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

[DrNgor]

I don't think I've seen Kung Fu Rebels, does it go by a different name?

I don't think so. It was available on DVD on a double bill with Gathering of Heroes, which stars Chen Sing, Yasuaki Kurata and Polly Sheng Kuan Ling Feng.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I don't think I've seen Kung Fu Rebels, does it go by a different name?

Karate Frightmare

[fatcat]

Five Pattern Dragon Claw is a decent movie. Hwang Jang Lee really kicks ass in this one.

Lol really!?? I'll have to look that one up!

[Morgoth Bauglir]

The Sword 1971- Jimmy Wang Yu plays a man who cares about one thing in life, collecting swords. Being a sword fighting expert and a narrow minded asshole he has no problem taking these swords by force if he feels the need to. He wants all the famous swords and he will not let anyone stop him in his quest, not even his mother. When the movie starts there's only a couple more that he needs to complete his collection, and then he can sit around all day looking at his swords while having sex with his maids. This is a fascinating character and Wang Yu acts his ass off. I think it's his best acting performance. The fights aren't very good, but not bad, and the violence is satisfying. I did notice a level of detail in the choreography that I didn't comprehend the first time I watched it. I haven't watched The Sword since it came out on DVD and I think I rated it 7/10. I'm giving it an 8.5/10 this time around. If you enjoyed movies like King of Kings, The Sword 1980 and The Supreme Swordsman, then you will enjoy The Sword 1971.

[paimeifist]

Sounds like a great one Morgoth. I really like movies from this more "serious" part of Jimmy Wang Yus career, although I admittedly have seen few. Sword of Swords and Golden Swallow are both great movies though. Could you give an example of detail in the choreo that you didn't notice the first time? I'm impressed by how well done the fight scenes are in some of the early swordplay films, although the choreo is generally simplistic.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

The fights are very simplistic in The Sword 1971 but they have an energy about them and the confidence of Wang Yu (especially his facial expressions) make them exciting. And it gets pretty violent at times. I wish I could have gone more in depth on many things about the movie and given a review 10 times as long but I'm not able to right now. But I would love to talk about that detail in the choreography. Liu Ping has a small role (and is awesome in this movie!) and he fights Wang Yu early in the movie. They are evenly matched but one fighter slightly betters the other. Liu Ping will come back later on, but meanwhile...Wang Yu's sword collecting obsession eventually turns into a sickness. He meets a man who will not let Wang Yu take his sword, a sword that is considered the most unique sword. Wang Yu must have it. He trains for a year straight with every sword teacher he can find. He comes back after a year to take the unique sword, by any means necessary. But right before the final fight, Liu Ping shows up again and wants a rematch with Wang Yu. What I didn't notice before in this fight is how bloodthirsty and ruthless Wang Yu has become. His fighting style has changed. Liu Ping has changed his style also. Even if the evolution in the character's fighting style isn't all that noticeable in The Sword, it is nice to see that the filmmakers were paying attention to things like this.

This one has it all paimeifist, great music, great unique story and very dark. Get it while it's still cheap.

[paimeifist]

Yeah it sounds awesome. I believe you have said it was one of you favorite Jimmy Wang Yu movies before. I enjoy when the characters personality shows in the fighting, I think it's a nice subtlety in a genre that can often lack just that.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I rewatched Kung Fu Rebels. It's better than I remember. Not great or anything, but a good flick for hardcore fans. The dog vs toad style at the end is so ridiculous and fun.

I'm watching Gathering of Heroes right now. The music at the beginning kicks ass.

[DrNgor]

I rewatched Kung Fu Rebels. It's better than I remember. Not great or anything, but a good flick for hardcore fans. The dog vs toad style at the end is so ridiculous and fun.

I'm watching Gathering of Heroes right now. The music at the beginning kicks ass.

The dumb comedy in the first half and the mean-spirited violence just killed it for me.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Yeah it's a bad movie that's for sure, but it's really weird has a certain charm to it. And how many late 70's flicks have Man Kong Lung as the lead actor? And how many have Wang Chung as the main villain? I thought it was a cool movie just for that, and good choreography certainly helps.

Gathering Of Heroes is boring, but Chen Sing and Kurata are really fierce in this one, so it's worth a watch.

[AlbertV]

Blood on the Sun (Frank Lloyd, 1945) - James Cagney does judo. Review on the main page.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Blood on the Sun (Frank Lloyd, 1945) - James Cagney does judo. Review on the main page.

The even more awesome thing about Cagney in these scenes are he insisted and successfully performed his own fight scenes with no double.

I know this has been stated by several reviews, but you can clearly see that Cagney is doubled in the last scene. There are tons of the tell-tale signs of double covering his face, you do not see Cagney's face, the hair style (and body type) change, the judo is better than when you see Cagney do it earlier in the film.

[DragonClaws]

I know this has been stated by several reviews, but you can clearly see that Cagney is doubled in the last scene. There are tons of the tell-tale signs of double covering his face, you do not see Cagney's face, the hair style (and body type) change, the judo is better than when you see Cagney do it earlier in the film.

Cagney studied Judo in real life but his skills may not have been good enough to match the choreography required in the final fight. His real life instructor and ex cop John Halloran has a small part in Blood On The Sun as the Japanese Captain Oshima.

James Cagney kept his interest in Judo until a back injury prevented him from practicing in later life. He was also a very skilled dancer too.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Cagney studied Judo in real life but his skills may not have been good enough to match the choreography required in the final fight. His real life instructor and ex cop John Halloran has a small part in Blood On The Sun as the Japanese Captain Oshima.

James Cagney kept his interest in Judo until a back injury prevented him from practicing in later life. He was also a very skilled dancer too.

I think it is usually two parts: the possible skill level as you mention and the fact that the studio does not want him to do stunts at all if they can help it. An injury to him means a delay in production which means extra cost (a serious extra cost.) Now most of the time it is because of skill level like when you see Peter Lorre doubled in the Mr. Moto films. But when you have a skill level like Steve McQueen with his driving (cars and motorcycles, which he loved to do in film) sometimes the actor does not tell when he is going to do a dangerous stunt till it is all over.

Cagney was very proud of his dance. Funny that you mention that as the following is a coincidence. Today I'm reading Bob Hope's book Don't Shoot. It's Only Me and Hope talks about working with James Cagney (and his dancing) in The Seven Little Foys (I have but not have seen the film.)

[DragonClaws]

I think it is usually two parts: the possible skill level as you mention and the fact that the studio does not want him to do stunts at all if they can help it. An injury to him means a delay in production which means extra cost (a serious extra cost.) Now most of the time it is because of skill level like when you see Peter Lorre doubled in the Mr. Moto films. But when you have a skill level like Steve McQueen with his driving (cars and motorcycles, which he loved to do in film) sometimes the actor does not tell when he is going to do a dangerous stunt till it is all over.

Cagney was very proud of his dance. Funny that you mention that as the following is a coincidence. Today I'm reading Bob Hope's book Don't Shoot. It's Only Me and Hope talks about working with James Cagney (and his dancing) in The Seven Little Foys (I have but not have seen the film.)

Interesting post Master, after the Harold Llyod silent film era studios were not as keen to risk hurting the star of their film. Impact magazine run an article on Blood On The Sun with its early use of Judo in the fight scenes.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Interesting post Master, after the Harold Llyod silent film era studios were not as keen to risk hurting the star of their film. Impact magazine run an article on Blood On The Sun with its early use of Judo in the fight scenes.

Well when the big studios took over so much changed and it became much more cost oriented (as well as other issues like female directors became almost unknown with a few exceptions like Ida Lupino. It's crazy what guys like Buster Keaton* and Harold Lloyd did (and may others, many unknown to most, including Roscoe Arbuckle who was one of the most adroit big men) during the silent era as with stunts. It's no wonder why Lloyd and Keaton would influence both Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan (Charlie Chaplin would also highly influence just not as much in the stunts area.)

The earliest use of Judo (there might be some debate to this) I have seen in a movie was in Sidewalks of New York (1931: Zion Myers, Jules White) with Buster Keaton.

* I just read Keaton's autobiography My Wonderful World of Slapstick and I highly recommend it.

[DrNgor]

* I just read Keaton's autobiography My Wonderful World of Slapstick and I highly recommend it.

I need to watch more Buster Keaton movies, especially considering his influence on Jackie Chan. I've only seen The Paleface and Sherlock Jr..

[masterofoneinchpunch]

I need to watch more Buster Keaton movies, especially considering his influence on Jackie Chan. I've only seen The Paleface and Sherlock Jr..

His best works are his silent films where he had much more control over his features (well most are considered his with a few exceptions like his earliest work with Arbuckle, though Arbuckle gave him more and more control and features like The Saphead which you can wait to watch.) But when you watch Keaton you can see why he was influential. He did most of his own stunts(including stunts of other characters), he had control of the camera, his gagmen etc... When you look at his later work for MGM (before he was fired) you can see that he generally was right.

Lloyd is amazing because he was doing stunts with part of his hand missing (his later shorts he is using a prosthetic hand.) In a short, Haunted Spooks (1920), a bomb blew up in his hand burning him, making him temporarily blind and losing a few fingers. Now Lloyd did use stunt doubles more than Keaton, but he still did a lot of the work. He is probably my second favorite silent film comedian. My favorites are Keaton, Lloyd, Chaplin, Charley Chase and then Roscoe Arbuckle (not counting the team of Laurel and Hardy.) I'm sort of ambivalent about Harry Langdon and Max Linder.

[DragonClaws]

Well when the big studios took over so much changed and it became much more cost oriented (as well as other issues like female directors became almost unknown with a few exceptions like Ida Lupino. It's crazy what guys like Buster Keaton* and Harold Lloyd did (and may others, many unknown to most, including Roscoe Arbuckle who was one of the most adroit big men) during the silent era as with stunts. It's no wonder why Lloyd and Keaton would influence both Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan (Charlie Chaplin would also highly influence just not as much in the stunts area.)

The earliest use of Judo (there might be some debate to this) I have seen in a movie was in Sidewalks of New York (1931: Zion Myers, Jules White) with Buster Keaton.

* I just read Keaton's autobiography My Wonderful World of Slapstick and I highly recommend it.

I have only seen clips from films featuring some of these stars. My knowledge of the silent era is pretty much non existent.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

I have only seen clips from films featuring some of these stars. My knowledge of the silent era is pretty much non existent.

There is a ton of silents that are very good. While it is hard to get most people to watch them (that's been the case for years), I've been able to make converts out of some, especially with Keaton and Lloyd (Criterion fans also tend to like Chaplin.) So I would suggest going to silent comedy first before (if you are interested) going into silent drama. The comedies seem to translate better for most and as has been mentioned have been quite influential on a lot of Hong Kong directors and actors.

[in American silents] There is a lot of boxing scenes (wrestling and judo/jujitsu you would start seeing more of in the 1930s) in silents. It is interesting to see the rise in popularity of that and baseball in the movies.

I have a nice collection of silents from all different countries. Japan and China would keep going with silents later than America and Europe, but there are some good films among them.

[DrNgor]

I occasionally dabble in silent horror/sci-fi (I have a copy of the restored version of The Lost World in my collection and own a few others), but that's mainly been it, with the exception of the two Buster Keaton films I've mentioned. I had the Lon Chaney Hunchback of Notre Dame on DVD, but I ended up selling that. Other than The Lost World, I rarely find reason to revisit them and watch them mainly as part of my general B-movie education.

[Lady Jin Szu-Yi]

I don't know if you could call Fight Among the Supers classic, but I utterly dug Lu Feng in this. Chiang Sheng got the lame end of the stick alas, but this just delighted the little girl me to no freaking end. Yes, it's corny and some humor is forced, but it was great to see Lu bust out some comedic chops. So bad it's great. Definitely a keeper and one I will return to when I am having an absolutely awful day. I think this could be a loopy double feature with Odd Couple. Oh and the 'pop belly' translation error makes me laugh every time I think of it.

Legend of the Fox (1980) Um, why did they keep cutting Kuo and Lu's most excellent days long sword fight? I quite enjoyed their moments together. As others have mentioned once the action drifts away from them things start to drag. Ultimately though I enjoyed this quite a lot. Great to see Lu and Chiang play against type (I know they've flipped roles before) and there were moments where the King of the Poison stuff was fun.

Nine Demons Yikes...well...I'll pretend I never saw this. I have a very high threshold for trashy films, but sometimes that threshold is crossed. Although hearing the G-Force transformation soundbite was a lot of fun.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Has anyone seen A Hero's Tears 1978? I only made it about 15 minutes in and I couldnt stand it. The fights suck but Ling Yun looks cool. Is there anything worth watching in this one? Please tell me there's no more scenes in a men's bathhouse.

[DragonClaws]

There is a ton of silents that are very good. While it is hard to get most people to watch them (that's been the case for years), I've been able to make converts out of some, especially with Keaton and Lloyd (Criterion fans also tend to like Chaplin.) So I would suggest going to silent comedy first before (if you are interested) going into silent drama. The comedies seem to translate better for most and as has been mentioned have been quite influential on a lot of Hong Kong directors and actors.

[in American silents] There is a lot of boxing scenes (wrestling and judo/jujitsu you would start seeing more of in the 1930s) in silents. It is interesting to see the rise in popularity of that and baseball in the movies.

I have a nice collection of silents from all different countries. Japan and China would keep going with silents later than America and Europe, but there are some good films among them.

They used to still screen a lot of silent film when I was a kid. I remember watching some of the early Laurel & Hardy films. George Miller recently talked about the influence of silent cinema on his film and most recently Fury Road.

I Haven't watched any classic Kung Fu since Ten Magnificent Killers. Might have to put something on tonight after few drinks round town.

[Hasimir Fenring]

I don't know if you could call Fight Among the Supers classic, but I utterly dug Lu Feng in this. Chiang Sheng got the lame end of the stick alas, but this just delighted the little girl me to no freaking end. Yes, it's corny and some humor is forced, but it was great to see Lu bust out some comedic chops. So bad it's great. Definitely a keeper and one I will return to when I am having an absolutely awful day. I think this could be a loopy double feature with Odd Couple. Oh and the 'pop belly' translation error makes me laugh every time I think of it.

Legend of the Fox (1980) Um, why did they keep cutting Kuo and Lu's most excellent days long sword fight? I quite enjoyed their moments together. As others have mentioned once the action drifts away from them things start to drag. Ultimately though I enjoyed this quite a lot. Great to see Lu and Chiang play against type (I know they've flipped roles before) and there were moments where the King of the Poison stuff was fun.

Nine Demons Yikes...well...I'll pretend I never saw this. I have a very high threshold for trashy films, but sometimes that threshold is crossed. Although hearing the G-Force transformation soundbite was a lot of fun.

Yeah, Nine Demons was an atrocity. I saw it under the Nine Venoms name, which made sense given only two of the Venoms were involved... I dare say the appalling dub job and pan & scan treatment doesn't help it, but I think Chang Cheh was definitely on the downward swing by that point anyway.

I do wish they'd looked after their films better. Too many are only available in awful condition.

There is a ton of silents that are very good. While it is hard to get most people to watch them (that's been the case for years), I've been able to make converts out of some, especially with Keaton and Lloyd (Criterion fans also tend to like Chaplin.) So I would suggest going to silent comedy first before (if you are interested) going into silent drama. The comedies seem to translate better for most and as has been mentioned have been quite influential on a lot of Hong Kong directors and actors.

[in American silents] There is a lot of boxing scenes (wrestling and judo/jujitsu you would start seeing more of in the 1930s) in silents. It is interesting to see the rise in popularity of that and baseball in the movies.

I have a nice collection of silents from all different countries. Japan and China would keep going with silents later than America and Europe, but there are some good films among them.

Got to admit, whilst I've watched a few, I do find silent features hard to get into. Shorts I'm fine with, but I struggle with anything longer. I've downloaded a nice little collection (legally too, as a lot are now public domain ) but I end up baulking at a 150 min film with no dialogue and stick a Shaws film on instead.