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

[Yggdrasil]

Watched both Excelsior and The hot, the cool & the vicious this last week. Special thanks to @saltysam for lending me his film of Excelsior.

I won't be negative about either of them. I was quite surprised with both of them to be honest.

Edited March 25 by Yggdrasil

[ShawAngela]

1 hour ago, saltysam said:

The Thunder Kick

Larry Lee has promised his mother he won't fight.His promise lasts about 5 minutes before he's beating down on a hat wearing Bolo and the slimy as ever Sun Lan. In the meantime James Nam and Mars have turned up from afar and offered Larry's mum a house,as you do. From here on in the story switches focus to a town being run by 3 rogue brothers, and Larry isn't having that.

The german DVD is uncut but has a huge amount of 4:3 inserts to make it uncut. This classic basher needs to be restored in full widescreen, multi language options and on a 4k Ultra HD Special edition. Not enough Sun Lan or Kwok Choi in this one though.

Isn't this movie in The Basher Box released a while ago? IF so, was it cut?

[saltysam]

24 minutes ago, ShawAngela said:

Isn't this movie in The Basher Box released a while ago? IF so, was it cut?

it's not in the Basher box. That had Awaken Punch and Prodigal Boxer

 

[ShawAngela]

16 minutes ago, saltysam said:

it's not in the Basher box. That had Awaken Punch and Prodigal Boxer

 

I made a mistake, I wrote Basher Box, but I was thinking about the boxset containing three movies: Jen Ko and I don' t remember which ones, in which I discovered how good was Henry Yu Young (fists of the double K, I guess)

[saltysam]

Yep,that set had Karado ,Fists Of The Double K and The Thunder Kick. I have them separately but I imagine the discs in that set are the same

[sadisgate]

7 Commandments of Kung Fu (1979)

Yi-Min Li plays the typical good natured trouble maker (who drinks laxatives at the start of the film) who is trained by his uncle who is doing his best Beggar Sou cosplay. He saves the life of a silver fox style dude from criminals and becomes his apprentice, learning his 7 rules of kung fu. I thought this was a solid film. Yi-Min is quite agile so there is a good fluidity with the fights and stuntwork. I actually thought the final fight was well done and kinda emotional as neither the hero or villain really wanted to fight each other.

Overall pretty good.

 

[DrNgor]

Showdown (1972) - 2.5/5 - https://abeautifulfilm.blogspot.com/2024/03/showdown-1972.html

[saltysam]

Two Great Cavaliers

It takes a special talent to make a kung fu movie featuring Angela Mao,Beardy,Chen Sing and John Liu and have it turn out so crappily. Boring with mediocre action until an ok end fight,the plot involves a list of rebels that everyone wants to get their hands on. Angela goes round with a permanent scowl clearly thinking "screw this i'm retiring and emigrating to the States" the crash dvd is english dubbed and wide but poor quality.

[ShawAngela]

2 hours ago, saltysam said:

Angela goes round with a permanent scowl clearly thinking "screw this i'm retiring and emigrating to the States"

[ShawAngela]

Shaolin temple 1982

I got the German bluray of this movie, and I enjoyed it as much as the first time I saw it on the French TV in the 90's.

Jet Li and Yu Hai steal the show! 

Great plot, excellent fights, beautiful sceneries, and a villain who is the king of villains, here!

[ShawAngela]

Kids from shaolin 1984

Another movie from the duo Jet Li/Yu Hai, and this time, the villain from Shaolin temple plays a Wu Dang master, who doesn't want his 8 daughters to be friends with the 8 adopted sons of Yu Hai.

When a group of bandits, the same who killed the boys' parents, try to destroy the Wu Dang mansion and abduct the girls, the two families unite to get rid of them.

The fights are excellent and quick.

Another very good German bluray.

[sym8]

Project A-To celebrate the great man’s Birthday gave this another watch.Still love it.Great action and a funny film.The original English dub is just on point,the voices matched the characters so well.They don’t make em like this anymore.👍👍👍👍👍

[DrNgor]

The Big Showdown (Hong Kong, 1974: Wong Tin-Lam) - aka Kung Fu Massacre; Fatal Strike; Taekwondo Tiger Fight - Tang (Charles Heung) has come to town looking for his family, only to be blamed for the murder of his Uncle. He gets away from the cops, hiding out at the manor of nobleman Tuan (Leung Siu-Wah), who seems nice enough. It turns out that Tuan is the town crime boss with a lot of influence and a very shady past. Another stranger, Pao Pu-Ping (Kim Bok-man) shows up in town ready to pick a fight, especially with Tuan. There is a complicated web of events linking all these people, plus the head of the local casino (Tina Chin Fei) and Tuan's wife (Lily Chen Ching), together. But will Tang realize that he's being used by Tuan to take out Pao? Will the police catch up to Tang before he can clear his name?

This is actually a very good basher. The character relationships are complex enough by genre standards that it makes for a dark little film. The film has a bummer ending, but it makes sense in the context of the film and is duly earned. This movie was one of the last productions of director Wong Tin-Lam, who had amassed over 140 directing credits since he had directed his first movie, The Flying Sword Hero from Emei Mountain, in 1950. He would quit directing by the end of the decade and spend the rest of his career in front of the camera (and occasionally producing).

Yuen Wo-Ping handled the fight action--look for him, Corey Yuen and Yuen Sun-Yi, as Tuan's thugs. The choreography is actually quite good and all actors acquit themselves well. I'm guessing that this was YWP getting on the Taekwondo train that started the year previous with When Taekwondo Strikes and Valley of the Double Dragon, among others. Kim Bok-man kicks up a storm and is certainly more impressive onscreen than Jhoon Rhee was. He doesn't do any of the flashier aerial kicks, but he does the basic kicks with height and power. He would later open a Taekwondo school in the Philippines. Charles Heung has always been a reliable screen fighter and he doesn't disappoint here. Leung Siu-Wah gets to wield a 3-section staff like a nunchaku at the end. But I see some of the handwork exchanges here and I see a prototype for the 1980s kickboxing exchanges in HK cinema.

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

AWE INSPIRING WEAPON -  anything I expect from a Gu Long movie. I'm happy I was able to watch it and in original sound but how I wish there was a good DVD of this.

[sym8]

Crystal Fist-👍👍👍

Sun Dragon👍👍👍👍

Super Power👍👍👍👍

3 of Billy Chongs best but if I had to pick one it would be Sun Dragon(Hard way to die)because that’s the first Kung fu movie I ever saw.

[Yihetuan]

48 minutes ago, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

AWE INSPIRING WEAPON -  anything I expect from a Gu Long movie. I'm happy I was able to watch it and in original sound but how I wish there was a good DVD of this.

I really enjoy this one too. The best version I've seen is the custom that @JAMAL put it out years ago that's widescreen.

[SDJ]

Also rewatched Crystal Fist recently, it suffers a bit from some undercranking and some truly bad "comedy" (what else is new for these post-Snake in the Eagle's Shadow movies?) but when the action gets serious it goes hard. 

Also rewatched The Magic Blade for the first time in years.
An ambling and dreamlike little odyssey/parable with close to 0 importance placed on plot or characters, which you'll either appreciate or you won't. For 1976, the swordplay choreography is about as good as it gets. In a lot of ways the snappy, action-oriented modern wuxia film (as opposed to the rather slow, wooden older wuxias) may start here. Or maybe Killer Clans, whichever. Fun stuff.

Edited April 14 by SDJ

[ChillyChong]

Broken oath. Typical storyline of parents who die and after child has grown up it is time for revenge. Oath wins some SB movies with similarish storylines because of star Angela Mao gives striking performance and action is terrific. Particularly final battle is damn impressive

[sym8]

5 hours ago, SDJ said:

Also rewatched Crystal Fist recently, it suffers a bit from some undercranking

The copy I watched was the old inter ocean video transferred to a dvd so the undercranking wasn’t noticeable.I’ve noticed this a lot with old video tapes and Blu ray that the undercranking is way more noticeable,prime example is the Sammo movie Odd Couple.The fight scenes at times are keystone cops but on the vhs it’s more normal.🤔

Edited April 14 by sym8

[Super Ninja]

19 hours ago, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

AWE INSPIRING WEAPON -  anything I expect from a Gu Long movie. I'm happy I was able to watch it and in original sound but how I wish there was a good DVD of this.

My favorite Chang Peng-yi wuxia next to Relentless Broken Blade.

[Drunken Monk]

The Executioner (1974) - I'm officialy starting my Sonny Chiba journey as he's a massive blindspot for me. From watching this film, I can happily say that I love Chiba. His charisma and raw ferocity is second to none. His screen presence is bonkers. The main issue I had with The Executioner is that the chatter is a little excessive. I found myself yearning for more action as it went along. Sure, the finale's jam-packed with fights but it wasn't quite enough for me. I craved more.
I did like the exploitation angle. At times this film feels pretty sleazy...in all the right ways. I definitely appreciate the tone of the whole thing.
All in all, the film is great though. I felt like this was a pretty good start to my trip down the very long Chiba road. Next time, I just want a more action heavy flick.

[Omni Dragon]

I decided to watch the Eureka BD of Knockabout today as a way of marking 15 years of being on the Kung Fu Fandom/Cinema Forums, because my very first post here was about Knockabout. I was 15 years old at that time, so then I've been here about half my life now. I think back then Knockabout might have been my favourite movie along with Yuen Biao being my favourite actor.  

It's still definitely one of my favourite old school shapes, and it's probably the best movie overall for showing what Yuen Biao can do physically.

[saltysam]

Thrilling Bloody Sword

Not sure what i just watched, except to say i thought it was rubbish.Bonkers doesn't mean good. Thinking of the 70's classics Chang Yi and Lee Quin were in, to see them mucking about in this crap was sad.Not the movie for me

[KUNG FU BOB]

On 4/19/2024 at 9:42 AM, Drunken Monk said:

The Executioner (1974) - I'm officialy starting my Sonny Chiba journey as he's a massive blindspot for me. From watching this film, I can happily say that I love Chiba. His charisma and raw ferocity is second to none. His screen presence is bonkers. The main issue I had with The Executioner is that the chatter is a little excessive. I found myself yearning for more action as it went along. Sure, the finale's jam-packed with fights but it wasn't quite enough for me. I craved more.
I did like the exploitation angle. At times this film feels pretty sleazy...in all the right ways. I definitely appreciate the tone of the whole thing.
All in all, the film is great though. I felt like this was a pretty good start to my trip down the very long Chiba road. Next time, I just want a more action heavy flick.

Welcome to my world @Drunken Monk... bwahahaha!

THE EXECUTIONER is an interesting place to start your Sonny Chiba journey as it combines elements from many of his better-known films.

I do enjoy his samurai/ninja/cop/assassin/gangster/adventure/science-fiction films (he's been in just about every genre), but his karate flicks are easily my favorites. My recommendations to you are:

THE KILLING MACHINE - This one delivers a strong story, performances, and brutal action.

THE STREET FIGHTER - Classic, savage Chiba with him as the character he was born to play (though Chiba didn't agree).

RETURN OF THE STREET FIGHTER - More of the good stuff.

THE STREET FIGHTER'S LAST REVENGE - For some reason, they changed his character, but still entertaining.

KARATE BEAR FIGHTER - As his teacher, Mas Oyama, in a highly fictionalized, extremely exploitative, karate-fest.

KARATE BEAR FIGHTER - More over-the-top madness with bloody fights aplenty.

KARATE WARRIORS - Sort of The Street Fighter meets Lone Wolf and Cub.

SOUL OF CHIBA - This one is a low-budget affair, with a somewhat non-sensical, convoluted plotline, but it's grindhouse as Hell.

These all feature plenty of action.

 

15 hours ago, Omni Dragon said:

I decided to watch the Eureka BD of Knockabout today as a way of marking 15 years of being on the Kung Fu Fandom/Cinema Forums, because my very first post here was about Knockabout. I was 15 years old at that time, so then I've been here about half my life now. I think back then Knockabout might have been my favourite movie along with Yuen Biao being my favourite actor.  

It's still definitely one of my favourite old school shapes, and it's probably the best movie overall for showing what Yuen Biao can do physically.

Wow, it feels like only yesterday you were knee-high to a grasshopper, and now look at you!  I'm glad you spent so much time with us here during your life journey and I hope that continues.

As for KNOCKABOUT... yeah, Yuen Biao does some almost super-human level acrobatic kung fu in this movie. And you can't go wrong with him and Sammo doing Monkey Style, plus Lau Kar-Wing and Leung Kar-Yan in the mix. Back in the early days of collecting this one was hard to find. When I finally got my hands on a VHS of it I was absolutely blown away by the action in it and especially Yuen Biao's skills.

 

[ShawAngela]

1 hour ago, KUNG FU BOB said:

to start your Sonny Chiba

If I remember well, I began this journey many years ago when I bought the HKVideo dvd release of the movie Shaolin Karate, or something like that, together with a boxset of the Street Fighters movies, in which I also discovered Etsuko Shihomi for the first time.

Some weeks ago, I did a search into my boxes, and realized that I have a small collection of Japanese movies, including three boxsets of Hideo Gosha's movies, and also either the story of Judo, or the story of Aikido, I don't remember, and I was looking or something else, so, didn't took the time to verify all the titles I have.

It was the good old days when I bought everything related to action or martial arts Asian movies...