John Little knows diddly squat about HK cinema!

[Killer Meteor]

Was watching Bruce Lee A Warrior's Journey (cripes, not seen it for 10 years!) and whilst it's a very intelligent and well researched documentary as far as Bruce Lee is concerned, its two brief asides on HK cinema are humoursly ignorant.

Both segments, one before Bruce makes films in HK, and one after his death, suggest that the majority of HK cinema was fantastic swordplay stuff with people flying through the air and pure fantasy. This is in total ignorance of the Chinese Boxing films that had started the wave for modern fighting, the wave in which Bruce made his films, and in total ignorance of the fact that following Bruce, HK martial arts cinema moved into studying Chinese martial arts history (Shaw's Shaolin films) and other Asian fighting arts (Sammo and Golden Harvest's films on Thai boxing and Taekwondo), in addition to swordplay.

And the proof in the pudding? The pre-Bruce martial arts film is represented by a clip from Zu Warriors, and the post-Bruce by a clip from Duel To The Death. Both films made 10 years after Bruce's passing, and both quite unusual for their time, in that most of HK cinema was arguably following Bruce's example by making modern day action pictures with realistic street fighting and logical acrobatics. It's clear Little used these clips because they were on Bruce Lee: The Legend.

Oh well, at least he didn't follow the tired and false cliche of suggesting HK cinema was nothing but Bruce Lee clones until Jackie Chan came along...

[sdog2006]

There is some truth in what you say but there's maybe an explanation.

"Zu Warriors" and "Duel To The Death", ironically enough, were both featured on Bruce Lee The Legend so, even though the continuity is off, that probably explains their use. Little and Co clearly didn't have the rights to use anything else.

The point being made by Little really echoes Bruce Lee's owns sentiments. Reading between the lines Lee thought the HK movies, prior to his arrival, were garbage. Now that might not be an opinion we all share but I can understand where both Lee and the documentary are coming from.

From my vantage point, after Lee died, there was a distinct drop in HK cinema quality. Jackie Chan didn't get his shit together until 1978 and Golden Harvest pulled a ton of crap out their studio for a long time.

In 1977, around the time of Shaolin Plot, Sammo Hung upped his game and became, IN MY OPINION, the finest fight choreographer in history. That was largely due to Lee only having a three year career as opposed to the longevity Hung enjoyed, which gave him time to master his craft.

Not surprisingly Little declined to mention that.

* I should point out, after my analysis, that I cannot stand Shaw Brothers movies but I'm aware that a lot of people like them

Above is only my opinion....

[Killer Meteor]

There is some truth in what you say but there's maybe an explanation.

"Zu Warriors" and "Duel To The Death", ironically enough, were both featured on Bruce Lee The Legend so, even though the continuity is off, that probably explains their use. Little and Co clearly didn't have the rights to use anything else.

The point being made by Little really echoes Bruce Lee's owns sentiments. Reading between the lines Lee thought the HK movies, prior to his arrival, were garbage. Now that might not be an opinion we all share but I can understand where both Lee and the documentary are coming from.

From my vantage point, after Lee died, there was a distinct drop in HK cinema quality. Jackie Chan didn't get his shit together until 1978 and Golden Harvest pulled a ton of crap out their studio for a long time.

In 1977, around the time of Shaolin Plot, Sammo Hung upped his game and became, IN MY OPINION, the finest fight choreographer in history. That was largely due to Lee only having a three year career as opposed to the longevity Hung enjoyed, which gave him time to master his craft.

Not surprisingly Little declined to mention that.

* I should point out, after my analysis, that I cannot stand Shaw Brothers movies but I'm aware that a lot of people like them

Above is only my opinion....

I'm intrigued to know which films Bruce was thinking of. I wonder what he thought of King Hu or Chang Cheh's films. Bruce's main interest seems to be the Japanese samurai pictures of the 60s, which were very high quality.

I do feel a lot of the Shaw and GH stuff in 1974 is very lifeless, like someone winded them in the stomach. I feel the Taiwanese scene, in particular Wang Yu and Joseph Kuo, is where the action is.

Another thing I've noticed is how a fair few books and docus on HK cinema in the 90s were very Golden Harvest oriented, and it shows what the lack of avaliability of Shaw films was like at the time.

[The Dragon]

I'm intrigued to know which films Bruce was thinking of. I wonder what he thought of King Hu or Chang Cheh's films. Bruce's main interest seems to be the Japanese samurai pictures of the 60s, which were very high quality.

I do feel a lot of the Shaw and GH stuff in 1974 is very lifeless, like someone winded them in the stomach. I feel the Taiwanese scene, in particular Wang Yu and Joseph Kuo, is where the action is.

Another thing I've noticed is how a fair few books and docus on HK cinema in the 90s were very Golden Harvest oriented, and it shows what the lack of avaliability of Shaw films was like at the time.

I believe when Lee first visited Shaws, he was on the set of The Annonymous Heroes, with Ti Lung, Ku Feng and David Chiang. He was not impressed with the action he saw being filmed.

[Killer Meteor]

I believe when Lee first visited Shaws, he was on the set of The Annonymous Heroes, with Ti Lung, Ku Feng and David Chiang. He was not impressed with the action he saw being filmed.

It must be hard to make realistic fights where you know just one of the extras could probably eat David Chiang for breakfast!