Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

[QualityChimp]

The Raid is being shown at selected UK Cinemas at Cineworld this Thursday (19th April), but I think you need to be an Unlimited member.
Enter this screening code: 777967
here: http://www.showfilmfirst.com/

Also, I Am Bruce Lee is being shown for one day only on Tuesday 24th.

http://www.cineworld.co.uk/cinemas/56?film=5214&period=advance

Bruce Lee is universally recognized as the pioneer who elevated martial arts in film to an art form, and this documentary will reveal why Bruce Lee's flame burns brighter now than the day he died over three decades ago. The greatest martial artists, athletes, actors, directors, and producers in the entertainment business today will share their feelings about the one who started it all. We will interview the people whose lives, careers, and belief systems were forever altered by the legendary "Father of Martial Arts Cinema". Rarely seen archival footage and classic photos will punctuate the personal testimonials. Prepare to be inspired.

[monel]

Is it definitely for Unlimited members? In the past I would've just signed up but not right now.

Finsbury- I agree, plus the fact that their veterans can hardly get a project cleared or even a cameo half the time. It's shameful.

[prinnysquad]

Craig Reid takes this a step further in his Martial Arts Movies of the 1970s book, ranting about the poor quality of martial artist on screen today:

re, the Incredible Kung Fu Master, p124

Imagine watching this film knowing nothing about Sammo Hung. Now imagine someone telling you that the way Hung's character teaches Stephen Tung Wai's character kung fu - with all the painful body contorting - was the same thing Hung went through when he learned Beijing Opera. You would never believe it. In fact, it would be a lie, because Hung went through worse.

This is one reason why there are so few fantastic kung fu stars coming out of Hong Kong or anywhere else these days - because no-one would dare submit himself to this sort of training. Stars like Hung did not do it for the money, they were sold into the livelihood by their parents. Working hard was a way to get less punishment and an opportunity to flip around onstage and bring face to one's sifu. I challenge any young contemporary martial artists to say they would go through this kind of commitment, and not for money or fame.

Obviously, what the Beijing Opera students went through was gruelling and rather cruel. However, Reid is right - it produced a class of martial artist that we've probably lost forever now. Jackie, Sammo, Biao - we'll never see their like again. Film-makers may cover up deficiencies with camera tricks, wires and skilled choreography, but the raw talent just isn't there anymore. In those days, martial artists perfected their skills because they wanted to. Now you get the sense that many 'stars' only do enough to get by in films, and rely on the technical team to make them look better than they really are. Reid seems to suggest that they practice martial arts for reasons which make them inferior martial artists to the 70s-90s generations.

[monel]

I would agree and the author knows much more than me, but the HK / Chinese industries don't even support their veterans and any recent real talent they do have. I'm not a huge fan of Wu Jing but he was very talented, and due to politics it seems he's gone back to making tv series. It seems similar to so many other artforms that died out, for whatever reasons. Opera trained performers will probably never exist again the way they once did, trained by years of abuse, but there are still stuntsmen, and actors like Fan Siu Wong who never really got their time in the spotlight. Donnie Yen deserves his success but now he's starring in 20 films a year it seems, taking the light from people who could establish their name, I can't knock him for that though (although I can for all the crap he's signed up to).


I wanted to ask someone about HK / Chinese audiences too, I think Pedicab Driver (maybe Eastern Condors?) tanked because the audience didn't like Sammo leaving his wife, and Bullet in the Head failed because of parallels with Tianenmen Square (sp?). It seems their audiences are really, really fickle. There also came a time when Yuen Biao had to make c budget Phillipines films, since he couldn't get starring roles in HK. WTF? He was still relatively young, too.

[prinnysquad]

I know not about these matters. There's isn't enough good information in the West about so many aspects of kung fu cinema. Off the top of my head, I can think of huge knowledge holes about:

Audience taste, reaction and demands
Actor biogs
Studio biogs
The cut and paste efforts
Bruce Lee clones
Korean films
Taiwanese swordplay films
General production stories
Why certain actors attracted certain roles (though this can be guessed at, it would be interesting to see if Asian audiences loved Dean Shek as a snivelling weasel (and this sense of humour/appreciation typecast him), compared to many Western fans who don't.

People like Leeder, Logan, Russell have managed to shed some light on some things, but even they can lead to confusion. Take on kfc the other day - Toby was insistent that Roy Horan told him that Jackie and Hwang Jang Lee got on just fine, and that he didn't kick his tooth out on Snake in the Eagle's Shadow. Yet Leeder said he did, and the gap is obvious in that last fight. Mixed messages.

That's why the upcoming Anonymous King docu about HJL could be excellent - stories from the actor's mouth are sorely missing in our paltry understanding.

[Fader209]

Fader, the UK version of SPL is called Kill Zone and is less than a fiver for the 2-disc edition with a Bey Logan commentary and loads of extras!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B002...4518484&sr=8-1

Thanks for the link dude but I have zero moneys, was hoping to find a stream if possible.
Is it worth watching Seven Samurai? I know it's fairly old now and I'm not sure if it's my sort of thing, only we have that in the family DVD collection. Kind of interested to see what they took from it for the Magnificent Seven.

[monel]

Yeah some of the stories I've heard all have three or more different versions, depending on who's telling them. You're right, a lot of stuff is not known and needs to be written about. A lot of the early western writers were kind of amateurish and often biased, but they had great access and contacts compared to the average fan. Maybe it's similar to how writing about video games evolved, a lot of the magazines we grew up reading were written by youngsters glad to have the chance, and then later on you got more professional writing (with mixed results), leading to nowadays where you have well researched books and documentaries. Writing seems like a punishing gig though, in that a lot of the time people will always come out and criticise the material, that's not what I'm doing here, I hope.

[prinnysquad]

No, you're not. It's like on my blog - I'm at pains to say in various posts that I'm not a martial artist, and couldn't tell a good posture from a bad one. Likewise, what I know is a drop in the ocean compared to what some of the genre heavyweights know - especially those how have travelled and met the people involved.

It means that for the vast majority of us, all we can do is comment on the films with only a small degree of insight. Not about the realism of the martial arts, like Craig Reid does, and without any back stories like DVD commentaries offer, but we can compare and contrast the film with others we've seen, discuss our opinion of it, and throw in some personal pieces. That's all we can do. It's annoying, because there's tons of books available in Chinese about people like Chang Cheh, but they've gone untranslated. The same goes for wuxia novels.

When I put film reviews up, I won't mind being put right on things, and would love to hear the opinions of others. However, I've stuck to rare stuff so far, which means in some cases that mine are the only reviews I can find in English on the web. Criticism is avoided by default , which is a bit of a shame really.

Fader - I would watch it. It's considered a Japanese classic, and if it's knocking about the place then you might as well.

[QualityChimp]

Fader, did you watch Seven Samurai?

I meant to chip in to this thread earlier, but I know what you mean about there being a "golden era" of martial arts flicks. The way people train these days are different and the over-reliance on CGI makes a real difference. Plus the health & safety/insurance restrictions are totally different these days!

It's a shame Tony Jaa went off the rails as he was a great example of somebody who grew up watching Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li films and wanted to learn Muay Thai from an early age because of them. Later in life he joined Panna Rittikrai's stunt team and things snowballed from there and I think Ong Bak is a great collision of director, star, stunt co-ordination and timing.

I'm also getting excited about The Raid as Merantau really knocked me for six because I wasn't expecting it. Again, the director was heavily influenced by JC and so on when he was younger and I think he's found a real star in Iko Uwais, who has a real natural presence. He's a martial artist who's become an actor, but he can still act. He signed a 5-year contract with Gareth Evans and his production company and quit his job as a truck driver.

Korea has thrown out a few curve-ball treats too, such as City of Violence.

So even though things have moved on, Asian cinema is still producing some exciting new films and I'm enjoying finding them alongside classic moderns from my fave period (usually Shinobi suggestions!). So I don't mind who's talking about them, as long as they are, and they're pointing me to corkers I've not seen!

[monel]

Yeah it's a real shame about Tony Jaa, Ong Bak was mind blowing the first time I saw it, because I really didn't expect anything like that in these times. They do need to improve their writing I think, but on the other hand you have some fans of HK films totally dismissing them, which is odd, since a lot of those films didn't have the best of storylines. They have a point in that the Thai films can seem like stuntreels, but they did keep modern action cinema going for a years when it seemed to have died out in other places.

I actually like the old school (70s etc) films just as much as the 80s and 90s ones, it's just I saw too many of them for a good while and the later stuff always seemed harder to get hold of in those days, so they have a kind of gravitational pull for me. I also like seeing the odd display of honour and talk of ethics while the guys (or girls) are wearing jeans or bad 80s outfits and occasionally pulling guns out, it's a great mix for me when done right.

[QualityChimp]

New review up at the Chivalrous Inn - Robin-B-Hood!

http://thechivalrousinn.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/robin-b-hood.html

[prinnysquad]

Since your PM box is full, QC, I'll post it here!

Good man! It looks good and reads well. Plus, it's an antidote to the random obscure shiz that I write about!

I've watched a film called Tiger Tiger Tiger (1973) today that I might publish a review of, but not for a couple of days.

Apologies for the tardiness of my reply. I feel like crap today. Bloody typical, a bank holiday tomorrow and I feel like a bag of wanked cocks - totally spent.

[QualityChimp]

New review up at The Chivalrous Inn - Hero (1997)!

http://thechivalrousinn.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/hero-1997.html

[prinnysquad]

Champion of the Boxers (1972)

http://thechivalrousinn.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/champion-of-boxers-1972.html

[Fader209]

I didn't watch Seven Samurai in the end but I have noticed 13 Assassins is on Sky Anytime at the moment so will check that out. Is it any good? Is Stallone one of the assassins? :P