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

[ShawAngela]

30 minutes ago, saltysam said:

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")

This is a great Nora Miao's movie! Did you also watched The hurricane, The blade spares none and The eight invincibles? She did great in all those movies. I have the feeling that she was underused at Shaws, while Golden Harvest let her shine in her martial arts movies. That's just too bad that she didn't make more martial arts movies. Fortunately, she also played in martial arts TV series, which compensate...

[saltysam]

I've seen Blade Spares None and Eight Invincibles, need to see The Hurricane.

[ShawAngela]

I watched Back Street 1973 this evening. I had this movie since years in my boxes and had never found a while to watch it.

It's a nice little movie, which could be called the "Chinese" West Side Story, since the two movies share a very similar plot.

Chen Hui Min looks so young there!

It's the first time that I see Yi Lui playing a gang boss and having à short fight!

There are some good fights, and some very well known figures, here : Lee Man Tai, Chan Lau, Chen Hui Min, and the heroes Jenny Hu and Alan Tang.

Each time they appear together on the screen, there is a beautiful musical theme that can be heard, and there is a very nice song sung by Roman Tam at the beginning of the movie.

Edited January 14 by ShawAngela

[sadisgate]

Re-watched The Big Boss (1971) after years. Definetly Bruces messiest film (not including Game Of Death) but the look and feel of the movie is enough for me. Even though he's pretty passive for the first half Bruce still has a great screen presence here. The fights are solid but personally I dont think theres anything too amazing here. Still it was a game changer.

[ShawAngela]

I just watched the Versatil release of Dragon inn 1967.

Each time I watch this movie, I enjoy it a lot, even if the fights aren't as quick and powerful as in the Shaws' or some other martial arts movies.

Looking at the cast at hkmdb, I discovered that Xu Feng was in it too! As well as Tien Peng!

Honestly, I didn't spot Tien Peng at all, and if I hadn't see the picture of Xu Feng in the gallery, I wouldn't have spotted her either!

[DrNgor]

Cosa Nostra Asia (The Philippines, 1974: Bobby A. Suarez) - Chris Mitchum (son of Robert) plays some guy who goes to Hong Kong and tries to pit different drug gangs against each other. Those would include Cosa Nostra Asia, led by kung fu teacher Dick Chan (Ting Hon, who mainly played bandits, soldiers, guards and Japanese fighters in HK); the Chicago Mob, led by Don Claudio; and a Chinese gangster (Wang Shi-Li, who wrote the film). The Chicago Mob also has two rival factions, one led by Angellini (Michael Kaye) and the other by Tony Dee (Filipino actor Tony Ferrer). There are a lot of fight scenes in this film, although range in quality from "laughable" (like Mitchum and Ferrer dueling with swords and shields) to "not bad." Chris Mitchum is often pretty stiff when he's trying to look like a martial artist; he feels more natural when he's going for something a bit more brawler-like. Ting Hon has more to do than in most of his other roles. The story doesn't make a whole lot of sense for most of the movie, only coming together at the end.

Watch for the kung fu school fight, where Mitchum has to fight off a bunch of students, followed by some girls armed with nunchaku, and is finally set upon by two guys doing a Lion Dance, which is a new one on me.

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

THE FATE OF LEE KHAN - I might like it more than DRAGON GATE INN. Have to rewatch that one too to decide.

[ShawAngela]

1 hour ago, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

THE FATE OF LEE KHAN - I might like it more than DRAGON GATE INN. Have to rewatch that one too to decide.

I love both, these are my favorite King Hu's movies.

[DrNgor]

Lightning of Bruce Lee (Taiwan, 1973: Chung Gwok-Hang) - Despite the title--which is the original English title and not what the US distributors tacked on later--this is not an actual Brucesploitation film, but just a generic basher. The movie begins with two men (Lei Jun, who worked a lot with Jimmy Wang Yu, and Chin Kang, of The Snake Girl Drops In) mourning the death of their master. Chin Kang is a bit more ambitious and wants money and fame, much to the chagrin of his senior martial brother. The two scuffle and Chin makes a break for it. Some time later, Lei Jun arrives in a town to visit his girlfriend, Chin Chin (Chiang fan), whose father has recently died. The local loan shark/pimp (Sun Yueh, of The Pedicab Driver) is trying to force Chin Chin into prostitution to pay off a loan for her father's medical bills. The pimp in turn works for a crime boss, played by Duel with Samurai's Yu Sung-Chao. We later learn that Chin Kang is also working for him. Lei Jun steals some opium from some other thugs to pay off Chin Chin's loan, but the bad guys won't let him off that easily...

The fighting is pretty much constant, especially in the last 25 minutes or so. Lei Jun looks like he has training, but his skills are limited and he looks soft boned performing his moves. He throws up his hands whenever he kicks, making him look like he's going to fall over. Much better is Chin Kang as his brother, who packs a bit more power in his punches and kicks. The final fight between the two men and Yu Sung-Chao goes on for a very long time, for people who like endless basher movie finales. The best fighter in the cast is Pan Chang-Ming, who plays Sun Yueh's main enforcer. Pan Chang-Ming is mainly known as a C-list fight choreographer, working on lesser Angela Mao films like Duel with the Devils and Proud Horse in Flying Sand. His kicks trump those of all the other cast members and his punches are a lot crisper, too. Too bad he wasn't the main villain.

[Killer Meteor]

Amazon Prime has an HD transfer of one of my nostaglic faves, EXIT THE DRAGON, ENTER THE TIGER. Unlike the DVD, it doesn't have the BBFC cuts but there is a bit missing due to print dammage. The film still entertains a lot as a cultural time-capsule and this is a rare example of an Americanisation improving on the original by putting some awesome stock music over the fight scenes, which helps cover up their repetetive sound effects.

Also, this is the first time I noticed the US dubbers didn't bother to re-dub everyone - the fat cop played by Ko Hsiao-pao retains the voice of his HK English dubber, and randomly in the final fight Bruce Li and Chang Yi revert to be being dubbed by Chris Hilton and that weird John Fiedler sound-alike.

[saltysam]

11 hours ago, Killer Meteor said:

Amazon Prime has an HD transfer of one of my nostaglic faves, EXIT THE DRAGON, ENTER THE TIGER. Unlike the DVD, it doesn't have the BBFC cuts but there is a bit missing due to print dammage. The film still entertains a lot as a cultural time-capsule and this is a rare example of an Americanisation improving on the original by putting some awesome stock music over the fight scenes, which helps cover up their repetetive sound effects.

Also, this is the first time I noticed the US dubbers didn't bother to re-dub everyone - the fat cop played by Ko Hsiao-pao retains the voice of his HK English dubber, and randomly in the final fight Bruce Li and Chang Yi revert to be being dubbed by Chris Hilton and that weird John Fiedler sound-alike.

i've got that HD print.Wasn't the blowtorch scene cut or am i confusing it with another Bruce Li movie?

[Yihetuan]

1 hour ago, saltysam said:

i've got that HD print.Wasn't the blowtorch scene cut or am i confusing it with another Bruce Li movie?

I don't remember much about that movie but I remember Lung Fei or his henchman torture Ho Chung-tao's girl by pulling out her nails or breaking her fingers? The only fight I enjoyed was when Bruce Li fights that lady in the gym wearing the GoD yellow tracksuit. I don't think I've ever seen that actress in anything else? It was pretty lackluster overall. Might have to watch it again to refresh my memory.

[Killer Meteor]

21 hours ago, saltysam said:

i've got that HD print.Wasn't the blowtorch scene cut or am i confusing it with another Bruce Li movie?

There is a blowtorch scene in the movie, but I can't remember if it was on that print.

[saltysam]

It was on the UK dvd I think,but it's cut in the HD print

[sym8]

Enter the fat dragon-Sammo fest of late,great film with great action but although he mimics Bruce it’s his traditional fight with Leung Kar Yan that I enjoy the most.

 

Two toothless tigers- not his best,too much goofing around and the undercranking at times is extreme.

[Killer Meteor]

On 1/25/2024 at 9:16 PM, saltysam said:

i've got that HD print.Wasn't the blowtorch scene cut or am i confusing it with another Bruce Li movie?

Yeah, the blowtorch scene is missing, likely due to dammage. Oddly it appears to be a British print as it begins with the Inter-Ocean logo (the print used for the videos began with the US distributor logo from Dimension). The censors of the British print seem to have permitted some shots of Li posing with nunchaku in the opening scene where "Bruce Lee" is filming which were removed from the video print and the dialogue from that shot moved to another shot. The nunchucks are mostly missing from the title sequence via freeze-framing.

 

Seems the nunchaku policies of the BBFC got stricter between 1977 (when the film was classified for cinemas) and 1990, when it was classified for video.

 

Overall the Amazon print appears to be missing 5min compared to the cinema runtime.

[saltysam]

Yep, could do with someone with the skills doing a custom.

[DrNgor]

Chinese Kung Fu and Acupuncture (Taiwan, 1973: Sun Sheng-Yuen) - Taiwanese basher told as a story about the greatness of acupuncture from a modern-day practitioner to a gwailo reporter. A bunch of Japanese priates led by a karate expert named Haishan (Lan Yun, of Heroine Susan and Enter the Panther) show up at a Chinese coastal village to rape the women and kill the menfolk. They are assisted by their interpreter, Ng Tuk (Sun Yueh, Lightning of Bruce Lee), whose family resides in that same village. Some of the pirates are killed by a local girl named Pak Yu-Mei (the lovely Shao Pei-Yu), who is suffering from some disease, but goes into undercranked kung fu overdrive whenever she jams a pair of acupuncture needles into her neck.

After the first scuffle with the pirates, the villagers get another acupuncturist, Chao Hung-Wu (Chen Ming, of the awful Kung Fu Rebels), to teach kung fu to the local militia. Chao gets in a fight with Haishan and is almost beaten to death. He is healed by a Taoist priest (Tsao Chien, of Infernal Street and The Hero of Chiu Chow), whose acupuncture treatment improves his kung fu. In his next fight with Haishan, he holds his own, and the Japanese pirate is defeated by Pak Yu-Mei's acupuncture skills. Ng Tuk takes the injured Haishan back to Japan and presents him to his master, the karate grandmaster Wuchuanhou (Yu Sung-Chao, who also was in Lightning of Bruce Lee). Wuchuanhou goes to China and beats the hell ou of Hung-Wu, but gets beaten by the Taoist priest when he tries to steal the guy's acupuncture manual. So, he gets a powerful katana expert (Lu Biao) to go to China and fight the heroes. And then that expert's brother (Wei Yi-Ping) gets involved in the fracas, too.

The action was staged by Chan Long (My Life is on the Line) and Lin Feng-Sheng (Stormy Sun/Super Man-Chu) and it's pretty good, surprisingly. I was skeptical at first because the first brawl had a lot of punches and kicks that were obviously not connecting and looked bad, even by early 70s standards. It gets better as the film progresses, though. There is a fair amount of undercranking, which is completely unnecessary and even laughable, especially the first time that Shao Pei-Yu sticks herself with acupuncture needles. This film is interesting in that acupuncture is used to heal, paralyze one's enemies (a lá Kiss of the Dragon) and jump-start one's kung fu. Lead actor Chen Ming is actually adept at screen fighting, so much so that I'm surprised he did so little in the genre. Chan Long shows up in the first melee and shows off some great moves, too. Too bad he doesn't fight after that. The final fight does drag on as many of these movies are wont to do. Chinese Kung Fu and Acupúncture is very much a cheapo-basher flick, but there are some good fights in it.

[saltysam]

Chinese Dragon

Barry Chan with his cool black gloves, blue suit that he never takes off and armed with his swingy kung fu takes on the baddies in this early 70's basher.I don't mind Barry but he has zero charisma and personality.

[saltysam]

Slaughter In San Francisco

Don Wong Tao is a cop who's partner is also his best pal. After accidentally killing a thug early on while rescuing his partner Don ends up in jail and losing his job.When he's released he ends up as a waiter in a chinese restaurant. Meanwhile his partner,who's still a cop ends up dead, Don wants revenge!

Plenty enjoy in this early 70's actioner, the actor who plays corrupt cop Newman is fun to watch,what an asshole, and of course big boss baddie Chuck Norris enters the fray over an hour in, chomping on cigars and attempting to rape his brothers girlfriend amongst other misdemanours. I watched The Yellow Faced Tiger version on the lovely new Eureka blu ray, 106 minutes in Mandarin, with a fantastic opening theme song. Very much of it's time (Don's black cop buddy is named Blackie and Chuck nonchantly throws out racial slurs towards the chinese) .

Highly recomended

[kuenfist]

13 minutes ago, saltysam said:

Slaughter In San Francisco

Don Wong Tao is a cop who's partner is also his best pal. After accidentally killing a thug early on while rescuing his partner Don ends up in jail and losing his job.When he's released he ends up as a waiter in a chinese restaurant. Meanwhile his partner,who's still a cop ends up dead, Don wants revenge!

Plenty enjoy in this early 70's actioner, the actor who plays corrupt cop Newman is fun to watch,what an asshole, and of course big boss baddie Chuck Norris enters the fray over an hour in, chomping on cigars and attempting to rape his brothers girlfriend amongst other misdemanours. I watched The Yellow Faced Tiger version on the lovely new Eureka blu ray, 106 minutes in Mandarin, with a fantastic opening theme song. Very much of it's time (Don's black cop buddy is named Blackie and Chuck nonchantly throws out racial slurs towards the chinese) .

Highly recomended

How did you get it so early.... can't wait to see this in a good version on Blu Ray. As i told before in a threat here the HK version is a so much better movie. I don't like the international ( english ) cut.

[saltysam]

25 minutes ago, kuenfist said:

How did you get it so early.... can't wait to see this in a good version on Blu Ray. As i told before in a threat here the HK version is a so much better movie. I don't like the international ( english ) cut.

Pre ordered from Eureka

[saltysam]

Kung Fu The Invisible Fist

70's basher classic notable for it's near 25 minute end fight between baddie Kurata and the undercover agent Chen Sing. Widescreen english dubbed but the print is full of green splashes and lines. The world will be a better place once these Chen Sing epics are restored in 4k.

[Ronin]

18 hours ago, saltysam said:

Kung Fu The Invisible Fist

70's basher classic notable for it's near 25 minute end fight between baddie Kurata and the undercover agent Chen Sing. Widescreen english dubbed but the print is full of green splashes and lines. The world will be a better place once these Chen Sing epics are restored in 4k.

That end fight between Sing and Kurata is EPIC. Definitely needs a restoration.

[Ronin]

The Bravest Revenge (1970)

Very simple/typical martial arts film story, but done with such gusto that it still remains interesting and fun. It is also absolutely packed with action - I was exhausted by the end of the movie. Polly Shang-Kuan Ling-Feng has the standout role and slices up a ton of folks with her dual daggers/short swords. Tian (Tien) Peng has a smaller role, but still looks cool as always. Very glad to finally see this, especially in HD with decent English subtitles.