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

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Love the reviews dragonclaws. Dr Ngor totally agree with you on Goose Boxer. About half of it is incompetent but half is brilliant. One of the more unique student/teacher relationships.

[DrNgor]

Kung Fu Master Named Drunk Cat - Obscure 1978 kung fu film set in the modern day, but whose choreography is grounded in traditional kung fu sensibilities (re: all shapes). John Cheung accidentally receives a jar of candies containing smuggled Diamonds from a woman (Candace Yu) and is chased by villain Thompson Kao (who sports a hideous putty cyst on his neck--turns out to be a plot point). Helping him to stay alive is his friend, Sharon Yeung Pan Pan and her teacher, Simon Yuen Siu-Tin. There are quite a bit of fights: Sharon does her usual mix of kicks and acrobatics, with a smattering of snake. Simon Yuen is given two chances to show that he can still fight and bust a move or two. John Cheung does the usual Peking Opera thing: acrobatics mixed with some Southern styles. Nothing really innovative here, but it's still fun. Choreography by Liu Hok Ming (Blind Fist of Bruce) and Lam Moon Wa (Story of the Drunken Master). Despite the title, there is no drunken boxing.

[paimeifist]

Iron Dragon Strikes Back is the shit!

Return of the Deadly Blade

I liked this one a lot. Indie wuxia, with all the cheap costumes and sets that come with such things. Star studded cast with David Chiang and Kurata in the lead, and cameos from the likes of Lo Lieh and Hwang Jang Lee!

The story is simple, although it starts out seeming like your typical wuxia with bunches of characters, its basically your typical revenge thing.. So that isn't a strong suit, the end became sort of plot heavy, with twists that were supposed to surprise you (and they did?), but there was no clever build up towards said twists so it didn't matter.

Although the story wasn't great, there were some cool "wuxia-like" characters. David Chiang plays a Ti Lung brooding hero well, lol. All of the villains are cool and somewhat memorable, a fire god, a ninja, "golden rings", and the like. There were some funny scenes involving Kurata's character. Who is a low-class clown that happens to be a top fighter by the name of "The Lonely Winner", it was cool seeing him in a less serious role.

Awesome locations, one that comes to mind was an old rope bridge which a fight took place on. The sets on the other hand clearly suffered from the budget, with some pretty cruddy painted on scenes.

The fights throughout were awesome though, with a decent mix of wire work (not OTT) and grounded swordplay. Standout fights are the opening where Hwang Jang Lee and Norman Chu throw down, this is one worth rewatching...it is really a cool fight. Another is Kurata and David Chiang ganging up against Lo Lieh (who is wielding an umbrella and a sword!) on a dock! The end fight was underwhelming as they were focused more on slamming some twists in the sub-par story. :-(

Overall, it was a really entertaining movie. A fight-fest with some of our favorite actors, with solid fight scenes. Sub-par story and ending though. The best part of the ending was laughing at Norman Chu zipping around briskly in a wheel chair.

[Secret Executioner]

Return Of The Deadly Blade sounds like a nice one, especially with such a cast - I mean, I recently bought a film just because the package said Ti Lung and Lo Lieh were in it.

Watched Big Boss 2 (HK, 1979) last nite (review right here)

[paimeifist]

It is definitely worth a watch. What Ti Lung/Lo Lieh movie did you recently get?

Big Boss 2 was just entertaining enough to be able to sit through for me, and it was mainly through Bolo with his lopsided moustache, lol. Check out Dynamo when you can for a sweet Bruceploitation!

[AlbertV]

I have the original HK VHS of Postman Strikes Back...I'll have to look out for that again.

I watched The Little Dragons (aka Karate Kids USA) last night with my son and we both looked at each other like, "the hell?", but then I thought about other "family martial arts films" like the 3 Ninjas films, the Magic Kid films, Tiger Heart and if you think about it, this was a pioneer in that genre (despite the kids letting off a curse now and again lol)

Full review is being written now and will be posted in a little while.

[paimeifist]

18 Fatal Strikes.

Pretty good, story is nothing special, and the tone of the movie is really uneven, as GHW pointed out. But the fights are awesome, especially in the last half an hour when Stephen Tung Wei really gets to turn loose. The woman here is one bad chick! (Shen Hai-Rong?). Dean Shek is actually somewhat likable here, and there is some decent slapstick comedy throughout.

My major gripe with this film is the villain. The first time he made his high pitched screams and did his ridiculous poses, it was funny, but it became old after that. I actually muted the movie during the final fight because it became pretty tiresome and annoying, luckily the fight was good so I still watched. He was actually a decent fighter and pretty menacing when he wasn't doing this annoying over the top shit!

[Secret Executioner]

Man, the villain is the main reason why I love this film. He's awesomely OTT.

To each his own I guess, but I'm glad you still enjoyed it anyway.

[paimeifist]

It's mainly the sounds in the final fight were just too much for me. It was like constant "heeeyyyaaaaahhhh hoooo hah" for the last 15 minutes of the movie, lol.

[DragonClaws]

18 Fatal Strikes.

Pretty good, story is nothing special, and the tone of the movie is really uneven, as GHW pointed out. But the fights are awesome, especially in the last half an hour when Stephen Tung Wei really gets to turn loose. The woman here is one bad chick! (Shen Hai-Rong?). Dean Shek is actually somewhat likable here, and there is some decent slapstick comedy throughout.

My major gripe with this film is the villain. The first time he made his high pitched screams and did his ridiculous poses, it was funny, but it became old after that. I actually muted the movie during the final fight because it became pretty tiresome and annoying, luckily the fight was good so I still watched. He was actually a decent fighter and pretty menacing when he wasn't doing this annoying over the top shit!

I intended on watching this one Friday night but choose City Ninja instead. One of the sleaziest Martial Arts films Ive sat through. Casanova Wong & Chan Wai Man saved the film from being a dud in my opinion.

I don't rate any Bruce Lee clone better than the other. Like a lot of screen fighters they all have positives and negatives. Dragon Lee had had a better physique than Le and Li combined and he wasn't a bad screen fighter either. I cant comment on how good his Kung Fu skills were in real life?. He could be a bit too over the top with the little dragon mannerisms sometimes.

[Secret Executioner]

I have this in a 4 movie dvd set of of him.

Which set would that be ? I could be interested, especially seeing what you guys are saying on this one.

GHW where's your review of Robo Vampire? I wanted to give it a full read now that I've seen the movie. I thought it was a lot of fun.

Haven't reviewed this one (was thinking of doing Devil's Dynamite - one of its sequels/spin-offs - at a point though), just mentionned it (one could say it's a mini-review of some sort) in the non-Kung Fu watches thread:

Robo Vampire (HK, 1988)

A Filmark production directed by Joe Livingstone and produced by Tomas Tang. The movie sees a Robocop ripoff and hopping vampires be added to a Thai movie involving drug dealers and a hostage situation. Yeah, cause the drug dealers (in order for the shipments to be safe) called some magician to summon Gyonshi to protect their cargo and fight the cops... Sorapong Chatree is (again) the protagonist of the Thai film, while a bunch of Gwailos (including Ernest Mauser, a Canadian who's not unfamiliar to HK cinema specialists as he also appeared in some John Woo and Johnnie To movies) lead the other part and there's also a romantic subplot involving a ghost chick who seeks revenge against the magician because he turned her beloved into a Gyonshi and they can't get together.

The movie isn't that great, it actually even gets kinda boring at points - there's some nice action in the Thai part and the scenes with the Robo Warrior (yup, that's the what the cheap Robocop knock-off is called) and the hopping vampires are usually pretty fun just for how bad they are. Guess I could have enjoyed it more if I had seen it on DVD rather than on youtube.

Good memory! Yes, that's 'Champ Against Champ', and as soon as he gets his metal leg every kick sounds like sheet metal being hammered!

OMG, that sounds hilariously bad. And speaking of weird sound effects (after Sze Ma Lung in 18 Fatal Strikes and Dragon Lee's metal leg in Champ Against Champ), the Robocop ripoff is pretty noisy as you get a bunch of weird sound effects whenever he moves.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Thanks. I agree Robo Vampire is boring at times. But seeing Robocop fight vampires was a lot more fun than I was expecting. Every once in awhile when I watch one of these cut and paste movies I get the feeling that the filmmakers are trying to make a bad movie. But a lot of the scenes are played so seriously. You can tell that they are trying to make the best movie they can. For some reason I only think about this when I come across a cut and paste that I actually enjoy. When I see a movie that is trying to be bad, it ruins the experience.

Another thing that just crossed my mind. What if Godfrey Ho, Tang or Lai made a big budget movie? Can you imagine how awesomely bad it would be?

[paimeifist]

I agree with what you said about unintentionally bad movies being good, and intentionally bad movies being horrible. That's why new B movies are generally awful, and old ones are great.

I'm going to have to see this metal legged Dragon Lee in Champ vs Champ, pretty sure I have this one in a box set.

[Secret Executioner]

Yeah, today's B-movies (I guess you mean stuff like the Expendables franchise that desperately tries to play on some vintage vib or cheap crap like the The Asylum productions) are usually pretty bad when the old B-movies (cheap Italian or Turkish versions of blockbusters such as First Blood, Jaws or Star Wars, cut-and-splice productions...) are usually pretty fun.

[DragonClaws]

Another thing that just crossed my mind. What if Godfrey Ho, Tang or Lai made a big budget movie? Can you imagine how awesomely bad it would be?

That would be interesting. I think Godfrey Ho would have preferred to split a big budget and make four small budget films instead. Did the guy ever make a ninja film without using the cut and paste technique?.

[Secret Executioner]

That would be interesting. I think Godfrey Ho would have preferred to split a big budget and make four small budget films instead. Did the guy ever make a ninja film without using the cut and paste technique?.

Actually, that's kinda how a shooting went apparently (talking of the Gwailo parts): they claimed to film one movie, but the footage shot could be used to make like 4 different movies. So Richard Harrison may have been paid for one movie (not even knowing what it was really about or anything, since Godfrey Ho didn't seem to explain much about the scripts or anything), but the footage he appears in may have made it in Ninja Terminator, Ninja Dragon, Diamond Ninja Force and Ninja The Protector for instance.

(the worst part being that according to Richard Harrison, it's EXACTLY how it went)

[DragonClaws]

Harrison did mention in an interview that he doesn't know exactly many times his scenes were used in other films. They used him to help sell the films to foreign markets who wanted a gweilo lead.

They did just churn these films out and when the trends changed so did IFD. After the success of Kickboxer & Bloodpsort with Van Damme, Ho said the Ninja films stopped selling as well. So IFD decided to build a cheap ring in their studios and start churning out tournament/kickboxing films instead.

[Secret Executioner]

Yeah, these films were made only for export - and the companies didn't give a shit about the quality of their stuff. Filmark went as far as renaming their directors or writers Joe Livingstone, Bruce Lambert or Kurt Spielberg to sound more American. Nanarland actually mistook Ninja American Warrior for an American movie when reviewing it - it was their first film of this kind and they had no clue about this kind of stuff (nowadays, they're one of the best sources on these movies).

IFD and Filmark had several waves in the 1980s/1990s:

- kung fu flicks (goes back to the Asso Asia days), especially Hwang Jang Lee titles or Bruceploitations

- Ninja

- horror (Robo Vampire, Devil's Dynamite...)

- war (such as Godfrey Ho's Hitman The Cobra, one of my favorite IFD productions - Filmark also had a bunch of those, but apparently they're REALLY bad)

- kickboxing (Kickboxer King)

There were also films mixing trends, like Diamond Ninja Force which is a strange Ninja/horror hybrid, mixing a ghost story (that looks like a cheap exploitative version of Poltergeist) with the classic Ninja routine or an IFD production with Richard Harrison and Mike Abbott (just like Hitman The Cobra and probably shot at the same time) that's both a war film and a Ninja flick, but I forgot what it was called. Filmark's Ninja In The Killing Fields is also quite insane in that it mixes a movie about drug dealers, the Ninja thing and they throw in some footage from a war film - yup, you get Stuart Smith as a Ninja, tanks and air bombings to stop a drug ring.

[DragonClaws]

Interesting post GHW, Ive seen clips of Robo Vampire which looks like a bad acid trip. Scorpion Thunderbolt is one of those horror/martial arts hybrids featuring Richard Harrison again.

[DragonClaws]

The Unbeaten 28

(DVD)

Directed By- Joseph Kuo

Starring- Meng Fei, Jennie Chang, Jack Long, Mark Long, Hsu Feng

A tale of revenge and redemption from cult Independent Kung Fu Director Joseph Kuo. This isn’t an essential Kung Fu classic but still worth a look. The cinematography and fight choreography are all fine. The opening fight sequence is pretty good for it's time. However most of the films run time is made up of Martial Arts training sequences and tests. Compared to many films of this era there’s actually very little fight action. Still if you are a fan of the cast its worth a look.

Meng Fei plays Tiger, who witness's the brutal death of his father. Jack Long plays the Kung Fu master who takes Tiger under his wing and trains him in the art of Wu-Tang kung fu. The boy is put through extreme training from a young age and lives on a diet of Tigers milk. He is forced to hold huge rocks and repeatedly push his hands into hot ash to name a few things. Social services would have Jack Long locked up these days but back in medieval China this was the norm. Long is preparing Tiger for the Martial Arts Gauntlet that takes place in the Shaolin Temple. There are 18 challenges to go through. The films title is supposed to be a reference to this but for some reason its says The Unbeaten 28. It should read The Unbeaten 18 instead. The film is worth watching just for the gauntlet sequence alone. Tiger encounters stone men, a giggling one armed statue and oddball living down a well. He even withstands the brutal 36 blows from two masochistic monks with nothing better to do.

This film is not the best but its far from from the worst. At best its average with some standout scenes and a decent final showdown. Nearly all Kung Fu films feature prolonged training scenes. This one devotes nearly all the film to it which can be a bit tiresome. I picked this up on the old M.I.A Old-Scholl Kung Fu label. When compared with many independent Martial arts DVD releases the picture/sound quality’s very good. The film is presented in Widescreen with an English only audio track. So expect some really bad one liners and crazy accents.

[DrNgor]

The Unbeaten 28

(DVD)

Directed By- Joseph Kuo

Starring- Meng Fei, Jennie Chang, Jack Long, Mark Long, Hsu Feng

A tale of revenge and redemption from cult Independent Kung Fu Director Joseph Kuo. This isn’t an essential Kung Fu classic but still worth a look. The cinematography and fight choreography are all fine. The opening fight sequence is pretty good for it's time. However most of the films run time is made up of Martial Arts training sequences and tests. Compared to many films of this era there’s actually very little fight action. Still if you are a fan of the cast its worth a look.

Meng Fei plays Tiger, who witness's the brutal death of his father. Jack Long plays the Kung Fu master who takes Tiger under his wing and trains him in the art of Wu-Tang kung fu. The boy is put through extreme training from a young age and lives on a diet of Tigers milk. He is forced to hold huge rocks and repeatedly push his hands into hot ash to name a few things. Social services would have Jack Long locked up these days but back in medieval China this was the norm. Long is preparing Tiger for the Martial Arts Gauntlet that takes place in the Shaolin Temple. There are 18 challenges to go through. The films title is supposed to be a reference to this but for some reason its says The Unbeaten 28. It should read The Unbeaten 18 instead. The film is worth watching just for the gauntlet sequence alone. Tiger encounters stone men, a giggling one armed statue and oddball living down a well. He even withstands the brutal 36 blows from two masochistic monks with nothing better to do.

This film is not the best but its far from from the worst. At best its average with some standout scenes and a decent final showdown. Nearly all Kung Fu films feature prolonged training scenes. This one devotes nearly all the film to it which can be a bit tiresome. I picked this up on the old M.I.A Old-Scholl Kung Fu label. When compared with many independent Martial arts DVD releases the picture/sound quality’s very good. The film is presented in Widescreen with an English only audio track. So expect some really bad one liners and crazy accents.

Huh, a lot of reviews I've read set this one apart as *THE* Meng Fei film to watch. You've got moxie, kid.

[DragonClaws]

I did have high expectations for the film Dr Ngor. More Meng Fei would have been a good thing. For me the film was just average not bad but not an absolute must see either.

[Lui Kang]

Drunken Master II

[paimeifist]

I believe that would belong in the modern forum buddy, fantastic film though, with a definite old school feel and actors!

[DrNgor]

7 Steps of Kung Fu - This is a much-loved film among fans of old school chopsockey, and with good reason. It's an 84-minute fight choreography clinic put on by Taiwanese choreographer Tommy Lee, chock-full of acrobatics (Ricky Cheng of Five Element Ninja gets in some high jumps and somersaults), complex handwork, some weapons (pole, spear and umbrella), and solid kicking. Great stuff. The soundtrack steals cues from The Sea Wolves and "The Crowning" from Carrie.