Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

[prinnysquad]

I'm meeting TA for a couple of jars on Saturday lunchtime, I'll put the thumbscrews on him to post more. Plus, if paid enough by irate Liverpool fans, I'll give him a couple of dragon fists where it hurts.

Vanpeebles would post on here too if he wasn't in the doghouse (locked from the inside, lol)

[Finsbury Girl]

I just found a copy of Dreadnought in my collection that I didn't even realise I had! Must watch this and report back!

[prinnysquad]

Which version is it?

Hmph, no film this weekend. There's a definite hollowness because of it.

[prinnysquad]

Warriors Two

A Sammo special, where he once again takes the back seat and allows other stars to flex their qualities. The story is typical. A cashier (Casanova Wong) at a bank run by a mobster-type villian (Fung Hak-On) overhears a plot to kill the Mayor of the town. He rushes to tell the Mayor's clerk (Dean Shek). After various betrayals he takes refuge at the clinic school of a Wing Chun master (Leung Kar Yan), whose students include Sammo Hung. Casanova plots his revenge against the man who cheated his way to the top and killed his mother.

As I say, it's all standard fayre. The story simply holds together a load of fights, some comedy, and some terrific performances.

Casanova Wong is great in this picture, demonstrating decent acting and big, big moves. Sammo is Sammo, full of comedy and acrobatics. Dean Shek is terrific, all creepy, sleazy angles and over-elaborated movements. The bad guy doesn't have much to do bar the final scene, when he really displays menace. Two old swordmen do a great job of cutting up the token bird. Various other baddies get nailed in a variety of ways. I didn't realise until halfway through that scene in the trees that it was meant to be pitch black

The real revelation for me was the master. I had no idea it was Leung Kar Yan - Beardy! I was thinking, 'who's that, I know him..?' He was EXCELLENT. Loads of quality moves, and an air of authority throughout. I read on wiki that he had no formal martial arts training, and that he excelled in mimicry, of action choreographers and co-stars. He does a great job in this film, and he's not disappointed in any movie I've seen so far.

The only problem I had with this film was the fight between Sammo and Shek at the end. I'm not sure the comedy tones of the battle really worked amongst the brutal, revenge-driven kickings surrounding it.

Great to see so many styles - polefighting, mantis, crane, a huge wing chun spectrum, iron armour, swords and knives, kicking. Also, unless I'm mistaken, there were roles for Yuen Biao and Lau Kar Wing in this film! Win!

[monel]

I really need to rewatch it but I always thought Dean Shek's appearance kind of ruins the pace of the ending.

[prinnysquad]

It does that. A bit of a step-down in the high velocity kickings.

[Finsbury Girl]

Which version is it?

Hmph, no film this weekend. There's a definite hollowness because of it.

It's the HKL edition so cannot wait to watch it!

[prinnysquad]

If you ever decide to sell it, please make me the first port of call.

[QualityChimp]

Right! Lots to get through.

Firstly, I saw Magnificent Butcher starring Sammo Hung and directed by Yuen Woo-Ping, courtesy of YouTube.

The plot is a bit crazy and there's plenty of murder for a comedy film, but we're mainly here for the fights, right? At first I was going to start listing which of the fights were memorable, then I realised they're all really inventive, amusing and brilliantly delivered. It's got the usual 70s "dance step" pacing of the fights, but that's to be expected.

Sammo is crazily agile for a bloke his size. Yeun Biao's not in it too much, but he's got a great couple of fight scenes. It's definitely trying to emulate the success of Drunken Master and if you enjoyed that, you'll love this too.

Next up, I managed to pick up from the bargain bin in Forbidden Planet a copy of More 100% Jackie Chan. It's by the writers of Screen Power (The Jackie Chan magazine) and Impact. As a title, it makes as much sense as "Final" Fantasy XII or something, but the book itself is good for the £3 I forked out for it.

Some of the articles are little more than a plot synopsis, but the on-set diaries and look back at older films (eg Armour of God) are nice. I may pick up the first part too.

Next up, I have the Lucky Stars trilogy to watch (and re-watch with Bey!) and City Hunter, which I got for £1 after it was listed as "City Hinter" on eBay.

Purchase wise, I'd like to get Meals on Wheels, Eastern Condors and Dragons Forever and then I'm stopping as this is getting out of hand a little!

Finally, on XBox Live, they have Invincible Tiger on offer at the moment. The music is heavily influenced by Lalo Schifrin's amazing Enter the Dragon soundtrack and the game plays a lot like Bruce Lee on the C64!

It's co-op if anybody fancies picking it up and playing it through together!

[prinnysquad]

I've got Wheels on meals and Dragons Forever. Haven't watched them though, lol.

The Magnificent Butcher was excellent, you can really feel the fury in Sammo's mission at the end.

[Finsbury Girl]

Watched Dreadnaught - I actually had seen it before I couldn't remember it.

But wow what a top film. Great laughs and fights. Another masterpiece from Yuen Woo Ping

[prinnysquad]

What is it like compared to Knockabout? As in style, period setting, etc?


Watched Challenge of the Masters last night. Pretty much a quintessential Shaw Bros film, in terms of casting, direction, story and setting. It does nothing outstanding, yet everything is of good quality. Gordon Liu excellent as usual, but there weren't many fights. An interesting angle to take, one of moral development in the learning of martial arts. High production values throughout, I enjoyed watching this.

Just a short review today, I feel dreadful.

[Finsbury Girl]

will watch knockabout again and report back sir!

[monel]

Fights wise, Dreadnaught does not compare to Knockabout because Yuen Biao is playing a scaredy cat who wants to not fight. It's a highly regarded film but I feel it's a bit overrated and if you pay the going rate for the HKL you would be quite disappointed.

Challenge Of Them Masters is lacking in fights but I guess Lau Kar Leung was focussing on the principle of forgiveness. As I've mentioned before the last fight in Martial Club is nothing short of outstanding.

[QualityChimp]

Not seen anything for a few weeks as I've been pretty busy, but I watched Winners and Sinners last night.

This is an interesting one because it's more of a comedy film with kung-fu in it. There are several fantastic fight and stunt scenes, but there are also some lengthy comedy sketch sections that don't really further the plot, but are fun nonetheless.

Of note action-wise is the excellent warehouse fight towards the end which is an exercise in how to film a fight. None of your up-close shaky cam headache here (I'm looking at you, Bourne 2 & 3)! Just wide tracking shots keeping up with the action.

Jackie Chan is pretty good on rollerskates too and does a great chase after Mars (JC stunt team actor) and goes underneath a speeding lorry.

Talking of Jackie, he really is only in this for a little bit and even less so is Yuen Biao, who has a little scuffle with JC and then he's off!

I look forward to the next two parts because they're semi-sequels and also feature Sammo, Jackie and Yuen together for parts of the film.

On the HKL DVD there's also a nice interview with Sammo about the film, a tribute documentary to him and Bey Logan's commentary. I only had a little look at those though.