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

[Killer Meteor]

2 hours ago, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

DAGGERS 8 - I don't know why I saw this only now, definitely one to rewatch. Got really mad about Lily Li's demise, so I was not sorry at all when Wilson Tong killed Meng Yuen Man's grandfather. Didn't get who made the contract on him though. Another super abrupt ending. We can just hope that MYM goes back to the girl.

I think it was Meng who did that.

[ShawAngela]

8 hours ago, Killer Meteor said:

I think it was Meng who did that.

A Killing Contract on his own head ? That would be strange.

[Killer Meteor]

1 hour ago, ShawAngela said:

A Killing Contract on his own head ? That would be strange.

On his grandfather.

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

1 hour ago, Killer Meteor said:

On his grandfather.

He seemed to be sorry about his death though. So probably he made a contract on the person who made the contracts on his masters without knowing that it had been his grandfather. Some how, it would all make sense then. Or would it 

[Big Gator]

Fun one,,,,,,,

[ShawAngela]

3 hours ago, Killer Meteor said:

On his grandfather.

Sorry, I misunderstood your answer !!

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

EIGHT DIAGRAM CUDGEL - good movie with nice action, the (not very frequent) special fx were unnecessary and rather lousy. Another take on the Yang Family Fifth Brother's story. Bruce Leung a bit awkward in dramatic scenes. Chiang Tao in his usual happy-to-be-bad role, and you know who the traitor will be when you notice Chan Dik Hak. All in all very watchable.

[ShawAngela]

I just finished to watch Hard Man In Danger 1973.

Superb non stop action movie, with A LOT of hand to hand and kicks fights.

Miao Tian and Ma Chin Ku as villains, as usual.

Sun Yueh playing a cop, for a change, but he has a very minor role.

I'm not sure, but it seems to me that I recognized Fung Hark On among the villains, but it was in a glimpse, and he is not credited in the cast.

[ShawAngela]

I also watched Killer elephants 1976 this evening.

Well... First, the English dubbing is awful, full of bad accent and screams when people panic while the elephants attack.

I didn't like it at all, because there was a lot of dialogues that escaped to me due to the above comments, and the plot wasn't very clear to me.

It was a waste of time for me.

I have the mediabook for sale, with a bonus horror movie Terror vs Humans, or something like that. I can sell it to those who are interested in it.

[Killer Meteor]

SHAOLIN VS TAI CHI (1983)

Rather uninspired cash-in on the Jet Li Shaolin Temple (was it mandatory for all such films to have a scene where a girl feeds meat to Shaolin monks?) with the only thing of interest being a good villian turn from Eagle Han Ying

3/10

[Killer Meteor]

On 6/14/2023 at 5:48 PM, sadisgate said:

Eagle Shadow Fist (1973)

Most notable for featuring a young Jackie Chan. Even though he's only in a supporting role he makes the best of it and you can see the makings of a star. The plot is the same ol Japanese are all bastards routine, with pretty much nothing that hasn't been done in better films. The final fight kinda drags, with the big bad laying smackdown after smackdown on the hero until he just inecplicably gouges his eyes out. Recommended only for big Chan fans.

 

Re-watched this. It's a rather odd film, with Wong Ching being a really unlikeable lead, Jackie practically invisible, way too much of the whiny school teacher preaching pacificism, and rather tedious fights. The music is rather weird - a shrieky orchestral track that was in a few Andy Milligan films gets overused but kudos to the use of The Moody Blues for the finale!

I also noticeed Chiang Nan being dubbed here by Geoffrey Weeks from Enter the Dragon.

[saltysam]

I watched the old UK DVD of Thundering Mantis for the first time in years. The quality is abysmal, is it still the only version available?

[ShawAngela]

I rewatched The hot, the cool, the vicious 1976.

I think that it must be the third or fourth time I watch it, and I still enjoy it as if it was the first time.

And there is a Tan Tao Liang's interview on the dvd, which is good, but too short.

[ShawAngela]

I also watched Slaughter in San Francisco 1974 for the first time this evening, Asia Line release.

I was a little bit disappointed by the quality print, since the night scene are unwatchable, for instance the one where Wong Tao discovers that his superior is a corrupted officer. The fight is almost unwatchable, and the original trailer shown on the disc is even cleaerr than the movie itself !

Well, I LOVED it ! Hkmdb reviewers aren't very tender with this movie, but I loved it. I wonder if Golden Harvest intended to make Wong Tao a "new Bruce Lee" since, at least in the English language version, they asked him to scream at each fight, though in his Chinese martial arts movies he doesn't even make a sound, or a very low one, but here, he screams ala Bruce Lee !

I was also disappointed that the original Roman Tam's song at the beginning credits isn't even here and that it's just the music that can be heard....

[kuenfist]

1 hour ago, ShawAngela said:

I also watched Slaughter in San Francisco 1974 for the first time this evening, Asia Line release.

I was a little bit disappointed by the quality print, since the night scene are unwatchable, for instance the one where Wong Tao discovers that his superior is a corrupted officer. The fight is almost unwatchable, and the original trailer shown on the disc is even cleaerr than the movie itself !

Well, I LOVED it ! Hkmdb reviewers aren't very tender with this movie, but I loved it. I wonder if Golden Harvest intended to make Wong Tao a "new Bruce Lee" since, at least in the English language version, they asked him to scream at each fight, though in his Chinese martial arts movies he doesn't even make a sound, or a very low one, but here, he screams ala Bruce Lee !

I was also disappointed that the original Roman Tam's song at the beginning credits isn't even here and that it's just the music that can be heard....

Better version is the uncut chinese version VCD from Joy Sales in very good quality.  Runtime is 101 minutes (PAL)  and so 18 minutes longer than every export version of the movie. It is 2.35:1 widescreen. It is a total different movie and brings the relationship between Wong Tao and his police partner - friend more in foreground. Highly recommended to watch this version.

[kuenfist]

Watched today Killer in The Dark (HK/Thailand 1973). The german FilmArt DVD is not english friendly and has only the german dub. But picture quality is ok ( comes from the last Beta Cam Master in germany ) and it is 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and has a runtime 96 minutes - think it is uncut. The movie itself is a hybrid between a Giallo / Sexploitaion / Fu thriller. There is Hon Kwok Choi as a young stretcher who looks after girls throw the window till he get invited to have sex with one of the girls he watch. There is Bolo as a crazy gardener who fights with the police with a ax. There are many near explicit softcore scenes. And we have a lot of scenes with people dancing in fancy 70's clothing in nightclubs. For the plot a woman whose husband dies in a planecrash get killed by a guy with a razor wearing black leather gloves ( here we have the giallo style scenes). The police is after the killer and the story jumps from suspect to suspect. As in italian giallos there is a friend of the victim who is investigate by himself and suspect by the police too. The fu action is more the usual Basher - streetfight style of the period and the fights are very small. If you are a connoisseur of the giallo genre you can see the many scenes wich where copied from italian movies - most of Sergio Martino and Dario Argento. The killings are bloodless most of the time but you hear the screams of the victims. All in all a very mixed up movie but if you like giallos and cheap 70's police fu thrillers it is nice to see a early HK interpretation of the genre.

[ShawAngela]

6 hours ago, kuenfist said:

Better version is the uncut chinese version VCD from Joy Sales in very good quality.  Runtime is 101 minutes (PAL)  and so 18 minutes longer than every export version of the movie. It is 2.35:1 widescreen. It is a total different movie and brings the relationship between Wong Tao and his police partner - friend more in foreground. Highly recommended to watch this version.

Fortunately, I kept my vcd. I'll try to find a while to watch it.

What's the use to Asialine to release a cut movie with a lesser quality print as an upgrade ?? I wonder...

Thanks for the precision  !

[saltysam]

i thought the Asia line DVD of Slaughter was ok. It was longer than the UK release at least.

[ShawAngela]

 Two days ago, I finally watched Story in Temple Red Lily 1976.

First, despite the title, the English language talks about the Red Lotus Temple, not the Red Lily Temple...

Second, though there is Chia Ling in the movie, I was disappointed with it, mainly due to the plot, that looked like it was several scenes from several movies put together.

Tan Tao Liang is in it, but... he only appears after a loooong while, has a mini fight, and then disappears !

Most of the movie talks about the protection of an Emperor (or a Prince) and his escort is lead by Kao Yuan. After several traps, it appears that Kao Yuan reminds alone (the prince is abducted by the enemies) and he tries to commit suicide, but is saved by a beggar who tells him to go to another town in order to save the prince, and then... Kao Yuan disappears from the movie !

There is an eagle that flies with a plane sound or a lift sound !

There are a lot of fights, Chia Ling wears red clothes (with a black cape) that reminded me of Ling Po wearing her red clothes in Temple of the Red Lotus, which made me think that maybe the plots were related.

There are a brother and a sister who are the villains' children (Yi Yuan, for a change) who fight a lot, and then... disappear form the screen, only to reappear at the very end of the movie...

All in all, it's worth watching for the fights, but not for the plot...

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

RAIDERS OF THE SHAOLIN TEMPLE - I was likewise fascinated and amused by the "bronze" horses. Kinda unsatisfying that Pay Ying's characters gets away with all this evil scheming in the end but oh well.

Someone at Video Asia hit an unvalid key

[DrNgor]

Swordsman with an Umbrella (Taiwan, 1970: Shih Hung, Chen Kan-Chuan) - Okay, that was pretty darn bad. The editing is awful: lots of long takes that go long as to become mind-numbingly boring and the "cool wuxia tricks" that rely on quick cuts are cut several seconds too late. The fights are often shot too widely to make it interesting. The dubbing is awful, even by my low standards. And lots of continuity flubs too: What happens to the swordswoman in pink at the end? What happens to the female swordswoman who enticed a Tiger Club guard into sneaking away for sex (as a ruse)? Did she really just want the [dong] at that moment? Avoid.

[kuenfist]

Watched this week the new 4K Disc from Enter the Dragon. Warner did a good job even they put the directors cut and the cinema version separately on the disc. Don't know why they did it not encode the movie with seamless branching. Now the 4K files on the disc have a bitrate like a movie on Bluray. But the colors - the sharpness are much better as on BluRay before. Maybe with a higher bitrate more filmgrain would be visible. Despite it this is the best picturequality Enter the Dragon looks ever in the home cinema.

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

KUNG FU GENIUS - the "comedy" is especially cringeworthy but the quality and amount of action more than compensates. I could watch Wilson Tong with fan for hours. I saw the other guy (not Hsiao Ho) from the Spiritial School only made three movies, is anything known about him? Allen Eu/ Yu Ya Lun/ Yu Ah Leun.

[saltysam]

The Postman Fights Back

Didn't get on with this one years ago,took a chance on the new 88 Blu to give it another go-mistake,still didn't like it. Beardy doesn't fight enough though i have to give props to Chow Yun Fat for handling his fight scenes well. To ebay we shall go,i need to stop diving in on things i'm not sure about lol

[Jizzmaster Jerry]

On 8/19/2023 at 1:26 PM, DrNgor said:

Swordsman with an Umbrella (Taiwan, 1970: Shih Hung, Chen Kan-Chuan) - Okay, that was pretty darn bad. The editing is awful: lots of long takes that go long as to become mind-numbingly boring and the "cool wuxia tricks" that rely on quick cuts are cut several seconds too late. The fights are often shot too widely to make it interesting. The dubbing is awful, even by my low standards. And lots of continuity flubs too: What happens to the swordswoman in pink at the end? What happens to the female swordswoman who enticed a Tiger Club guard into sneaking away for sex (as a ruse)? Did she really just want the [dong] at that moment? Avoid.

Makes me want to watch it again.  Haven’t seen it in awhile.  It’s fun all the way through, but then the finale takes it to another level.  The final fight is a legendary scene in bad movie making.  It gave me one of the biggest laughing fits I’ve ever had when the actors move real slow to try and give the impression that it’s slow motion.  

Edited September 2, 2023 by Jizzmaster Jerry