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Update on To Kill A Mastermind


HAZ

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Morgoth Bauglir
Does anyone even know what this movie is about, the burnt in english subtitles are completely cropped. I assuming that the praise for this film has not been for the "fight scenes" alone not knowing the details of the script. Morloth mentioned he was on the edge of his seat at least 4 times during the fight scenes, i admit i was on the edge of my seat too Morloth but it's because i could barely tell what was going on.

I’m confused. Are you talking about me, or my brother Morloth?:neutral:

I’m confident this movie has an interesting story to tell. Looks like good drama and double crossings and such, you can tell that without subs. The question is, will the story be good like Rendezvous with Death, or is it great like Avenging Eagle. If this deal falls through with whatever company is planning to release it, I’ll definitely contact venom to get the subbed version.

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loempiavreter

I was showing a friend some kung fu movie 'clips' from youtube. And of all he was mostly interested and impressed by TKAM (although the print was too battered for his liking, he thought the movie looked cool). Now he isn't a hardcore Kung Fu cinema fan, so I'm sure people besides us die hard nutters will like this too!

Does anyone even know what this movie is about

Small synopsis from a IMDB review by Venoms5:

"The Chi Sha society of killers secretly hunt down and kill the members of the Yang Society, a government backed organization responsible for killing followers of the Chi Sha. However, the seven leaders of the Chi Sha are killed off one at the time after they are branded as spies for the Yang's."

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tantao3-son of tantao2

these are the Celestial ones we need: complete with ID Nos for markgway...

168018 Purple Darts

168025 The Enchanted Chamber

170006 The Bandits

170012 Hellgate

170025 Mission Impossible

170032 Thousand Years Fox

171018 Na Cha And The Seven Devils

171023 Shadow Girl

171028 The Champion Of Champions

171029 Come Haunt With Me

171032 The Black Enforcer

172015 The Goud Fairy

172033 The Champion

173007 Imperial Tomb Raiders

173011 The Virgins

173014 The Boxers

173019 The Big Fellow

173020 Payment In Blood

173033 The Gambling Syndicate

173040 The Crazy Nuts Of Kung Fu

174006 The Well Of Doom

174018 Mini Skirt Gang

174043 Queen Hustler

174049 Merry Tales Of the East

175005 Temperament Of Life

175006 Evil Seducers

175010 Night Of The Devil's Bride

175023 Fearful Interlude

175037 Spirit Of The Raped

176004 Oriental Playgirls

176018 The Escort Girls

176039 The Crooks

177001 Lady Exterminator

177008 The Mysterious Lady Killer

177010 Murder On The Wedding Night

177020 The Magic Ring

177022 The Mad Love Chase

177037 Gang Of Four

178005 The Winner

178006 The Psychopath

178007 Delinquent Teenagers

178010 Island Of Virgins

178016 Godfathers's Fury

178017 The Cunning Hustler

178027 Crazy Imposters

178029 Double Cross

178035 Bank Busters

178039 The Best Hustler Wins

179006 The Reckless Cricket

179007 The Last Judgement

197012 He Who Never Dies

179031 To Kill A Mastermind

180023 Every Man For Himself

180024 Lover's Blades

181005 Revenge Of The Corpse

181010 Avengers from Hell

181012 The Third Hand

181020 Story Of Taxi Dancers

181026 A Bride's Nightmare

181028 The Battle For The Republic Of China

182021 The Young Heroes Of The Street

182023 Curse of Evil

182031 The Bund

182034 Ghosts Galore

182035 The Bund Part 2

184021 I Will Finally Knock You Down, Dad!

184023 Misfire

184026 Three Stooges Go Undercover

185004 This Man Is Dangerous

185019 Thunderclap

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I was showing a friend some kung fu movie 'clips' from youtube. And of all he was mostly interested and impressed by TKAM (although the print was too battered for his liking, he thought the movie looked cool). Now he isn't a hardcore Kung Fu cinema fan, so I'm sure people besides us die hard nutters will like this too!

Small synopsis from a IMDB review by Venoms5:

"The Chi Sha society of killers secretly hunt down and kill the members of the Yang Society, a government backed organization responsible for killing followers of the Chi Sha. However, the seven leaders of the Chi Sha are killed off one at the time after they are branded as spies for the Yang's."

That's what I'm hoping, that it won't be on the Judgement of an Assassin or Rendezvous with Death level which is good but not great, but up there with Avenging Eagle. Actually when I think about Avenging Eagle its action scenes where secondary to the story and acting. So I hope TKAM is not all action and no substance. With mostly unknown actors though its hard to think Sun Chung dedicated much time to character or plot development.

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@ TanTao3:

In your list, you forgot to add two Chu Yuan classics as well as a Cheng Pei Pei classic all of which never should have been missed (especially as all three titles were remastered and included in the very first catalogue for foreign distributors and all Celestial catalogues which came out thereafter):

1971 THE KILLER (Chin Han, Tsung Hua, Wang Ping, Ku Feng)

1973 THE VILLAINS (Yueh Hua, Shih Szu, Chen Hung Lieh, Ching Miao)

1967 OPERATION LIPSTICK (Cheng Pei Pei, Paul Chang Chung, Tina Chin Fei, directed by Umetsugu Inuoe)

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With mostly unknown actors though its hard to think Sun Chung dedicated much time to character or plot development.

It`s nice to see rare case,person without prejudice.

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Guest Markgway
Not sure the solution is to couple it with another unknown movie... I don't think two obscure movies make it more apealing to a wider market. The way I see it, if you want to double bill it, you need to put it with a more sure hit. I like my idea better :tongue:

But I don't want to buy a film I might already have to get To Kill a Mastermind when I can buy TWO films I don't have.

My idea wins. :tongue:

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loempiavreter
That's what I'm hoping, that it won't be on the Judgement of an Assassin or Rendezvous with Death level which is good but not great, but up there with Avenging Eagle. Actually when I think about Avenging Eagle its action scenes where secondary to the story and acting. So I hope TKAM is not all action and no substance. With mostly unknown actors though its hard to think Sun Chung dedicated much time to character or plot development.

If it helps, the script of TKAM is written by writer Ni Kuang:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ni_Kuang

Responsible for the likes of:

- One-Armed Swordsman

- Crippled Avengers

- Five Deadly Venoms

- Fist of Fury

and of course

- The Avenging Eagle

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@ TanTao3:

In your list, you forgot to add two Chu Yuan classics as well as a Cheng Pei Pei classic all of which never should have been missed (especially as all three titles were remastered and included in the very first catalogue for foreign distributors and all Celestial catalogues which came out thereafter):

1971 THE KILLER (Chin Han, Tsung Hua, Wang Ping, Ku Feng)

1973 THE VILLAINS (Yueh Hua, Shih Szu, Chen Hung Lieh, Ching Miao)

1967 OPERATION LIPSTICK (Cheng Pei Pei, Paul Chang Chung, Tina Chin Fei, directed by Umetsugu Inuoe)

Unless I didn't see them these aren't on there, either...

THE BRAIN STEALERS (1968)

DOWNHILL THEY RIDE (1966)

AND THE TWAIN SHALL MEET (1969)

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@ Venoms5:

Absolutely correct - but only the first two.

The third one (AND THE TWAIN SHALL MEET) is just the working title of THE JADE FACED ASSASSIN, which has been put out by Celestial.

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I wish people would spell the word "come" properly, and not as "cum" (see that article). I also find people similarly don't know how to spell it in subs for the likes of 'The Inbetweeners':tongue:.

Anyway - maybe the print will look something like 'Queen Boxer' (as seen on Celestial TV), or this. I'm sure it would be fine as long as everything else is done right :smile:.

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ni_kuang_changcheh.jpg
From looking at this picture of Chang Che (RIP) who would guess this small statured, happy face, chubby guy is the man behind so many blood and guts classics. This may seem ironic but I think his films benefited from he having no martial arts training or background. He made his films for the fans and gave the people what they wanted to see, rather than trying to incorporate his own experience or martial arts philosophy in the film. Che was simple, kill the Manchu's or die trying!!
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He made his films for the fans and gave the people what they wanted to see, rather than trying to incorporate his own experience or martial arts philosophy in the film. Che was simple, kill the Manchu's or die trying!!

Different strokes for different people.I prefer ( too? ) CC over LKL because there is no lecturing or deep martial philosophy.And moral of the story was often simple like bad guys die and often good ones too:wink:

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I spoke to someone at Celestial a few years back and they told me that the reason that 'To Kill A Mastermind' was not to be released was that it was too damaged to remaster.

I also spoke to them about unremastered films and they said they were willing to sell the distribution rights for unremastered prints. The unremastered prints were on the same deal structure and price as the remastered ones though, which might explain why no companies wanted to buy them

I would buy an unremastered region 1 DVD of 'To Kill a Mastermind', no doubt.

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I wish people would spell the word "come" properly, and not as "cum" (see that article).

I totally agree - however - in this instance it is spelled correctly. The word, in this context is from Latin, and used between two nouns to designate an object of a combined nature. Actor-cum-director, writer-cum-producer, etc. It has nothing to do with sexual activity.

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I totally agree - however - in this instance it is spelled correctly. The word, in this context is from Latin, and used between two nouns to designate an object of a combined nature. Actor-cum-director, writer-cum-producer, etc. It has nothing to do with sexual activity.
True

..........

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@ Venoms5:

Absolutely correct - but only the first two.

The third one (AND THE TWAIN SHALL MEET) is just the working title of THE JADE FACED ASSASSIN, which has been put out by Celestial.

Thanks for that. There's a poster for it under the TWAIN SHALL MEET title in one of the magazines.

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I know the point of this thread isn't guess the company, but if it's Funimation they did a pretty good job with the previous "lost gem" Hong Kong Godfather.

All the clips and stills I've seen here for TKAM have been the same version that has been floating around for years... blurry, subs cut off and cropped.

That being said, I'd buy a widescreen mandarin version with redone subs in a heartbeat if it was made available. Hell, even a print with the quality of the infamous "Massacre Survivor" project would be an improvement over that current mess.

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Does anyone even know what this movie is about, the burnt in english subtitles are completely cropped. I assuming that

the praise for this film has not been for the "fight scenes" alone not knowing the details of the script. Morloth mentioned

he was on the edge of his seat at least 4 times during the fight scenes, i admit i was on the edge of my seat too Morloth

but it's because i could barely tell what was going on. I tend to avoid those horribly watered down prints, to top it off, as i

mentioned the subtitles are completely cropped. I would have to look at the source material for that print, perhaps if this

company is no longer interested in obtaining rights to this film then Venom's subtitled copy would be worth another look

in the future. Im afraid the print that exists it too horrible to be worth it but i appreciate the fact that Venom would go all

out and have the actual cantonese (mandarin?) track subtitled. Maybe then someone could at least write a review.

tkamcastphoto

One had already been written. There's a new one here...

http://www.coolasscinema.com/2010/10/to-kill-mastermind-1979-review.html

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GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG

Yes I for one am in hopes that this movie will see the light of day. Good hunting.

I remember a thread here that also talked about Magnificent Spearman.

That would make the ideal double-feature TKMM & MS.

Good Luck.

Sorry for the F'N joke.

GD Y-Y

GD Y-Y

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