Seen any good Kung-Fu flicks of late?

[monel]

I knew you'd like Tiger Cage 2 as it's so much like In The Line of Duty 4. About the Heart of Dragon thing, there's always various stories for stuff like that happening I guess- usually the creators have selective memories and the wider industry / media have their own take. Pretty sure I read what I posted somewhere, though, as being a reason. About the subs- thats the usual standard I think except for rare exceptions or fansubs, for a lot of these films.

[prinnysquad]

Worst subs I've ever seen are on Witty Hand Witty Sword. It's like you need to code to understand them. Terribly translated rubbish that spoils an attractive film.

QC - I just thought we could call you 'Billy Big Release' for a bit, considering you said you wanted to watch a few well-known big hitters. Plus, it makes it sound like you have a formidable jizz cannon, so you can wear the name with pride.

[monel]

I think Coolie Killers, (not kf, but a HK action film) had some of the worst subs I ever saw. The film was fairly unique and the VCD version had a different ending, but the problem was the subs were TERRIBLE, and the full framing of the picture cut off some of the subs. You got the idea of the film but it wasn't all that straight forward plot wise and you could spend days analysing some of the subs to get different meanings. Then you have all those films with the burnt in subs in white where during a bright scene you couldn't make out any words- especially if it was an nth generation VHS copy...

[QualityChimp]

Hi Billy Big Release here with another review.

I watched Bodyguards & Assassassins on LoveFilm via my laptop. Firstly, the quality was pretty good, but a little choppy at times and a couple of buffering moments were needed.

As for the film, it was an enjoyable romp that suffers from a slow beginning and some unrealistically tough characters that can survive being stabbed hundreds of times!

The premise is that in 1905, Sun Wen intends to go abroad to Hong Kong, a British colony, to discuss his plans with fellow Tongmenghui members to overthrow China's corrupt and crumbling Qing Dynasty. Empress Dowager Cixi sends a group of assassins, led by Yan Xiaoguo, to kill Sun. We spend the first half of the film meeting the resistance and the people around them before setting up the final chase to get across town without Sun being taken out.

Plus notes are that overall, it's an enjoyable film with some tense action sequences with a fantastic soundtrack, negative points are the slow start (we'd got the point after about half an hour), a bit too much wirework and fighters that never seem to die, despite how many times they get stabbed!

[monel]

Mr Big Release, I've been meaning to watch that for ages, some people liked it a lot due to a deeper storyline than most kung fu films while others were disappointed at there being not enough action. Couldn't decide whether to watch True Legend (is that the name of Yuen Woo Ping film?) released near that time, or Bodyguards. I think they were supposed to have spent a lot of money constructing an on location of set of China for that period, which they used for Bodyguards and other films.

[QualityChimp]

It's funny you say that, but I too was torn between watching True Legend and Bodyguards & Assassins, but decided I'd just seen Tiger Cage II, directed by Yuen Woo Ping, so thought I'd give True Legend a miss this time.

Might try and watch it at the weekend, but listening to the Heart of the Dragon commentary has added another 3 films to the list! D'oh!

[prinnysquad]

Dick Small Piece here with another indie short.

The Brave in the Kung Fu Shadow, aka, Kung Fu in the Brave Shadow, aka, Glory Sword, aka, Imperial Sword (1977). Or some bloody combination of Brave, Kung Fu and Shadow, anyway.

Tien Peng, Chang Yi, Judy Lee, Jack Long, Pai Ying, Lung Fei. The intro states that this is an IFD film. If this is a genuine IFD film, I'll eat my own cock. It's far too lavish and competent to be a Godfrey Ho/Joseph Lai ott-fest. There's some lovely settings and decent action. It's a weird film because it's a swordplay, but it feels totally different to normal 70s wuxia fayre in terms of action, tone and pacing. There's some great scene with traps, and on the whole it's a decent effort.

[monel]

I watched some of the 90s Iron Monkey today, I've seen the film in full too many times in the past so I chose to just watch my favourite scenes and most of the fights. It stars Yu Rong Guan, with Donnie Yen co-starring, directed by Yuen Wo Ping. It's this film that made me a fan of Yu Rong Guan, he should have got more big budget starring roles in his career, but I think he faced some prejudice due to being a mainlander.

Most people have probably seen this so I won't go into it too much but the Iron Monkey character is a doctor who tries to right some of the wrongs done in his area by the corrupt officials. A childhood Wong Fei Hung (played by a girl) and his father (Donnie Yen) are visiting the area and get caught up in trouble.

The action scenes are quite heavily undercranked (sped up fights), so some people are put off by that, but it's a great film. It uses a lot of wirework like other early 90s period films but some of the usage is very original in that you'll have people spinning sideways through the air while horizontal (like a human shuriken), and similarly impressive stuff. I guess some of the older Shaws films have similar wirework, though.

Visually, the creators used a very consistent colour scheme which gives the film a lot of atmosphere and I think it influenced a lot of films which came after it. The ending with the fire must have been very dangerous to film (read something about that once in an interview- can't recall the details), although I wish it had more hand to hand combat at the climax. Yu Rong Guang is great with a steel whip, and Hsiao Ho (Lau Kar Leung's protege) even pops up in a cameo role, which is a bonus. Great soundtrack, too.

[monel]

Sorry for the double post, I watched Burning Ambition (1989?) later tonight, it was extremely enjoyable viewing. I'd seen some scenes ages ago but never quite got round to watching it properly. It has a great cast, with quite a few stars / heavy hitters. Seeing Kara Hui and Yukari Oshima fighting together in the car park scene was awesome, like when a couple of your favourite musicians collaborate on a great song.

The storyline starts quite off cliched, with something about a large Triad kind of family, with separated partners, step brothers, god daughters, godfathers, everyone all involved in a feud / power struggle. In the end it beats the usual storylines with some kind of message about the cost of power.

Some of my favourites didn't make it to the end, actually not many characters do- .

The action scenes are short but explosive, quite inventive and reminded me of some of Sammo's modern work. Guns are employed too, traditional weaponry, a bit of shapes, some acrobatics, a bit of brutality- it has everything. They even made sure to tick off the 'arrogant westerner who insults the Chinese' box!

The car park fight scene compares to the ones from Licence to Steal and Righting Wrongs, it's that good, although a bit shorter.

I had two different bootleg versions, both seemed to be wide-ish with a 16:10 aspect ratio I think, but the problem is that a word or two were cut off the subs sometimes, so I wonder it really was a widescreen source or if there's a better version out there. I'd buy this in a heartbeat if there's a better version, I wonder if it's had a recent release in China? I know QC mentioned there was a feature on this film in Impact magazine, I'd love to read that someday, perhaps there's a remastered release?

I'm trying not to rate films these days, as I'm not Edge, but I'd give this an 8 easily. Top notch stuff, I needed to watch something like this.


prinny- have you seen SB's Dirty Ho? I have a feeling you'd enjoy it. Avenging Eagle, too.

[prinnysquad]

Not yet. I have a stash of well known films that I'll dip into occasionally. I simply couldn't do all the big unz together, it would be all sorts of wrong.

Have you seen jamal's releases this month? Seems like a load of moderns with burnt in subs. Not too sure on the rareness of them, but some of the clips looked great!

[monel]

Nope, I haven't been following anything for the last few months, and I really regret not having purchased all the custom jobs that came out over the last couple of years when I had the cash. Thanks for the heads up.

[QualityChimp]

I'd not heard of that Jamal site, Prin, I'll check it out.

Shinobi, I think the Burning Ambition feature was in this issue of Impact, which you can buy and read online, but I could .pdf the article, if you like. The write up made me want to see it and these look-back articles have been really good. They did a feature on the Iron Angels series and their spin-offs that was interesting too.

Oh and posting at 4:25 in the morning? Get to bed!

[monel]

Haha always been a night owl (nite owl?)... I try to change but slip back into a bad sleep cycle often. Yeah I'd love to read those articles, a load of 'angels' films popped up after Iron Angels...

[QualityChimp]

OK, as requested, I've scanned some of the articles from Impact magazine.

First up is the article on Burning Ambition. That's what first brought the film to my attention, but your thumbs-up has sealed the deal. Sadly, it doesn't really point out the best version to get, but it does tease us with the rumour that HKL had picked it up before going bust. I wonder if Cine Asia will pick up where they left off?

Next, I have the article on the Iron Angels films and all the spin-offs that came out as a result. I've still got parts II and III to watch and may re-watch the first, if I get time!

Finally, I scanned in the interview with Cynthia Rothrock, which features her talking about her experiences and her top ten scenes - more films to track down! I think I saw Rothrock in something or thought I saw her in something and wrote her off, which was a mistake as she's been great in the films I've recently seen, such as Righting Wrongs.

You know what, I though she was in V.I. Warshawski, but that was Kathleen Turner and it was crap. No wonder I didn't rate her as a martial artist, there's not martial arts in it! All these years, I could have been watching Rothrock in action...

Anyways, I hope you enjoy these, but I've just found out that the next issue of Impact will actually be their last.

They were planning on cutting down to bi-monthly, but they've now said "due to the current economic situation we have had to take the decision to cease publication of Impact Magazine", which is a real bummer as I've been reading it on and off since Jackie Chan was on the cover promoting City Hunter and been subscribing for about 5 years now. Gutted. The website will continue (www.impactonline.co), but all that seems to be is recycled movie news as opposed to articles like the ones above.

So, when it hits the shops on about the 26th, make sure you pick up their last issue.

[monel]

Thanks very much!!! That's great of you, thanks for going to the trouble. I bought Impact a few times in the 90s but I think I chose the worst possible time as they weren't covering much I liked. I should have got all the Eastern Heroes stuff but I was young and had enough things to waste my limited budget on. I guess I chose to spend the cash on films instead. QC, check your pms. Edit- the Rothrock link isn't working, I think. I had the chance to go to a signing she was doing in the early 90s but I think I woke up late or something... Someone I knew, his friend worked with her for a while but I never met the guy.