Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

[prinnysquad]

Not enough old skool for me. Many of the choices are suitably bone crunching and realistic, but there's a lack of finesse. Where are the Shaw classics? The kicking masters from the 70s? The pole fighters? The shapes? Invincible Armour was the only proper old indie there (that didn't feature a megastar), and it isn't even in the A-List of old skool indie fight scenes as far as I've seen.

Still, nice find Bash.

[monel]

I'm not knocking anyone's taste or knowledge and there's some decent choices in that list, but I would never present a list of anything as 'the greatest ever', especially if I didn't have considerable knowledge of the subject matter. I've only played 50-100 current gen video games so I would never do a list of the 'absolute ten best current gen games', for instance. With some lists like these, I think of Paulie from The Sopranos- 'Getthafugouddahere...'. Just to clarify, I wish when people did insist on doing such lists, they just titled them '10 titles we like', or something rather than best ever.

[prinnysquad]

Yep. It's annoying how under-represented older stuff is. As a list of mostly-modern quality fights then they seem to have made some good choices, but you can tell they haven't delved much into the old skool stuff. It's annoying because there's loads of good old fights out there that get very little airplay outside of niche circles, and a list such as this tends to keep such material pegged down. There's little incentive offered for fans of modern stuff to go back and see what was available.

[megatron]

I stopped after they called Kiss of the Dragon classic.

[bash]

LOL, KOFTD is pants! The best move is when that french baddie headbutts his assistant screaming "Faaaarkk!"

One of my faves is Born Invincible (I might've mentioned it before in this thread). It was the first time I realised the incredible expanding guy from Big Trouble in Little was a proper martial artist. Classic Yuen Woo Ping choreography along with multiple battles with the main villan as the main hero struggles to find techniques to defeat him.

[prinnysquad]

Carter Wong has his detractors, but I think he's great in shapes films and Ming/Ching-setting stuff. Proper hard nut, too. His dubbed voice in Born Invincible is hilarious. There's a hybrid widescreen/fullscreen version in production in the hands of a couple of collectors; I hope to see it eventually.

[QualityChimp]

Ancient Chinese proverb:
"Opinions are like arseholes: Everybody has one and they're usually full of sh**"

Everybody loves a "Top 10" and they're a great way to sell magazines and get web hits, but I agree with Shinobi that they should be called "our favourites" or "memerable scenes from our viewing".

On this page alone, two of you have slated Kiss of the Dragon, but I really like it. I found the plot was emotionally involving for a kung fu flick and there's some great fight scenes. I mentioned the Police station dojo sequence a few posts back and loved the boat fight and the fight with Cyril Raffaelli (The Transporter, Die Hard 4) and his giant twin were great and the final half of the film felt like a 90s beat 'em up like Final Fight or Streets of Rage!

I didn't think the end fight of Kung Fu Hustle was anywhere near as memorable as The Matrix Reloaded's Burly Brawl, but then, that's my opinion.

Other than that, there's some pretty solid suggestions in that list and I'm going to check out Invincible Armour, The Man From Nowhere, The Protector and The Iceman Cometh as I was reading in the final Impact magazine that they're remaking it with Donnie Yen in 3D! I also have Born Invincible, but didn't know that it was any good. I'll have to watch that too.

If I were to try and do a list of my favourite 20 Asian Fight Scenes, I wouldn't know where to start! Well, actually, I'd probably start with some Jackie Chan classics and work from there. Could you lot do it? I'm seeing new films all the time and that list would probably change weekly!

Glad to see they're getting hyped for The Raid too. Can't wait to see that this year.

Thanks for the link, Bash and PM me if you want Angry Ranger.

[QualityChimp]

Anybody heard of Ric Meyers? I don't think he's related to Russ Meyers, so calm down, Prinny!

I stumbled across him whilst perusing my Kindle and he's written several books on the genre, most recently Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Book, which is about ?6 on Kindle, ?10 in print, and written a documentary based on the book called Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Movie!

It looks like there's over 200 films referenced in it and a bunch of interviews with key players.

I'm not sure how we can see the film in the UK, but it may well be worth a watch. I read the Kindle sample of the book and it seems pretty in-depth and a good balance of informative but not patronising.

Just thought I'd share!

[megatron]

I didn't diss kotd. It`s an ok film. But there`s nothing classic about it.

[monel]

A lot of fans despise Meyers, due to him making some huge errors and simply making up some stuff at times. He has been influential over the decades since he had a prominent position as a writer on kung fu cinema. I think Jonathan Ross liked one of his early books or something. I don't hate him but tend to avoid him.

[redstar_dan]

Speaking of Kiss of the Dragon, I just watched that. It was on Sky Anytime. I really enjoyed watching it again, its been sometime since I had last seen it.

[k0pp0]

Watched IP Man 2 last night - ain't as good as the first and hate the wirework but enjoyed it on the whole.

[Fader209]

On this page alone, two of you have slated Kiss of the Dragon, but I really like it. I found the plot was emotionally involving for a kung fu flick and there's some great fight scenes

One of the reasons I rarely post in here even though I'm a fan of the genre, I tend to get the feeling I'm looked down upon as I haven't seen movies that aren't so mainstream. I love me a bit of KotD and was watching some of it only last night on Anytime, has some great set pieces like the hotel at the start and police station dojo later on.

And a reply to your earlier post QC - yeah I saw Armour of God last year when it popped up on the Syfy channel. Not one of my favourite of Chans but still very enjoyable. I'm just quite excited for this new one as it seems ages since he made something good and wasn't pandering to the American comedy market, the last serious new one of his for me would have been New Police Story and that was out (according to Wiki) in 2004!

Anyway, I really enjoyed that link that Bash posted up recently as it gave me an excuse to relive some old memories Been a long time since I saw Dragons Forever and has made me want to watch it all again from that excellent fight scene. There's something about Benny the Jet that scares me...no way would I dare upset him.

[bash]

Benny the Jet should have built a good team around him like Chan and made some sick films. Instead he's remembered more for Chuck Norris type cameos. He was hardcore for realz.

[QualityChimp]

One of the reasons I rarely post in here even though I'm a fan of the genre, I tend to get the feeling I'm looked down upon as I haven't seen movies that aren't so mainstream. I love me a bit of KotD and was watching some of it only last night on Anytime, has some great set pieces like the hotel at the start and police station dojo later on.

If any of us posting in here have ever made you feel looked down on, it was purely unintentional and that's not the case, I promise. There's a fair bit of banter in here, but it's all in jest, no chance of a thread lock! I started this thread in 2007 to find out if anybody else had any recommendations for films they'd seen recently - old or new, mainstream or not - and I've seen some corkers thanks to the suggestions of posters in this thread. If you've seen something, get a review in here, as even if we've seen it, we like to hear what other people say, even if they're opinion is different. Doesn't change whether you rate the film as the recent KotD posts have proved. You may make a suggestion that somebody else will enjoy, so get posting!

I love a good Kung-Fu flick, me! Anybody seen any of these or can suggest any others that I may have missed?

And a reply to your earlier post QC - yeah I saw Armour of God last year when it popped up on the Syfy channel. Not one of my favourite of Chans but still very enjoyable. I'm just quite excited for this new one as it seems ages since he made something good and wasn't pandering to the American comedy market, the last serious new one of his for me would have been New Police Story and that was out (according to Wiki) in 2004!

While you're waiting for this to come out, you can check out the second Asian Hawk film, Operation Condor, which also features some inventive fight scenes and sets. I guess it's another Kung Fu Indiana Jones!

Anyway, I really enjoyed that link that Bash posted up recently as it gave me an excuse to relive some old memories Been a long time since I saw Dragons Forever and has made me want to watch it all again from that excellent fight scene. There's something about Benny the Jet that scares me...no way would I dare upset him.

I tell you what's so scary about him in that Dragons Forever fight, it's the crazy eye shadow. He's like the toughest New Romantic or goth!

He does come across as hellatough! He could probably break your neck just using his buttocks.

He started the LA Film Fighting Institute to teach martial artists about stunt work and is still a stunt co-ordinator as well as teaching Karate and Kickboxing, but you're right, Bash, if he'd started a stunt team after working with JC, you wonder if he'd be a bigger name in the industry.
That's what Brad Allen did after working on the Jackie Chan stunt team. Look at the films he's worked on as Fight or Stunt Co-ordinator!