Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

[ETC]

And what's the punishment? Who's the Rocking Master? Edit- QC's punishment means prinny has outed himself as either Dean Shek, or his second in command.

I think Prinny may jut be going mad for the lack of a decent pint recently

[monel]

I think Prinny may jut be going mad for the lack of a decent pint recently

Is there a shortage?

@bash - I agree, Hard Boiled and ABT2 don't seem to have been topped in some ways. I think other HK films tried stuff that was just as good but maybe it was John Woo's attention to detail and budget for the time that achieved such spectacular results? Not sure really...

@rmoxon- I guess you're right, and also maybe to a lot of people Hollywood is the only source of films too, so they wouldn't really come across anything to compare the American action scenes to? Not sure, again. I do know a lot of people who won't watch anything that's subbed, though. About Shanghai Knights- not seen it properly, but I did watch Shanghai Noon when it was released and enjoyed that. I don't think any of his western work comes anywhere near his classic HK output though, due to the high standards he and others achieved during that time. I mean, just the playground scene alone in Police Story 2 is crazy to this day, it was so fluidly shot and choreographed. I know you were saying that you felt it was better than his other US films, though. Sorry I didn't reply sooner.

[Finsbury Girl]

Am recording The Perfect Weapon on Wed - can't wait to see it again, haven't seen it since it first came out. I remember being dazzled by Speakman's eskrima at the time - pretty sure he uses the heaven six at some pont. Will report back in a couple of days.

[monel]

The Perfect Weapon seems to have a lot of fans, but I've never seen it myself.

Thunder Run- I watched this with a friend yesterday, which is both a good and bad thing as we tend to talk over films and just take the piss a lot of the time, not the best way to really appreciate a film's plot. But this film doesn't have much of a plot so that isn't really a problem. I'm going to post some brief impressions, not a proper review or anything.

I had only once read up on the film and found a brief review mentioning that it is basically a compilation of action and prison movie cliches.


It starts off a bit promising, with Fung Hak on and Jason Pai Paio popping up, they probably filmed their scenes in a day like a lot of stars used to, and then swiftly exited the set.The main characters end up locked up in a prison that looks like a POW camp, called 'Devil(s) Prison'. It looks like the prison was set up in a forest or one of those disused fields you used to find behind large parks and schools.

The guy running the prison is a hilariously evil bastard, he pops up from time to time to make the heroes' lives a bit more hellish than they already are. The prisoners all seem to belong in a gang and behave like a bunch of school bullies, threatening to kill any snitches while grassing everyone else up, in plain sight, every chance they get.



I've always noticed how short people / dwarves are treated as comedy fodder in foreign films, not just HK films but other countries too, and it makes me a bit sad. There is a dwarf dude in this film and even after the hero befriends him, he never asks him his name throughout the film, just calling him 'Dwarf'. I found this very sad and yet hilarious. It could well be a problem with the subs but it probably isn't.


One scene involves the cleaning of a prison toilet, which although rather simply shot, it looks like one of the most disgusting toilets you could ever hope (not) to see. The ending has a bit of a Commando / Rambo vibe with the hero and his mate destroying the prison guards who keep coming from nowhere, like an 80s video game. Explosive tipped arrows are also employed, although I had no idea how the hell he made them.


There are decent bits of action that pop up from time to time, some of it is really quite good but it is usually in very short bursts. I find it funny that the creators of some of these b / c movies randomly seem to flick a switch and drop in some brilliant fighting and stunt work, and then go back to the crap they were making, as if to say, 'Yes, we can do something good if we want to, we're just not in the mood, OK?'.


The film was enjoyable crap but obviously to the majority of people on this planet, it's just crap. I wonder about my ability to enjoy this stuff, at times impressed and yet ashamed by this special mutant power I posess. My friend enjoyed it and would watch it again.

[prinnysquad]

That actually sounds very amusing! Mutant power, hehehe

[rmoxon]

I watched Wheels on Meals yesterday which for some reason I had never seen before.

I wasnt sure wether to stick this in the Kung Fu thread or not becuase for the first hour and 20 minutes there is hardly any martial arts in it. But then the last 20 minutes happens and its one of the best endings to any film in the genre that I have ever seen (infact It has one of the best finales of any film period). So its deffinitley a martial arts film and ended up being a pretty good one at that.

[monel]

I watched Wheels on Meals yesterday which for some reason I had never seen before.

I wasnt sure wether to stick this in the Kung Fu thread or not becuase for the first hour and 20 minutes there is hardly any martial arts in it. But then the last 20 minutes happens and its one of the best endings to any film in the genre that I have ever seen (infact It has one of the best finales of any film period). So its deffinitley a martial arts film and ended up being a pretty good one at that.

That is a really enjoyable film, I wish I could watch it again for the first time. It's probably the reason why I became such a fan of Yuen Biao. Have you seen Dragons Forever? That's the best film to follow up with if you liked Wheels.

[rmoxon]

Good to here, as I actually just bought Dragons Forever on DVD!

[monel]

That's a good choice, a brilliant film, with some nice comedy and amazing action, mainly at the end. It's cliched to say it, but films like that aren't made these days. The deleted scenes explain some of the story, there were always different versions of the film with none containing every scene.

[eastyy]

[prinnysquad]

My favourite MA film

[Finsbury Girl]

Am recording The Perfect Weapon on Wed - can't wait to see it again, haven't seen it since it first came out. I remember being dazzled by Speakman's eskrima at the time - pretty sure he uses the heaven six at some pont. Will report back in a couple of days.

So The Perfect Weapon - wow. So much right but so much wrong. Speakman is a talented martial artist, that's for sure. But he needs a more deft hand from his choreographer. Some of the fights are pretty good, most aren't shot correctly and there's an overuse (typical of the time) of spinning back kicks. But when his quick close hand to hand stuff comes off it's great. With a decent HK team behind him, this bloke could've been great.

As for the movie itself, it's an absolute cheese-fest, but that's not a bad thing.

[QualityChimp]

I'm a bit jealous of RMoxon getting to see those two Chan/Hung/Biao films for the first time! I only saw Dragons Forever fairly recently too though. Such a great finale!

I think I prefer Wheels on Meals as it's a little more whimsical. The skateboard and car chase scenes earlier on are brilliantly done, but you're right - that finale with Benny "The Jet" Urquidez is great. Did you know the scene with Chan and Hung fencing with the count is actually them Vs. Biao?!

8-Diagram Pole Fighter is on my 2012 "To Watch" list!

I tend to shy away from American martial arts films as most of them never quite got it right, but The Perfect Weapon does sound intriguing. Is it as good as Remo?

Finally - Betamax recorders at the ready - Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame is on Film4 this Friday, the 6th July at 11:10.

Oh, and Hero is on tonight at 19:05!

[Finsbury Girl]

QC - Hard to say - I haven't seen Remo for aeons, I'd say Perfect Weapon is on par with some of Seagal's earlier, enjoyable films like Nico and Hard to Kill (especially in terms of action choreography, although Seagal always had a brutal edge to them).

But in terms of cheesiness I'd put it up there with Best of the Best :-)

[QualityChimp]