shaolin Temple 4, The Heroic Ones, Five Superfighters, Shaolin Invincible Sticks, Fist of the White Lotus, Hitman in the Hand of Buddha, Mystery of Chess Boxing, North Shaolin vs South Shaolin, Chinese Connection (Fist of Fury), One Armed Boxer 2, Shaolin vs Lama.

Re-watched Knockabout tonight ... Yuen Biao ... WOW!

[monel]

Yeah he gave an amazing peformance in Knockabout. I'll watch anything with Biao in it.

[prinnysquad]

Eastern Condors

Finally got to watch this film after all the recommendations.

It's totally unlike anything in the genre I've watched so far. It's more modern than most flicks I've watched, as is the setting.

Bearing this in mind, it took a bit of adjustment. Hell, it's still taking some adjustment in my mind. Machine guns??!! Kung fu??!! Nam??!! Slimmer Sammo?!?! A bizarre cocktail for someone who's experience of the genre is mostly limited to traditional temples and markets, monks and robes, white haired baddies and overly-hairy facial moles.

It's a film of undeniable quality. It's so different. I feel like I should be able to italicise that word again to make it slant even further, to put maximum emphasis on how outlandish this film felt to watch. Let's establish one thing though: I really liked it. The casting is spot on. The action is great. The humour is good. The pace is relentless. It's like a black-comedy Nam-set Dirty Dozen. So many great scenes ... Sammo with the grenades on the truck, the end rumble, the bridge scene, the riverboat, the cheesy death speeches; the list goes on.

I'm still digesting it!

[monel]

You're right it is very different compared to the old school kung-fu films, but it's the differences that maked me like it even more. The cast is amazing, as you pointed out and the action is top notch.

I got a bit tired of the old school setting in so many films maybe that's why I like the 80s to early 90s films set in then modern day Hong Kong.

[prinnysquad]

The good thing about it is, you could take out the martial arts and it would still be a great action comedy film. But the MA just adds another dimension to it, real badass punching and kicking that still has a part to play in the technological world.

Sammo was totally different to the fopped buffoon in Knockabout, a hard-nut with a heart, and Biao demonstrated a masterclass in movement again.

I think I'm ready for the modern stuff now!

[QualityChimp]

I've not seen Knockabout, so maybe I should try and source it. I've got the Lucky Stars trilogy and I want Meals on Wheels and Eastern Condors, which I missed bidding for on eBay and it went for a fiver - argh! Mind you, I picked up City Hunter for £1.99 because it was listed as "City Hinter"!

I've only seen half of Eastern Condors and loved what I saw. It is very different, you're right, Prin. Sammo and Yeun were busy doing this and that's why they're absent from Project A part II.

I struggle with some of the older flicks you seem to love, Prinny, because they can seem a little bit like a dance, whereas Jackie seemed to strive for faster action sequences in his later films. Police Story picked up ideas from John Woo but added a bit of Kung Fu to it.

The only flick I've seen this weekend was Forbidden Kingdom which has Jackie Chan and Jet Li together for the first time. I was knackered and kept falling asleep so had to keep rewinding! The story comes across like Monkey crossed with the Neverending Story, but it's perfectly watchable.

There's loads of action in it though! Every 5 mins there seems to be a fight or training montage of some sorts. As it's fantasy, there's a little bit too much wire-fu for my preference, but the choreography is very well done.

Like a non-CGI Kung Fu Panda!

[prinnysquad]

Day of Gash.
A tale of a young collector who spies someone selling a dvd of Dreadnaught, the Hong Kong Legends copy, for only a tenner. Realising it goes for upwards of 50 quid on amazon, our hero gets in touch with the seller and seals the deal, even getting his payment details. His hopes are crushed, however, when the seller gets in touch the next morning and says in a blase fashion, and probably with an evil cackle, that the dvd 'is now out of stock.' I did not enjoy this flick at all.

Bastard ****bag, what a snivelling cockherder. What if I'd already sent the money? Does anyone have a copy of Dreadnaught knocking around??? (Any version).

I struggle with some of the older flicks you seem to love, Prinny, because they can seem a little bit like a dance, whereas Jackie seemed to strive for faster action sequences in his later films. Police Story picked up ideas from John Woo but added a bit of Kung Fu to it.

lol, I suppose they are like a dance, and that's why I think they're fab! Disclaimer ... I hate dancing. I do, however, love the fast, intricate movements of 'shape' martial arts, where the combatants hark back to days of yore, and have to out-think their enemy as well as out-hit them. The basher stuff you see Chan in is, of course, intricate, cerebral and fast, but in a somewhat different way. The two choreographies grow from the same tree, but on different branches, yet even they tangle together. I find the old school dancy stuff fascinating to watch, it's a real battle of wits and technique. The modern stuff packs a helluva punch, with very fast action. I don't really want to make a sweeping statement about either style because, more often than not, it'll be wrong in many respects.

I suppose a very lazy and easily-provable-wrong thing to say, would be that the modern stuff is harder hitting, hi-octane and technically gifted, whereas the old shapes stuff has an air of creative mystique about it, with deliberate-yet-organic highly artistic movements steeped in myth. It's so obscure to non-genre fans, that I can almost see how old school shapes would be a bit of an embarrasment to admit to liking, whereas the fast-paced belting shenanigans of stuff like First Strike is more digestable and wow! to most people. There's plenty of old school stuff knocking about with solid basher creds, though. The Thunder Kick isn't anything special, but the bashing is pretty kinetic.

[prinnysquad]

Tokyo Shock edition of Martial Club has arrived, in shrink-wrappy goodness.

Watch Challenge of the Masters first? Or does it not matter?

Also, all being well, the HKL editions of Hapkido, Mr Vampire and Skinny Tiger Fatty Dragon should be en route!

[monel]

I'd say watch COTM first. Doesn't matter really but there is some story carried over as in who is who's enemy (referring to the schools).

Nice purchases, haven't seen Hapkido for years, Skinny Tiger is great, gotta rewatch Mr Vampire some day (I never really liked the hopping vampires but everyone seems to love the film guess it's worth watching again).

[QualityChimp]

I've not seen Mr. Vampire since Channel 4 showed it as part of their Chinese Ghost Story season in the early 90s (when they used to show good stuff and not just Big Brother ad nauseum).

I remember it being quite silly, but liked it because it of the crazy gurning when they had to hold their breath so the Vamps couldn't see them.

The hopping vampires also reminded me of the great sequence in Encounters of the Spooky Kind where Sammo has to hide out in the haunted house for the night and gets attacked by a zombie.


It also reminded me of Super Mario Land on the Gameboy where the zombies keep coming back to life even after you've jumped on their heads!



I love Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon. The cover picture of Sammo wielding nunchuks was a seller to me! Apparently, he learned how to use them for this movie.

There's an interesting bit in the Bey Logan commentary where he talks about an actor who came to HK to make movies and claimed he was an awesome stick fighter. He was, but he wasn't an awesome screen stick fighter. Bey's saying all this whilst Sammo is showing how stick fighting is really done!

I've just started Winners and Sinners, but haven't got far yet.

[prinnysquad]

I dunno how you watch movies in little chunks, QC, it would skank me up bad!

[QualityChimp]

It does my nut in too, but if I don't, then I won't see them for ages until I get a window to sit down and watch it from start to finish.

I'm constantly on edge worried about how much space I have on my Sky+ box! I have to keep chipping away at films and then I go and look at the guide add another film to watch.

There's never enough hours in the day!

[prinnysquad]

Less supermodel humping! That'll free up some time.

[QualityChimp]

LOL!

I'd say we're getting really cliquey, but there's only us two and Shinobi who seem to post on here anyways!