Member GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG Posted April 15, 2014 Member Share Posted April 15, 2014 Actually, it has German, Mandarin and Cantonese dubs - but only Germans for the subtitles. Guess I had it confused with another release. (and sorry for the off-topic) The Four Assassins aka Marco Polo (1975) is on You Tube but IT is a horrible print one of those old fashion VHS with the wavy lines up top. Too Bad. Gd Y-Y Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member danthemandmv Posted April 16, 2014 Member Share Posted April 16, 2014 Your joking right? No way in hell you saw it on HBO lol... First Shaw I saw was the very first movie that premiered on Black Belt Theatre in the early 80's, The Savage Five. Believe it or not,HBO aired it one weekday afternoon.Even MORE unbelievably,sometime later that month they aired ''THE FOUR ASSASSINS'' aka ''MARCO POLO''.Maybe the channel was trying its luck mimicking the Black Belt/Kung Fu Theater formula... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Drunken Monk Posted April 16, 2014 Member Share Posted April 16, 2014 Mine was "Five Deadly Venoms." My brother handed me a VHS of it when I was in my early teens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted April 16, 2014 Administrator Share Posted April 16, 2014 The first Shaw Brothers film I saw was Crippled Avengers, but I am only 14 so obviously I didn't see it theatrically. I love that you are so young and have a love for these old films. That's awesome. Plus, CRIPPLED AVENGERS is not a bad way at all to get introduced to the Shaw Brothers! I'm copying this bit from another thread where I posted this info (is self-plagiarizing even a thing? )... Unlike a lot of other East Coast kung fu fans, I didn't grow up watching Black Belt theater. I had caught FIVE DEADLY VENOMS (1978, aka. The Five Venoms; The Deadly Venoms; Shaolin Deadly Venoms) on TV once, but back then my idiot-box time was always spent watching Creature Double Feature, and anything horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Based on the title I thought this was going to be a horror film, which is why I tuned in. So after the incredible, ultra-intriguing opening where they're wearing the masks ended I quickly lost interest. Ah... what a foolish child I was! Years later after being introduced to Bruce Lee's films and taking up martial arts, I began watching every genre film I could find. But these were mostly US films like Chuck Norris stuff. Eventually I stumbled upon a VHS rental copy of SHAOLIN EXECUTIONER (1977, aka. Executioners of Death; Executioners of Shaolin) at a video store in Philly. This was the first Shaw Brothers film I saw in it's entirety. Soon after I also found tapes of CHINATOWN KID (1977), CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS (1976) and (after a friend raved about it) CHINESE SUPER NINJAS (1982, aka. Super Ninjas; Five Element Ninjas). Then I met a real collector who handed me a copy of CHALLENGE OF THE NINJA, better known as HEROES OF THE EAST (1978, aka. Challenge of the Ninja; Shaolin Challenges Ninja), and my mind was officially blown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator thekfc Posted April 17, 2014 Moderator Share Posted April 17, 2014 ........... there is no bloody way I could tell you which one I saw first. I can recall titles on some, but first? No way. Its one big blur of martial arts goodness. Same here. For me it was in the early 70's - even before ETD came out (yes, I am one of those who was expose to KFMs before ETD). I remember it having a strong female lead (which got me hooked) so it could have been any of the 60's movie like Come Drink With me, Golden Swallow, Princess Iron Fan, 12 Golden Coins, Twin sword, etc, etc, etc,. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted April 17, 2014 Member Share Posted April 17, 2014 Unlike a lot of other East Coast kung fu fans, I didn't grow up watching Black Belt theater. I had caught FIVE DEADLY VENOMS (1978, aka. The Five Venoms; The Deadly Venoms; Shaolin Deadly Venoms) on TV once, but back then my idiot-box time was always spent watching Creature Double Feature, and anything horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Based on the title I thought this was going to be a horror film, which is why I tuned in. So after the incredible, ultra-intriguing opening where they're wearing the masks ended I quickly lost interest. Ah... what a foolish child I was! Hey, nothing wrong with enjoying horror, science-fiction cinema. I know these used to be the genres I was most into before discovering MA cinema. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted April 17, 2014 Administrator Share Posted April 17, 2014 Hey, nothing wrong with enjoying horror, science-fiction cinema. I know these used to be the genres I was most into before discovering MA cinema. Right on. I'm still into them. I meant that I was foolish for not sticking with FIVE DEADLY VENOMS. If I'd have watched long enough to see the kung fu fighting I'm sure I would've been hooked on the martial arts genre at an earlier age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted April 17, 2014 Member Share Posted April 17, 2014 Right on. I'm still into them. I meant that I was foolish for not sticking with FIVE DEADLY VENOMS. If I'd have watched long enough to see the kung fu fighting I'm sure I would've been hooked on the martial arts genre at an earlier age. No problem man. But you still passed what appears to be one of the greatest Shaw Bros movies/Chang Cheh's efforts ever. Says a guy who hasn't seen that one yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted April 17, 2014 Administrator Share Posted April 17, 2014 Says a guy who hasn't seen that one yet... :ooh::ooh::ooh: No time like the present. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Iron Boat Posted April 17, 2014 Member Share Posted April 17, 2014 5 Shaolin Masters or as it was billed at the time 5 Masters of Death and it was just a commercial at that!!! (I was intrigued had to see it when it came on Saturday morning) I woke up on time ready, it was awesome!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted April 18, 2014 Administrator Share Posted April 18, 2014 5 Shaolin Masters or as it was billed at the time 5 Masters of Death and it was just a commercial at that!!! (I was intrigued had to see it when it came on Saturday morning) I woke up on time ready, it was awesome!! When I first saw this film (on VHS) it was also called 5 MASTERS OF DEATH. Not long after that I came across a VHS of 5 SHAOLIN MASTERS, saw it had the same cast, and was ecstatic. I thought I'd found a sequel or prequel! I was quite disappointed when I put it on and realized it was the same film. It took a while before I figured out that it was common for kung fu films to have multiple titles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member bigrogie Posted April 18, 2014 Member Share Posted April 18, 2014 King Boxer (5 Fingers of Death) was my first Shaw. Saw it in French under the title La Main de Fer in Montreal. Must have been in 1973. I hardly spoke English then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted April 18, 2014 Administrator Share Posted April 18, 2014 King Boxer (5 Fingers of Death) was my first Shaw. Saw it in French under the tile La Main de Fer in Montreal. Must have been in 1973. I hardly spoke English then. That's a great place to start! Even seeing this film a few years ago at the NYAFF, it still holds up well and has a real punch to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member bigrogie Posted April 18, 2014 Member Share Posted April 18, 2014 That's a great place to start! Even seeing this film a few years ago at the NYAFF, it still holds up well and has a real punch to it. It was probably one of the first 5 fu movies I've seen. For sure in the first 10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member reason108 Posted April 19, 2014 Member Share Posted April 19, 2014 Couldn`t say regarding television; too much kung fu theater. However, the first Shaws film that I saw in the movie theater was The Super Inframan. Of course, this was the American dubbed version. I would have seen that back in either the late 70`s or early 80`s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted April 20, 2014 Member Share Posted April 20, 2014 Saw the final fight of Five Fingers of Death at a Comic con, before it was released. I was 12 or 13. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted April 20, 2014 Moderator Share Posted April 20, 2014 I only started watching Shaw Brothers movies when Celestial began releasing the remastered versions of them back in '03. I got into the kung-fu movie scene back in '99, and all my time up until that point was pretty much spent purchasing every Hong Kong Legends DVD as they got released, as at the time I was living in the UK. Definitely remember my first Shaw though, it was 'Heroes Two', and I loved it. It had such a completely different feel than the Golden Harvest movies which was what I was mostly watching at that point. It was promptly followed by 'Blood Brothers', then after that it kind of becomes a blur of one Chang Cheh movie after another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Drunken Arts Posted April 20, 2014 Member Share Posted April 20, 2014 King Boxer and 36 Chambers Of Shaolin - I never watched a Shaws before these two, and Amazon had them on sale at £2.99 each, [the UK Momentum DVDs] so i snapped them both up.. this was about 3 years ago... not sure which one i watched first but i believe it was King Boxer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Shaolin Chamber 36 Posted April 27, 2014 Member Share Posted April 27, 2014 King Boxer... and so it began. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Tex Killer Posted April 28, 2014 Member Share Posted April 28, 2014 I can`t remember for sure but most likely it was 5 deadly venoms. I did read about this in eastern heroes magazine and ric(h) meyers book and dreamed about seeing this. Made in hong kong videotape made it possible finally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member MLee Posted April 29, 2014 Member Share Posted April 29, 2014 The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. My parents had a old video copy in the early 1980s which was taped from a tvb channel with commercial breaks. I was really young at that time and always wondered why this movie was widescreen letterboxed. All movies I had seen at the time on tv or video were all fullscreen. Years later when I saw the warner brothers video I noticed both versions had scenes missing from each other! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted May 4, 2014 Member Share Posted May 4, 2014 My first was in 2004: the UK Warner tape of Boxer from Shantung, which I found in a used VHS store in Brighton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member KyFi Posted May 30, 2014 Member Share Posted May 30, 2014 Let's see, it was in the early 80's, when I was 12 or 13. Cable TV finally came through our area (out in the country), and we suddenly got a bunch of New York City stations, which included WNEW. One day I caught their Drive in Theater show, at 3pm on a Saturday, and it was "Executioners from Shaolin." I already liked martial arts stuff, but as I remember all I had seen was western stuff like the Kung Fu tv series, Man With the Golden Gun, You Only Live Twice, Billy Jack, Chuck Norris' first few movies. I know I hadn't seen Bruce Lee, or any HK movies. Executioners was amazing! Great sets and costumes, old Chinese stories ABOUT kung fu, and really long fights! I was hooked, and probably saw another 10 or so Shaws on that channel. They always stuck with me, and I got a couple on VHS, and a couple more in the early years of DVD. Then when the Celestial releases started, it was like a whole new world---I had no idea how many great martial arts movies Shaw made. Executioners from Shaolin is still in my top 5, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted May 18, 2021 Member Share Posted May 18, 2021 The Chinese Boxer was my first. It was during a time when I could only watch Shaw movies on video via Warner Brothers. I remember it so vividly because, at the time, I was living next door to a brunette middle-class woman who had a bald working-class boyfriend. As I was watching the movie, I heard them having sex. I pressed the pause button so I could hear them. They were going at it for such a long time (he was still bellowing, she was still bawling) that the VHS machine started to strain for pausing so long, so I pressed the stop button. By the time that they stopped doing it, it was well past midnight. I felt like I had just heard the midnight screening of a Kung Fu movie. I continued to watch the movie, but I had to refrain myself from laughing because I associated the sounds in the fight scenes with the sounds of the shagging. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member morpheus Posted June 18, 2021 Member Share Posted June 18, 2021 Chances are my first Shaw Bros. film was either Water Margin or The New One-Armed Swordsman. Both were re-released as I saw them in a Chinatown theatre far after the original release date. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.