Member KenSakura Posted March 23, 2011 Member Share Posted March 23, 2011 I own a DVD-R of this movie which is sourced from the UK VHS. The quality is good but I wondered whether an upgrade is available. For example, is there a German DVD? I know BCI were going to release the movie before they folded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member odioustrident Posted March 24, 2011 Member Share Posted March 24, 2011 Is that VHS rip letterboxed and a little grainy? That's the only print I've seen or heard of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member KenSakura Posted March 29, 2011 Author Member Share Posted March 29, 2011 Is that VHS rip letterboxed and a little grainy? That's the only print I've seen or heard of. That sounds like the print I have. A remastered DVD would be good as it's underrated in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted August 30, 2013 Member Share Posted August 30, 2013 Shochiku will release Karate Wars (Karate daisenso) (1978) on DVD in Japan 2013/11/26 Director: Hideo Nanbu Cast: Hisao Maki, Darm Dasakorn, Chen Yao-Lin, Nobuo Kaneko, Toru Abe - http://www.allcinema.net/prog/show_dvd.php?num_sid=900055 Description from Outcast Cinema: "Karate Wars, aka Karate daisenso, on the other hand, is a bit more of a known quantity. Directed by Hideo Nanbu, it's an entertaining martial arts vehicle for the multi-hyphenate and semi-notorious celebrity Hisao Maki (above). Maki-sensei was a disciple of the famous kyokushin karate master Masutatsu Oyama, also a teacher of Sonny Chiba and the subject of films like Karate Bullfighter and Karate for Life (which Maki had a hand in producing, I believe). His older brother Ikki Kajiwara (who died in 1987) was an incredibly prolific manga writer, and creator of many well-known sports manga series, like Ashita no Joe, Tiger Mask, and others. Maki himself is also a screenwriter and a frequent collaborator with director Takashi Miike, having produced or written films like the Bodyguard Kiba series, the Family series, Big Bang Love, Waru, and others. And, they say, he's got affiliations with a certain underworld society famous in Japan for missing fingers. Well, back in the late 70s, Karate Wars was produced at Shochiku by Kajiwara, apparently on a very low budget, as a vehicle for his younger brother to show off his martial arts skills. It's an entertaining film, basically following the stoic Maki as he travels from Japan to Hong Kong and Thailand in order to show the superiority of Japanese karate to those countries' native martial arts. There are lots of real martial arts fights, a bit of filler romance and intrigue, and popular Toei villain Nobuo Kaneko even appears as a slimy corporate type. I've only seen the (poorly) dubbed version, but rest assured that the eventual BCI disc will feature the original Japanese soundtrack (and hopefully the English dub track as an alternate soundrack)." - http://outcastcinema.blogspot.jp/2008_08_01_archive.html The film was scheduled to be released on DVD by BCI / Eclipse before the company went down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Ah_Tao Posted February 23, 2018 Member Share Posted February 23, 2018 I don't mean to tread on anyone but I just checked this movie out today. One of the worst ones I've seen in a long time. I'm sorry, the fight scenes felt more like sparring (end fight scene). I'm not going to spoil it for those who are curious either. Probably will get a lot of hate outta this, but that's what makes us all unique. With that, Imma have to say that this the worst martial arts movie that I've check out so far this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted February 24, 2018 Member Share Posted February 24, 2018 I posted a review of this in another thread last year. Let me copy-paste it here: Karate Wars (空手大戦争) (1978) One of the few Japanese 70s karate films made by some other studio than Toei, in this case, Shochiku. The film's production background is actually more interesting than the movie itself. The film was produced by Ikki Kajiwara, the author of the comic books Karate Kiba and Karate for Life, which Toei had made into feature films with Sonny Chiba. It was intended as a starring project for Kajiwara's brother Hisao Maki, who was a student of Masutatsu Oyama. The film failed to make Maki a star (for very obvious reasons) but he would later contribute to cinema as a screenwriter and novelist (e.g. Takashi Miike's Big Bang Love, Juvenile A) The film was shot in Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand, utilizing many local martial artists. It's also spoken in various languages, including Japanese, English, Chinese and Thai. Unfortunately it's a pretty poor film with an unremarkable storyline about a Japanese martial artist (Maki) who convinced to travel to Hong Kong and Thailand where he fights local fighters. It takes about half an hour before anything happens, but once the film moves to foreign locations it picks up some pace and remains watchable enough thanks to a steady delivery of action. Most of the fights happen when Maki is ambushed time after another on the streets. Maki is amusingly wooden in the lead role, especially as an actor. His fights suffer from the (modern) Steven Seagal syndrome where he barely needs to do anything but walk around and the opponents drop dead. Although there is certain realism to the fight moves, he looks surprisingly slow compared to the likes of Sonny Chiba. While martial arts aficionados may get something out of it, the film is solely lacking in the fun department. The film was set for a R1 DVD release a decade ago but the company went bankrupt before the disc came out. Shochiku released the film on DVD in Japan (without subs) a few years ago. Yes, this scene is ridiculous. There's a fight after the wrestler tries to hit on Maki's gal. Toei villain Nobuo Kaneko in the middle. You know him from films like Battles without Honor and Humanity. Maki Hong Kong Screencap makes this fight look better than it is Thailand Original trailer & teaser. Masutatsu Oyama Ikki Kajiwara (left) and Hisao Maki "The 3rd film in the Chijo saikyo no karate (The Strongest Karate) series". That's a little confusing since the first two are documentary films, and this is a work of fiction. Also, the title of Karate Wars (Karate daisenso) makes no reference to the Chijo saikyo no karate series. I think the ad team probably came up with that connection just to sell the film. I don't think anyone actually considers it a part of the series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Ah_Tao Posted February 24, 2018 Member Share Posted February 24, 2018 @Takuma Even after all the crap that I put up with, any idea what those last lines said at the end of the movie? I know the guy is Kyokushin but the choreography was slow and beyond outlandish. It's one thing if its realistic, but its another thing if it looked it's evident that it's poorly choreographed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted February 25, 2018 Member Share Posted February 25, 2018 No memory. I sold the dvd after watching the film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Ah_Tao Posted March 2, 2018 Member Share Posted March 2, 2018 Oh and to add on, since this guy's face is stuck in my head. The main villain's face reminded me a lot of Eriq La Salle during the Coming to America era. The face just never got out of my head. And what was up with the "Chinese Kung-Fu?" The guys that kept attacking Tatsuya were just jumping on him, and every time he finishes a fight (like poking a guy's eye out with blood spurting), he always says "that guy was tough." The mystery behind who was the White Crane was so anti-climatic, you already knew who it was before they showed him. Ugh, I could just rant on, because I hate the fact that I wasted nearly 2 hours of my life seeing this. I haven't been so disappointed since I saw "Saulabi," which made no sense to me whatsoever. I usually don't rant on about something that I don't care much about, but I think it's sad that a Karate movie could go so wrong. Again, not to spoil it, but the finishing move in the end was delivered so lazy, it's actually disappointing. It makes me wonder if Sosai chose to be in the movie or not, seeing that he is in the trailer. He did appear in the beginning credits of Karate Bullfighter and Karate Bearfighter, but not in Karate For Life (maybe they chose not to put him in, or maybe he didn't like having a bootleg Bruce Lee fight scene in the end- I don't know). I'm really sorry to rant on, but this movie had so much potential, right from the box. It's sad that they wasted it to be another slow, unrealistic, "chop-sucky" film. If you enjoyed it, then I'm sorry to bust your chops, those were just my two cents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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