Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

[monel]

Saw a couple of flicks recently. The one I've been meaning to see for ages was Outlaw Brothers, it was the HKL version. It features the talents of Frankie Chan, Mok Siu Cheung and Yukari Oshima. Yukari was kicking ass in this, I can now see why she has so many fans.

The film is about a pair of car thieves, more or less, and their escapades. I loved seeing the late 80s Porsches and a couple of Ferraris. It has a lot of comedy, but is lacking on quality fights, which most people neglect to mention. The finale does kind of make up for that though.

I would definitely recommend this film but I don't think it's up to the standard of something like Righting Wrongs and similar films to which it is often compared, simply due to the lack of lengthy fight scenes.

Still a decent film, with actors I like, would give it 3 out of 5. That's a decent mark, considering if I'm forced to give a mark I am usually quite strict.

[prinnysquad]

Duel With The Devils
Flash Legs plays a man on a quest for vengeance after his wife is kidnapped and family killed by a Japanese chief. He attracts the sympathies of police chief's daughter Angela Mao. Quality little film, with some great action scenes. The first half of the film is better than the second, with an attack on a train being particularly noteworthy. The second section of the film is based around an ascent up a building with different challenges on each floor. It's not quite as good as Shaolin Death Squads, but still entertaining. A real surprise this one, I was expecting something quite average at best, but ended up being rather impressed.

Iron Fisted Eagle's Claw
Bruce Liang and Chi Kuan Chun get into all sorts of trouble when they are arrested for manslaughter. Chen Sing's lackey is arrested by the same police chief. Bruce and Chi defend the chief when Sing's men ambush them, and they are let free. Sing's men hunt out the chief's family and kidnap him. To rescue him and defeat Sing, Bruce and Chi must enlist the help of old master pisshead beggar Phillip Ko. Another great watch, just the job! Liang is surprisingly adept at martial arts, and he and Chi put in a great showing of punch and block, and kickwork. There's a lot of humour and daftness in this, so watching it on the wrong day will cause you to hate it. Thankfully, I watched it on the right day, and found it both amusing and fascinating. An entertaining little indie - expect nothing and get something out of it.

The Magic Whip
Very odd film, this. It dates from 1968 and stars Kwan Tak-Hing. He's the guy in a million old Wong Fei-Hung films. He also played the same character, fighting with a pen/brush, in Magnificent Butcher. In this film, he is a wandering doctor who comes to a town, where the Kuo family are all poor and ill. Their river has been dammed by the Ku family, a gang of ruffians who want to eradicate the village folk. He sets about curing the people and challenging the preconceptions of the ****s in charge. It's really odd because the story is an extremely basic self-contained morality tale. There's very little depth to it. The sets are lightweight yet quite atmospheric. The pace is slow, but not particularly dull. The martial arts is very poor - a lot of slow prancing and no pace or power whatsoever. It's so strange ... it's not really a kung-fu film. Everything about it is low quality, apart from the gore, which has plenty of spurting blood and a decapitation. The film stock is blurry and and sound ponderous. Yet we quite enjoyed it! A total break of pace from what we've watched recently, and a throwback to a more basic, very low budget, time.

[monel]

QC-I've got The Ip Man and Chen Zen films, ready to watch-will report back after watching them. Prinny-I want to see all three of those films, they all sound good in one way or another.

Watched a few films over the past week, so will give my impressions.

Disclaimer-it's almost 3am and I'm knackered so please forgive any blatant mistakes.

Flashpoint-stars Donnie Yen, film's a few years old now. I originally watched the start a couple of years ago but didn't watch the rest and then proceeded to lose the disc/and or forget about it. I finally watched it and thought, for the modern era, it was quite an enjoyable film. Not as good as SPL but also not as depressing/downbeat, which is a plus depending on the mood you're in when viewing a film.

Ngai Sing was the main baddie and the end fight between him and Donnie was great, although I think a lot of it was filmed to up-close. My biggest gripe is that the awesome Ben Lam was hardly used! This happens in too many films, they have a great performer on the cast and criminally under utilise him/her. Ben Lam was the head of the bad guys in Police Story 2, ever since I saw him in that I've been a fan of his. I wish they used him more in Flashpoint, the bast@rds!!!! I'd give Flashpoint a 7 out of 10.

Angry Ranger-managed to get the recent dvd release of this film, which Ben Lam stars in, (I think in the very early 90s). I previously saw a vcd version of this film and was chuffed to see it in better quality. It's a Jackie Chan Stunt Team production and the action is excellent, in that style of late 80s kickboxing type of choreography Sammo/Jackie/Biao's films of that era employed so effectively. My favourite style of kung fu film, really. The storyline is a bit downbeat, as Ben Lam's character has just left prison but is headed for trouble as he falls in love with a head Triad's girl and just doesn't care...! I wish Lam would have got more starring roles, I'd give this film a 7/10 again, if the fights had been a bit longer I would have scored it even higher.

Almost forgot, Sun Chien, of the Venoms crew, is the lead baddie in this film. It's a rare appearance by him in a modern day HK flick and he kicks ass, and is a mean s.o.b.

Once Upon A Time In China 4-I saw this over 10 years ago, on a crappy 3rd gen VHS copy, with no subs. So the french dvd release I watched tonight was a massive, massive upgrade. After Jet Li had retired from the main role, Chiu Man Cheuk replaced him and did a very good job indeed. I think this installment has more action than all three of the first OUATIC films, and it was extremely enjoyable viewing. I was chuffed to see Chin Kar Lok appear as a villain, although both he and Billy Chow weren't used as much as they should have been, a criminal oversight. The ending was a bit disappointing, which is a recurring theme in the OUATIC films for me, they always end with a Lion Dance or some other spectacle and not enough combat. The story was quite engaging and I enjoyed the film a lot more than I thought I would. The film ends on kind of a cliffhanger, so I urgently need to see the last in the series (technically the last...). Great film.

[QualityChimp]

Angry Ranger sounds ace, Shinobi!

Where did you get it from?

[monel]

I watched my friend's copy, but I think DDDHouse has it, in a couple of months I'm going to go on a classic movie buying spree.

[megatron]

Angry Ranger is up on youtube. I thought it was pretty unremarkable tbh.

[QualityChimp]

I'll defo check it out at some point.

You got any better suggestions for similar stuff, Megatron? You've not posted for a while on here, but you've suggested some corkers in the past.

Do you not want to see people getting acrobatically kicked in the face any more?!

[redstar_dan]

Fist Of Fury is set to start at 10pm on SyFy channel, followed by Drunken Master at 12:10 and then Game of Death at 2:20am. Recordy time!

[redstar_dan]

I really dislike dubbing

[CMcK]

I know the dubbing is awful but all those classic Chan/Hung/Biao films are a joy to watch in HD. I'm seriously contemplating buying a region A Blu-ray player to buy all of the Kung Fu classics that aren't out on region B.

[Sketcz]

Fist Of Fury is set to start at 10pm on SyFy channel, followed by Drunken Master at 12:10 and then Game of Death at 2:20am. Recordy time!

I only discovered this recently, but satellite channel Movies4Men seems to be having a series of kung fu flicks on recently. Shadow of the Tigers was on a couple of nights ago (I missed it sadly), while tonight it's Shaolin Drunk Fighter (1969) at 2.30 AM. Reckon I'll set the tape to record after the new year countdown.

Tomorrow night is Dragon the Hero (1979), and a few nights later is Fist of Fury II (1977).

No idea on any of these, but I've plenty of spare VHS tapes.

[prinnysquad]

Shadow of the Tigers is great (aka Duel of 7 Tigers), and on quite often - keep your eyes peeled). Phillip Ko, Cliff Lok, Sharon Yeung and Casanova Wong are all very good in this. Shaolin Drunk Fighter, iirc, isn't 1969, although places like lovefilm say it is. It's actually 1983, and a really cheap indie film from Korea.

Dragon The Hero I haven't seen, but had on dvd for a while. I have a suspicion it's a Godfrey Ho special. Fist of Fury 2 is nowhere near as good as the first (obviously), but surprisingly decent. It features Bruce a-like Ho Chung Tao, aka, Bruce Li.

Keep watching movies4men 2, they've also featured about a dozen other films, including The Dragon From Shaolin, Snake in Monkey's Shadow, Magnificent Natural Fist, Fearless Dragons, and Assault of Final Rival.

[QualityChimp]

SyFy is showing Armour of God tonight too, and the listing on SKY says it's the subbed version, hurrah!

"Forget me, lucky man"

I've still got it on video from when it was shown on Channel 4 all those Christmases ago.

HKL DVD is a bit sparse, no commentary, boo!

Picked up Kill Zone disc bad boy for a fiver yesterday. Sweet...

[CMcK]

SyFy is showing Armour of God tonight too, and the listing on SKY says it's the subbed version, ..

Just the thing for tomorrows inevitable hangover.

[prinnysquad]

Forget what sky says. They've said the same with these films for weeks. They've all been new, terrible dubs. I don't know why they persist in saying xxx is subbed when it's not.