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

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

SEVEN TO ONE - first time I see Shang Kuan Ling Feng in a contempo movie and I enjoyed about 2 thirds of it a lot, pity the scene with Yasuaki Kurata performing as singer was not longer it had incredible 70s vibes. The overlong and partly ugly final fight including silly car chase scene nearly destroyed it. Focus song Hocus Pocus made a surprise visit.

[ChillyChong]

Was so tempted to watch mandarin cut but as it has been really long time since saw100min version refreshed memory with it.excellent movie, my fav lee after ETD. Few days then go for MC

[PandaPawPaw]

28 minutes ago, ChillyChong said:

Was so tempted to watch mandarin cut but as it has been really long time since saw100min version refreshed memory with it.excellent movie, my fav lee after ETD. Few days then go for MC

After seeing the MC, I can't go back to the regular version.

[SDJ]

To Kill With Intrigue
It's like a wuxia version of Misery. That guy with a mace the size of a couch cracked me up.

The fight scenes aren't bad.

I don't know what Lo Wei was on in the late 70s, but all his movies with Jackie around this timeframe are pretty kooky. They're remembered as "those bad movies when Jackie was laboring under an unfortunate contact" but maybe it would be more fair to remember them as the fun weird B movies they are. 

1 hour and 47 minutes is a bit long for what this is, though.

Edited November 26, 2023 by SDJ

[DrNgor]

On 8/12/2020 at 2:17 PM, Drunken Monk said:

Green Dragon Inn (1977) - Something tells me I should have liked this one. The concept was really cool and simple and some of the action (mostly the empty handed stuff) was pretty good. But I think I was distracted and I was watching a horrible full screen print that feels like it had massive sections of picture cut off on either side.

With all that said, it was fine. Nothing to scream from the rooftops about and certainly not one I'll revisit but an average watch.

And this weekend I learned that Green Dragon Inn is basically a remake of Polly Kuan's own A Girl Fighter (1972).

[ShawAngela]

8 hours ago, DrNgor said:

And this weekend I learned that Green Dragon Inn is basically a remake of Polly Kuan's own A Girl Fighter (1972).

Really ? I didn't notice that when I watched it, I have to revisit both movies, then !

 

[DrNgor]

On 11/27/2023 at 8:44 AM, ShawAngela said:

Really ? I didn't notice that when I watched it, I have to revisit both movies, then !

Yeah, the main difference is that Polly plays the righteous Marshall in A Lady Fighter and the vengeful niece in Green Dragon Inn. Roc Tien plays the vengeful nephew in A Lady Fighter and Yueh Hua plays the righteous Marshall in Green Dragon Inn. So it's a bit of role swap for Polly.

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

A WILY MATCH - surely not a must see, albeit some moments were genuinely funny, like parodying animal styles. Then again, when they used that again in the overlong horribly repetitive final fight it became super annoying. First old school action movie where I heard bound feet mentioned, at least in the dub (hero Jimmy Lee is shook bc his grandma had bound feet and suffered horribly but Cheng Fu Hung fancies them). As usually I was delighted to see Wu Ma.

Edited November 30, 2023 by Chu Liu Hsiang

[ChillyChong]

Solid kung fu action with kao fei, lily li, david chiang and "bastard swordsman" norman chu. End fight could have been longer with about 6-7 mins felt it was over too soon.top movie from director of Aces go places

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

THE GALLANT - 3 episodes set in different areas/ settings showcasing Wang Yu, definitely not bad. The last episode also has Chen Hung Lieh who is brilliantly abominable as usual. I watched the horrible videoasia version but at least it has original sound. 

[sym8]

Daggers 8-Fantastic acrobatic choreography(Wilson Tong)and a great cast(Wilson Tong,Meng Yuen Man,Lily Li and Alan Chu).The usual Kung fu movie formula that we’ve all seen many times before but that doesn’t stop this from being a blast from start to finish,and let’s face it we’d all love to see this kind off stuff made today.👍👍👍👍

[SDJ]

Crane Fighter

Some especially excruciating comedy in this one. Decent action. Not the best thing in the multi pack I saw it on, but not a waste of time. C+

The Victim
Been a while since I've seen this one. I've always wrestled with my feelings on it. The choreography is so intricate and well thought out (especially for an indie) yet it's maybe overly "to the beat"--lots of "both dudes doing random shapes at the exact same time, pause, repeat the process," type fights, and  very sped up to distract us from the lack of fluidity. I guess I respect it more than I enjoy it.
 

[Graeme Of Death]

One Armed Boxer on blu ray from Eureka. First time seeing this one. Bit of a strange film in terms of pacing. The first half hour or so Jimmy Wang Yu is hardly in it. Then it introduces all the different fighters twice. Jimmy then gets his arm chopped off but rather than move on to the next scene, it just keeps going with all the other members of the school taking on the bad guys. 

After that it's as if they realised we're nearly an hour through the film and that's Jimmy just lost his arm, we don't have time for this. So rather than film scenes showing his recovery, they just show it through still images.

The fight at the end is nothing special. Other weird highlights are the Japanese fighter that looks like a walrus and an indian "yoga" martial artist.

It does have a quality funk soundtrack though.

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

EIGHT HUNDRED HEROES - utterly patriotic but that's to be expected and probably necessary for a war movie based on a true story, in this case the defense of the Shanghai Sihang Warehouse against Japanese invaders in 1937. Young Brigitte Lin plays real life heroine Yang Hui Min. Hsu Feng plays the wife of resistance leader Ko Chun Hsiung and is thus reduced to the patriotic wife role.

[Whoishe]

On 11/27/2023 at 3:55 AM, DrNgor said:

And this weekend I learned that Green Dragon Inn is basically a remake of Polly Kuan's own A Girl Fighter (1972).

Very interesting, especially since I recently have been watching a little bit of two TV Series of "Dragon Inn", it will add nicely to the mix.

[Whoishe]

The Little Black Box (it's from 1986, but seems to me to still fit here)

Standard story (fighting over useless item), standard twist and betrayals and okay action. Too often way too dark though.

So why am I posting about it? Because leading actress Li Xiaoyan (https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml?id=21656&display_set=eng) is sleeveless for the majority of the movie. I find it extremely rare when talking about leading actresses in old-style Kung Fu flicks. Who knows, maybe I should open a new thread about it?

Her running in a sleeveless costume has a good reason, as she has above-average muscularity (at least for female Asian standards, at least in that era), I guess she did a lot of physical work in acrobatics/Chinese opera/gymnastics/some mix of it. It was her only movie listed at HKMDB (https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml?id=21656&display_set=eng)

Actresses fitting "One movie and out" category always make me wonder - was she a late replacement for someone else? Didn't she like it after trying? Directors/producers weren't happy with her? 

Edited December 31, 2023 by Whoishe

[SDJ]

On 12/24/2023 at 4:29 AM, Graeme Of Death said:

One Armed Boxer on blu ray from Eureka. First time seeing this one. Bit of a strange film in terms of pacing. The first half hour or so Jimmy Wang Yu is hardly in it. Then it introduces all the different fighters twice. Jimmy then gets his arm chopped off but rather than move on to the next scene, it just keeps going with all the other members of the school taking on the bad guys. 

After that it's as if they realised we're nearly an hour through the film and that's Jimmy just lost his arm, we don't have time for this. So rather than film scenes showing his recovery, they just show it through still images.

The fight at the end is nothing special. Other weird highlights are the Japanese fighter that looks like a walrus and an indian "yoga" martial artist.

It does have a quality funk soundtrack though.

It's technically flawed as a "film," but then again, so is basically every 70s kung fu flick. While the choreography isn't really amazing, the fight scenes do have a certain raw power to them that I appreciate. Some of the blows feel pretty real. Also, that part at the end where Wang Yu punches a lama's finger into his own hand (or punches the finger off--it's hard to tell which). owch!

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

MYSTERIOUS FOOTWORKS OF KUNG FU -  l always wanted to watch this bc of the intriguing title, and it entertained me well, even in the cut and dub Cargo version.

[ShawAngela]

2 hours ago, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

MYSTERIOUS FOOTWORKS OF KUNG FU -  l always wanted to watch this bc of the intriguing title, and it entertained me well, even in the cut and dub Cargo version.

There is a German dvd of this ? Cold you show the cover, please ? Thanks!

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

18 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

There is a German dvd of this ? Cold you show the cover, please ? Thanks!

This one. It has german and english dub.

 

[ShawAngela]

4 minutes ago, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

This one. It has german and english dub.

 

Oh, yes, I have it, but I was convinced that this cover was for Goose Boxer! 😂🤣😂🤣

[pachito23]

I watched the German DVD of Beach of the War Gods (1973) while waiting for my new Blu Ray.

I have the following edition: Eyecatcher Movies (große Hartbox) [LE 500]

 

 

[ChillyChong]

Top5 jackie. With better end fight would be in top3, but all around terrific movie.yuen biao and lily li are first class performers in young master.

[ChillyChong]

Massacre survivor.

I rarely watch movies from tube but as this likely never gets released did do it. Quite beaten up print but when watch from mobile it looks ok unlike from bigger screen.

Great fights ans Shih Szu gets lot more action to do than did in Shaw movies. Particularly scenes she trains crane fist in top of logs are superb. Her character is quite annoy in first 30 mins tho on moments her father and later First Brother tell her to escape she just sticks around and keeps shouting. Rest of cast is decent too with few familiar faces around.

[saltysam]

The Comet Strikes

There's a haunted mansion in a local village and anyone who enters dies. Not all is what it seems though.Early Golden Harvest effort featuring a host of familiar faces (Nora Miao, Tony Liu,Lee Quin, Stanley Fung,Lo Wei,Cliff Lok,Eddie Ko etc) plenty of action and if you ever wanted to see Mr Han from ETD face off against the Inspector from FOF then here's your chance. I love the typos in the credits ("Remond Chow")