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

[ShaOW!linDude]

Kill Or Be Killed

[sym8]

On 3/7/2019 at 1:27 PM, Ah_Tao said:

Lone Wolf McQuade

 

I revisited this after God knows how long and... it's just awesome as I remember it to be! I love watching Chuck just do his thing and his performance really shines in it. 

My only gripe that I had then which I still have now is the scene where:

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McQuade is buried and all of a sudden he's able to drive out because of the "power of his engine". Didn't make sense to me at all but hey, it's a movie after all.

 

Who can ever forget the climatic fight scene? Carradine's tenure in Kung Fu shows well in this fight scene too. I don't think the movie would have worked if Lee was the one to face McQuade (just wouldn't have made it believeable but I digress). 

On top of it all, there's explosions, explosions, and even MORE EXPLOSIONS.

5/5

This for me is Chuck Norris at his best,the only complaint from me is David Carradines performance in the fight scenes.Like Chuck Norris once said  He knows as much about martial arts as i do about acting.Great film though👍👍

[ThunderScore]

Watched the bluray of Enter the Ninja...

[ShaOW!linDude]

Watched China O'Brien 2 last night starring Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton, and Keith Cooke. Plot was sort of meh, but the action was solid. There are some instances where the undercranking gets a little whack at the beginning, but that seems to get sorted out pretty quick. Rothrock and Norton handle their fight scenes really well, but to me it was Cooke who was the standout. That guy is an outstanding kicker. Really wish he had more films of his own. Terrific screen fighter.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

I watched the SHAOLIN  PLOT, which I never get tired of. It's funny, but at the end, the battle of the badasses are really two Tae Kwon Do guys fighting a Karate trained body builder.  Golden Harvest and Ng See Yuen were both impressed by Korean stylists. While they opera trained guys were acrobatic and agile, they just didn't have the umph that the Tae Kwon Do guys had at the time. You can see a few Shaw brothers guys (mainly Chen Kuan Tai and karate trained Fu Sheng) lay on some blows, but you just can't fake the full contact experience that Hwang, Moon and Casanova Wong brought to these movies. But Sammo and Jackie weren't stupid, and started upping the contact level in their subsequent films as the shapes films were losing popularity, as Project A, Young Master and other films made big bucks, the fighting styles changed. I have to say that this is one of the best in terms of action of this transition, with Kam Kong stealing the middle of the film as the monk who gets blinded. As with most of these films, logic sort of flies out the window. While Shaolin is somehow the apex of the martial arts world, it takes several of their best to whip one mean Manchu. That's a big flaw of these films for western viewers. As awful as Chuck Norris's kicks are, or hokey as Van Damme's attempts to do anything but kick, they always get their man. 

[Tex Killer]

8 hours ago, sym8 said:

This for me is Chuck Norris at his best,the only complaint from me is David Carradines performance in the fight scenes.Like Chuck Norris once said  He knows as much about martial arts as i do about acting

And that statement flatters neither. Well after some insecure acting performances chuck at least become more confident in front of camera but some his early movies are hard to watch coz of his acting.

Don`t like much Wolf, Pre-Missing In Action flicks(which are great) my fav is likely Forced Vengeance.

 

[sym8]

14 hours ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

I watched the SHAOLIN  PLOT, which I never get tired of. It's funny, but at the end, the battle of the badasses are really two Tae Kwon Do guys fighting a Karate trained body builder.  Golden Harvest and Ng See Yuen were both impressed by Korean stylists. While they opera trained guys were acrobatic and agile, they just didn't have the umph that the Tae Kwon Do guys had at the time. You can see a few Shaw brothers guys (mainly Chen Kuan Tai and karate trained Fu Sheng) lay on some blows, but you just can't fake the full contact experience that Hwang, Moon and Casanova Wong brought to these movies. But Sammo and Jackie weren't stupid, and started upping the contact level in their subsequent films as the shapes films were losing popularity, as Project A, Young Master and other films made big bucks, the fighting styles changed. I have to say that this is one of the best in terms of action of this transition, with Kam Kong stealing the middle of the film as the monk who gets blinded. As with most of these films, logic sort of flies out the window. While Shaolin is somehow the apex of the martial arts world, it takes several of their best to whip one mean Manchu. That's a big flaw of these films for western viewers. As awful as Chuck Norris's kicks are, or hokey as Van Damme's attempts to do anything but kick, they always get their man. 

Loved this film,I’ve always felt at this time in the Hong Kong movie industry Golden Harvest had the edge over Shaw Brothers when it came to the fight choreography.In the kicking department they had great exponents and choreographers(in this case Sammo)who new how to use them.Shaw brothers seemed to just concentrate on the Hung Kuen style.Still great movies though.

[sym8]

13 hours ago, Tex Killer said:

And that statement flatters neither. Well after some insecure acting performances chuck at least become more confident in front of camera but some his early movies are hard to watch coz of his acting.

Don`t like much Wolf, Pre-Missing In Action flicks(which are great) my fav is likely Forced Vengeance.

 

I thought Forced vengeance was a great film with a good budget,I thought some of the fight scenes was a case of opponents waiting to be hit,not all though I remember the fight towards the end where Norris goes at it with what seems to be two gardeners dressed in white,great scene.👍👍

[saltysam]

The Tiger Jump

Raymond Liu arrives in HK from Macau looking for work, he has no luck and is living on the streets until he rescues a man from a severe beating by a gang of thugs. The man's grateful father (the old guy from ETD) gives him a job in his nightclub. Unfortunately things escalate from there and Raymond is wrongfully accused of murder and ends up on the run. At first i wasn't too impressed with this one, cheaply made and repetitive but after about 45 minutes it kicks in and there's some seriously good basher action pretty much non stop until the end. Liu Vs Chen Sing would have been a hell of a match! The german DVD is english dubbed, unfortunately taken from a severely and i mean severely cut german print which means the amount of poor VHS inserts here,in every fight scene (except the last one) is overwhelming and distracting. They disc has the german print as an extra,it's 16 minutes shorter which tells how much it was cut.The entire last 5-6 minutes is cut leaving the film ending very differently. Still i enjoyed this on the whole and must seek out more Raymond Lui films.

What i did find odd here, is the film was made in 1974 yet in the nightclub scenes a instrumental disco version of Blondie's "Call Me" is playing,which didn't come out until 1979.

Edited March 12, 2019 by saltysam

[Drunken Monk]

Sister Street Fighter - This was literally my first foray into old school Japanese martial arts cinema. I’d pre-order this collection as well as Chiba’s film collection on Blu Ray. I was expecting big things. And wow! What can I say? Insufferable garbage. I know, I know...blasphemy. I can’t help it. This film was so bad, I turned it off. I can see how it can be fun for others. Sure. It’s sleazy, campy, over the top and pretty badass. If you can get that from it then more power to you. Dare I say I HATED this film? I’m not even sure why. I just found it so utterly unentertaining. It’s a messy hodgepodge that feels goaless and empty.

I hoped the action could save it. Nope. It did nothing for me in that department either. In fact, the action was such a letdown, I actually canceled my Street Fighter collection pre-order. I am sorely disappointed with this purchase. To think, for thirty extra bucks I could have gone for the massively superior (albeit different) Lone Wolf and Cub Blu Ray set.

And I know this says more about my tastes than the film itself. If you love it, I like that you love it. I think that’s great. Me? Nope. This was well outside of the realm of “enjoyable” for me.

In fact, if any of you longtime members (in the US) haven’t bought this yet and want it, hit up my pm’s. I’d be happy to send it to a better home.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Drunken Monk

[saltysam]

The Street Fighter movies are very polarising. I like them, not as much as my old school kung fu flicks but i can understand why some can't get into them.

[DragonClaws]

19 hours ago, Drunken Monk said:

In fact, if any of you longtime members (in the US) haven’t bought this yet and want it, hit up my pm’s. I’d be happy to send it to a better home.

 

If I lived in the U.S, I snapped this up in a heabeat.

Respect your opinions @Drunken Monk, even if I like the series. I do prefer The Streetfighter movies, in particular the first two. I'd recommend at least giving the first movie at try, at some point in the future.

[Killer Meteor]

On 3/12/2019 at 8:11 PM, saltysam said:

What i did find odd here, is the film was made in 1974 yet in the nightclub scenes a instrumental disco version of Blondie's "Call Me" is playing,which didn't come out until 1979.

I saw a 1974 basher where the dub was done in the 80s by Ocean Shores and it had late 70s/early 80s music.

[ShaOW!linDude]

On 3/12/2019 at 7:08 PM, Drunken Monk said:

Sister Street Fighter - This was literally my first foray into old school Japanese martial arts cinema. I’d pre-order this collection as well as Chiba’s film collection on Blu Ray. I was expecting big things. And wow! What can I say? Insufferable garbage. I know, I know...blasphemy. I can’t help it. This film was so bad, I turned it off. I can see how it can be fun for others. Sure. It’s sleazy, campy, over the top and pretty badass. If you can get that from it then more power to you. Dare I say I HATED this film? I’m not even sure why. I just found it so utterly unentertaining. It’s a messy hodgepodge that feels goaless and empty.

I hoped the action could save it. Nope. It did nothing for me in that department either. In fact, the action was such a letdown, I actually canceled my Street Fighter collection pre-order. I am sorely disappointed with this purchase. To think, for thirty extra bucks I could have gone for the massively superior (albeit different) Lone Wolf and Cub Blu Ray set.

And I know this says more about my tastes than the film itself. If you love it, I like that you love it. I think that’s great. Me? Nope. This was well outside of the realm of “enjoyable” for me.

In fact, if any of you longtime members (in the US) haven’t bought this yet and want it, hit up my pm’s. I’d be happy to send it to a better home.

Wow! Your reaction is like me watching any Jimmy Wang Yu film. 

I watched this many, many years ago, and I was also sorely unimpressed with it. Never cared to see it again, and never even knew there was more to make a collection of. Never seen it, but from what I remember hearing about 13 Steps of the Maki on the forum a few years back, that series is supposedly a better showcasing of Sue Shiomi's skills.

[saltysam]

Sister Street Fighter 1-4

An enjoyable for me at least series of films, short snappy and pretty action packed. Add sleazy and nasty to the mix as well. Etsuko Shiomi  plays Koryu (in 1-3, 4 is part of the series in name only and is unrelated)  who resides in HK but invariably ends up in Japan trying to rescue a family member/friend from drug barons,crime bosses or pimps. Yusaki Kurata is always a welcome sight and he's in parts 2 & 3 playing a similar but different character in each. Masashi Ishibashi is a baddie in 1-3 playing a different role each time! Sonny Chiba only appears in the first and is fairly badass but he's not playing his Terry Tsurgi character here. A nice set from Arrow.

 

Melinda/One Down,Two To Go

Thought i'd add the above 2 movies in one post to round off my Jim Kelly marathon. In Melinda, his movie debut he's only in the film at the start and at the climax but pulls off a few nice moves and his charisma is evident even this early. The film itself is an ok drama about arrogant Calvin Lockhart being framed for the brutal murder of the title character.

In One Down,Two To Go Kelly is reunited with his Three The Hard Way co-stars Brown & Williamson but this time round the results are a mile away in quality. Jim is a martial arts fighter/promoter who is shot and injured early on,so spends most of the movie out of the action. He does get to face off with Louis Neglia though. After this one, Kelly seemed to disappear from the movie industry, i'd be really curious to know why, he could have made a good living acting in the multitude of DTV actioners made in the late 80's and through the 90's. What a waste.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

4 hours ago, saltysam said:

Sister Street Fighter 1-4

An enjoyable for me at least series of films, short snappy and pretty action packed. Add sleazy and nasty to the mix as well. Etsuko Shiomi  plays Koryu (in 1-3, 4 is part of the series in name only and is unrelated)  who resides in HK but invariably ends up in Japan trying to rescue a family member/friend from drug barons,crime bosses or pimps. Yusaki Kurata is always a welcome sight and he's in parts 2 & 3 playing a similar but different character in each. Masashi Ishibashi is a baddie in 1-3 playing a different role each time! Sonny Chiba only appears in the first and is fairly badass but he's not playing his Terry Tsurgi character here. A nice set from Arrow.

 

Melinda/One Down,Two To Go

Thought i'd add the above 2 movies in one post to round off my Jim Kelly marathon. In Melinda, his movie debut he's only in the film at the start and at the climax but pulls off a few nice moves and his charisma is evident even this early. The film itself is an ok drama about arrogant Calvin Lockhart being framed for the brutal murder of the title character.

In One Down,Two To Go Kelly is reunited with his Three The Hard Way co-stars Brown & Williamson but this time round the results are a mile away in quality. Jim is a martial arts fighter/promoter who is shot and injured early on,so spends most of the movie out of the action. He does get to face off with Louis Neglia though. After this one, Kelly seemed to disappear from the movie industry, i'd be really curious to know why, he could have made a good living acting in the multitude of DTV actioners made in the late 80's and through the 90's. What a waste.

Have a look. He took himself to seriously, turned down the role in I'm Gonna Get You Sucka! that Steve James eventually took. Guy was making money, so he was choosy. http://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/16194

[Ah_Tao]

On 3/10/2019 at 5:13 PM, sym8 said:

This for me is Chuck Norris at his best,the only complaint from me is David Carradines performance in the fight scenes.Like Chuck Norris once said  He knows as much about martial arts as i do about acting.Great film though👍👍

I thought it flowed well in the last fight scene, not with the first one when he was in the gi.

[sym8]

Sun Dragon-1979.This was my very first introduction to a Kung fu movie and I was hooked.A Kung fu western that wasn’t even shot in the Wild West and a native Indian that’s played by a Chinese Kung fu guy what’s not to like.Billy Chong on top form along with Carl Scott who in my mind took to the Hong Kong choreography better than anyone from the west(just check out Louis Negals turn as the bad guy,very stiff)great choreography all round a must watch.(don’t know if this is true but I read once that the fight Carl Scott has in the quarry was choreographed by Either Yuen woo ping or Corey Yuen,can anyone confirm this?)👍👍👍👍

[saltysam]

10 hours ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

Have a look. He took himself to seriously, turned down the role in I'm Gonna Get You Sucka! that Steve James eventually took. Guy was making money, so he was choosy. http://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/16194

Choosy about scripts? this guy signed on for Death Dimension 😁

[andy338]

Hellz Windstaff - non stop good quality fights throughout, Hwang Jang Lee is (as usual) a total badass that needs 3 heroes to take him down in the finale. Would highly recommend to all kung fu fans.

[Graysman]

I watched Thundering Mantis last night after not seeing it for years. is there a Chinese language Version available anywhere?

[Drunken Monk]

Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin - A fun old school Jackie flick with a focus on fights (whether comedic or traditional action). Sadly, once the fights die down, the film sags a little. Luckily it picks up towards the end massively and delivers some fantastic choreography with early signs of Jackie’s now trademark flourishes. All in all, a lot of fun. Even if it did lose me  little at times.

[saltysam]

Snake & Crane Secret

Tan Tao Liang & Meng Fei are brothers separated at birth after their father is killed protecting the snake & crane kung fu book. Years later his killer is a white haired unbeatable kung fu expert high up in the Ching rulers. Not bad but i expected better-the english dubbing is a laugh at times.

Street Fighter Trilogy

Sonny Chiba is badass mercenary Takuma Tsurgi is this entertaining series of 70's classics. The first one is by far the best (it also looks the best of the three on these restored blu rays) but all three have their moments. Watching this set i'm guessing the initial plan was just to release the american dubbed versions as that's what's been restored in 2k , there's SD inserts in the 3rd film to make it uncut. I assume it's because fans made their voices heard and thankfully we have the japanese options here. Well done Shout.

[saltysam]

Chinese Hercules

Chan Wai Man thinks he's killed a man in a fight so runs off, vows to never fight again and finds a job on a small town pier unloading bags of rice. Of course the bosses are pure evil and the syndicate run by regular evil bastard Yeh Fang who show up shortly after who want the pier for their own ends are even worse. Enter Bolo who really is a merciless brute here and things go bad quickly. I like this one though Chan Wai Man takes far too long to to give up on his vow and get scrapping. A couple of familiar faces from WOTD are here,including the evil uncle who's not a half bad fighter. The Rarescope DVD is annoying, choosing to watch the subbed version, on zooming the non-anamorphic image half the subs disappear off screen. So rather than watching it through a square window i watched the english dub option. In the annals of 70's kung fu evil bastards i reckon there was a contest going on between Yeh Fang & Lung Fei to try and outbastard each other.Awesome,the two of them.

Edited March 24, 2019 by saltysam

[Killer Meteor]

On 3/24/2019 at 5:48 PM, saltysam said:

Chinese Hercules

Chan Wai Man thinks he's killed a man in a fight so runs off, vows to never fight again and finds a job on a small town pier unloading bags of rice. Of course the bosses are pure evil and the syndicate run by regular evil bastard Yeh Fang who show up shortly after who want the pier for their own ends are even worse. Enter Bolo who really is a merciless brute here and things go bad quickly. I like this one though Chan Wai Man takes far too long to to give up on his vow and get scrapping. A couple of familiar faces from WOTD are here,including the evil uncle who's not a half bad fighter. The Rarescope DVD is annoying, choosing to watch the subbed version, on zooming the non-anamorphic image half the subs disappear off screen. So rather than watching it through a square window i watched the english dub option. In the annals of 70's kung fu evil bastards i reckon there was a contest going on between Yeh Fang & Lung Fei to try and outbastard each other.Awesome,the two of them.

The US BCI disc of the US print is anamorphic. It's a fun basher, one of Bolo's better showcases of this time period, as he was usually just cast as dumb fodder to be knocked out by much weaker heroes.

 

Did you spot Jackie Chan in this?