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

[Drunken Monk]

Just when I think Raymond Lui can do no wrong, he kinda ruins things...although, admittedly, it’s my fault too. Where I’d previously watched to pretty simply straight up kung fu movies from Lui, this afternoon I walked into the convoluted swordplay movie, Blood Mission (1981)

Now, this film is a mess. There’s an awful lot going on. Think of it as Clue but with swords. But I do confess that I was not paying full attention as I had a lot going on in work. So the film could be simple as hell and I just missed a lot. I tried to keep tabs as best I could. There’s revenge, a woman who promises marriage to the man that gets her revenge, a birthday party, loads of murder and a million characters.

This isn’t me saying the film is bad. Not in the slightest. It’s actually REALLY GOOD. It’s just got a lot going on. Given the time and attention it needs, this would be a fantastic watch.

Sadly, Lui loves to shoot nighttime fights and since I was watching a VHS rip, it’s not exactly crystal clear who’s hitting who. But the action is very, very good. It’s 99% weapons work but it’s awesome weapons work.

If you want a film you can really focus on and enjoy, give this one a go. If you’re looking for a film you can play in the background while you clean your Fleshlight collection, this isn’t the one for you.

[Super Ninja]

16 hours ago, Drunken Monk said:

The Crane Fighter (1979) - I thought I’d take @Super Ninja’s advice and give this one a go today. I just say, Raymond Lui definitely knows what his audience wants: FIGHT SCENES. There’s a fight every ten minutes in this film and the choreography is beautiful. As far as action goes, I feel this one is a bit overlooked.

The plot starts off relatively simple with Chia Ling (who’s great) ending up in some trouble with a local bad guy. This evolve and it later becomes an “escaped Shaolin monk” story but it’s all very easy to follow and not too taxing on the brain. The plot basically exists to house the fights.

The only issue with this one is it does feature not one but two idiot characters. Therefore, it features a lot of daft comedy. Over the years I’ve become immune to even Dean Shek’s antics so it didn’t annoy me too much. With that said, it doesn’t exactly add much to the film. Thankfully, at times, the idiots can actually throw down!

Lui himself gets to shine throughout but both he and Chia Ling get to do their thing in the final fight. Why had I never seen this final fight before? It seems like one someone would have mentioned. Anyway, it’s great and has a very interesting gimmick.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one and as I’m on a “two for two” roll with Raymond Lui, I’ll be checking out his others.

I'm glad you liked it @Drunken Monk, I agree with the general opinion that it's among Chia Ling's finest performances, and one of the best Crane style kung fu films.

14 hours ago, Drunken Monk said:

Just when I think Raymond Lui can do no wrong, he kinda ruins things...although, admittedly, it’s my fault too. Where I’d previously watched to pretty simply straight up kung fu movies from Lui, this afternoon I walked into the convoluted swordplay movie, Blood Mission (1981)

Now, this film is a mess. There’s an awful lot going on. Think of it as Clue but with swords. But I do confess that I was not paying full attention as I had a lot going on in work. So the film could be simple as hell and I just missed a lot. I tried to keep tabs as best I could. There’s revenge, a woman who promises marriage to the man that gets her revenge, a birthday party, loads of murder and a million characters.

This isn’t me saying the film is bad. Not in the slightest. It’s actually REALLY GOOD. It’s just got a lot going on. Given the time and attention it needs, this would be a fantastic watch.

Sadly, Lui loves to shoot nighttime fights and since I was watching a VHS rip, it’s not exactly crystal clear who’s hitting who. But the action is very, very good. It’s 99% weapons work but it’s awesome weapons work.

If you want a film you can really focus on and enjoy, give this one a go. If you’re looking for a film you can play in the background while you clean your Fleshlight collection, this isn’t the one for you.

As I said before, at first I didn't think much of the movie, or the action, but I've seen fans praising the action here in the best of the rest thread, so my thoughts were maybe I was wrong and should give it another shot. Being it's quite rare, you'll hardly find a better version than that VHS rip, if I remember correctly, there are both dubbed and subbed version on YT, and quality is far from great.

[Killer Meteor]

Six Directions Boxing (1980)

David Chiang (who now I think about it does look a bit like Jerry Seinfeld), with a semi-shaven head, is a policeman after snake fist master Lung Tien-hsiang, whilst Yuen Siu-tien trys to get him to marry his daughter Nancy Yen. Very lightweight and tame, but less of an out-and-out comedy then you would expect from the time. The Yuen Clan choreography is rather slow, not surprising given the stars - probably the only really interesting thing about this film is the specially traned dog and chimp, who get their own special credit!

5/10

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

CONSPIRACY OF THIEVES - I had not expected this to be a gambler movie. I guess it is one of the earliest (1974)? The German dub was rather dull, I would like to see it in original language, as it has quite of lot of plot and dialogue. According to hkmdb, Tan Tao Kung, the movie's main antagonist, was Tan Tao Liang's brother, I was not aware of him. HKMDB also says that According to an interview with Ching Kuo-Chung, Tan was killed in a street fight.   How sad. A rather unusual movie.  

[ShawAngela]

2 hours ago, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

CONSPIRACY OF THIEVES - I had not expected this to be a gambler movie. I guess it is one of the earliest (1974)? The German dub was rather dull, I would like to see it in original language, as it has quite of lot of plot and dialogue. According to hkmdb, Tan Tao Kung, the movie's main antagonist, was Tan Tao Liang's brother, I was not aware of him. HKMDB also says that According to an interview with Ching Kuo-Chung, Tan was killed in a street fight.   How sad. A rather unusual movie.  

I enjoyed it, and it was great to see the two brothers fighting each other, with different techniques.

[ShawAngela]

I just finished to watch Death Ring from our friend @NoKUNGFUforYU's channel.

I bought the Tai Seng dvd years ago and hadn't find a while to watch it.

What a SUPERB movie, I enjoyed it a lot ! And the actor Li Zhong Yi is great !

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

On 1/16/2021 at 11:13 AM, ShawAngela said:

I enjoyed it, and it was great to see the two brothers fighting each other, with different techniques.

Just so you all know, Ching Kuo Chung was by all accounts a terrible person, and probably got his just due.

[Killer Meteor]

1 hour ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

Just so you all know, Ching Kuo Chung was by all accounts a terrible person, and probably got his just due.

Sounds intriguing!

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

14 hours ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

Just so you all know, Ching Kuo Chung was by all accounts a terrible person, and probably got his just due.

I'm not one of those gossip ladies but that makes me curious?!

PHANTOM KUNG FU - I really enjoyed this, despite the awful English dub. Chang Yu's villain stache is just perfect  Points deducted for the scene where he rips a pigeon's head off (maybe it was faked, I did not go back to check). 

[DragonClaws]

12 hours ago, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

PHANTOM KUNG FU - I really enjoyed this, despite the awful English dub. Chang Yu's villain stache is just perfect  Points deducted for the scene where he rips a pigeon's head off (maybe it was faked, I did not go back to check). 

 

Is this the one with the finale in the graveyard?.

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

2 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Is this the one with the finale in the graveyard?.

Yep, that's the one. 

[Elaquent]

Last one I watched was Of Cooks and Kung Fu and 18 Fatal Strikes. Both great flix

[DragonClaws]

On 1/18/2021 at 12:05 PM, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

Yep, that's the one. 

 

Remember there being some decent choreography from Gam Ming(Tommy Lee). Among some of the poorer comedy skits/routines. The finale could have been better, but overall I enjoyed this one.

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

16 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

Remember there being some decent choreography from Gam Ming(Tommy Lee). Among some of the poorer comedy skits/routines. The finale could have been better, but overall I enjoyed this one.

Yeah I too would have preferred a more conventional end fight. Just got that with another Don Wong Tao (et al) vs Chang Yu finale in  TEN BROTHERS OF SHAOLIN. Great movie! So much talent, so many settings, and various fighting.

Spoiler

This must have been the first time I saw Chia Ling being finished off on screen, not a nice sight  

 

[Drunken Monk]

Holy shit. I decided to continue my Raymond Lui journey today with the ABYSMAL The Marvelous Kung Fu (1979). This is by far one of the worst kung fu movies I have ever seen.
Every single character in this film, save for the "hero," is like Dean Shek on bath salts. And I mean every character. Even the women. There's black face, a little person, at least two poop jokes... This may be at the top of the list when it comes to cringe inducing kung fu comedies. 

To make matter worse, the plot is so devoid of anything remotely interesting. Raymond Lui' character is randomly asked to take a sword to a local village. That's it. That's the plot. We don't know why. We don't know the significance of the sword other than someone in the village is looking for it. It's just this dreadful mcguffin that leads to "wacky hijinks."
These interminable hijinks allow for a series of comedic fight scenes that are as tiresome as the actual comedy until, with about ten minutes to spare, we're given a proper fight. And it's, surprisingly, not that bad.

Alas, nothing can save this one. The Marvelous Kung Fu needs to be dropped in the ocean and forgotten about.

[Drunken Monk]

Still reeling from this morning’s watch I decided to watch a film I hadn’t seen but one that comes from a reliable source: Billy Chong. I settled on 1982’s Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave.

Ladies and gents, I loved this movie. I’m not sure what the general consensus is on this one but, for me, it’s beautifully batshit crazy and features genuinely interesting and crisply choreographed fight scenes.

The plot is easy. Chow’s dad returns from the grave one night to tell his son that he must seek revenge on the man that killed him. The man in question is Lo Lieh, who’s currently collecting human hearts in order to become invincible. Billy Chow decides to use magic against Lo Kiev’s own magic (and his cronies’) and...well...all he’ll break loose.

I think I just live supernatural kung fu movies. I wish there was a way to watch more but it seems a bunch of them have either out of print DVD releases or just haven’t been released at all. This film is nuts on all the right ways. It’s manic and there’s no time to breathe and I just wouldn’t have it any other way.

Just when you think it’s reached it’s height of weirdness, Dracula turns up.

While it does lean more toward the spooky stuff, fight fans should get a kick out of it too. There’s a scuffle seemingly every few minutes in this one.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

7 hours ago, Drunken Monk said:

Still reeling from this morning’s watch I decided to watch a film I hadn’t seen but one that comes from a reliable source: Billy Chong. I settled on 1982’s Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave.

Ladies and gents, I loved this movie. I’m not sure what the general consensus is on this one but, for me, it’s beautifully batshit crazy and features genuinely interesting and crisply choreographed fight scenes.

The plot is easy. Chow’s dad returns from the grave one night to tell his son that he must seek revenge on the man that killed him. The man in question is Lo Lieh, who’s currently collecting human hearts in order to become invincible. Billy Chow decides to use magic against Lo Kiev’s own magic (and his cronies’) and...well...all he’ll break loose.

I think I just live supernatural kung fu movies. I wish there was a way to watch more but it seems a bunch of them have either out of print DVD releases or just haven’t been released at all. This film is nuts on all the right ways. It’s manic and there’s no time to breathe and I just wouldn’t have it any other way.

Just when you think it’s reached it’s height of weirdness, Dracula turns up.

While it does lean more toward the spooky stuff, fight fans should get a kick out of it too. There’s a scuffle seemingly every few minutes in this one.

Did you get Shaolin VS Black Magic? Also, if you want a whack Kung Fu Supernatural movies check out On The Verge of Death.

 

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Wu Tang stole my work, but you can watch it here I guess.

 

[Drunken Monk]

11 hours ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

Did you get Shaolin VS Black Magic? Also, if you want a whack Kung Fu Supernatural movies check out On The Verge of Death.

 

I think I did but I haven’t watched it yet. I’ll have to go back and check as I may have forgotten about it.

I’ll check out On the Verge of Death too. Thanks!

[ShawAngela]

11 hours ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

Wu Tang stole my work, but you can watch it here I guess.

 

You should create another YouTube account with another alias, and in the comments section of their Channel, You Could give credits for the subtitles to @NoKUNGFUforYU...Maybe ir would work only once, and for just a few minutes, but at least , during these few minutes, some people Could hear about You and about this channel's way of working, and Maybe they would prefer to go watch movies on your Channel than on theirs...

[Drunken Monk]

Kung Fu Zombie (1981) - Jesus Christ, this is a wacky one. It’s largely a “body hopping” supernatural comedy but it also has a lot of (highly undercranked) fight scenes.

Being a fan of the zany and weird, I quite enjoyed this one. A lot, actually. It does go off the rails late in the movie and I couldn’t help but feel like it’s outside Billy Chong’s wheelhouse, but it’s certainly entertaining.

I’m not sure everyone would be on board with this one. Those not into the weirder side of kung fu movies may not like it. It’s Encounters of the Spooky Kind multiplied by a thousand.

[sym8]

1 hour ago, Drunken Monk said:

Kung Fu Zombie (1981) - Jesus Christ, this is a wacky one. It’s largely a “body hopping” supernatural comedy but it also has a lot of (highly undercranked) fight scenes.

Being a fan of the zany and weird, I quite enjoyed this one. A lot, actually. It does go off the rails late in the movie and I couldn’t help but feel like it’s outside Billy Chong’s wheelhouse, but it’s certainly entertaining.

I’m not sure everyone would be on board with this one. Those not into the weirder side of kung fu movies may not like it. It’s Encounters of the Spooky Kind multiplied by a thousand.

I couldn’t get into this because of the undercranking(man it’s fast)definitely the weaker of the two Kung fu/horror movies he made in my humble opinion 🙏

[JackieRome]

Duel to the Death: An absolute masterpiece. I hadn't seen him for years. in this first film Siu Tung has an incredible technique and the editing and effects are sublime. I prefer this to Swordsman 2. 8/10

[Super Ninja]

11 minutes ago, JackieRome said:

Duel to the Death: An absolute masterpiece. I hadn't seen him for years. in this first film Siu Tung has an incredible technique and the editing and effects are sublime. I prefer this to Swordsman 2. 8/10

10/10. I prefer DTTD to anything else.

[ShawAngela]

I know that Wu Tang Clan isn't very popular here and with reason, but thanks to their channel, I just finished to watch the french language version of Bamboo Brotherhood for the first time, after having searched for it for ages...

I LOVED IT from the movie to the music to the actress to Yu Tien Lung !!

A pure gem !!

I'm not sure that some scenes were in the right order, though, but was a superb movie, a must watch !