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Chinese Hercules


teako170

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"Beast of the East" - Gotta love these old trailers!

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Watched this '73 basher with Bolo and Chan Wai Man other night.

Not great but worth a viewing of this reworking of the plot from the Big Boss.

My biggest gripe is CWM only gets to do his thing at the beginning and end --

otherwise he's standing on the sidelines while everyone gets a whipping.

Was reading some reviews and I did find one laughable report over at Amazon where the reviewer writes --

"The main character is an actor who shows no skill in martial arts."

Wooow... I'm all for respecting someone's opinion but not sure what this guy was smoking.

CWM was like only the South-East Asian kung fu fighting champion in 1972. :squigglemouth:

Here's the poster and a scan from Cinemart (May 1973)

cher1.jpg

cher2.jpg

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Do you have data on when (or where) it played? I saw many a flick @ Times Square in late 70s --

but that was such a looong time ago, hard to say if I saw this one way back then.

The film's biggest fans are likely the ones who first saw it in Grindhouses back in the early 70s. Reportedly, it was a huge hit on New York's 42 Street.
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Do you have data on when (or where) it played? I saw many a flick @ Times Square in late 70s --

but that was such a looong time ago, hard to say if I saw this one way back then.

Sorry, no. Been trying to get info on the exact where and when, but couldn't find anything specific. Just remember reading several times that it was a hit there around '73 or '74.

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That's okay. Has been my plan for last few years to get to a library where the have the NY Daily News (or Post) on microfiche.

Want to print the movie ads from the mid 70s to early 80s, scan and clean them up and eventually post online. Some day....

Sorry, no. Been trying to get info on the exact where and when, but couldn't find anything specific. Just remember reading several times that it was a hit there around '73 or '74.
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That's okay. Has been my plan for last few years to get to a library where the have the NY Daily News (or Post) on microfiche.

Want to print the movie ads from the mid 70s to early 80s, scan and clean them up and eventually post online. Some day....

Now THAT would be pretty cool! Be sure to share when and if you do.

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odioustrident

I've been saying I would try the same thing teako but I tend to procrastinate. Hope someone gets around to a full scale project on this! NY Daily News etc.. should be available in all the years we need from the Mid-Manhattan Library.

http://legacy.www.nypl.org/research/chss/mic/images/newyork.pdf

I've also been wanting to grab some back-issues of Variety magazine, as they supposedly listed all rental titles that made more than 1 mil US and the top 50 theatrical releases week-by-week. The more popular kung fu films were often in the 20's on those lists around '81 / '82, at least from the little info I've seen.

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I know a couple of members have posted "some" ads over the years. I believe fightlikeapes had a few on his site, ProjectAKA, but that site is gone. Another member posted some back in 2010. I'm planning to do a rather involved project by looking at the first Sunday of each month for the years 1975-83. That's over 100 newspapers!

I should have done this while still living in Jersey. Now, the trek to Manhattan is a wee bit further away for me unfortunately so hard to say when it will get done. Ideally, if I could find a library closer to me that had the NYDN on fiche ... perhaps somewhere in Atlanta?

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Jesse Smooth

My pops saw this one at the theater and thought it was less than stellar. When we watched the DVD together, he still didn't think it was anything special.

I'm all about the old ads. Keep up the good work T. :wink:

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I saw this film at at a Grindhouse (the Fabian) Theater in Paterson NJ. It was in the 70's, but I can't be specific as far as the dates it played. I tend to agree that the feeling at the time was that the crowd did enjoy this particular film due to this theater brought this film back to play on different dates. As for me, I enjoyed this film quite a bit.

Best regards

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Coliseum1972

It was not released until x-mas 73 in US I reckon , the movie poster has a low number (74/something something.....suggesting in cinemas in early 74)

I own this titan 1976 Italy 4sh

CH.jpg

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That date sounds about right. It was about a year after ENTER THE DRAGON was released, that I saw the film. By the way, great poster!

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The HKMDB lists Jackie Chan as the main fight choreographer, with Yuen Woo-Ping and Michael Chan (plus Fong Yau) as Martial Arts Consultants. I wonder how that worked out?

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Cognoscente

I can't imagine Yuen Woo-Ping playing second fiddle to Jackie. Yuen was older and had more experience as a choreographer. It's more likely that Yuen was so busy that he could only be hired to film the finale.

Adding to the confusion is Corey's credit on HK Cinemagic. I wish that Jackie was interviewed about this in his first book. It would have been more interesting to talk about than The Heroine, which he worked on with Biao and Kwai like on Chinese Hercules.

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7 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

Adding to the confusion is Corey's credit on HK Cinemagic.

Corey Yuen used to be credited on the HKMDB page, but was removed--most likely when they started rehauling all the credits.

 

7 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

Yuen was older and had more experience as a choreographer.

True, although his filmography was still a little limited in 1973. Nonetheless, if he had been subordinate to Jackie (obviously unlikely), the HKMDB would have credited him as "Assistant Fight Choreographer" (or "Assistant Martial Arts Choreographer"). Perhaps Jackie did the hard work and Yuen Woo-Ping just observed and gave the thumbs up, or some pointers here and there?

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DragonClaws
On 6/12/2021 at 3:41 PM, DrNgor said:

I've never seen this movie. Am I really missing out?

 

Click on the link below, if your interested in hearing my long winded thoughts on this one.

 

 

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NoKUNGFUforYU

All I remember about this one is that some people were disappointed that Yang Sze was simply a side character and it wasn't built around him, when it came out. The feeling was that there was a lot of crap being marketed in the low rent theaters and putting anything close to Bruce Lee on the poster would get people out there. It is one of the reasons I started going to Chinatown to Shaw Brothers movies and later Tan Tao Liang flicks. The grindhouses usually got cheap shit made in the Philippines movies instead of stuff like Heroes Two. 

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On 6/12/2021 at 4:59 PM, DrNgor said:

The HKMDB lists Jackie Chan as the main fight choreographer, with Yuen Woo-Ping and Michael Chan (plus Fong Yau) as Martial Arts Consultants. I wonder how that worked out?

 

Theyve changed lot on the HKMDB.Com sites, I'm it was just Jackie Chan listed as Action Director?.

 

On 6/12/2021 at 3:41 PM, DrNgor said:

I've never seen this movie. Am I really missing out?

 

Have you gotten round to this one yet?, not absolute classic but I'd like to hear your opinions on the finale. I've got a review of this one, if you want to read it?.

 

On 6/15/2021 at 4:36 PM, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

All I remember about this one is that some people were disappointed that Yang Sze was simply a side character and it wasn't built around him, when it came out.

 

How much better would it have been?, if they really built the film around Bolo Yeungs character?.

 

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