Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

[eastyy]

saw ong bak 3....erghhh think its way to overblown and not much in the way of kung fu had some cgi effects to (had a bit of roland emmerich vibe to the film )

loved warrior king and the first ong bak though

[monel]

I still haven't seen part 3 yet, eastyy, but the filming was full of problems as well as the fact that they split some of the footage from the second film into the third to increase potential profits. I think Tony Ja has got his problems straightened out now and should be aiming to come back with a vengeance.

[prinnysquad]

LOL I watch a lot of my films in my pyjamas. With several mugs of tea. I have never properly got into the bashers, yet. On an unrelated note, and not trying to be a prick, but on every specialist forum I've ever been on or lurked at, usually kung fu or music, they have a ton of arrogant, ignorant twats on them. edit- several very helpful and knowledgable people too, but the former type try and spoil it for everyone.

Haha, do I fit the bill on this one, Shin?

[monel]

Haha, do I fit the bill on this one, Shin?

Dude, you're not an ignorant twat...

[prinnysquad]

Damn, I'll just have to settle for arrogant

I know what you mean, though, there's some right bell-ends lurking around.

[monel]

Let me know if you want some kung fu gear to wear while watching your films, I'll pay Chinatown a visit.

Will try and get a free pair of nunchukas thrown in, to be worn hanging around the neck whilst you sip your drink. The missus may finally think you've lost it, though... I do not accept responsibility for that eventuality.

[QualityChimp]

Will try and get a free pair of nunchukas thrown in, to be worn hanging around the neck whilst you sip your drink.

[monel]

Is that you? I know you like your nunchukas, heh.

[QualityChimp]

No way! I'm completely ripped, man! *cough*

I watched In The Line Of Duty again at the weekend - one of your older suggestions - and I still chuckle at how much action is in that film. There's a bit of plot at the start then it's a non-stop series of Yuen Woo-Ping-directed fight sequences! In a warehouse, at the dockside, on a bus, it never stops for breath! Awesome.

[monel]

Yeah they were a bit manic choregraphing that one it seems, fight to fight to fight. I can picture the studio telling Woo Ping, 'Could we add some dialogue now, maybe, perhaps? No? OK...'.

You need to watch Tiger Cage 2, lot more comedy but it belongs with ITLOD 4.

[prinnysquad]

I would like a proper kung fu outfit. Like this:



Noobs:

The Snake Strikes Back (1982)

A Godfrey Ho/Tomas Tang/ Joseph Lai effort. This has the usual Ho trio - Eagle Han, Elton Chong and Mike Wong. Chong is a wagony kung fu mong who is repeatedly skanked by his schoolmate, to the extent that the master kicks him out of the Kung Fu Institute due to his incompetence. The schoolmate is, in fact, a power junkie, who wants to depose the master, so that he can gain access to a secret techniques manual. His plans coincide with the arrival of the Immortal Trio, a gang of basts who also want the book. The Master is whupped, as is a fisherman during a pleasantly-set fight at the foot of a waterfall. The new master - the schoolmate - is captured by the Trio, as is the old dead master's daughter. She escapes and contacts Elton Chong, and they enlist the help of beggar Mike Wong. He teaches Chong the Belly Kung Fu technique, which is decisive.

It's an entertaining enough diversion; heavily cliched, but way better than much of Ho's other output. Wong's Belly Fu is quite funny, and provides hope for kung fu tubmasters everywhere. He trains Chong's reflexes by firing plates at him, boucing them off his belly in his direction. There's some decent action, as Eagle Han plays the bad guy smashing places up. The most engaging duel is probably the one between Chong and a cymbal-wielding henchman. Not a bad film, but I probably wouldn't watch it again anytime soon.

Shaolin King Boxer (aka Iron Fists) (1979)

I think this is a splendid film, a really fine effort. The cast is top rank: Chen Kuan-Tai, Lau Kar Wing, Meng Fei, Beardy and Wilson Tong. The fights are choreographed by Lau Kar Wing. It's a hidden indie gem.

Chen Kuan-Tai is a police chief who banged Lau Kar Wing away years ago. LKW is broken out of prison by Beardy, Wilson Tong and his gang. They go to CKT's house, murder his wife and daughter, and slice his thumb off. They plan a heist of the safe of a rich bod at a local town. CKT meanwhile gets a specially cast iron glove fitted. He tracks down the LKW gang, but attracts the attention of a bounty hunter, Meng Fei, a cocky expert with a tremendous iron fan technique. Cue a few twists and turns in the story as CKT seeks his revenge, Meng Fei seeks a reward bounty, and LKW attempts to complete his heist while splitting the money as few ways as possible.

It's a very decent little story that engaged me from the start, with a nice pace and mood from director Karl Maka. The story jumps straight in, there's no fannying about, and it progresses swiftly and clearly, thanks in no small part to a decent, clear dub. The story is quite traditional, but the fighting is top rank indie goodness. There's loads of battles - 1 on 1, 2 on 2, group on group - with a variety of styles and weapons. We have poles, knives, dual wieldings of swords, and TRAPS. Oh yeah, traps! - three traps late on, each more gory than the last. Great stuff, a real surprise so far into the film, and with such little fanfare.

As I say, it's a very traditional effort, but delivered so competently and with such gusto, it's an instant classic for me. The choreography is excellent, with really long cuts and good camerawork. The cast is excellent, all round. There's just loads of talent on show. Beardy is great in a bad guy lesser role, as is Wilson Tong, but the screen is hogged by the three leads. Meng Fei's shapes and fan work is superb, and Chen Kuan-Tai is as hard as nails, just pure power. In one scene he takes on two hired expert swordsmen, and he blows them away. LKW hits all the fight buttons, with a really top performance. It's all good.

[vanpeebles]

A picked a good un.

[monel]

Shaolin King Boxer, I doubt I have that but I did try and get every Lau film I could years ago so I'm a bit confused... I want to see it, though, it sounds good.


Let me know if you want one of those suits and I'll find you one if I can. It would probably be cheaper to go online for one but I can look at the quality of the material if I come across one in real life, so there's that to consider. My old teacher is pals with a lady who owns a large business in chinatown so that may help.

[monel]

I watched Don't Give A Damn yesterday. It's a Sammo film with Yuen Biao and Sammo starring and quite a large cast of well known actors in cameo appearances. I first saw it on a crappy VHS copy many years ago, got the VCD which I never watched after that, then a bootleg DVD which was just a crap capture of the VCD and then finally another version on DVD recently. This film has had crticisms of racism due to a couple of the characters getting done up in blackface (is that the correct term?) but what's probably more offensive is what they say during those scenes. Thing is, I doubt Sammo was ever racist or sexist as he's been accused of, it's just that he and others in the HK industry often resorted to the crudest forms of humour as so many other films demonstrate. Anyway, the film isn't very good although it has 10 or so minutes of pretty good action at the end. The rest is just office romances in a cop shop, that's how I would describe it, with Biao and Sammo trying to hook up with some pretty women at work and getting frustrated in the process. The best thing about it to me is that Biao plays a character that goes against the usual nice guy roles Sammo gave him, here he's a lot more confident and arrogant. I've noticed in the past that Sammo usually gives himself roles that are almost the complete opposite to how say, Donnie Yen or Jackie Chan try to portray theselves as flawless heroes, his characters are a lot more humble usually. You could skip the first hour of this film and not miss a thing, no action except for brief scenes, until the final half hour. I'd recommend this to someone only if they absolutely have to see everything Sammo and Biao did and even then only if they have seen the better films they put out in the years before.

[QualityChimp]

Is that Burger Cop? If it's anything like Pantyhose Hero, it'll have 75 minutes of non-pc humour and 15 minutes of action that feel like they're from a different film! :LOL: