Member rdenn Posted October 8, 2013 Member Share Posted October 8, 2013 nope Chinese movies are not shown at the cinema in my part of the world Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Gwai LO Posted October 9, 2013 Member Share Posted October 9, 2013 If you downloaded it. I'm looking for a link. I'm still dying to see this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member VenomsFan Posted October 9, 2013 Member Share Posted October 9, 2013 It's not just the downloading. I've noticed this year alot of news on Chinese movies and their reviews is really limited as of late. Noticed this on the Nunchakus thread when looking up info on Dragon Chen. Members from the east have no problem opening certain websites. What a crackdown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member rdenn Posted October 9, 2013 Member Share Posted October 9, 2013 Gwai LO sent you a pm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Gwai LO Posted October 9, 2013 Member Share Posted October 9, 2013 I didn't get any PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member rdenn Posted October 9, 2013 Member Share Posted October 9, 2013 check it now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DiP Posted October 9, 2013 Member Share Posted October 9, 2013 So much hype and promises... Oh well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BaronK Posted October 10, 2013 Member Share Posted October 10, 2013 Really liked the action in this. Cap'n scared me but gladly I don't agree. Honestly the only place there is heavier slo-mo is the final between the antagonist and protagonist. There is other action happening at the same time and it has no slo-mo. The Xing Yu(Shi Yan Neng)-Crazy Monkey fight is something else. It is the best but I like all of t other action as well. The XY vs Giant was good as well. Let XY show off his shaolin fist techniques. Somewhere it was said Sammo was the AD. He is not and I'm glad. It was done by a Peng Zhang(kudos). This has some of the best and distraction-less wirework out there. It's clean, simple, smart. It's not Woo Ping, Sammo, Y Kwei floaty wtf, whytf type of wire work. It's not done much but it's very well done. There is swing and hit style as well as some exchanges here. I noticed a lot of shaolin fist stuff in the choreography. The trailer honestly doesn't do the action many favors. The Crazy Monkey fight had the best infusion of wires, parkour and gymnastics I've seen yet in a fight scene. Very well done, creative fight. The camera captures from low, climbing high, high to low. Good stuff. Camera and editing never get in the way or ruin a shot ever. Never too close. Never shakes. There is a very smart thing done with static iron men, where they are "brought to life". Once in the beginning and once again later in the picture. It's very well thought out and done. I like the look of the picture. It's big. Big music. Big sets and locations. Costumes for many extras. Felt like a new world Shaw picture in that sense. Really nice to see a picture this big that let the screen fighters be the main actors rather than get actors to be the main char. and have the screen fighters be 9th down in importance and screen time. Xing Yu is a hell of a screen fighter and he really brought something new with the shaolin work. Not mindblowing but not disappointing in the least. And that little monk kid was a hell of an actor. PS. Peng Zhang worked on Scott Pilgram vs The World with Brad Allan so that's where that gymnastics infusion came from. Some of those tumble flips and rolls seen in Hellboy 2 in there gave it away. Hell, just found out he worked with Brad on Hellboy 2. Bingo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DiP Posted October 10, 2013 Member Share Posted October 10, 2013 Glad to see different opinions here. Guess I'm seeing this after all. Props for your analysis, BK. Looking forward to your review of Special ID. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Gwai LO Posted October 11, 2013 Member Share Posted October 11, 2013 I think the movie is fantastic. The plot is a little.. Blah, I was expecting a better story with this one but the fights were awesome. I was worried about the slow motions also, but it never annoyed me. The slow motion was never used really used during an exchange, more of during him dodging or ducking or flipping. The hand to hand combat was great, I found myself rewinding a few fights for 2nd and 3rd viewings. The last fight is the only time it really used a lot of slow motion. Really good movie IMO and I will be picking up the blu ray when I see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member rdenn Posted October 11, 2013 Member Share Posted October 11, 2013 bkarza you going to pretend you never saw that wire assisted head flip from xing yu fighting the big guy that looked really silly .. thats not acceptable.., xing yu has done better fighitng elsewhere , to glossy , not impressed by slow motion hits to the face when its raining, not for me, and the sad thing is i know im going to enjoy scot atkins green street hooligans 3 more becuase i wont get any of this nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BaronK Posted October 11, 2013 Member Share Posted October 11, 2013 Didn't mind the head flip at all. It was something I never saw and dug it. It was kind of grabbing because of the timing. The slo-mo stuff was not what most of the action was. The last fight was not the best. It seemed to be played a bit more mystical. Why they went Neo vs Smith from MR I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DiP Posted October 13, 2013 Member Share Posted October 13, 2013 Finally got to watch it. I now take back everything bad I've said about it. It delivers in the action department and, surprisingly, in story/characters as well. Despite the material at work (death tournament somewhere isolated from the world, Japanese occupation of China during WW2... y'all know the movies), I was impressed how the film crew managed to work it out and pull off things very intense and touching altogether. We get good action AND good acting performances (Xing Yu is improving and that's a good thing) from almost everyone. Another thing that I've not realized so much until now is the use of foreign actors in principle casts of Chinese movies. HK/Chinese filmmakers have for the longest time turned non-Chinese actors to stiff, one-dimensional characters with the charisma of cartoon characters. It doesn't happen here though. whoever the foreigners are, they performed convincingly and even get a whole deal of screen-time doing big things other than being beat up or killed off like usually. Now the action... Awesome stuff! Xing Yu has been under-used for so long and it's great to see him unleash what was missing mostly in all those years he's been active in the business: solid physicality. Just give the guy more time to improve his acting skills and finding the suitable project and he'll make it big. Also kudos to, whoever Zhang Peng is, for staging the fight choreography and handling camerawork, his ideas are convention-free and diverse. There's wirework at play but (like BK said) they are used economically and intelligently while letting the players utilize real fighting techniques with real execution. From K-26 (Xing Yu's character's nickname) vs Japanese giant to K-26 vs Crazy Monkey (I share the same sentiments as everyone about this being the best fight scene of the whole movie), K-26 vs fellow K-comrades to training scenes. The result is refreshing. I'll join Rdenn on this one though and say that my only complaint is the final fight relying too much on slo-mo and at times excessive use of close-ups. But this is just a small portion out of an otherwise good action movie I'll let pass, seeing how everything else highly satisfies. Hope to see more from team Xing Yu/Zhang Peng/Law Wing-Cheong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Grimmjow Posted October 17, 2013 Member Share Posted October 17, 2013 I also enjoyed this movie, although they wasted Matt Mulins the action was good and I feel a step in the right direction for modern Chinese/Hong Kong kung fu cinema. Between this and Man of Tai Chi I feel a little better about the future of MA cinema in China, BUT the film was only one for a week in my local movie theater and then vanished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlbertV Posted October 17, 2013 Member Share Posted October 17, 2013 Okay, I'm definitely going to have to see this... and Peng Zhang is a member of Brad Allan's Stunt Team...they worked on Hellboy 2, Scott Pilgrim, and Kick-Ass 1. He also served as co-fight coordinator on the battle that ends the Twilight Saga and was fight coordinator for Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief. At one point, he was on Jackie Chan's Stunt Team but joined up w/ Brad Allan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Gwai LO Posted October 17, 2013 Member Share Posted October 17, 2013 I just hope this gets on DVD quickly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Gwai LO Posted October 22, 2013 Member Share Posted October 22, 2013 for the people who want to watch a fight scene from this movie. this is the crazy monkey fight and the end fight. personally i liked the fight VS the Giant the best but both of these were good. http://tv.sohu.com/s2013/1773/s386974563/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Drunken Monk Posted October 27, 2013 Member Share Posted October 27, 2013 Maybe I've become more forgiving in my old age but this film isn't just ok, it's damn good. The plot is pretty simple but the cinematography and, more importantly, the action are fantastic. Yes, there's slow motion. And wires. But I have zero complaints about either. In fact, the fight against Crazy Monkey was one of the most enthralling fights I've seen in a while. Honestly, don't pass up on this film just because of a few negative comments. See it for yourself and you might just like it...a lot. I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DiP Posted October 27, 2013 Member Share Posted October 27, 2013 Seriously, Xing Yu is someone to look out for. Out of all younger MA talents HK/China has today, he sticks out the most imo. Great martial artist, improving acting (although still stuck in his Shaolin mold), and has got the looks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted October 27, 2013 Member Share Posted October 27, 2013 He's been in the game almost as long as Wu Jing.... honestly, we in the fandom can hope and wish for these guys till we're blue in the face, but I just don't think the opportunities are there for them to become big stars. I think most of them take what they can get, and ocassionally get a cool project worthy of their talent. But as far as carving out a career for themselves, based around their action skills and martial prowess... I think it's a long shot. Xing Yu, Andy On, Philip Ng, Wu Jing, that Coweb girl and so on.... all great talents that in a perfect world should be able to pick and choose, but in the current market..... not so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member kami Posted October 28, 2013 Member Share Posted October 28, 2013 Xing Yu, Andy On, Philip Ng, Wu Jing, that Coweb girl and so on.... all great talents that in a perfect world should be able to pick and choose, but in the current market..... not so much. Of this list imo only Andy On has the potential to be a star, the other ones are good martial artists and great screen fighters but they definitely lack star appeal, charisma and acting talent. But I would like to see them more often in good supporting roles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member VenomsFan Posted October 28, 2013 Member Share Posted October 28, 2013 Then it depends on one's definition of 'star'. Because Iko Kuwais and Tony Jaa were 'stars' after their first film and had nowhere the skills or experience in the names I'm seeing listed here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted October 28, 2013 Member Share Posted October 28, 2013 Yeah, 'star' is kinda hard to define. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member blue_skies Posted October 28, 2013 Member Share Posted October 28, 2013 I think you have to make a big splash to really call yourself a martial arts star. Jaa and Uwais have both done that already. The others are no doubt talented but haven't made their mark. I guess sooner or later Li, Chan and Yen will step back and maybe one of those other guys will make the transition. Who knows? The only differences they are genuine movie stars, not just martial arts stars and without getting opportunities to lead, I have to wonder if and when they will ever get the chance. I know some people here say otherwise but I think HK has a long way to go before returning back to the top of the martial arts movie tree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted October 28, 2013 Member Share Posted October 28, 2013 They are in their mid to late 30's, they don't have time for the older guys to step aside. And honestly, under the ones mentioned, I see absolutely no one who could be the next big thing. At least no one that's on the scene now. Yeah the mainland is supposedly full of young up'n'commers but what chance do they have really. All genres has its highs and lows, but I fear that the martial arts genre is heading the way of the Western... a few good ones now and then, but really just on prolonged life support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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