Master of the Shadowless Kick Wong Kei-ying & Master of the Drunken Fist Beggar So (2016) - Corey Yuen's HBO Kung Fu Films

[Drunken Monk]

For those that don't know, Corey Yuen has been hard at work making two kung fu films for HBO Asia. They will air on December 25th and 26th respectively. The first is...

Master of the Shadowless Kick Wong Kei-ying

 

And the second is...

Master of the Drunken Fist Beggar So

 

 

[KUNG FU BOB]

I had no idea about these @Drunken Monk, so thanks for the thread!

Shame the videos are missing, but you can see them here: http://hboasia.com/HBO/en-mm/shows/master-of-the-shadowless-kick-wong-kei-ying-1022340/

Cool Christmas presents! I will definitely DVR the one that plays on Christmas day, and perhaps double-bill it the following day with the second film.

[KUNG FU BOB]

Um... can it possibly be that among the bazillion channels we pay way too much for... among the 50 sports channels that we don't want and never watch (but "come with the bundle")... among the seemingly endless HBO channels that we do have- HBO2, HBO GO, HBO LATINO, HBO FAMILY, HBO COOKING HOBOS, HBO TABLE TENNIS, HBO FOR BORED SQUIRRELS, HBO GO BLOW, HBOMYGOD WHYDON'T I SEE HBO ASIA listed here????!!!!!  CROM!!!  Tomorrow my local Comcast will be hearing from me. It's going to go something like this...

"You bastards! I pay an arm and a leg... and even a head... But still... no HBO Asia? Hmph. You've insulted... the wrong Asian cinema fan. Prepare to die!"

[Drunken Monk]

9 hours ago, KUNG FU BOB said:

Um... can it possibly be that among the bazillion channels we pay way too much for... among the 50 sports channels that we don't want and never watch (but "come with the bundle")... among the seemingly endless HBO channels that we do have- HBO2, HBO GO, HBO LATINO, HBO FAMILY, HBO COOKING HOBOS, HBO TABLE TENNIS, HBO FOR BORED SQUIRRELS, HBO GO BLOW, HBOMYGOD WHYDON'T I SEE HBO ASIA listed here????!!!!!  CROM!!!  Tomorrow my local Comcast will be hearing from me. It's going to go something like this...

"You bastards! I pay an arm and a leg... and even a head... But still... no HBO Asia? Hmph. You've insulted... the wrong Asian cinema fan. Prepare to die!"

Funnily enough, my girlfriend and I just canceled HBO so, unfortunately, I won't get to see these. Well...not in real time anyway. I'm hoping they'll make their way to some other platform at some point.
It's shocking that HBO would give you so many variations and yet not HBO Asia. What a bummer.

[Drunken Monk]

[Frank Bolte]

anyone watched those?

[kami]

I hope they will be released in the west soon, preferably on blu-ray.

[rdenn]

watched Master of the Shadowless Kick Wong Kei-ying , nothing really original here choreography wise, the lead has no charisma either

[KUNG FU BOB]

5 hours ago, rdenn said:

watched Master of the Shadowless Kick Wong Kei-ying , nothing really original here choreography wise, the lead has no charisma either

Oh no, really?

Corey Yuen used to have such an eye for very special talent. Not just people with action chops, but charisma too; actors that popped on-screen. What the hell has happened? I always imagined that as these guys got older they would have more experience to bring to the table, but instead they mostly seem to just put out stale product. I thought that at this point Jackie Chan would have a stable of amazing new talent that he'd teach and nurture, a team he'd use to make the kind of movies he used to make. A bunch of skilled young women and men that he could get to perform the sort of action he's too old to pull off now, and that he would play the "Sam Seed" type roles of the older, wizened sifus.

[kami]

Unfortunately, Corey Yuen neither directed nor choreographed these movies, he's just the executive producer and gave his name for advertisement. The director is Guo Jian-yong (国建勇), a protegé of Corey Yuen. http://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml?id=11912&display_set=eng

[FieryReign]

Corey has been a pretty piss-poor choreographer since the 90s.

[One Armed Boxer]

On 12/31/2016 at 4:07 AM, KUNG FU BOB said:

I thought that at this point Jackie Chan would have a stable of amazing new talent that he'd teach and nurture, a team he'd use to make the kind of movies he used to make. A bunch of skilled young women and men that he could get to perform the sort of action he's too old to pull off now, and that he would play the "Sam Seed" type roles of the older, wizened sifus.

Fans have been banging this drum for a long time, and understandably so.  However I honestly think that to bring up a new generation of talent to the level that these guys were during their prime is a full time job.  You can't just have a "I'll keep on starring in several movies a year, and train the next generation of action talent in my spare time" attitude.  Does anyone even remember the name of the guy who won the talent show to be Jackie Chan's protege several years ago?  These guys like Chan, Corey Yuen etc. still have a steady flow of work, even if that work arguably continues to simply show that they should changed tact a long time ago.

The only star/choreographer I can really think of who made it a priority to train a new generation of talent was the late Panna Rittikrai, who consistently made movies to spotlight the new talents he's trained.  Whether it be 'Chocolate', 'Bangkok Knockout', or 'Vengeance of an Assassin', these movies were all equally about showing off the latest talents that he'd trained as they were action spectacles.

[DrNgor]

On ‎31‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 6:49 PM, FieryReign said:

Corey has been a pretty piss-poor choreographer since the 90s.

I think he did a good job in the 90s (for what the wire-fu boom was), but everything after 2001's Kiss of the Dragon has been very hit-or-miss (with more misses than hits).

[ShaOW!linDude]

39 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

I think he did a good job in the 90s (for what the wire-fu boom was), but everything after 2001's Kiss of the Dragon has been very hit-or-miss (with more misses than hits).

I thought his choreography for The Transporter (2002) and The Transporter 2 (2005) was pretty good, though the first really stands out. 

It used to be that at the mention of his name in association with a film, my brow would raise in curiosity, now it lowers with dread. 

[DrNgor]

10 minutes ago, ShaOW!linDude said:

It used to be that at the mention of his name in association with a film, my brow would raise in curiosity, now it lowers with dread. 

I should review Blood: The Last Vampire for Yasuaki Kurata month just to see how he fares in it, or make it my 2017 goal to watch as many of his post-2000 films as I can.

[FieryReign]

2 hours ago, ShaOW!linDude said:

I thought his choreography for The Transporter (2002) and The Transporter 2 (2005) was pretty good, though the first really stands out. 

It used to be that at the mention of his name in association with a film, my brow would raise in curiosity, now it lowers with dread. 

Statham himself was disappointed with how the fight scenes turned out. He mentioned in the commentary that they filmed these long and intricate takes. But Corey butchered them with his lame quick-cut editing.

Why is there a need to cut and paste like 5 different takes and 10 different camera angles for a single punch? It's like he doesn't want you to see the action. And his wirework just looks straight goofy. Especially when he uses that nonsense in a modern day setting.

He's just cruising along off his once legendary name. Dead or Alive and that RZA garbage were laughable turds.

[ShaOW!linDude]

1 hour ago, FieryReign said:

Statham himself was disappointed with how the fight scenes turned out. He mentioned in the commentary that they filmed these long and intricate takes. But Corey butchered them with his lame quick-cut editing.

Why is there a need to cut and paste like 5 different takes and 10 different camera angles for a single punch? It's like he doesn't want you to see the action. And his wirework just looks straight goofy. Especially when he uses that nonsense in a modern day setting.

He's just cruising along off his once legendary name. Dead or Alive and that RZA garbage were laughable turds.

Well, there's no denying that the fights in the first Transporter movie were better than the second, which was better than those in the third. Still, I find those 2 to have a certain rewatchability to them. And I will also sheepishly confess that I actually kind of like Dead Or Alive, though it's true the fight action is very hit and miss.. Sorry.

But I absolutely agree with you regarding the multi-takes and quick cuts that permeate the action film genre nowadays. It is so aggravating. And I'm straight up anti-wirework anything for the most part.

[One Armed Boxer]

9 hours ago, DrNgor said:

I should review Blood: The Last Vampire for Yasuaki Kurata month just to see how he fares in it, or make it my 2017 goal to watch as many of his post-2000 films as I can.

I approve of this notion.

It's also a good movie to show why Chris Nahon is now directing trash like 'Lady Bloodfight'. 

[DrNgor]

8 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

It's also a good movie to show why Chris Nahon is now directing trash like 'Lady Bloodfight'. 

...whereas his contemporary Louis Leterrier, who also started out making HK-flavored French/American action movies (Transporter, Danny the Dog) has moved on to big-budget Hollywood blockbusters like Now You See Me and Clash of the Titans.

[Frank Bolte]

so for the non-HBO Asia subscribers..how can we watch these films? 

[Drunken Monk]

12 hours ago, Frank Bolte said:

so for the non-HBO Asia subscribers..how can we watch these films? 

The simple answer is "You can't". It doesn't even look like they've been bottlegged. We might just have to wait to see if they get a western release. Although, from the sounds of things, we're not exactly missing much.

Side note: Didn't Corey Yuen choreograph 2011's "Shaolin"? Wires aside, I thought the action in that film was pretty solid.

When forced to do more grounded stuff, I like Corey Yuen. We can't forget that he served as action director on "Red Cliff".

[masterofoneinchpunch]

On ‎1‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 11:03 AM, FieryReign said:

Statham himself was disappointed with how the fight scenes turned out. He mentioned in the commentary that they filmed these long and intricate takes. But Corey butchered them with his lame quick-cut editing.

Why is there a need to cut and paste like 5 different takes and 10 different camera angles for a single punch? It's like he doesn't want you to see the action. And his wirework just looks straight goofy. Especially when he uses that nonsense in a modern day setting. ...

Did Statham state that Corey butchered them? Normally in Hollywood editing should be blamed on the Editor (in Transporter 2: Christine Lucas Navarro, Vincent Tabaillon) and/or director who usually (there are always exceptions) has final say.  Even in HK I remember Sammo Hung talking about "what happened" to the action scenes in Ashes of Time.

[FieryReign]

3 hours ago, masterofoneinchpunch said:

Did Statham state that Corey butchered them? Normally in Hollywood editing should be blamed on the Editor (in Transporter 2: Christine Lucas Navarro, Vincent Tabaillon) and/or director who usually (there are always exceptions) has final say.  Even in HK I remember Sammo Hung talking about "what happened" to the action scenes in Ashes of Time.

He didn't exactly say he butchered them and didn't name names. He was disappointed the way it was edited after spending all that time and effort filming the choreography. It was the first film during the bus scene.

[Frank Bolte]

not the best quality but better than nothing.-...

[laagi]

Both movies are up for pre-order on iTunes (US) and will be available on January 24th. Geoblocking is really a nuisance

Edited January 23, 2017 by laagi