What was the last classic martial-arts film you watched?

[saltysam]

Revolt Of The Dragon

Two chinese cons are recruited by the japanese to run a lumberjack yard full of cheap labour and cruelly treated chinese workers. Eventually Barry Chan has had enough and rises up against them. Quite repetitive, these workers only have to look at the foreman the wrong way and an all out brawl takes place. Notable for it's near 30 minute climax though, which is a basher fans heaven.

The Angry Dragon

Evil Mongolians are escorting a princess to a marriage she doesn't want, her boyfriend is in pursuit.He and the local gang of scallywags team up with Eddy Ko to stop the formidable army. Not a bad basher, the code red dvd has a sequence back to front about the 40-45 minute mark.

Dragons Never Die

Kwok Choi and Alex Tzi-Fei Lung travel the land challenging and usually beating the local martial arts champs. Eventually, late on they run into Han Ying Chieh in Big Boss mode. I notice Alex Tzi-Fei Lung only made 7 movies despite being pretty good, i wonder why?

[ShawAngela]

1 hour ago, saltysam said:

Revolt Of The Dragon

Two chinese cons are recruited by the japanese to run a lumberjack yard full of cheap labour and cruelly treated chinese workers. Eventually Barry Chan has had enough and rises up against them. Quite repetitive, these workers only have to look at the foreman the wrong way and an all out brawl takes place. Notable for it's near 30 minute climax though, which is a basher fans heaven.

Isn't this plot very similar to the one of Struggle through death except that there are no Japanese in this latter ?

[ShawAngela]

The first sword

Around 10 years since I first watched this movie and I had totally forgotten how good the plot is, full of twists. The fights aren't really at the same level as the Shaws' ones, but it's a good movie, though.

[ShawAngela]

Mad, mad, mad swords

I don't remember if I had already watched this movie.

Nice one and for once, Tien Ching doesn't play a bad guy or an idiot one...

[panku]

44 minutes ago, ShawAngela said:

Isn't this plot very similar to the one of Struggle through death except that there are no Japanese in this latter ?

This also goes by the title The Brave Lion. It's a great one!

[panku]

On 4/6/2020 at 4:34 PM, saltysam said:

One By One

Courtesy of NoKUNGFUforYU  i watched this previously unknown to me 70's basher with Yusuaki Kurata and Kam Kong . They play two prisoners who escape but are chained together so can't go their separate ways. Kurata thinks Kong is a cop,Kong insists he isn't. Pretty much the whole movie is the two of them engaging each other in fight after fight. Enjoyable but exhausting. They must have enjoyed it so much they reteamed for Fatal Strike which is more of the same.

Love this film. Kurata is completely mental!

[panku]

On 4/6/2020 at 5:55 PM, ShawAngela said:

I discovered today that I had A PURE GEM in my many boxes that had waited for years to be watched : Magnificent chivlary 1971.

What a superb movie, with some of my favourite actors Tien Yeh, Wang Yu and Chang Ching Ching, plus some familiar actors who only have short roles such as Sit Hon, Wang Lai, Chan Wai Lau and Miao Tian.

There is a major twist at around 55mn of running time that makes this movie very touching and even more interesting.

I recommend it.

This is one I have to revisit soon.

[JackieRome]

21 hours ago, sym8 said:

Yet you like Young master,knockabout and Prodigal son which all contain undercranking,especially Young master.And aren’t you the same person who said the venoms fight scenes where to slow?What do you like and want from a Kung fu movie?

We don't understand each other. I can't stand fast editing, I like real speed, natural speed. I hope you've explained that well. In the films you mention, I've never seen any fast scenes in post-production.

Edited April 12, 2020 by JackieRome

[DrNgor]

13 hours ago, panku said:

This also goes by the title The Brave Lion. It's a great one!

I was surprised at how much I liked this. It's simple, and a bit repetitive, but the basher choreography was quite good for a movie without a huge name cast.

[ShawAngela]

I just finished to watch A PURE GEM, and an unknown title, at least for me, starring Bruce Liang, and called The casino(1984) , that isn't even mentioned in his hkmdb filmography (I haven't checked hkcinemagic).

I can't resist to write my review at once, so, see you in the reviews section...😀

[saltysam]

Struggle Through Death

John Liu and his friends are kidnapped and forced to work in an unsafe gold mine , they repeatedly make escape attempts which repeatedly fail, their punishment becoming more severe each time. Eventually Liu after a particularly harsh beating decides he's going to get the well meaning site foreman and kung fu expert to improve his skills. As mentioned this is similar to Revolt Of The Dragon/Brave Lion and would make for an excellent double feature evening's entertainment. The HD english dubbed version of this is pretty good.

Edited April 15, 2020 by saltysam

[DragonClaws]

2 hours ago, saltysam said:

Struggle Through Death

John Liu and his friends are kidnapped and forced to work in an unsafe gold mine , they repeatedly make escape attempts which repeatedly fail, their punishment becoming more severe each time. Eventually Liu after a particularly harsh beating decides he's going to get the well meaning site foreman and kung fu expert to improve his skills. As mentioned this is similar to Revolt Of The Dragon/Brave Lion and would make for an excellent double feature evening's entertainment. The HD english subbed version of this is pretty good.

 

The only copy of this I've viewed, is the budget Holywood DVD released in the U.K a couple of decades ago. One of the worst pan & scan prints I've ever sat through.

 

What was the aspect ratio of the version you watched?.

[saltysam]

It's well worth seeing in proper widescreen. It's a decent watch, Paul Wei has a rare good guy role here.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

1 hour ago, DragonClaws said:

 

The only copy of this I've viewed, is the budget Holywood DVD released in the U.K a couple of decades ago. One of the worst pan & scan prints I've ever sat through.

 

What was the aspect ratio of the version you watched?.

There is a 1080p out there with English dub, wide screen.

[ShawAngela]

The AsiaLine German dvd is good too.

[venom10463]

3 hours ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

There is a 1080p out there with English dub, wide screen.

It was on Amazon Prime Video a few months back in HD. Not sure if it's still there.

Edit:

I just checked and it's still there.

Edited April 14, 2020 by venom10463

[saltysam]

12 hours ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

There is a 1080p out there with English dub, wide screen.

That's what i watched, converted to blu ray. Looks very nice, good colours. I've still got the old german DVD under the title Kung Fu Fighter.

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by saltysam

[ShawAngela]

Oh !!

I have this exact title as an old French dubbed  VHS that I bought and watched in the 90's, but I must confess that when I watched the Asia Line DVD a few weeks ago, it didn't ring a bell at all !!

[ukrevrend]

Seven Steps of Kung Fu (1979) W/S Eng & Man  Eng Hard subbed Uncut   RareKF

Starring: Ricky Cheng Tien-Chi, Chia Kai, Tommy Lee, Lung Fei & Chang Shan

Shapes Fu from a very strong cast and action directed by Tommy Lee!  What more could you ask for? (maybe a story, a script, a plot! But that's a different matter) This is pure action from start to the two on one finale!

Tommy Lee has a very small part in this, as does Lung Fei, but Tommy is action director, so expect a Shapes Fu fest. Ricky Chen Tien-Chi shows us throughout how nimble a gymnast he his, but for me it's Chia Kai who steals the limelight, I think he's so underrated, but a great Shapes thrower. Add to this you have Chang Shan playing a White Haired Fox, this is definitely a must watch for fans of Shapes Fu!

4/5

Bless

[CT KID]

On 4/13/2020 at 1:52 PM, saltysam said:

Struggle Through Death

John Liu and his friends are kidnapped and forced to work in an unsafe gold mine , they repeatedly make escape attempts which repeatedly fail, their punishment becoming more severe each time. Eventually Liu after a particularly harsh beating decides he's going to get the well meaning site foreman and kung fu expert to improve his skills. As mentioned this is similar to Revolt Of The Dragon/Brave Lion and would make for an excellent double feature evening's entertainment. The HD english subbed version of this is pretty good.

I enjoyed it too being a fan of John Liu but nowhere near his best, which would be Incredible Kung Fu Mission imo. I don't know if you've seen Zenkwondo Strikes in Paris but it features his best kicking but the story is absolute shit lol.

[CT KID]

On 4/13/2020 at 5:17 PM, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

There is a 1080p out there with English dub, wide screen.

That must be the one I have from Crash Cinema l bought a decade ago, it's widescreen and english dubbed.

[saltysam]

Valley Of The Double Dragon

American Soldier is stranded and becomes a P.O.W., he's helped by the chinese resistance and pursued by the japanese and nazi Bob Baker. I thought this was terrible but it wasn't helped by the dreadful (worse than usual) pan and scan job on the UK DVD which is titled Kung Fu Of Tae Kwan Do. Poor, would give it another chance in widescreen.

[Drunken Monk]

Crystal Fist  - Definitely one of the best Drunken Master-ish rip-off movies. Sublime action mixed with tolerable comedy. Billy Chong really was a talented dude. I wish he'd made more movies.

Ways of Kung Fu - A nightmare of a movie. Painful comedy from start to finish mixed with, admittedly, some solid fights. I wouldn't recommend it though. You have to sift through the sewage to get to the gold.

[Master with OK Fingers]

I had a binge on Jackie Chan the last couple of days.

Snake in the Eagles Shadow, Armour of God, Wheels on Meals, Dragons Forever, city Hunter & Heart of Dragon.

Can't decide between Drunken Master, Police Story or Project A for tomorrow 🤔

 

[saltysam]

The Greatest Thai Boxing

Here's an unusual one, a clean shaven Fang Yeh in a good guy role. Fang's thai boxing brother refuses to take a dive in a fight and ends up murdered by by fixer Shan Kwai. On his death bed he wishes that Fang doesn't take up fighting professionally ,unfortunately their mother needs an operation and the only way to raise the money is for Fang to enter the ring. Not bad, we get to see Bolo (billed in the credits as Yang Szu) as a japanese boxer who fights Fang a couple of times. Chin Ti from WOTD is also here. Unfortunately the wide copy i watched had barely legible burnt in white subtitles and most of the actors seem to wear white in the movie!

Mysterious Footworks Of Kung Fu

Charles Heung plays 3 eyed Liu, who goes up against Chan Wai Man and his two henchmen, aided by Beggar Su. Passable but largely forgettable, Betty Ting Pei has a few scenes in this one.