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

[ironfistedmonk]

I quite like Infernal Street as well, I'm not a huge fan of bashers in general but I thought this was one of the better ones.

Working through my blu ray pick ups, Warriors Two, an absolute classic, you've all seen it and know the score

[ShawAngela]

1 hour ago, legendarycurry said:

glad you liked it so much.

On my Peking Opera Blues DVD there is an interview with the great  composer James Wong Yim. He speaks about working as a film composer in the film industry and making music and in the interview he says something like "unless you do what Frankie Chan does and just steal music"  . I uploaded it to youtube many years ago I think but the account is long since shutdown.

That's so strange that Frankie Chan used so much others' music. I also watched several movies for which he composed his own themes, that weren't bad at all, so, was he ordered to do borrow musics , or was it laziness, that is the question...

[legendarycurry]

4 minutes ago, ShawAngela said:

That's so strange that Frankie Chan used so much others' music. I also watched several movies for which he composed his own themes, that weren't bad at all, so, was he ordered to do borrow musics , or was it laziness, that is the question...

Frankie did it a lot, but to be fair during those days it wasn't very uncommon for other composers to do it too. So more people did it but Frankie was "the best" at it. It was probably done to save time/money

also, here is a picture of Frankie Chan in his office in 1989 (found on twitter from Dylan Cheung)




it does say a lot without using any actual words   

 

[shukocarl1441996347]

Triangular Duel 1972. One word - Dreadful ( and I love Bashers)

[ShaOW!linDude]

Horse Boxing Killer (aka Cute Foster Sister - 1979) starring Hilda Liu Hao Yi, Wang Tai Lang, Wang Kuan Hsiung, Lung Fei; choreography - Chan Long.

Watched this on Tubi this weekend. Great opening training sequence and a very good finale. Some of the choreography is very intricate. Those are the best bits of the movie. The rest of the action scenes are pretty meh, and the comedy is awful. HLHY is a fantastic martial artist and quite pretty on top of that. The only other films I've seen her in are Fistful of Talons and Taoism Drunkard, and I honestly don't remember her. Definitely need to revisit FoT, but I ain't about to suffer through TD again. Lung Fei is a beast as the villain who breaks out his Horse Style Kung Fu. There's some really neat footwork here.

[AlbertV]

First time watch last week: 

Shaolin Ex-Monk: John Liu is an undercover lawman looking for a former Shaolin monk who is responsible for a series of robberies and deaths. He meets a lowly guy named Chow, played by the late Blacky Ko, who offers to help him look for the killer in exchange for kung fu lessons so he can win the respect of a local rich man (Jack Long) whose daughter (Cecilia Wong) he is in love with. Liu gets to show off his impressive kicking skills and Ko even is quite a kicker himself in the film. Along with Master Killers, I felt Ko was an underrated superkicker at one point. Love the twist (even if predicable) before the last showdown. 

[BornToDefense]

7 hours ago, legendarycurry said:

Frankie did it a lot, but to be fair during those days it wasn't very uncommon for other composers to do it too. So more people did it but Frankie was "the best" at it. It was probably done to save time/money

That sounds like it tracks. Go on HKMDB and look at Chan or Eddie Wang in the 70s, pick a year, and imagine you had to compose original scores for all those movies. Not everyone can be Morricone. KPM, DeWolfe & Bruton existed for a reason...

7 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

That's so strange that Frankie Chan used so much others' music. I also watched several movies for which he composed his own themes, that weren't bad at all, so, was he ordered to do borrow musics , or was it laziness, that is the question

It wouldn't surprise me if directors told composers they wanted music from x movie back then. This is speculation ofc, but I feel like some directors seemed to favor certain music. Like a little more spaghetti western music than other directors maybe, a little more John Barry, etc. Some directors will tell a composer they want a scene to be scored to sound like a pre-existing song or piece, so when you can just use the actual piece why not do it?

Edited May 1, 2023 by BornToDefense

[shukocarl1441996347]

Blood Money (1974), Lo Lieh's foray into the Almerian Wild West with the legend that was Lee Van Cleef.

They made a great team!- in a fun film.

[makone]

On 5/1/2023 at 8:13 PM, shukocarl1441996347 said:

Blood Money (1974), Lo Lieh's foray into the Almerian Wild West with the legend that was Lee Van Cleef.

They made a great team!- in a fun film.

Loved this when I was a kid. The main story arch has been used at least three times. Dick Emery made a film ooh you are awful, Michael Hui  made Mad Mission and this.

 

[saltysam]

Furious Slaughter

Jimmy Wang Yu and his usual crew rip up everything in this early 70's basher with a climax that lives up  to it's title. The new german Blu looks pretty good for a rare film of this type, and the more Wang Yu in HD the better.

Edited May 4, 2023 by saltysam

[ShawAngela]

47 minutes ago, saltysam said:

Furious Slaughter

Jimmy Wang Yu and his usual crew rip up everything in this early 70's basher with a climax that lives up  to it's title. The new german Blu looks pretty good for a rare film of this type, and the more Wang Yu in HD the better.

It's one of my favorite movies of his. 

[Killer Meteor]

The Invincible Iron Palm (1971)

So I was re-listening to the late, great Linn Haynes' commentary on HEROES TWO (God, has it been 15 years?) and he reccomended this one from director Chu Mu (who also plays an unlucky debtor).

It's an interesting early basher, borrowing a fair bit from THE CHINESE BOXER in that the baddies are shameless lone sharks, and the townsfolk way too prone to suicide to solve their problems. Compared to his notoriorously clunky Da Di films with Jackie Chan, Chu's direction is pretty decent here, though the fight scenes rely too heavily on editing and other tricks to try and make Charlie Chin look like he's a kung fu master.

And it's not every kung fu movie where the heroes have to soak their hands in cow urine!

Reccomended

7/10

[ironfistedmonk]

Snake in the Eagles Shadow 2, or the title I prefer, Snaky Knight Fights Against Mantis

Bit meh on this one, the cast is great with 2 main villains in Chen Sing and Lung Fei and the Don Wong Tao doing superman punches and shit, but I hope whoever did the frame cutting during the fight scenes is burning in hell with a pineapple shoved up real far, I despise that just as much as excessive under cranking, completely ruins fight scenes for me

[ShawAngela]

Thunderbolt

When I first watched this movie in 2010, I remember that I had been a little bit disappointed because Angela Mao wasn't omnipresent in it.

I watched it again yesterday and I realized how of a good movie it was, full of fights and twists ! I loved it !

I spotted some familiar faces that I didn't know at that time, such as Chan Lau, Cliff Lok (looking at his filmography and how often I spotted him in their movies, I realized that he began his carrier in Shaws' movies !), Eddie Ko Hung in a dual role, Pai Piao and Yang Wei, and surely a lot of other ones that I didn't noticed.

It was pleasant to see James Tien in a leading role. The other ones I remember are in Shaolin Plot, The chase and a movie with Jackie Chan, and of course The big boss, but it seems to me that he didn't have much opportunities to be the main lead in a movie, or am I mistaken ?

And of course, I enjoyed a lot seeing Angela Mao in the movie, showing her skills and emotions too.

Seeing her cry when James Tien is disfigured and letting him know her feelings towards him made me realized that she barely played heroines in love. The only movies that come to my mind showing her feelings towards a man are Thunderbolt, Revenge of Kung fu Mama, and Bandits, prostitutes and silver, and maybe Angry river. Do I miss some ?

[ShawAngela]

Just now, ShawAngela said:

Thunderbolt

When I first watched this movie in 2010, I remember that I had been a little bit disappointed because Angela Mao wasn't omnipresent in it.

I watched it again yesterday and I realized how of a good movie it was, full of fights and twists ! I loved it !

I spotted some familiar faces that I didn't know at that time, such as Chan Lau, Cliff Lok (looking at his filmography and how often I spotted him in their movies, I realized that he began his carrier in Shaws' movies !), Eddie Ko Hung in a dual role, Pai Piao and Yang Wei, and surely a lot of other ones that I didn't noticed.

It was pleasant to see James Tien in a leading role. The other ones I remember are in Shaolin Plot, The chase and a movie with Jackie Chan, and of course The big boss, but it seems to me that he didn't have much opportunities to be the main lead in a movie, or am I mistaken ?

And of course, I enjoyed a lot seeing Angela Mao in the movie, showing her skills and emotions too.

Seeing her cry when James Tien is disfigured and letting him know her feelings towards him made me realized that she barely played heroines in love. The only movies that come to my mind showing her feelings towards a man are Thunderbolt, Revenge of Kung fu Mama, and Bandits, prostitutes and silver, and maybe Angry river. Do I miss some ?

Does anyone know if this movie is cut ? I felt that there might be cuts at least twice in it.

If there is another Angela's boxset, I would love that this movie is included in it !

[ShawAngela]

4 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

Does anyone know if this movie is cut ? I felt that there might be cuts at least twice in it.

If there is another Angela's boxset, I would love that this movie is included in it !

I forgot to mention that I was surprised to discover that Chen Kuan Tai was the fights choreographer of Thunderbolt. He did a very good job !

[kuenfist]

9 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

Does anyone know if this movie is cut ? I felt that there might be cuts at least twice in it.

If there is another Angela's boxset, I would love that this movie is included in it !

Yes it is cut a bit cause of the censorship of the time in HK. Don't know if there is a uncut version. I have the Joy Sales VCD and DVD and a friend of mine has the japanese King Records DVD that has the same runtime about 83 Minutes.

[BornToDefense]

Looked this movie up and saw a HKFA citation saying it was finished in 71 and held back til' 73, (which if true would make sense given that Chen Kuan-Tai was doing choreography & stunt work before starring in Boxer From Shantung). I wonder if that could be related in any way to the cuts? Maybe got held back for a reason?

[ShawAngela]

24 minutes ago, kuenfist said:

Yes it is cut a bit cause of the censorship of the time in HK. Don't know if there is a uncut version. I have the Joy Sales VCD and DVD and a friend of mine has the japanese King Records DVD that has the same runtime about 83 Minutes.

That's too bad ! I have the Joysales DVD too.

[saltysam]

Bruce Li's Magnum Fist

Terrible effort involving invading japanese forces ,and Bruce Polly Shang fighting them off. Really poor, the version i watched was poor quality but it was at least in widescreen.

The Magnificent

Carter & Casanova Wong up against bad baddie Chen Sing. Pretty decent effort.

[Ronin]

Joseph Kuo's King of Kings (1969). Perfect example of a very simple story executed flawlessly. Fantastic swordplay and excellent pacing - this film was never boring. Kuo is a treasure. I want this and all the other awesome Taiwanese swordplay films remastered ASAP!

[Super Ninja]

1 hour ago, Ronin said:

Joseph Kuo's King of Kings (1969). Perfect example of a very simple story executed flawlessly. Fantastic swordplay and excellent pacing - this film was never boring. Kuo is a treasure. I want this and all the other awesome Taiwanese swordplay films remastered ASAP!

One of Kuo's best and perhaps my fave of his after 7 Grandmasters. Choreo is ahead of its time. Fantastic stuff.

[shukocarl1441996347]

Seven Samurai 1954

[sadisgate]

Deadly Strike (1978)

Bruce Li is a police captain who agrees to pardon a group of prisoners if they help him defeat a bandit leader. Kind of a Kung Fu Dirty Dozen. The fights are fairly standard though Li himself gets some good ones. The structure is kinda basic, with the hero having a single goal and just having to keep stopping to fight more villains. One of Li's better films imo.

The Brave Lion (1974)

Two Japs are put in charge of a work camp in China and decide the best way to meet a deadline is to treat all the workers like slaves. The sound and picture quality wern't great on this one. The first half is mostly the asshole foreman starting fights. I actually kinda laughed when he is killed and they all mourn him like he hadn't spent the better part of the film acting like a dick and dishing out fists. The final fight was lengthy and enjoyable at least. Not great overall.

[saltysam]

Showdown At The Equator

Nora Miao and her dad own a restaurant, which gets trashed by local gangsters. While cleaning up a crazily drunk Larry Lee stumbles in, they sit him down, give him a glass of water and he immediately sobers up. He's looking for work and is also an expert fighter who starts whupping ass on these gangsters,who's boss is Lo Lieh. Meanwhile undercover cop Bruce Liang is snooping around. Highlights include Nora wielding nunchakus while fighting off baddies and smoothie Larry Lee trying to charm the pants of Nora. The print i watched was crap, semi wide but terrible picture with burnt in arabic subs.