Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

['Press Start']

Looks cheesy good! Rza loves his kung fu films!

Anyone seen Shaolin?

[bash]

I dont think any of you lot are following this so thought I'd fill yawl in:

Basically Keanu is teaming up with his stunt buddies form the matrix movies (I think Tiger is involved) to coordinate the action for his upcoming movie Man of Tai Chi. The only synopsys I could find is:

In Beijing, a young martial artist's skill places him in position to experience opportunities and sacrifices.

Sounds completely original LOL

Also Iko Uwais from The Raid has signed up and will feature in a scene near the end of the movie, I think something like a total of 18 fight scenes are being planned thus far. I'm betting this will be a goodun anyway . . . .

[rmoxon]

Watched Warrior King/Tom Yum Goong/The Protector/whatever you feel like calling it. I had not bothered with it previously because I had heard that it was just a sillier, more mundane version of ong bak, and as far as plot goes that's pretty true. Its also over stylised and there's a boat chase that uses so much shaky cam that it's simply impossible to follow.

However the fight scenes are incredible, even more brutal than ong bak, half the movie is Tony Jaa just annihilating everyone and breaking half the bones in their body, he's a whirlwind of anger and it's beautiful to watch.

The lesson of the film is deffinley that you should never steal a Thai mans elephant... Becuase he will snap you in half.

[monel]

I saw two films this week, Chasing in Pattaya, which was OK, could be better. The other was an Adam Cheng flick but my mate pretty much ruined that one for me.

[Kit]

Don't normally venture into this part of the forum, but I'd like to know what's the verdict on the recent-ish 'Ip Man' film? worth a watch?

[monel]

Do you mean the first Donnie Yen film? It's one of the best kf films made in modern years. The sequel is pretty crap. There's also another film about the young Ip Man, not starring Donnie Yen, it's called 'The Legend Begins', I think, can't remember right now.

[QualityChimp]

Hey Kit!

Yeah, Ip Man is well worth a watch. Nice fights, interesting story and a charismatic lead in Donnie Yen.

Ip Man 2 is okay, but less memorable. Sammo Hung is great and there's a real Rocky feel.

The unofficial The Legend Begins is fun too and is only a couple of quid.

The Grandmasters is finally out in December, which is another take on his life.

So, in summary, see Ip Man 1!

[Finsbury Girl]

Yeah Ip Man has some awesome Wing Chun fights. Donnie is in supreme form. A must see.

[rmoxon]

Ip Man is great. It not only features some great fight scenes but is also a well acted biopic. Donnie Yen is fantastic and just an all round good film.

I would Also recommend Wing Chun starring Michelle Yeoh, which is a film about the woman who designed the particular brand of martial arts that Ip man teaches in the film. Its probabaly not accurate in the slightest in regards to the depiction of the main character and her story as its more of an action film, but it's a lot of fun.

[monel]

Ip Man is great. It not only features some great fight scenes but is also a well acted biopic. Donnie Yen is fantastic and just an all round good film. I would Also recommend Wing Chun starring Michelle Yeoh, which is a film about the woman who designed the particular brand of martial arts that Ip man teaches in the film. Its probabaly not accurate in the slightest in regards to the depiction of the main character and her story as its more of an action film, but it's a lot of fun.

I really didn't like Wing Chun when I saw it years ago, not the biggest fan of Michelle Yeoh, and Donnie was kind of wasted in it (plus he had a silly hat). For Wing Chun films I prefer Warriors Two and Prodigal Son. Not knocking you for liking it, though.

[QualityChimp]

Talking of Donnie Yen, there's an nice article on him on the BBC News site this week:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19085830

[rmoxon]

I really didn't like Wing Chun when I saw it years ago, not the biggest fan of Michelle Yeoh, and Donnie was kind of wasted in it (plus he had a silly hat). For Wing Chun films I prefer Warriors Two and Prodigal Son. Not knocking you for liking it, though.

I think it's a fun film, its certainly a cheesy and silly hybrid of comedy and martial arts (in true hk fashion) but still a lot of fun. Donnie yen being wasted is true of half the films he's in. So that's not a surprise really. Although I guess he's come into his own in recent years as he's pretty much the most famous martial arts star still making regular films in hong kong cinema now. Although he's been a mainstay in the genre for a good 20 years he's now getting roles that previously may have gone to other people.

Its a shame it took him so long to really breakthrough in such a way becuase he's always been awesome. One of my favorite Donnie Yen movies is In The Line of duty 4, which is from the 80's and he still cool as hell back then. Not just his amazing skills but his screen presence too. There's a bit in that film where he (playing one of the lead cops in the film)puts out his cigerette by just throwing it onto the floor in a woman's house. If most other actors did it you'd probabaly consider it an obnoxious act,but when he does it he just makes it seem cool.

In short it doesn't really matter if he's in a movie 90 seconds or 90 minutes, it's still all the better for him just being there.

[monel]

I agree with everything you wrote about Donnie Yen, he started off being built up as a star but then had to resort to supporting roles and lower budget films where he starred, even going to do TV for a while. It's irritating when someone really talented has to take background or supporting roles with the lead roles going to actors who are inferior skills wise. It happens, though. Donnie is great, he has an arrogant side as well but I'm impressed how he really became a superstar late in his career, I suppose that shows dedication. I'm a fan of Legend of Wolf! Not many people like that film.


I really don't like Wing Chun, for silly wire fu fun films like Fong Sai Yuk, Last Hero in China and so many others would be a better choice, and for serious wire stuff there's hundreds of better titles.

[rmoxon]

Yeah I'm not going to dispute that there are better films. I only originally mentioned it becuase it's about a woman who supposedly created the fighting style that is at the centre of IP Man.

As for the best Comedy wire fu films. I'd say Drunken Master 2 and Iron Monkey are surely the best.

Not really a fan of serious films with lots of wirework to be honest. The fact that people are flying about like they have been sniffing fairy dust is usually at odds with the rest of the film.

[QualityChimp]

Wirework is fine in a Wuxia film where they use Quinggong to move lightly like in Crouching Tiger, but it looks daft in modern settings. When Jet Li flies around in Romeo Must Die, it was pretty silly.

So far, I think I've liked most things Donnie Yen has been in, but in some of them, the films are pretty weak and Yen is the best bit about them. I like Dragon Tiger Gate, Flashpoint and Kill Zone.

Kit, did you watch Ip Man?! What did you think?

In other news: I've not paid too much attention to Keanu Reeves' Man of Tai Chi as it seems a long way away, but some of the information that's filtering through sounds really interesting.

Firstly, Keanu's directing and acting in this. I've always liked him since Bill & Ted, but the Matrix sealed the deal. He's a self-professed kung fu nut who knows what works in martial arts movies.

Yuen Woo-ping is the action director. You know what he can do, but he's already worked with Reeves and lead actor, Tiger Hu Chen, who was a stuntman in The Matrix trilogy, so hopefully they can get that kind of chemistry again.

The Raid's Iko Uwais has been signed up for this and although it's not sure if he's using Silat or another martial art, it's rumoured he's going to be one of the last fights against Chen. It'd be good to see Iko trying out a bad guy role!

The Choreographers here helped design fights for a lot of decent action movies, but mainly they did Steven Soderberg's "Haywire" which I've not seen yet, but I hear the fights were a good combination of brutally realistic and flashy enough to keep it visually interesting.

Plot details have been sparse at best, but Variety says the story is set in "modern Beijing" and "follows the spiritual journey of a young martial artist (Chen) whose skills present him with both exciting opportunities and painful choices."

Reeves said to MTV there's going to be a good amount of fighting in it:

There’s 18 fights. We’ve timed it out. It’s about 40 minutes of fighting.
I want to make a good, solid kung fu movie. Good story, good plot — but let’s get some good kung fu going!

Keanu recently produced a documentary about digital Vs. analogue called "Side by Side" that was well-received and he's used some of that knowledge to film the fights in some pretty inventive ways. This proof of concept video shows the free-flowing camera work Reeves hopes to use. If done right, this could look amazing and have a real fresh style. In the hands of the right directors, it could be seen as another component to choreograph and be really dramatic. Keanu is going out of his way to shoot the action in long takes. This means that there's less of a chance that somewhere along the line somebody will take the action scenes and edit them to shreds, like in the Expendables. No shakycam here, no siree!