Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

[Finsbury Girl]

Crickey, didn't realise Donnie was almost 50! He's in awesome shape.

[Finsbury Girl]

The Magic Blade - a 1976 Shaw Bros flick. Some very ropey fight direction, but nonetheless a good story, some interesting bad guys and redeeming action sequences and it was a treat to see a very young Ti Lung in action. The few saucy bits were certainly a surprise.

[monel]

Is that the one where he has that squarish looking sword? I've been meaning to watch that for years. I plan on watching a load of films soon, can't wait.

[Finsbury Girl]

Is that the one where he has that squarish looking sword? I've been meaning to watch that for years. I plan on watching a load of films soon, can't wait.

Yep - it's a squarish blade but has a handle like a tonfa and it can spin around on the handle. Quite funky.

[monel]

I start to worry when prinny doesn't update this thead with at least one old school film viewed. It means the universe is not in balance.

[prinnysquad]

Struggling to get over my post-Xmas mental slump to be honest. I hate January. And work.

Watched Tigers on Top on Friday. It's a 1975 basher starring Tien Peng. Amazing how much older Peng looks in his earlier bashers, compared to his later swordplays, with immaculate wigs and pale make-up. It was something to do with money being transported to help a town, but various scummers trying to claim it for themselves. Cue lots of fights, with some variation thrown in (kicks, mostly). I can't remember much about it as I had bad guts and felt like ****e, but it seemed decent enough. Nothing special, but no regrets. A couple of neat fights stood out, with lively camerawork and decent cuts in grotty village settings.

Nothing to report on the buying front.

[k0pp0]

Finally got around to watching Ip Man the other day (yeah I know).. First MA film I've enjoyed for years.

[monel]

I watched Ip Man a while after it came out, probably two years ago and it was the first new kf film in years that I really enjoyed. It's a shame the sequel was so disappointing on almost every level.

[QualityChimp]

I think I enjoyed the unofficial Ip-Man prequel, The Legend is Born - Ip Man, than the sequel.

They're finally going to release The Grandmasters this year, which is Wong Kar-Wai's take on the Ip Man story. He's been working on this Although he doesn't have a history of kung-fu movies, the fight choreographer is Yuen Woo-Ping, so it could be aces! Here's the moody trailer that is reminiscent of the final rain-soaked battle in The Matrix Revolutions.

[QualityChimp]

Seeing as we've made it to page 100 of this thread, I though I'd try and watch some relatively well-known kung-fu flicks and was pleased that I managed to watch both Heart of the Dragon and Tiger Cage II!

Heart of the Dragon is one of Jackie Chan's forays into drama-focussed films as he got tired of being pigeon-holed into just martial arts films, so Sammo Hung and Lam Ching-Ying (Mr. Vampire) don't do any fighting in this and because it was intended as a drama, two extra fight scenes were filmed, but cut from all but the Japanese print of the film.

The Bey Logan commentary is interesting because it details the requirements of the different markets. The Japanese cut had those cut fight scenes and out-takes in the end credits and the Philippines version is edited to show that criminals always get their punishment.

It would be interesting to see where this film would have been regarded if they'd have left these fight scenes in. It's not a particularly well-known JC/SH film or at least well-loved compared to some of their other films and if they'd packed in some more action, it would be remembered better. The two deleted scenes fit well into the plot and could have easily stayed, but the focus on drama and the belief that Western audiences preferred more story than action meant they were dropped. They're great sequences and I'm glad they made it to the extras.

The story tells of a S.W.A.T. team member (Jackie Chan) who joins the C.I.D. so that he is able to continue to look after his child-minded older brother (Sammo Hung). Whilst out playing cops and robbers with his friends, Sammo accidentally robs a gangster who has escaped with a bag of jewellery from a deal that JC was trying to bust. The story escalates so that Sammo is kidnapped by the gang of thieves to ensure that Jackie brings them the jewellery back.

Although it's a shame the extra action scenes were cut, the drama stands on its own and tells a compelling tale of the sacrifices that Jackie's character makes to look after his brother. Sammo's character is totally likeable and the scrapes he gets into with his school friends are quite comical, but it's heart-breaking to see the way that adults treat him when he's trying his hardest to please them.

Likewise, it's easy to empathise with Jackie's character who sacrifices a career with his S.W.A.T. team, his dreams of sailing around the world and marrying his girlfriend, so that he's able to give Sammo the support he needs. Every attempt he makes to leave Sammo behind ends with problems that he has to go back to sort. There's some nice dramatic turns from both the leads and tears are shed by both of them as they struggle to care for each other.

As for the action, there's a great car-chase towards the end and the main action set-piece is the final battle with the thieves as Jackie races to rescue Sammo. The explosion at the end results in an impressive stunt and rumour has it that Sammo caused so much damage and disruption that he was banned for life from the hotel it was filmed in! I think the thing that struck me most was how violent the sequence was. Normally JC's characters are on the right side of the law, or at least battling the bad guys, but here he doesn't hold back. I don't want to give too much away for those who haven't seen it, but it's interesting to see how the film plays out at the end.

Although Sammo and Jackie are in this, the film is chock-full of other martial arts actors, including Corey Yuen, Yuen Wah, Chin Kar Lok, Dick Wei, Phillip Ko and "Blacky" Ko (who also did the car chase sequence). He's not on-screen, but Yuen Biao was one of the fight choreographers.

Overall, I really enjoyed this.

[QualityChimp]

Tiger Cage II is the unrelated sequel to Yuen Woo-Ping's first film and it's another corker.

Donnie Yen leads again, but as a completely different character from the first film (for obvious reasons if you've seen it...) and he's having a really bad day. Not only is his wife divorcing him, but he also get tied up in a money laundering scam being run by a lawyer from the same building as his divorce lawyer. His day goes from bad to worse as he gets shot at, thrown out of an ambulance, attacked, dumped in sewage and has his heart broken!

Yen, his divorce lawyer and a double-crossed gangster team up to take down the money launderers who've framed them for murder.

Typically for Woo-Ping, there's some inventive fight sequences and some nice shots used to convey the action. A car chase has some bumper-cam shots, an alley fight has the famous Bank of China tower in the background and a chase across buses is lit by the stunning neon signs of Hong Kong.

Yen's great again, and does an admirable job of fighting with his hands tied - twice! The action set pieces are as fun and dynamic as you'd expect for Woo-Ping, with the highlights, for me, being the fight whilst handcuffed to Rosamund Kwan (Armour of God), Yen's fight with multiple sword-wielding assailants with just a dustbin lid and his fight with Michael Woods (In The Line of Duty 4), who adds a real heavyweight threat feeling with his tree trunk arms and wrestling take downs.

Obviously, the action is great, but the thing that surprised me most was how well the humour worked in this. Mainly because it's more subtle that the crazy antics of the likes of The Lucky Stars films, for example. Just little bits of humour here and there really elevate the mood without descending into farce. I actually chuckled aloud at some of the jokes.

A good, solid Martial Arts film that rattles along at a fair-old pace with some dynamically shot action sequences.

[Finsbury Girl]

Tiger Cage II is the unrelated sequel to Yuen Woo-Ping's first film and it's another corker.

Donnie Yen leads again, but as a completely different character from the first film (for obvious reasons if you've seen it...) and he's having a really bad day. Not only is his wife divorcing him, but he also get tied up in a money laundering scam being run by a lawyer from the same building as his divorce lawyer. His day goes from bad to worse as he gets shot at, thrown out of an ambulance, attacked, dumped in sewage and has his heart broken!

Yen, his divorce lawyer and a double-crossed gangster team up to take down the money launderers who've framed them for murder.

Typically for Woo-Ping, there's some inventive fight sequences and some nice shots used to convey the action. A car chase has some bumper-cam shots, an alley fight has the famous Bank of China tower in the background and a chase across buses is lit by the stunning neon signs of Hong Kong.

Yen's great again, and does an admirable job of fighting with his hands tied - twice! The action set pieces are as fun and dynamic as you'd expect for Woo-Ping, with the highlights, for me, being the fight whilst handcuffed to Rosamund Kwan (Armour of God), Yen's fight with multiple sword-wielding assailants with just a dustbin lid and his fight with Michael Woods (In The Line of Duty 4), who adds a real heavyweight threat feeling with his tree trunk arms and wrestling take downs.

Obviously, the action is great, but the thing that surprised me most was how well the humour worked in this. Mainly because it's more subtle that the crazy antics of the likes of The Lucky Stars films, for example. Just little bits of humour here and there really elevate the mood without descending into farce. I actually chuckled aloud at some of the jokes.

A good, solid Martial Arts film that rattles along at a fair-old pace with some dynamically shot action sequences.

I'll look out for this one, sounds awesome.

[monel]

I dunno if the Japanese Heart of Dragon / First Mission scenes can be counted as deleted scenes, since they were filmed just for that market, the film wasn't originally intended to have them. I guess they're like regional exclusives but it does lead to a stupid outcome since everyone would want to see them. Chin Kar Lok did a crazy stunt and injured himself- went flying through a window and missed his landing, hit the floor... cue ambulance / stretcher. There's a making of H.O.D. on the Japanese DVD I think. Also, it's not just the Philippines that asked for certain endings, Righting Wrongs and probably On The Run had different endings due to mainland China wanting people being punished if breaking the law.

[prinnysquad]

Nice reviews there QC, or is it Billy Big Release? The stats be good.

[QualityChimp]

Nice reviews there QC, or is it Billy Big Release? The stats be good.

I'm still not sure what this means, Prin...

If you see Tiger Cage II, Finsbury, try and get some good subs as the ones I had were perfectly understandable, but the very literal translations were a bit distracting at times.

Shinobi, Bey Logan's commentary says the fights were cut from the international prints to highlight the drama and Sammo says in the on-disc interview that it was the other way round and it was cut from the Hong Kong release. Movie-censorship.com detail the cuts but say the reason for them is unclear, however the Golden Harvest logo is missing from the Japanese version. The outtakes are on YouTube.

As we both say, if they'd have left the fight scenes in, it wouldn't have detracted from the drama at all and Jackie/Sammo fans may have held it in higher regard. An odd decision all round!