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

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Nice mention on Writing Kung Fu. I think the last time it was brought up here was Bey Logan's top 10 kf movies. thankyouforfu noted how the other 9 movies on Bey's list were the normal ones that get mentioned a lot like DM2 and Fist of Legend. We also talked about how the widescreen version is cut by about 7 minutes.

[Secret Executioner]

Revisited 18 Fatal Strikes tonight.

Hadn't noticed it before, but Stephen Tung's pal was actually Dean Shek - who I must delivers a nice performance, going from funny slapstick to very poignant and sad moments. Kinda weird seeing him in a bigger role (I only saw him in small roles, though he is okay in Chang Cheh's The Pirate and his parts are kinda funny in Drunken Master) and without some ugly hairy mole on his face - he was okay when in action, though his scenes seemed very slapstick-oriented.

I find it holds up very well, I think the problems I pointed out remain but the movie seems to flow better now than when I first watched it.

[DrNgor]

I "owed" this review to Paimeifist:

Lackey and the Lady Tiger (1980)

Starring: Mars, Tien Niu, Hwang Jang Lee, Shek Kin, Linda Lin

Action Director: Chan Siu-Pang

This Seasonal Films production is little more than a shameless rip-off of Seasonal's own Snake in the Eagle Shadow, with very similar casts (like Chiang Kam and the tailor from Kung Fu Hustle), a nearly identical plot (save the villain's motivation), and even a made-up style inspired by the movements of the cat.

Unfortunately, it lacks its inspiration's charm and charisma. Although Tien Niu (married to Shaw Bros veteran Yueh Hua) and Mars have some chemistry together (it's sort of like if Jackie Chan's Chin Fu from SITES were coached by the pre-Sam Seed Freddy Wong/Wong Fei Hung from The Drunken Master), their scenes lack the emotional component that made the teacher-student relationship so endearing in SITES. That makes the comedy-heavy first hour more of a chore than it would be otherwise.

Things only pick up after the first hour, when Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee gets out of jail and goes looking for revenge. Veteran choreographer Chan Siu-Pang, nearing the end of his career at this point, shows us that he was able to keep up with the times (unlike, say, Han Ying-Chieh) and gives us some solid action. The highlight is a short fight between Hwang and Linda Lin (the flexible wushu woman from The Drunken Master). They kick up a storm and make us wonder if she shouldn't have been the main protagonista, instead of Tien Niu. Hwang also gets to have a Strong staff duel with Shek Kin, probably doing a better job with the weapon than some of his others films. Mars is acrobatic, but the fact that he relies on tricks and made-up styles to win the finale just reminds us that Hwang is clearly superior.

It's not without its merits, although Hwang fans will probably come out of this wanting to rewatch Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Hell's Wind Staff again.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin - Still one of my all-time favorite Jackie Chan movies and old school kung fu movies, period. It's obvious from the choreography (by Chan) that he was trying to develop his style of having the protagonist take on numerous opponents simultaneously, as opposed to the usual "bad guys circle the good guy, and then attack one at a time". Nora Miao kicks butt in what's my favorite role for her. There's also a swearing contest, pipe fu, stress ball fu, spear fu, cane fu, cloth fu, daggers, sabers, tonfa, and gosh knows what else. The soundtrack includes familiar riffs from The Spy Who Loved Me and even the opening music from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. More than 40 minutes of the 90-minute run time is made up of fighting. A true classic.

I'm was not quite high as you on this, but I did like it. It feels like a transitional film for Chan, especially during that short time of him from unknown to star. On a side note: I noticed that my review of this film is almost 10 years old (May of 2005). I also noticed that the review itself wasn't that good so I probably should eventually rewatch and review this film as I'm sure I've learned a little more about film in the past 10 years. I did not know about the The Spy Who Loved Me music, but Bond scores are used so much in HK films from the mid-1960s through the 70s. But you have given me incentive to put this on my rewatch pile.

[Secret Executioner]

Hadn't spotted the music from Holy Grail or James Bond in SACAOS... Probably should revisit this one.

[Secret Executioner]

And speaking of music in Jackie Chan movies... I can confirm that SITES starts off with Space's "Magic Fly"

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... though there seems to be an alternative theme (a pretty cool tune, but still I prefer the Space version):

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[paimeifist]

Wow Master, that sounds like a pretty pathetic flick for 1980+ especially. Ngor, I watched a good Chan Siu Pang flick tonight..

Invisible Terrorist

Director/Action Director: Chan Siu Pang

Starring: Carter Wong, Man Kong Lung, Cliff Lok, Wang Hsieh, Kam Kong, Lo Lieh, Lung Fei, Doris Lung....yeah, pretty sweet cast!

The story starts off as your typical rebel name list hunt, but has a couple twists to spruce things up, and is backed by pretty solid acting.. The list is divided among 3 of the rebels(Carter, Man Kong Lung, Cliff Lok), which makes for some interesting twists, although the PRIMARY plot twist is maybe a little predictable. Wang Hsieh is the main baddie,(Qing General) and Kam Kong is his right hand man, along with Lung Fei in more of a cameo role. To complicate things, there is a masked character also trying to obtain the namelist(s)....BUT WHO IS IT?!? In the midst of the rebels and Qings, there are of course Monks siding with the rebels, and a neutral "White Flower" group... Yeah it seems complicated, but is surprisingly well done and not too confusing..

There is a silly amount of allegiance changes, but right as they begin to become excessive, the (mostly) true intentions of the characters are brought to light, and the twists actually make sense, and don't seem forced! This reminds me, there is one twist, at the VERY end, that is kind of silly; and its only purpose was to seemingly make a "happy ending".. Which is a shame, because directly prior to that the movie takes a dark turn, which I found to be very cool and one of the best parts of the movie. . Oh well. :/

The fights are good, with a mix of nice swordplay and hand to hand action. Carter Wong's lack of fluidity is even more apparent when using a weapon, but it kind of works in this... He wields a short rod, and his clunkiness gives off a savage look when he fights with it. There are some silly Monks who fight with cymbals, but it's good for some camp humor, although it gets a little tiresome. None of the cast truly stand out in the action department, although I'd like to make note of Kam Kong.. It was cool to see him in Qing general garb, as he usually plays some sort of low class character, he also put on a good fighting and acting performance. Lo Lieh just has a cameo (AS A GOOD GUY!?), but its one of the best action scenes of the movie for sure, he shows some good swordplay here. Every one turns in a pretty good acting performance, and Wang Hsieh is good as the main heavy. The action was pretty "hard hitting", and lot of different angles and perspectives are used which I enjoy when used effectively.

There were some fantastic sets and locations, as well as nice costumes. This movie must have had a somewhat decent budget for a Taiwanese production. The soundtrack was mostly OKAY, but had a few really nice moments during the dark part of the ending, an eerie track during some flashback scenes, and some nice ambient "spooky" wind scenes. The dub was pretty good, and humorous at times. There were a lot of "traitorous dogs", lol.

So a very enjoyable movie from Chan Siu Pang, with a decent take on the oft-used name list McGuffin, some solid action, and a very good cast. Kam Kong's small but great performance makes it worth seeing alone IMO, but it is a pretty good indie all around. The twists become a little too much, some are predictable, and the "happy ending twist" was frustrating... But I still recommend it. I watched a pretty crappy version on youtube, and it had some "shaky" looking parts, but I am sure they are just from the transfer. I would definitely watch this one again if I could find a better version.

[ThunderScore]

[stills]

Good one!

I think I have it under the name masked avenger or something

[Killer Meteor]

Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin - Still one of my all-time favorite Jackie Chan movies and old school kung fu movies, period. It's obvious from the choreography (by Chan) that he was trying to develop his style of having the protagonist take on numerous opponents simultaneously, as opposed to the usual "bad guys circle the good guy, and then attack one at a time". Nora Miao kicks butt in what's my favorite role for her. There's also a swearing contest, pipe fu, stress ball fu, spear fu, cane fu, cloth fu, daggers, sabers, tonfa, and gosh knows what else. The soundtrack includes familiar riffs from The Spy Who Loved Me and even the opening music from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. More than 40 minutes of the 90-minute run time is made up of fighting. A true classic.

This has always been a fave of mine - it was actually my first old school kung fu movie (discounting the Bruce Lee movies).

Speaking of Bruce, this is probably the first time Jackie actually played a Bruce type in a film for Lo Wei - a cocky badass who is a master in kung fu from the opening frame. This trick is repeated in Magnificent Bodyguards and Dragon Fist and it makes a huge difference - unlike in New Fist of Fury where Jackie doesn't have a bona-fide fight until there are only 10min left.

The Monty Python music is a De Wolfe track, which also plays in Dawn of the Dead.

[Killer Meteor]

And speaking of Asso Asia films, I watched The Magnificent (HK, 1979) this afternoon.

The release itself isn't that great though: as I mentionned, it has awkward editing at points (looks like some scenes were cut), it's fullscreen with a lot of stuff being cropped out and the picture gets a bit grainy at points, but it's still very watchable if your standards aren't too high.

The trailer is very nice, but it could give high expectations on this film:

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The Crash Cinema DVD is widescreen and Mandarin. Can't remember if more happened in the Dragon Lee scene - it may be the full screen is from an old UK tape master and nunchkau stuff was taken out. I'll check the Crash at some point.

[Killer Meteor]

Tiger’s Claw (1974: Ng Tan)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlG3XPHwceQ: notice the aka Shaolin Tiger’s Claw. You will see some more scenes on this that are not in the full screen version.

Worst...dub...ever.

[Secret Executioner]

The Crash Cinema DVD is widescreen and Mandarin. Can't remember if more happened in the Dragon Lee scene - it may be the full screen is from an old UK tape master and nunchkau stuff was taken out. I'll check the Crash at some point.

I'll try to get this one, if it can still be found. Thanks for the tip.

[DragonClaws]

The Crash Cinema DVD is widescreen and Mandarin. Can't remember if more happened in the Dragon Lee scene - it may be the full screen is from an old UK tape master and nunchkau stuff was taken out. I'll check the Crash at some point.

There is no nunchaku scene in this film if I recall correctly?. The British censors had problems with the Martial Arts techniques on display. They were very sensitive towards these films, more so in the 70's. The Vengeance Video release restores the British censors cuts but I cant comment on the crash disc. The film might just look choppy due to poor editing.

[ShaOW!linDude]

FISTFUL OF TALONS (1983)

http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/showthread.php?p=255353#post255353

[Secret Executioner]

Forgot to mention, but I enjoyed the soundtrack too - I could swear there was some Ennio Morricone in there.

Turns out there IS: a scene with Simon Yuen about halfway through uses a tune off Sergio Leone's A Fistful Of Dynamite AKA Duck, You Sucker AKA Once Upon A Time (In) The Revolution:

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[Morgoth Bauglir]

The Story in Temple Red Lily- boring movie. The only positive things I can say is that the picture quality on the Crash Cinema/Pagoda DVD looks good and the costumes look good. Also there's kid who has an eagle that flies him around. I think the writers were fans of Lord of the Rings. In the final fight the heroes are about to be defeated, and the eagle shows up to defeat the villain

[One Armed Boxer]

He has a great cameo in Postman Strikes Back where him and Kwan Il Soo fight Chow Yun Fat.

A "great cameo" is defintely the best way to describe it! I got through watching this one recently, and posted a full length review here -

http://www.cityonfire.com/the-postman-strikes-back-1982-review/

I have to give a shout out to Morgoth for pointing out the presence of Jack Lam, I would have missed it without his knowledge!

[masterofoneinchpunch]

A "great cameo" is defintely the best way to describe it! I got through watching this one recently, and posted a full length review here -

http://www.cityonfire.com/the-postman-strikes-back-1982-review/

I have to give a shout out to Morgoth for pointing out the presence of Jack Lam, I would have missed it without his knowledge!

My comments which I posted on that site:

Nice review. I gave it the same rating as you did with many of the same complaints and compliments. This would be in the realm of underrated movies. I like your mention of New Wave aesthetics which makes these films even more fun to me. I also wish I wrote that in my review. I do wonder though if ninjitsu in these films can be considered new wave since it was used before in HK movies before or maybe that new wave attributes use everything including the kitchen sink.

You mention of Chow Yun-fat and how he has a certain panache even before A Better Tomorrow reminds me of how many would state wrongfully that Cary Grant's personality suddenly appeared in His Girl Friday somehow linking his rise to Howard Hawks (completely forgetting you can see his acting chops improve over the years before with such greats as Topper, The Awful Truth, Gunga Din etc...) It's just that Chow was considered box office poison (much like Katherine Hepburn was at one point in the 1930s) until that much heralded role with John Woo. I think ultimately many writers and even film scholars wrongfully use canards without delving deeper into the subject which of course gives us plenty to gripe about.

You had me thinking and doing a little research on a few items. Ice Skating was not unknown and not anachronistic (love using this word in reviews) to China in the Qing dynasty (and technically before though I only found mentions of the emperor's relations doing this), though I did not find any information on fighting on skates. If I do I will relay that info to you. I would love to find a battle on skates in the history of the republic or even during the Qing dynasty.

[One Armed Boxer]

Thanks for the comments masterofoneinchpunch! I responded on the review itself.

[Secret Executioner]

One-armed Boxer (HK, 1971 according to HKcinemagic, 1972 according to the DVD package)

Second entry off the Jimmy Wang Yu Collection I'm watching, and OMG does that one kick ass.

Lung Fei is great as the fanged (!) Karate master from Okinawa, Wang Yu delivers as the lead (he isn't too bad as an actor I must say) and I found myself invested in the character's progression, and the rest of the characters (especially the foreign killers) are rather colorful and really enjoyable - I especially liked that Indian Yoga master whose handstand stuff was pretty fun to watch, the Judo master is rather tame but offers nice action, the Korean seems a bit underused (and doesn't kick that much), the Thai fighters have some solid and brutal action (the Thai from MOTFG is a perfect copy of those guys - and I noticed a little issue in the subs as one of them is called Iron Foot throughout and the other is called Copper Foot when introduced but becomes Bronze Foot when the baddie and the foreigners show up at the good guys' dojo...), though the most brutal is from the karate guys (including Lung Fei as the master). The two Tibetan Lamas are mentionned (and appear in a flashback) in Master Of The Flying Guillotine as being two disciples of the blind monk, but them being officials working for some government (Qing IIRC) like the monk does doesn't make much sense...

Besides the character, the sets and the soundtrack were also really nice - the music felt a bit Spaghetti Western-ish at times. The story is also well-crafted and well put, I found some of the cinematography really well done (dramatic and nicely done camera moves notably). Am I the only one who found the name of Wang Yu's clan kinda funny ? I mean, they are called the Justice Club - sounds like a gathering of comic books fans.

But overall, this one is a really neat picture and you don't see the 93 minutes pass - though it's slightly inferior to its sequel Master Of The Flying Guillotine, though I guess a blind monk throwing flying contraptions of death might have been too OTT.

My main nitpick would be that the titular character loses his arm very late in the game and most of the time elapsing between the arm being Karate-chopped off and his revenge is summed up in a montage of pictures set to some music. With all the focus given to Wang Yu fighting the foreigners, I think they should have called this Wang Yu Against All Nations.

On a sidenote: how come Lung Fei keeps turning up as a baddie in next to half of the movies I'm watching ? Really, it seems at times I can't watch an old-school Fu flick without him showing up - not that he's a bad performer, it just bugs me.

[ThunderScore]

How come Lung Fei keeps turning up as a baddie in next to half of the movies I'm watching ? Really, it seems at times I can't watch an old-school Fu flick without him showing up - not that he's a bad performer, it just bugs me.

To me, he's always been the hardest working actor in Martial Arts Films. In EXIT THE DRAGON, ENTER THE TIGER, even his character's name is Lung Fei! Check it out @ around the 17 minute mark:

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[DragonClaws]

One-armed Boxer (HK, 1971 according to HKcinemagic, 1972 according to the DVD package)

Second entry off the Jimmy Wang Yu Collection I'm watching, and OMG does that one kick ass.

Lung Fei is great as the fanged (!) Karate master from Okinawa, Wang Yu delivers as the lead (he isn't too bad as an actor I must say) and I found myself invested in the character's progression, and the rest of the characters (especially the foreign killers) are rather colorful and really enjoyable - I especially liked that Indian Yoga master whose handstand stuff was pretty fun to watch, the Judo master is rather tame but offers nice action, the Korean seems a bit underused (and doesn't kick that much), the Thai fighters have some solid and brutal action (the Thai from MOTFG is a perfect copy of those guys - and I noticed a little issue in the subs as one of them is called Iron Foot throughout and the other is called Copper Foot when introduced but becomes Bronze Foot when the baddie and the foreigners show up at the good guys' dojo...), though the most brutal is from the karate guys (including Lung Fei as the master). The two Tibetan Lamas are mentionned (and appear in a flashback) in Master Of The Flying Guillotine as being two disciples of the blind monk, but them being officials working for some government (Qing IIRC) like the monk does doesn't make much sense...

Besides the character, the sets and the soundtrack were also really nice - the music felt a bit Spaghetti Western-ish at times. The story is also well-crafted and well put, I found some of the cinematography really well done (dramatic and nicely done camera moves notably). Am I the only one who found the name of Wang Yu's clan kinda funny ? I mean, they are called the Justice Club - sounds like a gathering of comic books fans.

But overall, this one is a really neat picture and you don't see the 93 minutes pass - though it's slightly inferior to its sequel Master Of The Flying Guillotine, though I guess a blind monk throwing flying contraptions of death might have been too OTT.

My main nitpick would be that the titular character loses his arm very late in the game and most of the time elapsing between the arm being Karate-chopped off and his revenge is summed up in a montage of pictures set to some music. With all the focus given to Wang Yu fighting the foreigners, I think they should have called this Wang Yu Against All Nations.

On a sidenote: how come Lung Fei keeps turning up as a baddie in next to half of the movies I'm watching ? Really, it seems at times I can't watch an old-school Fu flick without him showing up - not that he's a bad performer, it just bugs me.

I'm not a massive fan of Jimmy Wang Yu but this film is a great example of Martial Arts cinema at its best.

Lung Fei plays a good guy in Deadly Strike if I recall it right?. Or at least he's an ex con who puts his past behind him to help Ho Chung Tao?. Its a long time since I watched my DVD copy so I might be wrong.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

One-armed Boxer (HK, 1971 according to HKcinemagic, 1972 according to the DVD package)

....

Love the film. Quick note. The release is October 6, 1972. Originally HKMDB had the date wrong, HKcinemagic got the date from them. I told HKMDB they had the wrong date (HKFA was the resource) and they changed it.

Lung Fei shows up quite a bit in the Taiwanese MA films. Since I've been doing mainly HK releases I haven't seem him lately (but plenty of Fung Ging-man.)

Unfortunately Dragon Dynasty's site had a nice essay on the one-armed topic from Bey Logan. I had links to it but not the essay itself (which actually is a good argument for sometimes posting a whole review/essay.)

[Secret Executioner]

Okay, so it's 1972, thanks masterofoneinchpunch.